Category Archives: Politics
The thing about climbing up sand dunes is that you keep sliding downwards. If you slide downward one step for every step you take upwards, you stay in place and get nowhere. Worse, if you slide two steps down for every step up, you go backwards!
To climb a sand dune successfully, you have to take more steps upwards than you slide downwards. I’ve climbed sand dunes; it’s hard; it takes effort (or a dune buggy).
The thing about social progress is that, without real effort towards moving upwards, society tends to slide backwards. Or just stay in place.
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7 Comments | tags: gun control, gun debate, gun laws, gun ownership, guns, movie violence, Quentin Tarantino, The Dark Knight Returns, TV violence, violence, violence in movies, violent society | posted in Politics, Rant
Well, here we are in 2016, a Presidential election year, and — man, oh man — it’s going to be a weird one! High waters from several rivers seems to be converging to form a flood unlike any we’ve seen in modern politics. And while that’s kind of fascinating from a sociology perspective, as a citizen some of it seems kind of scary.
As I write this, actual rivers are flooding Midwestern cities in the USA, but the rivers I have in mind are reality shows, the interweb, and our social environment (where global unrest and terrorism is a primary topic). The flood here is a lack of sense, nuance, and thoughtfulness.
My question today: When did we so fully embrace lies and illusion?
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17 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, Bernie Sanders, cable news, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, dialectic, Donald Trump, election 2016, evil, GOP, Hillary Clinton, illusion, lies, Marco Rubio, politicians, Republican Party, rhetoric, social change, social issues, social media, Ted Cruz, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, truth | posted in Politics, Rant
I’ve been watching the cable news a lot lately, and it fills me with dismay. I’m seeing coming to fruition a crop that I’ve been warning about for over 40 years. I’ve referred to it as the Death of a Liberal Arts Education.
As this crop of useless weeds chokes the life out of the nutritious and necessary political and social fauna and flora, I find that we’ve arrived at an even greater loss: Utter Dialectic Failure!
That’s a topic for future posts. Right now I want to ask:
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16 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, Bernie Sanders, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, dialectic, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, politicians, Republican Party, rhetoric, social change, social issues, social media, Ted Cruz, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, violent society | posted in Politics, Rant
So now we have 12/2 to go along with 9/11. And while the death and injury this time isn’t of the magnitude it was 14 years ago. The hysteria seems to be greater. Only five days after the tragedy, the leading Republican candidate engages in a form of hate speech not seen in mainstream American politics since Joe McCarthy.
To say that I’m appalled doesn’t begin to describe it. That people cheer on and support this blustering carnival barker speaks directly to the decline of real American values and principles. Trump is a childish clown seeing how much he can get away with.
It’s the people who follow him that scare the crap out of me. The ignorance and lack of critical thought is — as I have long said — very dangerous.
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46 Comments | tags: 12/2, 9-11, Anyone But Trump, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, Dick Cheney, Donald Sterling, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Joe McCarthy, Leon Wieseltier, Marco Rubio, politicians, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Ted Cruz, terrorism, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Opinion, Politics
I would say that I’ve been watching the goings on in Congress with growing horror, but my horror-level with regard to politics these days is largely tapped out. I’d also like to say that Great Evil must be at work here, because no one could possibly be as stupid as to participate in — or as to allow — this horror show. Unfortunately, there seems no limit to human stupidity, and perhaps Hanlon’s Razor* applies: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
I’d already been pondering the spectrum that leads from discontent through activism and ultimately to terrorism. In the USA, we saw extreme activism with regard to civil rights. And we’ve certainly seen terrorism throughout the world, including on our own shores.
Lately, I think you can view the Republicans as having become home-grown terrorists!
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15 Comments | tags: asshats, Congress, Democrat, GOP, government, Republican, Republican Party, stupidity, terrorism | posted in Politics, Rant
Today a second Brain Bubble; a pair of related BBs fired into the interweb. The first one concerned the “mainstream liberal media” meme. This one concerns another meme we seem to accept as given, but which I think deserves deeper thought. (Of course, I’m prone to thinking most things deserve deeper thought than they get, but that’s another BB… or SB… or full-blown article!)
In any event, this BB concerns the idea of “Class warfare.” It’s a phrase often used by the upper class to describe any sort of perceived “attack” against them. It implies “dirty fighting” and seeks to turn any complaint — no matter how valid — into an ad hominem attack.
Which, of course, would be unfair, right?
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2 Comments | tags: class warfare, conservative, liberal, occupy-wall-street | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics, Society
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was…”
Many of you will recognize that as the first words of John 1:1 in the Christian New Testament Bible. There’s also a cross-reference to the very first words of that Bible (Old Testament in this case), “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
This is about words and about beginnings.
Others might recognize it as a conflation of the lead-in to a Moody Blues tune, OM, from In Search of the Lost Chord, and the title of a song from another album, In the Beginning, from On the Threshold of a Dream.
(Yes “album.” I’m old!)
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23 Comments | tags: brain, brain mind problem, computationalism, computer guy, human brain, human mind, logos, Marriage, Moody Blues, rational mind, René Descartes, Theory of Consciousness, theory of mind | posted in Baseball, Basics, Books, Computers, Life, Movies, Opinion, Philosophy, Politics, Rant, Science, Society, The Interweb, TV
Logos con carne 