Life After Empire
In 1922, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 458 million people, one-quarter of the world’s population,and covered more than 13,000,000 square miles: approximately a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. By 1956, after the disastrous attempt to hold on to the Suez Canal, the British finally abandoned the last of their imperial pretensions and settled into rebuilding their own country, culture and spirit. By 1964 the world was sharing in the joy of life after empire.
To read the analysis of David Sanger in the New York Times this morning, life in America for our children will be a pinched, pale shadow of itself.
For Mr. Obama and his successors, the effect of those projections is clear: Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors. Beyond that lies the possibility that the United States could begin to suffer the same disease that has afflicted Japan over the past decade. As debt grew more rapidly than income, that country’s influence around the world eroded.
Or, as Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, used to ask before he entered government a year ago, “How long can the world’s biggest borrower remain the world’s biggest power?”
It seems to me the very basis of both Sanger’s and Summer’s assumptions (that the Defense Budget is off limits to cuts) are so flawed and filled with “the conventional wisdom” that we must step back and consider what life in America After Empire might be like. Let’s start with this chart of comparative military spending.
In what way does this have to be the world’s reality? Who named us the unpaid cop of the planet? The fact that this dominance of our discretionary spending by the Pentagon surprises even the military contracting fraternity.
“The defense industry is pleased but bemused,” said Loren Thompson, the chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute, a policy group financed partly by military contractors. “It’s been telling itself for years that when the Democrats got control it would be bad news for weapons programs. But the spending keeps going on.”
So let’s look at the reality of “discretionary spending. This chart is three years old, but the proportions have not changed.
Of course this chart and the official Pentagon budget of $708 Billion does not tell the whole cost of empire.
By the way, if you were to add up the real “defense” budget, including funds for the Department of Homeland Security, the Energy Department (which handles the U.S. nuclear arsenal), veterans’ care, the State Department’s planned near-billion-dollar expansion of its embassy in Pakistan into a mega-command post for the region and the planned doubling of the number of personnel in its already monstrous embassy in Baghdad for a similar purpose, and many other relevant things, you would be closing in on $1 trillion per year.
What if we took $300 billion from that $1 trillion and financed a “go to the moon” style program to make the U.S. Energy Independent by 2020? Just as the British realized their need “to hold the Suez Canal” was not strategic to their survival, we need to see that garrisoning the globe is a fool’s errand.
According to the Pentagon’s 2008 “Base Structure Report,” its annual unclassified inventory of the real estate it owns or leases around the world, the United States maintains 761 active military “sites” in foreign countries. (That’s the Defense Department’s preferred term, rather than “bases,” although bases are what they are.) Counting domestic military bases and those on US territories, the total is 5,429.
We need to put all of this on the table politically. Just who in Congress has the guts to form a coalition between progressives and libertarians, to really air the cost of empire and to imagine what America could be like once it shed its imperial burdens, is still an open question. But the conversation needs to start now.
Let it start here.
Well that concept is sure to amuse the Republicans.
Well that concept is sure to amuse the Republicans.
the most depressingly true post ever—can’t even imagine how to get this on the radar—I hate the government
the most depressingly true post ever—can’t even imagine how to get this on the radar—I hate the government
For anyone who thinks anything is going to change, without some kind of violence whether social, fiscal or physical, check this from today’s WSJ.
Think that neocon train of thought (sic) got derailed with the departure of the Bush League “leadership?” Here’s how to play hardball in the Brave New World. The rats still scurry, down in the sewers of Foggy Bottom and the Pentagram. So much to be afraid of and to try to make afraid, and to DoDminate and control, if only we could… God save us from having to possibly think about considering the evaluation of the potential feasibility of marginal slight reductions in the size of our Force Structure. Hey, that’s like considering “penis reduction” surgery, after all…
“And Jesus asked him [the man possessed by demons], saying, “What is thy name?” And he said, “Legion”: because many devils were entered into him.” Luke, 8:30.
Where are the Gadarene swine when you need ‘em?
For anyone who thinks anything is going to change, without some kind of violence whether social, fiscal or physical, check this from today’s WSJ.
Think that neocon train of thought (sic) got derailed with the departure of the Bush League “leadership?” Here’s how to play hardball in the Brave New World. The rats still scurry, down in the sewers of Foggy Bottom and the Pentagram. So much to be afraid of and to try to make afraid, and to DoDminate and control, if only we could… God save us from having to possibly think about considering the evaluation of the potential feasibility of marginal slight reductions in the size of our Force Structure. Hey, that’s like considering “penis reduction” surgery, after all…
“And Jesus asked him [the man possessed by demons], saying, “What is thy name?” And he said, “Legion”: because many devils were entered into him.” Luke, 8:30.
Where are the Gadarene swine when you need ‘em?
does your “government” include all the war contractors that are part of the symbiotic feedback loops that have made all this get to where it is? Running around together in the great Revolving Door?
Stuff that profits the individual cancer cells and certain groupings in the form of inoperable tumors, mostly affecting the gonads and the brain, and kills the rest of the body politic. Noe THERE’s growth for you.
does your “government” include all the war contractors that are part of the symbiotic feedback loops that have made all this get to where it is? Running around together in the great Revolving Door?
Stuff that profits the individual cancer cells and certain groupings in the form of inoperable tumors, mostly affecting the gonads and the brain, and kills the rest of the body politic. Noe THERE’s growth for you.
even a cancer is growth–but I wouldn’t want one–yes the contractors are a huge part of the problem—
even a cancer is growth–but I wouldn’t want one–yes the contractors are a huge part of the problem—
I agree with Doug – there is simply no way to get this on the radar of anyone in power.
I agree with Doug – there is simply no way to get this on the radar of anyone in power.
Actually, Woodnsoul, there is. For example, NASA is being pitted against the MIC. Obama can only submit a budget. It appears from the choices the staffers made, the WH is pitting faction against faction to make them choose publicly and then have to explain their choices at home. Huntsville is lit like the Saturn I at Christmas when it becomes a Christmas tree. Being both a NASA and a MIC town, the Rocket City (say Parker Griffith and Richard Shelby) are the grinder or the coffee bean but can’t be both.
This will be fun to watch.
Actually, Woodnsoul, there is. For example, NASA is being pitted against the MIC. Obama can only submit a budget. It appears from the choices the staffers made, the WH is pitting faction against faction to make them choose publicly and then have to explain their choices at home. Huntsville is lit like the Saturn I at Christmas when it becomes a Christmas tree. Being both a NASA and a MIC town, the Rocket City (say Parker Griffith and Richard Shelby) are the grinder or the coffee bean but can’t be both.
This will be fun to watch.
doug – how does your reaction here square with your optimism in the last post?
Do you not see our federal government for the astonishing economic albatross that it is?
More importantly, do you think that investors, entrepreneurs, and IP workers haven’t noticed this?
What’s going to happen to your ‘normal recovery’ when all the people intrinsic to its sustained success decide to hoe their fields elsewhere?
Jon – I love the prospect of a post-empire life, but remember that the UK in 1956 had also been substantially diminished by WWII, and that even in 1922, losses from WWI (north of 2 million) had added astonishing strain that were still very much a part of living memory. And of course, strain imposed by the Jewel in the Crown (India) was also a significant factor.
In other words, the country needed to have been brought very low before finally releasing its grasp.
I don’t doubt that post-Pentagon life would be wonderful. But if all it takes to set of new waves of reason-killing fear and police-state construction projects is a few failed bombing attempts, I really don’t think that an industry that makes bombs for a living has any cause for concern. Same goes for a literal army of contractors that have transformed our fighting forces into massive mercenary operations where the actual military is simply a (state funded) training program.
Given that our own position is far closer to 1922 than 1956, I really have no desire to live through the equivalent transformative period of decline and despair. Remember, too, that London’s Swinging Sixties gave way to some real economic despair in the ’70s – along with a religious terrorist war that haunts England to this day. It wasn’t until the 80′s that a sense of post-colonial prosperity was truly tangible.
Meanwhile, America gained its lead when the rest of the developed world was reeling from an orgy of self-destruction. What’s interesting now is that the rest of the world seems to have gotten back on its feet, learned the better lessons that America The Successful had to teach, and is now closing the gap. And given all our current imbalances, the question about our falling behind seems to be ‘when’, not ‘if’.
So again, if the lessons of Britan’s fall are any guide, our own fall will need to be very hard and far if we’re to finally relinquish our grasp. Moreover, it will take another generation before the benefits start to appear.
