The Political Logjam
BATTLING CHIMERAS
As all of us must know, the country has long been in the grip of two distinct disparate factions most commonly refer to as Left and Right.
Each of these works hard to get hold and maintain its grip on Power by portraying the other as a Deadly Enemy, and through fear-mongering over pet issues on which each side prefers to harp.
Right now it boils down to this:
The LEFT wants us to believe that the Great Advances of Civilization since the Industrial Revolution have damaged NATURE so greatly that the earth, itself will soon be unfit for human habitation. The Left would have us believe that only the application of drastic, coercive, highly restrictive –– and very very expensive –– policies dreamt up by Leftist activists, intellectuals, politicians, and research scientists could possibly save the human race from extinction.
The RIGHT on the other hand is vigorously pushing the notion that The Greatest Threat to Civilization is to be found in alien, hostile, willfully destructive IDEOLOGIES such as Marxism and Islamic Fundamentalism run amok. The Right advocates very expensive policies that include arming ourselves to the teeth both personally through the increased acquisition of personal firearms and vastly increased military might.
Have you any ideas as to why each of these factions has chosen the agenda it has, and why neither side seems to want even to consider the possible merits of the other’s position?
Are we so in love with the kind of enmity born of bitter, entrenched factionalism that we prefer to be forever at loggerheads rather than find solutions to existential problems?
We should ask ourselves why we seem to prefer battling a series of man-made chimera to putting our heads together in a serious attempt to combat the many things that really constipate progress and prolong agony, while perpetually deferring any attempt to neutralize or at least minimize things that truly imperil us.
We waste most of our energies battling each other instead of the things that diminish quality of life ‘round the globe.
WHY?
The Left wants us to pursue the "non-existant" technology at home (and internationally). The Right wants to preserve the status quo "existant" technology at home and focus our attention "not on them" (domestically). Both want to sell us the "products" that THEY manufacture, and "entertain/distract" us so that we don't realize that we can do for ourselves what they currently "do".
ReplyDelete"Cultural" capitalism strikes. Capitalism, no longer "morally" neutral.
DeleteCapitalism unconstrained by Christian Conscience is potentially as evil as any other ism or ideology.
DeleteIn abandoning Christianity the West has abandoned every hope it ever had for FULFILLMENT and SALVATION.
The arrogance and vast conceit of aggressive ATHEISTS is even more malignant than the sheer HATRED and UNRESTRAINED WICKEDNESS that motivates the ISLAMISTS.
What everyone seems to be missing these days is that the Abandonment of Principle in an Earnest Search for Truth in favor of Instant Gratification in Gross Sensualism and Self-Serving Expediency is THE single most important factor in our obvious undoing.
There's nothing "moral" at all about "capitalism". Which is why it's advancement is the "end" of both political party establishments.
DeleteThat was exactly my point. There is nothing inherently "moral" about ANY ism or ideology. But, we WERE essentially a Christian culture, whether the Founders made a public show of piety or not.
DeleteEVERYTHING about our culture and governing bodies was for a very long time INFUSED with the SPIRIT of Christian Principles if not strict adherence to the letter of Christian DOCTRINE and the largely superfluous worldly rituals that emanated from an often misguided desire to understand and serve the Word.
We did well in overcoming the incessant onslaught of Adversity UNTIL we were ASSAULTED –– and I use that word advisedly –– with aggressive Ungodliness posing as Righteous Indignation over our admitted failure to have achieved Utopian Perfection –– which was never our goal to begin with.
I'm very tired of preaching the same sermonette day after day, –– at least as tired as you must be of be of hearing it –– but what else could a person do if he believes he is in possession of a significant Truth that might help to pull us out of the quicksand IF it were understood and accepted?
We NEED to 1) accept responsibility for our actions, 2) understand that we DO owe others as much help and encouragement as can muster with whatever means we may have at hand, 3) that the Human Mind is of pathetically limited value, and may be used for evil purposes, UNLESS we wholeheartedly embrace the belief that Love, Truth, Intelligence, Principle, Spirit, Soul, and Life, itself, –– the essential elements comprising the One True God, and that all else is of secondary or nugatory importance.
A battle we could never hope to win, but one that MUST be fought nevertheless, or we could never hope to justify our existence.
I don't see what's "very, very, very" expensive about moving away from heavy polluting activities. I hardly see a downside at all. It's the main reason I do not understand people who are against it. It makes me think they're only against it because the talking heads on the Right tell them to be against it.
