New edition of Planet Waves by Eric Fracis
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And Patty, I love you too. Please believe it. Anger is a great clearing energy. Let’s not deny it, along with realizing we are in this all of us, with that it becomes easier.
Eric I’ll check it out. Fe, we are all pretty mad. I love you all – all ya’all.
Patty:
I don’t see everyone in the middle of the country as hick or hillbilly. That is your projection. And there are plenty of hicks in upstate New York and Sacramento to share, so I don’t buy into that reasoning.
What I do see are people who are out of work and mad as hell, and there are certain yahoos, used almost as the vanguard bullies of the conservative movement, who use their loud obnoxious racist crap used to sell right wing talking points, and take advantage of race hatred lurking underneath to bring in the louts and bullies, and all of them are tricked into selling out their futures and theirs and our children’s future in the meantime, to serve corporate interests. This is what we are talking about.
Patty, have you seen The Yes Men Fix The World?
You will learn a lot about this “free” market from that film. They interviewed the world’s best respected Free Marketeer economists. It’s fucking shocking.
We are saying the same thing in a different way maybe. I see “church-going bigots” and go off the deep end! We shouldn’t define all Christians by one congregation of 30 people, but the media does it all the time and everyone latches on to that. A young minister newly graduated spoke at my church about this very thing, and about how all the kids at the high schools where he’s visited pray with the words, ‘help me be good’ when we all know or should know that it is impossible to be good! We set ourselves up for emotional failure over and over again. Then he said how can i tell a gay man that he won’t go to heaven when he is the only one who was willing to take in children that needed extensive medical and emotion care? You can’t. You could have heard a pin drop in the building that day, and this was over 4 services to 1400 people. It reminded me of the cleansing of the temple. That was a 22 year old doing what Jesus would do. It made me love being a christian again.
The east coast and west coast seem to be the only thing that matters in this country, and everyone in between is defined as a hick or a hillbilly. Really?
Absolutely Eric…..DDT is still in the earth and all the streams and it is never going away. But the FDA is floating regulations to limit herbal supplents to help the drug companies too. All laws seem to be at the behest of whichever entity can produce the most money for the elections. FedEX and UPS regularly lobby for US Postal Service rate increases, for example, so they can undersell the products. Where is the integrity? That’s perhaps why USPS should be privatized, and let the free market settle it. Then I saw the story about how you had to pay to join the Better Business Bureau to get an A rating for your business.
Jere, That niece made her own decisions and her mother was the same way. There are still some things you control yourself. All of us make choices.
My retirement is good, but I will be screwed if the fund disappears. At my age I should be debt free, but I am like most people trying to clear up my debt before it is too late. My kids seem to take after my parents, who tended to pay cash for everything.
I am for the truth of less government — in the right places. Taking away stop lights? Going back to private fire departments, where you hang a medallion on your house? No.
Regulators watching the people who watch our common wealth? Um yeah. Air traffic control? Is our food safe? We need help with that. We need an EPA that functions. If you don’t think so, try living next to a municipal waste incinerator. See if you get one good night’s sleep knowing that dioxin is going into the air next to your house.
Less government actually means the government stays out of personal matters and follows our lead on taking care of collective ones. Less government does not mean theocracy. Less government is not about installing toxic X-ray machines; necessary government is watching the security of cargo flow. We all know that government has a little competency issue, and that the private sector is more about profits than quality.
That’s where we get involved.
..Patty, get away from your fucked-up kin, or open your eyes to the fact that We’re trying to make this a better place. You don’t hold the bag on Bull-shit, your reality is NOT a stepping stone to the Global Picture. You need to freakin’ realize that WE’RE NOT AGAINST YOU. (In fact, I’m still waiting to smoke a bowl with you).
..allright, now that I’ve said what I’ve said, in all earnestness,… RELAX.,.. MEDITATE.,.. BBBRRREEEAAATTTHHHEEE!!!! (Deeply, please!)
