I have
been told by many younger people that listening to NPR as the default in the
car and at home, watching news on TV, and/or reading papers and news magazines
both hard copy and on-line, is a sure sign of limited social skills, diminished
intellectual acuity, possible impotence, and so on. Mostly I ignore these dire
warnings, and keep listening, watching and reading. It’s not too
surprising that I don’t like much of what I hear, see and read, and I have been
known to shout blasphemies at the radio on my way to work (I wonder what THAT
indicates). The world, it would seem, is full of assholes, loosely and personally defined as
people who don’t think like me. Assuming that I am not the problem (which may
not be true) I thought I might try to do something about that.
What
will follow is a series of short essays about American politics, government,
and political thought intended to incite discussion. This preface is intended to provide readers with a
few assumptions I make going in to this undertaking. If you don’t share those
assumptions, the essays that follow probably aren’t worth your time.
I assume
that the residents of the United States have some common interests that include
reliable infrastructure, safe and adequate water and food, decent and
affordable health care, an educated or at least literate citizenry, some level
of national defense, freedom from want and violence, and so on. Put another way, I assume that the United States hangs
together as a viable political entity of people that for the most part have
more commonalities than differences .
I assume most of us are happy we live here.
I assume
that the majority of citizens and residents are rational, and capable of acting
in their own interests based on empirical evidence.
I assume
that most folks can live in the same country
with people who don’t share their politics, and can strike compromises with
such people to solve common problems in ways
that they might not view as the best solutions but are, at least, fair.
Now I
know these assumptions are not uniformly shared in the United States. A good
number of people threatened secession after the last election, and some lefties
contemplated immigration to Canada and Europe as recently as W’s tenure. My
point is, I think folks who are hiding heavily armed in various bunkers against
Obama’s certain confiscation of their firearms, or others who are just as certain that the Neocon Taliban are going to
jail them and eat their children because they don’t go to church or are pro-choice, are all
delusional and don’t represent a majority of
anything but lunatics. If you fall into one of these cases, I apologize for
insulting you. Don’t read any more of this blog, as it will just piss you off.
If you fall somewhere between these extremes, I hope you find the essays that
will follow on something like a weekly basis for a month or so to be interesting, or at the very
least entertaining.
I guess
we’ll see…
