Some of the ancient Greek philosophers stressed moderation in all things. That entails avoiding extremes in any direction in how we think, speak, act, believe and organize our lives and societies. It is a simple call for balance, flexibility, openness to various ideas, fidelity to all the facts, an honest effort to find the truth, and a good-faith effort to negotiate reasonable compromises. It is a plea for serious thought and to avoid an irrational response to our immediate emotions. Those inner feelings are also part of our human nature and they must be honestly addressed but not exploited.
I believe our fearless leader Joe Gandelman, the Editor and founder of TMV, chose this site’s moniker with a full understanding of what the word “moderation” and all its derivatives really mean. Unfortunately it is a state of human existence that is rather difficult to achieve in this world. It is far easier to go with an angry mob, excite a frightened crowd, or serve a wealthy benefactor in making outrageous and extreme demands. Extreme positions are easy to frame and scream ad nauseum as they are simplistic, direct, and they elicit immediate emotional responses.
Recognizing the complexity and inter-relatedness of most human activities is far more challenging. I would argue that most major world religions stress in some important ways the various divine qualities that demand moderation in the conduct of our personal affairs and in the relationships we have with our fellow human beings.
Our society and its political and economic systems have devolved into a mindless battle between extreme ideologies, devoid of honest listening, and based upon delusion and denial of facts – both those supportive and contrary to any initial arguments. We cannot change our minds, all compromise is verboten, and treating others as we would like to be treated has been completely abandoned. Public debate has sadly degenerated into the phrase “My way or the highway.”
We readily turn to any underhanded scheme or strategies to take advantage of others and only seek to play “gotcha” sensational politics. We no longer think of opponents as citizens who share anything in common with us. We demonize opponents with baseless and personal character accusations without any factual basis. We use words and tactics that should have been abandoned by mature adults long ago. This has lead to paralysis, gridlock, and decline. It will lead to the eventual collapse of any society that abandons reality and moderation.
This country’s leadership has been high-jacked and corrupted by too much money, greed, and selfish short-term interests. Everything is measured in money and the only analysis is whether an activity is profitable or not. Unfortunately the most important human endeavors cannot be measured in this crude fashion. We engage in many activities because they are moral, ethical, emphatic, caring, spiritual, uplifting, compassionate, energizing, enjoyable, pleasurable, and artistic. The best human pursuits embody a holistic view of our selves and our fellow human beings that generally look to our collective long term well-being.
When life is reduced to the principle pursuit of making the most money as quickly as possible and by any illegal or unethical means available, then it becomes the very antithesis of the best in humanity. Instead, it is the most vivid example of the very worst in human nature. Any society that is designed and operated by sociopaths and psychopaths does not deserve to exist – yet this is what America has pursued for too many decades. We are all morally and ethically bankrupted by this warped and demeaning worldview.
A government cannot rule or operate by ultimatums, grandstanding and extreme policies that ignore the best long-term interests of the majority of citizens. Major social, economic, political and international priorities cannot be fashioned over days or hours with arbitrary and artificial deadlines looming overhead. It cannot be fashioned by a minority threatening various types of suicidal results, extreme measures or dire consequences if it is not satisfied in full. I cannot respect those who pursue such extreme policies and demands when so much is at stake for so many people. To think I was once a registered Republican is mind-boggling today.
Because we have so mismanaged our domestic and international activities for so long, we are in a massive national crisis, facing various difficulties and challenges. Simple solutions are only for simpletons. There are no magic bullets. There must be a variety of sane and moderate approaches taken to address the many complex and interrelated problems facing the United States in the 21st Century. Unfortunately our ruling class does not appear ready for this challenge.
We have failed to articulate and fully debate national, regional and local priorities for too long. They were and are difficult and we hoped by ignoring them that they would somehow magically go away. They haven’t and we are still in denial of reality. A global leader does not solve its challenges in this imbecilic manner. The longer we play moronic and extreme partisan games, our decline as a world empire will only accelerate.
Our business and political leaders no longer listen to the citizens but to their own selfish echo chambers and pursue their short-term priorities of more power and money. I firmly believe that when presented with all the facts and arguments, the majority of citizens – regardless of their backgrounds, levels of education or intelligence – will seek to find moderate, balanced, sensible, common ground that is in the nation’s best long-term interests. Instead our leaders in business and government has only fed us a steady diet of lies, propaganda, deceits, diversions and meaningless entertainment, in order for them to pursue their own corrupt, selfish and destructive goals behind closed doors.
We have yet to come up with a reasonable list of national priorities, enumerate their relative importance, and debate various means to achieve them. We must be able to determine what we want to protect and preserve from the past, how we should incorporate many new facts and ideas, and how we should distribute responsibilities for achieving our goals between individuals, households, private businesses, non-profit foundations, and all levels of government.
