Letters to the Editor
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RE-EVALUATE, WHY NOT?
By the time the TIMES gets to this stuff, it is already common knowledge in blogland.
Of course, Bush doesn't represent traditional Republicans. The problem is when are they going to wake up and disassociate themselves.
I know some of them--they aren't evil people. They simply haven't re-evaluated for what--the last TWELVE YEARS!
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The tree of liberty
The tree of liberty needs to breath fresh air. Information is its fresh air.
The tree of liberty needs to soak up nutrients.
Democracy is is nutrient.
The conservative movement has poisoned the Tree of Liberty. Propaganda and p.r. and expansive secrecy are choking the life out of it. The blatant disregard for the law and the Constitution and civil liberties is killing it.
The movement has planted in its place a Tree of Authority. This tree feeds a bit differently:
The tree of authority must be given from time to time the blood of "liberals" and foreigners.
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Let us translate: Normal, nonideological people
Normal: common or average. We can parse this in commie-speak as "the masses", the undifferentiated middle of the road.
Unideological: lacking a set of doctrines or beliefs regarding economic, social or political matters. In other words, someone who has developed no system of ideas regarding their place in the world, and how the world works. A complete narcissist or moron.
So which people is neo-conservatism targeting with their ideas of war is peace? They explicitly tell us that their ideas are applicable to the mass of narcissistic, short-term thinkers completely divorced from a greater reality than their acquisition of HiDef television sets.
The depth of cynicism is mind-blowing. The Soviets had more respect for the intellectual capacity of their people than this (not much more).
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Neuromorality
I'm supposed to be working today--and my one long post will be it for awhile, I can't even catch up on the posts that showed up while I was writing mine.
But I can't pass by ondelette's comments about what Brooks & his cronies have been up to--an interesting perversion I had not been tracking, but certainly want to catch up on.
Three things pop out that need addressing:
(1) Rousseau is, of course, the least representative of Enlightenment figures--indeed, arguably a transitional figure anticipating the romanticists/nationalist backlash. Thus, building arguments around Rousseau as the embodiment of the Enlightment is about as intellectually dishonest as one can get.
(2) For constitutional purposes, the key pairing is around the differeing visions of the social contract--Locke vs. Hobbes--against the larger framework of theories of human nature. In modern terms, these are neatly summarized in Lakoff's "Strict Father" vs. "Nurturant Parent" models--or, alternatively, a view of human nature limited to what Maslow called "deficiency needs" vs. a view of human nature including "being needs" as well.
At the time, however, it was the Scottish Enlightenment which did the most to elaborate on the inherently social aspects of human nature--about which Gary Wills has written several books, relating this vision to our Founding Fathers and the basic documents on which our Republic is based. These countered the purely Hobbesian view, which had no role in shaping our political institutions.
(3) Their politically correct conception of neuromorality apparently carefully ignores such things as the discovery of mirror neurons, which indicate a foundation for empathy built into the very structure of our nervous systems. The only folks who actually act in a Hobbsian manner, so far as we can tell, are psychopaths--who account for roughly 1% of the population. So, once again, they've proved the rule: Every time these guys turn to science, they always get things horribly, horribly wrong.
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Rouseau
Rouseaus pretty much is a romantic. If I recall correctly, Bertrand Russell found his philosophy pretty abhorrent and as helping to lay the intellectual foundation for 20th century totalitarianism.
I remember vividly when I was back in highschool and we were reading him. One of my buddies, who happened to be Jewish, after reading Rouseau's bit about the will of the people immediately said it sounded like Nazi philosophy to him.
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Copy editor
"but merely towards teh goal of exposing the corruption and radicalism at the heart of this extremist right-wing movement and to push back"
If you guys need a new copy editor, you have my email address...
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Scottish Enlightenment
In Gary Will's book explaining The Federalist Papers he matches the political philosophy of Publius up against an essay written by David Hume on politics (I am drawing a blank as to its specific name at the moment) and demonstrates how pervasive Hume's influence was.
It might also be pertinent to remind that Adam Smith was also a member of the Scottish enlightenment. I think our country might be better off if our business schools required majors to read The Theory of Moral Sentiments so that they'd be aware that Smith would find the John Goldberg/Neal Boortz brand of capitalism to be a monstrous abomination.
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They have a sense of history, though
So, once again, they've proved the rule: Every time these guys turn to science, they always get things horribly, horribly wrong.
David Brooks also advocates that the right drop their aversion to Darwinism, which he thinks provides an underpinning for their theory.
Couldn't their neuromorality be the 21st century reincarnation of Herbert Spencer -- Science bent to justify brutal social theory that otherwise would be rejected out of hand? We're still living with the effects of Social Darwinism.
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I must say, "You are driving me good-nuts. I need a designated driver. I not sipped.
I goer again to get-knocked off into some elusive outer space Place Internet space?
I DO thank the Salon if they 'delete,' as in looking over my dangerous shoulder, DELETE. I should 'hush'- the puppy-dawg up! There are some good watch dog HERE, K-9, not G-8's, that do bark at the {WIT} in-Gutenberg Door. Keep yelping and barking the truth, I say, as we sense it's THIS is true. This global era is non-Sustainable. If we had too many sheep chewing on arable land because wool brought more profit than hemp-tithe or corn...It's still a malady reign, now. wow.
If we drown in a wash Tub, it's because we did NOT have a bar of Ivory Soap to cling to in the 21st century? Holy lard! We can all be partially wrong, but I see many who hold a lit-candle in the dark era and are more partially lit-Bright, are right! Right? yes. It's a given.
I'm glad that once in a while a blue moon, gathers my dangerous thoughts, and sweeps them under a blogosphere Aries star light in the outer galaxies. We May Hold on to the Ivory Bar Soap, if we wish? We all in the same-same Tub, and we are just a splashing and washing each other's back? Yum. It's a Time of Dirt Body Politics.
'Um does your sudsy back need scrubbing and washed-down? Please try to forgive and understand... a 'goof' is just a goof, and a kiss is just a kiss. Life goes on...
Everything is cause and affect--relevant. Salon gets 'us' in big trouble? I think, yes. wow. I now got another big-fileprobleem...to forbear with me (?) please? It's a environmental DDT/spray of Prue-skeletal insect spray (no) 'stuff' via Annapolis Forestry toxin over my house and blueberry patch... My Merci Mea Clop? Gracious! Outrageous + Wasteful + Pursuit of Good=Relevant Some GOOD. I believe.