Generational Theory Forum: The Fourth Turning Forum: A message board discussing generations and the Strauss Howe generational theory

(08-14-2017, 11:10 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-07-2017, 07:57 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]"Red" has gone from signifying revolution to Marxism-Leninism (flags of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam)  to totalitarianism (fascists such as the Nazis, British Union of Fascists, and some Klan groups). The Republican Party would have never associated itself with the color of Marxism until Marxism was dead as an ideology.

The tendency  that X AD 84 so excoriates, National Bolshevism, loves to use the red flag.

Anyone doubting that National Bolshevism / Eurasianism / 4th Reichism has not gotten a foothold in the US, after this past weekend, is probably beyond being educated.

I think most thinking people have started to awaken.

Hopefully not too late.

Speaking of fascism -- right-wingers who support the vile act of running over dissidents are hard to top. If this is a joke, then it is a sick one... grim humor near its worst. To be appreciably worse it would have to be something so horrible as a joke about Holocaust victims.

Peaceful protest is a right in a free society, and attacks upon peaceful protesters are crimes. (No hypocirsy -- if leftists are beating up people with KKK robes or Nazi symbols, then that too is a crime).
 

Quote:A Republican lawmaker in South Dakota is coming under fire for posting a violent cartoon meme showing a car slamming into people along with the phrase “ALL LIVES SPLATTER.”

Rep. Lynne DiSanto,  the Republican whip in the state’s House of Representatives, wrote: “I think this is a movement we can all support.” 

The tasteless post, which was later deleted, cost DiSanto her job as a real estate agent.

“Due to recent events, Lynne Disanto is no longer associated with Keller Williams Realty Black Hills,” the company wrote on Facebook. 
However, House Majority Leader Lee Qualm told the Argus Leader newspaper that DiSanto was not in danger of losing her whip position.

Even the highly-competitive and often ruthless real estate business has some principles. The South Dakota GOP? I am not so sure.

Quote:“Obviously I think she wishes she had not put it out there, but she was quick to pull it down and it seems like one of those things you do without putting much thought into it,” Qualm told the newspaper.

The Sept. 7 post came less than a month after Heather Heyer was killed. She was run over on Aug. 12 while protesting against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lynn...s_politics

The image is ugly, but it needs be shown to demonstrate how bad the Right can get. All that is missing is a fascist symbol (fasces, burning cross, the letters "KKK", KKK hood, lightning bolt, swastika, or  the letters "AV" [American Vanguard].. among others. Assault with a motor vehicle is as criminal as firing a gun at someone under similar  intentions.



The late curmudgeon Paul Fussell would be making much out of this if he were still alive.

(02-03-2017, 03:57 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is What Republicans Do

House Republicans Just Voted To Allow Dumping Of Coal Waste In Rivers
ByJohn Harper Posted on February 1, 2017
http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/02/01/ho...te-rivers/

America’s streams and rivers have come a long way over the past 50 years. For one, they no longer catch fire, like Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River once did. For seconds, they are no longer open repositories for coal mining waste … until today. Our Republican-strangled Congress just voted to reverse one of President Barack Obama’s key environmental regulations Wednesday, repealing a rule that was designed to keep coal mining waste out of streams and waterways.


AP Politics ✔ @AP_Politics
BREAKING: GOP-controlled House passes measure to scuttle Obama regulation protecting streams from coal mining debris.
1:58 PM - 1 Feb 2017

Republicans started spouting voodoo economics Monday, when they set out to undo the most basic of environmental regulations in favor of profit-hungry coal companies. “The Stream Protection Rule is the latest in a series of overreaching and misguided Obama-era regulations that have targeted America’s coal industry,” West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito told the Senate. “If this rule were allowed to stay in place, it would add to the economic devastation for people in coal communities.

For whatever reason the GOP thought it would be just grand to keep America’s streams and rivers looking like this:



Coal mining waste, in the form of iron hydroxide precipitate (orange) in a Missouri stream receiving acid drainage from surface coal mining. Image by Wikimedia Commons.

This image, taken downstream from a coal mining operation in Missouri, shows what water looks like when coal waste is introduced. President Obama fought Republicans in Congress for over a year to add a simple regulation that required coal mining companies to build a buffer 30 yards around any nearby waterways. Pretty basic.

Common sense environmental protection was too much work for the poor souls in the coal industry, though. According to Republicans who opposed Obama’s regulation, asking mining corporations to take basic care of the water their miners have to drink is apparently too much of a burden.