ReplyDeleteAnd this highly irritating connection with the Middle East we now suffer - also is a product of those same heavy polluting activities!
To me, it would be conservative and just plain smart to find better energy sources. I'm sure we could. And I'm sure the fossil fuel business will survive in the end, they just won't be quite as rich and powerful. Good.
JMJ
Are we so in love with the kind of enmity born of bitter, entrenched factionalism that we prefer to be forever at loggerheads rather than find solutions to existential problems?
DeleteWell Jersey, the first place to start would be your list of "highly polluting industries" followed by the question... what are you willing to live without. Mining is in all the top 10 lists I've seen... our technology is a complex web of interrelationships... no mining = no electronics, no petrochemicals = no plastics, electric cars = batteries and battery recycling was also in all the top 10 most polluting lists I've seen.
DeleteSo, what are you willing to do without? Or by moving away from heavy polluting industries mean moving them to third world nations?
Coal & Oil made slavery obsolete. Jersey wants to go back to the good old days.
Delete(Pre-Industrail Revolution).
Delete:)
DeleteHow soon they forget!
You guys are silly. You're not on the same plane of reality as the rest of us. Just simpleminded. I don't know what else to say. You don't understand the issue at all. Not even a little. It must be nice to reside in such a simple little cartoon universe.
DeleteJMJ
...on the same plane of reality as the rest...
DeleteYou mean the one centered upon personal pleasures and experiences? No we're NOT on the same plane at all....
Earth to McJones...
Delete"Antiquity knew little of those motor forces; they only employed living human beings, weights, waterfalls, or wind. Those forces all being developed by nature itself, it was necessary, in order to apply them, to know only the effect of the lever. ... But those assemblies oflevers are only inert masses, merely able to transmit the action of moving forces without ever increasing them: It is the motor force which is everything. Modern man has discovered several motor forces, or rather has created them: because, though their elements be necessarily pre-existing, in nature, their dissemination nullifies them in this respect; they only acquire the quality of moving forces through artificial means, such as the expansive force of water reduced to steam, as the upward force which launches the aero static balloon." - Lazare Carnot
This notion fundamentally refutes the mechanical interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics, as well as the simplistic interpretation of the principle of conservation of energy attributed to Carnot. It also destroys the stupid arguments of today's ecology movement for solar energy, for new "diffuse" sources of energy.
If man wants to progress, he must create new forms of energy of greater and greater densities. -Carnot, "Eloge de Vauban" ("In Praise of Vauban") (1784)
Thersites, I don't know why you fall victim to this either/or fallacy. Your argument is irrelevant. It only works in a universe in which no other energy source ever seems possible forever, and that's just stupid.
DeleteJMJ
Nuclear energy is forever. Isn't THAT precisely your (and the Left's) problem with it? :)
DeleteJersey, what Thersites mean (I think!) is that turning against the production of fossil fuels at the cheapest possible price BEFORE we have developed and firmly established an equally effective, equally efficient, even cheaper form of alternative energy would catapult us back to the conditions of a pre-Industrial Agrarian age. Because the world population has probably quintupled at least since 1800, it is now a physical impossibility to live as our not-so-distant ancestors did.
DeleteTime moves only forward. In attempting to make life easier –– or more profitable for the creators and producers –– all we ever manage to do is supplant one set of problems and agonies with another –– infinitely more complex and perplexing.
This is what continually looking OUTSIDE OURSELVES for mere PHYSICAL COMFORT and MATERIAL GAIN has gotten us.
"Man does not live by bread alone ..."
What does that mean? It MEANS that the more we nourish and attempt to satisfy the FLESH at the expense of nourishing SOUL and SPIRIT the LESS satisfaction and the MORE anguish and discontent we are bound to experience.
"Seek Ye FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else you truly need will be given to you."
Now you can mock that, scorn, call it "silly," and thumb your nose at it all you like, but it IS immortal, immutable TRUTH, and until all mankind earnestly strives to be in harmony with TRUTH that is God, all mankind will continue to suffer horribly.
You can take that to the bank. ;-)
Conservatives, in their intellectual laziness, always throw up their hands and stick up for the status quo.
DeleteWe do not have to turn back time to move on to new energy technologies. It's an either/or fallacious argument to make your intellectually lazy conservative point.
JMJ
Jersey, you do not LISTEN to anything but the ONE throbbing. nibbling little earworm that long ago took over your consciousness. When we cease to listen, we cease to THINK. When we cease to think we will soon cease to BE.
