Hi Roger,
On this forum, I was severely criticized for using color and bold type to organize on a forum which offers no threaded view in which one can easily see to whom a post was addressed. The issues I raised were eliminated in favor of attack of use of tools.
I thought it helped then and think it helps now. :-)
Rather than replicate all we each have said, let me address more selectively. First, my compliments for your thoughtful posts and careful articulation of view.
“High priced advertising” is not another phrase for education. My use of that phrase was to suggest that the biggest financial contributors to political campaigns have had the loudest voice to the elected officials whom they helped to elect. Hence the “ability to rise above” (your phrase) is made more difficult even if or when an elected official, particularly the president, has access to genuine information which he is advised to dismiss, misrepresent, or destroy. As a thoughtful poster, you may well ask: How do we avoid this? I may well respond: I don’t know.
Roger stated:
It appears to me that the value of human life is higher today than ever before, generally speaking. Mothers (parents?) are having more difficulty sending their sons and daughters to war. The glories of combat and death for God-&-Country are looked at with askance as never before. Daily fatalities are counted by single digits when in WWII, and others, it was by the thousands. This alone indicates to me that common pain is felt in every "denominator" level.
There is much correct about this analytical statement. The electorate seems to have an Alzheimer’s memory. It moves on and forgets. It seemed following the Viet Nam war that the leadership of the US would be forever supremely cautious about involvement in another war of huge cost in life and treasure. And yet, here we are within the same lifetime at war.
Fact and information was suppressed, distorted, and falsified as faith-based conclusion was sold as truth by a president who was marginally elected (see Supreme Court) in 2000. I should like to believe your observation as a forecast that Americans would remember what you have stated here. But, I’m skeptical. I agree that the “common pain is felt…” everywhere (almost). However, because Americans appear to have short-term-memory, (Viet Nam), should we see an economy turned positive in the next 4 years, the “God-&-Country” may well be used (abused) again. Cleaning up the Bush disaster will not be easy or painless. And regardless of who is president, that person will have enormous problems to confront, special-interest pressures, and great difficulty in sorting the incoming, complex data.
Roger stated:
So it has been said. Too "folks get the leaders they deserve." Socrates/Plato/XYZ said to the effect, "Democracy will end in Mobocracy." Maybe Marx was correct? We just haven't got there yet?? IF/WHEN "it's difficult to see..." then as thinking creative beings WE must look harder--more seriously. Don't you think?
Absolutely!!
The problem is “WE.” That is, there are many who prefer to watch a football game in HDTV rather than give thoughtful insight to huge problems which they feel powerless to address or which they prefer to avoid. While it may be escape mentality, it’s prevalent in much of the country. Many people prefer to be entertained rather than enlightened. Even worse, attempts to enlighten are met with anger and hostility. (Personal attacks substituted for honest intellectual inquiry)
That is not a disagreement with your admonition that “WE must look harder – more seriously.”
It is, however, a recognition that the reach for proposition may exceed the grasp.
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Roger stated:
RM: True, but folks have a way of rising to challenges. Me thinks most are smarter now than before. "Fool some...but not all, all of the time."
Yes, of course. However, in a democracy such as our status quo, if only a minority remains not fooled, the fooled carry the day. Hence, your call previously for “education” must NOT be left to the minority.
Or “Where reason and evidence are turned aside in favor of dogma and claim absent evidence, danger prevails.” JAK
Roger stated:
RM: "...once was blind but now we see..." This "God bless America" stuff is wearing thinner by the utterance, I venture to say. Especially abroad, as well with the "thinking new generation" of Americans, such as yourself. Of course there's resistance from die-hards. But even they don't live forever...
“Especially abroad” absolutely! Two books you might enjoy: The Assault on Reason by Al Gore and The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacobs (who was recently interviewed on Bill Moyer’s Journal (PBS).
My thanks again to you for your many thoughtful posts, questions, and observations, Roger.
JAK