Obama eventually implemented the regulation through the Office of Surface Mining, a step toward turning the nation’s orange water a shimmering blue-green. Bah humbug, say Republicans in Congress. Their diarrhea-colored slurry is here to stay. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) himself, one of the longest anti-EPA regulation hawks, has basically admitted he made up the “Obama War On Coal” and that those jobs just aren’t coming back. So if the regulations aren’t bringing jobs back, what could possibly be the reason for repealing this regulation except to save corporations a couple bucks?

While the nation is caught fuming over racist and bigoted moves by the White House, Republican representatives are using the shadows to again muddy the nation’s water with absolutely unnecessary waste. It’s times like this when Democrats — and really anyone who would prefer streams and rivers not look like poop — must rise to the occasion and call out this legislative, well, crap.

Uh, I've thought about this:  Lessee now. Libertarians preach that anybody can do anything as long as it does not harm anyone else.  I.E. your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. So, wrt above coal companies. That water pollution has heavy metals , kills fish, and is just plain ugly.  If you're a libertarian, that means whoever that coal mine belongs to is violating other folks rights to clean water, uncontaminated fish, etc.  That means libertarians need to support the EPA's mission  which is to paraphrase, enforce my property rights wrt my body such that any other entity should be forbidden from harming my body [one of my possessions ] . IOW, the EPA along with other agencies should but really aren't due to Republican stupidity, enforcing folks' property rights. Perhaps Democrats can use libertarian tenets to undermine some Republicans.   

Example of Republican stupidity here:"    https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/obs...al-mining/

stuff wrt neoliberalism.  http://www.ianwelsh.net/a-new-ideology/

True axis of evil: neoliberalism/neoconservatism.

(06-16-2017, 03:12 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]From that one piece of evidence, it appears that the difference is that Republicans are syncophants who follow their leader, and Democrats are not. Dogs are Republicans and Cats are Democrats.

Wrt Republicans, wrong animal. Dogs don't follow leaders blindly.  I think sheep or bees would be a better analogy.

(09-29-2017, 06:25 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: [ -> ]True axis of evil: neoliberalism/neoconservatism.

You spotted the axis, methinks.

(02-03-2017, 03:57 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is What Republicans Do

House Republicans Just Voted To Allow Dumping Of Coal Waste In Rivers
ByJohn Harper Posted on February 1, 2017
http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/02/01/ho...te-rivers/

America’s streams and rivers have come a long way over the past 50 years. For one, they no longer catch fire, like Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River once did. For seconds, they are no longer open repositories for coal mining waste … until today. Our Republican-strangled Congress just voted to reverse one of President Barack Obama’s key environmental regulations Wednesday, repealing a rule that was designed to keep coal mining waste out of streams and waterways.


AP Politics ✔ @AP_Politics
BREAKING: GOP-controlled House passes measure to scuttle Obama regulation protecting streams from coal mining debris.
1:58 PM - 1 Feb 2017

Republicans started spouting voodoo economics Monday, when they set out to undo the most basic of environmental regulations in favor of profit-hungry coal companies. “The Stream Protection Rule is the latest in a series of overreaching and misguided Obama-era regulations that have targeted America’s coal industry,” West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito told the Senate. “If this rule were allowed to stay in place, it would add to the economic devastation for people in coal communities.

For whatever reason the GOP thought it would be just grand to keep America’s streams and rivers looking like this:



Coal mining waste, in the form of iron hydroxide precipitate (orange) in a Missouri stream receiving acid drainage from surface coal mining. Image by Wikimedia Commons.

This image, taken downstream from a coal mining operation in Missouri, shows what water looks like when coal waste is introduced. President Obama fought Republicans in Congress for over a year to add a simple regulation that required coal mining companies to build a buffer 30 yards around any nearby waterways. Pretty basic.

Common sense environmental protection was too much work for the poor souls in the coal industry, though. According to Republicans who opposed Obama’s regulation, asking mining corporations to take basic care of the water their miners have to drink is apparently too much of a burden.

Obama eventually implemented the regulation through the Office of Surface Mining, a step toward turning the nation’s orange water a shimmering blue-green. Bah humbug, say Republicans in Congress. Their diarrhea-colored slurry is here to stay. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) himself, one of the longest anti-EPA regulation hawks, has basically admitted he made up the “Obama War On Coal” and that those jobs just aren’t coming back. So if the regulations aren’t bringing jobs back, what could possibly be the reason for repealing this regulation except to save corporations a couple bucks?

