Monthly Archives: February 2022

Democracy

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The issue is the precarious balance of democracy in the world’s most noted democracy. Serious, lengthy articles are beginning to appear in several web news and print sources led by an Atlantic Magazine article written by Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former U.S. senator and secretary of state and Dan Schwerin, a co-founder of Evergreen Strategy Group. He served in the White House and the State Department. Here an opening paragraph:

“The scope of that wider struggle was on vivid display on February 4. In Beijing, the world’s two most powerful autocrats—Putin and China’s Xi Jinping—cemented their deepening alliance. In the United States, where American leaders should have been unified in championing democracy against these aggressive adversaries, the opposite happened: The Republican National Committee formally declared the violent insurrection of January 6, 2021, to be “legitimate political discourse.”

That the Republican Party continues their irrational support of Trumpian autocracy should warn the electorate about attacks on the way the United States operates. The Republican Party has not dropped Donald but has embraced him for the 2024 election. Ten states have shifted power over elections to partisan agencies. Gerrymandering continues to rob citizens of the principle ‘one person, one vote’. The IRS has been stripped of employees to the extent the agency can’t afford to investigate the complex returns of the oligarchy. Under the guise of budget, the US Post Office pulled hundreds of mailboxes off the street during the 2020 election. During this century both political parties have failed to protect the average citizen from venture capitalists who have destroyed thousands of low income homes so that expensive apartments and businesses have space to build. Children are open targets for murder because gun laws have been quashed. For the past fifty years the culture of police departments has shifted from a peacekeeping force to a military force.

The health industry continues to limit the number of doctors that can complete studies each year. Pharmacies are charging Americans four to ten times what they charge other nations. The oil industry has essentially shut down climate change intentions. And on and on . . .

Let’s face it. The United States is broken. Not only is it broken, autocratic interests are intent on taking the nation down for good.

Not since the Civil War has each and every vote been so critical to save the principles of a free democracy.

Ancient Mariner

The US psyche

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Mariner follows cartoons from many sources and recommends the same for readers. Cartoons release subconscious constipation and act like an aspirin against the pain of daily events. Wiley of Non Sequitur is his champion. The reader can get a year’s worth on their next desktop calendar.

Below are two excellent examples:

 

Waiting . . .

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As Speaker of the House in 1995-1999, it was Newt Gingrich who gets credit from economists and government analysts for weaponizing party politics. Still today, citizens suffer a Congress that passes legislation that says ‘party first, citizens second.’ PAC money has tripled since 2012. With narrow margins between elected republicans and democrats, little progress has been made that brings together the national horsepower that made the United States a dominant world leader through two world wars, the Korean Conflict and avoiding nuclear war during the cold war.

Since Bush 43 the United States has wallowed in inappropriate wars, growing racial issues in Dixie that are coming to bear today as red states weaken the meaning of voting; a rapidly growing chasm between extreme wealth and poverty, and – of extreme importance at the moment – unable to lead a troubled planet with the virtues it provided in the last century.

Climate and rapid advancement in automation have upset the applecart. Then throw in the pandemic. Frankly, Congress and the most recent Presidents have not stepped up to their responsibilities – especially on the world stage.

Trump was and is a symptom of unpreparedness on the part of the national psyche. Allowing the politicization of a legitimate global pandemic was a sign of unpreparedness fostered mainly by a self-interested Congress replete with a neurotic republican party. Allowing a forty-year abuse of wages also has contributed to confusion and mistrust by the citizenry. Biden’s nature is that of a pacifist when what is needed is a strong hand to right the ship that Donald still wants to sink.

The United States stands vulnerable, sensed by other large nations and consortiums. That China and Russia can impose themselves on South America; threaten a dozen small Pacific Rim nations and openly attempt to reorder the politics and power of the northern hemisphere is a sign that the United States is not the power player it used to be.

It is up to the electorate to vote for a useful government. God have mercy on us all.

Ancient Mariner

 

Contemporary Experiences

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֎ Mariner had his first conversation with a relative of Nadine. Her name is Marisol; he had a chat with her today about Medicare coverage. Mariner didn’t see her face because it was a chat format but she understood context well enough to narrow the conversation to his specific question. Essentially, Marisol did mariner’s internet search for him. She sent mariner to a specific web address that answered his specific question. Hmmm, mariner wonders what she looks like . . .

