Excellent, thoughtful commentary. You have really drilled to the heart of the matter in terms of societal changes that have occurred/continue to occur right under our noses.
that was unexpectedly entertaining; you really know how to set the scene, and I suspect you are very successful in whatever type of corporate business you are in.
And once again I agreed with some but not all of what you wrote. (I do heartily agree with your acknowledgement of political failures on both the right & left - as you say, it's no longer a red-vs-blue problem.)
I won't go through all the points, but there is one major objection I have to your conclusion that the answer to today's problems is to go back to how America used to be.
Because the situation has changed. Just because something worked before doesn't mean it'll work again. I have a little experience in the commodity trading field, and one of the chief characteristics of successful traders is their ability to recognize when the situation has changed, when their Buy strategy should now be a Sell strategy. That shift in strategy is actually very rare in trading, because people are locked in to their ego-investment (I am right, why isn't the market going my way, I'll wait it out, the market will come around to how I see it, etc). I'm sure you've seen this. It's those traders who see that the situation has changed and they set their ego aside and change with the situation, they're the ones who succeed.
So, just because America had so much success in the past, doesn't mean the same principles will apply in a drastically different world. Make America Great AGAIN has great appeal, but it doesn't necessarily mean doing things like we did in the past; maybe to be great again, America has to rethink its strategy. I don't know the answers, but I'm not sure what worked in the 1950s will work today.
Otherwise, a very well written and thought-provoking article. You write very well, Frank.
I'm new here, but enjoying the non-cookie cutter perspectives.
I find many of your opinions right on, but I don't agree with everything you say - but even then you give me new things to think about - and I suspect that stimulating thought might please you more than simple down the line agreement.
Where did you get that, the Trump Mar a Lago Back Elevator Service Suite of Perfect Statistics? I can see the Trump faction’s point. Why continue with a notional democracy when the laws of the land have been bought and paid for by the corporations? . But to actually hand over America into a Trump dictatorship where he slavishly tries to emulate his only hero, a KGB poisoner in chief turned dictator, trying to call the election on the same day as voting, deliberately trying to terrorise the rest of the population by having people kidnapped off the street into unmarked cars, it’s so far beneath the dignity of the American Presidency in the eyes of the world, it’s like saying who cares if the Russian state mafia is the paradigm of how to do government and controls America through their American proxy so long as no “socialist” gets to take office in America? There are scarcely any socialists left in your country . Biden is not one. War is now the principal business of the United States, now the most warlike civilisation history. But the fact that your security experts have no notion of security, creating more terrorists than they kill with every drone strike, and whining about retaliation from Iran after murdering Iran’s top general( in an actual act of war on Iran) - a man incidentally who offered you a map of the Isis order of battle at one time- should bother you. As Hedges points out, as your empire collapses the methods of exercise of imperial power are turned inwards on yourselves. At least Mike Pence had the dignity to transfer power in the great American traditional way even while your faction was trying to hang him, your own man.
Well done explaining American success. Now explain American failure. Perhaps, like Swiss unemployment, that exists outside the country, somewhere beyond the horizon of your twinkling city. Your argument is essentially fascist, that you have it in your blood to be a monster. Perhaps school shooters have it in their blood as well, do they? Or do they just want to exterminate those children before they turn into you? In your post- truth dog whistle faction, as represented by your avatar, I doubt you even care whether anything you say is true, it’s the old stale, pale, male social engineering of “hit it with something”, just keep a stream of vitriol directed at your opposition. This is why Chris Hedges telling you what you are like is so valuable and why you feel so threatened by it. If his truly Christian world view were to infiltrate your minds, you couldn’t perpetuate this bull**** ideology which you’re using to mask the reality of your own overrun by the forces you thought were liberating you. Whether they were liberating anyone else, I doubt you, like Trump, would care.
Gee, Frank, your comment is such a distorted, cherry-picked mess full of spinning and blind faith in what made America great that I don't even know where to start rejoining. Basically, your pitch is: Republicans, good; Democrats, bad. You're helping divide us, as Fox News, Hate Radio, and Trump did so well; it does sell, though, and get you elected: Negative ads work; hatefully dissing others on Twitter gets attention and admirers.
We need to unite somehow, but we all pretty much live in political silos, and, worse, we don't and can't see that we do. It's always the other fellow who needs to educate himself, not me.
If you read just one new book this year, check out from your local library "The Deficit Myth" by Dr. Stephanie Kelton. It's a mind-blower: We've misunderstood big money forever; now we have a new understanding of how it really works.
And please remember the lesson taught us by posterity of "The Six Blind Men and the Elephant": Each blind man touched just one part of the huge elephant and thereafter always insisted that an elephant was like a rope, a tree, a wall, a snake, a large leaf, etc. Life is a big, big canvas, and we all just see parts of it. To paraphrase Einstein, the more you know, the more humble you become. Our ignorance dwarfs our knowledge. No one is Mr. Know-It-All; we all just have pieces of the infinite puzzle that we clumsily try to fit together into a coherent whole. Which is why all religions ultimately fail, despite their many offerings of common sense, ethics, edifying, memorable stories, and socially helpful commands. They do possess limited value and provide comfort to many, especially regarding death; science can delay it, but not put it off forever -- at least not yet.
