and SOME AMERICAN HISTORY, or “KEEPING PEOPLE IN LINE” vs. “HELPING THEM”
MUSINGS, NO. 25, written in 2022
Part 2 of 2
I’ve been talking (writing?) about incompatible views of the proper functions of government . . . and the mindsets that support such incompatible opinions. This is a continuation of that topic.
Those incompatible mindsets are formed early in life, and they are formed entirely unconsciously. No kid sits down to think about the ethics of abortion, for instance; he/she learns that from how his/her parents feel. Ditto re: households in which the power structure is patriarchal, or dictatorial, or hierarchical, or egalitarian, or racist, or whatever else. Those attitudes are installed — and deeply so — by age four or five. Whatever you may ever go into therapy to deal with, it’ll go back to then. Everything else is simply a metaphor, or vehicle, for those early-learned attitudes and mindsets.
Here’s something interesting. It was only relatively recently that, in our own history, anyone in authority thought to make sure that “the people” had enough to eat; up until then it was most certainly every man for himself. You know, Social Darwinism and all that. This new idea came to the fore with the Democrats under Franklin Roosevelt — out of the desperate straits of the Depression. Roosevelt rolled out help and aid programs of all kinds: the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration, social security and health care . . . etc. The Republicans have been fighting that mindset ever since.
I think of them as the “Throw People Off The Raft” Party.
Historically, it was the Roman Empire that first had the idea that the government had a responsibility to ensure that the people had enough to eat. Isn’t that amazing? They were the first.
But they had to. They were, after all, managing a “tribe” in which most members didn’t know the others, and certainly weren’t related to any of them, and would have had no reason to look out for any of them. Without a “government” to hold things together, all the groups and tribes and factions would be at each other’s throats in no time. And Rome itself was huge . . . and needed a steady food supply. It was like the United States is today, actually — with the added bonus that our government is, under Trump, alienating all of our former allies while simultaneously having anal sex with Russia, our former biggest enemy. Wow. Even science fiction types couldn’t make this stuff up.
The IDEA that the government should make sure that the people had enough to eat was, in fact, the Communist idea also. It didn’t turn out to work that way in Russia, as we all know. Still, the Scandinavian and European countries have “Socialized Medicine”, and that seems to be working better than our own paltry efforts at national “non-Socialized” health care. As far as the Republicans go, their platform is that people should get the health care that they can afford, and in the last political campaign Mitt Romney actually poo-pooed working people’s idea that they thought they had a right to health care.
Well, it’s hard to miss the complete absence of any sense that the Republicans, as prosperous citizens, have ANY responsibility for their less prosperous fellow citizens. They see the government as TAKING THEIR MONEY AWAY FROM THEM in the form of taxes . . . but without wondering what things such as medicine, education, health, and services to the community [that paid the taxes!] the government might use it for. It’s just too difficult a concept for them.
It makes one ill. But on the other hand: wow. Who knew that Franklin Roosevelt was a Communist!? Well, he was! He made efforts to distribute to the people what the people needed, both in the second half of the Great Depression and World War II.
And still, all that considered — insofar as it is a good and decent idea for a government to look out for its citizens — our own Republic didn’t lift much of a finger to help with the feeding-everyone effort while the Communists were advertising that that was their ultimate goal. Our own ruling class saw doom and upper-class bankruptcy in the Communist scenario, and the U.S. fought the Communists and their egalitarian ideas tooth and nail.
Well, we all know that “Communism failed”. It might have done so anyway, of its own internal complications, and without our help. But we don’t know that. We did help. And our help was MASSIVE: we opposed, fought, resisted, propagandized, disinformed, misinformed, undermined, blackballed, vilified, and attacked Communists and Communism in every way we could, and justified our every move by pointing to their nefariousnesses. Any government under that kind of assault will not be free to develop in peaceful ways.
By “our own ruling class”, as I mentioned above, I mean pretty much anyone who made a lot of money by hook or by crook and has become part of “the American way”; that is, after all, the principal social message that any and all schools will have taught. Or, if they didn’t teach it, they certainly never examined or questioned the principal pillars of American though. These are the “we’re-the-good-guys” trope, the “right-to-get-ahead” part of the American Dream, and the Sanctity-of-Private-Property promoters.
