The Liberal Spirit

We have been watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelts during the last few weeks. I've learned a lot about Theodore Roosevelt that I never knew and it has been fun to watch Franklin and Eleanor develop. Actually, I don't think that I ever realized Franklin, Eleanor, and Teddy were all relatives. 

Anyway, the documentary is a good way to understand the rise of liberalism in American politics because it shows us the state of affairs in American life when business and wealth are all powerful. This is the condition of life into which we will soon fall if Conservatives (so-called) have their way. It is ironic and impossible to understand why we are collapsing into this mire, given the fact that it is contrary to the well being of 80 or 90% of Americans. But we are.

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with business or with wealth as such. The issue lies in a moral relationship of the people. When the wealthy are interested only in their wealth and when business is interested only in making more money, then the lives of the majority of people are in jeopardy. We need business and business organizers to create products that we will want to consume and thereby to create job opportunities for other people. But it is a moral fact that these products would not appear if it were not for the people who fill the jobs and do the work. Business organizers would be mere fools if they did not have people to do the work. So here is their moral obligation; that is, they must treat their employees with due consideration for their important part in production. The moral problem of Capitalism is the tendency to treat workers in quite the other way, as expendable units of productivity who can be replaced always by someone who is hungrier. 

The fascinating thing about the Roosevelts is that they were very wealthy but, nevertheless, were raised in the belief that wealth must be used in the defense of people who are less fortunate. Teddy and Franklin were in opposing parties but both worked for the benefit of ordinary people. 

When did we get this winner-take-all mentality in the US? Well, what the documentary shows us, painfully, is that that attitude has always been with us. Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor were constantly attacked by Conservatives for their liberal beliefs and political actions. Very little has actually changed. The moral attitude of these Conservatives is simply the hope that the poor people will just die quietly so as not to be a disturbance. 

Has the World Gone Crazy?

Thus far, the 21st Century has been pretty much of a disappointment. In 2000 George Bush was elected president. Only a half of a year after he took office, the World Trade Center in New York was destroyed. An angry Bush took us into war against al-qaeda in Afganistan and we are still there, thirteen years later. Meanwhile, Bush and his cronies decided that now was the time/excuse to go back into Iraq. One suspects that the younger Bush was eager to show his daddy that he could do a better job. And, of course, what he did was completely de-stabilize Iraq and the whole region. We've only recently gotten out of there, only to return as military "instructors." And now, an incredibly vicious group known as ISIS is taking hold of land in Syria and Iraq in the name of forming an Islamic State. Oh, and should we mention the Russian annexation of parts of Ukraine? Or Israel's devastation of Gaza?

The time frame for all of this is especially amazing when you contrast it with our involvement in World War II. Basically, we entered WWII right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The war ended in the summer of 1945, only four years later. Not only that, but we were really not ready for war in 1941 so it took a year or more of tremendous industrial production and military training to take the country to war. Now-a-days the US is ready for war on a moments notice. In fact, every time there is a disturbance in the world we find ourselves debating whether we should send in our military. 

A sad aspect of this situation is that our heavy investment in the military has transformed war. Back in the age of WWI and WWII the people as such had to go to war. Ordinary citizens had to volunteer or were drafted. The economy had to shift to make war instead of butter and bread. People's consumption was limited. In fact, every one sacrificed. In Bush's wars the design was to do the whole thing independent of the people --- no changes in industry, consumption, life as such. It's a volunteer military running on borrowed money. Of course, this ultimately created a major depression but people still ignored what had caused it. My feeling is that, when a nation wants to go to war, it should be something that the people as a whole support and make major sacrifices to conduct. That's the only thing that justifies the human losses. 