Love you cat,
Jere
Tossing and turning last night – listened to the Haidt video just prior to retiring. That kind of reading/listening best done in the morning so the mind can quiet by evening. I’m about to be a fairly jumbled bit of thoughts, I’m not going to turn this into an edited thesus paper. In summary however, I think Haidt’s theory didn’t fall apart, rather, it never congealed at all.
I do not know anything about Jon Haidt other than what was presented in Eric’s article and by watching the video – so I’m uninformed, but therefore also unbiased (by Haid’t own definition.)
Haidt, whatever his chosen political group is as conservative as the next university professor who plays the cards properly in order to keep his job secure. He has programmed himself to provide exactly what is called for – glossy powerpoint presentation, a few laughs, a picture of his very own son, Max, a piece or two of classic art – in particular a piece of religious art……the entire mix is politically conservative in that it is “status quo” – that is, ‘liberal’-minded people will kindly and gently presume that he has anything to say at all. In this case, my opinion is that he hasn’t anything “new” to say, his study is relatively meaningless – at face value – although perhaps a bit interesting and we, like his audience bought into it lock stock and barrel as being “vaild” because of the presentation itself, not the content.
THAT is the message.
By the same token, no conversation that stimulates meaningful discussion is actually meaningless, as we are actively demonstrating by way of the dialogue taking place here, now at PW.
What I think is important to notice is that we bought Haidt’s argument that there is a conflict in America between liberal and conservative principles based in morailty. Did you feel how he slid that in? or better – what he seemed to indicate is that there is a consistent lack on the part of ‘liberals’ to use “morality” as a tool for socialization -?
Really? I never got that message in my real life. Does he mean that people who desire change are immoral? What EXACTLY is he slipping into his message there? And he may say the word “morailty” but he is not discussing what we think of when we think “morality” he is discussing something else.
And we already know that the Conservative Party in America has grown into a Radical Party. So again, the Haidt discussion points out loud and clear how “liberals” have bought into small-minded open-mindedness while the “conservatives” are out playing football without liberals even on the field. Hey! They’re gonna win that way. And that’s because ALL of our politicians are “conservatives”. Not all fascists. But they’re all playing by the I’m a Politician rule book. Thank goodness some of them have more responsible agendas than others.
Historically, liberal and conservative aren’t so far off the “yin/yang” principle of balance. We are out of balance because – as Eric has pointed out several times – our “conservative” party is no party and they are not “conservatives”.
As Eric points out, “The problem with the Liberal-Conservative paradigm is that it places both on an equal moral plane.” My opinion is that the problem with the paradigm is that it is not discussing the real situation we are in. The conflict is NOT with conservatives – it is with a now non-conservative political party that still uses its old name.
I think what we have here is conversation about exactly what it is Haidt did not talk about. Haidt’s theory breaks down before he even begins – because he supposes an entanglement between “liberal” and “conservative” when in fact the “tangle” could be said to be between socialists and fascist extremists.
Haidt’s REAL topic is Expression versus Repression and the element of contention is not Change but Choice.
Again, while I enjoy that Haidt’s research stimulates conversation, he is on tricky ground with the ideas he presented at TED.
Something has to change. Over all, I am in favor of less government – which makes voting difficult. Social security is necessary and so is medicare, especially for those who didn’t plan well for old age, like me and my sisters in law. My kids would like to see SSI go away. Where is the balance? If government had given the people all that money, we could have paid off our own debts, but that was never a consideration. They act like we are robbing them by wanting tax cuts, that is, to keep part of our own money.
Patty:
We’re almost in agreement. If we’re talking about less government, I agree. For me, less means less spent on farm subsidies that pay farmers for food they aren’t growing and that actual food IS produced — good healthy food for people who live here and are hungry.
Less for me means that kids, all kids are better educated through college so that they can have a better life and not be a burden on the state — that cost for education is far less expensive than imprisoning them for years. Less means no wars where single corporations make profit over outsourcing our militia, meaning a paid corporate mercenary getting more than a foot soldier for the same work. Less means no permanent bases in places we have no interest other than taking others natural resources. Less means that millionaires pay into Social Security THEIR FAIR SHARE, instead of taking it without paying into the system.
