The Search for Honesty in the 21st Century
In the musical 1776, one of the first offerings is John Adams bemoaning the lack of progress toward independency:
I do believe you’ve laid a curse on North America
A curse that we now here rehearse in Philadelphia
A second flood, a simple famine
Plagues of locusts everywhere
Or a cataclysmic earthquake
I’d accept with some despair
But, no, you sent us Congress.
Good God, sir, was that fair?
Sometimes it’s hard to improve on the classics.
As the debate continues about Confederate monuments, I’d like for you to consider a few issues:
I keep hearing apologia that the Confederate soldiers honored by these monuments were not traitors. Merriam Webster provides the definitions below. Many of those depicted in statues and other monuments attended or graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, where they had taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. These include Robert E. Lee, Braxton Bragg, A.P. Hill, George Pickett, and John Bell Hood. For a more inclusive list, click here. They all took up arms and waged war against the country to which they had sworn an oath.
1 : one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty 2 : one who commits treason
1 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign’s family 2 : the betrayal of a trust
The use of federal troops independent of state and local authorities in Portland, Oregon is disturbing. Word is that Chicago, Illinois will be next. After that, they may be coming to a neighborhood near you.
It’s bad enough that your president has manged to get para-military forces at his command. It’s worse that Americans in the employ of the federal government who have sworn an oath to the US Constitution have changed their allegiance to Trump and are complicit, if not worse.
I say that you should go all the way or not at all. If you don’t have the common sense to stop, then make Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich your role models.
If you don’t know about Himmler and Heydrich, perhaps you should read up on them. You could learn a lot–even though, in the long run, things did not work out well for them.
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
Ivanka Trump recently told unemployed Americans to “find something new.” This simplistic response to a complex problem was met with astonishment and compared to Marie Antoinette’s alleged advice to “Let them eat cake.” The biggest difference is that Antoinette probably did NOT make the cake comment. Ivanka, on the other hand, actually did tell Americans to “find something new.”
Anxious to top her previous comment, Ivanka–the Special Assistant to the President for Boneheaded Advice–raised the ante. Goya’s president had angered many of its customers by calling Donald Trump “a blessing,” so Ivanka started promoting Goya. Does anyone believe that Ivanka has ever–as in not even once in her life–opened a can of Goya beans?
Since all Trumps are shielded from laws, regulations, and anything else they find inconvenient, Ivanka’s Goya promotion is a clear federal ethics violation is immaterial. After all, White House plastic surgery poster girl Kellyann Conway, violated the same ethics rules when she shilled Ivanka’s clothing brand. When the administration was confronted with Kellyann’s behavior, the only response was silence, interrupted only by the sound of crickets chirping.
The president is rumored to have told his staff that it’s no big deal and both issues could easily be corrected with the stroke of a SHARPIE.
P.S. Given Donald Trumps bromance with Russian leader-for-life Vladimir Putin, does anyone else find it unsettling that “Ivanka” is the feminine version of “Ivan,” one of, if not the most, popular first name in Russia?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
I observed Edmund Burke, but don’t claim to have known him. He was far too busy to commune with a long-dead philosopher. On the other hand, Mr. Burke is now also a long-dead philosopher, so he may better appreciate my position. Nevertheless, I appreciate and applaud his wisdom.
Edmund Burke is viewed as the father of modern conservatism. Given the current situation, it’s sad that most modern conservatives have no appreciation for his philosophy or his hard-learned lessons. If they were willing, they could learn a great deal from him.
I suspect their minds are closed.
Conservatives refuse to wear masks. Why? Because somebody told them to? Does this mean that when their mother told them not to run with scissors, they took offense? Would it have been better if Mom and Dr. Fauci had said, “Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on it?”
I’ve been enjoying the interaction between Tucker Carlson and Senator Tammy Duckworth. Let’s look at the bona fides of these two . . . .
