02-26-2018, 02:21 PM
(02-26-2018, 12:51 PM)David Horn Wrote:(02-26-2018, 12:15 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(02-26-2018, 11:42 AM)David Horn Wrote: Most likely, I won't see the entire 1T, but it's not likely to be similar to the last one. It may more closely resemble the one prior, and be dominated by moneyed interests. Then again, the chaos Presidency of DJT could trigger a transformation I hadn't expected even two years ago, and the next 1T could be truly transformational. In any case, technology will march on, and whether it gets used for good or ill will dictate the following 2T and 4T.
Normally the 1T locks in cement the values trialed and erred by the 4T. That would be a divided country by region, a divided country by wealth, and perhaps global warming, with the culture war on the side? I am not sure of the driving issue of the 4T, therefore the lessons in cement of the 1T are pending?
We may be heading for a time a lot like the late 19th and early 20th centuries, if the government decays further. The absence of communal power opens the door to private power, and stalemated government is as good a way to kill communal power as I can see: no coup required.
But something is even more dangerous now -- Big Government as an enforcer for economic elites. This allows a merger of economic power with State power, which practically defines fascism. A fascistic America would be a monstrosity with torture chambers, people disappearing into some lethal void, and labor camps.
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.