There is a cleavage in our public life
that is not enjoyable to look at.
It is the division between people who believe
that government is how we do things together,
and those who believe that government
is almost always a blood-sucking leech.
There is racism, too.
There are the cautious who abhor change,
and the eager who affirm it.
We are still a sexist nation.
We are under terrible stress, not just from a recession
brought on by unfettered greed, but caught up in
a societal revolution changing from an industrial
to an information-based society.
Millions have no health care plan.
Millions have no real prospect of a good job.
Our educational system is a wandering,
ineffectually, without a clear sense of direction,
or an agreement about how to fund it.
But a whole lot of the animosity we see and feel
is expressed in a hatred for "government", on one hand,
and a frustration for reluctance to apply government
effectively, on the other.
People by assault weapons to protect themselves
from their own government, which appears to be
a form of insanity to people who would rather hire
more police, or try to figure out what causes crime.
The people we elect to public office, who want
to be a part of government, who take the salary
and run for re-election, who feel secure with their
government pensions, and government health care,
and Social Security, who want a bigger military,
are the same people who stand up in public and argue
that governement is a very bad thing, to be starved
until it is small enough to be drowned in a bathtub!
It does not take a genius to know that universal
health care is a very good thing. It does not take
a genius to outline the broad parameters of what
such a health care plan should look like!
Every other industrial nation in the world has done it!
We could begin by looking at them.
What must be happening to produce such a distain
for doing things together; for "government"?
It has to be that we are lost; that we do not understand
what is happening to us, what the causes are, what
is happening all around us, and what the way forward is.
We are in the midst of a revolution.
The old industrial world is gone.
There still are steel mills, and automobile manufacturers,
but they are not the old steel mills and the old car companies.
Much of what remains of manufacturing is in the service
of the revolution in how we do things, or are learning
to do things. Computers and cell phones are manufactured,
but they are not like U.S. Steel and General Motors.
They are nimble, fast-footed responses to technology.
Our politicians continue to shout Bethlehem Steel slogans
to out-of-work, or afraid-they-will-soon-be-out-of-work,
voters. What good is a Chrysler retirement plan,
and a Chrysler health care plan, without what Chrysler
used to be, and no longer is, and nevermore will be?
People hate government, not because they do not
benefit from what government gives them, and costs them,
but because they do not know in which direction to point
government. They do not know what is happening around them.
And our politicians are among the most clueless.
They are among the most dishonest.
They suffer from living a simple-minded life,
nourished by simple-minded slogans, unable
to do much more than figure out what will get them
elected the next time. They prostitute themselves.
They take the money, and say the words.
Every day I wonder whether people are simply stupid.
How can Sarah Palin, or Joe the Plumber, or
Chuck Grassley say the things they do, and why do we
buckle at the knees when Sarah winks, or when
barely disguised racists or sexists says what they do?
People are not so much stupid. They are lost.
When you are lost, nothing good can come of asking
in which direction to go. Only when some glimmering
of perception, of understanding, of perspective
is gained, does it make sense to choose a direction.
that is not enjoyable to look at.
It is the division between people who believe
that government is how we do things together,
and those who believe that government
is almost always a blood-sucking leech.
There is racism, too.
There are the cautious who abhor change,
and the eager who affirm it.
We are still a sexist nation.
We are under terrible stress, not just from a recession
brought on by unfettered greed, but caught up in
a societal revolution changing from an industrial
to an information-based society.
Millions have no health care plan.
Millions have no real prospect of a good job.
Our educational system is a wandering,
ineffectually, without a clear sense of direction,
or an agreement about how to fund it.
But a whole lot of the animosity we see and feel
is expressed in a hatred for "government", on one hand,
and a frustration for reluctance to apply government
effectively, on the other.
People by assault weapons to protect themselves
from their own government, which appears to be
a form of insanity to people who would rather hire
more police, or try to figure out what causes crime.
The people we elect to public office, who want
to be a part of government, who take the salary
and run for re-election, who feel secure with their
government pensions, and government health care,
and Social Security, who want a bigger military,
are the same people who stand up in public and argue
that governement is a very bad thing, to be starved
until it is small enough to be drowned in a bathtub!
It does not take a genius to know that universal
health care is a very good thing. It does not take
a genius to outline the broad parameters of what
such a health care plan should look like!
Every other industrial nation in the world has done it!
We could begin by looking at them.
What must be happening to produce such a distain
for doing things together; for "government"?
It has to be that we are lost; that we do not understand
what is happening to us, what the causes are, what
is happening all around us, and what the way forward is.
We are in the midst of a revolution.
The old industrial world is gone.
There still are steel mills, and automobile manufacturers,
but they are not the old steel mills and the old car companies.
Much of what remains of manufacturing is in the service
of the revolution in how we do things, or are learning
to do things. Computers and cell phones are manufactured,
but they are not like U.S. Steel and General Motors.
They are nimble, fast-footed responses to technology.
Our politicians continue to shout Bethlehem Steel slogans
to out-of-work, or afraid-they-will-soon-be-out-of-work,
voters. What good is a Chrysler retirement plan,
and a Chrysler health care plan, without what Chrysler
used to be, and no longer is, and nevermore will be?
People hate government, not because they do not
benefit from what government gives them, and costs them,
but because they do not know in which direction to point
government. They do not know what is happening around them.
And our politicians are among the most clueless.
They are among the most dishonest.
They suffer from living a simple-minded life,
nourished by simple-minded slogans, unable
to do much more than figure out what will get them
elected the next time. They prostitute themselves.
They take the money, and say the words.
Every day I wonder whether people are simply stupid.
How can Sarah Palin, or Joe the Plumber, or
Chuck Grassley say the things they do, and why do we
buckle at the knees when Sarah winks, or when
barely disguised racists or sexists says what they do?
People are not so much stupid. They are lost.
When you are lost, nothing good can come of asking
in which direction to go. Only when some glimmering
of perception, of understanding, of perspective
is gained, does it make sense to choose a direction.
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