DeleteWAKE UP, man. I am not against you, but you daily demonstrate a willful blindness to reality, and refuse to examine points of view that you think run counter to the pre-conceived, pre-digested ideology with which you've either been seduced or indoctrinated –– possibly both.
If you actually CONSIDERED what I say in these and other comments sections, you would understand much better what I truly believe. It is nothing like what you seem to think it is.
FreeThinke, God is a myth. Grow up.
DeleteJMJ
I CAN ONLY REPEAT:
DeleteJersey, you do not LISTEN to anything but the ONE throbbing. nibbling little earworm that long ago took over your consciousness. When we cease to listen, we cease to THINK. When we cease to think we will soon cease to BE.
WAKE UP, man. I am not against you, but you daily demonstrate a willful blindness to reality, and refuse to examine points of view that you think run counter to the pre-conceived, pre-digested ideology with which you've either been seduced or indoctrinated –– possibly both.
If you actually CONSIDERED what I say in these and other comments sections, you would understand much better what I truly believe. It is nothing like what you seem to think it is.
God is a myth.
DeleteNegating those of us who have had personal, spiritual experiences?
Well, AOW, if you don't believe, naturally you would assume that those who do must at best be mentally unstable, delusive, or possibly insane. Sigmund Freud wrote a small book called The Future of an Illusion in which he attacked and attempted to destroy belief in Jesus Christ as a useful force for good.
DeleteThat is exactly what clever Jewish intellectuals, –– lovers of discord and dissension forever addicted to endless dispute and turmoil ––, have been trying to do since time immemorial.
Their influence on Western Civilization has effectively poisoned the Well of Goodness, Sweetness, Light and Hope with arrogant mockery and corrosive cynicism packaged seductively with sophistry and guile as a superior brand of humanitarianism.
The hell of it that in continually stirring up Hatred by treating Envy, Spite, Malice, Rudeness, Rebelliousness and Vengefulness as VIRTUES they WIN and gather ADDED STRENGTH every time one of us tries to beat them at their own game by answering them in kind. That is why they seem to thrive on the hatred and contempt they generate toward themselves. It's quite uncanny, and decidedly diabolical.
Jesus, of course, is The Answer, but most people remain unaware of The Question all their lives. The state of Christian Education is even more lamentable than that of Public Education.
FT,
DeleteI have friends, cyber and otherwise, who are atheists. Very dear friends.
One is Jason Pappas, who said to me years ago something that I've always remembered: "I don't understand that faith. Let me respect that faith." THAT is civil discourse.
I think that the key to successful governance is compromise. I, for one, would like to compromise with the Democrats on the issue of gun control. That's why I now believe that we should ban all firearm sales to Democrats! Win-Win!
ReplyDelete§;-D=
DeleteSee this is why we need to get career politicians out and business people in. But of course both sides will reject that idea
ReplyDeleteLisa, people are always afraid to let go of "the devil they know." Nothing frightens us more than the idea of facing the Unknown. But, "that's silly," as Jersey would say, because if we think about it, all we ever do is face the Unknown every single day of our lives, and most of us seem to manage pretty well anyway, so what possible good could come of giving way to fear? Fear only leads to paralysis and utter defeat.
DeleteI think we are suffering now from a serious lack of inspiration and encouragement. EVERYTHING generated by the Enemedia and the Entertainment Industry seems calculated to produce Anxiety, promote Cynicism, mock the very idea that Faith could have any helpful effect at all, but is in fact a "dangerous delusion" that keeps us from admitting that "we're done and we might as well be dead," so why not SUBMIT to the STRONG MAN (or Woman!) who promises to make our Journey to the Grave easier if only we turn control of our lives over to him (or her)?
THAT is the REAL "delusion" we need to defeat, but we could only do that INSIDE OURSELVES by awakening our SPIRIT and using our MINDS to build Courage and strengthen our Resolve to RESIST the Temptation to Submit to Tyranny at every turn.
Have you any ideas as to why each of these factions has chosen the agenda it has, and why neither side seems to want even to consider the possible merits of the other’s position?
ReplyDeleteIn my view, it's an underlying philosophy.
The Left views many things Western as evil because the West has oppressed the rest. Therefore, the West must atone.
Many Muslims share that view. Back in 2005, Ahmadinejad referred to Western influence as Westoxifictation. Maybe he had read Howard Zinn's work.
The Right views the West as basically good in that the West has contributed so much to the progress of mankind in general.
I can buy that. Envy is considered one of the Seven Deadly Sins for good reason.
