Sunday, January 31, 2021

Writing in the Internet Era

I've recently written an article about witnessing -- speaking publicly -- about what one has observed and concluded:  The Arc of the Moral Universe

And then I ran across an article encouraging people to write -- share their opinions -- and not to read and regurgitate the corporate/government propaganda found in the New York Times.

Also, one of my favorite writers, an independent blogging psychiatrist, recently had a dustup with the New York Times.  He quit writing publicly for 6 months because the NY Times threatened to reveal his true identity (he had been writing using a pseudonym) which he felt would be dangerous for him personally in terms of his career and relationships.  He resumed public blogging this month while no longer trying to hide his true identity: Still Alive - Astral Codex Ten.  Again, the New York Times does not come off well.

Reflecting on my personal life and relationships with family and friends, I note that I get many stories passed my way from the New York Times.  It occurs to me that people in my circles feel that the New York Times is a safe source of news and world view.  With the advent of Internet cancel culture, it is indeed dangerous to express opinions publicly on the Internet.  I am somewhat immune from this being retired and therefore do not have to consider possible adverse reactions from employers or potential employers down the line.

How did we get to this place, and where do we go from here?

The answer, I believe, is that we are an aging empire.  Power tends to concentrate over time such that a military / intelligence vanguard tends to call the shots with an enormous budget and behind the scenes power over the nominal rulers.  Thus, the New York Times defers to the CIA and FBI and in discussing matters at the core of our democracy such as the assassination of presidents (JFK), potential presidents (RFK), and movement leaders (MLK).  When an insurgent such as Bernie Sanders threatened the corrupt power structures, the power structure pulls together to denounce him asl a socialist (enemy of the empire).  When an insurgent such as Donald Trump threatened the status quo, the CIA and FBI worked together to falsely paint him as a treasonous agent of archenemy Putin.  When Trump threatened to remove U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, or to make peace with N. Korea, he was overridden by empire central.  The power structure made race a major issue in an all out effort to destroy Trump, cancelling anyone who dared to oppose them.

In my view, these were not savvy moves by our elite.  Was it really necessary to spread intelligence agency lies to get rid of a buffoon such as Trump?  Was it in elite interest to whip up a frenzy of identity politics?  Were the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK successful?  How about the 2003 war in Iraq?  The war in Afghanistan?  At best, these actions have maintained the status quo over the last 60 years.  At worst, they have eroded national unity and enthusiasm for the empire.  

Some more observations:

  1. Over the past 10 years, the mainstream media (MSM) has gone from being too centrist, in my view, to being too openly partisan Democratic.  Whereas the MSM has always deferred to the power elite including, especially, the intelligence agencies, they've now going to cheerleading for the Democrats as they have fought back in kind against the crazed Republicans.  Thus, I can no longer support the sane center.
  2. The cancer of identity politics and outrage culture bloomed since 2016.  Thus, people are afraid and unable to discuss political topics calmly and rationally.  The supposedly scientific debate surrounding COVID 19 has been horribly partisan and unscientific.
  3. Personally, I've realized that my disillusionment with our national government following the Vietnam War and the Nixon resignation was entirely justified.  Though I managed to have a career and raise a family thanks largely to my relatively privileged upbringing, the empire has continued to rot and spread war and economic injustice.  I call my present state of mind a reawokening.
So where do we go from here, with an aging empire unmoored from rational thought and behavior?  I find it hard to believe that the mainstream media will be successful in putting the cat back in the bag -- the phony national ethos (democracy) has been exposed and the trust will not be regained after the nonsense of the last 4 years including Russiagate and woke cancel culture.  Democratic believers will soon see that the wizards of wokeness and national outrage against Putin were and are sham grifters.  When all the Trump outrage is gone there will nothing constructive in its place.  The populists will resume their assaults on the impotent cultural center.

Our job is to free ourselves sooner rather than later from the tyranny of the thought police at the New York Times and Democratic party headquarters.  A wave of new movements and leaders will arise, and it is up to us to shape popular opinion through the democratic processes which are central to our value systems and which include most prominently freedom of speech.  We must talk to one another, and promote our values and those politicians who genuinely promote our values.  We need to innoculate ourselves against military intelligence leaders who lead us to rely on their secretive and undemocratic ways.  

The Internet gives us the power to see how phony the status quo is, and how bad some of the alternatives are.  Think, people, and be constructive.  Support democrats, and oppose outrage culture and identity politicians who try to pit us against one another on the basis of race, religion, gender orientation, etc.  Majority rule, minority rights!  Peaceful resolution of conflicts to the extent possible!  Turn off the rotten mainstream media and engage more constructively with your family, friends, community, and fellow travellers around the globe.



