by Bob Butler » Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:45 pm
n a way, Marx was right. The only way to force a king, czar or dictator out of power is through force, through revolution. Alas, what he got wrong was that the revolutionaries would advocate power for the revolutionaries, not for the people. If you don’t insert the Enlightenment principles in the revolutionary replacement government as the US founding fathers did, you have to do your revolution all over again.
There is a difference between conquest and containment. If you are attempting to acquire power through force, you are one of the bad guys. If you are trying to prevent people from acquiring power by force, you are not.
The Agricultural Age was a time when the kings ruled though superior force. It was not ideal. Eventually the Enlightenment ideals such as rule of law, equality, freedom, democracy and the like overcame it. Still, we are overcoming the cultural faults. There are still bigots. There are still people who try to enforce their religious beliefs on others. There are still criminals like Trump who will attempt to acquire power by evading the law. Our current culture is not perfect. Thus, there are still crises every four score and seven years, and still recurring new births of freedom.
What are the goals? Cure disease. Provide reproductive health care. Let each individual choose. Focus the economy. Prevent bigot cops from murder. Get rid of gerrymandering. Guarantee voting rights. In general, work for the benefit of the people rather than to acquire power. Let the party which best helps the people win enough votes to be trusted with power.
In a way the 2024 US election is an attempt to maintain the old agricultural age might make right autocracy. The domestic issues such as health care and gun control give the Democrats the advantage. If Ukraine can hang on that long, containment continues and Putin stalls. Xi cannot start anything. He struts a lot, but needs the oil which he knows will be blocked in a serious conflict. Trump is running into the rule of law.
This is turning into your typical crisis. The worst of the old culture tries to hang on to traditional flaws, but there are too many attempting to remove them. The solutions become a new set of values. Predict violence if you like. Bet against containment. Putin can’t beat the Ukraine, let alone NATO. China is collapsing without war. Trump is diverting election funds to defend against his habitual criminal acts.
Each crisis, the conservative concepts collapse and a new and better nation thrives. I see no reason not to expect it to happen again.
n a way, Marx was right. The only way to force a king, czar or dictator out of power is through force, through revolution. Alas, what he got wrong was that the revolutionaries would advocate power for the revolutionaries, not for the people. If you don’t insert the Enlightenment principles in the revolutionary replacement government as the US founding fathers did, you have to do your revolution all over again.
There is a difference between conquest and containment. If you are attempting to acquire power through force, you are one of the bad guys. If you are trying to prevent people from acquiring power by force, you are not.
The Agricultural Age was a time when the kings ruled though superior force. It was not ideal. Eventually the Enlightenment ideals such as rule of law, equality, freedom, democracy and the like overcame it. Still, we are overcoming the cultural faults. There are still bigots. There are still people who try to enforce their religious beliefs on others. There are still criminals like Trump who will attempt to acquire power by evading the law. Our current culture is not perfect. Thus, there are still crises every four score and seven years, and still recurring new births of freedom.
What are the goals? Cure disease. Provide reproductive health care. Let each individual choose. Focus the economy. Prevent bigot cops from murder. Get rid of gerrymandering. Guarantee voting rights. In general, work for the benefit of the people rather than to acquire power. Let the party which best helps the people win enough votes to be trusted with power.
In a way the 2024 US election is an attempt to maintain the old agricultural age might make right autocracy. The domestic issues such as health care and gun control give the Democrats the advantage. If Ukraine can hang on that long, containment continues and Putin stalls. Xi cannot start anything. He struts a lot, but needs the oil which he knows will be blocked in a serious conflict. Trump is running into the rule of law.
This is turning into your typical crisis. The worst of the old culture tries to hang on to traditional flaws, but there are too many attempting to remove them. The solutions become a new set of values. Predict violence if you like. Bet against containment. Putin can’t beat the Ukraine, let alone NATO. China is collapsing without war. Trump is diverting election funds to defend against his habitual criminal acts.
Each crisis, the conservative concepts collapse and a new and better nation thrives. I see no reason not to expect it to happen again.