The Maelstrom of Violence

[Bob Butler 54]

(10-04-2017, 07:48 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(10-04-2017, 10:21 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(10-04-2017, 12:31 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Would you vote to keep your subsidy if you were able to vote to keep it? Would you be upset if you lost it (it was taken away from you) or go broke if it were no longer available? The only interest that I have in the welfare state is the tax dollars that come from me to fund your interests and the interest of blues in general. Just so you are clear, I don't mind some welfare being available as a temporary safety net as it was intended at the time it was passed. I can see where an urban dweller like yourself would view it as social insurance or a means of social pacification to keep the beasts at bay. The blacks who rioted and burned down portions of blue cities acted like they were mean, uncaring, unlawful and largely uncivilized people.

Hurricane Maria is beginning to show what is possible when the political, social, and technological orders break down at once, as in the wake of  a large-scale bombing raid. The most vulnerable people (such as those who need insulin or dialysis) die. Public health is at the peril of the germs, heat stress, or cold that a well-functioning social order normally suppresses. Government might even break down. This may not be a matter of 'culture'. An intact social order might foster some social norms.

Truth be told, government spending typically goes back into the economy. So it is with Social Security, welfare, military expenditures, or infrastructure spending -- or the usual payments to government employees from school janitors to judges.

People will usually do what they must do to survive. They will scavenge, if necessary. We are not trained for heroism or sainthood. But I expect Puerto Rico to rebuild, if with different infrastructure. That probably means with less reliance upon fossil fuels (ergo, solar panels and electric vehicles) and probably without landline telecommunications. You will see highways rebuilt to have more resiliency at places of vulnerability, especially bridges. Political institutions will likely be what they were before the Hurricane struck.

Business as usual is the norm until some harsh, unforeseen crisis disrupts it completely. Just do not expect revolutionary changes in human nature. Not even nuclear warfare will bring about some libertarian or Marxist-Leninist utopia. Ideologies inconsistent with human nature typically die suddenly and vanish forever.

The blue ideology isn't very consistent with human nature. I don't live in a heavenly world. I doubt there are very many people who believe that they do either.

There are varied visions of the failed future.  The red distrust the government and anticipate a failed government policy.  The blue distrusts the economic elites, and anticipate the problems of putting too much wealth in the hands of too few who care little for the many.  The red can ignore problems which have not gone critical in the past.  Some blue fear problems like global warming and a hypothetical post scarcity economy which haven't developed yet.

The other side, sometimes, has a point. 

Judging from the past, a lot will be surprised by the future.  If the problem is to be too great a production, is the answer to seek ever higher productivity?

As an alleged Whig, I do not anticipate perfection.  You might take out one problem at a time though.  For America, it has been Royalty, a land and people owning elite in the south, and robber barons too close to fascism.  There are some who have not studied where man came from who allege we might return to Utopia.  I'll leave that to the Marxist Leninist contingent.  I anticipate going forward, not back.  The answer lies with figuring out the post scarcity pattern, not daydreams of a past which never existed.

I do see the problem being an elite class wielding too much influence through both economic a political means.  They have fooled the people by various means.  A general distrust of the establishment by populists is a good sign.  The readiness of the blue to fight the red and vice versa is less good.