Thanks for sharing the good news about conservative efforts to pass a carbon tax.
To the extent that conservatism aspires to conserve that which is good, it is not only virtuous but necessary.
One of the problems built-into language is that everything we "say" seems to overshadow, downplay and even disparage everything that goes unsaid.
And so, by drawing attention to the giddy cruelism that afflicts a large (dominant?) swathe of "conservatism," I "shelve" the Yellens, Bernankes and Lotts who actually believe environmental responsibility is a good thing.
That said, to whom do we point in the current cruelist regime as admirable conservatives?
McCain? Murkowski? Collins? Rand Paul?
Other than these four, whom am I overlooking?
Who else has not sold her soul to His Satanic Majesty?
Who else has not sold her soul to His Satanic Majesty?
Trump assures us "there are good people on both sides."
But "the other side," as I see it, is so thoroughly despicable, that cutting "them" any slack "opens the space" in which every "conservative" can see himself as one of "the good people" - one of "the good Germans."
Paz contigo,
PS Although it probably goes without saying, I will point out that one salient indicator of widespread cruelism is family separation and consequent incarceration of kids in concentration camps. An indeterminate number of these kids will be as scarred for life as surely as if Mengele had taken a knife to them.
PPS I have a new Spanish student who just moved to North Carolina from Alaska. He says that climate change is so screechingly evident all across Uncle Sam's largest state that the entire political spectrum -- from left to right -- is working to mitigate the damage. A quick quiz... Who said the following? "Alaska feels and sees impacts of climate change more so than any other state. And we know that it’s real."
Is Trump "Evil?" My Response To Criticism By A Member Of My Online Meme Community
Here are the two definitions of "evil" that make most sense to me.
1.) "Evil" takes pleasure in deliberate destruction.
2.) "Evil" is "live" spelled backwards.
On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 5:03 PM, EM wrote:
Hello Alan!
Here’s a Conservative idea that is NOT so “Cruelist”:New conservative PAC to push for carbon tax in U.S.
Large corporations, ex-Fed chiefs and former senators among backersThe group is proposing a tax on carbon emissions which would be turned into a dividend for Americans.Shutterstock
A group of veteran conservative political leaders are launching a political-action committee to push for a U.S. carbon tax, a move potentially funded by several large corporations that could test Republican appetite to act on climate legislation.The effort would put financial, advertising and lobbying muscle behind a policy proposed last year that called for taxing carbon emissions and returning the revenue as a dividend to Americans. Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, who both chaired the Federal Reserve, are among a number of individual and corporate supporters of the plan.The new group, called Americans for Carbon Dividends and co-chaired by former U.S. senators Trent Lott and John Breaux, hopes to build momentum for legislation that Congress could pass after the 2020 presidential race.Exelon Corp. EXC, -0.26% , a utility, plans to provide $1 million in funding for the campaign. A number of major corporations that have already come out in support of the policy are weighing financial commitments to the political group, including Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -0.15% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDS.A, -0.15% , according to people familiar with ongoing funding talks. The proposed legislation would protect fossil fuel companies from future climate-related lawsuits.Keep on keepin’ on (Just don’t want to generalize the label to discourage positive input),Cheers, Ed
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 6, 2018, at 5:54 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Jimbo and F,
The link below provides a pdf of Ortega y Gasset's "The Revolt of The Masses."
Pax on both houses: "The Revolt Of The Masses": Is Ortega y Gasset ...
However, before reading the text, it is useful to explore my three posts about this notable Spanish philosopher.Jose Ortega Y Gasset's "Rebellion Of The Masses" - Pax on both houses
The Revolt of the Masses - Wikipedia
José Ortega y Gasset - Wikipedia
In his prefatory note to "La Rebelión De Las Masas," Ortega y Gasset says: "My purpose now is to collect and complete what I have already said, so as to produce an organic doctrine concerning the most important fact of our time."Although I cannot confirm Ortega's absolute accuracy identifying "the most important fact of our time," the "revolt of the masses" is a leading contender, and - in my mind - his analysis is precisely predictive of the social (or shall I say anti-social) political milieu that has resulted in the ascendancy of Trump with his boorishness, ignorance, contempt-for-knowledge and gleeful cruelty.It's Time To Replace The Phrase "American Conservative" With "American Cruelist"
In a nutshell, "the masses" - starting in the late 19th century - became unconsciously contemptuous of cultured people, people who actually "knew things," people who used their well-of-knowledge to create the material advancements craved by the uneducated "masses."
Newly-inebriated by the discovery that they could sell their labor to the highest industrial bidder, the masses were, for the first time in history, able "to take care of themselves" without a workplace patron, and soon disregarded the previous social hierarchy.
Too poorly educated to understand the depth, breadth and critical importance of trans-generational culture, the uneducated have come to threaten "ordered society itself" through inordinate focus on purchaseable pleasures without any overarching sense of cultural or historical meaning.Increasingly skewed by a way of life intent on material gratification, the "social" citizens of yesteryear morphed into isolated "consumer units" dedicated to continual enhancement of their personal "pleasure domes."Welcome to Xanadu."Education" And "Instruction" Are Antipodal Enterprises
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/04/education-and-in struction-are-antipodal.html
Not only were "the masses" devoid of intellectual accomplishment and intellectual rigor, they quickly became hubristically proud of their ability to be self-provident and, as a corollary of their single-minded focus on - and pride in - their ability to provide for themselves, they became implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) contemptuous of any social order that pretended to know better than they did.The upshot has been the ongoing decline and threatening collapse of the social order.
'Bring on the six gun" and laud every man or woman "courageous" enough to "stand his ground" - even if mostly dark-skinned people end up dead.
Who can argue with the dimwitted proposition that "common sense" demands self-interest to the exclusion of The Common Good, The General Welfare and a Social Contract?
According to "the masses," it is not necessary to study, to acquire factual information, or to think things through in light of learning.Similarly, there is no longer need to understand human life in light of paradox, irony and historical perpective.
"Default myopia" is enough.
It's "just common sense."Enter any populist or fascist capable of muttering these three "magic words" and intelligence itself ends up on the trash heap of history.
In the absence of education, bluster, bombast and bigotry win the day.
I hope my rough summary does not do grave injustice to Ortega y Gasset.
Pax vobiscum
Alan
No comments:
Post a Comment