72 of the n y times "favorite facts of 2021'

“7. pepsico’s frito-lay division made 70 million pounds of snacks leading up to super bowl week 2021, slightly more than it did in the previous year, based on the expectation that smaller gatherings would result in increased purchases of chips.”_____ don’t watch football…don’t eat salty snacks…irrelevant to me…wonderful consumption though ( if they all sold )_____ “13. during the frigid temperatures in February, texas’ largest oil field burned off 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas in one day, enough to power tens of thousands of homes for at least a year.”_____ who says capitalism is “efficient”? no one i know…the waste is incredible from the micro to macro and it goes on every day in pursuit of “profit”…and that doesn’t touch on the carbon the released…where’s william t. vollmann when you need him?_____ “18. in the 1970s, the american psychiatric association adopted a rule saying that, without proper authorization, it was unethical for psychiatrists to issue a professional opinion about a public figures condition.”_____ and so no deranged, entitled, unregenerate, unmatured adolescent dingbat could be called “unfit for office” by anyone allegedly capable of making a judgement…we were not going to have the whole barry goldwater 1964 mud slinging fiasco in the new nixonite world order…wondering just what un-scrupled clowns this spared down the line._____ “20. adults spend as much as 47 percent of their waking hours letting their minds wander, according to one harvard study that tracked participants with an app.”_____ where to start? digression is the structure of human thought…it is how we make connections…even i understand that as i ramble along having full blown conversations with myself…however the whole “app” business highlights the way the majority of the population have their noses stuck in a smartphone…probably explains a lot of auto accidents and may have something to do with the 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas cited above…one supposes the n y times was trying to be entertaining as it propagandized…there are 72 of these little gems in today’s paper…even the one about giraffes had a feminist subtext…mass media in the “age of mcluhan”…my interpretation of the message likely was not what was intended.

shots fired? contingency in action

that's what they said...but i didn't hear any...in my retirement dotage i have aquired a "retirement job" ( for reasons which will remain my own ) at a branch of a "major retailer" in a surban mall...in the receiving department...we had a truck today and had finished unloading it and had loaded the return truck so it was time for a break after five hours of steady work...i went out to my vehicle about eleven a.m., ate something, and was perusing a book ( assignment in utopia by eugene lyons ) when at approximately eleven twenty people, including the staff at the store, came stampeding out every available exit...unusual...i though, "well, either a fire or someone is shooting"...it was the latter although not in the store ( in the mall actually ) and i did not hear anything...at approximately eleven twenty five local law enfocement began to noisily arrive and ten minutes later we were all hearded back to the mattrress department and pretty much locked in the store...i counted forty one people ( including a scattering of customers ) looking somewhat bewildered and mildly confused...this did not last as within five minutes virtually all of them had their noses in their smart phones...except for perhaps five and the guy who was stretched out on a couch in the furniture department across the aisle catching up on some sleep...( i have a flip phone and yes i did get a text from my eldest who had received an alert to "avoid the mall because of police activity"...i sent reassurances about my well-being )...this was staus quo for the next ninety minutes of being "locked-down" and it is startling how boring the aftermath of a shooting can be...conversation, already minimal thanks to the phone business, dwindled to near total silence and i regretted not grabbing eugene's book as i went back in...then again i fully expected to finish a shift since retail is loathe to lose perfectly good sales time just because of some random violence...this did not happen...stymied by the workings of law enfocement...after the nintieth minute had passed we were told to grab out coats, go out into the mall through a specific store exit, and be prepared to present our state issued photo id on demand...i did so and, after being frisked for "weapons" ( i did report to the frisking officer that i had two razor knives...he seemed unimpressed ), was told to exit through specific mall doors, passing though a phalanx of riot shields, helmeted police, and an awfully lot of people toting assault rifles and practicing stringent trigger finger discipline...i am assuming that each of them profiled me as a recreational drug user/abuser ( based, mostly, on the hair...the beard was concealed bhind a mask ) even though i abjured intoxicants in 1986 as a sure death trap if i did not...self preservation won that argument...so i got to "retire" and i got to go home early today after a "shooting incident"...weird how life can work out...i have no clue if shots were actually fired of if a miscreant was apprehended...i may check the media...i amy skip it and lean on the "grapevine" for the details...surely someone in retail will research them...or exaggerate them...or invent them...take your pick...we are all children of mcluhan now.