I agree that a dialog between libertarians and progressives can result in a truly enlightened way forward, and a clear sense of what works best in the current age. But why would these people sacrifice their own lives (and the lives of their children) to realize that vision here? It was one thing to build here when America was the only game in town. But when other countries are happy – and able – to hire away the best and brightest, and win the capital investment that those with this innovative and inventive streak can attract?
In other words, what happens when America’s most valuable export becomes ambitious, secular, open-minded, law-abiding people?
doug – how does your reaction here square with your optimism in the last post?
Do you not see our federal government for the astonishing economic albatross that it is?
More importantly, do you think that investors, entrepreneurs, and IP workers haven’t noticed this?
What’s going to happen to your ‘normal recovery’ when all the people intrinsic to its sustained success decide to hoe their fields elsewhere?
Jon – I love the prospect of a post-empire life, but remember that the UK in 1956 had also been substantially diminished by WWII, and that even in 1922, losses from WWI (north of 2 million) had added astonishing strain that were still very much a part of living memory. And of course, strain imposed by the Jewel in the Crown (India) was also a significant factor.
In other words, the country needed to have been brought very low before finally releasing its grasp.
I don’t doubt that post-Pentagon life would be wonderful. But if all it takes to set of new waves of reason-killing fear and police-state construction projects is a few failed bombing attempts, I really don’t think that an industry that makes bombs for a living has any cause for concern. Same goes for a literal army of contractors that have transformed our fighting forces into massive mercenary operations where the actual military is simply a (state funded) training program.
Given that our own position is far closer to 1922 than 1956, I really have no desire to live through the equivalent transformative period of decline and despair. Remember, too, that London’s Swinging Sixties gave way to some real economic despair in the ’70s – along with a religious terrorist war that haunts England to this day. It wasn’t until the 80′s that a sense of post-colonial prosperity was truly tangible.
Meanwhile, America gained its lead when the rest of the developed world was reeling from an orgy of self-destruction. What’s interesting now is that the rest of the world seems to have gotten back on its feet, learned the better lessons that America The Successful had to teach, and is now closing the gap. And given all our current imbalances, the question about our falling behind seems to be ‘when’, not ‘if’.
So again, if the lessons of Britan’s fall are any guide, our own fall will need to be very hard and far if we’re to finally relinquish our grasp. Moreover, it will take another generation before the benefits start to appear.
I agree that a dialog between libertarians and progressives can result in a truly enlightened way forward, and a clear sense of what works best in the current age. But why would these people sacrifice their own lives (and the lives of their children) to realize that vision here? It was one thing to build here when America was the only game in town. But when other countries are happy – and able – to hire away the best and brightest, and win the capital investment that those with this innovative and inventive streak can attract?
In other words, what happens when America’s most valuable export becomes ambitious, secular, open-minded, law-abiding people?
“In other words, what happens when America’s most valuable export becomes ambitious, secular, open-minded, law-abiding people?”
We’ll make more of them. That’s how free market economies work, yes?
My experience with the foreign nationals that work for me is exactly zero of them want to go back to India and China. They work on getting more of their family here. What they’ve said on numerous occasions is how shocked they are by what we allow to be said about our president.
Freedom of the kind we have is not as well-liked as some wanted us to believe when they set out to liberate the world and simultaneously occupy it. That’s a lesson we must finally learn and adapt. Iran will eventually change it’s goverment but don’t think it will change into our style. The culture there will produce something within its own local comfort zone.
Gestalts are breaking all over America. That’s good but it means a new understanding, a new comfort zone is emerging. The Interreregistration to adapt Jon’s term is as much about that as it is economics.
Much of the campaigns you see going on today are attempts to control and direct that emergence from the apparently failing iPad marketing to the tea baggers. They are attempts to game the culture during a period of gestalt breaking, of not disbelief but of the tipping point during which no one is sure what to believe or what is real because the majority of their trusted sources can no longer be trusted.
The clear minded, for lack of a better term, are about 2% of the population. It sounds elitist but it is true. It is a rare person who stands apart and stares into the horror and remains rational. Knowing that, what do they do?
“In other words, what happens when America’s most valuable export becomes ambitious, secular, open-minded, law-abiding people?”
We’ll make more of them. That’s how free market economies work, yes?
My experience with the foreign nationals that work for me is exactly zero of them want to go back to India and China. They work on getting more of their family here. What they’ve said on numerous occasions is how shocked they are by what we allow to be said about our president.
Freedom of the kind we have is not as well-liked as some wanted us to believe when they set out to liberate the world and simultaneously occupy it. That’s a lesson we must finally learn and adapt. Iran will eventually change it’s goverment but don’t think it will change into our style. The culture there will produce something within its own local comfort zone.
Gestalts are breaking all over America. That’s good but it means a new understanding, a new comfort zone is emerging. The Interreregistration to adapt Jon’s term is as much about that as it is economics.
Much of the campaigns you see going on today are attempts to control and direct that emergence from the apparently failing iPad marketing to the tea baggers. They are attempts to game the culture during a period of gestalt breaking, of not disbelief but of the tipping point during which no one is sure what to believe or what is real because the majority of their trusted sources can no longer be trusted.
The clear minded, for lack of a better term, are about 2% of the population. It sounds elitist but it is true. It is a rare person who stands apart and stares into the horror and remains rational. Knowing that, what do they do?
there several real issues with our military expeditures, one is the we can only spend so much as a pecent of our GDP and we are approaching that limit; I don’t believe that we are there yet and that is why I see a fairly normal recovery—the second problem is that the military is crowding out other expenditures that we need to stay competitive–I think the main reason we can’t get universal health care is the cost but imagine if our military cost were in line with the rest of the world!
there several real issues with our military expeditures, one is the we can only spend so much as a pecent of our GDP and we are approaching that limit; I don’t believe that we are there yet and that is why I see a fairly normal recovery—the second problem is that the military is crowding out other expenditures that we need to stay competitive–I think the main reason we can’t get universal health care is the cost but imagine if our military cost were in line with the rest of the world!
And the fight is on. This came from an individual, not the program or the contractors. I’m trying to vette the source now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2IQVZmHnJQ
And the fight is on. This came from an individual, not the program or the contractors. I’m trying to vette the source now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2IQVZmHnJQ
The problem with military spending is that if we aren’t at war, the gear and the people are all wasted. If we are at war, they get destroyed, and then they are wasted. It’s a no-win unless it’s truly defensive. The MIC budget could go into something of lasting value for us all, health care for all, and a shot at that happiness we’re all promised. As it is, it’s just enriching Cheney and pals…still…
The problem with military spending is that if we aren’t at war, the gear and the people are all wasted. If we are at war, they get destroyed, and then they are wasted. It’s a no-win unless it’s truly defensive. The MIC budget could go into something of lasting value for us all, health care for all, and a shot at that happiness we’re all promised. As it is, it’s just enriching Cheney and pals…still…
“Knowing that, what do they do?” “Suicide is painless, It brings on many changes…”
I still think there’s a hell of a market for a nice chain of suicide parlors. What a franchise opportunity! “Trail’s End” in the western states, “The Comfort Station” back east, etc. Not much overhead, and bet the corpses could be nicely recycled. After extracting the usable body parts, of course, to keep the Top Tier in corneas and kidneys…
Two cool things about WW I: The average height of the English male decreased by about 6″, hence the expression “keep your head below the trench line.” And at the apogee of general-officer-think, you had one Brigadier Kittredge, up at the top of the chain of command, telling an interlocutor why he was so sure the Allies would “win the war:” Why, young fellow, the Boche has less than 8 million men under arms, whereas I have over 11 million.” As we would say today, “do the math.”
And moist-eyed patriots still weep over the sentiment of “In Flanders Field,” and convince themselves that killing,, or more sentimentally being killed, in hand-to-hand trench-knife combat or death-by-phosgene or dematerialization by a direct hit from an 88 or a mortar round, or burning to death in the spiral descent of a touched-by-an-Ace, knights-of-the-air, gasoline-loaded biplane is the essence of noble sacrifice “for the homeland.”
And now the Gestalt or whatever is all about “the Taliban,” and inflated balloons labeled “al Quaeda.” And nobody has the slightest interest, even a lot of those “clear minds,” in examining whether there is such a monad, such an entity, such a reified, hypostasized “thing” that can, we’re just sure of it, be dealt a death blow by decapitation. Or maybe even pleased, at the Petraeus-McChrystal level, that the sheeple can still be led around by the nose ring and caused to piss their backsides by having a fool’s bladder labeled “Taliban Enemy Kill” under their snouts. That reified irrational concatenation of so many little groups, “led” by men who in our own very recent memory have “changed sides” literally dozens of times, not being on any “side” but their own clan, family, sect or tribe. (Gee, “Pakistan,” it turns out, actually bolstered “the Taliban” for what surely seemed, at the time, good reasons, or at least a cool sneaky strategem.) And of course there are writings in even the WSJ that note that by doing what “we” are doing, “we” by “our” very presence are just helping the mercurial blobs of that Silver Assassin from “Terminator II” to coalesce into the thing which at present only in the deceptive sales pitches of so many “wise men,” even worldly, hyper-educated, close-to-the-levers-of-power schmucks like Henry “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac” Kissandtellinger.
