Bipartisan Senate group proposes ‘no fly, no buy’ gun measure

[pbrower2a]

(11-27-2018, 03:54 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(11-26-2018, 09:09 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Whatever our political philosophies and economic positions, we all need to promote a more life-affirming culture. That is a rational but not heartless culture, a culture that respects learning and thought, cherishes individuality and achievement, honors human rights, and that recognizes the public welfare  as an objective instead of an option. Wherever one is on the continuum between economic libertarianism and democratic socialism (the latter Marxist economics without the terror and dictatorship of Commie states), we need this lest the rest of what we believe in become a nightmare.

Let us start with an assumption that you have stated a blue value fairly well.

Let us further say that you have not stated a red value very well at all.  Let us assume many red will disagree firmly, that this is a big difference between red and blue.  You are stating your personal values not a Universal Truth.

Moral values always begin with some non-rational premise. I find in practice that I never say anything really new I see virtues as ideals to cultivate and practice because people with those virtues can look out for each other instead of having to watch their backs. Virtues make a good society; their lack or antitheses damn people to Hell on Earth.

Just today I saw a fairly good expression of what I believe in. I may not achieve these, but I know what I am missing, which shows where I need to work.

Quote:

1. Authenticity—Be the same person at every occasion in life. Don’t act differently in front of your parents, friends, co-workers, in-laws, and strangers. Stay your true self. And never be afraid of other people’s judgments.
   
2. Truthfulness—Tell the truth. Always. Especially when it comes to your own life. Don’t have money? Don’t pretend that you’re wealthy. Never went to college? Own it. Be honest about who you are and what you’ve done. You’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror with pride.
   
3. Joyfulness—Life is short. Do things that bring you joy. And NEVER do something you hate for longer than is necessary. Enjoy the small things. Music, other people, working out, walking, laying down, reading, and so forth.
   
4. Curiosity—Get to the bottom of everything that you do. Not because you must. But because it’s fun to know things. Life is fascinating. Acknowledge it. And then, try to understand it. But leave it at trying. Some things can’t be understood. But you can still admire it.
   
5. Responsibility—Own your actions, mistakes, and current life situation. Understand what’s in your control, and fully own it. Don’t like something? Change it. But don’t take responsibility for things that are not on your plate. Focus on yourself. What other adults do is not your concern, nor your responsibility.
   
6. Love—Build intimate and deep relationships with a few people. Depth matters more than breadth. Spend more time with your spouse than your co-workers. Get to know your siblings on a deeper level. Have two or three friends that you spend your time with. Love your family. The people you see every day should get your highest priority.
   
7. Fearlessness—Don’t fear the future. And don’t be afraid of what people you don’t care about think of you. Only care about what you and the people you love think about you. Everything else is noise. Have dignity. Do the right thing and don’t fear the rest.
   
8. Loyalty—Even though you might not see your old friends, co-workers, team members, stay loyal. Once you build a bond with someone, don’t break it unless it’s necessary. But most importantly, stay loyal to yourself. Never sacrifice your own mental well-being for others. Treat yourself like you treat someone you love.
   

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-lis...2325294839

It is only coincidence that I find this on the Web today. It all makes eminent sense. Making the world more livable, which means that happiness will be more accessible and not the result of elite status, will take effort. All must pitch in and do their share as if they were waging war on a relentless enemy.

Some of us may not be what we wish we are. Asperger's syndrome has me. I would like recognition that I often express myself in ways that others do not like. Some people have 'excessive melanin' in a world of white privilege. Some people have limited mobility due to disease, accident, or congenital conditions. Some people have limitations of mental capacity. We need see people for what they are and not for their limitations. Significantly, poverty in a culture that practically worships economic gain and indulgence degrades life for many. One would think that with all the wonders of technology and productive ability that we would have solved poverty, yet our economic elites maintain it as a tool of control of the common man today as the lash was a tool of control of slaves in the last hurrah of an aristocratic, agrarian order.

A good society based on good people as their behavior demonstrates? That is nothing new. It is Aristotle.

Quote:In the Industrial Age, the positive steps, including the progressive Whig ones, were achieved by violence.  The reduction in power of the kings and nobles, the freedom of the slaves, the defeat of major autocratic powers including fascism and communism, all happened by war and threat of war.  The red acknowledge it.  They see no need to change.  They wish to continue the possibility of violence, if as a last resort if nothing else. 

Of course. Elites may start with a necessary and even revolutionary change that serves all, and over time they exploit the hereditary principle (Why should 'my' serfs receive emancipation? Or, who will do the dirty work if we do not subject a race? Or more recently, why should I as a member of a Commie nomenklatura let into positions of potential responsibility people with no connections of kin or crony status into my great way of life?)

It is the aristocratic principle that is suspect, and it could reappear even in the allegedly 'classless' society in which the government owns all and denies the possibility of people getting rich by serving people better than the state can.

There have been challenges to the aristocratic order of the time from Samuel Adams to Vaclav Havel.  There are also people who would impose a new hierarchy of deprivation for the many and ostentatious indulgence for the few. Even revolutions that did not result in civil war have often had some institutional threat behind them. Ferdinand Marcos was through once the military and the police tuned on him. Commie dictators in central and Balkan Europe found themselves in a vise grip between NATO and  the Soviet Union, neither of which was going to accept attempts at brutal suppression that lead to chaos.