So now we come down to the "war" against ISIS. Obama is willing to send in our planes and drones but not our soldiers. That's "war" with very little sacrifice. Will it continue that way? I doubt it. What we have been dealing with, this century, is basically a religious war --- 18th Century Islamists versus the whole modern Western world. This is not just a crazed leader like Hitler trying to make up for Germany's humiliating loss of WWI. It is a whole religious movement that can spawn new radical leaders at the drop of a hat. If we had successfully dropped Hitler at some point in the '40s, the war would probably have ended right there. But the fact is we can blow up hundreds of radical Islamic leaders and more will spring from the earth. The sad and disturbing fact is that this war has no end.

Ferguson and Beyond

The situation in Ferguson, MO, is a lot like the situation in Gaza. If people are oppressed for a long enough time, they eventually go crazy and start fighting back. The odds are the same as well. Israel is affluent and well supplied with American arms. Ferguson and St. Louis police (and now the National Guard) come from an entirely different economic culture and are also very well armed. As a consequence, Israelis have suffered little damage and only a few lives while Gaza residents have suffered huge losses. The result will be similar in Ferguson. The fight is desperate but it is also hopeless.

It is impossible for most Americans to understand the hopelessness of life for young black men in American ghettos. They are treated like trash and, when they fight back, they are shot dead. The only hope for the entire situation is a huge investment in urban re-development, education, and job training. But that is not going to happen so long as the ultra-wealthy of this country have so tied up our Congress that there will be no new funds for any such program. The whole situation will continue to descend into chaos. I can only imagine that there will be many more Fergusons. But the ultra-wealthy will have no problem with that because they have well insulated themselves from the rest of the world and country and, indeed, can pay for their own security. 

One of the really spooky aspects of this discussion is that America's situation in the world as a whole has a lot of resemblance to Gaza and Ferguson. While Americans naively see themselves as "peace keepers," the underdogs of the world see us as the great oppressors. We can carry this just so far and then they will begin to fight back just like any other oppressed people. That has, of course, already begun and we call them "terrorists." But, at what point, will the rest of the world come to see America's passion for domination as a grave danger and what will they have to do in order to reign us in? The remainder of the 21st Century is not going to be a pleasant experience for Americans.

Israel and Gaza

I cannot stand what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza. It is simply immoral and reprehensible. And so I cannot stand the fact that my government continues to support Israel. What Israel is doing is diametrically opposite to what Americans supposedly believe. But our government goes on its merry way in spite of what it supposedly believes. It's been doing this almost as long as I can remember, and now I am fed up with it. 

I have supported the Democratic Party all my life but I see little difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to these issues of foreign relations. Hence, I condemn both. I will vote for neither in the coming elections.

Gaza is little more than a concentration camp. People are trapped there and the Israelis are bombing them quite literally to pieces. Israel says that they must be allowed "to defend themselves". Do they really expect us to believe this trash? They have already killed more than 1500 people in Gaza and they have lost fewer than 50 of their own. 

So how does this relate to the Holocaust? Israelis seem to think they can do anything because of the Holocaust. But what they are actually doing is proving that they are little better than Hitler himself. 

They have asked our government for more ammunition, and we will undoubtedly give it to them. But as a citizen of the US, I do not want to be responsible for this slaughter.

Killing

Why is it that human beings like killing other human beings so much? Other species don't do this sort of thing to each other. Why do we?

Other species kill species other than their own for food; humans are no different in that regard. We kill huge numbers of fish and other animals. The only difference is that it is all industrialized, sanitized --- no blood on human fangs. Oh, there is one other difference --- waste. Humans waste enormous amounts of what they kill for food. In the natural environment, there is little waste. Whatever predators leave is picked on by smaller kritters. Almost nothing remains at the end of the chain.

Yet we take enormous pride in who we are and tell ourselves (and anyone else listening) that we are superior to the animals --- actually we don't think we're animals at all, but divinely created species of a different kind. How ridiculous.

Consider the Second World War. In that regard, consider thousands of men dying on beaches along the French coast or on Pacific Islands --- thousands in just a single day of mayhem. Can you imagine horses waging war of that kind against other horses? Lions vs other lions?

