Multiplicities In Paradise

  H istory repeats itself, often in a strikingly similar way. Democracy lasted 250 years in ancient Athens until privilege, corruption and mismanagement strangled it.  American democracy, is now approaching 250 years, and it is desperately ill. D emocracy is under assault. We may think that these clashes are an aberration, a Mar-A-Lago Mussolini thing. But they are actually part of a troubling dichotomy that seems to be intrinsic to democracy itself.  D emocracy is more than a bundle of laws, norms and institutions. It is an open culture of communication.  Democracy affords people the right to think, speak and act and it allows every possible means of persuasion. Going all the way back to Plato's Republic, it's understood that the seeds of democracy include the roadmap to destruction in it's very DNA.  It's understood that every democratic society  is inescapably vulnerable to the consequences of communication. We may not like it, but something li...

 Americans have always been center left, they just no longer believe they are. The cause of this is largely that language has been systemically sabotaged to manipulate and deceive. America has a particular version of liberalism that has always been divergent from the norm. It's always been a term that is a little puzzling. This is true of "conservatism" in America as well frankly.  The words have particular meanings in the US that are dissimilar to the rest of the world's understanding. It seems if you nonchalantly ask folks to describe their political views, many respond with "conservative". What they really mean has more to do with with the broader meaning of the word 'conservative", rather than the meaning of a political conservative which is primarily about strengthening and protecting an existing social hierarchy.    In Europe, the word "Liberal " has traditionally meant a preference for things like limited government, separate privat...

  Each year brings its own unique set of triumphs and defeats, hardships, and joys. What can we say about 2021? It was not quite as unspeakably abominable as 2020. While that's not exactly splendid,  (It’s like saying that dog feces are marginally nicer to have in your living room than Hitler. It's not much, but it is something) What was better about 2021? We emerged from pandemic cocoons and started connecting with others. (Granted, the vast majority of these connections were attempts at identity theft or pitches for extended warranties.)  Sony announced a new console during the pandemic...the Plaguestation 5. We did learn things during 2021. It is possible to have substantial parts of the workforce working remotely. Before Covid, this was generally unthinkable.  (Though it's best to avoid telling a joke on ZOOM...it's not remotely funny.) Supporting local businesses and services close to home is prudent. (We should have known this before Covid but appare...

  3 0 years ago Francis Fukuyama penned his famous "The End of History?" thesis. Fukuyama’s assessment of the unravelling of the Cold War and the triumph of Western Liberal Democracy and the free market economic system was all the rage at the time.  It was easy to reduce the failure of the Soviet state-led political and economic model to being inferior to the more robust and free-flowing ideology of individual civil liberties and, of course, a minimalist state that enabled the invisible hand of the market. 1989 represented what Fukuyama described as the “End of History”. T he storming of the United States’ Capitol Hill buildings on 6 January 2021 by pro-Trump supporters could come straight out of a Hollywood-style action movie script. Predictable after four years of a presidency that can only be described as pop culture's ultimate reality TV climaxing in the Seizure of the Legislature. Had this taken place in any other country, the US may have sought to intervene, to up...

W hen the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, this is an attempted coup. There is no doubt whatsoever about that.  Trump must be impeached, convicted and removed from office – immediately. To let the clock run out on his presidency and allow Trump to seek the office again and receive the benefits and protections of a former president  would signal loudly that attempted coups are part of the American system. That we are NOT a nation of laws. If Senate Republicans can install a new supreme court justice in eight days, Trump can be removed from office within 12. He should then be arrested and tried for inciting violence and sedition – along with Donald Trump Jr and Rudy “trial-by-combat” Giuliani.   T hose who attacked the Capitol must also be prosecuted. The first amendment is not a right to try to violently physically overthrow the US government. Trump...

Breaking News! December 2020 By Staff Reporter Dixon Butz   WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Donald Trump refused to concede the election again today, but he and his lawyers are signaling the Republican Party that it is time to return to business-as-usual.  Trump's personal lawyer L. Linseed "Lin" Wood stated on Twitter that GOP dignitaries in Georgia offered such little help on the President's fake claims of foreign treachery by a long dead Venezuelan  and domestic ballot fraud, that loyal Trump fans ought to "sit on their hands" regarding the runoff election on January 5.  Demanding crap, but expending no effort to achieve it (beyond attending gala banquets) is a hallmark of Republican governance, as is helping one another lose to play out grudges, and the Trump team seems to be signaling it is time to return to these norms, even though a double loss in Georgia would give Democrats both houses of Congress, along with Hollywood, Big Tech, and most of the soft-...

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” ― Gautama Buddha T he future is coming. The places and times that we have lived in and loved are ghosts. Our yester-years are buried. You may cherish the memories or you may damn them...  but it's best to leave them where they lie, the fastest way you can. History is best learned from, not repeated. On our journey, there are many forks in the path. While we know not where they may lead with certainly, using a bit of reasoning; we make better choices of navigation. Never turn back and never deceive yourself that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is gone. Passed times seem safe, yet they are vanquished times, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. Yet we can glimpse the forming shapes within this cloud. The coming AI takeover will be further reaching than most people realize. A 2013 study from researchers at Oxford University ...