Oct 30·edited 4 hrs agoLiked by Jared Yates Sexton
Wow, no comments. I could have written what you wrote.
I've been writing for twenty months about end-running around government with what we-the-the-people could do. We have the internet, but no one is organizing us. No progressive billionaire has put up a flagpole to talk sense to the others about divesting before they don't have any customers to buy what they sell. Now I've moved from ideas about what we could do to suggest we try to bring one thing into being: "Let's do something already to turn the world around...How about the Beloved Community?" https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/lets-do-something-already-to-turn.
I see people like us scheming together. What do you think about that? Also, I see you subscribing to my Substack...
Oh, gosh, Jared. pungent stuff, this. And pretty much everywhere I look, I see just about ZERO capacity for hardiness amongst my neighbors, unless they grew up with parents who'd survived the Great Depression, too. So, I'm not sanguine that we'll all come together out of what I think you've correctly identified as the natural progression of greed. The most insightful observations on this moment I've seen are from Oxford scholar Iain McGilchrist (The Master and His Emmissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World) who's noted that Empires have fallen when they've become to full of themselves, when they've determined that they have all the answers and fail to grasp the world in a holistic manner. In the fashion of an economic system that never could be troubled with details, or responsibility, and relied upon some contortions of the Free Market as 'Natural Law' as its excuse. Hubris, in a word. And hubris is presently running the table.
I'd like to think that my working practice of "Refusing to give the Total System what it wants." would at least keep me from making things worse, but I read somewhere that the greedy hate nothing more than the good example. Still, that's what I'm doing. And considering what fellow commenter Suzanne Taylor suggests below....
Thanks for your continued, ehm, reporting. Even when 'the word' is awful, it's better than accepting falsehoods as gospel and having THAT churning my lower tract.
Thanks Jared -- I too would love to be swept-up in a 'turning of the page,' a 'new era of progressive advances,' but, as you point out, Harris the politician and (more importantly), America, the nation that has lost its vision, make that vision more a pipe dream than a possibility.
BUT, I try not to despair -- at least not until after the election ;-) if the worst should happen.
Ultimately, no matter the outcome, I will continue the fight because my 'greatest generation' parents ingrained in me this damn protestant work ethic and an incurable optimism.
They came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight fascism along with a (mostly) united America. Despite real hardships, they found a purpose and a joy in meeting the challenges. I will do my best to follow their lead -- thank you Jared for illuminating the path.
During Trump's last try at being President, he gave away top-secret clearances to family members and friends who did not meet the FBI's requirements for such clearances. This allowed unqualified persons to see confidential material and use it in their private business dealings and government positions using this high-end clearance, which may affect America's defense, economy, and Democracy, causing catastrophic damage and harm to America.
Wow, no comments. I could have written what you wrote.
I've been writing for twenty months about end-running around government with what we-the-the-people could do. We have the internet, but no one is organizing us. No progressive billionaire has put up a flagpole to talk sense to the others about divesting before they don't have any customers to buy what they sell. Now I've moved from ideas about what we could do to suggest we try to bring one thing into being: "Let's do something already to turn the world around...How about the Beloved Community?" https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/lets-do-something-already-to-turn.
I see people like us scheming together. What do you think about that? Also, I see you subscribing to my Substack...
Have you thought of billionaire Nick Hanauer? He does this economics podcasts and tells his rich friends they need to pay their fair share of taxes. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer/id1445901378?i=1000674828689
Oh, gosh, Jared. pungent stuff, this. And pretty much everywhere I look, I see just about ZERO capacity for hardiness amongst my neighbors, unless they grew up with parents who'd survived the Great Depression, too. So, I'm not sanguine that we'll all come together out of what I think you've correctly identified as the natural progression of greed. The most insightful observations on this moment I've seen are from Oxford scholar Iain McGilchrist (The Master and His Emmissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World) who's noted that Empires have fallen when they've become to full of themselves, when they've determined that they have all the answers and fail to grasp the world in a holistic manner. In the fashion of an economic system that never could be troubled with details, or responsibility, and relied upon some contortions of the Free Market as 'Natural Law' as its excuse. Hubris, in a word. And hubris is presently running the table.
I'd like to think that my working practice of "Refusing to give the Total System what it wants." would at least keep me from making things worse, but I read somewhere that the greedy hate nothing more than the good example. Still, that's what I'm doing. And considering what fellow commenter Suzanne Taylor suggests below....
Thanks for your continued, ehm, reporting. Even when 'the word' is awful, it's better than accepting falsehoods as gospel and having THAT churning my lower tract.
Why are some GOP MAGA Republicans so afraid of the nonpartisan approved security cameras safeguarding poll access desire them to be removed?
Thanks Jared -- I too would love to be swept-up in a 'turning of the page,' a 'new era of progressive advances,' but, as you point out, Harris the politician and (more importantly), America, the nation that has lost its vision, make that vision more a pipe dream than a possibility.
BUT, I try not to despair -- at least not until after the election ;-) if the worst should happen.
Ultimately, no matter the outcome, I will continue the fight because my 'greatest generation' parents ingrained in me this damn protestant work ethic and an incurable optimism.
They came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight fascism along with a (mostly) united America. Despite real hardships, they found a purpose and a joy in meeting the challenges. I will do my best to follow their lead -- thank you Jared for illuminating the path.
During Trump's last try at being President, he gave away top-secret clearances to family members and friends who did not meet the FBI's requirements for such clearances. This allowed unqualified persons to see confidential material and use it in their private business dealings and government positions using this high-end clearance, which may affect America's defense, economy, and Democracy, causing catastrophic damage and harm to America.