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Why America's Problem Is Cultural, Not Political
Here are some questions that ask the same thing in different ways. How can McCain/Palin even stand a chance in this election, given the state of the country? Why hasn't "conservative" become a dirty word, given the results of the last 8 (or is it 30) years of conservative rule? How come the Republicans get away with lies, dirty tricks, thievery and gross hypocrisy, over and over again? Why are congressional Democrats so spineless, so deferential around Republicans?
I think the answer is that conservatives and Republicans are more attuned to the American people and to the roots of American culture. I cringe to say this, but somehow deep in our values, hopes and dreams we are primed to be conservative. And the Democrats, being politicians, can sense it; they know it in their heart of hearts.
To begin with, America has been soaked in poisonous homegrown racism for three hundred years. It affects every American child. Yet even aside from that elephant-in-the-room, we have to fight our native culture to maintain a leftist perspective.
Citizens of other countries can draw on their own revered cultural icons to promote rebellion or revolution, or the notion of a social community. In 2004 Canadians voted for "The Greatest Canadian." Tommy Douglas, a socialist and reformer known as Canada's 'father of Medicare,' won the honor. The English have Robert Owen, the French have Emile Zola, the Germans Karl Marx, among many others.
What about the USA, home of revolutionary democracy? Who do we have? Franklin Roosevelt? Joe Hill and Eugene Debs? Martin Luther King? The freedom riders? Elizabeth Staunton and Susan B. Anthony? Mario Savio? Malcolm X? John Brown? Tom Paine? Emma Goldman? With the exception of King and FDR we remember these people only vaguely, if at all. Our founding father heroes have been stripped of their revolutionary content, to emerge in our times as staunch Christian conservatives. Whether Thomas Jefferson was actually an agnostic social revolutionary is not the point; he is perceived as something else.
We love stories about poor boys making it big. Who of us has not dreamt of being a millionaire? We admire and love Bill Gates and Henry Ford by making their lives into stories of good men working hard and earning their wealth and freedom, and by excising anything negative from their stories. Our high school students know that Henry Ford built the first mass-produced automobiles, and that he offered a living wage to his workers. We don't recall, though, that Ford advocated for Hitler and published anti-Semitic crap in his Dearborn Independent.
On TV and radio we are deluged by endless get-rich-quick commercials; one salesman after another hawking his easier, faster way to make "life-changing" money. Or we peek into millionaire mansions, the "cribs" of the rich and famous, the garages full of Ferraris and Rollses. Or we watch the parade of new luxury products. Is greed really good, we wonder? Haven't too many Americans come to believe that making money in itself is a goal worthy of a lifetime's pursuit? In Thailand they talk of "suspiciously wealthy" individuals--people so rich one should be suspicious of how they got it. We have no similar concept.
Who can count the American heroes dispensing justice from their fists or from the barrel of a gun? From John Wayne to Charles Bronson, Dirty Harry to Rambo and the young Vito Corleone, we thrill to our heroes walking tall, carrying a big stick (but preferably a gun, which is much more practical) to right the wrongs of society. They do it pretty much alone. No social action to achieve social justice here.
Rambo invades Vietnam to free American prisoners. Bronson's character fights and kills the evil inner city gangs. They both avoid the incompetent government and corrupt police force. A despicable judicial bureaucracy wrongly stops Dirty Harry from dispensing real justice.
Here we have a righteous vigilante who fights for freedom, and also, of course, his beloved family. The young Michael Corleone does what is necessary to "protect his family." We want to forget he is a gangster and murderer. We want to forget Bronson's character is killing, because he is right to fight evil in any way he can.
In all this there is a strong flavor of the virtuous ends justifying the means. If you have to lie, cheat and kill to achieve the Kingdom of God on earth (the true America), so be it. Sound familiar?
When Rambo blows up a hundred Vietnamese to rescue American prisoners, we know he's only killing bad guys. Bronson's character kills and the bad guys' blood runs in the streets. No innocent victims here!
We can't cheer Rambo in the real world, but we can swear our undying love for our soldiers, somehow forgetting that their messy job involves killing innocents. And when our fighters come up with slogans straight from Rambo, like "killing is our business, and business is good," we shrug.
