I've been busy trying to write my next novel. But two items online spurred my ire. And so, as "Contrary Brin," I will fairmindedly aim my hot scalpel toward both extremes of the silly, nonsensical "left-right political axis."
Of course we know what the biggest difference is, between liberalism and conservatism, these days. Both movements have their complete, gibbering monsters. Alas, one of these large American movements is now utterly controlled by its fanatical/crazy wing, and I'll start by aiming a harsh screed in that direction. The other movement is luckier; it is still run, overall, by its pragmatic problem solvers -- but that doesn't mean there aren't psychopaths on that side, too! And so, in a day or two, I'll set an example in contrary evenhandedness and shoot down some really horrid lefty flakes.
But first.....
A truly excellent appraisal is given by the meticulous political blogger Russ Daggatt, of how, just in the last week, even "moderates" in the Republican establishment seem to have toppled into bona fide, certifiable, non-compos craziness. None of their "issues" has anything to do with old-fashioned "left-right" any longer, or defending markets or any"conservatism" that Barry Goldwater would even distantly recognize.
Goldwater believed in discourse, in science, in negotiation, persuasion, accountability and adult behavior. Now? With regret, I am willing to call off attempts to restart civilized discourse with "decent conservatives." There don't appear to be any left. Just a pack of these grumpy (and loony) old white men who make clear, by their scorched-Earth approach to politics, that they would rather see America fail than Obama succeed.
Read Daggatt. Devastatingly, he shows this via a dozen cogent points you may not have seen before.
On the other hand, I am also very unhappy with the playbook of the Democrats, who seem to think that they can reason their way out of Culture War. That has been their neurotic delusion, for a very long time, and it has made them very bad at playing the game.
Look, when you have a relentless and implacable enemy alliance, the trick above all is to break up their coalition. You start by analyzing it for unlikely bedfellows. Blatantly, the right-wing culture war army has three important components:
1) The string-pullers are made up of conniving plutocrats, led by Rupert Murdoch. The only overall winners from the Bush era.
2) The priesthood of the movement -- the Rationalizers -- make up the so-called "libertarian" wing of Republicanism. This segment has dwindled in the face of monumental GOP betrayal of everything that Adam Smith ever stood for -- no-bid crony contracting, arterial deficit spending, meddlesome-jingoistic imperialism, fiscal and financial blundering, stark power-grabs and violations of civil liberties have all left this segment quivering.
Those who can count have noticed that EVERY Supply Side prediction failed and every metric of national health collapsed under GOP rule. Those who can be swayed by facts are already moving on. Leaving two subsets behind... those who are in utter denial, covering their ears and screaming "nah!!"... and those who are whores, in the pay of the New Lords. No, there's little to be gained by trying any longer to reason with this layer.
3) Meanwhile the biggest clade -- those we see screeching at Town Meetings and Tea parties -- are largely white, male, non-urban know-nothings. And they matter -- a lot. They are as important to the New Lords as poor southern whites were, to plantation aristocrats, during the US Civil War -- ground troops who have to be stoked into a rage, in order to serve the lords' higher interests. Why else would Fox News push relentlessly the thinly buried message -- to hate half your fellow citizens? Especially anyone with a post-graduate degree?
Do these ground troops ever actually GET anything, from their masters? Across the GOP-led era, not a single agenda item promised to the fundamentalists, or nativists, or gun folk, or any other Deep Red group, was ever delivered. No effective changes in abortion law, no reduction in illegal immigration, no improvement (in fact huge declines) in military readiness. Drops in job security and net income. Oh, it's futile to point any of this out. Murdoch knows the buttons. Democrats simply cede this swathe to him. They just assume that, in their tens of millions, Red Populists are inherently and irreversibly in the right-wing camp...
...or are they? Might there be a way to turn the boiling rage of group #3 toward group #1? Veering the massive Red Populist movement against the plantation aristocracy? Surely that is the possibility giving the New Lords night-time sweats.
Impossible? Think about it. Murdoch keeps tapping a central theme -- one that is deeply American -- Suspicion of Authority (SOA) -- pushed in every song, legend and Hollywood film. We differ mainly over WHICH group each of us perceives trying to become Big Brother. Some dread corporations and aristocrats. Others -- faceless government bureaucrats and snooty intellectuals. Each of us tends to see only threats from the direction we chose to fixate-on. (Hence, my decision, long ago, to practice omni-directional contrariness!)
