Category: philosophy/sociology

For the entirety of this short century, Americans have dealt with misfortune: dot.com bubble burst and mini-recessions, terrorist attacks, extreme law enforcement response, two extremely long-running (and basically unwinnable) wars, other military conflicts, numerous natural disasters (e.g. Hurricane Katrina) and some unnatural ones (BP oil spill, the budget crisis) and, of course, the world economic disaster that was the sub-prime mortgage crisis, from which we’re still reeling.

This time of hardship should’ve seen the rise of exceptional leaders, but instead has resulted in extreme partisanship, obstructionist politics and a great number of incompetent or completely stymied and powerless politicians.  Yes, there may be a few great leaders out there, but in the sea of incompetent or selfish leaders, the great ones are effectively blocked.

Americans have lost trust in our politicians.  The banks  and automobile companies get bailouts and the CEOs get raises, oil companies make record profits and still receive tax subsidies, but the American people get foreclosures and rampant unemployment while many local governments face bankruptcy.  Moreover, the politicians lie with impunity about nearly everything under the sun, in their mad scramble to compete with each other and get elected for the next term.

We need to trust our leaders – the first step is for them to be held accountable for the things they say. Continue reading “Trust v. Politicians”

More extreme weather is clearly a sign from God to fundamentalists to “cut it out“.  Hurricane Irene ransacks the entire East Coast just days after a severe earthquake shook a number of East Coast states and only a few months after a record number of tornadoes swirled about the country (e.g., devastating Joplin, MI).

Obviously, God is tired of the haters, hating on birth control, evolution, homosexuals, government and everything else the fundamentalist zealots (of all religious stripes) love to hate.

This is a clear message of “Can’t we all just get along?”

You know what?  It works – in times of severe weather, neighbors actually help each other and don’t concern themselves with each others’ bedroom habits or fight about rituals or philosophy – they just work to help each other get by, clear the debris and get things functioning again.  But how soon we forget these lessons.

picture from behind my building – a tree downed power lines and blocks my through street (Aug. 29, 2011)

Mainstream journalism has gotten weak in this country (USA).  Maybe it always was, but I recall stories from way back about things like the Watergate scandal, the Pentagon Papers, the atrocities in Vietnam, the Muckrakers of the turn of the 20th century.  Lately, it all seems like a game of Simon Says.

Simon Says we must give more control to government and especially the executive branch after 9.11 (sure, it’s fine to imprison people without charges or evidence).  Simon Says Iraq has weapons of mass destruction (even though it was fairly obvious to a casual observer like me that there was no evidence) so we must invade.   Simon Says product A has helpful properties X, Y, Z (a “news” story written by an advertising person at a for-profit company and used directly, uncritically by news organizations).  Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of State in 2002) famously said, in relation to WMDs, “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” and the press just let that stand – as if that were sufficient justification for invading a sovereign nation and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

What gets to me is the lack of challenge or skepticism.  Journalists should be well-informed on the subject of an interview and they should challenge the interviewee on any statements they make not backed up by logic or evidence (or, worse, seeming contrary to the evidence, like the WMDs myth).  Yet they do not – they just seem to accept all that is said by the so-called expert and then regurgitate that to the public. Continue reading “The Simon Says of Journalism”

“Selfish” is a pejorative not dissimilar from “bitch” – sometimes, it’s actually kind of a compliment, indicating a kind of self-respecting independence that doesn’t cater to other people’s whims.

I had several girlfriends who accused me of being selfish when I didn’t want to go along with a particular plan, and in retrospect, I realized that they were mad that I wasn’t being selfless and accepting their own desires as priorities.

I love collaboration and sharing, but for me, that doesn’t involve capitulation; instead, it’s about dialog and negotiation.  Yes, my own feelings and desires are important.  I don’t see how this is a bad thing.

Moreover, we’re all “selfish” in that we care primarily about ourselves.  Some people may take it to the extreme (of caring very little about anyone else), but we all prioritize ourselves.  Even what we call altruism is not entirely selfless, some people really like helping others or some cause – it may benefit people/forces outside themselves, but it makes them feel good inside.

p.s. I’m no Ayn Rand acolyte, but the title earns it a place of prominence on my bookshelf.