The Way We Are Now, Alas!
McCain is bound to win the nomination. He has Rambo and The Terminator on his side. Huckabee only has Church Norris and Romney only has the Prophet and his make-up man.
If you are reading this you are, according to legislation proposed by your President, a facilitator of domestic right-wing anti-government extremism, aka "homegrown terrorism."
Money can always command talent and idealism, seldom the other way around.
In my experience there are generally two kinds of people: those who are luckier than they deserve to be and those who are unluckier than they deserve to be. Or maybe it is just those born with capital and those who have only their labour.
The automobile for Americans is strangely conflicted combination of freedom and dependency. The car, though dependent on remote sources of fuel and other complexities beyond the individual’s power, does offer some freedom to millions of Americans. Americans avoid mass transportation for the same reason they avoid or flee certain neighbourhoods. In both cases they lie about the reason.
Two things, at least, make a genuine democracy impossible in the United States. First, the immense accumulations of financial power in a few hands. Second, the long predominant Progressive mentality among the chattering classes and their patrons in power. Progressives assume that the inferior, unenlightened populace must be driven in the right direction by a wise elite—themselves—who know what direction history ought to go.
My family on both sides were here in the 1600s. Not that they were at all distinguished. They were plain folk, but they were here and did their part. I get mightily tired of being told what is the meaning of America and the truth of American history by people whose families have never known pioneering, liberty under law, the sacrifices of war, the homely virtues of Protestant commonwealth—who came out of crowded, reactionary/revolutionary Europe no more than a generation or two ago or even less.
Both the United States and California would be better off if the principle of secession had prevailed and California was a separate country. (And don't get in a dither about lost military bases. Such things can always be negotiated.)
Mouthpieces for the present government's wars of aggression are free in throwing around charges of lack of patriotism and even treason against their opponents. But treason is not disagreeing with the government; treason is violating the Constitution and betraying the people.
I was thinking the other day about how outmoded are the traditional elephant and donkey symbols for the political parties. Elephants are intelligent and noble animals, certainly not a proper symbol for Republicans. And the humble but stubborn and hard-working donkey hardly fits the Democrats any more. But I gave up trying to come up with replacements. American journalists and academics today would not understand anything as imaginative as a meaningful symbol.
The French now know that their once revered Revolution was an unnecessary and evil event. The Russians have come to understand the same about their Revolution. Perhaps some day Americans will come to understand the truth about the bloody Lincoln coup. That is the first step toward recovery.
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Since jmcnulty is such a know-it-all on the subject of empires, then surely he is familiar with the works of Arnold J. Toynbee. Toynbee pointed out that the fruits of empire are not enjoyed by those who shoulder the burden of it - whom he referred to as the external and internal proletariat (his term for the conquered subjects and the masses at home). The benefits of empire are enjoyed solely by the elites who engineered it.
Mr. McNulty:
There is nothing conservative about current foreign policy or spending habits (both closely related). Our foreign policy is hard Wilsonianism, pure and simple. Wilson (not the good Dr. above) himself would likely blush if he saw what we had.
A true conservative would be up in arms about the idea of attacking a hapless enemy pre-emptively, under false pretenses. Are we really safer as a result of our foreign policy? How much good do you think our military does? Perhaps more pertinently, how much longer do you think we can afford it? Is it worth seeing the collapse of the dollar for?
There is reason for pessimism considering both sides of the aisle seem interested in increasing Leviathan's powers and scope, both here and abroad. The defenders of freedom and liberty and low taxes are few in number.
And I believe there were some positive remarks made above:
"Perhaps some day Americans will come to understand the truth about the bloody Lincoln coup. That is the first step toward recovery."
Certainly there is reason to hope for some recovery of our sanity.
Mr. McNulty mistakes despair (admittedly a failing and a sin) for pretentious nostalgia. Where is the center to be defended? What did Reagan's sunny bromides acheive except to make some superficial people happy for a little while? Why join the crowd following the Rough Beast slouching unopposed toward Jerusalem?
@54
Amen, to Mr. Wilson's comment. I was one of those superficial people made happy by Reagan's sunny bromides; but, by the grace of God, I'm a recovering republican. All we can do, at this point, is pray for the people of this empire.
"It is so much easier to stand aside and find some place nobody notices to make the criticism that the fallen world does not recognize the wisdom and honor of the tiny band. Do you not realize that you are isolating yourselves?"
Mr. McNulty
What should people do if they prefer an intelligent discussion of culture rooted in history and human nature? Cable television, newspapers, talk radio generally fail in this regard. You act as if the "tiny band" of dissenters appeared out of thin air with no higher goal than heckling the people who possess real power and influence. Now I admit, I take pleasure in the heckling, but the central theme of Chronicles, it seems, is that certain ideas and principles are as old as civilization itself. That the majority has forgotten or rejected the wisdom borne out of over 2,000 years of human experience does not prove that those who attempt to preserve it are isolating themselves. It is very much the opposite that is true. As Chesterton said, "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."
Many Germans who came to North America during the colonial period were from the County Palatine of the Rhine. It was just a short trip down the river to Holland, whence they embarked for the new world. My ancestor in the direct paternal line was such a person, travelling from Amsterdam to Philadelphia in 1748, then settling in the valley of Virginia. Other ancestors on my father's side were English and Scots, who settled here in the 17th and 18th centuries. My mother's family were lowland Scots and English, of similar history.
It seems that any time one mentions ancestry the accusation of snobbery or exclusivism arises, as e.g. at #14. I sympathize entirely with Dr. Wilson's remark. I feel the same way. It is not an expression of overweening pride in ancestry but rather makes the point that there is a difference between people who settled a wilderness and those who came as immigrants to flourishing cities and took industrial employment. The families of America's pioneers do not need to be lectured and hectored about "the American Dream" by persons whose ancestors came through Ellis Island. I am glad to know there is another who finds this as tiresome as I do.
"The commentary here is so other-worldly that no wonder it is ignored by the larger society."
Then you won't mind staying off the commentary boards from now on. Go back to FR, troll.
"Just a few days ago, one of my students, fourteen years old, I believe, asked me if I thought that U S soldiers would shoot americans, I gave her the straight answer, "Yes"
If you were a US soldier would you not have the intelligence or the common sense not to? Of course you would, so why think the american soldier is some kind of robot, machine, like the SS were in Germany? You hold the american soldier not in very high esteem. You insult their intelligence and mine. You are a teacher, are you forced to teach a doctrine of Lenin, no your not. Would you be thrown in a gulag for refusing to, yes you would. Thank any soldier, airman, sailor or marine that has made it so you can teach without the fear of transportation to a gulag.
Shame on you..............