Another SF Meet?

You wrote,

That's what I fear the most in today's politics; it seems many democratic principles are being thrown to the wayside to win elections, and force social issues onto the society that's over-stepping government rights.

What ever happened to the common sense of most Americans that these kind of things can spread so openly?

It's the humility and innocence, I think.

Boy, complex stuff here, CI. We can say a few things, almost axiomatically:
- those who hold power and privilege will likely work to maintain their position and wall off opportunities for others to challenge them
- the "southern strategy" was built on race resentments and we know how Atwater and his student Rove set about the propaganda means to further this into our period because Atwater told us quite clearly
- the paranoid tendencies in US culture have a long history which wax and wane and nobody detailed this fact so well as Hofstadter in "The Paranoid Style of American Politics" (available to read if you google it)
- the Koch brothers' father was one of the founders of the John Birch Society and that ought to teach us a lot about the present. The open anti-Semitism of that movement has reduced in profile out of a necessity to facilitate a fairly recent accumulation of power and influence in the GOP by the APEC circle and to accommodate an alignment of that power center with christian conservatives but if you look at the Agenda 21 stuff, you can see the footprints of this old anti-Semitism in regards to "international bankers" etc.

Present and coming demographic change is, obviously, a central fact in all of this. And a black president has clearly made some of these old tendencies acute and much more visible.

I can't say I'm not worried about what is up the road. I am.

PS... an excellent must-read is Perlstein's The Coming Storm, an extremely competent historical study of the Goldwater period and movement. In many ways, what we see now emerging is this movement and related ideologies arisen and now with a serious grip on the GOP and those who have been plugged into the right wing media universe.

No, it's the hats.

My god, you are superficial!

Yes, indeed, on occasion.
(Don't feed me that innocence schtick)

That Perlstein book sounds interesting, she says, thoughtfully.

My innocence is in some question? Well then my humility must win out and I shall reflect upon this mightily.

Approaching that important question with my usual humility, I found that I could not establish the truth of it either way without, at the same time, being prideful in any conclusion.

Therefore, I sought out a spiritual adviser online (Ms Ursula) who went into a trance and contacted my dear and departed mother to pursue this question.

My mother's spirit, advised of your query, stated with no apparent ambiguity that she was going to kick your ass around the block.

at george, straight at him

George. I love you in an oddly corrupted Platonic sort of way. A hug would be awkward, but I wish it weren't. We nearly rendevouzed in NY but God saw fit to keep that from happening. I don't know why. I probably shouldn't second-guess the Fellow. I'm working on my humility. I want to get to that distant point where I can say, "I'm severely humble". Sure, star-high goal, I know. But a mans's reach...blah blah torshcok, to quote a phrase.

My daughter is up in the Yukon just below the arctic circle( close enough for her to go check, it is a circle and not a trapezoid, she reports). She works far north in summer, then travels. But she stayed over one winter to see what that was like. There's rather more of her mother in her than of me. Being humble, I tip my hat here. My notion of courage and steadfastness is at the paltryl level where it a real personal trial to avoid online porn or to actually attend to a too-pregnant single moment of Hannity. Though I know I should. I know it.

But we were speaking of God and corruption. (I normally don't capitalize that noun, but for you, the formality is in place, a sign of respect). How could it be that He would make this people farm...and then corrupt it? You're a Jesuit, and you've got some traction on this dilemma. He had to give us a challenge, a barrier, a counter-intention in order that we might not, like a welfare recipient, just learn to suck up the good stuff while doing nothing, nothing at all except dawn to dusk gardening chores. Here's a thought... Satan was a union organizer! That fits the schema.

Ok, so that's been a road and a river to cross to get here, but I'm happy to know you.

@osso
Isn't male bonding interesting? We are really rather odd creatures, are we not? When male baboons of the same group greet, they give each other's penis a tug. With my personal history as a lumberjack, I understand this. But George is a catholic boy with who grew up in Boston and they are (humility exercise) more advanced. If a lumberjack and a Boston catholic meet in the woods, on a scalp mission (rite of passage) then the only possible truly American denoument is me, very very bald.

And I am! So things have turned out very well indeed.

Seee the innocence here?

I'm sorry Blatham, I was teasing you when I kidded about innocence. I guess I got in the middle of another conversation, being funny, I thought, about hats.

But hats are always funny. Your intuition cannot be criticized.

Yes, we had dessert! And yes, we shared!
I will remember our lunch for a long time.
Please say hello to Mrs. C.I. for us!

I grew up in Detroit and Washington DC, - not Boston, - the son of irish immigrants. My Dad served in the Congress for 24 years - a Democrat ! - and we bounced between homes in the two cities during election years - Jesuit schools in both towns. Apart from a few visits, my only experience in Boston was a 90 day management course in Cambridge. I lived in nearby Newport for a year, but found that local accents changed significantly in just a few miles; the people a bit rude; and that some towns (Foxboro and Fall River come to mind) were truly significant concentrations of stupid, ugly people.

It isn't hard to parody any political party or its candidates. All it takes is the conviction that all its actions, proposals and programs are cynically designed and motivated by unrelated, self-serving factors. In most cases this is easily plausible, given the venality and ambition that necessarily infect democratis processes. A truly discriminating mind looks instead to the central tendencies of the actions and proposals of the contending parties, and then at the central challenges of the day to decide which will likely do less harm. In the case at hand the choice is fairly easy.

Turn your colorful lens from the Republicans to the Democrats; arm yourself with similar prejudices; and you will get an even sadder picture of deceit, illusion and hubris, replete with cynical payoffs and contempt for those whom they pretend to "protect".

Hard to believe that Aristea would fall for that stuff given the unfolding drama in Europe and collapsing illusions of Keynesian, and her evident economic interests.

I'm glad to see that you remain your self - slightly forced whimsey and soaring, colorful expression; and that the months (years ?) since your last appearance here have been good for you and Jane. We really should meet - perhaps for a good Italian meal and a couple of bottles of Barolo! Are you still in Oregon?

Sounds like a grand idea; to meet again, but let's leave politics out of the equation! I think it'll be more fun talking about almost everything else available for discussion.

OK, on the subject of where you grew up, I deem it a matter of good manners to accept your preposterous story rather than depend on my crystal clear recollection of what you had once told me while I was experimenting with a Central American mind purifying elixir.

Slightly forced, you say. When one is born lacking genius, whatever one does becomes a journeyman exercise. Whaddayagonna do?

We have been in Dallas, Texas since January. I'll be here through the new year but not much past that, I expect. Jane is now home, where she needed to be and I am not.

My wife and I will be in Austin and Houston in December. Any chance you might be able to meet the a2k group in Houston?

OK - I take back the "forced" bit. I was trying to express your penchant for whimsical expressions of even ordinary things - it appears a deliberate and fairly consistent mode of expression, almost always done very well. That's what I was trying to express.

We're all born lacking something, but I don't think that a lack of mental or intellectual agility is a problem you face.

My company has an office northwest of Dallas, in Lewisville. I go there from time to time to check on things, and meet with our local EPA client. I'll contact you before the next trip.

Despite your ardent protestations about the curent politicaal debate and my supposed prejudgments over it, aren't you at least a little dismayed by the strange mix of ineptitude and feckless cynicism of the current government, and the continuing stream of oft repeated vacuous generalities in the political oratory of its leader?

It's good to hear from you again.