(12-21-2018, 10:20 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(12-21-2018, 09:43 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:(12-20-2018, 07:31 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Well, I'm not sure what a purple center means to you as far as good or bad but that seems to be where the center is at right now. I think you're seeing a regeneracy that you aren't used to seeing because the bulk of protesting took place during the Bush/Obama years. I accept that they're more likely to vote Republicans and I accept they're more likely to live in red areas. However, I will not accept responsibility for their actions and I will not accept being directly associated or supportive of their views. You are aware that the KKK and the Neo Nazi's don't see eye to eye or share the same goals. I would also not be surprised to see them become more active on the Democratic side and eventually form a white caucus on the Democratic side of congress.
It is difficult to say what a Regeneracy will look like. Should it be right-wing, then it will be a recognition of the need for unbridled plutocracy as the means of getting such economic growth as America needs. It would be mass acquiescence in an economic view that the Common Man has responsibilities to entrenched elites who can act out of generosity by the standards of those elites. (Basically, you choose to work for us, and if we like your work we will keep you from starving). With that comes an economic order with no safety net but instead a piked pit for anyone who fails to perform as the elites wish. If someone falters there might be a labor camp in which one quickly comes to learn that poverty in return for being overworked by rapacious elites is not the worst thing possible in life.
That would be Nazi Germany, the definitive worker's Hell, without the racism, genocide, and wars for conquest. Maybe the Jim Crow South, except that far more people are treated as ni--ers, as in the sense that some white fellow in Roots complains that white people are being treated like ni--gers. Alex Haley's father tells the white fellow that it is wrong to treat anyone like a ni--er.
I think you are demonizing. You are indulging in a vile stereotype. Some former red guy leaning purple could create a positive America. I see it more likely that some former blue guy turned purple will create a positive America, but we will see who bubbles to the top of the respective parties. If some flaming blue extremist proposes governing half of America while some red turned purple has listened and shows an inclination to govern all of America, I would go with the former red.
Demonizing? Not really -- simply saying what is possible. That is possible. Our economic elites are often nasty people, and as such they would support something vile as a social order. That would be profit maximization complete with ruin of the middle class (that would be obliged to barter off their desirable stuff cheaply to get the essentials of life) in a profits-first, profits-only social order. I see more hostility between the middle class and the economic elites in political life than in the 'classic' class struggle of Marxism. I try to stretch my imagination to see what can happen.
I hope for something more wholesome. Back to some halcyon era that we cannot recover because our population is too large for such? That is not happening. There will be no cheap housing with a view of San Francisco Bay. If anything, I expect people to end up in giant apartment complexes in which many people don't even have windows. Maybe people will rely upon video screens to see something more attractive than a blank wall. Such a view of the Matterhorn, the sea from the Maine shoreline or the Big Sur, or perhaps an observatory in space will be unreal and out of character with the place, but that will fit a human desire.
Besides, that screen will be wonderful for watching a feature film, live opera, a concert, or a ballet.
Quote:(12-21-2018, 09:43 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: There is no such thing as 'white culture' other than soulless racism.
I would not say soulless. I guess it depends on your meaning of the word. It is hard to say anything good about racists and deplorables. But I do see them as passionate believers in their bad cause.
Without question, people can be both passionate in their beliefs -- and terribly wrong.
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.