Less for me means that we have better ways to commute, so that we’re not paying so much money for gasoline and vehicle maintenance, and not polluting the air or the water that needs to get cleaned up so that people can breathe and drink clean water.
I don’t want more government. I am also one of those who will need SS as well as another job into my retirement so that I can survive. I just want the government we have to work and not get driven into the ground by those who have the most and contributed the least.
No-one I know wants Sarah Palin to be president.
From what I understand, the earliest tea partiers were mostly libertarian-leaning, wanting less government, to pay off debt, to get out of the wars, and mind our own business. What I read from most of the input here is that more government is wanted, not less. No tea partier was ever in favor of the bailouts. Their message has weakened because of Sarah Palin and some others that latched onto them, and even George Bush spoke out against her. What was that all about?
I don’t know of any family that doesn’t have someone on unemployment or welfare, or has lost a job. My brother lost his house this year. My niece is a prostitute because of drugs – i call that slave trade. I have two sisters in law whose total monthly income is 500.00 per month social security.
Something has to change. Over all, I am in favor of less government – which makes voting difficult. Social security is necessary and so is medicare, especially for those who didn’t plan well for old age, like me and my sisters in law. My kids would like to see SSI go away. Where is the balance? If government had given the people all that money, we could have paid off our own debts, but that was never a consideration. They act like we are robbing them by wanting tax cuts, that is, to keep part of our own money.
Patty:
I refuse to get pissed off at you because I respect you. But you are wrong on a key point. I am not a racist, nor is every white man responsible for the mess we’re in. But when you have the Sarah Palins and the guy who marched around in Nazi uniform running for Congress or Glenn Beck ginning up the race card against blacks, Muslims and raising the gender bashing card against gays and lesbians, and the guys who take their guns and rifles to Tea Party rallies talking about the 2nd Amendment, and who want no taxes but get your government hands off my Medicare — what are we to think?
Since Reagan, and calling poor women, mostly Black and Latino “welfare queens”, the Conservatives have been successful in creating the picture of “demon” around poor people and their children. Consequently, urban schools get neglected. The kids get punished. By the time you’ve reached fourth grade and haven’t made it through, you are penitentiary-bound. Its a high certainty.
Next, came sentencing laws that basically put poor people in jail for longer periods of time. Women get incarcerated more frequently for drugs and prostitution – crimes of poverty. Then you have their daughters in prison because of poor education, high poverty in their communities long neglected.
The people who have no voice are usually the ones who get tagged. And believe me, I have had it up to here with people who have yelled the loudest and have not made sense, or aren’t recognizing or connecting to the reality of people having lost their jobs and their retirement because some speculative kid on Wall Street gambled it away betting on the failure of suspect mortgages. Those people have theirs, and by God, you’re not going to take it away, you goddamn government faggots. And I’m afraid alot of them who are used as pawns by the rich who bought this last election, if you’ve seen the pics, look like low-educated white males who may not be living in the hills, but certainly understand the roots of their survival rely upon the supposed and verified recognition that white has its privileges. And goddammit, it has to stay that way.
And by the way, I have never mentioned Church-going people or Christians or all white people. What I mean are people who use God as a means to burn the Q’uran, protest military funerals with signs saying “God Hates fags”, and stir up racial, cultural and gender hating in the name of God. They have no reason to call upon the name of God.
As for who gets the brunt of this now, I’m not just talking about the people who are at the edge of the social safety net. We are talking about the middle class that has been diminishing the last eight years. That’s all of us, not just white people but all of us.
Let me conclude with this commentary by Charles Blow on the claims of racism against whites, and how there really isn’t a leg for it to stand on:
As for the young people you describe who are realistic about their chances of a retirement income from the government, I wish them well. I still believe however, government needs to exist. That we need good roads, clean air and water, good public transportation, and that the firemen come to put out your house if it catches on fire. I believe we need hospitals, busses, and schools. We need police.