mercilessly

“i only add in passing that when we gorge ourselves this christmas, if we do get the chance to gorge ourselves, it is worth giving a thought to the thousand million human beings who will be doing no such thing. for in the long run our christmas dinners would be safer if we could make sure that everyone had a christmas dinner as well.” george orwell, “as i please” 20 december 1946_____________________________________ “it’s getting harder and harder to give presents. who has room for anything these days?...and mercilessly we go on giving.” gunter grass, “the rat.”____________________________ when asked “what do you want for christmas?” i have, for at least a decade, sincerely responded “nothing”…to no effect…”stuff” continues to collect…i am older…i do not need more “stuff”…my focus anymore is on actually using what i already have rather than accumulating more material goods ( and let’s talk about the “bads” involved in those “goods” sometime)…oh i still purchase books ( or someone gives them to me…a “go to” when asked for gift suggestions…i have, of late, been reading “being and nothingness”…sartre was an over-intellectualized jerk with a bug up his ass about his grandpa )…and i still eat food…but trust me i have enough t shirts and hoodies to last me until the end of my days…i have, as a “retirement job” been working in receiving at a “major retailer”…this has done nothing but harden my attitude about the “holidays” and consumerist ethics…which are somewhat confusing…is there a duty to buy? seemingly…there are hordes of shoppers browsing and buying…and the procrastinators were out in force yesterday…one wonders if they were satisfying needs, desires, or indoctrination…there is a good deal of agit-prop out there reenforcing that indoctrination…and if it is a pavlovian response where does the puzzling phenomenon of “buyer’s remorse” fit in? a reaction to an artificially inseminated desire? a subconscious recognition of blatant manipulation? an internalization of the fact that someone is profiting at your expense? ( “how easily people are distracted and robbed while being handed commodities.” andrei coderscu )…or maybe the moment of transaction is the drug and buyer’s remorse is withdrawal…whichever, a good dose of denial will rationalize it all away in time for the next purchase…is any of it “necessary”…do we actually give anything that is “needed”? a friend just lost an adult child in an accident…i’d like to give that person some equanimity…unfortunately i cannot…all i have is condolences, ineffective as they are…equanimity they will have to come to on their own…the same way we will have to satisfy our “needs”…the rest is dross…i have to go…christmas dinner is at my daughter’s house…i don’t have much of an appetite for it ( or the “holiday” ) but i am going anyway because she is my daughter…and that is important… “not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.” Epicurus ( the grossly misunderstood and slandered philosopher)

what time is it?

time is elastic...we all know this...and it has multiple levels of experience...there's internet time ( a species of immediate gratification that meshes well with the post-modern consumerist ethos...and there is a consumerist ethos...although how ethical it is is open to question...we have pondered this...what makes a "good" consumer? judicious expenditure or consitent expenditure? depoends on whether you are one of the retail hegemons or not i imagine...subjective [and, possibly, objectivist]...consistent would fit their defintion of "good" near as i can determine...is there a hierarchy of consumption? is it more ethical [in a consumerist sense] to purchase diamonds rather than mundane foodstuffs? is there a duty to consume or is that an expansion of necessary consumption [food say] that the hegemons have grafted onto the unnecesary dressed up as imperative need? so many questions )...and there's clock time...that tells me when to be at work or when the kids need to be picked up or dropped off...and then there's event time...i experienced that today when, on a cloudless, crisp autumn morning i heard an explosion off to the wnw and the power went out...that was at 7:45 a.m. cdt and the power was off as long as it took to change an exploded transformer...no specifically delineated time parameters...it was what it was and took as long as it took...simple elapsed time...and if it had not have been so early on a sunday the neigborhood would have emptuied out as people went in search of that internet time...i assume they mostly slept though it all...

they missed the estimate...it was back on at 9:19 a.m. cdt...it was just a guess

how do you define relevancy?