That has of course spread far and wide: and the propaganda got so thick that you could be lynched in the South if someone called you a Communist. Under the highly alcoholic senator Joe McCarthy many people got persecuted, prosecuted, fired, blacklisted, boycotted, injured, etc. for thinking Communism was a good idea. Yes, we all know that Communism failed. But the idea of it was nonetheless excellent: that everyone chips in and participates in a classless society.
The main idea was that You Should And Will Get Yours (“from everyone according to their ability to everyone according to their needs”) . . . but You Shouldn’t And Will Not Get Anyone Else’s. Here, if you’ve noticed, the 1% has gotten the 99%’s share. The financial world certainly stole a bunch of everyone else’s in the 2008 fiasco . . . and no one has rectified any of it. Nor will they, from what I can see. Well, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump hinted that this was going to be a plank of their platform, in the past election. And I don’t hear whispers about it in the election to come.
Well, the F.B.I. was going to take care of the Communist problem; its mandate was to oversee Domestic law and order. (The C.I.A., born out of the earlier O.S.S., had the task of overseeing Un-domestic law and order.) It was, therefore, the F.B.I.’s main job to get rid of all the domestic Communists (well, the ten most wanted criminals too, but mainly the Communists).
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However, the F.B.I. allowed the Communist party to remain active in this country. Yes, it did.
And why did it do so? Well, mostly because it needed bad guys. The F.B.I. understood that once the Communists were gone it would have no reason to exist. It would be out of a job. There weren’t enough “ten most wanted” people to keep that many F.B.I. people employed.
I was told this many years ago by an old Communist fellow who knew this history. I’ve never read about this, by the way; and neither have you. Why would we have? It’s simply the most credible political strategy scenario imaginable.
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How things have changed. I was saying that individuals will have internalized the imperative to uphold the function of the Government to “keep things in line”, as far as their sociopolitical lives go. This will have been internalized as a rule for running their own personal and family lives as well.
THE CURRENT SITUATION:
I’ve created a life for myself via making guitars. I learned it by exercising hand skills, perceptual skills, analytical skills, and experienced common sense. I have the sense that I now live in a world in which hand skills and common sense are less and less needed. Well, electronic devices and computers have taken over. By the same token, I seem to live in a world in which following one’s conscience and common sense of humanity is less and less the thing to do. Especially by those who have influence and power they feel the need to defend. Exercise of conscience and common sense appear to have been replaced by “following policy” or “following the rules”. This seems to me quite true in the realm of politics — particularly the politics of the Right — as well as the corporate (financial, manufacturing, medical and scientific) sectors.
You know, “carry out the Policy and don’t complicate things or waste time by being nice, empathetic, helpful, or a bleeding heart to people”.
I probably sound like I’m overstating this, but that last part is very absent in today’s politics. All you have to do is listen to any current official’s explanation of how the government has to separate illegals from their children. And there’s Kelly Ann Conway’s famous “alternate facts” spin. They mean it. This is these functionaries’ job description. It has to be, because of party policy. And they’re paid to carry it out.
I wrote about this aspect of the plight of “illegals” in my last newsletter. “It’s Disneyland for the kids”; someone actually said that . . . as the children live in cages without their families nearby, and “supervised” by people assigned to feed them, make sure none of them get too sick or try to escape. The official line is: “well, we don’t want to do that, but it’s unavoidable; the main thing is that we have to keep the nation safe.” Basically, it’s “we have no choice”. I keep on hearing that on news programs.
I got an interesting email in response to my thoughts, from a friend; he wasn’t happy with the separating of families and children but, but he did make a point of letting me know that these people were here illegally and that we were merely sending them back to their own countries.
I don’t wish to start fights with people. But it seems to me that this little conversation contains two entirely separate issues. On the one hand, well, yes, they’re not here legally, and something ought to be done about that. On the other hand — and I seem to be emphasizing this one in my own mind — how does that entitle anyone to mistreat them?
