Greetings to you!

You have bitterly disappointed me.

As I read your letter, I was astonished at your mild tone, and almost apologetic admission of your conservatism, but most of all by your apparent intellect.

Then you signed your letter, from the UK! Doh!!

You really had me on the ropes there, mate. Here I was hoping that FINALLY, a thoughtful American conservative with brains and manners joins the Salon forum, but alas, it was not to be.

I'm sure that a big part of that has to do that your apparent orientation would be labelled significantly to the left of what passes for conservatism in this country.

While we're at it, I'd like to sincerely solicit your thoughts and commentary regarding outsourcing.

I am an engineer, and my work brings me into regular contact with skilled tradesmen who work in various industry. I have seen a great deal of industry close-up. I am also a late "Boomer" with clear memories of the importance and scale of the industrial mobilization that happened in this country during World War II. That mobilization was absolutely essential to Allied victory.

Getting back to the tradesmen... These are folks that need to put a good 10 years or more into their career as journeymen before they know what they're doing. In many (unfortunately formerly) industrialized areas of the USA, there was a proud tradition of skilled labor, where one could follow in their parents footsteps and get a good job as a mechanic, pipefitter, machinist, etc. Two generations ago, a man could own a home and raise a family on one tradesman salaray. (We must not overlook the need for the US to one-up the Soviets in the "who has it better under capitalism" propaganda war.)

But anyway- the fact is, as our nation becomes de-industrialized, young people are not flocking to the trades. There is far less opportunity, and with the amount of effort required to establish oneself, there are easier ways to make a living, so I can hardly blame them.

There is, nonetheless, a serious crisis in labor in this country- exacerbated, in my opinion, by outsourcing. Manufacturing Big Things requires a gigantic network of first, second, and third-tier suppliers- From a Big-3 auto manufacturer all the way down to a "two guys in a garage" machine shop. Once the big companies fail, there is a terrible domino effect which destroys entire industrial networks. Once this infrastructure collapses, the jobs are gone for good.

I view a strong industrial network as a critical National Security issue. What if we needed to mobilize like we did for WWII? There is nothing left to mobilize! War aside, look at things now- with the petroleum price shock, and it's impact on shipping goods from overseas. Oops! Cost too much now to do that. Gotta make stuff in the USA again. Hunh? Factories? Workers? You just can't snap your fingers and expect a shattered industrial infrastructure to suddenly renew itself overnite and be pressed back into service.

I would like to see American manufacturing come back, but alas, it looks like it met the same fate as Iraq - broken beyond repair.

Please let me know your thoughts on this. I am genuinly interested.

From Across the Big Pond, do be well.

...even though it was just as ridiculously far-fetched as yours is likely to turn out to be.

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"The country will suffer economic collapse around 2020, due to Democratic/obama implemented anti-Business laws and the cumulative weight of unaddressed government entitlement programs. This will happen after the US is hit with multiple terrorists attacks that caused great loss of life and degraded American ability to function as a country.

That is a far more likely scenario for Obama."

-- Historybuff1

...a former partner of mine, who was a textbook Borderline Personality Disorder, was a master of that very strategy. He knew exactly how to push my buttons- remaining calm as a cucumber the whole time, until I would finally get irritated. Naturally, he'd then mock my anger, which made me want to throttle him. Of course, when he wasn't doing this, he was a spoiled, manipulative brat- a toddler in an adult body, and in any case, habitually unhinged.

Someone else pointed out somewhere else, that if you are a normally calm, non-violent person, but feel an overwhelming desire to choke the ever-living shit out of someone, you are probably dealing with an Axis II Personality Disorder. That's what the DSM calls it.

The rest of us simply call them what they are.

Assholes.

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Monster Politeness

That's an interesting point you raise about civility in the service of the reprehensible. I have found this behavior repeatedly among sociopaths, and it's as manipulative as it is effective. Remember the first Bin Laden tape after 9/11, with his calm, bland demeanor, saying the most disgusting and horrifying things?

"Practitioners of this dark art have a built-in strategy, based on theatre, to convince those outside the conflict to take their side. By sounding reasonable, regardless of the content of what they say, they point to the anger they provoke in their opponents as evidence that it's the opponent who is, well, beyond the pale. Often, it works, which further angers the opponent, and lends a twisted kind of credibility to the moral monster, who is nonetheless commendably well- behaved, while the opposition must be a bit unhinged.

Brilliant of you to pinpoint this.... The tactic is so familiar that others here more schooled in psychology could probably tell us the name of it.

-- Cocktailhag