While I agree that we cannot have a functional democracy without knowledge, belief and concern for keeping a "government of the people", a little mistrust is a good thing too. Having grown up in the 1950s and '60s when a simplistic view of "freedom vs. Communism" was sold to the citizenry, I know we can do better than that. In fact, Nader and Carson had big impacts because people realized that the federal government and big industry had lied to them. Ultimately Vietnam and many other foreign policy and environmental disasters occurred because citizens were by and large too trusting of their private and public sector "leaders" to do the right thing. An educated citizenry who believes that our system can work and makes it so could be our only long-term hope. Now how do we get there?
Today while watching someone teach about the Bill of Rights, I noticed he corrected himself because he said "company" instead of "country". A slip of the tongue, but a perfect description of our reality if we continue to let it happen. Unregulated free enterprise is a negligent (perhaps even homicidal) idea when you consider future generations or your safety.
Relish the fact that the far right is getting a taste of corporate "tyranny"; Google, Twitter, and Facebook have had enough of their hate speech, violence mongering, and their ignorance which is contributing to the Covid-19 losses. Conservatives love to talk about the Constitution, but do not accept that it formed our G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T. They must really hate the founding fathers for those taxes they threw into Article I, Section 8, Clause 1.
A government is only as good as the people running it. To survive, even nomads emerging after the last ice age had to trust their leaders to make the right decisions that would benefit the whole tribe. Fast forward to the Trump Tribe, and you have to wonder where the evolution of human thought took such a wrong turn, how so many have so badly misplaced that trust. Will democracy survive? Indeed, in view of the latest UN climate report, will we survive?
As long as we are mostly a “me” society instead of a “we” society, we will always have a government that exists in order to protect us from ourselves. The reality is that those that scream the loudest about regulation are the ones who do the stupidest (or greediest) things that initiate those activities of regulation thereby affecting them and, by intrusion, others who weren’t as ignorant or as money-hungry. The people who screamed the loudest about seatbelt laws were the ones who drove the most maniacally. Remember “Jarts” (lawn darts) Too many people doing stupid crap with them, so regulation, and later, banning took place. …and tens of thousands of other instances…
Hard to make progress when our efforts take place on their playing field. Most days it seems as though the sociohoarders have us in checkmate, but I do not underestimate the will and creativity of people should we ever roll out of bed and find ourselves a cornered species.
While I agree that we cannot have a functional democracy without knowledge, belief and concern for keeping a "government of the people", a little mistrust is a good thing too. Having grown up in the 1950s and '60s when a simplistic view of "freedom vs. Communism" was sold to the citizenry, I know we can do better than that. In fact, Nader and Carson had big impacts because people realized that the federal government and big industry had lied to them. Ultimately Vietnam and many other foreign policy and environmental disasters occurred because citizens were by and large too trusting of their private and public sector "leaders" to do the right thing. An educated citizenry who believes that our system can work and makes it so could be our only long-term hope. Now how do we get there?
Today while watching someone teach about the Bill of Rights, I noticed he corrected himself because he said "company" instead of "country". A slip of the tongue, but a perfect description of our reality if we continue to let it happen. Unregulated free enterprise is a negligent (perhaps even homicidal) idea when you consider future generations or your safety.
Relish the fact that the far right is getting a taste of corporate "tyranny"; Google, Twitter, and Facebook have had enough of their hate speech, violence mongering, and their ignorance which is contributing to the Covid-19 losses. Conservatives love to talk about the Constitution, but do not accept that it formed our G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T. They must really hate the founding fathers for those taxes they threw into Article I, Section 8, Clause 1.
A government is only as good as the people running it. To survive, even nomads emerging after the last ice age had to trust their leaders to make the right decisions that would benefit the whole tribe. Fast forward to the Trump Tribe, and you have to wonder where the evolution of human thought took such a wrong turn, how so many have so badly misplaced that trust. Will democracy survive? Indeed, in view of the latest UN climate report, will we survive?
As long as we are mostly a “me” society instead of a “we” society, we will always have a government that exists in order to protect us from ourselves. The reality is that those that scream the loudest about regulation are the ones who do the stupidest (or greediest) things that initiate those activities of regulation thereby affecting them and, by intrusion, others who weren’t as ignorant or as money-hungry. The people who screamed the loudest about seatbelt laws were the ones who drove the most maniacally. Remember “Jarts” (lawn darts) Too many people doing stupid crap with them, so regulation, and later, banning took place. …and tens of thousands of other instances…
Hard to make progress when our efforts take place on their playing field. Most days it seems as though the sociohoarders have us in checkmate, but I do not underestimate the will and creativity of people should we ever roll out of bed and find ourselves a cornered species.
The story is never over. It only feels that way.
Denver has had 37 days in a row of red air alerts due to Western Wildfires. What are the politicians doing? Nothing. We will probably have a lot more.