Americans don't vote for eggheads. I remember Adlai Stevenson running against Eisenhower. Stevenson didn't stand a chance, not least because he was pegged as too intellectual to be President. We prefer our leaders to be plain spoken, practical men who don't think or read too much. A cowboy, maybe. It is hard to think of an American icon, fictional or real, who is an intellectual. Who comes closest? Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain?
I bet John Wayne would be a strong supporter of the Bush administration. He would cheer us on to "victory" in Iraq and Afghanistan. We'd have to respect the opinion of such an American hero. But then we forget that John Wayne was born Marion Morrison, and it is documented that he was a draft dodger during World War II.
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91 Comments so far
Show AllInteresting if somewhat unimaginative article.
The political power of anti-intellectualism in the US is a issue that has been discussed ever since our founding - a discussion that obviously has never included those with such a view. America's weakness in education is a direct result of that attitude.
The author's message fails to explain how Bill Clinton, a college professor who didn't serve in the military, was elected to the presidency twice.
q
When was Clinton a "college professor"??
Seems to me that at this point in human progress, it is time to move beyond ideology and polarization to seeking common ground for co-existing with people of different ideologies. We see how ideology is exploited by the psychopathic political and business "leaders" of the world to keep them in power and to enrich them with material wealth at the expense of Earth and all life on Earth.
Ever have a conversation with someone without invoking ideology? Not only is it possible, but it feels good. Humans, for the most part, want the same things; to be able to live in peace, to enjoy our families, friends, communities, and just being alive. Focusing on ideology extends the illusion that agreement is more important than co-existence, but it isn't!
Very well put
I agree that most humans just want to live. That is the emotional and philosophical starting point that ideologies should never forget.
Joe
Finally ... someone who says it like it is. We are culturally depraved. And no one .. not on Cd nor elsewhere ... do we acknowledge it.
Ditto!
Gabow failed to mention an important American cultural touchstone, the Horatio Alger myth. Alger was a series of popular novels during the 19th century of characters who become rich due to their pluck and hard work. The net effect of this popular fiction was that it romanticized individual achievement to the underclass to the detriment of collective action. A current day manifestation of this is the desire of poor youths to get out of the 'hood vis a vis sports or music (where the chances of success are remote) instead of taking mass action to remedy the situation to which they are born into. It is a peculiarity of the American character that the union movement has yet to overcome.
This is 100% - correct. A big part of our anti-intellectualism stems from our obsession with religion. Unlike other countries where churches stand as mere museums, we are packing bigger and bigger sports-arena-sized churches with the mindless masses asking the church elders tell them what to do.
Right on. I do have some hope though. I was actually happy in one regard when Bush was selected. We finally got a chance to see what unadulterated Old Testament Christian rule would look like in America. Before Bush it was just festering behind the scenes. Now it's on display for all to see, and the results are clear.
Don't worry, be happy, we're almost over.
Yes, we are anti-intellectual. Even the author of this article, reaching to be inclusive of women, got it wrong. It's Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Look her up, she's an important patriot.
Here are some questions that ask the same thing in different ways. How can McCain/Palin even stand a chance in this election, given the state of the country? Why hasn't "conservative" become a dirty word, given the results of the last 8 (or is it 30) years of conservative rule?
The Republican party is NOT conservative! Its left wing is reactionary and its right wing is fascist. Please, please, please, STOP USING THE WORD "CONSERVATIVE", which is not necessarily bad and has many admirable elements to it. Reactionaries and fascists have no philosophy but that of the gun, the knife, the fist and when you have the other guy down on the ground, crush his head and stomp him to death with your boots, then take his wallet, spit on his corpse and swagger away, laughing. That's the Republican party. Stop calling these street thugs in thousand dollar suits CONSERVATIVE.
Hey - just as soon as rush limbaugh/ann coulter can utter the word LIBERAL without venom oozing from the corner of their mouths.
Don't get me wrong, there are bits of conservatism I can go along with - but definitely not as a way of life. Just try and get one of these uber-conservatives to admit as much.
That's what I thought.