What we don’t need government to do is to warehouse people at a cost more expensive than to educate them, make them fight wars that have no sense and cost too much for future generations, and build weapons. And lastly, I don’t want corporations to dictate how our money is spent — to basically enslave us to buy their products and services, because then we have lost our individual will and freedom — and truly sold the farm.
Patty,
I am not sure what you mean by greed on both ends. The government is paying out on both ends, though one end is by proscribed social contract and the other is that the United States is a tax haven for the super rich. There is a very big difference. The bailouts, far huger than we were told, could have paid centuries of welfare and Social Security.
So once again we are blaming the Mexicans for the crimes of the Bush family. And they ain’t no hillbillies. They’re East Coast ruling class.
e
I love this column until someone starts blaming the the church-going bigots for all the ethnic problems, and the hillbillies. Do you actually believe the stuff you write? You don’t see your own racism and bigotry?
The young people I know do not even take social security into consideration when planning for retirement. My son is 32 and already has his home nearly paid off and has money saved toward retirement. He told me he did it by putting off purchasing things he wanted. A couple of months ago he bought a new mustang – paid cash!
The minimum retirement age is being changed soon, and who in their right mind wants to wait until 70 to retire? These kids are taking matters into their own hands. SSI and Medicare are taxes they do not want. I listen to the 25 year olds at work say things like ‘only 45 years until retirement’ and know their wheels are turning to figure a way to stop the insanity of government.
I think you totally misunderstand what is happening. You want more social security, more government spending. Guess what – there is no money. The government has 200 trillion in debt. We are collapsing under the weight of greed on both ends. Somewhere in the middle is a big change coming. It was the farmers that won the revolution, and it will be the farmers that win it again. The latino business men expect to make a living as much as anyone else. So do the asians. The asians certainly didn’t get ahead by overspending and buying on credit. Some people need to get a grip in this country, and it isn’t the old white people, the latinos or the asians. My generation is as much to blame as any. Fe and Cmassey, you are to blame as well. We wanted it all and we got it – on credit. So now what? Our kids clean up our mess and pay 7 percent social security into a fund they will never get to use. They will pay increased taxes to pay our debts. And we ain’t seen nothing yet – wait until inflation hits in the spring, when that $10 dollar a bushel wheat translates to the cereal and bread markets.
Haidt himself is an example of what bright liberal minds DO with what they have – they stay (in “Teams”) at Universities and Think about Stuff.
Which is great and necessary, but the kids who have grown up to hold down our fort economically are not the Haidt’s. Nor are our corporate CEOs to be confused with our small business entrepreneurs.
Truth and capacity to Lie to Defend didn’t even enter Haidt’s discussion – which seems like a farily sizable omission.
Guess he didn’t want to pass moral judgement.
It’s like repaving the same road over and over again instead of understanding the value of reconsidering at each interval what new choice/s could be made.
We have done an amazing “job” of imbedding mass-production mentality into ourselves.
Eric,
I am particularly fascinated by your bringing “disgust” into the conversation as it is one of several words I have been contemplating to great depth this past week or so.
It is a word that my father used constantly and is a heavy ‘trigger’ word for me. (Heavy as in “much baggage that doesn’t belong to me”.)
I have been working to make squeaky-clean in my own psyche – that is, bringing into clear focus my experience of my father’s chronic “disgust” with well, pretty much everything. ‘Disgust’ was his gaussian disguise for constant judgement. That judgement was a protective cover, no doubt founded in his inability to face the challenges of life head-on and ultimately to face them at all.
Thanks for bringing more focus to my internal discussion on that point.
xo
Carrie –
As Eric has stated before, what’s coming up has more of an anti-60′s feel to it and I would agree if only because of the sense of harmony that the 60′s tried to promote. What’s coming up in the near future for young people especially will be a pretty rude eye opener and it has NOTHING to do with 1.) gays in the military; 2.) Mexicans crossing the AZ/TX borders; 3.) Black and American Indian people still striving for something close to equality and respect 4.) Women wanting to control their own bodies, etc. I wonder when young people are going to wake up to the fact that quite a few (again, not all) old White people want to deny the younger generation a lot of the stuff that they benefited from (SS, a benefits package for veterans, health care, etc.) because it’s warranted when the old want it but when young people want the same things, it’s “Socialism.”