While the nation is caught fuming over racist and bigoted moves by the White House, Republican representatives are using the shadows to again muddy the nation’s water with absolutely unnecessary waste. It’s times like this when Democrats — and really anyone who would prefer streams and rivers not look like poop — must rise to the occasion and call out this legislative, well, crap.

Acid drainage? Such releases trivalent iron ions that precipitate once the pH goes above 3 (0 is strongly acidic as in battery acid, 7 is neutral as is pure water, and 14 is strongly alkaline like liquid drain cleaners). But to precipitate iron, there must first be a highly-acidic solution to begin with. A pH of 3 is in the area of acidity of sodas, tomato juice, and grapefruit juice.

Donald Trump is an environmental disaster.

Seven outrageous statements by Roy Moore

1. ‘Reds and yellows’
Moore last week ostensibly made a plea for unity at a rally in Florence, describing how the Civil War had torn Americans part, pitting brother against brother, the North against the South and Republicans against Democrats.
“Now we have blacks and whites fighting, reds and yellows fighting, Democrats and Republicans fighting, men and women fighting,” he said, apparently referring to Native Americans and Asian Americans by the ethnic slurs “reds and yellows.”
“What’s going to unite us? What’s going to bring us back together?” he continued. “A president? A Congress? No. It’s going to be God.”
Moore’s campaign defended his rhetoric by pointing to the religious song “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” which says Jesus loves “all the children of the world” — “red, brown, yellow, black and white.”

2. 'Maybe Putin is right' with his opposition to gay marriage
Moore told The Guardian in August that President Ronald Reagan’s declaration that the Soviet Union is “the focus of evil in the modern world” could be applicable to the U.S. today, citing same-sex marriage as an example
“You could say that about America, couldn’t you?” he said. “We promote a lot of bad things.”
His mention of same-sex marriage prompted The Guardian to note some similarities between Moore and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Well, maybe Putin is right,” Moore said. “Maybe he’s more akin to me than I know.”
In the same interview, Moore said it was God who put Trump in the White House.
“Everybody else thinks it’s the Russians,” he said. “I think it was the providential hand of God.”

3. ‘I was informed' that there are U.S. communities under Sharia law
Moore claimed in a summer interview that “there are some communities under Sharia law right now in our country.” Sharia law governs elements of Islamic life, and some conservatives believe it poses a threat to America’s legal system.
“Up in Illinois. Christian communities,” Moore told Vox. “I don’t know if they may be Muslim communities. But Sharia law is a little different from American law. It is founded on religious concepts.”
Asked which communities are under Sharia law and when that became the case, Moore said: “Well, there’s Sharia law, as I understand it, in Illinois, Indiana — up there. I don’t know.”
Vox’s Jeff Stein told Moore “that seems like an amazing claim for a Senate candidate to make,” to which he replied: “Well, let me just put it this way — if they are, they are; if they’re not, they’re not. That doesn’t matter.”
“I was informed that there were. But if they’re not, it doesn’t matter,” he continued. “Sharia law incorporates Muslim law into the law. That’s not what we do. We do not punish people according to the Christian precepts of our faith — so there’s a difference. I’ll just say this: I don’t know if there are. I understand that there are some.”

PolitiFact rates Moore’s claim a pants-on-fire lie.

4. What is a Dreamer? ‘Quit beating around and tell me what it is’
Moore claimed in a July radio interview that he was unfamiliar with Dreamers, the roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and were given some protections by former President Barack Obama.
“Pardon? The Dreamers program?” Moore said when asked about it. Asked if he was aware of it, Moore said, “No.”
“Why don’t you tell me what it is, Dale, and quit beating around and tell me what it is,” he added.
Trump announced this year that he would rescind an Obama-era policy that provided the protections to Dreamers. Congress has until March, when the rescission kicks in, to address the issue through legislation.

5. 9/11 may have happened ‘because we’ve distanced ourselves from God’
Moore suggested that a lack of faith in God may have played a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as he quoted a passage from the book of Isaiah in a February speech at the Open Door Baptist Church. The passage suggests that because God’s message was rejected, sin will come like a high wall that suddenly collapses.
“Sounds a little bit like the Pentagon, whose breaking came suddenly at an instance, doesn’t it?” he said. He steered attendees to a later verse that alludes to slaughters and towers falling “if you think that’s coincidence.”
“You know, we’ve suffered a lot in this country,” he said. “Maybe, just maybe, because we’ve distanced ourselves from the one that has it within his hands to heal this land.”
He indicated that God may be upset because “we legitimize sodomy” and “legitimize abortion.”