Of course the problem is in American cultrue and the American people themselves. It is always the case in imperialist countries, where even the poor and downtrodden in these countries are convinced to be prideful and arrogant about 'their' Empire's imperialist control over others.
Maybe if America dropped its machoegotistical mania and grew the fuck up, it wouldn't be the LOSER it is today. Try being a true independent, a real liberal/progressive, or a reasonable but moderate conservative and you'll get persecuted by both sides.
The very concept of the word "loser" is itself a uniquely USAn word. No other words in other languages quite convey it's meaning. People lose sporting competetions, or debates, but thay are not "losers" as USAns use the word. This speaks volumes about the USAn character.
Yes.
And this line of thought brings us to the flaw in the article's reasoning and the outlook of many self-described "liberals".
The United States does not have the Socialist Culture or Socialist Cultural Heroes of Canada or other countries becasue it is the place where Socialism has been most thoroughly defeated!
If this guy remembers Adlai Stevenson then why does he seem to forget this?
Because of the corruption of Government and the excuse of opposition to "Communism" the Labor Union Movement was castrated in the U.S., then Socialism was made into a taboo concept (as they have tried to do with even Liberal!).
Eugene Debs is forgotten only in the "culture" -more often a Teleculture that happens only in TV Land and not the real World- that has been imposed upon the U.S. after the triumph of Corporatism and Greed that occurred in the wake of Victory in WWII and the rise of the -largely imaginary- "Cold War".
Winning has become everything and people and ideas have become perpetual "losers" because of IMPOSED CONTROL and FAILURE OF MEMORY not underlying "cultural" issues like the ones the article ludicrously claims guide the "success of conservatives".
But why look at history when you can just make shit up, huh?
Don't Panic,
-matti.
The point...
"If you have to lie, cheat and kill to achieve the Kingdom of God on earth (the true America), so be it."
That is the underlying absurdity, hypocrisy, moral bankruptcy,and perversity of American culture.
There are other ways.
Change.
This culture is exported wholesale to almost every corner of the globe. Some countries try to reject it, with ever-decreasing success. Modern communications deliver it quickly, ubiquitously and to the minds most susceptible to it - the young.
Heaven forbid you restrict it's spread or economic and military punishment will follow.
'Americans don't vote for eggheads."
duh... but they always vote for liars and corporate shills.
logansafi is right, many Americans are impotent people who will vote for anybody who makes them feel good about themselves by reinforcing the idea that they are on "THE winning team".
Ronald Reagan and every subsequent Republican candidate has recognized and exploited this trait.
Sorry but amerikkka is NOT anti intellectual, or stupid or brainwashed, that would be the MEDIA....
We are people of every stripe kind and color, yes we have a brutal history, yes the powerless always seek an empowering context for their fantasy selves.
That context is transforming before our very eyes, and for many it is welcome. The pendulum is swinging back, and for those invested deeply in the old context it would appear as a wrecking ball.
Do not suppose that the old order will fade away gracefully, Those in power who sense control slipping away fom them will inflict great wounds on their way out. This is always been the case in domestic situations as well as the grand scale. A BRAND NEW CONTEXT for our lives and communities is HERE, it is not going away.
I would say keep your head down, love your children, cooperate in your community so that everyone is warm and fed, and prepare for a wave of domination like you have never imagined possible. The old context is ANGRY and FRIGHTENED, as you would be if you suddenly found you were dying.
This wave of institutionalized fear will pass, but it has had an amazingly long run, We will all learn a lot during this crazy awakening.
"Sorry but amerikkka is NOT anti intellectual, or stupid or brainwashed..."
Yes it is. I remember in high school, where I did very well academically, but lousy socially. I remember overhearing the comments "he thinks he's so smart..." Unfortunately I have a high IQ with a competitive spirit so I strove to be the best in my classes. But that meant I was shunned by most everyone else. I wish I could say that I just had a bad experience, that it was just that high school, but it wasn't and isn't for many youth today who know that they can't rely on their lack of brawn, or cracking voices for any success. I went to several high schools (my father was in the Navy, so we moved frequently) and it was always the same. When I take the subway home today, I occasionally share the train with students and I here them saying the same kinds of things. Even the president himself, who half of the electorate thinks is okay enough to vote for many times, prides himself on his mediocre academic achievements. Americans want someone they can sit down and have a beer with, or party with, not someone who is exceptionally bright and can see the world in paradigm shifting ways that will actually solve problems.
