Hubris is ruinous

Hubris is overreaching pride and arrogance.  Many Greek tragedies have the gods punishing those like Oedipus.  Shakespeare tragedies have circumstances punishing those like MacBeth and Othello.  It seems that rarely do the electorates punish those with overreaching pride and arrogance.  They do it by not voting and those with hubris never count the non-voters.

Scott Walker is one who is showing overreaching pride and arrogance in his abilities.

He touts his electoral success but ignores that he won with a low turn-out.  Many other newly-elected Republican governors won with higher vote counts (of those who bother to vote). Those who signed the petition to recall Walker but then didn’t show up to vote were also arrogant.

He talks about the “invisible hand of the free market”, but ignores Adam Smith’s admonition of trusting those who live by profit.

He is proud to have passed a “right to fire” law, but ignores Smith noting that the masters could organize to keep wages down but it was illegal for the workers to organize to raise wages.  If workers can refuse to pay union dues, is there a complimentary law that businesses can be part of Chambers of Commerce without paying dues?

He thinks that facing down demonstrators qualifies him to take on the likes of ISIS.  Facing demonstrators armed with pizzas is not same as facing a few thousand jihadists armed with AK-47s, rocket launchers and more.  Also, he ignores the history of meddling in the Middle East; it has always backfired, maybe not right away, but within a few years.

I only have my keyboard against Scott Walker’s many microphones.  If you are a Wisconsin voter who didn’t show up in one of more of Walker’s election “landslides”, please show up the next time.

Many politicians other than Walker cite their belief in American exceptionalism.  Sorry, but many people in other countries, well-governed or not, believe their countries are exceptional.  The difference is that many of these people don’t think their exceptionalism gives them the right to tell other countries how to conduct their own affairs.  Those who believe in American “exceptionalism” refuse to see how often the “gods” have punished this hubris: Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and more.  The proponents of the “domino theory” seemed to have ignored that a game of dominos can go off in unexpected directions.

The hubris of the jihadists of ISIS and other terror groups make the hubris of American politicians look like a parlor game.  The jihadists claim they are doing Allah’s will, but how do they know this other than repeating it to each other?  Where is their forgiveness to others that Allah gives them?  And if they believe “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”), can’t Allah right these “wrongs”.

If God could flood the entire world, killing thousands of pregnant women and their unborn children, couldn't God send a lightning bolt to strike “blasphemers” dead?  If God could destroy the tower of Babel, built out of bricks, couldn’t God bring down the skyscrapers of steel in all the cities of the non-believers?  If God could destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the residents were sinful, couldn’t God destroy all the much larger cities of today where there is much “sin” according to purists who believe in an Almighty God?

The greatest hubris of all is that of countries with nuclear weapons.  They want to prevent other countries from having any capacity to build nuclear weapons, but they seem very disinclined to reduce the number of their own nuclear weapons.  These nuclear countries are ready at a moment’s notice to cause more death and destruction than the God of the Old Testament did from the beginning of the world.

Mel wishes the pen were mightier than the sword far more often than it has been.

Do you give elections away?

Are you going to be in the 40% who lets the 31% decide who's going to be elected?

If you are among those who stay away in elections, then a majority of a 60% turnout is less than 31%.  Too many media outlets use "landslide" when the victor receives 55% of the vote.  If the turnout is only 60%, then the victor only received 33% of the eligible vote.

If these figures were reported more often, then maybe the "winners" would have less hubris when they take office.

Always vote because all votes count!

King Canute and the House Republicans

King Canute, king of England, Denmark, and some other places had followers who thought he could do anything.  He had his throne placed way out on a beach at low tide and commanded that the tide not come in.  Of course it came in and he had his throne moved back a bit.  The tide kept coming in.  Repeat move.  Repeat incoming tide.  Finally Canute declared that only God could control the tides.  One hopes that his followers were appropriately chastened.

The House Republicans have followers who want them to do certain dogmatic things.  The House Republicans have voted 37 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  The Senate has not acted on this or has voted against the repeal.  The House Republicans are ignoring the tide of history that eventually most of the world will have universal healthcare, where rich and poor will have adequate health care at a minimal personal cost.  Will this tide drown the Republican Party?

A strong antidote to political posturing

"The antidote to Political Fatigue. Click Here for Immediate Relief. [Video]"

This is a BBC Mundo interview with Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay, "The Poorest President in the World".

Exceptionalism or arrogance

Once again we are having politicians claiming American exceptionalism.  In other words we are the best country in the world and anybody who denies it is unpatriotic.  If you go around town claiming that you are the richest or the best-looking, will you gain many friends?  Similarly, if you claim to the world that you are an exceptional nation and have the right to tell other countries how to behave, will you gain many friends, or world peace?