(Anyone remember or care that it was McChrystal who directed the phony hyping and pumping of the death of NFL-star-turned-”real-manhood”-testing Ranger Pat Tillman, almost getting away with one of those embedded-journalist deceits that initially made a Great Hero out of a guy who was killed by his own fellow GI because of asinine orders which he nonetheless tried to carry out? McChrystal, who like so many others who paint the rest of us into this corner, lives without consequences or fear of rectification?
Yet “we” will have those trillions of dollars of actual wealth milked out of us and dumped into the grasping paws of the MIMPREC (militarist-industrialist-media-political-religion-educational comprehensive monster and out on the ground, and the places we call Iraq and Afghanistan and Somalia and now Yemen and all the others with their “sites” and spastic phony visions of conquest and hegemony will watch “us” dry up and blow away, turn their backs on the dust and “produce something within their own local comfort zone.” Moments of “vainglory,” generations of follow-up stupidity and suffering.
Fucking stupid humans. Stupid fucking humans. Anybody got a remedy for that?
“Knowing that, what do they do?” “Suicide is painless, It brings on many changes…”
I still think there’s a hell of a market for a nice chain of suicide parlors. What a franchise opportunity! “Trail’s End” in the western states, “The Comfort Station” back east, etc. Not much overhead, and bet the corpses could be nicely recycled. After extracting the usable body parts, of course, to keep the Top Tier in corneas and kidneys…
Two cool things about WW I: The average height of the English male decreased by about 6″, hence the expression “keep your head below the trench line.” And at the apogee of general-officer-think, you had one Brigadier Kittredge, up at the top of the chain of command, telling an interlocutor why he was so sure the Allies would “win the war:” Why, young fellow, the Boche has less than 8 million men under arms, whereas I have over 11 million.” As we would say today, “do the math.”
And moist-eyed patriots still weep over the sentiment of “In Flanders Field,” and convince themselves that killing,, or more sentimentally being killed, in hand-to-hand trench-knife combat or death-by-phosgene or dematerialization by a direct hit from an 88 or a mortar round, or burning to death in the spiral descent of a touched-by-an-Ace, knights-of-the-air, gasoline-loaded biplane is the essence of noble sacrifice “for the homeland.”
And now the Gestalt or whatever is all about “the Taliban,” and inflated balloons labeled “al Quaeda.” And nobody has the slightest interest, even a lot of those “clear minds,” in examining whether there is such a monad, such an entity, such a reified, hypostasized “thing” that can, we’re just sure of it, be dealt a death blow by decapitation. Or maybe even pleased, at the Petraeus-McChrystal level, that the sheeple can still be led around by the nose ring and caused to piss their backsides by having a fool’s bladder labeled “Taliban Enemy Kill” under their snouts. That reified irrational concatenation of so many little groups, “led” by men who in our own very recent memory have “changed sides” literally dozens of times, not being on any “side” but their own clan, family, sect or tribe. (Gee, “Pakistan,” it turns out, actually bolstered “the Taliban” for what surely seemed, at the time, good reasons, or at least a cool sneaky strategem.) And of course there are writings in even the WSJ that note that by doing what “we” are doing, “we” by “our” very presence are just helping the mercurial blobs of that Silver Assassin from “Terminator II” to coalesce into the thing which at present only in the deceptive sales pitches of so many “wise men,” even worldly, hyper-educated, close-to-the-levers-of-power schmucks like Henry “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac” Kissandtellinger.
(Anyone remember or care that it was McChrystal who directed the phony hyping and pumping of the death of NFL-star-turned-”real-manhood”-testing Ranger Pat Tillman, almost getting away with one of those embedded-journalist deceits that initially made a Great Hero out of a guy who was killed by his own fellow GI because of asinine orders which he nonetheless tried to carry out? McChrystal, who like so many others who paint the rest of us into this corner, lives without consequences or fear of rectification?
Yet “we” will have those trillions of dollars of actual wealth milked out of us and dumped into the grasping paws of the MIMPREC (militarist-industrialist-media-political-religion-educational comprehensive monster and out on the ground, and the places we call Iraq and Afghanistan and Somalia and now Yemen and all the others with their “sites” and spastic phony visions of conquest and hegemony will watch “us” dry up and blow away, turn their backs on the dust and “produce something within their own local comfort zone.” Moments of “vainglory,” generations of follow-up stupidity and suffering.
Fucking stupid humans. Stupid fucking humans. Anybody got a remedy for that?
@RT – exactly. Though I do have to give the credit that’s due to the Internet.
@len – China and India may not be the best examples. They both rank near the bottom of Transparency International’s rankings, with India being even worse that China, and only one step above Russia. Admittedly, these figures are old (1998), but even so…
The real question is whether countries in green can leverage goon governance into great IP economies by attracting the right combination of bright people and savvy organizations. Obviously, this illustration should be taken with a grain of salt (after all, Iceland is green), but you see my point.
Separately, I agree with your larger point about the old reference points becoming unhinged as people loose faith. And I suspect they’ll establish new ones as soon as they can. Question is, will our government reflect this change? Or oppose it? And more importantly, if you had a doubt and a choice, would you really want to stick around to find out?
@RT – exactly. Though I do have to give the credit that’s due to the Internet.
@len – China and India may not be the best examples. They both rank near the bottom of Transparency International’s rankings, with India being even worse that China, and only one step above Russia. Admittedly, these figures are old (1998), but even so…
The real question is whether countries in green can leverage goon governance into great IP economies by attracting the right combination of bright people and savvy organizations. Obviously, this illustration should be taken with a grain of salt (after all, Iceland is green), but you see my point.
Separately, I agree with your larger point about the old reference points becoming unhinged as people loose faith. And I suspect they’ll establish new ones as soon as they can. Question is, will our government reflect this change? Or oppose it? And more importantly, if you had a doubt and a choice, would you really want to stick around to find out?
Actually, a better way of looking at this may be “which countries are able to cultivate their own IP industries in a way that’s both attractive and welcoming to international talent?”
Keep in mind that, between them, Toronto and Vancouver now boast more film production than Los Angeles. IP trades tend to be highly location dependent in that they thrive in strong communities. However, they also favor younger and less attached workers, so we’re not talking about having to build substantial capital-intensive infrastructure to sustain these communities.
Legislative and (relatively) minor financial incentives are far more compelling. Admittedly, these can present their own challenges for poorer, more authoritarian, or highly homogeneous nations. But looking at the macro trends, these factors aren’t static. Moreover, the concept of government as platform saves particular governments from having to speculate with their own money to get investment from particular industries.
Unlike, say, India on the one hand and Singapore on the other, the U.S. is big and rich. We still have a substantial lead. If the U.S. were able to abandon its commitment to the security state, and allow the money it consumes to stay in the dozen or so cities that generate most of it, things here would look very different.
By devolving the chief intersections of governance and commerce to this level (where traditional government services and social cohesion both matter the most), I think we’d see enough competition between cities to punish corruption and incompetence sooner rather than later.
Actually, a better way of looking at this may be “which countries are able to cultivate their own IP industries in a way that’s both attractive and welcoming to international talent?”
Keep in mind that, between them, Toronto and Vancouver now boast more film production than Los Angeles. IP trades tend to be highly location dependent in that they thrive in strong communities. However, they also favor younger and less attached workers, so we’re not talking about having to build substantial capital-intensive infrastructure to sustain these communities.
Legislative and (relatively) minor financial incentives are far more compelling. Admittedly, these can present their own challenges for poorer, more authoritarian, or highly homogeneous nations. But looking at the macro trends, these factors aren’t static. Moreover, the concept of government as platform saves particular governments from having to speculate with their own money to get investment from particular industries.
Unlike, say, India on the one hand and Singapore on the other, the U.S. is big and rich. We still have a substantial lead. If the U.S. were able to abandon its commitment to the security state, and allow the money it consumes to stay in the dozen or so cities that generate most of it, things here would look very different.
By devolving the chief intersections of governance and commerce to this level (where traditional government services and social cohesion both matter the most), I think we’d see enough competition between cities to punish corruption and incompetence sooner rather than later.