So far, Faux News has done a great job stirring Red America to actinic fury at government (even though the GOP ran it for so long) and at urbanites and anyone who actually knows anything. He seems to have the Red Populists all sewn up.
But remember, it wasn't so long ago that working whites fumed against greedy Mr. Potter types! The key question is: What would it take to make that happen again?.
The answer is really simple. A heap of great big scandals, that go farther than what we've seen, so far. Scandals that rub the populists' noses in how thoroughly they have been used by a different powerful group of authoritarians.
This is why I am ticked off at Attorney General Holder, for going after (and alienating) the CIA at a time when Halliburton's betrayal of our troops would make a far juicier target. The sole-source "emergency clause" no-bid contracts that cost our republic billions while stabbing the military in the back. The tax cheats with their offshore secret accounts. The parasites and monopolists, destroying mom & pop business, across the country. The Wall Street vampires. How many more betrayals-up-top can Fox spin? The answer? Keep them busy and let's find out?
The crux: Why has there been almost NO talk of a Special Prosecutor for Recession-causing crimes? Is Goldman-Sachs really that influential in the Obama White House?
Getting back to the overview: do mark my words, Culture War is the greatest overall treason committed against the republic since Secession. Perpetrated in very much the same spirit, with similar goals and methods, while tapping an identical thread in the national psyche. It is a deliberate, manipulative scheme to demolish America's enlightenment methods of deliberated problem solving. It has nothing whatsoever to do with safeguarding markets, capitalism or freedom. Indeed, those things can only survive by defeating it.
This is the fight worth winning, but Democrats seem to be clueless about how to begin. SO it may be up to the rest of us. We should be focusing on how to separate the ground troops from their masters. Divert populism and its ire back toward the enemies who ruined every other renaissance in human history.
I am NOT talking about "class warfare" against the rich. (Though the Murdochians are complete fools, if they think their road will not eventually lead to tumbrels, rolling in the streets. Smart int he short-term, imbecilles in the long.)
No, most of those who are merely wealthy earned it, fair and square. So this is only glancingly about "the rich."
I am talking about those who want to resume the ancient art of feudalism.
Find a way to waken Red America to that danger, and we may yet win back our brothers and sisters in fellow citizenship and common cause. In the only Revolution that ever changed humanity for the better.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Runaway Serfer
Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
Salon.com
Comments
have you read the nanothermite paper? CA tells me you're a physicist, I dont recall that, I have to dig up your biography... [could you put a link to your bio on open salon?]... would be very interested if you could write a blog about your nanothermite views & will comment on that
"there are two type of republicans. millionaires, and fools"
a. vertebrates have spines.
In a word, yes. Obama is such a conservative Democrat that he still believes that what's good for Wall Street is good for Main Street. Notice that not much has been said about bringing corporate jobs home. Not much about tax benefits, or any other effort to increase hiring. That's because those jobs are gone and Wall Street won't abide domestic production - they killed off the automakers for that reason. Feudalism is coming to the US for that reason, and the Obama White House is abetting it, with all the best moderate intentions.
to further your basic thesis, something I have noticed for many years ... maybe in politics there are many false "decoys" that are put up, like shiny distractions for the public, who fixate on the false issue while they are being robbed blind... maybe they are so common that our politics is riddled with them, and no one can tell a real issue from a fake one any more... except those pulling the strings... the plutocrats...
wealth disparity is at monstrous levels.. by some measures, maybe even larger than during the 20s peak. ie, highest ever in the history of the US.
now, I dont know what you call this.. superfeudalism?? hyperfeudalism?
And racism, such a pathetic attitude, not something you'd find in a civilization worth the name. What was it Gandi said - 'Civilization? Its a great idea.' Obama seems like such a decent man, unlike his predecessor, Bush, who was a fool.
I am particularly fond of your novel Startide Rising, your imagination and humor make it a rewarding read.
Can i --as a liberal/progressive -- nominate my favorite Left nonsense?