Actually, the history of humans killing humans goes way back farther than writing. It doesn't seem to have diminished; it has simply gotten more efficient. Technology has blossomed with the fruits of massive destruction. At Hiroshima we proved that we can kill thousands of people with just one instrument, and we have spent the intervening time developing more destructive weapons and better delivery systems. If we got together and synchronized attacks, we could actually blow up the world and destroy the human race entirely. I suspect that we will do that one day but we still seem to be a few years distant from that last example of human insanity. 

I'm not sure that 'like' is the correct word, but how else should we say it. If we don't like it why do we do it? Let's face it. If we really do not like doing it, wouldn't we do something about it? We claim to be the most intelligent beings on the planet, but this may demonstrate that "intelligence" isn't really a survival trait.

I'd like to hear what other people think about this.

Gun Violence in America

The 74th school shooting incident since Sandy Hook happened yesterday. When schools are in session, shooting incidents happen 1.37 times per week! Of course, this is only a small but highly visible part of gun violence in America.

The annual toll of deadly gun violence in most European and other developed countries is near 100. America distinguishes itself with a total over 10,000 gun-related deaths per year! Are we proud of this?

It is not surprising that our government does nothing to stop this because by and large our government has become completely ineffective in doing anything for the common good. So called law makers have mostly been bought off by the NRA in combination with manufacturers of guns and ammunition. 

But I really am skeptical that guns are the problem anyway. Obviously, mental health is a big problem too --- yet another problem that we seem incapable of dealing with. But I believe a far greater problem exists and that is the character of the American "melting pot" itself. Frankly speaking, the "melting pot" was a foolish experiment, one that virtually guaranteed cultural disaster. Americans gathered under the banner of "free for the taking" throughout the frontier era. Gradually, this moved into the era of hard core Capitalism, upward mobility, and profit at any price. The central element of American culture is greed --- our one distinguishing value. But something has changed in a couple generations. Most of my older friends will tell you that they worked their way up from small jobs by hard work and eventually "made good." And they did that. But young people don't do that anymore, at least not with the reliability that was possible generations ago. I think people are frustrated today, and picking up a gun and shooting someone has a real cathartic feeling.

Don't get me wrong. There are lots of great people out there who do fine things for one another. But they are not the majority and they have little cultural influence over the majority.

Religious Rights and Tolerance

The ultra conservative Christian group in Arizona that was responsible for pushing the recent legislation to allow discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs is called the Center for Arizona Policy. Cathi Herrod is the group's president. Other recent legislations sponsored by this group are Criminalizing Assisted Suicide, "Women's Health Protection Act" (which allows police to inspect abortion clinics without warning and without warrant), Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit (which gives tax breaks to corporations that give money to school tuition organizations), and Property Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions. You can find out more about the organization and their successful legislations at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/arizona-anti-gay-bill_n_4860817.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

What is happening here, under the banner of "religious rights," is a constant process of trying to use political influence to require the people of a state to conform to specific behaviors promoted by their Christian faith. In effect, they are trying in every way possible to make Arizona a Christian state. Of course, the first amendment to the United States Constitution that supposedly gives them their "religious rights" also prohibits the formation of a national religion and, thereby, also prohibits the formation of a state religion. In the United States, we have the right to pursue any religious faith, including pursuing no religious faith. This means that citizens of the United States must be tolerant of others who pursue different faiths.

Consider the case of abortion. Whether an individual approves of abortion or not, it remains a law of the land that women have a right to pursue an abortion within a certain time period. Yet religious groups of several varieties, because they abhor the idea of abortion from within their own religious beliefs, have done everything in their power to prevent women from pursuing their legal rights. Where is tolerance?

I always thought that tolerance and love were mainstays of Christian beliefs, but a large number of Christian groups behave as though tolerance means only welcoming those who behave your way. That, of course, is not tolerance but rather dominance.