“Our government reflect this change… or oppose it?” How about doing the usual smarmy symbol-clashing and chest-beating and just co-opting it into the tribal thinking and fear responses and the excitement of shooting the other guy’s head into a pink mist? How the hell do you get 300 million people to see that they are being had? With all the distractions and the struggle to just meet the bottom tier of Maslow’s array of NEEDS? Including the distractions of being suckered into another Death Spiral, Beer Game round of Trumping NEEDS with debt-financed WANTS? “Hey, how you getting along with your iPodiPhoneiPad? Got any new really cool killer apps? Hope they are freeware, dinner is cat food and corn flakes again.”
“Our government reflect this change… or oppose it?” How about doing the usual smarmy symbol-clashing and chest-beating and just co-opting it into the tribal thinking and fear responses and the excitement of shooting the other guy’s head into a pink mist? How the hell do you get 300 million people to see that they are being had? With all the distractions and the struggle to just meet the bottom tier of Maslow’s array of NEEDS? Including the distractions of being suckered into another Death Spiral, Beer Game round of Trumping NEEDS with debt-financed WANTS? “Hey, how you getting along with your iPodiPhoneiPad? Got any new really cool killer apps? Hope they are freeware, dinner is cat food and corn flakes again.”
And I have to ask — is it a typo, or just another of Mr. Freud’s banana-peel pratfalls?
“can leverage goon governance…” Goon? How maybe perfectly apt.
And thanks once again for your usual lucid explications over the last couple of days and pre-post-mortems on What Happens Next.
I’m trying to learn some Espanol (regretting those wasted years of Latin and French and German) and working to get the boat ready for a little ocean voyaging to Somewhere Else. The two questions are When To Go and Where To Go, some place where they will let moderately skilled aliens in and the Goons don’t Govern.
And I have to ask — is it a typo, or just another of Mr. Freud’s banana-peel pratfalls?
“can leverage goon governance…” Goon? How maybe perfectly apt.
And thanks once again for your usual lucid explications over the last couple of days and pre-post-mortems on What Happens Next.
I’m trying to learn some Espanol (regretting those wasted years of Latin and French and German) and working to get the boat ready for a little ocean voyaging to Somewhere Else. The two questions are When To Go and Where To Go, some place where they will let moderately skilled aliens in and the Goons don’t Govern.
Makes you wonder what the Canadian immigration policy will end up being in light of all the illegals trying to sneak across the border.
Makes you wonder what the Canadian immigration policy will end up being in light of all the illegals trying to sneak across the border.
As Obama pointed out to them, the loyal opposition has painted themselves into a corner with no exit. They have to fight any reduction in military spending AND reduce taxes or their base will eat them alive.
Think Ms. Sarah is up to figuring out how to dismount the tiger?
As Obama pointed out to them, the loyal opposition has painted themselves into a corner with no exit. They have to fight any reduction in military spending AND reduce taxes or their base will eat them alive.
Think Ms. Sarah is up to figuring out how to dismount the tiger?
jtm-isn’t “getting 300 million people to see that they are being had” the whole point of our exercise?
jtm-isn’t “getting 300 million people to see that they are being had” the whole point of our exercise?
Ms. Sarah’s soulution (sp. intentional) will be to shoot said tiger from a helicopter gun ship.
And Alex, we’re big (as in “Supersized”) and formerly rich (We owe, we owe, so off to work we go…).
I, for one, was richer in 1976 than I am now in material goods. OK, I’m mentally richer…but try telling that to the bank.
Ms. Sarah’s soulution (sp. intentional) will be to shoot said tiger from a helicopter gun ship.
And Alex, we’re big (as in “Supersized”) and formerly rich (We owe, we owe, so off to work we go…).
I, for one, was richer in 1976 than I am now in material goods. OK, I’m mentally richer…but try telling that to the bank.
len, I finally took a minute to peek at the video.
I guess it’s too bad that all the other “terminated” people and programs don’t have the resources to pitch their “entitlement” and “investment sunk” like these folks.
Like the tens of thousands of disabled and failing humans here in FL (amongst the many states doing the same) that will no longer get help living in their own homes via hoome health nurses and aides. And so will, if they live, be dumped into for-profit “nursing homes” and “long-term-(we-don’t)care” places. And gee, you can argue the numbers a bit, but hey, it costs like 6 (six) times as much to pack ‘em into the Death Cribs as to let ‘em go on or pass on with a little comfort, kindness and dignity.
Some of them are likely even former NASA employees, dontcha love the irony?
Any luck determining the provenance of the Constellation Program’s “heartfelt plea?” The Janus-face of the technology that you use to create beauty and worth?
len, I finally took a minute to peek at the video.
I guess it’s too bad that all the other “terminated” people and programs don’t have the resources to pitch their “entitlement” and “investment sunk” like these folks.
Like the tens of thousands of disabled and failing humans here in FL (amongst the many states doing the same) that will no longer get help living in their own homes via hoome health nurses and aides. And so will, if they live, be dumped into for-profit “nursing homes” and “long-term-(we-don’t)care” places. And gee, you can argue the numbers a bit, but hey, it costs like 6 (six) times as much to pack ‘em into the Death Cribs as to let ‘em go on or pass on with a little comfort, kindness and dignity.
Some of them are likely even former NASA employees, dontcha love the irony?
Any luck determining the provenance of the Constellation Program’s “heartfelt plea?” The Janus-face of the technology that you use to create beauty and worth?
And the plan is…? I’m a little slow. And shut mah mouf — what should I be doing other than frothing and fulminating here and in other, more boutique blogspaces? Never was much of a leader, just a curmudgeonly critic, but there’s still some strength in the old back.
And the plan is…? I’m a little slow. And shut mah mouf — what should I be doing other than frothing and fulminating here and in other, more boutique blogspaces? Never was much of a leader, just a curmudgeonly critic, but there’s still some strength in the old back.
The Canucks already don’t want any Old People like me up there as immigrants, unless I bring a mattress full of money and/or a bidness that will provide work for the locals…
The Canucks already don’t want any Old People like me up there as immigrants, unless I bring a mattress full of money and/or a bidness that will provide work for the locals…
It just came to me: Creative people like to be paid for their labor, no new insight, but for there to be a “market” that will offer up exchangeable value (folding money or maybe barter) there has to be some generation of Wealth of the Real kind to create the XV. One could have the best IP-creativity machinery and good wishes in place, and if there’s no corn or cattle to trade for the movies, the poetry, the amazing products of ingenuity and imagination, how does the artist or impressario eat? Is the micro-economy of The Arts just like the guy whose head was removed by shrapnel while he was running, and continues on for a while before the body unbalances and falls and realizes that it is dead? Why do I think of Dubai, where the Powers have chosen an economy dependent on externally generated inflows of wealth (and of course the Debt that’s been in the news lately)?
I really don’t know. Do you?
It just came to me: Creative people like to be paid for their labor, no new insight, but for there to be a “market” that will offer up exchangeable value (folding money or maybe barter) there has to be some generation of Wealth of the Real kind to create the XV. One could have the best IP-creativity machinery and good wishes in place, and if there’s no corn or cattle to trade for the movies, the poetry, the amazing products of ingenuity and imagination, how does the artist or impressario eat? Is the micro-economy of The Arts just like the guy whose head was removed by shrapnel while he was running, and continues on for a while before the body unbalances and falls and realizes that it is dead? Why do I think of Dubai, where the Powers have chosen an economy dependent on externally generated inflows of wealth (and of course the Debt that’s been in the news lately)?
I really don’t know. Do you?
@JTM – yes, goon (instead of good) governance was a typo, but a very good one. I think I’ll use that one from now on.
Also, about getting paid – I think we’re reaching the point where ‘content’ is becoming a commodity. And that’s a view (held by producers and consumers alike) that guides everything about our interaction with the stuff.
There are exceptions of course. In smaller venues, people are using the ways and means to great artistic effect. But to the extent that a medium represents a game (often played out over decades or even centuries), simple filmed entertainment seems to be shifting into an inherently limited mode.
What people do in response to what they take in is a far more interesting realm. Obviously, their commercial activities have already been well mapped and pushed by the ad trade, but the specific focus of the companies underwriting this branch of media obviously limit the expectations for the stimulus:response equation, and, consequently, the scope and depth of the stimulus.
In any case – this is where my interest lies: in exploring the ways that people can be persuaded to respond in various positive ways, and how these active reactions (instead of passive impressions) can form a new economic basis.