As I have noticed, revolutions succeed when the police and military change sides. Lenin found ways to pay the police and the soldiers, which was more important to making his revolution possible so that he could impose his insane and absurd economics.

"As I would not be a slave, neither would I be a master" -- Abraham Lincoln, very much a part of the Whig tradition.

Quote:Ironically, what we saw through the Industrial Age was that the more industrialized blue culture with superior manufacturing was able to regularly defeat the militaristic Agricultural Age power with the glorification of force.  We often saw progress triumph while the older values pressed force.  The autocratic and military cultures lost and died.

But it was able to defeat an aristocratic order (Imperial Germany) which was as sophisticated in culture and technology as any country of the time. Aristocratic orders can adopt technologies of persuasion, production, and repression just to save themselves -- and especially to form fearsome armies and navies. The aristocratic principle can arise in unlikely places and at times in which old manifestations have lost all credibility. I look at America's executive class as no longer significantly different from the old Soviet nomenklatura and the heirs who dominate ownership of American assets as no better than medieval lords.

Note also that it was what remained of an aristocratic order that initiated the July 20 plot against Hitler for sundry reasons, including an effort to extricate their world from the consequences of a war to be waged in  Germany itself, with a consequence of Stalin's thugs bringing harsh judgment to anyone that he did not see as the 'heroic working class'. Hitler's system began as a populist assault on extant elites, including the perceived elite of the Jews.

Quote:Now, I have been pushing recently that this dynamic has changed.  Nukes ended war between fully technological civilizations.  Awakenings and votes of Congress may have replaced crises and war for changing domestic culture.  Democracy may have become reliable enough to replace violence as a way of transforming cultures in some places.  Things may be very different since WW II and the Consciousness Revolution.

Maybe, maybe not. Donald Trump, and should he falter due to health or panic, Mike Pence, stand firmly for the Red ideology that would impose a new version of a hierarchical, elitist, and perhaps repressive society. One or the other will have the power to enforce their egoistic lusts (Trump) or their premodern values systems (Pence) to the extent that the Presidency and the GOP majority in the Senate can get away with doing. Also -- watch Jair Bolsonaro as the new President of Brazil, someone who admires a vicious military dictatorship. 

Quote:If so, the red do not see it yet.  They are still proud that the red do more than their share of maintaining military readiness.  They see value in keeping the government honest by maintaining an armed populace.  They honor the concept of self defense, that the good guys outnumber the bad guys if only they are trained, equipped and ready.

But even military readiness depends upon the use of the most modern science and technology, and the effective waging of war depends heavily upon the art of persuasion. When crude exhortations are not enough, the sophisticated art of words and images of the ad man, the artist, the publisher, and the film-maker can be more effective. The (heavily Jewish) studio bosses of Hollywood and its British equivalent proved more powerfully convincing than the Judenrein film studios of Hitlerland.

Let us not forget that the Axis powers vastly underrated the ability of the British and Americans to force a swift pivot from civilian to military production. The British auto industry which made engines for this



could make engines for this to keep the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS out of Britain



and this to traverse the ruined landscape that the former inflicted

Quote:And in the Industrial Age, they were absolutely correct.  Without doubt.  Period.  I still see it as prudent to be stronger than our international autocratic rivals.  Violence remains the ultimate resolution.  It may become obsolete, a true last resort,  to be avoided if possible, but it does remain even in the new age.

[url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plus#French][/url]Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Speaking of the ancient Greeks -- we can still relate to their philosophy, their drama, and their epic poetry. Maybe as monotheists we cannot relate to their gods, but we have to pick and choose, don't we? We can have Jeffersonian democracy without slavery.

Quote:Not am sure if the red are right anymore.  I have my doubts.  Letting go of the violent trump card and trusting softer forms of power may be risky.

Self-defense is often even more violent than overt aggression.

Quote:But they are values locked, many of them, in their beliefs.  Asking them to change is unlikely, futile, and unthinkable.  You might be better off considering what changes you demand of them.  It makes some sense to pick your battles and wait for the next crisis awakening.

Having been born in 1955, I am unlikely to be around for the next Awakening, let alone capable of shaping or enjoying it. The best that I can do is to give some fair warning to youth of the next Awakening to not make the same mistakes as Boomers did, which might be good for a new thread in its own right. Waiting for the next Awakening to solve the moral issues of the time was obviously pointless in a society that at the time was doing everything possible to keep the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS with the demonic ideology that allowed them to bring Hell to countries like Poland and France from crossing the Channel and doing much the same in Britain.

So, to the next Idealist generation, appreciate the equivalent of the revival of this:






(even if a GI conductor like Leonard Bernstein revived Gustav Mahler as an expression of the cultural grandeur of the European equivalent of the Missionary Generation, Mahler seems to better fit Boom sensibilities than those of any previous generation).

...and avoid LSD and Manson-like gurus. Above all, if you have children, then recognize that they can never enjoy your cultural ephemera in your own extended childhood. Once you have children, it is time for you to take unambiguously adult roles in life.