DeleteUnfortunately, when you build a better mousetrap, the world will NOT beat a path to your door. It's far more likely they will first ignore, then deride, then finally try to kill you.
Virtue may be its own reward, but at the risk of sounding hopelessly cynical it's also true that "no good deed goes unpunished."
We in the West are in fact victims of our great success.
I don't know what could be done about it. Wish I did.
ReplyDeleteAbout the financial impact:
Issue: Who pays?
Agreement: Developed countries, such as the United States, will provide financial resources to developing ones to help them brace for the impact of climate change and also transition to cleaner energy systems.
Get ready for another tax (to punish us).
That goes along with what I just said immediately above, doesn't it?
DeleteIt's come to this: ACLU Board Member Threatens To Kill Trump Supporters.
ReplyDeleteInsanity invades every sector of society. Neither the Rich, the Well-Educated, the Beautiful, the Gifted, the Laborer, the Pauper, the Invalid, the Smart, the Stupid, the Haughty, the Humble are immune to the onslaught of irrationality.
DeleteCultivating humble faith in a loving, all-wise, eternal, unchanging God is the best defense we could provide ourselves.
"Intellectualization" that seeks to deny the supremacy of First Principles has proven conclusively that it more easily leads TO rather than AWAY from Insanity.
This news made my day.
ReplyDeleteCarson Threatens to Leave Party If GOP Officials Keep Plotting Over Convention
I hope Carson and Trump leave and split the GOP. Couldn't happen to a sicker political party. It will destroy itself from within.
Your comment is not in any way constructive, so why indulge yourself in making it? What GOOD did you hope to accomplish?
DeleteOur republican/conservative party supports the constitution. Not like the Muslim lover in office today. We would oppose anyone that wants to ban our assault rifles, is for NSA spying on us program, or wants to ban a religion as that violates the first amendment. If a republican presidential candidate donated money to Hillary or Pelosi and was friends with Bill Clinton we would reject that person. Trump is everything I mentioned above. He has no voting record to show he is conservative and said HE WAS A DEMOCRAT.. You don't just switch. Wake up and get behind the only constitionalist running. Ted Cruz!!
ReplyDeleteYou may very well be right, but Mr. Trump has what-I-believe-is-popularly-referred to-as THE MOJO. Senator Cruz, whose views have attracted me since he first rose to prominence, Alas! does not.
DeleteA large number are attracted to Mr. Trump, because he has kicked over the traces and rejected all semblance of political correctness in his rhetoric.
That may seem "refreshing" for a while, but because Mr. Trump is one of "The Powerful," as O'Reilly calls them, it seems all too possible that he may in fact be one of The Oligarchs ALL of whom loosely conspire to support each other in a combined effort to destroy democracy, destroy the sovereignty of individual nations, and replace separate governments and individual nations with UNIFIED WORLDWIDE DESPOTISM.
If you don't like to call them OLIGARCHS, you might want to try PLUTOCRATS.
What we CALL them is unimportant. What they ARE is of paramount importance, and they are all about depriving YOU –– and everyone ELSE –– of ever again having any say whatsoever in the way our lives are directed and governed. THEY mean to turn US into mere COGS in THEIR machinery designed and built to serve THEIR purposes.
YOU and I will count for NOTHING in this Grave New World.
We live in troubled and dangerous times. A very real possibility of a prolonged 21'st century clash of western civilization and Islamic fundamentalist extremism exists. How the west handles the growing threat will quite likely determine the length and severity of the destruction.
ReplyDeleteIf blanket bigotry and fear such as that being hawked by Donald J. Trump and the millions of others who share his diseased mindset prevails the world is in for a long protracted bloody battle the world over.
AND ALL THIS TIME, I THOUGHT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT BARACK OBAMA..
That IS the trouble. Virtually ALL factions are feverishly working at cross purposes.
DeleteThat is why we cannot make any progress.
Jersey, I asked a simple question... what highly polluting activities do you want to move away from and what is the impact of doing so. Reasonable questions. You do nothing more than mouth platitudes and accuse us of living in a cartoon world, so who's out of touch with reality?
ReplyDeleteWhy bother trying to reason with the moral equivalent of a fence post or a brick wall, Finn?
DeleteI'm sorry, but obama’s full of crapI’m just so sick & tired of obama spewing lies all the damn time…the POS needs to go
ReplyDeleteHave you any AFFIRMATIVE thoughts to share? If so, we'd love to hear them.
DeleteWhy add more offal to the stagnant cesspool producing the miasma sickening all of society?