Sunday, January 10, 2021

Taking Stock During the Trump Transition

 

Core Values

Belief in Democratic Process

       Non-Violent Resolution of Issues
Majority Rule
Minority Rights

       The Trump supporters' positions strike me as anti-democratic in the following regards:

       Excessive support for gun "rights" => violence

       Do not support international agreements and cooperation

       Excessively tribal => poor protection of minority rights

       Republicans under Trump are not a threat because they are opposed by military intelligence corporate (MIC) leaders.

       There are serious problems with the democratic process in the U.S.

       CIA and other intelligence agencies

       military coups and intervention around the world

       involvement in domestic politics

       feeding untrue stories to media

       assassinating Kennedy

       harassing liberals

       working with government and large corporations to funnel money to support the empire and the status quo domestically

       Voting machines are subject to tampering.  Best practice seems to be paper ballots counted in public.  Unnecessarily complex systems are used.

       Green Party espouses policies consistent with my democratic values.

 

SUMMARY: The status quo is tolerable for most people due to enormous prosperity of our society.  However, democratic institutions have become corrupt and resistant to constructive change.  Pressures are building for a political earthquake.  Trump is a tremor in this regard.

A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

       I do not trust mainstream media to report the truth.  Has become too partisan and reliant upon CIA and similar "intelligence" agents.

       Family, friends, and acquaintainces consider tribal affiliation more important than truth.

 

SUMMARY:  As partisan cold warfare has heated up, the Democrats smell victory and will try to consolidate their gains.  The leadership is somewhat unified under the false propaganda of empire.  Miscalculation, more losing war efforts, and domestic disarray are probably as a result.

 

The Events of January 6 at the Capitol

Was this attempted coup?  My friend comments:

 

Trump truly is trying to overthrow the workings of our government so as to remain in power. To me that’s a coup. The minions he loosed on the Capitol while the election approval process was underway were either a distraction or an effort to stay approval of the election results.

 

1.     Whatever his motives, Trump is clearly failing.

2.     There are grounds for concern about the democratic process which denied the Trump presidency for 4 years on false claims of Russian collusion.

3.     Glenn Greenwald provides needed context:

There is a huge difference between, on the one hand, thousands of people shooting their way into the Capitol after a long-planned, coordinated plot with the goal of seizing permanent power, and, on the other, an impulsive and grievance-driven crowd more or less waltzing into the Capitol as the result of strength in numbers and then leaving a few hours later. That the only person shot was a protester killed by an armed agent of the state by itself makes clear how irresponsible these terms are. There are more adjectives besides “fascist treason” and “harmless protest,” enormous space between those two poles. One need not be forced to choose between the two.

 

The capitol protest was a skirmish in a war that Trump is losing.  Anti-Trump forces (Democrats) correctly see this as a victory for their side and are thus making a big deal about it.

Democrats Control the Executive and Legislative Branches

Of greater significance, the Democrats remarkably won the 2 Senate seats in Georgia and now have an effective majority in the Senate because VP Harris will have the tiebreaking vote.

       This may be a manifestation of improved voting procedures in Georgia which has a long history of suppressing the black vote.  Republicans around the country have won elections by dubious means, with the result that their actual support has been smaller than their representation in Congress.

       Dems had a similar situation in 2008 when Obama one the presidency and Dems had a large majority in the Senate as well as the House.  That did not go well as the Tea Party emerged and was not effectively countered by the Dems.  The Dems are now energized and ready for whatever the Trump supporters throw at them. 

       It's likely that the Dems will be content to marginalize the Trumpers, and will not make any great progress otherwise in governing the nation.  They are overwhelming in favor of the status quo and have no significant platform other than defeating the Trumpers.

       I'm glad that the Trumpers have been soundly defeated.  However, they may come back with more effective leadership.  As I write this, Republican strategists are plotting ways to reclaim power.  These will most likely involve ploys to sabotage the Biden presidency by manufacturing outrage.  Will the media bite?

 

SUMMARY:  The partisan dynamic and domination of the mainstream media by the Democrats should fade, but this tendency will be fought by the Democrats who will seek to keep the outrage going.  Republican outrage leaders will be contained to the fringes for the short term.  There is a leadership vacuum in both parties that will attract imperial wannabees such as Buttigieg and Rubio.  Eventually, the earthquake will arrive in the form of some disaster such as nuclear war or economic depression.  Then will there be room for constructive change.  The arc of the moral universe bends towards justice because politics based upon injustice eventually collapse and the truth wins out. 

Dealing with the Loss of Technological Superiority

Dealing with the Loss of Technological Superiority "The fall of an empire—the end of a polity, a socioeconomic order, a dominant cultur...