Ray,
I agree with much of what you write and care about. I really don’t know how to right past wrongs. This holds true for what has been done to your people and what has been done to religious and ethnic groups in many areas of the world. All we can do is try to make things better as we go forward. I think the kinds of things that pre-occupy you and touch me as well are best discussed over a coffee or perhaps a beer or two and when I am next in your part of the world, NYC, I look forward to talking through some of these issues. For now I would like to leave this discussion for a face to face sometime in the future. All good wishes Arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Harrell Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:30 PM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] The 'New Normal' of Unemployment 1. “Be Careful” Given the history I’m surprised that you think I wouldn’t be careful. 2. “Don’t be swayed by the current intellectual fashion.” Are you referring to my statements about the most advanced architectural and transportation projects today are to be found in Asia and China in particular and in the Islamic countries? If so, data is just data. I’m concerned about comparative advantage in the coming world. I’m concerned that we support our disloyal, unpatriotic fat cats and do nothing to keep up with the rest of the world. During the Cold War America propagated the myth that we were great followers and developers of culture. Abstract Expressionism, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, many journals in Europe and most of all, building 81 Opera Houses and many orchestras in Germany. All to prove that we were a better model for culture oriented Europe than the Soviets and their Arts structures. Today, America won the war and reverted to trinkets and trash entertainment and hires the Russians to do our serious music. It was a lie that won the war and we are non-competitive because of that lie. It was true once but since the 1980s and the conservative revolution it has destroyed the fragile flower of Minimalism and an evolving American artistic professionalism equal to anyplace in the world. One other thing. In the first seventy years after 1776 America murdered a large percentage of my people, stole our property, stole our children and only stopped enslaving us because Africans were less expensive and more easily replaced. (their words). Our way of life was ravaged, lied about, we were stolen blind and at the end of those seventy years our religion was made illegal because it protected the land from speculators and resisted missionaries. One hundred years after 1776 we still were able to mount an army that destroyed Custer’s 7th Cavalry. What were we protecting? The legal treaty land titles to the Sioux “Jerusalem” at Paha Sapa in the Black Hills. Red Cloud had won the day and Custer, that little thief, went into the Black Hills and destroyed the treaty. In the quarter of the 20th century the courts found that the Sioux were cheated and tried to buy them out at the 1880 price. Even today the Sioux refuse to take billions in cash for the sacred land that they fought and died for and that represents their identity as a people. As a result they are the poorest people in America with 80% unemployment at Pine Ridge. Some things are ideals and you don’t sell your identity for anything. 3. “Profound solutions happen slowly” That is what I’ve been saying to Harry. It took us a thousand years to make the land philosophy (that Harry speaks of) a part of the total fabric of our culture. In 1492 we were millions and the size of France. By 1838 we were 20,000 and still our lands were so well developed with our policies that the State of Georgia coveted them and sent us on a death march to the barren plains of Oklahoma where we accomplished the same thing again including the best schools west of the Mississippi at the time and still they attacked and disbanded us. Harry has no idea what he asking. If he got it, they would take it and change it back. 4. “tyrants kill people who look different.” America tells nice stories but even today there are people who are robbed and killed for what they wear and what they look like. We were once 30 to 40 million people. By the turn of the 19th century we were less than 150,000. More crimes are committed against American Indians by non-Indians than any other group. We’ve been a punching bag since 1492. 5. “I feel your pain” I don’t know what that statement means. REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 9:07 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] The 'New Normal' of Unemployment 1. Be careful of what you embrace, it might turn around and bite you later on. 2. Intellectuals in the 30’s were equally taken with Russia, intellectuals in the 60’s were equally taken with Mao. Some intellectuals are taken with Islam today. 3. Intellectuals seeking total solutions sometimes grab on to total ideologies not realizing that change comes bit by bit. Small bites are more easily digestible. 4. A revolution is not a tea party. Be careful of what you ask for. Do you have smooth hands and wear glasses? The Khmer Rouge would have you killed for this “crime” since it is clear that you are not a worker. 5. As Clinton would say, “I feel your pain” but there is little I can offer to ease that pain. arthur
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