08-22-2019, 07:13 AM
The language of politics is often deliberately vague (which contributes to the potential for deceit). Much of politics is deceit, and politics can get somewhat noble when people can no longer get away with fooling themselves. Contrast hard science in which the language allows for little ambiguity.
What people perceive as human nature changes with the cycle. People want much without making big sacrifices, and they make the big sacrifices (and accepting poverty in plain sight of blatant, ostentatious opulence is one such sacrifice at times) when they have little choice. People often reassure themselves with such bromides as "this too will pass". Well, everything passes -- but so do we.
So during a Crisis everyone not too young or too old must put the Crisis above all else. Just think of how horrible it would be to have the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, the SA, and the SS around... The Crisis recedes, and people start seeking material comfort and parlaying their success into worthiness for responsible roles in life that allow good material lives. Controversy? Isn't that what created the Crisis? Then after people have feathered their nests a bit too plushly, the kids start taking for granted the work, thrift, conformity, and subordination that made it possible -- and start becoming self-righteous critics of their environment while recognizing neglect of people left behind. Then comes the 3T when most people want a bacchanal and get a celebrity circus. People quit thinking about the next things, and they figuratively dance upon a volcano because it is a little warmer than the chilly air... and the volcano is about to erupt.
Crises are never like the previous one. This one looks little like the past three for America, and obviously can't be. This time, Germany, Italy, and Japan are more firmly democratic than America -- and we need not fear the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, SA, or SS.Slavery has been abolished once and for all in America, and there is no division between the Northern commercial elite and the Southern agrarian elite; if anything, that they operate for the same political objectives is much of the current problem. We do not have to cast off a British yoke this time. Howe and Strauss did compare the Armada Crisis to World War II, with an ideological struggle between Catholic Spain and Protestant Britain similar to the struggle between Nazi Germany and liberal Britain.
What people perceive as human nature changes with the cycle. People want much without making big sacrifices, and they make the big sacrifices (and accepting poverty in plain sight of blatant, ostentatious opulence is one such sacrifice at times) when they have little choice. People often reassure themselves with such bromides as "this too will pass". Well, everything passes -- but so do we.
So during a Crisis everyone not too young or too old must put the Crisis above all else. Just think of how horrible it would be to have the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, the SA, and the SS around... The Crisis recedes, and people start seeking material comfort and parlaying their success into worthiness for responsible roles in life that allow good material lives. Controversy? Isn't that what created the Crisis? Then after people have feathered their nests a bit too plushly, the kids start taking for granted the work, thrift, conformity, and subordination that made it possible -- and start becoming self-righteous critics of their environment while recognizing neglect of people left behind. Then comes the 3T when most people want a bacchanal and get a celebrity circus. People quit thinking about the next things, and they figuratively dance upon a volcano because it is a little warmer than the chilly air... and the volcano is about to erupt.
Crises are never like the previous one. This one looks little like the past three for America, and obviously can't be. This time, Germany, Italy, and Japan are more firmly democratic than America -- and we need not fear the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, SA, or SS.Slavery has been abolished once and for all in America, and there is no division between the Northern commercial elite and the Southern agrarian elite; if anything, that they operate for the same political objectives is much of the current problem. We do not have to cast off a British yoke this time. Howe and Strauss did compare the Armada Crisis to World War II, with an ideological struggle between Catholic Spain and Protestant Britain similar to the struggle between Nazi Germany and liberal Britain.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
