Letters to the Editor
-
Reynolds@libra.law.utk.edu
in case anybody wanted to drop him a line....
-
Wingnuts
In my 70th decade I'm as fascinated by the rise of fascism as I ever was and firmly believe it can happen here.
About 1/3 of any population is perfectly happy under an authoritarian govn't. Why? I don't know. Might be genetic or hard wired in one way or another.
Gives them a chance to rat out neighbors they despise for usually irratiional reasons.
Most French Resistance fighters in WW2 were betrayed by neighbors. They were not found by Gestapo detective work.
Nasty creatures humans.
-
@anonymous
I completely agree with you, and I would really like to be invited to your 700th birthday. I'll bring the tequila.
Seriously, though, I think your numbers might even be a little low. "According to Altemeyer's calculations, the percentage of students with authoritarian tendencies has increased since the early '70s. At that time, 45% of the students scored above the midpoint of the scale. By 1987, 80% scored in that range."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_n2_v23/ai_7400245
help...
-
Thanks Glenn
I rarely have time to post letters these days due to a very busy schedule, but I nonetheless want to thank Glenn for his seemingly tireless efforts to keep us informed and for writing what has to be one of the best political blogs. His research on topics is in depth; his perspectives are always well articulated and thoughtful, and he keeps the tone far from the hysteria range. There is a hunger for what you do Glenn. Witness the huge number of posts in response to your work, well above even most of the insipid gossip pieces that "grace" Salon. Keep proving that intelligent discourse is possible and valued.
-
Sonofabastard
I don't believe the political spectrum is communism on the left and facism on the right. The gist of this blog is that the spectrum runs from anarchy on the left to totalitarianism on the right. Hardline Marxists are right wingers. Islamic jihadists are right wingers.
You might be interested in taking the Political Compass test. By answering a series of multiple choice questions it will place you on a two dimensional graph with the vertical axis running from libertarian to authoritarian on the social scale and the horizontal axis running from left to right on the economic scale.
I highly recommend the Political Compass to anyone interested in politics and policy.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
-
My political compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.64
Phat.
-
Valentinian
It's been quite a while since I took the PC test and I forget the numbers but my PC score puts me right on top of the Dalai Lama, leftist libertarian in other words.
Do you feel that you learned anything from taking the test?
-
Political Compass Meets Spinal Tap
Valentinian:
My political compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.64
Phat.
-11, -11, dude!
-
It would be interesting if Shooter242 and nablwhatever were to take the test.
I think we could learn something from that.
-
If anyone hasn't read Altemeyer...
Paul R was good enough to repost the link:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Read it. His style's a bit breezy for me, but it's an easy read. I scored a "40"...
PR are you REALLY a -11, -11? WOW!
(-6.25, -7.13)
-
@Jonathan
I first took the Nolan quiz when I was pretty young... I've pretty much been nutating in the same quadrant for the past few decades.
I'd have been closer to Paul's score if I didn't Disagree with statements like "Because corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily protect the environment, they require regulation." I don't want to "regulate" corporations... I want to abolish them.
I'm all for more political parties... what this country needs, rather than a "permanent majority," is a parliamentary gridlock on the Italian model. Let a million factions bloom!
-
I liked what the seventy year old Anon-man said, and then ask, Why? No Mitleid.
We have our favorite thinkers, books, and logger's. I've underlined a paperback, "The Wisdom of Life," by Arthur Schopenhauer. As we reach around sixty, A.S said, it's possible to get in danger as if we become a weight as of 'lead.' We can tend to be a societal burden, dull and slow.
In Romeo and Juliet, Act 11, sc. v.
*"But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead."*
There is, imo, a shortage of American elders who provide us 'other' youngsters...too long ago many Americans were lulled to sleep by Texan-western cowboys. We do need some guidance, maxims, and certain applicable wisdom's.
Carl Sandburg wrote, "Valor is a gift. Those having valor never know for sure if they possess it until the test come."
Honore de Balzac wrote, "Listening to people I enter into their lives, feel their tattered clothes on my back, walk with my feet in their shoes; their desires, their needs, all passes into my soul, or my soul passes into theirs."
I read that MITLEID literally means to "suffer with."
('leid,'= pain, suffering + 'mit,' = with)
I discover that this word can be used interchangeably and it's dangerous if life becomes a "waste" by becoming emotionally drained by those 'others' who are retrograde "failures."
Many people give-up and know human beings can be weak, despicable, and reprobate. I went via a period post-war where I lobed myself a "misanthrope" when I pondered politico's. I literally turned off the teevee news for seven years. For twelve years I had no truck radio. I was celibate for ___!
The first post on page one...made me wish to look into these words about COMPASSION because poster-letter writers do "feels with" a tempo....Some thoughts knock my socks off?
A person with Sympathy is 'mitgefuhl,' which I understand to mean a human "feels with" and most of us are not numb-skulls or numb-peanuts. We are human. Card carrying members of a human race. It's not an excuse to be murderous and horrible.
The danger for me/whoever (?) is to get confused, feel whooped, wasted, withered, 'parched tongue thirsty' (have to add that, okay) and emotionally zapped by those WHO are beyond HOPE.
To be one-with some emotional compassion emotion reigning in the human-heart's seat...is a good trait. It's the highest ideal. But we can admit, say to say, some of our fellow human race are outside the human-pale. 'They,' whatever tribe, education, degrees, and, sad to say---a big-shot family connection does not make us salvageable and preserved from personal spiritual ruin. Traits have dominated to rule and ruin 'folk' and they are base--unredeemable pitiful. Historic failures.
We do not have to act a type of "Buddhistic" existence or drag a tree-cross down a highway to imitate a historic past figure who actually lived. gads. I'll not be 'ole Simon for a kook logging a dead Gypsy moth invested tree down a street.
I remember getting a bit of encouragement in 1972 when I opened a library book by Joseph Campbell, the mythologist educator. He was not painting folk with a one-swipe. In a context of war (soldiers drag a body bag, fill a sandbag bunker, risk their life, yes) J.C wrote that he was privileged to witness on the news clip, compassion.
"It is to participate in the suffering of another to such a degree you forget yourself and your own safety and spontaneously do what is necessary."
The text of Paul the epistle writer needs to be interpreted in a proper historic textual criticism and culture context. That guy Paul did some ugly round-up killings of Christians before he had thunder bolt knock him off a mule. The "Nazarene" or a Paul can't save you or me. As earthen folk ought to know at some age, we need to get it right and participate NOW.
To "suffer with" is good compassion and expands us. To "pity" a nonredeemable authoritarian is 'not our problem.' Enough.
If authoritarians are full-fledged 'diabolical,' we can't expect a jesu, joy of man/women's-desiring, or Mose/Mohab/Homer etc. to protect us from a bill collector or a cross-nailing. Jesus would not have a chance of a fair trial if he appeared before this august body of legislatures and the A.G. we are stuck with. Jesus would be rolling in his grave today, or hung upon a tree tomorrow. Maybe I should have just gone to sleep instead of write a thought this eve? I am thinking personal thoughts and that can be 'goof.'yee-ha.' I'm not saying I'm right or left-wrong. I had a few thoughts I needed to get out for a peaceful sleep.