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I volunteered for the Ross Perot campaign (comprised mostly of disgruntled moderate Republicans, tho I have always been a progressive.)
I would like to point out to Thom, Quark and others that Mussolini's idea of "corporatism" was not about putting business men in charge of the government--quite the opposite. Mussolini's father was a "syndicalist," meaning workers in charge by a representational government made-up of workers from different industries. This idea was the bill-of-goods that Mussolini originally sold the Italian people. But what Mussolini ended-up doing was his government taking charge of seperate industries and telling businessmen and workers how they were going to operate. This is very different from corporations taking charge; this is totalitarianism along communist lines. This is in fact close to the Merriam-Webster dictionary's definition of "corporatism."
@ZeroG: Lot’s wife did not express her doubt to the deity; she acted out of doubt and in defiance of other human’s words.
Yaakov told the deity that if it produced, it would earn his allegiance then beat the crap out the deity’s angel twenty years later . . .
Mark,
There was plenty of protest against Bush policies, granted mostly the war, but it was huge at times. The media mostly ignored them.
The right-wing protests are covered, even sometimes promoted by the media.
I too, have doubts about the tea-baggers, en mass being co-opted into progressive causes, but I do imagine that some memes (ie US OUT of NAFTA, living wages, etc.) might at the least cause cognitive dissonance in some.
Thom,
Does Peter Defasio have anything he wants us to do to support him (other than contacting our own congressmen?)
Richard,
Re: "To recognize a leader is to acknowledge a human as a force of nature.
A leader is ideas conceived and words delivered. WE focus our intent and a someone steps into the breach and becomes a figurehead.
WE can not stand around looking about for a head to hang a hat on. WE must, through pure force of being, will the universe into the form WE require it to be and know that there is someone to fill those shoes. I have no idea who will assume the role of the individual who struck the match.
WE are the leader, each of us, WE are waiting for. WE, all, need to stand up and be that which folk will follow."
I feel like a kid asking the simple questions, but what does this mean, in real terms?
I wonder if Thom means to say that we should disregard the tea baggers’ xenophobia and bigotry—or say that it is an area of “agreement?” Let’s not kid ourselves: These people would not be out there if a Republican was president—or a white Democrat. These people are out there because they answered the clarion call of racist fear, paranoia and scapegoating. Co-opting these tea bag “parties” also begs the question: If the left was not sufficiently motivated to protest the Bush administration’s domestic policies on social, economic, tax, health care and environmental issues, why should we expect them to do so now, even when they have an administration and Congress that may amenable to such pressure? I don’t disagree with Thom that progressives need to “get out there,” but not by “co-opting” tea bag parties. They to need to do their own “tea bagging” to show politicians that the progressive fringe can be just as influential as the right-wing fringe seems to be. Obama clearly needs to see that such influence is real.
We should not kid ourselves: Al Gore was not a “progressive,” but this country would be in a different place if Gore was in the White House instead of Bush. Hillary would not have been an alternative “answer” either, presuming she was electable; as we saw in her response to that Congolese student, she takes “affronts”—even when they are not intended and the fault of an interpreter— highly personally and without governance of her thoughts or tongue, a surefire way to make enemies in Congress in both parties.
mstaggerlee,
A guy who opened for the GD on 10/31/80 @ Radio City is now a US Senator.
Barry "the Fish" Melton ran for judge...
Maybe you are a candidate.
Zero G.,
Yes, Chris Hedges does sound like Hemingway (the "man's man.") Interesting comparison you made...
Richard,
Yes, the "leader" must jump in front of the already existing parade. If we create our leaders, who do you think they are?
I regard the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as something of a testimony to American shortsightedness. Permit me to explain ...
I've held my current job for just about 17 years, now. The last company I worked for developed special equipment for high-energy physics research. Two projects that we were deeply involved in, starting about 5 or 6 years BEFORE I left that company were the LHC, and its American counterpart, the Super-Conducting Super-Collider (SCSC). Development began on BOTH of these projects at right about the same time. After about 2 years, the SCSC project essentially went away - funding dried up, or (more accurately) was re-directed. This project could have been the source of hundreds, if not thousands of jobs, and could have generated tremendous advances in technology right here in the US. But somehow, it just wasn't "sexy" enough for the USA of the latter 80's. So, the EU got the jobs and the glory, and we get to sit back and eat their dust.
Re: The "Leader" ... It could be you - or me, even. What it's gonna take is someone who's either simply willing to, or desperate enough to, risk EVERYTHING that they have and know, to take up the standard and make a leader of him/herself.
Hmmmm ... on second thought, maybe I'm NOT really a candidate ...
Richard,
"Yaakov stood up to Adonai and was called Yisrael and was blessed."
Lot's wife wasn't so lucky. YHVH doesn't always seem reasonable. Hopefully we can incorporate the mythological corpus of humanity without allocating resources and living spaces based on such.
