| | Fred,
I never, in a million years, thought that I would be the one to play devil's advocate with you ... on the subject of our country's future. That being said, I have 2.5 odd concerns to throw -- like spaghetti -- at your optimism, just to see if any of it sticks.
Again, I cannot believe that I am doing this right now (but don't read into that 'too much'!).
One concern I have is the integration of 2 premises:
1) Rush Limbaugh said we're stuck with our current US president until 2016 (because of the top-down perpetuation of primitive tribalism in this country)
2) A dude who called in to him today insinuated that low-skilled labor in this country -- e.g., millions of unlawful immigrants -- will be replaced by 'human-shaped' robots before 2016
Now, if you make the extra mental effort that it takes to integrate those 2 things, then you have at least a temporary situation where 20 million extra people in this country lose their jobs within a year or two.
Now, I'm not a rocket scientist, but I know a little bit about the history of mass movements, and about how it is that an evil person could position himself to be "rocketed" into a throne of power over others. If the man-like robot-workers make it off of the assembly line in time -- and the markets don't have time to adjust for that sort of a thing -- then freedom-lovers are in trouble.
Also, I just finished reading "Intellectuals and Society", by Thomas Sowell. It's an excellent read, and in it, he talks about the dangerous hubris (i.e., the "fatal flaw") of social-engineering, political scientists who think that they can create paradise out of whole cloth (or out of say, a society undergoing strife).
Well, without naming any names or any news programs, there was this guy getting interviewed about the future of Syria. He was interviewed because he has expertise in such matters. He insinuated that political scientists can remake Syria, maybe not into a paradise, but into a peaceful place where strife has been severely marginalized.
To hear him gloat about what kind of great, transformative, nation-building power is wielded by such intellectual elites -- after reading Sowell's treatise on the matter -- well, let's just say it made me throw-up in my mouth a little (and incentivized me into this thread to play devil's advocate).
And, to top it off -- yes, there is still topping here! -- to top it off, D. Rumsfeld was interviewed on NPR and he said that history will show that Bush was in fact right to both invade Iraq and to continue the mission in order to nation-build there. To his credit, he mentioned mission-creep and how it is that too much was done there. But he was talking about the future as if he is some kind of a NeoCon (ie., disgruntled liberal) or something! He was talking as if he was cut from the same cloth that Sowell warned me about with his book.
Both political parties, fully entrenched in the same foreign policy (while the country goes under). Ugh!
There. I hope it is out of my system now.
:-)
Ed (Edited by Ed Thompson on 5/18, 8:36am)
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