"send me some cytherian cheese so that if i wish to have a feast i may have the means."

the "design & luxury" edition of the new york times style magazine arrived yesterday...above anything else they publish this magazine puts the lie to their contention that they are non-elitist...i have been perusing it and wondering if anyone naturally aspires to this sort of thing or if it is engineered...and, in the end, finding most of its contents irrelevant to my existence because i do not...

i am certain it is the "studio" residence ( not "apartment" or "condominium" ) that is $1,800,000 and that the "penthouse" is somewhere in the tens of millions... the fine print at the bottom says the "waldorf astoria" name could be pulled at any time...so much for the permanence of status...

not to worry however, if the name gets yanked youcan always go to your less expensive second home...

where you can get hammered...

because you are terrified of growing old...because we all know you can't take it with you and what's life without designed luxury and the status it confers?

there are photos of couture here as well...there always are...however, since this is the "luxury" edition i cannot give you a total cost...the clothing is virtually all listed as "price on request" ( "if you have to ask you can't afford it" )...still...striking design...

the last photo is from an ad for the furinitue displayed...the photo begs the question, "what is luxurious about someone in ludicrous couture ripping up my books?

kulturkampf style

the kulturkampf is determined to become more divisive and virulent...one supposes this can be accepted a priori...and the media will play its part and here's an interesting line of evidence that the media provide a product, not information...

the shrilly trumpist fox news network is asking about who is vaccinated and who isn't...they are a corporate entity in business to make money and they do so by pandering to the world-view of a subclass of americans...their public face is still privately subject to some regulation and if the staff is ill you can't run a crypto-fascist organization...a bit of conflict there...one hopes it might be illuminating for some...one has one's doubts...and in the crypto-fascist vein...

the covid state and its dimwit governor ( and, seemingly, damnfool judiciary ) want me to pay a visit...i believe i will take a pass...pound some daytona sand desantis...meanwhile in the product world, it is beginning to look like the advent of the"false and commercial festival"...at least in the new york times...

rochebobois ( from paris! land of sartre! ) is offering me furniture "made in europe" ( where exactly is unclear...perhaps from the economically desperate south east...sweat shops happen everywhere ) at steep discounts...economies struggle more than the theologians of greed would care to admit...

and over at the new york times style magazine "mens fashion issue" not only does the wit and wisdom of francis fukayama live on...

at long last a stylist at hermes ( veronique nichanian ) has discovered what it is a man wants...imagine my relief at finally being classified ( and next to a photo of $9305 worth of "mens fashion" )...

in terms of "what a man wants", dolce and gabbana must be joking...or someone has seriously slipped a pulley...either way we have come to my taking yet another pass...thanks anyway...

and to close out this screed, $12680 worth of "mens fashion" someone else can wear.

a material vision of the good

the self-proclaimed "non-elitist" mouthpiece of the east coast elite has always known what i should think politically and culturally ( actualy they routinely confuse fine arts with culture...i am skeptical of anything the label as "culture " )...in that respect they are no different than fox news, msnbc, or breitbart...all final arbiters ( in their own self-image anyway ) of how things should be viewed by the great unwashed american public...they are the cream of the media world...all with a product to sell...ideologically and commerically...and far be it from the non-elitist times to ignore the commercial...today's paper blesed me with...

the new york times "style magazine:women's fashion" issue...with splashy ads from hermes, alexander mcqueen, dior, chanel, , max mara, rolex, fendi...all the big names are here hawking a saleable ethical good for you all to aspire to...

and at fire sale prices...that's $20340 worth of clothing that model is wearing...including those eye catching $18000 trousers...christmas is 125 days away...start saving those pennies you don't blow on $5 packages of bologna in the cold cut aisle...americans laugh at inflation and trust their leaders in the same way the times is "non-elitist"

g.w.f. hegel or 30 april 1975

listen closely all you youngsters and braying trumpists...there is an instructive point or two to be made if you leave behiind your exceptionalism and pay attention...

kabul yesterday ( i believe )...

saigon april 1975...

kabul...