1. Support of CAM
2. Indifference or even hostility to the success of Clinton's/Repub's Workfare
3. General hipper-than-thou, purer-than-thou BS, wherein no public option (and i strongly support it!) = complete failure; or ANY military engagement is Evil unadorned; or even allowing points or balance or personal dignity to persons on the right is "caving in".
That said: Cheney and his admin need to be in jail, yesterday. And exactly right, your point about going after Haliburton.
And Blackwater. Mercenaries are the enemy of deliberative Democracy.
*This is not the time for liberal navelgazing* and criticism, though in the future, when we are past this abominable shitstorm, there will certainly be an appropriate time to do so.
The pin upon which it all turns (the "axis," if I may coin a term!) is, as Mr. Brin said: YOU DON'T WIN A CULTURE WAR BY TRYING TO REASON YOUR WAY OUT OF IT.
The only way to deal with a bully is to pop him one in the nose.
I am so happy and fortunate that I am not a kid who will have to find my way somewhat safely through the no rights minefield of what once was America.
I have lived through the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and, so far, the 2000s.
America has progressively and exponentially deteriorated.
It is no longer MY AMERICA.
It has been stolen from me and others like me by those over which we have no ACTUAL/REAL control.
For those who say it is my/our fault for doing nothing, have someone who lives in the REAL WORLD explain to you how everything is set up to PREVENT us from doing anything about it all.
It IS.
Undoubtedly, the color of our president's skin plays an enormous role in the beating he's taking; from both the right and left. Certainly, we have not had a more intelligent and enlightened president for more elections than probably I can remember. But, does that ring a positive bell with the rednecks and haters of different skin colors? NO! America is hog-ass wild with a Klu-Klux-Klan mentallity.
The republicans have made utter fools of themselves and the democrats, utter asses. There is no valid reason for the animosity they exhibit towards Obama and practically every word that escapes his mouth, thus, there has to be something more behind it. I lay my money on the fact that he is of mixed heritage.
America hasn't come far from the slave-day mentallity. Most simply do not think but ride on the opinions of those who think and utter the ugly worst. They thrive on it and are ready at a moments notice to pass it around the world via their PCs. These are the hawks, searching for prey in the hope of changing all to their way of thinking.
Of course, they will not succeed with all of us but they are succeeding in destroying democracy, equity and respect for all things political. Very, very sad.
What a load of BS.
or the 1 after:
rfk elected pres in 68,
mlk his vp
or somehow advisor...
etc...
I have been saying for some time we need to come from outside the system, Americans aligned together, and tell the truth (and quit riding the coattails of our officials). The Democrats have not been able to do this job...it's up to each American (including myself) to unite and shine the light on these truths.
We have more common ground than we realize - the Reds have no interest in reaching across the aisle, they just say that for good showmanship (and fat bank accounts).
As you list 3 points, all well taken, those wanting to reach the hoi polloi would be well advised to follow the 3 EZ Points method of communication- and stick to them no matter what.
Kind of like 1. Glen Beck, Glen Beck! 2. You Lie, You Lie! 3. Bury Obamacare! EZ soundbites, just like they get in Church ...
Even if Obama and every other non-republican had irrefutable proof that their plans would save money in the long term, they would never agree to any of it because it 's not really about what people think it's about. I'm as non-partisan as they come, and there are some traditionally conservative values that I hold, but the republican party and especially the quacks that have surfaced lately are collectively the world's largest paranoid schizophrenic, for whom no amount of proof will convince them anyone in the government can be trusted.
But I wonder? Would they be happy to live in trailer parks and work 12 hours a day for minimum wage? Would they be content with this life, if only they could live in a world that was all-white, english speaking only, entirely Christian (protestant of course), a world where no one could have an abortion, welfare, or marry a same sex partner? Im curious because this is the kind of America the conservative politicians want to create.
vzn said: "in fact.. heres a radical thought.. maybe the right vs left distinction is a decoy, one of the most massive ones of all [factoid.. it dates to the french revolution assembly in the 1800s or so]"
You hit on the head, vzn. This monstrously stupid metaphor is almost useless for any practical purpose. No two people ever define it the same. When they do nail it down to specific (e.g. whether you worship or disdain private property) most of the other correlations vanish! Above all, those who slavishly subsume themselves into either "left" or "right" thereupon render themselves lobotomized, politically -- foresaking all agility and curiosity in favor of the drug-high of us-versus-them righteousness.