As for the dying comment, we need to look at that differently also. Dying isn't a bad thing. That and birth are something that we all share in common and should themselves be one of many points for building a caring, inclusive society instead of the isolationist, rugged individual one we have and have had for quite some time.
I had experiences similar to yours, and so when my Chinese wife informed me that in Chinese schools the most academically successful students were also the most popular, I was shocked. She said that in Chinese schools the social hierarchy could change each time someone did very well on a test and that was part of the motivation for the students to perform. The US must have about the most upside-down back-asswards self-destructive culture of any rich nation in history. But that will change. Soon the US will not be described as "rich" by anyone.
My 6 year old reads at a third grade level and Loves science! However, he struggles socially. We moved more times than I would have wanted to and life hasn't been perfect as I would have imagined it, he is also an only child. We count our lucky stars that we got him into a very good public school, where, now that he is in the 1st grade he is finally getting academic recognition and encouragement. Alot of pressure was on during the pre and k level classes to be social. Being socially adept is certainly important, but his "differentness" made him really struggle. Not only does the school have the resources to challenge him, by the kids there are gentle. Too many schools are rough and the kids dont get any kind of cushy life. They take it out on the smart ones. My son has already been punched mercilessly about the head by a neighbor from a different school.
Life is both mighty and fragile.
Sadly, the smart ones are isolated from the rough crowds. The divide will probably last a lifetime.
In keeping with the title and subject of this article, as well as keeping with this thread, I want to talk about why the cultural and political divides that start in childhood are sad; as they do shape and inform our entire lives.
Now that I am a parent, I see the universality of ALL children. All babies need certain things and do gesture to explain their meanings. Babies quickly grow to be children. The once hope of America was that no matter the status of the parents, the child could/can grow to his or her fullest potential and exceed the parents' status and economic standing to a potentially infinite degree as adults, BUT,.. something happens while people parent. All their own crap(coping skills) from their own upbringing comb./w/ current stressors, spills out on to the kids. This is lethal in the current socio/economic climate and lack of social safety net.
The fault lies in a model of business that makes nearly everyone expendible. It is pervasive in the Corporate culture and dominant in America. Life is now expendible. This however is the death, or dysfunction, of us all. Canaries in our coal mine. If daddy or mommy are treated as expendible, easily replacable and not fairly compensated, you think this would have no effect on the kids? The kids and relatives of all the 'bodies we do not count'? Alternately, just as JFK said, "a rising tide of prosperity will lift all boats." Not just the yachts. The ones in our society that cannot make it and were not given proper nutrition and guidance and participation in a real community, are a burden and blight of shame to all humanity as well as all sentient life.
The war mongers like McCain & Palin will support policies of Social Darwinism. They won't see.. your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore..
..from their bullet proof SUV's, gated communites, hunter/killer helicopters, nor planes that drop ordinance on villages, or the(now empty) detention centres dotting a wonderful place. America: Land of the free and home of the brave.
History will once again determine what and who is free and what and who is brave.
It's a strange contradictory life we lead in the US. There is that expendable quality that you mentioned but at the same time we are also groomed to believe that only an individual is an achiever. How many things in our history books mention that such and such was built by a single person? It is rarely ever mentioned that people, a group, helped accomplish some task. Tv has awards shows that showcase individual achievement. Sports has their Most Valuable Player... It's this mindset, that only individuals are worth something, and only if you can ascribe something fantastic to your name. If you can't, there's history's dustbin.
This is a wonderful comment, davidpeace. So many unknown and unnamed are great because they enabled others to do their best.
Joe
Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein are cited by the author as popular intellectuals. Each of them had warmth and a self-deprecating sense of humor, generosity of spirit. They believed in public service. They spoke simply.
I was always called the smartest kid in my exceedingly poor community. People made fun of me for always having my nose in a book and for not being too good at sports. Yet I had lots of friends, got elected to everything. The street was fun for me and my siblings.
