Ernie: You can't be serious. You of all people -because you are, in some ways anyhow,
an RC antidote to James Fallows. Or maybe you were exactly that in the past but are not that, any more............ I say this as a (former) fan of James Fallows, whom I have been reading since some time in the 1990s. But he isn't what he used to be. Which was? A serious social critic who has contributed important ideas to everyone with an interest in, among other things, the US military, American journalism, and East Asia and its politics and economics. Alas, in his dotage he has increasingly become a wimp. And more and more out of touch with reality. To be sure, there are all kinds of good things to be said about America and about "average Americans." But where he now sees a nation at peace with itself where everything is on the rise, where every dark cloud has a silver lining, it is quite possible to discern a very different picture: Where various pathologies / social pathologies are the new normal, like sado-masochism, like law of the jungle laissez faire economics, like reverse racism now run amok, where dishonesty about our problems is now endemic wherever you look, where women who have been sexually molested may agree to settlements of $130,000 or a million dollars or multiples of a million dollars to keep quiet, which they gladly accept knowing full well that the moral thing to do would have been to turn down the money and spill their guts to the press. Fallows raves about how a normal income is $50,000 and bemoans the fact the some people must scrape by on $30,000. What a laugh. Some people need to make do with $12,000 or thereabouts and this is to discuss not only a scarce few souls but a small multitude. Which is not even to talk about health care that is, while excellent in some respects, in others is one of the worst in the industrial world. There is an attitude afoot that is anything but new but that seems increasingly prevalent in our era, namely, "I've got mine and screw you." Not that Donald Trump lacks all virtue but on this matter he epitomizes the problem. Plus, certainly in the recent and further past, he has shown disrespect for the law whenever he has money at stake. But it is hardly only Trump who embodies the problem. It is everywhere. I saw a segment on TV about Google a few days ago. There were scenes from inside the Google complex in Silicon Valley. Everyone was young; I doubt if anyone shown in the video clips was older than 40; most looked like they were 20 somethings. Is is any wonder that Google searches yield the kinds of results they often do, where the default for, as an example, James Bay, is not the lasting and important geographical feature named James Bay in Canada, much larger than any of the Great Lakes, but a certain entertainer named James Bay who, while maybe he has some talent, simply doesn't come close in significance. But this sort of thing is pervasive on Google searches. And what does anyone expect when the people creating the algorithms know so little about the world and seem to have close to zero comprehension of the realm of ideas? Jordan Peterson has lamented the fact that there are fewer and fewer men in the Humanities in college anywhere in the US or Canada; this trend is now at least 40 years in the making. Yet of people who comment about education no-one at all seems to appreciate what this means as our common culture gradually goes down the toilet. After all, nothing matters (to men) except STEM. And high level incomes. And so the culture is turned over to Cultural Marxists and feminists. Not to self-sacrificing true Christians, but Cultural Marxists and feminists. About all of which Christians are dumbfounded. After all, how can culture make them any money? Besides, they have pretty much bought into the Cultural Marxist and feminist social narratives themselves, so why bother with cultural issues? To be sure, I do not see failure everywhere. There is a helluva lot that is right with America. Regardless, there is, in fact, a looming crisis of major proportions and believers are hopelessly ill-prepared to deal with it precisely because they are cultural illiterates. This is an over-generalization, you certainly are an exception, but to make a point........ But I am less and less inclined to provide my opinions here because whatever I may say is ignored as a matter of routine. And your word to the contrary is, so to speak, pretty much nothing but "Confederate money." That is, we need far more than one more new version of Plato's Republic to make a difference in the world. We need far more than another 10 year plan that, 10 years later, has only resulted in a lot of words and no action. In case you want my opinion. Billy ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Centroids <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 2:57 PM To: Centroids Discussions Subject: [RC] The Reinvention of America Surprisingly well-researched and optimistic “America is becoming more like itself again. More Americans are trying to make it so, in more places, than most Americans are aware. Even as the country is becoming worse in obvious ways—angrier, more divided, less able to do the basic business of governing itself—it is becoming distinctly better on a range of other indicators that are harder to perceive.” The Reinvention of America https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/05/reinventing-america/556856/?utm_source=Eric+Ries%27+Newsletter&utm_campaign=fd40330144-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_31_04_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c72b6c7803-fd40330144-312283989 via Instapaper Sent from my iPhone -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Google Groups<http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism> groups.google.com Google Groups allows you to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups with a rich experience for community conversations. Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org [https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/becade87f4704f1f93c3ca0278c4fda6?s=200&ts=1527902581]<http://radicalcentrism.org/> Radical Centrism | A Unifying Paradigm of Civil Society<http://radicalcentrism.org/> radicalcentrism.org A Unifying Paradigm of Civil Society --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. 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