The Irony of Contemporary America

People, let us face the historical reality. Great Wealth has *always* dominated our country, from colonial times to the present. Whether private or corporate, the influence on public policy has gone largely unattenuated.

It may be ironic, but at this high tide of corporate power, we have never had a more democratic society; race, gender, age, property ownership are no bar to voting. All these barriers of the past have been swept away.

What is at a nadir point is popular involvement, not democracy. What remains at an ebb is active organization and participation among a consistently high proportion of voters. The numbers who remain silent and passive are the problem, not corporate greed.

Willful ignorance generally couples with indifference to kill democracy. There are indeed other factors as well, but at the heart of the matter it is not corporate influence that threatens our nation--it is citizen detachment.

"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves."

 

--Lincoln Log

Functional Fashion

There was an interesting fad for beards and moustaches during the 1850s in Great Britain. The story goes that men became concerned about all the pollution spewing from the mills and foundries, and felt that facial hair could help filter some of the particulates out of the air they breathed. The fad spread to other industrializing nations as fads often do, and as it spread the initial functional intent was lost. Did whiskers actually make the air healthier to breathe? Maybe a little but the interesting part was that the beard craze was a response to environmental changes.

As functionality gradually dissipated during the Gilded Age, the capitalist system figured out a way to profit from all those whiskers. It took a little imagination to cash in on a naturally grown fashion, but before long moustache wax, beard trimmers, do-dads, and whatchagidgets were available in stores and mail-order catalogues at competitive prices to keep up with Jones' ever changing facial hair.

So just in case you ever wondered why George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the rest of the Founders were clean-shaven in imitation of classical Greek and especially Roman statesmen while later Americans sprouted whiskers like Burnside here, there it is. Just pull out a few denominations of the dollar from your wallet and track the evolution from republican to capitalist, industrial America. I mention the whole affair not simply in recognition of the latest in periodic comebacks for elaborate beards and moustaches among young American men, but that the original intent was to overcome dirty air. It was easier to grow a beard than clean up the filthy factory system.

In the early 21st Century, with climate change skepticism at record highs, what do you think the fashionable response will be to rising temperatures and more chaotic weather? Since we seem determined as a nation to let the man-made disaster unfold at an ever-accelerating rate, because changing might impact lifestyles and profit margins, what will corporate America come up with? There will be one hell of a market for all sorts of gadgets to cope, among those who can afford it of course.

"The Kraken"

Poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, written 1830.

Below the thunders of the upper deep;

 Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee

About his shadowy sides: above him swell

Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;

And far away into the sickly light,

From many a wondrous grot and secret cell

Unnumbered and enormous polypi

Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.

There hath he lain for ages and will lie

Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,

Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;

Then once by man and angels to be seen,

In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Pay for it!

Tanya Lohr, a West Bend teacher who put her life and sanity on hold to try and rid us of Glen Grothman in the last election, recently wrote on her Facebook page about an idea I posted a little while back and always meant to expand on. "Government Magic." If you can't see her post, try friending her, she has a lot of excellent and poignant things to say and is a great person besides.

Dear Wisconsin Voters, It is taxes that pay for salt and snowplows and snowplow drivers. If you continue to vote for politicians who continue to vote for cuts in funding to municipalities under the guise of a tax cut, then you should not complain about dangerous roads. There is a cost to these cuts including the cost of lost lives. How much is your family's safety worth? Sincerely, Tanya

If there were such a thing as common sense, this would be as close as you can get. Contrary to the magical fairy tale where taxes can be low (on the wealthy anyway) and public services can be well run, competent, and responsive. Contrary to the free market fairy tale that the private sector can do everything and government only screws things up. Contrary to the idea that public workers are actually slaves...

Mrs. Zombie and the Freedom Fighter is taking over the keyboard to tell you a little about her what she hears as a public employee working directly with the public, those "who pay her salary."

Besides the daily complaints that book fines and printing costs are too high, I hear daily how we should do more, provide more, be open more hours and never charge the average Joe a dime. Our number one comment is that we should be open on Sundays. Lets move beyond the concept that employees (aka ME) should have a day with their families. A day of rest. Oh wait, I forgot, this is the society where we go black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving. As it is Sunday, and I'm not at the library, I don't have the numbers. But rest assured, the amount of tax payer dollars that would require the library to be staffed, the building open, and the lights on is not in the budget given to us by city hall.

Last week I got shafted out of 24 holiday hours. Fine. I understand. And I have work that needs to get done and I can promise you this, if I'm working, I'm going to get paid. I'm supposed to have tomorrow morning off. I cherish these Monday mornings. But a patron needs help looking for a job and creating an email account. So I'm coming in at 10:45 instead of 12 and do you know what I'm going to hear? First off, why am I not volunteering my time instead of changing my time sheet and my time off request and making more work for the bosses. Tough. I've gotten burned too often.

The guy I helped with the job search and email account, he was fantastic. I am going out of my way to help him. And I don't do it for everyone. He's not paying me separately. He's paying me in kindness. If my job is valued, if my skill set is valued, if the general public wants these things, it comes with paying taxes.

Of course saying Please goes a long, long, loooong way.

Government does not function by magic, it takes money.

In the key of "can you believe this shit?"

I can only shrug and frown when I see this making the rounds from one mouth breather to another.



Huh? "We the people" just reelected the guy, by a lot. Another temper tantrum by a group calling itself the 'patriot underground' which... I don't think means what the admin thinks it means. Here is the description:

LIBERAL MORONS BEWARE!! This page is not for you! I AM NOT WILLIE WONKA, AND I WILL NOT SUGARCOAT SHIT FOR YOU. Conservatism and freedom to its finest right here.

I won't worry about elaborating on what hating so many of your fellow countrymen means. These guys will understand some day about hard times. And only in the last days will they realize they cannot eat their guns.

For what it is worth

John Lennon died 33 years ago tomorrow. I am too young to have been moved or influenced personally by the man or his music, but I have always been intrigued by what he stood for. Whether superficial or not, Lennon sang about a nicer world than the real one. It is worth it to have a vision of something better, something to work or fight for, otherwise you often end up slouching in despair. You would have to ask my parents about what Lennon really meant, he and the Beatles were their music. I had to approach the Beatles on my own terms to understand how they influenced my parents' generation and even then I will probably never fully feel the importance.

Here is what John Lennon's message means to me; Peace is better than war, too many possessions are a bad thing, rigid uncompromising religion makes one a danger to all, love one another. Is that so hard to believe even if you are a rich rock star? Okay, so that is one mythical sea monster's take. Here is another:

When preserving the economic and political power structure comes to be defined as “national interests,” real change is treasonous.John Lennon didn’t fight the system. He didn’t try to get It to change. He stood on a separate platform and said to give peace a chance — a fluffy, hippie sentiment. Yet, if the sentiment were to be undertaken in concrete terms, the current political-economic system would collapse.
Which is why John Lennon was a radical.
Radicals, whether on the left or the right, are those who challenge the prevailing system itself and tend to have one of two agendas: 1) Destruction of the prevailing system or 2) the creation of an alternative system. They’re not interested in little “c” change. They don’t want different or “better” rules. They want a different game.
Lennon pursued the latter, a new game. He demonstrated how the pursuit of good is different than the fight against injustice.

Salon says that the author is a 22 year veteran of political writing, policy consulting, and lobbying. Is her analysis of Lennon's legacy any more valid than mine? Especially, how does her rejection of reforms in favor of revolution compare to someone who spent their life fighting for justice within the system? As stated above, a living John Lennon is not and never was part of my conscious life. Is your life worth embracing the unknown of revolution and radicalism?