Of late, I had pretty much sworn off Donald-Trump-linked hair balls of analytic thought, but the willingness of the article to take a look at both liberal caterwauling and conservative triumph -- and to look beyond the easy I-can-explain-that's -- kept sucking me deeper and deeper into the article's maw... people of good will infused with viciousness; people of viciousness veined with good will....
People are people first and intellectuals or red-necks, atheists or believers, infuriated or joyful only later. The arrogance of leaving out the people when discussing the "voters" has made my teeth itch.
This is a hell of an article, even if I have to concede the author is smarter than I by miles. It's a long, long article by Internet standards and it is probably far from perfect, but there was enough there to force me to say it felt like something closer to the truth.
Anyway ... that's how I've been spending the last hour.
It struck me as very well considered. And the differences between Voltaire and Rousseau always filled me with resentment. My doctor sums it up with the idea that we're all assholes. It's just a matter of degrees.
ReplyDeleteBut i'm inclined to carry it a wee bit further, and weirder perhaps. We live in a universe where change is the only dependability. From physics to sociology there are collisions that increase one while decreasing another. This competition, provided with sufficient technology, will ultimately doom a species experimenting with big brains to self destruction. Ergo, in a universe with billions stars, the reason we don't see the aliens who no doubt exist, is that they imploded for the same reason that we will.
Charlie -- There is only one thing you need to know:
ReplyDeleteMY shit doesn't stink.
Thought provoking article but I came away with a lack of clarity and an uneasy feeling. Upon brief reflection, I also came away feeling that much of the authors intention could have been expressed simply:
ReplyDeletePeople get pissed off when they aren't being treated fairly.
Those who will not or cannot trace the nature of the unfair treatment get caught up in things ranging from feeling justified in treating others unfairly to out and out planned cultivation of hatred as in neo-nazism.