saigon...we have done this before and, rendered stupid by american exceptionalism, will doubltlessly do it again...g.w.f. hegel maintained that the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history...i would, in the case of imperial thinking, amend that to all we learn from history is the wrong thing...we simply refine the mistakes of the past into the policy of the present and future because we think we know better when we do not...we are learning what the british and the soviets learned...you do not win in afghanistan...one would have thought the war in viet nam would have brought imperial adventures into question...but empires lie to themselves as well as the rest of the world...all viet nam taught the military was that they needed to control the media and how it presents information more closely so the public doesn't find out how inept it really is ( is where you work a chaotic mess most of the time...all anthropogenic structures are inherently unstable and prone to entorpy...the military, despite its hubris, is the same )...read some history...reflect on the mistakes you have made...amplify them with american exceptionalism...and you might have an epiphany...or you can close you mind and keep making the same stupid mistakes thinking " it'll be different this time"...and, before i go, whose adminstration negotiated a peace deal with the taliban? that's right, donny greenlighted this...and the viet nam withdrawal ( no not the entire war ) was a wholly republican affair...get a grip yahoos.

go gmo ( the times says so )

"you never know what is enough unless you know waht is more than enough"-william blake_______________

i cannot dispute that this gmo tomato has twice the anti-oxidants of ( one supposes ) a comperable volume of blueberries...and i cannot dispute the value of anti-oxidants...up to a a point...they would seem to be a pharmakon to some degree...materials from harvard health and the national center for complemantary and integrative health tell me that large doses of anti-oxidant suplements can exacerbate lung cancer in smokers as well as prostate cancer and a type of stroke...it might have benefited cancer prone mice...humans aren't mice...vitamin c and vitamin e, as well as green tea, all contain anti-oxidants...my question ( which i have not found an answer to yet ) is at what point does the body slough off anti-oxidants in the same way it sloughs off vitamins it cannot use and i can assure you that my body is adept at sloughing off green tea when i drink it ( which is regularly )...so is there an actual point to increasing anti-oxidants by splicing genes from snap dragons into a tomato? humans have been monkeying around with plant genetics for thousands of years by cross breeding plants...could you cross breed a tomato and a snap dragon using just their pollen? my skepticism is aroused here...crossing varies of tomatoes or maize or beans utilizing just their pollen and stamens i will buy...i am willing to wager it dosen't always work either...monsanto splicing in genes from who knows where to make their dense yellow #2 resistant to herbicide ( and that corn ends up in all sorts of processed foods in the supermarket ) is not in the same category in my estimation...this tomato isn't either...jenifer kohn may not be shilling for monsanto...she is shilling for the wholly unnatural...i will be sticking to heirloom seed.

in the pipeline

this was on the unop-ed page ( they retired the phrase op-ed a while ago...no one noticed ) of the new york times today...

ostensibly about a book by mathias malm titled "how to blow up a pipeline" which would seem to be a manifesto ( which no one has in stock so i have not read it just yet ) calling for the environmrentalist movement to be more militant...one should steer mr. malm towards say albert camus or milovan djilas for an assessment of where revolution ( what mr. klein seems to be infering mr. malm is calling for )...leads...mostly it begets napoleons and lenins and stalins and massacres and holodomors at worst...and james "his littlenes" madison and "that damned ass hamilton" at its most benign ( and one should have a thought about how the government " by and for the people" was disposed to deal with the indigenous population...even benign revolutions have their mnassacres...utopia is always just one execution away )...beyond that mr.malm is playing into the hands of those conservatives who have been trying to make "eco-terrorism" a real thing to suppress violently by connecting the anti-technologism of that nazi ( he never recanted...was simply pissed because he did not become the intellectual leader of the third reich and so took his marbles [what there were of them] and went back to his hut in the black forest ) martin heidegger ( and his stooge sartre ) with liberal ecologists...the liberal left as nazis...dear to the neo-con heart as a concept...as to mr. kelin's title for his piece, how does that seem odd? humans are not nearly as bright as the think they are...short attention span...shorter political memory...malleable...open to suggestion if not outright operant conditoning...thoroughly branded and divided agiaist themselves by hegemonic culture...creatures of habit condition by media to consume...