By example, our mother taught us to use our gifts for others as well as ourselves and to respect every person. She was respected in turn. She was only a factory worker and a coal miner's daughter, but people came to her with medical problems, marital problems. She even delivered a baby. She quietly refused to practice racism at a time when most white people were fairly up front about it. Kindness was her bottom line.
If you have a child who does well in school, make sure they do not become the grade-grubbing, selfish, superior, one-dimensional type who too often tends to typify academic and professional success. Teach them that everyone has a story. Teach them that everyone can do some things and everyone cannot do some things. They can break through isolation by offering help to another student in a friendly way or by asking for help. Kids talk and friends will appear.
(davidpeace - Of course the moving around from school to school makes building a reputation much harder. I have no insight about that problem. It is tough for kids, I am sure.)
One way to fight anti-intellectualism is to re-cast the concept of intelligence to include a variety of approaches to life and link intelligence with kindness. To me kindness is the manifestation of the deepest intellect there is. No ideology makes sense without it. Any ideology is enhanced by it.
Joe
__ J O E __
Thank you for the profound insights.
Yes, we're ALL < interdependently > part of the circle of :
_♥_ … H _ U _ M _ A _ N _ K _ I _ N _ D _ N _ E _ S _ S … _♥_
Some of us are just more aware of " _ I _ T _ ", present to experiencing it, and heartfelt generous enough to be abundantly profuse about giving and receiving humankindness.
.
[___ W E __ A R E __ A L L __O N E ___]
[_______ I N __ K I N D N E S S ______]
Namaste « Presence »
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world » — Gandhi
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed » — Gandhi
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — ML King
Yes - this situation, the rise in food prices in particular, has already moved a few people we know from struggling to downright hungry. I think back to how my family always took in those who had a problem. I think we are back there, where every expenditure carries a big moral question with it: Me or us?
Joe
“With the benefit of the lessons of our history we are destined to repeat many otherwise preventable policy mistakes because we believe ourselves to be exceptional.” – Dr. Robert
Another reason why America's problem is cultural is that, for the most part, conservatives offer nothing cultural. There are very few conservative painters, fiction writers, music-makers, movie/TV creators, comedians, etc. Art requires enlightenment on some level; conservatives, by definition, avoid change and self-reflection - IOW, enlightenment.
This is why conservatives so often rail against the "Hollywood" they can't get enough of - because all they do is consume the culture they themselves are unable to create, which leads to a deep, mostly un-admitted resentment towards the creators, which manifests as hatred and anger and racism and bigotry.
Just look at the examples above - Bronson in "Death Wish" was a bleeding heart liberal, even after he went vigilante. Rambo was libertarian - he just wanted to be left alone. Young Vito Corleone started out as a defender of the defense-less in his neighborhood and went on to be a major supporter of liberal politicians...
Imagine an America dominated by "conservative" culture - what would we have? Country and religious music, God art and endless movies touting the importance of "traditional family values?" And a ripoff of "A Christmas Carol" staring a Michael Moore lookalike, of course...
What about the folks that favor conservative economics and liberal social policies? It's not you are one or the other is it? Aren't most people except extremists like the Neocons a mixture of different things and viewpoints?
"Conservative economics" and "liberal social policies" is oxymoronic (if I may be allowed to coin a term).
Conservatives by definition want to maintain existing conditions and conditions that exist include:
Over forty million US citizens who lack any kind of health insurance; health care for millions more limited to the point that allow suffering and death that wouldn't occur with access to quality care. For example, diseases of gums and teeth have been connected to a variety of serious maladies including heart disease.
Other conditions that exist are homelessness; inequality before the law between those who lack means and those that have it; inequality in opportunity of education; toxins in the dirt, buildings, air, and environment in the neighborhoods of the poor found far more often than in the neighborhoods of the affluent; a tax structure that favors the rich over the poor; a government that constantly violates the constitution and international laws in military actions that have resulted and continue to result in ongoing suffering and death including that of US citizen in the military; government taking citizens labor in the form of taxes to give to individuals and industries involved in the war industry.
Liberal social policies include eliminating all of the afore-mentioned existing conditions.