Object of the game is to recalibrate basic business models before the current maximalist scope of monopoly copyright power gets rolled back to a point where it recovers its basic justification in imposing costs on the general public (social, economic, political, creative) that are so low that there’s no reason not to make an exception to the general ‘No Monopolies’ rule, and to provide creators with the additional benefit it supplies.
The reality is that the market is imposing its own rough justice, and ignoring copyright in places where its use seems entirely one-sided, and out of sync with the requirement that it clearly benefit creators and the public.
In other words, even if the law doesn’t catch up anytime soon, getting in sync with the economic landscape is taken care of. And from there, it’s simply a waiting game.
@JTM – yes, goon (instead of good) governance was a typo, but a very good one. I think I’ll use that one from now on.
Also, about getting paid – I think we’re reaching the point where ‘content’ is becoming a commodity. And that’s a view (held by producers and consumers alike) that guides everything about our interaction with the stuff.
There are exceptions of course. In smaller venues, people are using the ways and means to great artistic effect. But to the extent that a medium represents a game (often played out over decades or even centuries), simple filmed entertainment seems to be shifting into an inherently limited mode.
What people do in response to what they take in is a far more interesting realm. Obviously, their commercial activities have already been well mapped and pushed by the ad trade, but the specific focus of the companies underwriting this branch of media obviously limit the expectations for the stimulus:response equation, and, consequently, the scope and depth of the stimulus.
In any case – this is where my interest lies: in exploring the ways that people can be persuaded to respond in various positive ways, and how these active reactions (instead of passive impressions) can form a new economic basis.
Object of the game is to recalibrate basic business models before the current maximalist scope of monopoly copyright power gets rolled back to a point where it recovers its basic justification in imposing costs on the general public (social, economic, political, creative) that are so low that there’s no reason not to make an exception to the general ‘No Monopolies’ rule, and to provide creators with the additional benefit it supplies.
The reality is that the market is imposing its own rough justice, and ignoring copyright in places where its use seems entirely one-sided, and out of sync with the requirement that it clearly benefit creators and the public.
In other words, even if the law doesn’t catch up anytime soon, getting in sync with the economic landscape is taken care of. And from there, it’s simply a waiting game.
Alex, “art” is a commodity (or an oddity), and the artists would like to get paid, but the modern consumer thinks that it should be free…unless it’s a Hollywood blockbuster in 3D. And they’ll want that for free as soon as 3D comes to their computer monitor or wide screen TV.
Alex, “art” is a commodity (or an oddity), and the artists would like to get paid, but the modern consumer thinks that it should be free…unless it’s a Hollywood blockbuster in 3D. And they’ll want that for free as soon as 3D comes to their computer monitor or wide screen TV.
Alex, can I suggest that you build into the re-education syllabus for that basic business model, a serious dose of The Beer Game? Maybe as part of The Waiting Game?
I keep harping on this B-school exercise that is used to focus-teach on one little tiny part of bidness, supply-chain management, but seems to this non-economist, non-MBA to expose so much more of what’s broken and corrupt in “bidness,” particularly consumer business but as I look around, everything free-market-operated. (Not that central planning and control by Mafia-minded plutocrats is any better.)
It’s about the intersection of Greed, Selfish-Interest, Resume-Filling, “Irrational Exuberance,” and the individual and institutional behaviors that inevitably lead to what is apotheosized as “the bidness cycle.” It’s just role-playing, where MBA candidates or little groups of them take the various positions in the brewing, distribution and sale of good old long-neck PBR and Coors Lite. Starting out, everything is in balance — demand, supply, raw materials, traffic, storage, the whole thing. But every time it’s playe out, EVERY TIME, THAT IS EVERY TIME, the same thing happens. A tiny chaotic perturbation in the Force causes people who are driven by considerations of profit and self-promotion to over-buy, over-build, over-brew and eventually go BUST, fairly spectacularly, as the greed and card-hiding of one feeds back positively off the same behavior of the other players. Who nominally are all trying to do the same thing — balance the supply chain for one or a small set of products.
Here’s just one classic example, described by the writer in terms that unconsciously and ironically and without comprehension display the whole range of the behaviors that lead from boom to bust. Tracking The Beer Game perfectly. If Jon is interested, if anyone is interested, in stability and sustainability in an economy, this is a set of behaviors and innate tendencies that’s goona (ha-ha) have to be counteracted and addressed and leveled out by some kind of education in ethics as well as negative-feedback controls.
Just a thought.
Alex, can I suggest that you build into the re-education syllabus for that basic business model, a serious dose of The Beer Game? Maybe as part of The Waiting Game?
I keep harping on this B-school exercise that is used to focus-teach on one little tiny part of bidness, supply-chain management, but seems to this non-economist, non-MBA to expose so much more of what’s broken and corrupt in “bidness,” particularly consumer business but as I look around, everything free-market-operated. (Not that central planning and control by Mafia-minded plutocrats is any better.)
It’s about the intersection of Greed, Selfish-Interest, Resume-Filling, “Irrational Exuberance,” and the individual and institutional behaviors that inevitably lead to what is apotheosized as “the bidness cycle.” It’s just role-playing, where MBA candidates or little groups of them take the various positions in the brewing, distribution and sale of good old long-neck PBR and Coors Lite. Starting out, everything is in balance — demand, supply, raw materials, traffic, storage, the whole thing. But every time it’s playe out, EVERY TIME, THAT IS EVERY TIME, the same thing happens. A tiny chaotic perturbation in the Force causes people who are driven by considerations of profit and self-promotion to over-buy, over-build, over-brew and eventually go BUST, fairly spectacularly, as the greed and card-hiding of one feeds back positively off the same behavior of the other players. Who nominally are all trying to do the same thing — balance the supply chain for one or a small set of products.
Here’s just one classic example, described by the writer in terms that unconsciously and ironically and without comprehension display the whole range of the behaviors that lead from boom to bust. Tracking The Beer Game perfectly. If Jon is interested, if anyone is interested, in stability and sustainability in an economy, this is a set of behaviors and innate tendencies that’s goona (ha-ha) have to be counteracted and addressed and leveled out by some kind of education in ethics as well as negative-feedback controls.
Just a thought.
Alex, the question I was asking was the same one you assked in your contribution to the previous topic: “People will “spend more”? Really? And where will they get that money from? Their jobs?” Applying that to the commodity notion of artistic output, you have the same problem. Somebody has to have the “money” to buy commodities of whatever kind, iPoops or pops music? Where, on the macro scale, is that “money” going to come from? And where will the actual Wealth, as opposed to the hopeful belief that other people will take your slip of paper you got in exchange for your work of art in exchange for a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread, be generated? And who will be left holding that slip of high-rag-content, sneakily-engraved paper when it reverts to its intrinsic value?
The fish in the little pond don’t ask or even think about the copepods they eat and the oxygenated water they breathe. So what do they do when the fortuitous drought dries up the pond, or a wily bacterium kills off the copepods?
Alex, the question I was asking was the same one you assked in your contribution to the previous topic: “People will “spend more”? Really? And where will they get that money from? Their jobs?” Applying that to the commodity notion of artistic output, you have the same problem. Somebody has to have the “money” to buy commodities of whatever kind, iPoops or pops music? Where, on the macro scale, is that “money” going to come from? And where will the actual Wealth, as opposed to the hopeful belief that other people will take your slip of paper you got in exchange for your work of art in exchange for a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread, be generated? And who will be left holding that slip of high-rag-content, sneakily-engraved paper when it reverts to its intrinsic value?
The fish in the little pond don’t ask or even think about the copepods they eat and the oxygenated water they breathe. So what do they do when the fortuitous drought dries up the pond, or a wily bacterium kills off the copepods?
The American people don’t owe anything the Federal reserve does it is a private entity owned by Corporations and investors. If I am wrong please enlighten me.
The American people don’t owe anything the Federal reserve does it is a private entity owned by Corporations and investors. If I am wrong please enlighten me.
Brilliant line: “The Status Quo is leaving the building.”
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/who-will-save-us.html
Brilliant line: “The Status Quo is leaving the building.”
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/who-will-save-us.html
JTMc: It came to me via an FB friend, Jackie Dannenberg related to Konrad. The name is oldTimer in the space industry, Mr.D. having made some small contributions.
How it was made is another question. Whoever did that did it fast and with access to a lot of pertinent footage. So a supporter with inside clout no doubt.
I’m completely biased having spent my whole life starting on Monte Sano mountain to now where I can see what my neighbors on the hill built standing a half mile from my office window: a full scale Saturn V replica with the real deal on its side in the building next to the model. Space exploration over armaments any day but either choice bites us here. NASA HQ says no jobs will be lost so I’m not talking economics; I’m talking dreams worth having, adventures worth risking it all for, lives lost trying and lives spent making it possible.