a mantra espoused by retail from brick and mortar to ecommerce...and where does all this stuff come from and how does it get here...well...those fossil fuels mr. malm os on about ( so the reviews say...again i have not read it yet...views may change )...two sides of the same coin, just one form of consumption supporting another? seems likely...a positive feedback loop...so? addicted to oil or addicted to stuff? your call, however is it an addiction? a question i have been asking myself of late is "if there's no self-destructive bahvior involved is it an addiction?" certainly my view is that the species is kiling itself through habitual behaviors...acting without thinking...and i have been thinking...if i do find someone with this book in stock and i order it and have it delivered to may door how much am i contributing to species death? how much has mr. malm contributed by writing such a hot topic book that is flying off the shelves from powell's books to amazon? i am not innocent of consumption...i get to be human too...sometimes i wonder exactly what it is i think i am doing and if it matches reality in any way...maybe part of the time...and as it stands i think i may leave mr. malm's book on the shelf...that many fewer book-miles.

universals

________________ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/opinion/juneteenth-federal-holiday.html _____________________________ from the new York times this past Sunday…the gist of the piece is no it cannot if the nation as a whole is going to attempt to understand black experience …and it is also a clear index of the conflict between identity and inclusiveness…in a search for true understanding of their suffering the black community is going to have to surrender a portion of its identity…and like any other group of humans some may find that difficult…we define ourselves as much by what we are not as by what we are and letting go of a piece of identity makes us like the others…in-group bias is not an easy thing to relinquish…it is part of what we are and, no matter how sympathetic we are to the suffering of others or how much we may admire their accomplishment, we still think “our” group is that marginally bit better…yet we are all humans of the same species that sprang form the same cradle in africa ( i had my dna sequenced i am of african origin…my dna has been on a roundabout trip from there…but that is where it started )…why don’t we see that? in-group bias is on donald brown’s list of human universals…it is fairly lengthy and i believe i have provided a link to it before…human universals beyond the obvious biological ones exist despite what some academics may say so why don’t we see the sameness? my thoughts are that there must be human universals that act as impediments to perceiving human universal so i took a look at brown’s list and these are the ones i found that would seem to fit that description… 1. habituation- we all have mental shortcuts we use to do things without much thought…these include stereotyping people 2. territoriality-we all have out “turf” of one sort or another that we are proprietary about and from which we exclude most people. 3. group living-leads to in-group bias which we already covered. 4. social structure-there’s always a hierarchy…always someone above or below…someone to aspire to be or someone to look down on…exclusionary thinking. 5. leaders- basically someone with an agenda that favors them more than you…proponents of the above hierarchy because they are the “above”. 6. coalitions- “us” against them…exclusionary. 7. collective identity- source of in-group bias and identity politics…a bane to inclusiveness. 8. envy- self-evident as a contributor 9. manipulative social relations- see, ”social structure” and “leaders” 10. ethnocentrism- in-group bias as a pharmakon 11. language employed to manipulate others- politics/leaders with an agenda inimical to the interests of the bulk of the polity with an interest in keeping that polity divided and hostile. 12. language used to misinform or mislead- basically the same as the immediate above except it should include corporate entities and their continued efforts to skew our needs to one that can be sold…another source of the divisive “envy” for those of more limited means 13. overestimating objectivity of thought- am i as objective as i think i am? probably not…like it or not we are all stuck behind our own eyes…all of life is relative to us because we are centered where we are…in our heads…no matter how sympathetic it’s still mostly subjective if we are going to get past divisiveness and on to human inclusiveness we would seem to have some work to do on ourselves as a species, myself included…i am not innocent of bias…neither are you…it is part of being human…i never said we were an attractive species.

