Archive for the ‘ Political comment ’ Category

Chuck Hagel, Under Attack Again

NY Times

In an amazing fluke, Chuck Hagel and his brother Tom fought side by side in a unit of 12. At times, because of casualties, the squad was reduced to just the two brothers and four other men. Now Mr. Hagel, a Republican former senator from Nebraska whom President Obama has nominated to be secretary of defense, faces another battle — as a maverick who was once a foot soldier in the conservative Congressional ranks. Attacks have come from hawkish former colleagues, pro-Israel advocates angered that Mr. Hagel once referred to them as “the Jewish lobby,” and gays offended by a 1998 reference to an ambassadorial nominee as “openly, aggressively gay,” a comment for which Mr. Hagel recently apologized.

The writer of this article is clearly on Mr. Hagel’s side. But after reading it – I am too.

2013
01/10
CATEGORY
Political comment
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Forcing the World to be Better

I am listening to Ten Days that Shook the World – when the Bolsheviks took control of Russia in 1917.  I am struck by how reasonable and simple their demands (and therefore their appeal) was. They insisted on control by the peasants, the workers and the military – in all cases by those on the bottom, not the top. It was a revolt against authoritarian rule – and in favor of democracy in its most fundamental forms.

The world was horrified – and still is.

They say their revulsion is based on the Bolshevik’s use of military power to gain control, and then stay in power. But they are also more than willing to use military power themselves – against both external and internal enemies. And to use a form of power always present in a society dependent on jobs – taking away jobs from those it disagrees with.

The Bolsheviks used a tactic familiar with any observer of modern politics – embrace and subvert. Which always means turning public aims into private ones (suitably disguised). The powers that be know perfectly well that the people can easily be managed.

In a corporation (or any contemporary organization) this is facilitated by blurring the line between the top and the bottom. Plenty of well-meaning people have been enticed into managerial positions because they wanted to do things better. But they were immediately shot down in flames from both directions. From those above them, who were eager to grab the goodies for themselves. And from those below them, who wanted to grab smaller goodies for themselves.

Greed, dear boy and girls, has become universal. And not surprisingly – has not been noticed. As long as everyone gets his little piece of the pie – no one worries about the pie getting smaller.

If this happens (as it is happening) everyone agrees that it cannot be helped.

2012
12/31
CATEGORY
Economy
History
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The Revolt of the Masses in Russia

The more I learn about Human history, the more I am amazed by Human ignorance.

This is hardly a new observation – almost everybody has seen it in one form or another. But no one seems to have connected the dots and drawn a conclusion from them.

So I will do so myself. In the world of globalization, with global markets and a global economy – not being able to coordinate the different economies (caused by local conditions) can easily lead to out-of-control situations – where everybody loses, and loses big.

This is even true in much smaller situations – in the European Union, for example. Which is slowly falling to pieces. Slowly falling off the wall, where all the King’s Men and all the King’s horses…

But this is not what I started to write about. I was very impressed by Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses - written in 1930. I am now listening to John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World: Russia 1917 - published even earlier in 1919. Every page speaks of the masses – organized (and disorganized) in every form imaginable! John Reed was an American, but his Americans were not interested in these events – which would have a big effect on their future.

Ortega was not familiar with the events in Russia either – even though the USSR was active in the civil war that wrecked Spain and caused him to leave his country and live in South America. And he was part of their intelligentsia!

I have also listened to George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, where he fought on the side of the masses – and nearly died for them. He moved Heaven and earth to get his book published – but was ignored. The British public was also ignorant, and determined to remain so.

The masses in Russia were as well-educated (and vociferous) is they could possibly be. Which in the long run did them no good. But at least they tried.

2012
12/29
CATEGORY
History
Philosophy
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Godlike Behavior

Cringely – Reagan and Newtown

Ronald Reagan was like this – a demigod in most American’s eyes. Just as Hitler was in German eyes in the Thirties. And the list goes on and on. All these leaders did one thing – they destroyed their followers. Which, we have to assume, was what they really wanted.

