Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Doc Dutch (10-30-2020)
Thanks for the link. Good read.
Yes, Gingrich was an asshole which is why I disagree with him. My point is that the direction of the nation isn't caused by a single person or even a single party, it's caused by a collection of events and a brew of perceptions of those events. No one can control it, but individuals or groups can certainly seek to influence it with nudges. Those nudges can be for good or bad. Good being defined as best for everyone including the individual and bad being restrictions of personal rights or detrimental to group happiness.
One of my favorite shows is James Burke's "Connections". I have all the DVDs and should watch them for a fourth time.
"Connections ...took an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, and demonstrated how various discoveries, scientific achievements, and historical world events were built from one another successively in an interconnected way to bring about particular aspects of modern technology. "
What most interested me the cultural results of technological progress. Better tech usually results in greater freedom and happiness for people. Yes, the two steps forward, one step back rule applies.
My belief is that We, the People are at a "one step back" phase and that things will begin improve post-Trump. Maybe it will be post-2024, but I think we'll start seeing things inch forward again in the next few years.
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
I have a bit of a different take. I don't ever see our society getting back to 'normal'. If we examine history, science/tech achievements did indeed move us forward, and make our lives easier/better.
Setting aside automation for a second, when big corporations opted to increase profits by offshoring labor, we destroyed a huge segment of society. In the beginning, the wealthy always ended up with all of the money.
But...everyone got a chance to 'touch it' along the way. Salaries were spent on necessities and luxuries (two cars in the driveway, multiple televisions in the home) and the money always made its way back to the top. But that wasn't enough. It's never enough. Until/unless we get quality jobs back in this nation, our society will never be the same.
Once trump is dumped, you'll be arguing that 'the govt. doesn't create jobs'. You might not be as heinous as a typical conservative, but I'm sure you don't believe that the taxpayer should be taking up the slack for those who simply cannot feed themselves. We always rely on boom/bust cycles. Whether in the energy industry, housing, or automobiles.
That's not healthy for any society. I honestly do not see an answer, unless the govt. actually makes use of the trump tax on consumers to fund manufacturing here.
We need to change the tax structure to penalize those who offshore labor, and give massive breaks to those who don't. Something trump promised in '16, and did the exact opposite in the end.
Conservatives typically don't agree with this
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Normal is whatever the majority of people are doing. The aggregate of the cluster fuck known as "American politics" defines what is "normal" for American politics. Let's hope the new normal a year or two from now is a lot better than the mess we have now.
The nation will change when enough Americans can agree on the direction of that change.
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
gfm7175 (10-31-2020)
Well, as the youth become involved in politics, they tend to favor more govt. programs to fund aspects of society. It wouldn't be necessary if we still had quality manufacturing jobs. Which we never will.
I'm in a famous resort area that has long since withered on the vine. 50 years ago, kids grew up knowing that they didn't need to go to college in order to make a good living. The hotels boomed in the summer, and thousands of people were able to earn enough to live very comfortably.
That's gone. Not unlike our prior system where there were always manufacturing jobs for those who didn't wish to go to school.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Texas will be riding the crest of the Blue Tsunami.
Bookmarks