6. 'My personal belief' is that Obama wasn’t born in America
Moore questioned then-President Barack Obama’s citizenship during the presidential transition in December, telling the Constitution Party that “there is a big question about that.”
“My personal belief is that he wasn’t,” Moore said. “But that’s probably over and done in a few days, unless we get something else to come along.”
Last September, Trump accused Democrat Hillary Clinton of starting the so-called “birther” movement but claimed he would “finish it,” remarking after years of questioning Obama’s legitimacy that America’s first black president “was born in the United States, period.”

7. Rep. Keith Ellison should be prohibited 'from taking the congressional oath'
Years before candidate Trump would propose a Muslim ban and seek to restrict travel from certain Muslim-majority nations with an executive order, Moore penned a December 2006 editorial suggesting Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, shouldn’t be allowed to serve.
“Islamic law is simply incompatible with our law,” he wrote. “In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on ‘Mein Kampf,’ or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the ‘Communist Manifesto.’ Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison from taking the congressional oath today!”

The current Republican Party!

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

(10-02-2017, 05:52 PM)Bronsin Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

I'm dubious.  I often use the phrase, "He can convince those already convinced."  It seems the gong is pitched absolutely blue.  What will the red leaning hear?

Classic?  Anyone?

When will Republicans and those who vote for them wake up to the truth? From Sen. Murphy:

The scale of devastation today in Las Vegas is hard to comprehend. Over 50 dead. Hundreds and hundreds more badly injured. And all of this carnage a result of one man with a handful of weapons, carried out over the course of just a few minutes. My god.

That makes this the largest and deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

It goes without saying that all of our hearts are with the victims, their families, the first responders, and the entire Las Vegas community.

But it must be said that nowhere else but in America do these horrific, large-scale mass shootings happen with this degree of regularity. Tragically, this epidemic is uniquely American.

This madness has to stop. And the collective silence from Congress in the face of these mass shootings is complicity -- it sends a quiet message that as a legislative body, these murders are something that we are willing to accept.

It's time for us to stop pretending that there aren't public policy responses to this epidemic.

There are. And the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.

I am not ashamed to admit that no legislation will suddenly stamp out every act of mass violence in this country. But the excuse that legislative action is not a guarantee that we will prevent future tragedies is just a mask for cowardice, or cold-hearted political calculation.

Should we pass comprehensive background checks? Should we take weapons off the streets that are designed solely to kill lots of people with speed and efficiency? Should we do more to ensure records are getting into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System? Should we act to make sure it's easier to get mental health care than it is to buy a gun in this country?

Yes. Yes. Yes. To every one of those questions, yes.

But to do nothing at all? That is truly unimaginable.

We are all grieving today -- as one nation -- but tragedies like this one must also strengthen our resolve to take action that will save lives in this country.
It does for me.

Every best wish,
Chris Murphy
U.S. Senator, Connecticut

"Unimaginable"-- yet that is reality. It's the reality that Republicans create.

(10-02-2017, 05:52 PM)Bronsin Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

Donald Trump is the malignant tumor that will most likely be excised on January 20, 2021. That tumor is not the cancer, namely a plutocratic trend that began to root itself in America when Ronald Reagan became President.

Republicans so far seem good at ensuring that Democrats fail, and at entrenching themselves slowly with salami tactics.

(10-04-2017, 10:27 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-02-2017, 05:52 PM)Bronsin Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

Donald Trump is the malignant tumor that will most likely be excised on January 20, 2021. That tumor is not the cancer, namely a plutocratic trend that began to root itself in America when Ronald Reagan became President.

Republicans so far seem good at ensuring that Democrats fail, and at entrenching themselves slowly with salami tactics.

One thing we have collectively become very good at is controlling our emotions while chasing our ambitions. While it can seem like an arduous task, our career ambitions individually have become top dog, expecially since our emotional selves appear to be for the most part hidden. And, BTW, research has shown that Millennials are having less sex than did their parents and grandparents. Any connection?

(10-02-2017, 07:37 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]When will Republicans and those who vote for them wake up to the truth? From Sen. Murphy:

The scale of devastation today in Las Vegas is hard to comprehend. Over 50 dead. Hundreds and hundreds more badly injured. And all of this carnage a result of one man with a handful of weapons, carried out over the course of just a few minutes. My god.