Theologians may demure – or they may simply note that confusing God with the Devil has been all too common. Everyone else should note that destruction (including self-destruction) is part of our human heritage – part of our dark side.

But let me return to our recent past – the time of Reagan’s ascendancy - which I can remember well. He destroyed America – and Americans loved him (or adored him) for it. He began with the destruction of California - which has never recovered.

It made no difference what he was really like – that hardly mattered. He was simply wonderful. And that was all that mattered.

2012
12/25
CATEGORY
History
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New Histories of the Holocaust

NY Review – Hitler’s Logical Holocaust

I have read too much about the Holocaust, as you probably have too. It’s a relief to read something new on the subject – and something easy to read as well.

Note, in particular, the photo of Reinhard Heydrich, Acting Reich Protektor of Bohemia and Moravia, who was responsible, according to an order signed by Hermann Göring in July 1941, for organizing ‘a general solution of the Jewish question throughout the German sphere of influence in Europe’.

Who the article refers to as an entrepreneur of violence. A term I hadn’t heard of before. I would have called him a killing computer - logical and cold.

The article, as its title implies, shows the logical progression of the implementation of the Ultimate Solution. A logic that was fatally flawed.

Many of the historians are Polish – and Poland, as they candidly admit – was the victim and perpetrator of many atrocities.

As the article also states: Poland is a beneficiary of the globalization of the post-Communist years. But there was another globalization before that – and it was one of the causes of the Holocaust:

As Donald Bloxham suggests in his Final Solution, the Holocaust can be seen, among many other things, as the final catastrophe accompanying the breakdown of what some historians call the first globalization, the expansions of world trade of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It collapsed in three stages: World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Its fatal flaw was its dependence upon European empire. The process of decolonization began within Europe itself, as the Balkan nation-states liberated themselves first from the Ottoman Empire and then from the dominance of their British, German, Austrian, or Russian imperial patrons. The leaders of these small, isolated, agrarian nation-states found a natural harmony between nationalist ideology and their own desperate economic situations: if only we liberate our fellow nationals beyond the next river or mountain range from foreign rule, we can expand our narrow tax base with their farmland.

I have never heard any of this before. It is my favorite kind of theory: one that explains a lot.

But we are learning all over again how fragile globalization is. And the center of this fragility is, once again – Europe.

The rest of this article is well worth reading. I think you will enjoy it too.

2012
12/14
CATEGORY
Economy
History
Political comment
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How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation

Harvard Business Review

Americans are ambivalent about innovation –  the idea  sounds good to them – but they are not about to go to bat for it – or much of anything else. They know behind the scenes – and not very far behind the scenes – powerful forces will slap them down if they try to be different. It is safest to stay put, and don’t do anything at all. Let someone else live dangerously, not them.

Here is one paragraph, out of many:

And finally, if you were in any doubt how deep inside the political system the system of contributions have allowed incumbents to insert their hands, take a look at what happened when the Republican Study Committee released a paper pointing out some of the problems with the current copyright regime. The debate was stifled within 24 hours. And just for good measure, Rep Marsha Blackburn, whose district abuts Nashville and who received more money from the music industry than any other Republican congressional candidate, apparently had the author of the study, Derek Khanna, fired. Sure, debate around policy is important, but it’s clearly not as important as raising campaign funds.

Bear in mind also that this is the Harvard Business Review – hardly a radical rag.

2012
12/10
CATEGORY
Business
Entertainment
Morality
Political comment
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American Ignorance of the Soviets in WWII

The result of this ignorance was that we gave them all of Eastern Europe, to do with as they pleased – much to the distress of people in those countries – especially the Poles, who had fought with us bravely – only to be abandoned to their fate.

If FDR had any understanding of the logistics of war – which he certainly did not – he would have given them just enough aid to drive the Germans off their soil – and no further.

At Yalta, where all this was settled, FDR was a dying man – barely able to comprehend what was going – and Stalin was in his prime, determined to take advantage of the Allies any way he could, which he always saw as fools he could deceive easily.

America knew nothing of Stalin’s atrocities - which were even worse than Hitler’s.