There’s some serious generational warfare going on but I’m not sure if most young people see it. Gods know, I’m old enough to see and I thank those same Gods that I’m in the middle to last part of my life. I’ve got it bad right now but at least I don’t have to look forward to another 50-60 yrs. of this garbage with a bunch of old White people telling me to keep my socialist hands off their Medicare and SS.
Off topic but I have to say this: Can someone PLEASE get one of those supposed “death panels” and put Alan Simpson out of his misery??? Every time I see/hear from him, I really want him sent to the great beyond immediately (no, the other one.)
Fe,
Yes.
Yes. The Culture of the Immigrant in America is our real cornerstone – and future.
I have been observing this with interest for twenty years in LA; the disjointed “american” families on one hand and the positive influences of the multi-generational immigrant families on another.
It is the “hillybillies” for sure, that are keeping grass green in wide expanses of empty “parkland” during a “water shortage” and preventing useful harvest from taking place – for example.
We are In the Change, and we Are the change, fer sure.
Thanks everyone – always gooood stuff here.
He seems to be making the same mistake as Jon Stewart when he tossed MSNBC and Fox into the same box. He didn’t mention at all the so-called Conservative viewpoint’s basis in disinformation or that conserving a lopsided, racist, fearful social structure based on war and rape of non-human life can hardly lead to long term stability. I think a lot of so-called Liberals are working very hard to conserve the matrix of non-human life to whom all human life owes its continued existence which is also recognizing a kind of authority that’s beyond the barks and howls of human authoritarians. I agree that we can work to be more respectful to people who hold different views, but beliefs based on disinformation and obvious lies shouldn’t be given the same respect as observable facts. It seemed far too black/white where Liberals evidently can’t recognize authority and only care about revolution and Conservatives can’t change their minds. I kinda think dividing ourselves into these two boxes is a level of bullshit all its own anyway. I consider myself ambidextrous.
I found the flaw in Haidt’s thinking to be that both sides are equally valid. Here’s why that argument fails: Haidt made a point to show that everything changes. All of existence is in flux. To say that those who wish to preserve things (conservatives) are on the same level as the folks who are open to change (liberals) is an obvious flaw. To show the argument logically and without the morality attached to it:
If we accept that everything is changing all the time (and scientific evidence and even religion points to this)
and we accept that almost all humans value the care/harm point
then we know that trying to maintain the status quo is a futile exercise and can actually cause harm.
People who are open to change help facilitate it and move things along as well as directing how that change happens; that = care
People who are closed to change try to stop it and block any efforts to facilitate it; that = harm.
These two groups are NOT equal. The so-called open minded liberals are aware of change, able to facilitate it, help it flow in the direction they need it to go and their acceptance of the truth that change IS allows them a lot more peace and a lot less pain. They spread care and hope. They don’t cause conservatives pain, conservatives already fear change and have pain associated with it.
The so-called closed-minded conservatives are aware of change, fear it, withdraw from it and actively try to block others from facilitating or directing it in the hopes that by trying to control others, they can stop the inevitable. They suffer paralyzing fear, constant pain, and immense rage and hate. They cause others pain in their controlling and blocking actions.
They are not even close to being equally valid. One is obstructionist and causes pain and harm to themselves AND others; the other is facilitative and causes pleasure and care to themselves and others. From what Haidt said, ALL people feel the same about harm/care so how to get the closed-minded ones to accept that change is inevitable and to figure out how to cope with it and stop hurting everyone as they spread their fear?
That’s the huge flaw in Haidt’s point.
cmassy,
“A lot of (not all) old White people already got theirs and that’s all they need to know (and, yeah, I feel I can say that comfortably as a 50 yr.old Black woman).”