We need to find common ground and compromise on many details and not require that all our demands be met in full. We have to embrace honest negotiation as the best means of finding common ground. We have to be open to admit mistakes and change policies quickly if we find they do not work. We must throw out all bankrupt ideologies from all political and economic viewpoints because the reality of the past decade has made them all irrelevant.
We need to approach each other with fairness, kindness, empathy and compassion. We must acknowledge that we can be wrong and that complex situations may require pursuing a number of conflicting policies simultaneously until we fully understand the results.
I cannot support, condone or respect the current budget process in Washington DC. I am not going to lay blame anywhere in particular as that would further encourage extreme partisans of all persuasions who seek pyrrhic victory over national consensus. I cannot accept Congressman Paul Ryan’s recent extreme budget proposals but there are no sane responses from Democrats at this point either. No one can approach our public finances and national government budget by stating that some large items are “off-limits” and principally pursue small items with high partisan and emotional value. Everything must be negotiable and nothing should be sacrosanct for rigid ideological reasons. Otherwise the participants in this charade are simply acting in gross bad faith.
I do not feel that either national political party is capable of dealing with the challenges facing this nation – both are utterly corrupted, moronic, myopic and completely blinded by partisan rancor and too much money from our oligarchy. They live solely for the next election and the American people are irrelevant.
Americans need facts – not hyperbole, propaganda and grandstanding. We need a clear explanation of how the Federal Government spends its money and how it collects its tax revenues, including from whom. We need to know how we achieved the highest income and wealth inequality since the 1920’s. We need to fully understand the condition of our global environment and various ecosystems. We need to understand our international trade agreements and global military commitments. We need accurate and honest figures on unemployment, jobs, business investments, and the current state of our educational, transportation, energy, and communication systems. This is not impossible to provide with the Internet. Unfortunately, the national Media and press have chosen to ignore these responsibilities in favor of providing sensational entertainment. The small minority of people who run this country do not want an informed citizenry that will expose how poorly they have conducted our national affairs for so long.
If you do not care about your life, your children and loved ones, and those of your friends and neighbors, then demand nothing from our government, and simply watch this country collapse. If you still respect and love your fellow citizens and are proud of our nation’s great history, you won’t just sit by and distract yourself with mindless entertainment, games, and trivial pursuits. If our demands for information, full transparency, honesty and accountability from all levels of government go unanswered, we must be prepared to escalate our demands and act in a way to show we are serious about retaking control over our nation.
The next level of civil disobedience requires courage, unity and involves financial strangulation of those in financial power. It would involve general strikes and refusals to do business with all large private business entities, financial institutions and global enterprises. It would require a large number of people and households voluntarily ceasing all monetary payments on everything – including credit cards, mortgages, rents, student loans, and everything else – a national debt default. If we cut off all income sources to our greedy private sector oligarchy, they may finally come to their senses and release their death grip on our public institutions and over the lives of most Americans. They will not respond out of kindness or any ethical considerations. They will only capitulate when they realize the economic cost of destroying this country for their own selfish interests is simply too high to tolerate financially.
For those who fear that our political and economic plutocracy will order our military and police to fire upon citizens who are engaged in peaceful civil disobedience, we must be prepared to peacefully accept such violence and imprisonment. I also doubt that our military would be willing to protect a small, spoiled, grasping and greedy group of sociopaths and psychopaths over their fellow citizens. No government and no large business entity (a mere legal fiction) can long survive without the consent of the people.
I do not advocate violent revolution against the government or physical harm to any fellow citizens or residents. Rather I advocate a large, nationwide, collective, peaceful and non-violent program of civil disobedience against our corrupt private sector oligarchy and those who support it. We do not need to use guns, bullets or any physical violence. We do need to support each other fully in this national endeavor. If this stance makes me an enemy of the state in some minds, or if the President deems me worthy of summary execution as an alleged traitor or terrorist, then so be it. History will eventually vindicate me.
By mindlessly shutting down the Federal Government, our elected officials in Washington are declaring economic and political war against the very citizens that put them in office. We need to vote for third party, moderate, and independent candidates who are not corrupted by various special interests and large campaign contributions. Therefore we must completely reject ALL current Republican and Democratic officeholders in all future elections. Our nation’s survival is at stake and our current leaders are no longer competent to serve and are worthy only of immediate retirement.
Submitted 4/7/11 by Marc Pascal, ranting from Phoenix, Arizona. This is a follow-up to my post from yesterday and a response to some commentators who might have missed the major points of my prior post.