no particular results

"the pragmatic method, in such cases, is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective pratical consequences...it stands for no particular results, it has no dogmas, and no doctrines save its methods." william james. pragmatism. 1907____________________________ "we do not intend to lecture contries on their internal structure, either in cases like the phillipines at present, or the communist countries. our concern is for foreign policy behavior and we will aid dictatorships if it is in our interest to do so." richard nixon to u n ambassador john scali 13 february 1973__________ just a short tangent before i get to my point dick...we need to have a heart to heart about north viet nam and cambodia and your "foreign policy behavior" towards their "internal structure" during your first term in office...i sense something of a conflict there...been at the gin again? and so the quintesential american philosophy, " if it works towards achieving your 'goals-in-view' then it's an ethical good"...a wholly situational ethic that, as old dick's views on "dictatorships" show, entails no permanent friends, no permanenet enemies ( why you can buy clothes made in viet nam ), only permanent interests ( why you can be a good consumer and buy aforementioned clothes )...so manuel noriega can go from a good friend to a federal prison when he got greedy about drugs...or saddam hussein can go from being a saunch ally fighting a proxy war against the evil iranians to a hanged guy when he got greedy about kuwaiti oil...they both trangressed those "permanent interests" and paid the empire's price...dick was a politican and so had a professional need to lie through this teeth about almost everything...james considered himself an educator and philosopher of sorts...he died in 1910 i believe...before the first world war, much less the rest of that miserable century...i have to wonder what he might ( or might not ) recant in this if he had made it to mid century...situational ethics and "goals-in-view" can have some unpalatable consequences...i suppose that interpretation would have a lot to do with your definiton of "practical".

whosw law? to what purpose?

i saw this graphic in the feed of facebook the other day ( it was near the top…i have learned not to scroll the feed on facebook over much, there is a lot of the good doctor’s “bad noise” there ) and was inclined to think “what law and to whose purpose?”…”rule of law” has always been an iffy proposition dependent on whose particular interest was in control of the government at any one time and there was always dissent from whatever “law” was construed to be and that dissent was, at times, wholly suppressed…a few examples of voter suppression and attempts to frame the debate from the past “243 years”…how about the alien and sedition act of 1798? ostensibly aimed at the French and any other “foreigner” deemed “a threat” david mccullough rather maintains “…the real and obvious intent was to stifle the republican press, and of those arrested and convicted under the law, nearly all were republican editors.”…so old john adams ( who reminded bill maclay of “a monkey recently put into britches”…you should read bill’s journal of the first congress…it is enlightening…elbridge gerry was there…we will be getting to him soon enough ) wasn’t above slamming his political opponents into jail over their opinions…have a look at the way james callender was treated by the federalists…and read some of what jim wrote if you can find it…”the history of the united states for 1796 for instance”…i have a copy…it is a facsimile…the esses are all effs…a nuisance to read…but enlightening as well…defense of “national interests” as a smokescreen for political repression is nothing new…neither is voter suppression…elbridge gerry was in the first congress in the house of representatives…he was also governor of massachucetts and was vice president when he died…he is also the individual for whom gerrymandering is named as he signed legislation enabling the distortion of districts to favor republicans while he was massachucetts governor…in the end i have to wonder if any politician, republican, democrat, or independent is interested in “the rule of law” beyond a law which, in some way, enhances their political prerogative…do you actually trust these people to represent your interests?

william james is well traveled

wanting to refresh my memory concerning william james' subjetivization of pragmatism ( the quintessential american philosphy ), i ordered a used copy ( $4 ) of "pragmatism: a new word for some old ways of thinking" from better world books in mishawaka...it shipped two days ago and went from mishawaka to gendale hights in illinois...a trip of 126 miles...from glendale hights the book went to elk grove village...add another 9.8 miles...from there it wended its way to indianapolis indiana...206 miles from wence it is headed to the nearest postal distribution center which tacks on another 152 miles...from there to my home town is 5.6 miles...so by the time he arrives bill will have traveled 498.4 miles...7.66 and change times farther than the distance between here and mishawaka...they allege "carbon neuutral shipping"...if i wasn't overtly skeptical you wouldn't be reading this...an over complex delivery system that is indicative of the distortions "the market" coupled with sclerotic bureaucratic thinking force on us...have to wonder what william of ockham would have to say about bill's trip.

my jab's better than your jab

as if we didn't have enough identities to divide us into various sects, tribes, associations, nations, parties, and dilettante tweeters this cropped up in today's covid obsessed new york times...

if you have paid any attention you have a fair idea of which vaccine i received for my first injection and, presumably, will for my second ( which i will get in a couple of weeks even though i am more than a bit skeptical about its effectiveness and have some thought that this may be a gigantic misallocation of resources ) but i will be damned ( and there are no doubt evangelicals who think i will...they may think what they like ) if i am getting a fucking t-shirt to advertize yet another branding opportunity, this time for big pharma...corporate tentacles are so intertwined with what passes for culture here that even though the article says it started as "fun" the hegemons are cackling at the thought of pfizer or morderna shirts and coffee mugs out there as a profitable addtion to all the qanon ones...the social engineering has been going on a long time...it just isn't the "liberal conspiracy" the trumpists think it is...they have a right to be angry...you may have noticed i can be as well...i haven't disputed that...their anger is seriously misdirected.