History is filled with countries that thought they ruled the world, or at least the part they knew.  They thought they had the answer to everything and the power to bend others to their will.  Where is the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Aztec Empire, the Incan Empire, the Russian Empire, the Japanese Empire, the Third Reich, the Soviet Empire, or even the British Empire?

This arrogance is often that of many an Old West gunslinger.  He had outdrawn and killed many men, but then one day he was killed – either by a luckier shot or by a sniper.  Because of his arrogance, he had made himself a target.  If lucky, old age made him a shadow of his former self.

If we are a democracy, how can we claim our President is "the Leader of the Free World"?  Who elected him to that position?  The minority of the eligible U.S. voters who cast their votes for the President are an even smaller minority of the citizens of the world's democracies. What qualifies an American President to know how to run the rest of the world when, more often than not, his leadership is questioned in his own country?

Two things made the U.S. great – lots of free or stolen land and a bunch of extremely well-read career politicians.  The free land is all gone and today's politicians don't even read the bills they vote on.

Don't get me wrong.  I like living in the United States.  Having moved to Europe, I could have stayed there.  But I preferred coming back to the U.S. because it is my country.  To me, it doesn't have to be the "best country" or an "exceptional country"; it just is my country.  My house doesn't have to be the "best house"; it is my house and I plan to stay in it for some number of years more.  See "I Live in the Best House in the World" and "We're exceptional 'cause we say so".

I've not stopped writing because the end of the world is near

I have become erratic in my output for a couple of reasons.  One is all the problems with synching my contacts and calendars.  That has also made me tired, but two, I have either cold or hay fever symptoms.  The coughing and sniffling take energy.  Three, my wife has gone out of town for a few days, and now I have to work three times as hard as when she is here.  Make that five times as hard given the first and second reasons.

So, the end of the world is near.  Or so the Bible tells us according to some self-styled prophets.  But if every word of the Bible is true and the word of God, what does one make of Mark 24:35-36, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels or heaven, but my Father only."  That means either Harold Camping and his "rapture" followers don't really understand the Bible or they have one heck of a lot of hubris to know more than God.

Thanks to Josh Nelson, pastor of Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Buffalo MN for "They say the world will end Saturday.  What do they know?", Star Tribune, 2011-05-18.

Anyway, if you're still around on Monday or Tuesday, I hope to have one or more ideas posted by then.  I have quite a backlog of notes.

Enjoy your weekend, especially Sunday:)

Attention, a second Fukushima is possible

This is my quick, summary translation of highlights of "Attention, un deuxième Fukushima n'est pas exclu" by Miho Matsunuma, LeMonde, 2011-04-27.  She was a professor of Western History and French Language at Fukuoka Women's University and is now a senior lecturer at the University of Gunma in Maebashi, Japan.

Although the Japanese media is now criticizing the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), they have long colluded with them on the benefits of nuclear energy.  First, they too often accept the pronouncements of the government and TEPCO about the safety.  Second, the operators of the power stations are big advertisers.

There is no excuse for the Japanese not knowing of the dangers.  Japan is neither a soviet regime nor a dictatorship, but a country with democratic institutions, elections, and a free press.  Fukushima is not the first nuclear accident.  Citizens and scientists have sounded the alarm many times without being heard.  In this country where order and conformism reign, the minorities have difficulty making themselves heard.  The Japanese, in their majority, have voluntary believed the official speeches on the necessity and the advantage of nuclear energy perfectly mastered.

What do we do with the power stations operating in the country?  Japan is situated at the juncture of three great tectonic plates and, given the lack of competence and credibility of the Japanese nuclear authorities, the probability of a second and a third Fukushima is not unthinkable.  And the problem is not only Japanese: our planet lives with time bombs.

She goes on that Japanese democracy is not going to solve these problems.  It is necessary that the international community puts pressure on Japan to not drag humanity into a collective suicide.

The political authorities and international industrialists, who are involved in nuclear energy, have good reasons to support the power stations and admire the Japanese "dignity".  The citizens of the world must, themselves, draw lessons from this shameful accident.

Herr Doktor Professor, what will you keep it in?

On reading "Fukushima shines light on U.S. problem: 63,000 tons of spent fuel", Mike M. Ahlers, CNN, 2011-03-30, I thought of this anecdote I first saw in Mad Magazine decades ago.

A well-known, respected professor is working in his lab when the village idiot comes in to sweep.  The lad asks him what he is doing, but the professor says he is too busy.  Once again, the sweeper comes in, asks the same question, and is brushed off.  Then one day as the lad is sweeping, the professor yells, "Eureka!  I've invented the universal solvent!"  The lad asks, "Herr Doktor Professor, what will you keep it in?"