Excellent, thoughtful commentary. You have really drilled to the heart of the matter in terms of societal changes that have occurred/continue to occur right under our noses.
that was unexpectedly entertaining; you really know how to set the scene, and I suspect you are very successful in whatever type of corporate business you are in.
And once again I agreed with some but not all of what you wrote. (I do heartily agree with your acknowledgement of political failures on both the right & left - as you say, it's no longer a red-vs-blue problem.)
I won't go through all the points, but there is one major objection I have to your conclusion that the answer to today's problems is to go back to how America used to be.
Because the situation has changed. Just because something worked before doesn't mean it'll work again. I have a little experience in the commodity trading field, and one of the chief characteristics of successful traders is their ability to recognize when the situation has changed, when their Buy strategy should now be a Sell strategy. That shift in strategy is actually very rare in trading, because people are locked in to their ego-investment (I am right, why isn't the market going my way, I'll wait it out, the market will come around to how I see it, etc). I'm sure you've seen this. It's those traders who see that the situation has changed and they set their ego aside and change with the situation, they're the ones who succeed.
So, just because America had so much success in the past, doesn't mean the same principles will apply in a drastically different world. Make America Great AGAIN has great appeal, but it doesn't necessarily mean doing things like we did in the past; maybe to be great again, America has to rethink its strategy. I don't know the answers, but I'm not sure what worked in the 1950s will work today.
Otherwise, a very well written and thought-provoking article. You write very well, Frank.
I'm new here, but enjoying the non-cookie cutter perspectives.
I find many of your opinions right on, but I don't agree with everything you say - but even then you give me new things to think about - and I suspect that stimulating thought might please you more than simple down the line agreement.
Where did you get that, the Trump Mar a Lago Back Elevator Service Suite of Perfect Statistics? I can see the Trump faction’s point. Why continue with a notional democracy when the laws of the land have been bought and paid for by the corporations? . But to actually hand over America into a Trump dictatorship where he slavishly tries to emulate his only hero, a KGB poisoner in chief turned dictator, trying to call the election on the same day as voting, deliberately trying to terrorise the rest of the population by having people kidnapped off the street into unmarked cars, it’s so far beneath the dignity of the American Presidency in the eyes of the world, it’s like saying who cares if the Russian state mafia is the paradigm of how to do government and controls America through their American proxy so long as no “socialist” gets to take office in America? There are scarcely any socialists left in your country . Biden is not one. War is now the principal business of the United States, now the most warlike civilisation history. But the fact that your security experts have no notion of security, creating more terrorists than they kill with every drone strike, and whining about retaliation from Iran after murdering Iran’s top general( in an actual act of war on Iran) - a man incidentally who offered you a map of the Isis order of battle at one time- should bother you. As Hedges points out, as your empire collapses the methods of exercise of imperial power are turned inwards on yourselves. At least Mike Pence had the dignity to transfer power in the great American traditional way even while your faction was trying to hang him, your own man.
Well done explaining American success. Now explain American failure. Perhaps, like Swiss unemployment, that exists outside the country, somewhere beyond the horizon of your twinkling city. Your argument is essentially fascist, that you have it in your blood to be a monster. Perhaps school shooters have it in their blood as well, do they? Or do they just want to exterminate those children before they turn into you? In your post- truth dog whistle faction, as represented by your avatar, I doubt you even care whether anything you say is true, it’s the old stale, pale, male social engineering of “hit it with something”, just keep a stream of vitriol directed at your opposition. This is why Chris Hedges telling you what you are like is so valuable and why you feel so threatened by it. If his truly Christian world view were to infiltrate your minds, you couldn’t perpetuate this bull**** ideology which you’re using to mask the reality of your own overrun by the forces you thought were liberating you. Whether they were liberating anyone else, I doubt you, like Trump, would care.
Mister Tokeville is all over the map on tribalism and racism. He’s not a good source on cultural homogeneity.
Gee, Frank, your comment is such a distorted, cherry-picked mess full of spinning and blind faith in what made America great that I don't even know where to start rejoining. Basically, your pitch is: Republicans, good; Democrats, bad. You're helping divide us, as Fox News, Hate Radio, and Trump did so well; it does sell, though, and get you elected: Negative ads work; hatefully dissing others on Twitter gets attention and admirers.
We need to unite somehow, but we all pretty much live in political silos, and, worse, we don't and can't see that we do. It's always the other fellow who needs to educate himself, not me.
If you read just one new book this year, check out from your local library "The Deficit Myth" by Dr. Stephanie Kelton. It's a mind-blower: We've misunderstood big money forever; now we have a new understanding of how it really works.
And please remember the lesson taught us by posterity of "The Six Blind Men and the Elephant": Each blind man touched just one part of the huge elephant and thereafter always insisted that an elephant was like a rope, a tree, a wall, a snake, a large leaf, etc. Life is a big, big canvas, and we all just see parts of it. To paraphrase Einstein, the more you know, the more humble you become. Our ignorance dwarfs our knowledge. No one is Mr. Know-It-All; we all just have pieces of the infinite puzzle that we clumsily try to fit together into a coherent whole. Which is why all religions ultimately fail, despite their many offerings of common sense, ethics, edifying, memorable stories, and socially helpful commands. They do possess limited value and provide comfort to many, especially regarding death; science can delay it, but not put it off forever -- at least not yet.