֎ Mariner reads several websites that study America’s culture and its values. He noticed that two different sources were doing in-depth studies on how Americans feel about their personal quality of life in today’s unsettled society. The websites get their information through polling and interviews.

The redundant point from both sites is that there is a firm separation between citizens with college degrees and citizens without college degrees. College graduates are far less satisfied with the state of affairs in the world and in the United States – to the point that they have little confidence in satisfactory lives for their children and for their own retirement.

For their future, citizens without college degrees felt more comfortable with their personal circumstances. Both websites made assumptions about the source of satisfaction for each group: College graduates tend to work at jobs that are entwined in broader aspects of the economy and with multiple perspectives on society; further, the graduates feel an obligation to pursue a continuous effort at achievement [mariner recently used the term ‘aspirational’ as an earmark of the Democratic Party].

Citizens without a college degree tend to be employed in skill-based jobs that are more important to the immediate environment, e.g., not requiring a perspective beyond the current task. Gratification for work well done is more easily at hand and does not require the pressure of continuous aspiration.

The firm separation between the two groups is manifest in the evolution of the Democratic Party from one representing labor and socialized policies to one of pursuing success, leaving the labor tenets behind in favor of continuous achievement. Continuous achievement is very close to capitalism’s mantra about profit – grow or die. Hence the modern Democratic Party has a pink shadow. This self-importance may also be a reason that non-white citizens are not particularly eager to join the party.

Back in the day the United States had five legitimate political parties. Is a new one in the making?

Ancient Mariner

 

Back to the old stuff

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֎ Who will the democrats pick to run for President in the 2024 election? Perhaps the chart below may eliminate some guessing.

֎ Putin, like Donald, can’t back down. So it is an economic battle between Russia and the West. It is tragic that Vladimir thinks an old fashioned bullet war will net him anything; so many people will die unnecessarily. Russia isn’t the only country with cyber interference – the West is just as prolific at cyber warfare as Russia is. Mariner is waiting for the West to disable Russia from within. Sanctions can have an effect but shutting down Russian utilities, oil production and military communication can deliver serious blows.

Despite the intimate involvement of European nations because of proximity to Russia, the US dollar represents 40 percent of Russia’s foreign trading. If the US can shut down trading involving US dollars, that can have an impact.

All this said, stay tuned to the news (try NPR, PBS and NEWSY).

֎ Xi Jingping must be tickled to death to watch Vladimir test America’s resolve and response to Putin’s bullet war. As we read, China flies constant sorties of fighter jets across Taiwan and has warships well within Taiwanese waters. Mariner worked in Taiwan for a while and knows Taiwan has the same resolve as Ukraine.

Given the destructive, global influence of the Covid pandemic, the persistent worsening of weather in the southern states and the Caribbean, and the challenge of conflict on both oceans, the US is stretched thin on the world stage. This is no time for Trumpian shenanigans or internal wars between political parties.

Sadly, the 2022 elections are fraught with infighting and populist attitudes. Things are not as stable or as dependable as we may think. We need one nation – focused on crises of the moment and staying ahead of a rapidly changing culture. As mariner often suggests, don’t vote for anyone past 55.

Ancient Mariner

 

Unfinished business again

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There is concern about thinking that Christianity will disappear. Religions, especially universally accepted religions like Christianity, Islam, Hindu and even the god families of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, universally accepted in their time, do not disappear completely; they are set aside or modified as humankind’s need, knowledge and awareness change. Christianity especially has morphed in major ways in the last 2,000 years.

When mariner was in college pursuing a double major in religion and sociology, he learned that sociological perspectives are held in disdain by the more spiritually motivated believers. This is because sociology measures everything as a manifestation of cultural need rather than as spiritual assignation. Nevertheless, mariner will dust off his sociological roots to examine the ever changing religion called Christianity.

From the beginning

What is interesting is that a small band of civilization between the Greek/Roman god families to the north and the Egyptian god families to the south, that is, the region that includes Israel, sustained a belief in one supreme god. This single deity, originally named Cybele, arose in history in Phyrgia (western Turkey today) around 7500 BCE. Mariner refers the reader to an earlier post in which he discusses the impact of Cybele on all modern religions.[1] This earlier treatise illustrates clearly how religions morph to accommodate emerging cultural need.