Conservatives don't want to change social polices that would change these conditions and certainly don't want to pay for them. Liberals do want to change the social policies that would change these conditions and are willing to pay for them.
Therefore:
Liberal social policies are impossible without liberal economic policies and
Conservative economics equals conservative social polices.
"Compassionate conservatism" is a flat out vicious lie.
There is also the definition: "cautious: avoiding excess". I think this is the meaning we have really lost sight of. You don't have to spend a lot of money to legislate and fund good social policies. You just have to spend it well, with the people you spend it on as the first priority.
America's other problem is that our society is too sheltered. We only had one civil war. We never had enemy tanks rolling down our streets or daily bombings from countries who want to steal our natural resources. The ideologically driven wars we start only happen in territories where nations can't strike back. So ultimately we have become a nation of whiny, scared, arrogant, might-makes-right bullies who jump up like fleas when any blowback hits our shores.
This article only scratches the sad surface. The fact is, there is a large (approximately half) contingent of our nation who are, from birth, taught to be racists, bigots, and to be thoroughly deluded by the time they reach the age where they can read. They are called Christians - mostly fundamentalist Christians, but even moderate ones as well. In addition, there are many people who are just looking to vent their frustrations and anger - anger at the unfairness of society, anger at the inequality of the rich vs. the rest of us, anger at the seeming inability to have any voice in government, etc... and these people have found an outlet for their hatred, bigotry, and delusion in the Republican party.
The right-wing media talk shows work these people up to a frothy-mouthed frenzy. These people then make death threats to people they disagree with. They have turned the word "liberal" into a catch-all for their hate. They repeat it over and over until you can almost see their blood starting to boil. It is scary, and reminiscent of the hate that spewed forth from the Nazi party.
There aren't many solutions to this until the media in this country starts to actually act in the public interest instead of using media as a propaganda tool and a bullhorn for inciting hatred. Additionally, this country has to stop perpetuating religion if it cannot be proven to be true. Believing in Santa-like fairy tales from 2,000 years ago or believing in "chosen people" theories that are racially biased and hate-prevoking are a recipe for this type of problem. It will never go away until these issues are addressed. Which, in truth, means that they will never go away, because there is money to be made in deluding the people, and there is power to be had in claiming that you are a chosen people/race. Where there is money and power, there are the opportunists, and therein lies the final root of the problem - GREED.
All of this is, at it's root, GREED AND FEAR in the human condition. Fear of change, differences in people, and uncontrolled instinct to have more. Sad thing is, most people (even Dems) aren't immune to greed. Most everyone can be bought. It's a really, really sad state of affairs, and it's getting more polarized every day, especially as we waste our natural resources.
At this point I'm not sure we have earned the right to continue on as a species - not when we can be so easily brainwashed by religion, so blinded by hatred, and so completely consumed with greed and lust for power.
Well said.
The first thought I had about why the Republicans have not been laughed off the court is that the media is totally in lockstep with these Republicans thugs. This might also explain a part of the Dems craveness.
From Native American genocide to African American slavery, to the indentured servitude of every new wave of immigrants who arrived via sweatshops, and company town ghettoization, this country has been built on a foundation of violence and thievery. We came by it honestly since the European settlers who came here were the descendants of the conquistadors, inquisitionists, landlord-serf exploiters, and other intolerant strains of Europe.
The irony is that we saved Europe and Asia from their fascists while surrendering the US to our own homegrown variety. After showing the world a better way, we refused to heed the lessons we taught them.
Poet
Hi P O E T,
Although I agree substantially in your comments, I suspect that it was mostly the disenfranchised and marginalized Europeans who immigrated, having little of the freedoms there that they desired -- while the children of the old elites came later, looking more for greater opportunities that were no longer as prevalent in Europe ( as they didn't have any freedom issues ).
These waves of immigrants had much to dream forward of, little excess baggage, and had known all to well the lash of the overseers -- and these new patriots of America's promise, are the core of our country's goodness -- even today.
Of course, the carpetbaggers, weak willed sloths, bankers, and criminal opportunists ( is that redundant ? ) came as well -- but they had different dreams of taking over "easy street", which was basically the creation of a new hidden aristocracy and power base.