Hard choices coming. Unlike many here and there, I don’t despair. I’m an old fashioned guy. I believe in this country, love it, willing to work to keep it moving forward. We’ve been had by those who can’t remember what “one for all and all for one” means.
Being old fashioned, I hope it still does mean something good. No wisdom in that. Just hope.
JTMc: It came to me via an FB friend, Jackie Dannenberg related to Konrad. The name is oldTimer in the space industry, Mr.D. having made some small contributions.
How it was made is another question. Whoever did that did it fast and with access to a lot of pertinent footage. So a supporter with inside clout no doubt.
I’m completely biased having spent my whole life starting on Monte Sano mountain to now where I can see what my neighbors on the hill built standing a half mile from my office window: a full scale Saturn V replica with the real deal on its side in the building next to the model. Space exploration over armaments any day but either choice bites us here. NASA HQ says no jobs will be lost so I’m not talking economics; I’m talking dreams worth having, adventures worth risking it all for, lives lost trying and lives spent making it possible.
Hard choices coming. Unlike many here and there, I don’t despair. I’m an old fashioned guy. I believe in this country, love it, willing to work to keep it moving forward. We’ve been had by those who can’t remember what “one for all and all for one” means.
Being old fashioned, I hope it still does mean something good. No wisdom in that. Just hope.
We average Americans do so very much wish that were the case, but we are the ones who get to make good on all those IOUs — unless the Really Smart Guys do something like the Weimar, or Argentina and other places and inflate the “debt dollars” into pittance value. Or just default. Lile all the rest of the shit that’s flying in the present storm, none of it is going to hit them or their $10,000 suits or $4,00 shoes or $600 hair stylings. And if some hits the exterior of their Big Box Mercedes limo, why, there’s Po’ Folk lined up at the corners with their spray bottles and their rags, just fighting for the chance to wipe it off.
We average Americans do so very much wish that were the case, but we are the ones who get to make good on all those IOUs — unless the Really Smart Guys do something like the Weimar, or Argentina and other places and inflate the “debt dollars” into pittance value. Or just default. Lile all the rest of the shit that’s flying in the present storm, none of it is going to hit them or their $10,000 suits or $4,00 shoes or $600 hair stylings. And if some hits the exterior of their Big Box Mercedes limo, why, there’s Po’ Folk lined up at the corners with their spray bottles and their rags, just fighting for the chance to wipe it off.
(Anyone remember or care that it was McChrystal who directed the phony hyping and pumping of the death of NFL-star-turned-”real-manhood”-testing Ranger Pat Tillman, almost getting away with one of those embedded-journalist deceits that initially made a Great Hero out of a guy who was killed by his own fellow GI because of asinine orders which he nonetheless tried to carry out? McChrystal, who like so many others who paint the rest of us into this corner, lives without consequences or fear of rectification?
For a very vivid dramatization of this character type see, Tom Cruise in Lions for Lambs. “Do you want to win the war on Terror? Yes or No, it’s as simple (minded)as that.”
(Anyone remember or care that it was McChrystal who directed the phony hyping and pumping of the death of NFL-star-turned-”real-manhood”-testing Ranger Pat Tillman, almost getting away with one of those embedded-journalist deceits that initially made a Great Hero out of a guy who was killed by his own fellow GI because of asinine orders which he nonetheless tried to carry out? McChrystal, who like so many others who paint the rest of us into this corner, lives without consequences or fear of rectification?
For a very vivid dramatization of this character type see, Tom Cruise in Lions for Lambs. “Do you want to win the war on Terror? Yes or No, it’s as simple (minded)as that.”
Is it just me, or has it become quiet all of a sudden? Maybe a bit too quiet.
Is it just me, or has it become quiet all of a sudden? Maybe a bit too quiet.
It’s not so quiet in Pakistan…not that it was.
Three wars and counting…
Indonesia anyone? Philippines? Uncle Sam goes to Africa…again? Do you see a common thread?
It’s not so quiet in Pakistan…not that it was.
Three wars and counting…
Indonesia anyone? Philippines? Uncle Sam goes to Africa…again? Do you see a common thread?
A hint of how people react to reality budgeting:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5b6a37fcdd25faa823b7f90e1a8417b5.2e1&show_article=1
A hint of how people react to reality budgeting:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5b6a37fcdd25faa823b7f90e1a8417b5.2e1&show_article=1
Now here’s a Busniess Brief for you. Seems the next “really fine aircraft” in the F-for-Fuckthenation series (F-35) is losing its General Procurement Officer due to “overruns,” which for once may not be buried in bullshit about the “totally unanticipated but absolutely justifiable and not the fault of anybody and indispensably necessary to preserve the National Security” costs of add-ons and change orders and all the other crap that has kept the Godzillions of War Dollars flowing essentially unthrottled for thre generations…
How many Millenials does it take to unwrite a MilSpec?
Now here’s a Busniess Brief for you. Seems the next “really fine aircraft” in the F-for-Fuckthenation series (F-35) is losing its General Procurement Officer due to “overruns,” which for once may not be buried in bullshit about the “totally unanticipated but absolutely justifiable and not the fault of anybody and indispensably necessary to preserve the National Security” costs of add-ons and change orders and all the other crap that has kept the Godzillions of War Dollars flowing essentially unthrottled for thre generations…
How many Millenials does it take to unwrite a MilSpec?
Note that “mistakes were made”…that phrase is always used in the passive voice so nobody has to take responsibility for the mistake. What happens? Do mistakes make themselves? Is it Murphy?
Note that “mistakes were made”…that phrase is always used in the passive voice so nobody has to take responsibility for the mistake. What happens? Do mistakes make themselves? Is it Murphy?
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
We’re mostly all complicit in that way of thinking:
Not “The angry repeat DUI drunk steered his 3,000 pound Dodge 300 against the light and into the crosswalk, using his car to shatter the frail body of the 78-year-old pedestrian, throwing her 150 feet through the air and killing her instantly.” Rather,
“His car hit the 78-year-old pedestrian in the crosswalk, throwing her 100 feet and killing her instantly.”
Car Bad! Bad Car! Bad! Go to your garage NOW!
“The tree jumped right out in front of my car.”
And these doozies.
There’s a huge and growing body of “legal scholarship” (footnotes, separated by tiny blocks of text) on the grand legal principles involved in excuses. And of course in the fevered field of “ethics,” and in whole schools of PR sharks.
We all want to be able to hide behind the “It just … happened!”, “My dog ate it!”, “Johnny did it!,” “We all took part in the lynching” excuse. And if the lying shameless SOB has persuaded a large enough group that he is of their tribe (Reagan “addressing responsibility” for the ‘insurgent bombing’ of the Marine barracks in Beirut, one of a huge number of “intelligence failures,” “intelligence” of both kinds), well, then, the Teflon (TM) principle applies. No foul, no harm. Sorry for your loss. Thank you for your service.
And of course the seemingly sincere, carefully worded apology by the CEO is the latest PR spinner, as a way to suck the righteous anger of the injured right out of them by an abuse of empathy. (The paradigm trigger for this was apparently the “successful” apology of the CEO of Japan Airlilnes for a DC-10 crash that killed several hundred on the slopes of one of the Japanese volcanic cones. If I remember right. Of course, for Japanese folks, there’s this notion of “giri” or duty, and honor, and shame, and apologies actually mean something. As a result, despite a gaggle of “aviation lawyers” descnding from the clouds, no or only minimal litigation was filed by the families of the deceased.
And don’t cite me the West Point motto — how many US servicemen, let alone the cadet and officer corps, have done grossly illegal, and grossly in violation of their stated “codes of conduct,” stuff for which they should be both ashamed, and incarcerated? And often even claim that it was done in furtherance of that “duty” part? And yes, there are honorable servicemen and women, and what happens to them if they drop a dime or blow the whistle?)
And on another plane, here’s a neat article that shows the “global thought patterns” that make skeptics like me wonder if the species has either the reason or the right to survive: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2438155/posts Note the reference to the REAL nature of the “defence industry,” as a slightly differentiated set of manufacturers, often sharing technology across the trenches as a reflection of how they really think and operate — as an insane, inflamed, about-to-rupture-fatally vermiform appendix on the aging bowels of the Industrial Revolution:
And this little bit:
Seems aircraft-to-aircraft “combat” these days is mostly between high-flight marketing wings of the manufacturers’ divisions, and the procurers they wine, dine, pimp for and bribe for that vital book of foreign business capital. There’s not even any kind of brand loyalty or identification any more — it’s all about buying something fast, useless, conspicuously consumptive, sexy and extravagantly expensive, like a Ferarri California, in which to park your penis. In that Flat Earth market beloved of Friedman et al.