1 – At the root of every religion is the need to know what omnipotent, life controlling force dictates the human experience. Knowing (or believing spiritually) what the core set of values are establishes a base for cultural stability.

2 – Human need drives adaptation. For example, a moral value has arisen in this century when it comes to how humans treat the environment. It can be sensed that the environment has a supreme value above the narrow benefits of commercialism. This may be an example of naturalism emerging or possibly Christianity, in time, may modify humanity’s role as a servant of God and how to care for his Kingdom. In sociological terms, either interpretation is identical as a response to global warming. In this example, Christianity must adapt to the need for a religious relationship more in the hands of humans than of god.

3 – On the doctrinal side presented in the synoptic gospels, it is very clear that Jesus is born into a terrible period of Jewish history. Rome invaded Israel dismissing all cultural values, private ownership, cultural norms and replaced them with Roman mandates that benefited Rome, not Israel. Romans took slaves as needed, enforced a brutal one-sided justice system and generally collapsed the Jewish economy. Jesus opens the Beatitudes with an accurate description of the times and assures Israelites that they are of supreme value in God’s eyes (See: Matthew 5:1-16). Then Jesus embraces compassion as the tool for survival; succinctly, Jesus says there is salvation in caring for others first, thereby limiting personal feelings of uselessness and abusive treatment as a recourse.

4 – This particularly high standard for human behavior remains troublesome. Throughout history until today Christians have performed brutal and unfair acts on fellow humans. Mariner recently cited the brutality with which European explorers and Christian cults came to the Americas – not stealing but literally taking all the wealth of natives, genocide, slavery of the people on the land they once owned and an intense prejudice that remains strong today. Then there are the religious cults who killed other Christian cults or drove them out of their land because they weren’t in the same cult; not to consider genocide of the Native American Indian.

Life in the 2000 millennium has begun with a great deal of upheaval in all sectors of human experience. Politics must adapt, economics must adapt, religion must adapt, culture must adapt. Ironically, Jesus’ command to use compassion may come in handy but it is in remission in the halls of Christianity.

End of unfinished business.

Ancient Mariner

[1] Mariner wrote a post dedicated to Cybele back in April 2016. In the search block type Cybele.

Unfinished Business

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֎ Speculations about the future of Christianity drew interest. If the Trinity disappears, Armageddon will ensue. Mariner is not in a position to reconcile such a difficult question so he will throw some logs on the fire.

Log 1 – In the local newspaper today was an article about a Roman Catholic priest here in the US. He was in deep trouble because many parishioners had to re-baptize their babies because the priest said, “We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” Turns out the Vatican said this is improper because it is the spirit of Jesus only who baptizes; the priest should have said ‘I’. Calculate the amount of grace, dare mariner say God’s grace, that was demonstrated in the strict interpretation. Define aquarium. Define spiritual.

Log 2 – Just in his small town mariner counted five people who never go to church but are known for their good works and their commitment to help others. One of these people is older than mariner and when there is a snowstorm will get out his tractor and clear 19 driveways in town, mostly those who cannot do it themselves. Can the two Great Commandments be defined in other belief systems that do not have a spiritual deity?

Log 3 – There is a hairdresser who takes one workday each week to work in retirement homes. Does this woman go to church? Define Holy Spirit.

– – – –

On to other matters:

More companies are using AI-led video interviews to assess job candidates before a human recruiter even meets them. Some automated programs evaluate not just on answers to questions, but sometimes on facial expressions, intonation and word choice.

Remember Nadine?

 

Here in Iowa mariner had another snowstorm yesterday. The ground is covered in snow and ice; bitter breezes prevail; many winter chores remain undone. Nevertheless, four weeks from now the early vegetables like lettuce can be planted; is the asparagus bed ready? Clean the greenhouse and pots; repair garden tools. Get ready, gardeners.

Ancient Mariner

 

2000 Century Trends

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Below are random thoughts collected from mariner’s alter egos about trends in society and history that are too large to be noticed daily and so slow in impact that, today at least, they don’t matter.