My view of history is that ultimately, the true rise of fascism _r.e.q.u.i.r.e.d_ its apparent demise -- while transferring and further concentrating massive levels of wealth through centuries of warmongering ( and senseless murderous suffering of billions ). The duplicity of the faint of America's "victory" over fascism, is a subtle irony of an early attempt at globalization ( a trial ballon ).
Your own comment about the irony of 'America saving Europe from fascism, while surrendering to our homegrown variety', is true at an overall and general level. I believe that the same centralized profiteers for war, manipulated minor and major world conflicts since the Renaissance ages, to bring us to this moment.
Our current fork in the road was only very dimly imagined as possible, until the recent catastrophic economic eruptions and collapses. The masses of people in our culture, are in part being lead ( along the false branch ) by the false promises of greed ( quick wealth & power ) used as a carrot to entice those otherwise good people to turn against each other and those of country's of less advantages.
We each have the _ C H O I C E _ to select which path we're going to take ( at every moment ),
___ along the road of LIFE with egalitarian sharing and caring, or
___ along the road of DEATH, of egregious suffering, manipulation by the powerful, and imbalance
Namaste
hey ,what is it now, enliven, what country Namaste what country? You never answered me, a month or 2 ago, I try not to be on this trappping sight, often. Is your country okay or as bad as you had said it is becoming? I am trying to pull together a regular site. I got the Domain and such, albeit I left one for Veteran and Political links and things on CD I am privy to due to the VFP and Veterans Against Torture, I have read them a week before they sre on this spy site. No html, no way to get in touch to let you know when it's up and running 'cos Namaste I need a contributor such as you to get the posters going. damn i miss your pix and cartoons and way cool stuff, your typing style gives it away every time. I come here and search for it, normally I say nothing but my big mouth has gotten the better of me recently.
Hope all is well, hope we can communicate sooner than later. Article.II.Section.4
BillofRights
Yes, __ B I L L _ of _ R I G H T S
Article II Section 4 - Disqualification
__ The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States,
__ shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of,
__ Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
I'm not clear about what country, as it's "global economic suicide now" -- but the disease is much worse than the cure.
I'll look back at older responses ( I did respond to one or two, that I recall ).
There is no one safe from spooks on the internet, unless it's buried in reactive concrete between two tempest sites, with realtime monitoring of intertwined quantum photon states -- and even then they can likely still dig a tunnel and shave glass. As far as trapping on CD, the degree of illegal gov't subterfuge is so bad with evidence of '04's massive pre-election resignations ( Ascroft disabled in hospital ) that were retracted, we have no privacy rights any longer. If someone were to attempt to use encryption, that would only trigger more focused attention, and alternate techniques to discover "temporary secrets". What I wonder now, is how well the back room industrial espionage is doing, between competing super-corpoRAPErs, it is amusing to wonder if the new power structure is sitting on top of the best keep secrets ?
All of those fibers getting "accidently" cut, and repaired in Indian Ocean were just at a perfect time and opportunity to do the worse possible imaginable, which I can only vaguely guess.
On mechanism of contact, if you're well CD read, if that several prominent names have their own sites and email exposed ( indirectly of course ). Google is very powerful in this regard, if the circle is with you.
The country I am in is
__ Unitarded $hites of AmerryCONers,
__ within the state of disrepair.
Namaste
The most distinct feature of the USA is the toxic sort of excesive individualism, and aversion to community and solidarity that pervades it's popular culture. It comes out as a sort of sense of entitlement that allows USAns to guiltlessly pursue their selfish interests with absolutely no regard to people even in their immediately community.
But it not to be confused with genuine individualism, Suburban USAns are stunningly stereotyped in their interests and pastimes - professional sports teams, gargantuan pickup trucks or SUVs, thise awful 4-wheel things that are destroying every wild area, tasteles watery beer from Colorado, and mass marketed electronic gadgets.
One only has to travel across the border to Canada, or even just read the Candian press, to see this difference - although USAn attitudes are filtering up there.
And one can absolutely forget about ever seeing any but a tiny minority of USAns ever get concerned about all the awful violence and eath that is inflicted on (seemingly always darker-complected) poeple of other lands in their name...