That makes this the largest and deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

It goes without saying that all of our hearts are with the victims, their families, the first responders, and the entire Las Vegas community.

But it must be said that nowhere else but in America do these horrific, large-scale mass shootings happen with this degree of regularity. Tragically, this epidemic is uniquely American.

This madness has to stop. And the collective silence from Congress in the face of these mass shootings is complicity -- it sends a quiet message that as a legislative body, these murders are something that we are willing to accept.

It's time for us to stop pretending that there aren't public policy responses to this epidemic.

There are. And the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.

I am not ashamed to admit that no legislation will suddenly stamp out every act of mass violence in this country. But the excuse that legislative action is not a guarantee that we will prevent future tragedies is just a mask for cowardice, or cold-hearted political calculation.

Should we pass comprehensive background checks? Should we take weapons off the streets that are designed solely to kill lots of people with speed and efficiency? Should we do more to ensure records are getting into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System? Should we act to make sure it's easier to get mental health care than it is to buy a gun in this country?

Yes. Yes. Yes. To every one of those questions, yes.

But to do nothing at all? That is truly unimaginable.

We are all grieving today -- as one nation -- but tragedies like this one must also strengthen our resolve to take action that will save lives in this country.
It does for me.

Every best wish,
Chris Murphy
U.S. Senator, Connecticut

"Unimaginable"-- yet that is reality. It's the reality that Republicans create.

But didn't most Americans fall for Reagan's message hook, line and sinker? Seems to me that they did. When the unions were busted most considered them to be the bad guys to the point that the very word "union" was treated as a five-letter obscenity.

(10-04-2017, 10:27 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-02-2017, 05:52 PM)Bronsin Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

Donald Trump is the malignant tumor that will most likely be excised on January 20, 2021. That tumor is not the cancer, namely a plutocratic trend that began to root itself in America when Ronald Reagan became President.

Republicans so far seem good at ensuring that Democrats fail, and at entrenching themselves slowly with salami tactics.

This seems true enough.  Trump is easily red partisan enough to flip the see saw.  We have been alternating between Democratic and Republican presidents for a while.  While a few refuse to see it, we are apt to flip again.

Can he generate a blue regeneracy?  If he is wrong for the country, will he clarify what is correct?

(10-04-2017, 10:38 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-04-2017, 10:27 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-02-2017, 05:52 PM)Bronsin Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

Donald Trump is the malignant tumor that will most likely be excised on January 20, 2021. That tumor is not the cancer, namely a plutocratic trend that began to root itself in America when Ronald Reagan became President.

Republicans so far seem good at ensuring that Democrats fail, and at entrenching themselves slowly with salami tactics.

One thing we have collectively become very good at is controlling our emotions while chasing our ambitions. While it can seem like an arduous task, our career ambitions individually have become top dog, especially since our emotional selves appear to be for the most part hidden. And, BTW, research has shown that Millennials are having less sex than did their parents and grandparents. Any connection?

Losing optimism in the American Dream. As America goes from being a democracy to being a Marcos-like kleptocracy, one can expect such. Politicians like Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell (let alone such extreme outliers as Roy Moore) represent the antithesis of Millennial interests. I expect this generation to be just short of being as sympathetic to the irrationalism so much a part of American politics as the French equivalents of America's chilly Republican rationalists were to the Bourbon monarchy and its hangers-on. There might be no guillotine, though.

Sure, everyone dreams of going heavily in debt for education for a good job, only to find that unless one has the right college major that one will get something once relegated to high-school graduates or even dropouts, and that even if one gets a well-paying job one gets gouged for high rent in a tiny apartment. [/snark] If high rents are 'progress', then I (as a Boomer) can understand that some progress is not worth it.

(10-04-2017, 12:24 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-04-2017, 10:38 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-04-2017, 10:27 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-02-2017, 05:52 PM)Bronsin Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2017, 12:54 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [ -> ]This is what Republicans do. They uphold corruption. They do everything wrong. They need to be stopped; period.

Just keep banging that gong. Maybe someday someone will hear it.

Donald Trump is the malignant tumor that will most likely be excised on January 20, 2021. That tumor is not the cancer, namely a plutocratic trend that began to root itself in America when Ronald Reagan became President.

Republicans so far seem good at ensuring that Democrats fail, and at entrenching themselves slowly with salami tactics.