Analyze yourself (!) at http://www.davidbrin.com/questionnaire.htm
Alas, vzn, I hold no truck with the 9/11 "loose change" nuts. They are bona fide jerks and morons of the first water, selectively grabbing "aha!" moments and then never subjecting them to the processes that brought us an advanced, scientific civilization. Oh, they can howl polysyllabic, sciency terminology, almost mimicking intelligent life forms. But they are not.
In fact, THE greatest thing that can be said about American liberalism is that it mraginalizes its psychopaths, while the Republicans have put theirs entirely in charge.
Barrie, exactly. Just once, Gingrich & co actually negotiated and deliberated with their opponents. The result, Welfare Reform, should have pointed to a new era in which American Pragmatism came to the fore. Instead, they chose insanity. And, to the extent that dems ignore this success, they share it.
Greg Correll: the entire point of this chapter was to wage culture war to win it. I see no point in reasoning with 90% of culture warriors.
OTOH, I am offering a way to win culture war... by ending it, which is the only way it can be won.
Your refusal to engage in self-criticism is refusal to do the one thing that separates us from animals -- course correction based upon results-oriented appraisal of the facts.
Think. Your fear that the opposition will yell "gatcha!" over some self-correction by the country's progressives is utter cowardice. I refuse to let jibbering assholes make me afraid to do the one thing that marks an adult... saying "we may have some places where we are in error and that need course correction."
Siri16, thanks for giving me good reason to be grateful you'll be out of the way, soon. Your attitude is diametrically opposite to helpful and borders on pure evil. America has purged from its heart most of the horrific injustices and prejudices and nasty sins that YOU grew up with in the 40s and 50s. We elect to office men and women who would have cleaned toilets, in YOUR America.
So some rich assholes are stoking fear in our neighbors and trying to restart feudalism? BIG DEAL! These things have always happened, it is human nature, and our job to fight it! We do that far better by CURING our neighbors of the Limbaugh madness, (The point of my essay) than by wailing in cynical despair and chic superiority over how awful things are.
Go away. I mean it. You'll not like anything that I have to say about actual problem solving. EVER! I want problem solvers here, even those who disagree with me about how.
Catnlion, my dad was just feet from RFK when he died. Worst day of my life.
Emmerling, I too worry about the political caste see: http://www.davidbrin.com/gerrymandering1.htm
Thanks for all (almost all) of your comments. Here's to a better century
With cordial regards,
David Brin
http://www.davidbrin.com
You keep mentioning Problem Solving.
That is something that has engaged me for many decades now.
I'm thinking here of the ideas contained in books like The Universal Traveller, Tools for Thought, Edward Tufte's books and many, many others. I sometimes think that a good graph or flow chart would instantly illuminate a concept where written work would struggle.
Perhaps you'd like to enlarge on what you mean by problem solving?
An example of where a graphic would have a big impact would be to show how the statue of liberty would be underwater if all the 3 major ice shelves were to melt.
Another a flow chart showing the follow-on effects of decisions by certain leaders, politicians, churchmen etc.
Cheers
Barrie
http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_republicans_become_democrats_and_democrats_became_republicans
How gratifying it was to then click on my email link to Salon and I find your blog post.
(I am also an SF fan and have read some of your books.)
Went over and read Dagitt too and shared it on my FB wall.
So the gist is we need to aim the WMKN's at the Murdochs? (Sort of has a Wellsian ring to it, that does.) We need to get the WMKNs to see that the string pullers' goal IS the destruction of what they profess to be protecting - democracy.
I'd been more or less assuming we would have to wait for the inevitable pendulum swing of public reaction - that common sense would win out.
More recently I think I am instead a passenger on the Ship of Fools.
Will your next posts provide some specifics on how we can "waken Red America"?
Your characterization of group three is pompous and ignorant. I have met many people of various economic strata and have come to the conclusion that intelligence is not class specific. Many of those hard working red staters in group three could have been Doctors and lawyers perhaps even science fiction writers given the right environment. To imply that they are so ignorant that they are easily lead detracts from the force of your argument and relegates it to the jibberrish of just another left wing loon. I have met many janitors or ranchers for that matter who would have made better Doctors than some of the physiciansI work with. To characterise them the way you do denigrates them and in fact denigrates you as a card carrying member of the liberal elite. Some of those non-urban Know nothings have valid concerns. They do see abortion as murder. Guns are a part of their lives and heritage. And yes they do, rightfully so, see a pattern of those urban know nothing elites taking over the vary fabrics of their existance.
