03-04-2022, 01:30 PM
(03-04-2022, 12:53 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Recently progressive reporter Thom Hartmann expressed the opinion that the ever increasing concentration on events in Ukraine is likely to push many other pressing issues very much to the back burner so to speak. But I tend to feel that much of this has already fallen into the "We have met the enemy and it is us" category long before being sidetracked by Ukraine.
Recently Mr. Hartmann published an article in which he dealt with Americans' loss of agency, which in this context is a psychological term dealing with loss of freedom and control. Here I will merely use this as an outline to mention how, despite the inspiring book's line that a 4T is a time when social issues tend to no longer remain deferred, there is still considerable foot dragging going on. Just a few issues here:
Do we collectively really care enough to address the pressing issues of our time?
I have to vote no on this one, because, while we could feel enthusiastic and energized and go after whet we want on an individual level, whether that be a better job, a bigger house, or a potential marriage or life partner, we seem stuck in place when it comes to tackling pressing issues affecting the larger world. One of the areas Mr. Hartmann mentioned in his piece was loss of control in our workplaces. This trend has been festering ever since Reagan began targeting the unions four decades ago. He goes all the way back to when the Taft-Hartley act was passed in 1947. Yet unions remained strong up until at least the early 1970s, a few years before being butchered. This butchering has left workers with little if any control in combating the whims of gigantic, often multi-national employers. For example, Amazon has become a near monopoly while treating it's workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst. We need to move from a strict at-will model which is in force nearly everywhere towards a model where employers would need a just cause to fire workers. But will we? This is a subject that, IMO, doesn't get talked about as much as it should be.
Do we need to lay the world's problems at the feet of our leaders and question their leadership qualities so severely?
I have to vote no on this one as well, because many issues, skyrocketing gasoline prices among them, our leaders have virtually no real control over. There has, however, been quite the sense of apathy where most of us (full disclosure: I am often guilty of this as well), do not have the enthusiasm even if they do have the qualities to, for example, spearhead a workshop or take charge of a group. One of the experiences I had in my younger days was involvement in a singles social group. I helped to take charge of a few activities but eventually quit doing so due to said lack of enthusiasm.
Do we need to have emerge a leader whose experience, knowledge, and wisdom are an invaluable guide?
This one gets a definite yes vote. Many are questioning whether Biden possesses the leadership qualities necessary to lead us through the current crisis. Yet we will just have to see. This forum's inspiring book indicates the presence of a Gray Champion during a 4T; one who will possess enough of the trifecta of experience, knowledge and wisdom to shepherd us through the crises. I sometimes wonder if Obama, even though ineligible to run for President again, could emerge as this era's GC. It is not after all a given that the GC has to be a President. But book also stated that whoever he or she happens to be, they (GC could also possibly be plural) will be remembered long after the Hippie and Yuppie will be forgotten to all but the historian.
Do we have a hypocritical generation now in it's elderhood stage?
This one is in stalemate status. About halfway through the 1980s as the 2T morphed into the 3T, the society appeared transform from being overly hedonistic to overly workaholic almost overnight, thereby making liars out of all those futurists who were staunchly convinced that the technology most of us now kneel at the feet of would bring about ever increasing leisure for most of us. Instead it seemed to launch the society into an acute "I don't have time" syndrome. One of the byproducts of us was that dating services, once considered the last resort for losers, suddenly became respectable. But most also became ridiculously expensive. It seemed as though they ended up becoming nearly everything they had once ridiculed, promoting a "Do as we say, not as we did" attitude for growing children and teenagers. On the surface this does sound hypocritical, but the more I got to thinking it further, the effort may indeed be more to the likes of thinking that it can help others avoid or overcome any obstacles that they may have encountered during their own youth. I read once that the generation who espoused sex, drugs, and rock n roll ended up with AIDS, addiction and hearing loss.
Days of going out an having fun morphed into largely stay at home affairs even long before the Covid scourge hit. Can recall wistfully an establishment near me that highlighted the Four Ds of single life: Dining, Dancing, Drinking and Dreaming. I often wonder whether those days will ever come again.
I agree with yur thoughts, but I don't see that you and Hartmann mentioned the most critical issue being put on the back burner too often, and which I have called your attention to as well: the breakdown of our climate and our environment. We as people are not sufficiently attuned to what life is, and its value, if we don't go out into Nature and do not appreciate the uniqueness of our planet. To allow it to be destroyed by continuing to mine and use fossil fuels, is to allow ourselves to be destroyed. That is the greatest act of neglect and cowardess of our time. And the need to cut off Russian oil and gas now is great, but the solution is not to undo regulations on our own industry aqs Republicans demand. We may need to pump more now temporarily, and if we destroy the Russian industry that would be a net gain for the climate, as long as we also pass Build Back Better and get renewables going even much faster than we have so far. Workers are being mistreated, no doubt, and this was referred to in Carlin's famous rant. It's all part of the neoliberal ideology, and this ideology is also behind and the main cause of our climate crisis. The government must act on behalf of the people to rein in runaway capitlist corporate greed, which allow workers to be oppressed in many ways, and our environment to be destroyed, in the name of so-called free enterprise and lower taxes.
Also, it is easy to say we need a better leader than Biden. But he is all we have. The solution is to keep pressuring him to do more, and faster. The horoscope scores I have develeped make it clear that Trump and some other Republicans have the ability to appeal to Americans regardless of the horrible neoliberal and prejudiced policies they offer that would destroy everything. No Republican will do anything that is needed. The Democrats with better scores than Biden are not willing to run. Harris would be much, much worse as a leader than Biden. So he's who we are left with, sorry to say. So calling for better leaders seems fruitless. So far the only one we can be sure to win, Mitch Landrieu, has not stepped up, nor risen in status enough.