My father used to live in Detroit and taught at Wayne State Univ. It was a rough place to me, who had grown up in a rural area. But, most people were cool, especially his students.
When I wanted to go out by myself or with some of the students, my dad would drive us over the border to Canada.
In that short drive, the murder rate went from 100s that year, so far, , to 1. I could walk the dark streets without any worries,.. All of us could.
I'm not sure it is stil that much different. But, I do think that the entire culture is more community based. They take responsibility for their fellwo citizens. Until US starts doin g that, we will remAin primitive.
I watched a Canadidna debate lsast night, online. I hope that Canada dosent trend conservative--I dont think that people there would put up with it. But, we do. Year after decade after century
Comparing Detroit, or for that matter, most of the US, to Canada is problematic.
For one thing, until recently, Canada -- like Europe -- was quite homogenous. Oh yes, Canada has had problems with the French/Anglo dichotomy. They're problems with being bi-lingual, for instance, have served as a negative example to those considering making the US officially so.
But that IS the exception that proves the rule: For the better part of their histories, Canada and Europe have been racially AND ethnically homogenous...they've been able to avoid the tensions and challenges that come with racial/ethnic diversity....Until recently..And guess what?...They're are proving to be just as difficult for them!
I just returned from Europe and you wouldn't believe how much ethnic and religious stereotyping I heard...Including that old favorite "Well, they don't want to WORK"!
...This statement was made about a. Bulgarians S. Scotsmen B. Nigerian Muslims.
..And I heard all of this in just ONE weeks time!
to paraphrase an old French saying: The more you think you are different, the more you find you are the same.
"Suburban USAns are stunningly stereotyped in their interests and pastimes"
Really?...and how do you come by this huge generalization of three hundred MILLION people?...You've a doctorat in American Studies, perhaps?
One pissy slam is as good as the next, so try this:
Canadians are "stunningly stereotyped" in their long-held resentment of the USA based, in good part, by their feeling of being culturally and politically "over shadowed" on the global scene by their neighbor to the South.
These underlying cultural examples are the dirty underbelly of American society, but you have to remember that they didn't really kick in full force until a political operative named George Bush became the finest corporate president in American history. Bush and his henchmen played up every one of these bad strains, not unlike a drug dealer would push his wares on an as yet unaddicted victim. Rambo was just Rambo in Post-Vietnam America until Bush unleashed the demons. This is not to say however that bin Laden didn't do his part. Push a stick into a honeycomb and the disturbed residents will have found a reason to become irate, but it was Bush's boy crying wolf shtick for monetary gain that brought to an end the world's idea that America is a moral nation.
Bullshit. Read the history of this country unadulterated. These themes, such as Rambo strike such chords in many of Americans because of the way we are brought up to revere the individual above everything else. Look at Wall Street, full of "self-made" individualists who compete with each other and use money to keep score. Look at some of our sayings: "I got mine", or "keeping up with the Joneses". Look at our sports: Boxing is about one individual dominating another. Many people don't necessarily identify with teams, but they will with the "stars" on those teams. These "underlying cultural examples" have been with us in this country for many years; I would say since before we became a country. The Bush Jr. years we are suffering through now seems to have made them more naked and exposed. But that has happened with in other periods of our history as well. We seem to need to learn lessons over and over and over again, about every other generation or so. We don't really study our own history, let alone the history of the people's that we invade/conquer/drop bombs on. Example: people are focused on the stock market as an indicator of the health of our economy and when it goes down sharply think that we are headed for bad times. (We are but not because the Dow took a nose dive. Even when it goes down the millionaire gamblers that have rigged it into the largest casino on the planet, make tons of money.) They fail to see the inherent problems of the system that creates bad times, but when they do moan and groan and seek to find someone to blame. This will go on for sometime before they actually get to work trying to solve the problem. Sometimes they get it right, most of the time they don't. And even when they do, those lessons are not passed down to the next generation strongly enough because the same things keep happening over and over and over again. The bubbles of the '20s that led up to the Great Depression are just like what has happened to lead to our present dilemma, only the specific details are different.