Tucker Carlson
– Grew up in a home overlooking the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club
– Has a BA in history
– Tried to join the CIA, but was rejected
– Father had been head of the Voice of America and the Corporation for Public Brodcasting
– Has worked as a newspaper reporter in Arkansas and has been published in a number of magazines
– Is a conservative pundit on Fox News
– Accuses Senator Tammy Duckworth of being un-American
Tammy Duckworth
– Has a BA in Political Science, an MA in International Affairs, and a PhD in Human Services; was pursuing a second PhD in Political Science, but was mobilized with the US Army before she could complete it
– Joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps in graduate school
– Commissioned as an officer in the US Army Reserve, became a helicopter pilot and was deployed to Iraq where she lost both legs in combat to a rocket propelled grenade
– Lobbied to remain in service, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Army National Guard
– Has served in numerous public service positions including as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate
Before either of them says a single word, who would you choose to listen to?
“Dammit Jim, I’m a philosopher, not a mathematician!”*
Your political leaders are saying that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are harmless.
I don’t have a whiteboard, a chalkboard, much less a working copy of Microsoft Excel in my sewer-home. However, I do have a stick and there’s a dirt road I can reach by leaning out of my sewer, so I did some ciphering (as we used to call math).
Over the last few months, the number of new deaths to new cases has been 2.8 percent. For any politicians reading this, that means that for every 1000 new cases, 28 will die. No big deal, except that in the United States, you have had 3,022,742 cases. Politicians, either have one of your staff do the math for you, or else, just ignore it.
As a philosopher, that tells me:
1. People who do not die from the disease are, according to your political leaders, not harmed–even if their lungs don’t work properly for the rest of their (shortened) life.
2. A majority of those who die from the disease–nearly two out of three–are, according to your political leaders, not harmed either. This does not align with Betelgeuse, who said “Besides, this dead thing—-it’s creepy.”
I could cipher and write more, but I’d rather crawl back into my sewer.
Good luck. You’re going to need it.
* Apologies to Star Trek (The Original Series)
Personally, I’m excited about Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. It looks to be more entertaining political intrigue than watching the Borgias or the Medicis during their prime. Why?
Because the campaign is being run by this guy.
Jared Kuschner, who’s qualifications include marrying the Trump daughter for which Trump seems to have an unnatural affection. That’s it. Nothing else to add to his bona fides. However, his experience speaks for itself.
Jared was in charge of solving the opioid crisis, which wasn’t exactly solved. In 2019 there were 46,802 deaths due to opioids. Ooops!
Jared single-handedly managed the Middle East peace process without absolutely any tangible results.
He was responsible for improving relations with China. Not exactly a home run, but in fairness, they did share COVID-19 with the rest of the world.
Speaking of which, there was Jared’s wonderful handling of the response to the pandemic, which had a record 51,097 new cases yesterday. However, he set us all straight when he explained that the national stockpile of emergency supplies is “our” meaning “his” stockpile and not for use by the states, much less the people of the United States of America.
I can’t wait to see the campaign unfold. This has the potential to challenge the Marx Brothers for absolute knee-slapping comedy.
As the father of philosophical cynicism, it is not terribly surprising that some of the things I write aren’t greeted with enthusiasm. Recently, a number of them were discarded and didn’t get published. During my physical presence on earth millennia ago, I would have responded by urinating on the feet of my detractors. (Don’t believe me? Click here.) No longer having a corporeal presence, that is more difficult–that is to say, impossible.
In any case, I still find it difficult to accept that some of my writings have not been published. Apparently, it is because I speak the truth and your society no longer has an interest in the truth. To me, that is an amazing thing. How can you function?
If I walk through the forest and a tree is in my path, if I tell myself there is no tree, I would surely find myself on the ground, nursing a nasty bruise. Likewise, if I walk toward the sea and continue past the shore, I will eventually drown whether I admit the sea is there or not.
I am amazed by your disavowal of facts–absolutely amazed and it takes a lot to amaze me.
After the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
A democratic republic is sometimes described as an experiment. It runs counter to humanity’s inability to restrain ambitious and unscrupulous people from accumulating power and wealth. Greed is powerful–certainly more attractive than putting the good of society ahead of one’s own best interest.
Your country is at the point at which it needs to decide whether it wants to keep a republic.
May I offer this advice. Power tends to dissipate with death. Even hereditary monarchies are prone to being disrupted, whether by conquest, arranged marriages, or revolution. Wealth is often dissipated after only a few generations. On the other hand, doing something for the betterment of others lives on.
