Thank you, Mike. Clear analysis, devoid of hysterical hyperbole. Just what we need. And one more thing: I already subscribe to too many publications, but after reading a few of your pieces, I knew this was a Substack worth paying for. Looking forward to your lucid, honest observations.
I've seen it observed that certain of the things MAGA says they want, like high-trust neighbourhoods, still exist in the United States. Said high-trust neighbourhoods are highly multicultural D+40 areas that MAGA claims are destroying the country.
Also, everyone who complained about "they took our jobs" should be chomping at the bit to work on a farm or drive a truck, because guess what undocumented immigrants were doing.
"The way to answer this question is to take the reactionaries’ claims seriously, see what happens when their program is implemented, and update on the evidence."
Alternatively, the way to answer this question was to read some history, and notice that the reactionaries' claims were the same dishonest bullshit that they have always peddled, and that their solutions were the same bullshit they've always suggested, that only serves to line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many. And not just in modern history; the same bullshit can probably be found on cuneiform tablets in history museums, if not painted on the walls of some very old caves.
This would have saved us from having to spend another lost generation picking up the pieces left by the reactionaries in order to restore a positive vision of human flourishing - except that this time, the damage is so great that we might not have time to restore that positive vision before we lose centuries. a millennium, or more.
No, it didn't. It didn't have to get to the point where the choice opposite "better" was the end of human civilization as we know it, and "better" was a statistical improbability even if we put all our collective effort toward it.
I'm afraid that a chain of loosely connected, randomly-capitalized, poorly punctuated sentences like "We have Arrived at En Masse." just doesn't do much for me. It reads like something ELIZA would have spit out half a century ago.
I like your insight of the lack of extrapolation it is spot on. The evidence was there.
I think a great many people were either suffering from a lack of imagination or suffering from a severe case of the 'king has no clothes'.
When i have told my friends that the camps are not just for illegals, or that the regime is coming for your money or that the regime wants to kill its citizens, I am told I am a crazy old lady.
However I did not want to be right.
Maybe their zeal of doing everything now will produce enough effects that a wide range of Americans will have it affect them in some way and wake them up.
I completely agree that they have a continuity, but also a schism in full adoption of our sapiens nature. And the distinction seems to be compelling us to not blur the boundaries. Mahalo for your truly insightful thought-provoking essays.
First of all, the "christian tradition" does not start in the old Jewish writings, it begins with a prophet who had two "commandments" breathing life back into the community, and the horrific cost of espousing a commitment to love and empathy.
And then, kudos for reading the project of our last common ancestor (pre-sapiens) correctly.
My question: can we graduate to our full sapiens inheritance and fulfill the promise of emotional maturity? Can we bury "Project 2025" along with the ancient bones?
I see the boundaries of these traditions as more continuous than you do, which is something that I've been trying to argue in these pages for the past year or more.
I love what you’re doing. The Whitman point about contribution is key. ‘The Positive Case for Liberalism’ needs a sufficiently robust account of the communal value of pluralist/minority contribution to balance the libertarian hijack of individual liberty.
Thank you, Mike. Clear analysis, devoid of hysterical hyperbole. Just what we need. And one more thing: I already subscribe to too many publications, but after reading a few of your pieces, I knew this was a Substack worth paying for. Looking forward to your lucid, honest observations.
I've seen it observed that certain of the things MAGA says they want, like high-trust neighbourhoods, still exist in the United States. Said high-trust neighbourhoods are highly multicultural D+40 areas that MAGA claims are destroying the country.
Also, everyone who complained about "they took our jobs" should be chomping at the bit to work on a farm or drive a truck, because guess what undocumented immigrants were doing.
"The way to answer this question is to take the reactionaries’ claims seriously, see what happens when their program is implemented, and update on the evidence."
Alternatively, the way to answer this question was to read some history, and notice that the reactionaries' claims were the same dishonest bullshit that they have always peddled, and that their solutions were the same bullshit they've always suggested, that only serves to line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many. And not just in modern history; the same bullshit can probably be found on cuneiform tablets in history museums, if not painted on the walls of some very old caves.
This would have saved us from having to spend another lost generation picking up the pieces left by the reactionaries in order to restore a positive vision of human flourishing - except that this time, the damage is so great that we might not have time to restore that positive vision before we lose centuries. a millennium, or more.
It Had to Get This Bad to Get Better.
No, it didn't. It didn't have to get to the point where the choice opposite "better" was the end of human civilization as we know it, and "better" was a statistical improbability even if we put all our collective effort toward it.
“The End” clearly hasn’t Arrived.
With 8 Billion plus of us.
Either Way.
What’s Done is Done.
As for “Human Flourishing”.
By not Inviting the rest of Carbon-based Intelligence with us:
The Results resemble Destruction.
Apparently.
Civilization has Failed and Succeeded.
Gloriously.
One can only Fix what is Finally Seen.
En Masse.
We have Arrived at En Masse.
That’s a Start.
There is no Having it Another Way.
We’re Here.
Is this supposed to be a poem or something? Don't make me play my favorite game, "Is It Art or Is It Just Crap?"
Nice.
I'm afraid that a chain of loosely connected, randomly-capitalized, poorly punctuated sentences like "We have Arrived at En Masse." just doesn't do much for me. It reads like something ELIZA would have spit out half a century ago.
Yup.
Signed, Cassandra
Thank you again for capturing the place where we find ourselves and for creating a context for giving space for others to join the play.
Yes Marlene, he’s good “for capturing the place where we find ourselves”.
Butterflies in a Net. His pieces being Butterflies. The Net being Now.
I like your insight of the lack of extrapolation it is spot on. The evidence was there.
I think a great many people were either suffering from a lack of imagination or suffering from a severe case of the 'king has no clothes'.
When i have told my friends that the camps are not just for illegals, or that the regime is coming for your money or that the regime wants to kill its citizens, I am told I am a crazy old lady.
However I did not want to be right.
Maybe their zeal of doing everything now will produce enough effects that a wide range of Americans will have it affect them in some way and wake them up.
As always, great writing.
You fools, you finally did it!
or words to that effect
or Mike's sad, precise analysis.
Now it is to your patriots and heroes to save the day.
IF it is salvageable...
The Calm during The Storm. The Eye. The True Center. This Piece.
Opening Paragraph is a Banger of Prose.
While the Second Looks Good around its Arm.
Opening Five need In “Print” and In Mouths all over everywhere. Translations Galore.
[ When Truth Arrives explicitly and timely. Run With It across the Vast Seas and leave no Stone Unturned.]
Yes
Let the curtain fall, let there be no curtain call, remove the marquee, let's change it all to WE!!! We the People!!!
I completely agree that they have a continuity, but also a schism in full adoption of our sapiens nature. And the distinction seems to be compelling us to not blur the boundaries. Mahalo for your truly insightful thought-provoking essays.
Thank you
First of all, the "christian tradition" does not start in the old Jewish writings, it begins with a prophet who had two "commandments" breathing life back into the community, and the horrific cost of espousing a commitment to love and empathy.
And then, kudos for reading the project of our last common ancestor (pre-sapiens) correctly.
My question: can we graduate to our full sapiens inheritance and fulfill the promise of emotional maturity? Can we bury "Project 2025" along with the ancient bones?
I see the boundaries of these traditions as more continuous than you do, which is something that I've been trying to argue in these pages for the past year or more.
I love what you’re doing. The Whitman point about contribution is key. ‘The Positive Case for Liberalism’ needs a sufficiently robust account of the communal value of pluralist/minority contribution to balance the libertarian hijack of individual liberty.