I am one of those that didn’t get mine and I agree with you completely, despite the fact that I am a 50 year old white woman. The old white vanguard needs to literally die off (sad to say that) before things around here get better.
I keep telling people that their fear of the “browning of America” is directly proportionate to either the superiority they enjoyed (while knowing their “brown” neighbors suffered and they did nothing to alleviate that suffering) or to the evils they perpetrated on “brown” people. Paybacks might be a bitch.
Yes, the concepts apply — it’s how we use them.
I have a LOT of Saturn in my chart. As in, a real lot. It does not make me a boxy thinker; it gives me a framework. Others with lots of Saturn cannot get out of the box. It’s all how you use it……..
eric:
Agree on the food-sexuality equivalences. Haidt was on overreach on that one.
“…it’s also the end of a certain kind of world for people of a certain age. Regarding the midterms, the ones who predominately came out to voice their horror at the “browning” of America were the angry White men and angry, disappointed older White people in general. Their world is long past and while they know it, there aren’t nearly enough people who share that worldview any longer to be able bring it back.”
cmassey:
Agreed. And I think that’s why the loudness and shrillness of the Tea Party voice and the conveyance mechanisms of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin are the only vehicles that work, just by utter volume.
And we’ve been taught well about what to do when the shouters become so loud you can’t hear yourself think. You leave the room and do what YOU have to do. Their shouting becomes unimportant and impotent when you stop listening. And we really really don’t have to listen to them anymore.
One last. Haidt equates food purity (of liberals) with sexual purity (of conservatives).
Personally I think there’s a difference between me eating unprocessed foods, and someone thinking that lesbians are inherently disgusting. So here again the paradigm falls short.
Eric,
I’ve studied moral foundations theory in a couple of classes. I think one of the weaknesses of the theory is that it is assumes liberals don’t have their own versions of purity, in-group, and authority. We do, but the locus of those things is very different from what it is for conservatives.
For example, instead of sexual morality, liberals have a lot of “purity” issues with food and the environment. And rightly so.
Instead of accepting traditional sources of authority like religious and political leaders, liberals more often treat empirical evidence and/or demonstrated expertise as the locus of authority. This is where the epistemological issue that I mentioned in my previous comment comes into play.
And liberals definitely have their own tribal characteristics, behaviors, and beliefs. But those tribal qualities are generally rooted in pluralism, cosmopolitanism, empiricism, and egalitarianism — which themselves are discrete POSITIVE values, not the ABSENCE of authority, in-group, and purity.
But in general, I really like how moral foundations theory anchors our thinking about morality in evolutionary psychology. That’s an extremely important breakthrough in the field — one worth building on!
“Actually, I think Chiron is revealing that what we’re in the midst of is really a crisis about what we believe and why. There is a crisis over what we perceive as truth, whether truth exists, and why people believe what they believe. ”
This gets at something that I have been arguing for a very long time. There is an epistemological question at the heart of our political debates. What is truth? And who or what (empirical evidence, Fox News, your parents, etc.) do we accept as legitimate sources of truth?
This epistemic question is really hard to see. But it’s there. And it’s playing a massive role in shaping our politics, economy, and culture. Part of why it’s hard to see is that most people don’t have any grasp whatsoever of philosophy. They probably have never even heard of the word “epistemology.” And even if we have heard of it, we’re not taught to think that epistemology and politics have anything to do with one another.
A second major reason the epistemic question is so hard to see is because for much of the 20th Century, the epistemic question was a settled issue — expect perhaps on the very far left and the fringe of the right. The issue was settled in favor of empiricism.
The question of what do we accept as legitimate sources of truth needs to be talked about a lot more if we’re going to clear up the proverbial fog.
Thank you Fe.