collaborative

“if the American democracy finally decides to try to solve its obvious societal problems in a collaborative manner, the u s investment capacity is huge and the problems solvable. i think the latter sentence contains the essence of the u s fate over the next forty years. the united states could maintain its hegemony if it decided to do so. but i don’t think the american system of governance will be capable. quick, bipartisan decision making is not a u s strength. and i see little that will change this fact on the forty-year horizon.” jorgen randers____________________ so many things to define in that statement and the arguments that will torpedo bipartisan anything will begin with defining “societal problems”…we are all lexicographers…and we all have a world-view paradigm that continually defies escape into realistic vision…the squabbles continue…the conservatives want a consensus, monochromatic definition of what it is to be “american” ( and that monochromatic desire is a large step towards ethnic cleansing…i will not be part of creating a jasenovac here…historical wisdom should indicate that you should not either )…liberals continue to press for both “identity” and “inclusiveness” without seeming to realize the two stand in opposition…we all need space to be who we are and we should probably be tolerant of others and their identity/viewpoints unless they are manifestly sociopathic ( definitions of sociopathy are as wide ranging as there are people one suspects…this will need serious work…more lexicographical squabbles )…however we tend to define ourselves as much by what we are not as what we are …identity = exclusion…too much identity is a pharmakon…”we are not that” can lead to “we are not the other”…jasenovac again…this does tend to impede inclusiveness…it might be better to look for universals that define us as human as opposed to all the labels we are burdened with ( who creates all those labels? )…those universal exist… https://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm we all have them despite what social science may say ( or want to believe is fact )…instead we are caught up in habitual world views that allow scant room for compromise which isn’t helping any…jorgen is correct…we could fix things…or, at least make them more tolerable for everyone…there seems to be a dearth of political will…that is, one supposes, reflective of the wider social divisions…we might be better served by trying to think beyond shared biases that passes for objective thought and making the politicians irrelevant…have a look at the scenarios the director of national intelligence presents…and ponder where you might like the planet ( and so your children and grandchildren…i have both i get to be concerned ) to end up https://www.dni.gov/index.php/gt2040-home

it hasn't been an "impossible year"

let me start with this disclaimer: my sympathies are with those who have lost people they loved in this pandemic...i have lost people i love...i know what that is like...it is not an easy thing...my comments are not aimed at any of them...there is a hierarchy making money from all this...they merit caustic assessment...and that is where we are headed...

so...what is "culture"?...i was always under the impression it consited of geographical adaptation and problem solving...my good friends at the new york times seem to disagree...for them "culture would seem to be...

at least one part celberity...elton john graces the cover of the version i recieved today ( therre were other celebrity covers )...brad pitt is in there somewhere hawking some damn merchandise or other...there are other musicians and artists and chefs and other luminariesd i imagine they think everyone should be familiat with...sadly i am not...

obviously consumerism has a fair input to culture out east as well...i do consume...i just ate dinner ( the first sitting, in the kitchen ) and the ingredients had to be purchased...high end baubles and status symbol purses don't fall into what is consumed here...then again i am not of the east coast elite...the times is their mouthpiece so upscale luxury is the byword...even if they claim not to be elitist...the media lie a lot

alcohol and ( surprise! ) the celebrities who drink it seem to be a factor in "culture" as well...i am surely uncultured since i gave that nonsense up decades ago ( that is not an editorial...you may consume as much as you like without comment from me )...left behind again...i can't help but think that the times is confusing "culture" with engineered desires, status seeking, and "fine arts" ( is elton john "fine art"? depends on who you ask i suppose...he and i parted ways at "honky [honkey?] chateau )...i also am inclined to think this is an expression of the times elitism and its obsession with covid-19...it is narcissistic crap as far as i am concerned...it's good to know what the elite wants me to believe is important...it's why i continue to subscribe.