The last frame shows a foaming, bubbling earth.

Afganistan - When will they ever learn?

Corruption in a client government!
Hubris in an imperial government!
Wikileaks of a bleak situation!
Reading "The limits of power" by Andrew J. Bacevich
History of the French Resistance
American colonial history
English only in the Lino Lakes government
Cutting foreign languages in schools

It all really ties together, sadly.

Let's start with American colonial history.  The colonists did not like being occupied by a foreign army.  They started fighting back.  They didn't follow the rules of engagement and fought from concealment. George the Third had many derogatory things to say about those rebels.  Many Afghanis (and Iraqis) don't like being occupied by a foreign army.  They started fighting back.  They don't follow the rules of engagement and fight from concealment. George the Bush had many derogatory things to say about those insurgents.

Many French did not like the German occupation.  They fought back, often from concealment.  Instead of roadside bombs, they threw train switches the wrong way.  Some Germans took bribes to look the other way.  Some Vichy police were very hard on the resistance.  Other Vichy police called resistance leaders to warn them of a planned raid.  See "Occupation déja vu".  Oh, yes!  The Germans in France had an advantage that the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have; a large number of them spoke the local language.

We are running up huge deficits to fight these wars and don't have money for education in our own country.  In fact, we are cutting back on the teaching of foreign languages.  If our soldiers and diplomats are not linguistically proficient, can we expect them to communicate with people who speak other languages with little or no proficiency in English?

Many states and localities want to put into law English-only for government business, the latest being Lino Lakes, Minnesota (Star Tribune 2010-07-26).  What if other countries did the same, including at immigration and customs control at the airport?  If the U.S. is English only, shouldn't Japan be Japanese only?  If so, they should remove the Romaji from all the train station signs and leave only the Kanji and Hiragana.  Ah, so!  You didn't get off at せんだい?  So sorry, you missed Sendai.

Which gets us back to imperial hubris.  If we think we know what's best for other countries, how can we even know what's best for them if we don't speak their language, much less understand many of their customs?  Insurgency will surely follow.  Knowing the culture, the language, and the landscape better than any foreigners, the insurgents have an immense tactical and strategic advantage.

When will they ever learn?

To support the troops, don't support the wars

The Duluth News Tribune, 2010-07-18, had two somewhat opposing views about "Support the Troops".

David McGrath wrote "Empty gestures often equal hollow support".  He is concerned that "Support our troops" is sending a contradictory message to young people "between embracing soldiers and embracing wars."

The Duluth News Tribune disagrees in "Support the troops? Absolutely".  Children can tell the difference between "paying tribute to military members… isn't the same as endorsing war."  But, the writer then qualifies that with "as long as parents and other adults take the time to explain."

Unfortunately, too many adults aren't making the distinction, or at least aren't making it clear, in their own behavior.  When they use phrases such as "defending our freedom" and "serving our country" to describe military members, they shut off any discussion of how our freedom is being defended and what service is really being done for our country.  And this is the discussion that a democracy really needs.

We too often, as citizens and as writers, do not strongly question our leaders' motivations in waging war.  We take without qualification their definition of "the enemy" and "protecting our country".  One of the greatest smoke screens was to rename the Department of War as the Department of Defense.  Have any of the wars waged since World War II really been against an enemy that had any serious chance of invading the United States?  Or have these wars been grand geopolitical games played by "leaders" who really didn't know much about the countries and the people involved?

Coincidently, before I read these articles I had borrowed from the library "The Limits of Power, The End of American Exceptionalism" by Andrew J. Bacevich.  I had only gotten through the first chapter Saturday night, but almost every page had insightful and powerful statements about the American follies and hubris in its recent wars.  After a description of Reinhold Niebuhr's prescience about the current world situation, Bacevich writes, "Realism in this sense implies an obligation to see the world as it actually is, not as we might like it to be.  The enemy of realism is hubris, which in Niebuhr's day, and in our own, finds expression in an outsized confidence in the efficacy of American power as an instrument to reshape the global order." (p. 7)

Before you jump to the conclusion that this is another "liberal rant", the jacket describes Bacevich as a "conservative historian and former military officer".  See Wikipedia for more details.  He also writes for The American Conservative, his latest article being "Will Iraq be forgotten as well?"

I am with McGrath that we should provide veterans with "a good job…, tuition for college, financial credit…, and the very best health care for veterans."

Titanic and BP

We watched the DiCaprio/Winslet "Titanic" last night.  We haven't learned much since the Titanic about the hubris of relying on our technology to handle all contingencies.