Invoking religion closes the deal for both sides. Liberals are classified by the red staters as god hating atheists willing to strike at the heart of their core beliefs. Christians who may well believe that conception is equal to life or that creation did occur are written off by your side as mindless fools. It seems that left wing pundits view acceptance of the bible as surrender of reason. Evolution for example is taught at our most prestigious institutions as scientific fact even though it is not provable science by virtue of the fact that it deals with purely retrospective data. The fossil record although a testimony to the obvious is not science in the strictest sense. Shouldn't we then offer creationism in the halls of ivy as well. To clear the record I believe in evolution and have never held any stock in creationism. But I do not denounce creationists as the left does as downright fools. And perhaps the liberals face their biggest challenge in toning down their rhetoric. It seems that many self proclaimed liberals discredit opposing views by calls of ignorance if not outright stupidity. And if that fails they pull the scarlet letter of the 21st century---racism. As a practitioner for these know- nothing red staters I can say Montanans are no more racist than the liberals that assail them. I take care of those know nothings. I am friends with those know nothings. I like them and they hold no animosity towards me. And I do have an advanced degree.
So perhaps it was your tone that I object to the most---a liberal elitest designing a plot to turn the rabble in the opposite of their political ideology. How dare you reduce this country and the right wing movement to a mindless hord lacking in any independent thought. Could I not say the same of the inner city poor who carried many of the swing states. But I wouldn't. I am not so presumptious to presume that a pole test qualifies as an IQ test.
I would sooner be a part of your group of know nothings than part of your arrogant elite. I am one of many hard working whites who is neither racist or elite. I am tired of shelling out 60-70% of my income(When you include state and sales tax) to a government that seems oblivious to my concerns and on a path to equal distribution of wealth. I grow weary of the government handouts not only to the corparate elite but also the lazy rabble on disability who find time to ride their four wheelers.. and hunt and work under the table. Why should I have to pay for these people. Why does the left seem to promulgate this injustice. The best part of the American dream is a man working to support his family, free from the government intrusions of gun regulation, no prayer in school, and yes you guessed it, abortion. As far as I can tell your post was the ramblings of a frustrated liberal elitist opposed to any views different from his own. You use little fact and less experience in your dissection of the American populace. If someone is white hardworking and poor and happens to disaggree they are to you a racist baffoon. Who then I ask is more racist you or them.
Fortunately for this country all those you diminished in your post do have one saving grace. Their vote counts as much as yours.
John E Moore MD aka me no spell guud
I said that both right and left CONTAIN crazies... with one crucial difference. The Democrats and liberals have their crazies marginalized. Lefty flakes do little, control nothing and matter hardly at all... except as reminders that Orwell was right. The laft CAN contain complete loons.
In contrast, the entire American right has given itself, wholly and body and soul, over to complete soul-ownership and zombie-level control by a cabal of treasonous proto-lords and absolute, howling psychopaths.
Do you really think I said "both sides are the same"? Can you read?
Likewise Dr. Moore. Sorry, it does not fly. The dems have some stains, some bits and corners of soiled honor. We should remain wary and watchful and fierce in our accountability.
But they are absolute saints and pure sanity, compared to the madness on the right. BARRY GOLDWATER himself said so, just before he died. Go form a third party, if you like. But use it to save conservatism by offering sane conservatives a home.
Do NOT try to claim that the dems are just as awful. Because right now, they are run by adults who are trying to use reason to get us out of the horrific mess. They are (at present) our only hope.
Till my next posting!
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp
i don't know what to do about this. my uncle sends me the stupidest stuff, and i keep demonstrating how easy it is to check and disprove those forwards. he's a smart guy, but for whatever reason, he refuses to think about his positions enough to craft them well. he just passes on whatever he hears from a few trusted sources.
it's not madness: it's possession.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff_Indian_lobbying_scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_DeLay
because to me, having read your comments, it looks like brin is right: you're protecting yourself from having an opinion that makes any logical sense.