Yep, a bit too quiet where us ordinary folks live… the quiet before the fuel-air explosive detonates…
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
We’re mostly all complicit in that way of thinking:
Not “The angry repeat DUI drunk steered his 3,000 pound Dodge 300 against the light and into the crosswalk, using his car to shatter the frail body of the 78-year-old pedestrian, throwing her 150 feet through the air and killing her instantly.” Rather,
“His car hit the 78-year-old pedestrian in the crosswalk, throwing her 100 feet and killing her instantly.”
Car Bad! Bad Car! Bad! Go to your garage NOW!
“The tree jumped right out in front of my car.”
And these doozies.
There’s a huge and growing body of “legal scholarship” (footnotes, separated by tiny blocks of text) on the grand legal principles involved in excuses. And of course in the fevered field of “ethics,” and in whole schools of PR sharks.
We all want to be able to hide behind the “It just … happened!”, “My dog ate it!”, “Johnny did it!,” “We all took part in the lynching” excuse. And if the lying shameless SOB has persuaded a large enough group that he is of their tribe (Reagan “addressing responsibility” for the ‘insurgent bombing’ of the Marine barracks in Beirut, one of a huge number of “intelligence failures,” “intelligence” of both kinds), well, then, the Teflon (TM) principle applies. No foul, no harm. Sorry for your loss. Thank you for your service.
And of course the seemingly sincere, carefully worded apology by the CEO is the latest PR spinner, as a way to suck the righteous anger of the injured right out of them by an abuse of empathy. (The paradigm trigger for this was apparently the “successful” apology of the CEO of Japan Airlilnes for a DC-10 crash that killed several hundred on the slopes of one of the Japanese volcanic cones. If I remember right. Of course, for Japanese folks, there’s this notion of “giri” or duty, and honor, and shame, and apologies actually mean something. As a result, despite a gaggle of “aviation lawyers” descnding from the clouds, no or only minimal litigation was filed by the families of the deceased.
And don’t cite me the West Point motto — how many US servicemen, let alone the cadet and officer corps, have done grossly illegal, and grossly in violation of their stated “codes of conduct,” stuff for which they should be both ashamed, and incarcerated? And often even claim that it was done in furtherance of that “duty” part? And yes, there are honorable servicemen and women, and what happens to them if they drop a dime or blow the whistle?)
And on another plane, here’s a neat article that shows the “global thought patterns” that make skeptics like me wonder if the species has either the reason or the right to survive: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2438155/posts Note the reference to the REAL nature of the “defence industry,” as a slightly differentiated set of manufacturers, often sharing technology across the trenches as a reflection of how they really think and operate — as an insane, inflamed, about-to-rupture-fatally vermiform appendix on the aging bowels of the Industrial Revolution:
And this little bit:
Seems aircraft-to-aircraft “combat” these days is mostly between high-flight marketing wings of the manufacturers’ divisions, and the procurers they wine, dine, pimp for and bribe for that vital book of foreign business capital. There’s not even any kind of brand loyalty or identification any more — it’s all about buying something fast, useless, conspicuously consumptive, sexy and extravagantly expensive, like a Ferarri California, in which to park your penis. In that Flat Earth market beloved of Friedman et al.
Yep, a bit too quiet where us ordinary folks live… the quiet before the fuel-air explosive detonates…
Yours undoubtedly is a smart move for an academician, Jon, yet I disagree with your predicate that the USA is an empire commensurate with once which once was held by the UK. That’s a fun photo of the Fabs–I hadn’t seen it–but it doesn’t work, hitoriographically, to hypothesize that imperialism passed like a bacillus from England to its stepchild in the West.
For one thing, we fought a war over that point, as you’ll recall. Our side won. Second, I realize that you’re thinking hard about Roosevelt The First, a true imperialist, but let me emphasize that he was anamolous, so much so that his distant cousin, FDR, explicity rejected imperialism as early as 1938, and then proceeded to keep his word unto death.
You and I might think fondly of TR as a Trust-buster. Well, FDR was the ultimate empire-buster. Except the busting wasn’t just done by him but by the whole country, life and limb.
I can’t say strongly enough how insulting it is for you to conflate this swingin’ big dick of an overweaning nation with the rapists who breed actual empires. It’s a huge moral distinction. Sure, we swung our glorious American dicks in Bosnia, for example. Were we therefore empire-building?
If so, then toward what end? To prosper American winemakers? What imperial interest do we have in Iraq? Oil? Prove it. In Aghanistan, what? Rugs? The poppy crop? I doubt it.
Rather, I believe that this country is fighting on principle, is fighting out of self-defense and also in defense of other peoples and of our supposed commitment to the self-determinstion of peoples. If you don’t like that then send your rocket scientists on a run to the pet shop for a rat, two turtles and some worms. What goes up, comes down.
Yours undoubtedly is a smart move for an academician, Jon, yet I disagree with your predicate that the USA is an empire commensurate with once which once was held by the UK. That’s a fun photo of the Fabs–I hadn’t seen it–but it doesn’t work, hitoriographically, to hypothesize that imperialism passed like a bacillus from England to its stepchild in the West.
For one thing, we fought a war over that point, as you’ll recall. Our side won. Second, I realize that you’re thinking hard about Roosevelt The First, a true imperialist, but let me emphasize that he was anamolous, so much so that his distant cousin, FDR, explicity rejected imperialism as early as 1938, and then proceeded to keep his word unto death.
You and I might think fondly of TR as a Trust-buster. Well, FDR was the ultimate empire-buster. Except the busting wasn’t just done by him but by the whole country, life and limb.
I can’t say strongly enough how insulting it is for you to conflate this swingin’ big dick of an overweaning nation with the rapists who breed actual empires. It’s a huge moral distinction. Sure, we swung our glorious American dicks in Bosnia, for example. Were we therefore empire-building?
If so, then toward what end? To prosper American winemakers? What imperial interest do we have in Iraq? Oil? Prove it. In Aghanistan, what? Rugs? The poppy crop? I doubt it.
Rather, I believe that this country is fighting on principle, is fighting out of self-defense and also in defense of other peoples and of our supposed commitment to the self-determinstion of peoples. If you don’t like that then send your rocket scientists on a run to the pet shop for a rat, two turtles and some worms. What goes up, comes down.
Hugo, you study history, so you know full well that the conclusions “historians” come to are colored by their selection of “facts” and “trends” and personal biases and experiences and education of the “historian” (etymologically, the “story teller”).
I for one see some very different “facts” and “trends” as drivers of the American Story. I for one do not see “the country” doing any “fighting on principle,” though I do hear a lot of people in power and in the media and blogspace and such mouthing various “principles,” including that stuff about “freedom” and “liberty” and “democracy” and all, while killing non-combatants with Hellfires to intimidate people who are in no way “our enemies” except because “we,” or “our leaders,” have picked a fight with them, because for economic and crowd-control reasons here at home, “we need” an Enemy, and a reason to “invest” (in several senses) there. you got predatory pedophiles consciously taking over the Catholic hierarchy to make the world safe for people who get off on raping little boys. You got “conservative evangelical ‘Christians’ consciously taking over the Air Force Academy and various other high positions in the MIC, many of whom believe it’s their God-driven duty to bring on Armageddon and all other the parts of that Revelation of St. John, that “book” that got included in the Bible only fortuitously as a bunch of old guys argued many centuries ago about which of many gospels and other text would be included in the Official Bible.
I signed up for that Vietnam thing in significant part on “principle.” You gonna tell me that any reasonable and honest selection of facts and trends makes that out to be an exercise of Principle, other than the Principle of US Hegemony? And that the huge outflow of Nation’s-life’s-blood wealth into building and manning “sites” all over the world from which the non-infinite-but-our-Leaders-act-like-it-is US military and sneaky-Petes and mercenaries can “effectuate Policy” has anything to do with those Enlightenment Principles, rather than the cancer of militarization and economic and political domination? Those actions are justified by a much more covert set of motives, and it doesn’t take much “historical inquiry” to expose those motives, expressed in the very own words of their proponents and the contractors that carry them out.
Humans have a hard time distinguishing between What Is, and What They Believe Is, and What They Think Everything Should Be Like.
We have a rat problem, all right… Maybe it would be time to emulate the turtle, and pull our vulnerable extremities inside the shell for a while…
Hugo, you study history, so you know full well that the conclusions “historians” come to are colored by their selection of “facts” and “trends” and personal biases and experiences and education of the “historian” (etymologically, the “story teller”).