I don’t need to tell you that the countries that many of the refugees are coming from (Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Syria, Iraq, some African countries, etc.) are DANGEROUS to live in, do I? I guess that my thinking focuses on how untenable it is to live in those countries, as opposed to the fact that those people were born in those countries and should stay there if they don’t have the papers with which to immigrate here. Would that life were that easy and hold on as I peel my blood pressure off the ceiling.
As I’ve written before, my family and I are/were Hungarian immigrants. We left Europe after the second world war, along with millions of people who had been displaced by that war, whose lives had been destroyed, and who wanted a new beginning. In our case we left Hungary and went to Austria. Then we moved to England. Then we moved to Cuba. Then we moved to Mexico. No one wanted us.
Is this sounding familiar?
We did arrive here in the U.S. “legally” in 1959, after 14 years of wandering. World War 2 was over as of 1945. Plus, I think my parents knew we’d get in if we waited long enough (the U.S. was “the good guys” back in those days, much more than it is now).
I don’t think it works like that for the refugees I just mentioned, though. Their nations are quite active areas of poverty, disease, and civil war. And it is largely civil war that is supported by various world powers – us included. That’s really different than the situation my parents and I faced.
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After World War II Cuba was one of two countries on this side of the Atlantic that accepted refugees without quota limitations. The other was Ecuador. So, those who didn’t want to rot away in some European internment camp flocked to Cuba or Ecuador, just to have a place to rest until they could figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. Those became staging areas. And from them expatriate Europeans moved on to Canada, the United States, Latin America, Palestine, Australia, back to Europe, or even Africa. My family and I were part of that flow of humanity. And we knew what it felt like to be strangers in a strange land, whom no one wanted and who would have been persecuted as “illegals” had we snuck in somewhere. A lot like today’s Muslims and Mexicans. These can be considered this administration’s M & Ms. And they don’t have staging areas like Cuba and Ecuador to escape to.
Eventually, my family and I got green cards. And here we are.
Here’s a question that I don’t have a good answer for. An awful lot of Americans are from immigrant stock. How can they feel this way about the next wave of people who are on that same track?
What’s that? What did you say? Oh, we’re white and they’re not? They lack the skills and education the U.S. needs? Yeah, that explains it. And they hate the U.S.? What was I thinking? And of course we did take in the Jews, the Italians, the Irish and the Scots of “the Celtic migration”, and other Europeans; these have been here a while and have by now become “American” – everything that the wanna-bes are not. Pardon me for saying it but, from what I can see, that includes not being white. Darker skinned people may or may not hate the U.S. . . . but what they all mainly want is to be able to feed their families and live in peace.
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Just so. As I try to put all these pieces together so that they make some sense to me I’m left with the conclusion that beauty, sympathy, charity, and kindness toward others seem to be quite useless in the minds of . . . well . . . Evangelicals, xenophobes, anti-gays, Tea Party people, America Firsters, and such. They’re certainly useless and pointless in the struggles against the people who are now being labeled as bad and dangerous. At least, that’s what it seems like from what I’m seeing and hearing.
I probably sound very facetious in saying this, but I’m being straight. It really doesn’t matter whether anyone thinks I’m saying that those are bad people or not; that’s beside the point. I’m saying that the “nationalists” seem to think*** like that. The qualities I named seem to not be useful to those people. If they were useful or valued, well, they’d use them. Would they not?
*** “Think” is such a silly-sounding word. Try saying it to yourself a few times. Doesn’t it sound like someone clanking a fork on some plumbing pipes?
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Aldous Huxley, in his book Brave New World, describes a futuristic society in which everyone kowtows to Big Brother; everyone participates in the daily five minutes’ hate that is directed against whoever big brother doesn’t like that week. Once a week, everything stops for five minutes and people focus their hatred on someone or some group.
Behold Fox news and Rush Limbaugh.
Man, those scare me. Hatred, hatred, hatred. It’s like Germany before World War 2. Can we be reassured by the fact that the current White House’s [Donald Trump’s] staff has already many times the turnover that Adolph Hitler’s staff did? It’s like a tire that’s had sixty or seventy re-treads. If anyone has any helpful insights into this, I’d be interested in hearing them.