2012
12/05
CATEGORY
History
Political comment
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Rule by the Ignorant and the Stupid

I am now listening to The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828. Early American history is one of my interests, and this book is about something of special interest to me – the transfer of power from the Founding Fathers, who provided excellent leadership – to the mass of the people, who were not qualified at all. This has been labeled Jacksonian Democracy, and marked a huge shift in the composition of the American people – who were now mostly poor immigrants interested mainly in getting ahead – the acquisition of money and power as quickly as possible – often by taking land from the Indians.

Andrew Jackson, who was a frontiersman and an Indian Fighter, was their man. John Quincy Adams, who was from the New England aristocracy, well-educated and experienced – was not.

The 1820s also witnessed the irruption of new kind religious fervor based on mass appeal. My family’s religion, Mormonism, had its beginnings then – and drew its converts from the lower class of people on the American frontier and from the same class in England. I grew up in this atmosphere, and remember it well. We were ignorant and stupid – and most of my family still are. Naturally, I do not tell them about this.

The recognition of the mass did not happen until about 1930, when Ortega y Gasset wrote his The Revolt of the Masses – an important book that has not been noticed at all by the intelligentsia – of all people, who to this day pretend it never happened. Everyone must believe in Democracy – and ignore its grievous faults. The main one being that the people must be intelligent and well-informed – which the mass of them certainly are not.

People everywhere cannot realize how ignorant and stupid they are. And those who take advantage of this situation are in no hurry to inform them about it. They want people who can be easily manipulated – and as if by magic, such people have appeared in great quantities.

Few (even Ortega y Gasset) had given any thought to where these people came from. They were the by-product of mass production – the Industrial Revolution, that needed ignorant people to run its machinery (the first of which was the Sailing Ship). Surprisingly enough, far from the English factories, these people also existed on the fast-growing American frontier.

And now, nearly everywhere else in the world.

2012
12/05
CATEGORY
History
Political comment
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The Culture War and the Jobs Crisis

NY Times

This is a long article and far too intelligent for the average reader. But it kept my interest and I read it all – and as they say: nothing succeeds like success.

It is a summary of the author’s book The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics. It makes liberals (like me) hopeful when he speaks of the Culture War – a feeling we have almost forgotten. But then pours on the cold water when he talks about the Jobs Crisis. He ends this way:

Does the new and enlarged Democratic coalition have the capacity to re-engineer capitalism to produce sustained economic growth while working toward social justice?

This is a lot to ask of our political system – or any political system. It’s a lot to ask of the human race – which has never been able to get its act together properly.

I, for one, am suspicious of any talk of re-engineering capitalism –  whose present motives are baffling – and does not seem to be interested in its own survival.

The outlook for jobs is grim. If I were younger (55 instead of 75) I would become a programmer again. But I would have the same old problem – I would ask “What’s in this for me (as a person)?” And the answer would be the same – Nothing! The world (including the Computer world) is not set up for people.

2012
11/13
CATEGORY
Business
Economy
Philosophy
Political comment
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Not Coping

Americans cannot cope with their world. And they are not capable of realizing this.

As I read that sentence again carefully, I am struck by the number of nots in it. The whole sentence is one vast negative construction. Which however, is suited to its subject – the American situation. A strange mixture of extravagant optimism and complete non-comprehension.

This is most clearly seen in our politics – which are beyond comprehension, even to ourselves. Not too long ago, I was an enthusiast of computer modeling – and I still am, but I have discovered that people cannot be modeled. We would have to understand each other much better before we do anything like this.

The effort (and money) that went into the last election was extreme by any standards. But we learned nothing from it. And, indeed, we seem to have come to the conclusion that understanding our world is impossible.

But this understanding is kept in our collective unconscious – where it is safe. We have to detect its presence by analyzing our actions. No easy matter, since they are so contradictory.

It seems safe to say that our collective mind, like our individual minds, consists of different personalities. And they interact in complex ways – sometimes one being on control, and sometimes another – and sometimes all at once.

As we used to say “This is no way to run a railroad,” let alone a country.

2012
11/09
CATEGORY
Economy
Philosophy
Political comment
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