In this issue I reference psychologist Jonathan Haidt, quoting this passage:
I recognize that this seems like a complex theory, but it’s pretty simple: conservatives bow to authority, the concept of purity and the power of the ingroup as psychological traits. From an astrology standpoint, this is about externalizing the Saturn principle in various ways rather than internalizing it. No highly educated liberal could get there unless he or she had internalized the Saturn principle, hence, external authority is not as necessary or appealing.
The problem with the Liberal-Conservative paradigm is that it places both on an equal moral plane. They are not. And the words are lies: it’s not “conservative” to let the banks run rampant and allow the government to go down your pants. Liberals are often portrayed as anarchists, when no liberal I know doesn’t want EMS or the police to show up when they dial 911. The question involved how we believe the law should be applied to other people — unlike you, for example, the ones who shoplift.
At the end of his video, Haidt encourages his audience of truthseekers, without recognizing that seeking the truth is about embracing a process of expansion and change (Jupiter), and it’s also about honoring the boundary that truth provides us with (Saturn). That’s the point where you deal with what you know; you internalize that information and put it to work.
This may be the place where so-called liberals could use some extra discipline, because to many, it’s all just a lot of theory.
Fe –
As always, I think your analysis is spot on. And I would add to this, it’s also the end of a certain kind of world for people of a certain age. Regarding the midterms, the ones who predominately came out to voice their horror at the “browning” of America were the angry White men and angry, disappointed older White people in general. Their world is long past and while they know it, there aren’t nearly enough people who share that worldview any longer to be able bring it back.
“I think the hillbillies realize that’s coming, have tagged onto their millionaire buddies for the ride out of town, and will be sorely distressed when the millionaires jet off to their private islands without them. Will there be enough rice noodles and queso blanco to spare?”
I honestly believe the current generation of young people can and will shape this country into something really different from previous generations because EVERYTHING is on the line for them. They’re the ones looking at a world that has very little opportunity for them. A lot of (not all) old White people already got theirs and that’s all they need to know (and, yeah, I feel I can say that comfortably as a 50 yr.old Black woman). It may be, quite literally, about reinventing the wheel. What young people are creating now may not be pretty and it will be as different from previous generations as the Sun is from the Moon but it will work. Because it has to.
E:
Fabulous as usual.
I think what we’re watching is a slow-motion death spiral of the old culture: the end of the Agressive White Man’s world. This is clearly Mayan calendar stuff. So while Rome burns and the hillbillies in the House of Representative try to drive the country off the cliff in a flatbed truck, I suggest those who do have the clarity work onmodels for future success now.
Oddly enough, I think it will probably be the American ethnic enclave methodology of survival and thriving that will end up saving the day here in America: working hard, strong family and community-based society with locally situated markets instead of box store culture based on suburbs built on white flight from the brown and black people.
We can’t afford the lifestyle of separating ourselves from each other. And we do need each other. The Mission District in SF is a good model of how this can work.
Our immigrant families started from a place where we needed each other to survive. When you think about it, at least I know I feel as though I have come full circle into accepting and appreciating that I do have a family that I can find safety with, and that I have a safe enclave of colleagues, many of whom are in my culture or who appreciate the family structure of our working environment to watch out for each other.
BTW, the rejection of fast food culture needs to be an imperative. It would be great if the idea of “Feeding One’s Ancestors” — meaning feeding to support your body’s genetic portrait becomes not just an economic necessity but a cultural norm: locally grown produce and food combinations from one’s country of origin. The First Lady’s program of growing your own produce is the right message.
I find it funny, odd and sad that all the talk about the tragedy of the coming apocalypse of 2012 and the end of America is really the rise of not just every other nation, but every other brown, black and yellow hyphen-American here, who will be the majority as of 2030. The only tragic figure, it seems, will be the straight white church-going bigots who are watching their country go down the road to perdition: openly pan-sexual, pleasure seeking, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic hordes who will turn their McDonald’s into an international food court. I think the hillbillies realize that’s coming, have tagged onto their millionaire buddies for the ride out of town, and will be sorely distressed when the millionaires jet off to their private islands without them. Will there be enough rice noodles and queso blanco to spare?