One thing we have collectively become very good at is controlling our emotions while chasing our ambitions. While it can seem like an arduous task, our career ambitions individually have become top dog, especially since our emotional selves appear to be for the most part hidden. And, BTW, research has shown that Millennials are having less sex than did their parents and grandparents. Any connection?

Losing optimism in the American Dream. As America goes from being a democracy to being a Marcos-like kleptocracy, one can expect such. Politicians like Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell (let alone such extreme outliers as Roy Moore) represent the antithesis of Millennial interests. I expect this generation to be just short of being as sympathetic to the irrationalism so much a part of American politics as the French equivalents of America's chilly Republican rationalists were to the Bourbon monarchy and its hangers-on. There might be no guillotine, though.

Sure, everyone dreams of going heavily in debt for education for a good job, only to find that unless one has the right college major that one will get something once relegated to high-school graduates or even dropouts, and that even if one gets a well-paying job one gets gouged for high rent in a tiny apartment. [/snark] If high rents are 'progress', then I (as a Boomer) can understand that some progress is not worth it.

Yet we are often tole that the balance we seek between us and others can also be found within ourselves. This should mean that we have the ability to create positive outcomes by redirecting our energy to suit our own well-being. There you have the malaise in a nutshell. Most of us are so busy suiting our own well-being that we could care less about the collective welfare of the society at large. "Give me convenience or give me death", as mentioned on one thread here a while back, seems to be the battle cry of the whole society across all living generations. And until something shakes out there, nothing much will change for the better.

(10-05-2017, 02:17 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: [ -> ]Yet we are often tole that the balance we seek between us and others can also be found within ourselves. This should mean that we have the ability to create positive outcomes by redirecting our energy to suit our own well-being. There you have the malaise in a nutshell. Most of us are so busy suiting our own well-being that we could care less about the collective welfare of the society at large. "Give me convenience or give me death", as mentioned on one thread here a while back, seems to be the battle cry of the whole society across all living generations. And until something shakes out there, nothing much will change for the better.

Agreed. That's it in a nutshell.

I'd like to propose that the spirit of the last crisis and awakening, of abandoning self to pay attention to the strident needs of the nation, is cyclical. Some fraction of it could come back. Some talk as if the self centered spirit of the unraveling should be permanent. At the moment, that is the key question.

What Republicans do to the economy, we will see more and more...



http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/...me-7-years

(10-05-2017, 02:17 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-04-2017, 12:24 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]Losing optimism in the American Dream. As America goes from being a democracy to being a Marcos-like kleptocracy, one can expect such. Politicians like Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell (let alone such extreme outliers as Roy Moore) represent the antithesis of Millennial interests. I expect this generation to be just short of being as sympathetic to the irrationalism so much a part of American politics as the French equivalents of America's chilly Republican rationalists were to the Bourbon monarchy and its hangers-on. There might be no guillotine, though.

Sure, everyone dreams of going heavily in debt for education for a good job, only to find that unless one has the right college major that one will get something once relegated to high-school graduates or even dropouts, and that even if one gets a well-paying job one gets gouged for high rent in a tiny apartment. [/snark] If high rents are 'progress', then I (as a Boomer) can understand that some progress is not worth it.

Yet we are often told that the balance we seek between us and others can also be found within ourselves. This should mean that we have the ability to create positive outcomes by redirecting our energy to suit our own well-being. There you have the malaise in a nutshell. Most of us are so busy suiting our own well-being that we could care less about the collective welfare of the society at large. "Give me convenience or give me death", as mentioned on one thread here a while back, seems to be the battle cry of the whole society across all living generations. And until something shakes out there, nothing much will change for the better.

Most of us want more choice in the talents that we develop and use. To that end we must look into our interiors... well, if there is a gaping void we must put something into our interiors. That is one of the objectives of a high-quality education in the liberal arts, even if we are to be technical specialists or laborers.

Since Reagan, what was a relatively relaxed Class Society in which social roles were loose by current standards to one in which low glass ceilings limit most of us to drudge roles despite our talents and efforts and threaten us with the piked pit in the event of failure to comply with the whims of the economic and administrative elites.  People who claim to stand for the purest freedom of enterprise (and for them Ayn Rand is the prophet and Donald Trump is the hero) fail to recognize that freedom for enterprise means that the giant corporation can become a Moloch. But this goes beyond malaise. For many this is a nightmare, one in which life becomes a struggle for survival at an animal level.  

Convenience and ease are rightly suspect. I question that I alone find them boring. Who wants to keep doing exactly the same Sudoku?