@BrianAHayes: Or the Vatican City . . . or Tibet or Israel or . . .
I refuse to surrender to the concept that all religions are autocratic in nature. Yes, humans tend towards the default position of using their belief systems to beat the crap outta other folk BUT that is the reason for the Divine Commandment:
“You shall not carry the name of the deity before you for vain purposes.”
Humans grow and change and assert themselves as they grow and change. Humans will grow up. There is reason to believe that the deity seeks folk that will stand up and treat it as an equal. Yaakov stood up to Adonai and was called Yisrael and was blessed.
We can and must evolve or die.
@Quark:
To recognize a leader is to acknowledge a human as a force of nature.
A leader is ideas conceived and words delivered. WE focus our intent and a someone steps into the breach and becomes a figurehead.
WE can not stand around looking about for a head to hang a hat on. WE must, through pure force of being, will the universe into the form WE require it to be and know that there is someone to fill those shoes. I have no idea who will assume the role of the individual who struck the match.
WE are the leader, each of us, WE are waiting for. WE, all, need to stand up and be that which folk will follow.
Brian,
Or Israel, or Tibet.
what do you get when you mix religion with politics? you get the far right republican party and a country like iran.
@Quark: A leader is the dude or dudette that stands up and walks in front and the people follow. We create our leaders.
Quark,
From: Liberals are Useless, Chris Hedges:
I was also at the time a member of the Greater Boston YMCA boxing team. We fought on Saturday nights for $25 in arenas in working-class neighborhoods like Charlestown. My closest friends were construction workers and pot washers. They worked hard. They believed in unions. They wanted a better life, which few of them ever got. We used to run five miles after our nightly training, passing through the Mission Main and Mission Extension Housing Projects, and they would joke, “I hope we get mugged.” They knew precisely what to do with people who abused them. They may not have been liberal, they may not have finished high school, but they were far more grounded than most of those I studied with across the Charles River. They would have felt awkward, and would have been made to feel awkward, at the little gatherings of progressive and liberal intellectuals at Harvard, but you could trust and rely on them.
I went on to spend two decades as a war correspondent. The qualities inherent in good soldiers or Marines, like the qualities I found among those boxers, are qualities I admire—self-sacrifice, courage, the ability to make decisions under stress, the capacity to endure physical discomfort, and a fierce loyalty to those around you, even if it puts you in greater danger. If liberals had even a bit of their fortitude we could have avoided this mess. But they don’t. So here we are again, begging Obama to be Obama. He is Obama. Obama is not the problem. We are.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/07
There is more than one Taliban.
Think for a moment, is there one Democratic Party? Here in the good ole' US of A, with internet connections, cell phones, interstate highways.
TICA - This is Central Asia
A motto amonst NGOs in the region to remind one that you REALLY AREN'T in KANSAS anymore.
Think valleyism.
Zero G.,
OK, maybe I'm suffering from amnesia. Please remind me or post a link to the Chris Hedges issue of which you speak... :)
Quark - "You should have Shawn Taylor do more speaking on your show. What a lovely voice!"
Hear, Hear!
Hemingway seems reminiscent of Chris Hedges' feelings towards the pugilists he associated with in Boston.
DRichards,
On one of Rachel Maddow's shows last week, the Taliban winning was made clear. The question is, what does that mean?
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Adm Mike Mullen: US is losing war in Afghanistan
America's highest-ranking military officer admitted that US forces were currently losing the war in Afghanistan and said they had 18 to 24 months to turn around the Taliban's momentum.
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 4:29PM GMT 08 Dec 2009
"This is the most dangerous time I've seen growing up the last four decades in uniform," Adm Mike Mullen told audiences of soldiers and marines, some of whom are weeks away from flying to conflict.
"We are not winning, which means we are losing and as we are losing, the message traffic out there to [insurgency] recruits keeps getting better and better and more keep coming."
US commander seeks to quell crisis in 'special relationship' with UK forces
Telling soldiers that he expected to be a tough fight and rising casualties in 2010, he said: "I don't want to be in any way unclear about that. This is what happened in Iraq during the surge and as tragic as it is, to turn this thing around, it will be a part of this surge, as well."
Adm Mullen said the July 2011 date to begin withdrawing US forces is not an end or withdrawal date.
"In the long run, it is not going to be about killing Taliban," he told the marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. "In the long run, it's going to be because the Afghan people want them out."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6762317/Adm-M...
Thom,
You should have Shawn Taylor do more speaking on your show. What a lovely voice!
Zero G.,
I look at states of being as either created or destroyed. Anything else is interesting.
(Ever since I read Hemingway for the first time, I have attempted to "simplify" to try to get to the heart of an issue. That does tend to leave things behind...)
Thom
IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER.
They make a profit ONE WAY and one way only: BY DENYING CARE. PERIOD.