I for one see some very different “facts” and “trends” as drivers of the American Story. I for one do not see “the country” doing any “fighting on principle,” though I do hear a lot of people in power and in the media and blogspace and such mouthing various “principles,” including that stuff about “freedom” and “liberty” and “democracy” and all, while killing non-combatants with Hellfires to intimidate people who are in no way “our enemies” except because “we,” or “our leaders,” have picked a fight with them, because for economic and crowd-control reasons here at home, “we need” an Enemy, and a reason to “invest” (in several senses) there. you got predatory pedophiles consciously taking over the Catholic hierarchy to make the world safe for people who get off on raping little boys. You got “conservative evangelical ‘Christians’ consciously taking over the Air Force Academy and various other high positions in the MIC, many of whom believe it’s their God-driven duty to bring on Armageddon and all other the parts of that Revelation of St. John, that “book” that got included in the Bible only fortuitously as a bunch of old guys argued many centuries ago about which of many gospels and other text would be included in the Official Bible.
I signed up for that Vietnam thing in significant part on “principle.” You gonna tell me that any reasonable and honest selection of facts and trends makes that out to be an exercise of Principle, other than the Principle of US Hegemony? And that the huge outflow of Nation’s-life’s-blood wealth into building and manning “sites” all over the world from which the non-infinite-but-our-Leaders-act-like-it-is US military and sneaky-Petes and mercenaries can “effectuate Policy” has anything to do with those Enlightenment Principles, rather than the cancer of militarization and economic and political domination? Those actions are justified by a much more covert set of motives, and it doesn’t take much “historical inquiry” to expose those motives, expressed in the very own words of their proponents and the contractors that carry them out.
Humans have a hard time distinguishing between What Is, and What They Believe Is, and What They Think Everything Should Be Like.
We have a rat problem, all right… Maybe it would be time to emulate the turtle, and pull our vulnerable extremities inside the shell for a while…
There’s a quote from the Jay Lake novel, Mainspring, that fits this discussion:
“We of the Northern Earth think with our manhood and eat like wildfires.”
The War on Terror is based in the appeal to this form of “manhood”. No woomanly types need apply. See Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell for reference. We can’t have our enemies, or friends for that matter, think we would be soft. No matter that we eat up all of our resources, generals and corporations don’t worry about such mundaneity. It is all about being hard, carrying a big stick, and allowing the defeated to know our generosity.
There’s a quote from the Jay Lake novel, Mainspring, that fits this discussion:
“We of the Northern Earth think with our manhood and eat like wildfires.”
The War on Terror is based in the appeal to this form of “manhood”. No woomanly types need apply. See Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell for reference. We can’t have our enemies, or friends for that matter, think we would be soft. No matter that we eat up all of our resources, generals and corporations don’t worry about such mundaneity. It is all about being hard, carrying a big stick, and allowing the defeated to know our generosity.
JTM, I don’t want to argue with you anymore. I’ve always respected your views but we just seem ever to disagree. Thank you for acknowledging historians as simple storrytellers; I trust you understand that such a testimony restores us to the Humanities, sparing us the insufferable pseudo-sciences.
You have an odd knack for mixing the sacred with the profane. I agree deeply with some of your themes, as they baffle me also. As to John’s gospel, if you really want to know why it’s canonical I’d be happy to explain, yet I admit that it’s a good question. It’s an unusually mystical and mystifying text. Sometimes I fear it’s too succinct.
JTM, I don’t want to argue with you anymore. I’ve always respected your views but we just seem ever to disagree. Thank you for acknowledging historians as simple storrytellers; I trust you understand that such a testimony restores us to the Humanities, sparing us the insufferable pseudo-sciences.
You have an odd knack for mixing the sacred with the profane. I agree deeply with some of your themes, as they baffle me also. As to John’s gospel, if you really want to know why it’s canonical I’d be happy to explain, yet I admit that it’s a good question. It’s an unusually mystical and mystifying text. Sometimes I fear it’s too succinct.
That’s quite an apt quotation, rhbee. How sadly so. How I wish that “we” [as JTM insists] could just leave the guns in the ground and come home, but as the old saying goes, there’s no substitute for victory. The swine we’re up against invite victory.
That’s quite an apt quotation, rhbee. How sadly so. How I wish that “we” [as JTM insists] could just leave the guns in the ground and come home, but as the old saying goes, there’s no substitute for victory. The swine we’re up against invite victory.
Yes, I remember. And yes, I want to preempt this chimerical enemy. And yes, I want all our combatants brought home and taken care of as effectively and affectively as we can do. How can we get all these things? In what sequence? When?
Yes, I remember. And yes, I want to preempt this chimerical enemy. And yes, I want all our combatants brought home and taken care of as effectively and affectively as we can do. How can we get all these things? In what sequence? When?
len, maybe we should return to the drawing boards. Yunno? Things are getting bad, and caring planners probably should put their shoulders to the last with greater diligence and kind care than ever. It gives me no satisfaction to be right. In fact it makes me sick. Let’s pick up and go, all of us.
Truly, let’s do. Do you take my meaning? Let’s just go, Man. No more doldrums. We’ve got the chops. It would be a sin to waste them.
Have you looked over at this sadness In California? It’s not the expected thing; it’s fucking shocking. They toyed around too long and now they have no idea what they’re doing, they’re so over their heads.
len, maybe we should return to the drawing boards. Yunno? Things are getting bad, and caring planners probably should put their shoulders to the last with greater diligence and kind care than ever. It gives me no satisfaction to be right. In fact it makes me sick. Let’s pick up and go, all of us.
Truly, let’s do. Do you take my meaning? Let’s just go, Man. No more doldrums. We’ve got the chops. It would be a sin to waste them.
Have you looked over at this sadness In California? It’s not the expected thing; it’s fucking shocking. They toyed around too long and now they have no idea what they’re doing, they’re so over their heads.
By the way I agree with you completely about the forensics of Historiography. It’s a weak point, Can you guys survive the implicite promise of Hollywood money, or are you as bankrupt as Hollywood pretends expensively not to be but really quite so nasty as it actually is?
A bunch of Hollywood Greedhheads bankrupted my Golden State, and they’re still doing so. Mark my words, I will hunt them down–Look out, Darrell!–and ruin their careereers
to the last person. It’s got to stop sometime. Frankly I see this as UCLA vs. USC. As much as the two campuses cooperate at the graduate level, still they maintain stubbornly different views about L.A.
By the way I agree with you completely about the forensics of Historiography. It’s a weak point, Can you guys survive the implicite promise of Hollywood money, or are you as bankrupt as Hollywood pretends expensively not to be but really quite so nasty as it actually is?
A bunch of Hollywood Greedhheads bankrupted my Golden State, and they’re still doing so. Mark my words, I will hunt them down–Look out, Darrell!–and ruin their careereers
to the last person. It’s got to stop sometime. Frankly I see this as UCLA vs. USC. As much as the two campuses cooperate at the graduate level, still they maintain stubbornly different views about L.A.
Odd you should mention that, Hugo. My office mate and I were sitting at a railroad crossing last week when a freight car passed us. Painted on the side was grafitti that read simply, “LA Sucks!” Someone wanted to get the message out coast to coast.
Can’t say I liked it when I’ve been there but that’s because I don’t enjoy really big burgs in general. Santa Barbara is my kind of town.
Odd you should mention that, Hugo. My office mate and I were sitting at a railroad crossing last week when a freight car passed us. Painted on the side was grafitti that read simply, “LA Sucks!” Someone wanted to get the message out coast to coast.
Can’t say I liked it when I’ve been there but that’s because I don’t enjoy really big burgs in general. Santa Barbara is my kind of town.
BTW, that’s right, Doug. The Doves here seem to find it unthinkable, but yes, even under our presently distressed circumstances this country could manage to redouble its defense budget. Now that’s a terrible thing to say, but true.
Look, if the C-in-C wants to do anything at all in particular he pretty well can do, so long as he doesn’t dither, cower or nitpick. He looks to me like a coward who can’t point over the Centerfield fence. Believe me I want him to do so.
BTW, that’s right, Doug. The Doves here seem to find it unthinkable, but yes, even under our presently distressed circumstances this country could manage to redouble its defense budget. Now that’s a terrible thing to say, but true.
Look, if the C-in-C wants to do anything at all in particular he pretty well can do, so long as he doesn’t dither, cower or nitpick. He looks to me like a coward who can’t point over the Centerfield fence. Believe me I want him to do so.