֎ Migration from the coasts.  Axios, an online news source, reports that a trend is well underway which involves a significant number of people relocating from the coasts and current centers of commerce to twenty heartland states. Three major causes are the ability to work from home, the internet enables large corporations to relocate for tax purposes and an awareness of the impact of global warming on the coasts – ocean levels are expected to rise one foot by 2050. Map below:

Mariner mentions this trend because it is a shift in winds by the nation’s cultural ideology about what it means to be successful. Since the 1960s one was considered upwardly mobile and successful if they were able to escape the local scene and become part of the world of big-time success, typically large corporations, universities and the world of the Fortune 500. One could ask whether today’s working class (including the trumpers) will ever again be the center of the nation’s work ethic, will ever again bask in the glory days of Rosie the Riveter and the political influence of the AFL/CIO. In the future one wonders where the collective identity of a U.S. citizen will emerge – given the isolating characteristics of working from home and the extensive automation of manufacturing. In the future what cultural characteristic will define a successful individual?

֎ The disappearance of Christianity. Among the major religions of the world, Christianity is the most spiritual. To be a Christian requires an eagerness to put aside one’s own sense of accomplishment and replace it with enabling success in others. The theological basis is a spiritual relationship – a partnership – with God, Jesus and the human Christian; scripturally called the Trinity. In 2014 Paul Harvey, a conservative talk show host on radio, said “Too many Christians are no longer fishers of men, but the keepers of the aquarium.” – clearly a recognition of an evaporating spiritual element in Christianity.

For many decades religious thinkers have pondered what will replace Christianity. Will it be atheism? Will it be humanism? Will it be naturalism? Will it be, in a computer-driven society, determinism? Will a new age of theocracy emerge? Each of these ideologies has a similar ethical structure, essentially endorsing a grand order from which morality can be deduced but not necessarily from an anthropomorphic deity driven by spirituality. Like the national identity of success, Christianity is a deeply rooted characterization of most U.S. citizens. What will replace the spirituality provided by Christianity? Will church buildings go the way of public telephone booths? What unchanging, overarching principle will guide humanity in the simulated world of artificial intelligence?

֎ Economic theory. Since the beginning, Homo sapiens’ habitat has been one, most of the time, that has allowed a constant increase in the number of humans in the world. There was always another natural resource to leverage, always a new way to profit as a species, always a new intellectual device to increase production beyond human capability.

Along with a period of unusually long and stable planetary weather, the environment allowed three primary economic theories to work: capitalism, socialism and communism. Granted, there are unending political ways to manage these theories from dictatorships to democracies but only these three economic theories can leverage the natural resources in a manner that is sustainable. The number of humans has long surpassed survivability based on hunting/gathering and family labor.

Today the human population has grown past 7 billion on its way to what many scientists from different disciplines believe, given natural resources, is a maximum capacity of 11 billion. Add to population issues the issue of global warming and a reduced need for labor in an automated world and one begins to wonder what food will be available? What income will be available? How will banking and supply economics work as resources diminish on a person-to-person basis? What is the future of capitalism when there is no longer an opportunity to increase profit? Will underfed socialism lead to an era of war and domination?

Humans may not be wiped out by a meteor like the dinosaurs were, but humans may experience a rapid transition as the combination of profiteering, extreme weather and resource depletion come together to form a new age.

Ancient Mariner

 

Wilderness in the back yard

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Mariner and his wife maintain bird feeders during the winter months. It is often that there are 50 to 100 small sparrows, juncos, goldfinches, house wrens, woodpeckers, and cardinals, et al, sitting on the feeders, back deck and on the ground under the feeders; those in waiting cover the branches of the fruit trees. Also in attendance are several squirrels, a feral black cat, chipmunks and mice, and at twilight, a rabbit or two.

Mariner has mentioned in past posts that his yard is surrounded by back yards converted to trucking depots with 3-car garages, RVs and concrete pads large enough to land a helicopter. So mariner’s yard, while not a picturesque British garden, is a small spot of wilderness.

Having just refreshed the feeders yesterday, mariner expected the usual crowd of wildlife. But the yard was silent. The yard was still. Not a bird even in the fruit trees.

Around 10:00 AM mariner spotted the cause: a Swainson’s hawk sitting comfortably on the edge of the flower garden. It is a sheltered spot with full Sun. The hawk was cleaning itself and seemingly just passing the time. It sat there until half past Noon. It was the only creature in the yard.

As this post is written, the squirrels have returned. Still no birds.

Nature is tough.

Ancient Mariner