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HERE’S SOME HUMOR ABOUT SOMETHING USELESS:
Paddy, the Irishman, walks into his favorite pub one afternoon. Well, he’s not actually walking; he’s limping and dragging his leg.
He’s covered in scrapes and black-and-blue marks. His arm’s in a sling and he has a bandage wrapped around his head.
The barman looks at him in shock and says, “Paddy! What happened to ye?”
Paddy replies, “Tim O’Malley gave me a beatin’ ”.
The barman, still shocked, asks, “what did he beat you with?”
Paddy replies, “he beat me with a shovel”.
“Well”, says the barman, “ ‘tis a fine beatin’ he gave ye, I can see. But did ye no’ have anything in your hand you could defend yourself with?”
“Aye, I did”, says Paddy. “Mary O’Malley’s breast. ‘Twas a thing of rare beauty . . . but I have to tell ye, honestly, t’was useless in a fight”.
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The Harvard-like Test
This is based upon typical graduation requirements at Harvard. Try to finish within 5 minutes. When you are done, count the number correct and see how you compare to others. OK, here we go…
1. Is there a 4th of July in England? Yes or no?
2. How many birthdays does the average man have?
3. Some months have 31 days. How many have 28?
4. How many outs are there in an inning?
5. Can a man in California marry his widow’s sister?
6. Take the number 30, divide it by 1/2, and then add 10. What do you get?
7. There are 3 apples and you take two away. How many apples are you left with?
8. A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half an hour. How long will the pills last?
9. A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 of them die. How many sheep are left?
10. How many animals of each sex did Moses bring with him on the ark?
11. A butcher in the market is 5’10” tall. What does he weigh?
12. How many 2 cent stamps are there in a dozen?
13. What was the President’s name in 1960?
NO CHEATING
So how do you think you did?
(Answers below.)
TEST ANSWERS:
1. Is there a 4th of July in England? Yes or No?
Yes. It comes right after the 3rd.
2. How many birthdays does the average man have?
One (1). You can only be born once. The others are birthday anniversaries.
3. Some months have 31 days. How many have 28?
Twelve (12). All of them have at least 28 days.
4. How many outs are there in an inning? Six (6).
Don’t forget there is a top and bottom to every inning.
5. Can a man in California marry his widow’s sister?
No. He must be dead if it is his widow.
6. Take the number 30, divide it by 1/2, and then add 10. What do you get?
Seventy (70); thirty (30) when divided by 1/2 is 60.
7. There are 3 apples and you take two away. How many apples are you left with?
Two (2). YOU take two apples . . . therefore YOU have TWO apples.
8. A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half an hour.
How long will the pills last?
One hour. If you take the first pill at 1:00, the second at 1:30,
and the third at 2:00, the pills have run out and only one hour has passed.
9. A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 of them die.
How many sheep are left?
Nine (9). Like I said, all BUT nine die.
10. How many animals of each sex did Moses have on the ark?
None. Moses never had an ark.
11. A butcher in the market is 5′ 10 tall. What does he weigh?
Meat … that is self-explanatory.
12. How many 2 cent stamps are there in a dozen?
Twelve (12). How many eggs are in a dozen? TWELVE … it’s a dozen.
13. What was the President’s name in 1960?
George Bush. As far as I know, he hasn’t changed his name.
So, how did you do?
13 correct………GENIUS…you are good.
10-12 correct….ABOVE AVERAGE…but don’t let it go to your head.
7-9 correct……..AVERAGE…but who wants to be average?
4-6 correct……..SLOW…pay attention to the questions!
1-3 correct………IDIOT…what else can be said?
0 correct…………CONGRATULATIONS, you are a certified MORON
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HERE’S A RIDDLE FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT. IF YOU’RE LESS THAN 12 YEARS OLD YOU’LL HAVE FIGURED IT OUT EASILY. IF YOU’RE 30 OR OLDER, IT MAY WELL STUMP YOU:
A COWBOY RIDES INTO TOWN AT NOON ON FRIDAY.
TWO DAYS LATER, HE RIDES OUT OF TOWN, AT EXACTLY NOON, ON FRIDAY.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
FRIDAY IS THE NAME OF HIS HORSE.
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