Whose children?

In an promo spot, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry says:

"We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of “These are our children.” So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everyone’s responsibility and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments."

age

When I was young I used to wonder why the young drove so fast and the old drove so slow.   It seemed to me then that it should be the other way around since the old had so much less time left to them.

Later I came to realize that the old people knew from experience that it didn't make that much difference if you saved 42 seconds.

Purpose for the 2nd Amendment

I was fascinated by this article regarding the reason we had to have the 2nd amendment.  I do not know if it is accurate.  Any comments by the YA community would be welcome.   I know there are some that are more historically astute than I..in fact it would not be out of the question to assume that all members of the community are more historically astute than I.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery

Flying Robots

I have always been fascinated by science and science fiction.  Particularly the leading edge of science (which is what any good science fiction will include).  Many years ago, in a galaxy far far away, when I was in college I took an elective 3 week course between semesters (I know there is a word for the between semesters courses but it's been so long it escapes me now) entilted "Science Fiction and the History of Science".  I enjoyed it thouroughly even though the reading requirements, as one would guess, were quite heavy.  We had a history of science text book and 10 science fiction novels.  It was the most fun I ever had at school that didn't end with a hangover or worse.  But one of the several things that stuck with me from that course is that what we generally think of as science would be more correctly called research and development.  And so I believe the instructor of that course would probably consider the TED video below to be about a research and development project.  But it's still science to me, whatever you want to call it (much like Billy Joel once said "it's still rock and roll to me").  

This video both fascinated me and made me feel a bit queasy.  With all of the warnings that we humans, and in particular science fiction writers, have given, it is apparent that we are STILL going there...I suppose because we can.  I would keep an eye out for those nasty Cylons. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/vijay_kumar_robots_that_fly_and_cooperate.html

The opposite of loneliness

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"We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life."
Marina Keegan, Yale class of 12 who was killed in a car crash last Saturday. 
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E.J.Dionne and Jon Stewart

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On July 19th Stewart had E J Dionne on to talk about his new book:   "Our Divided Political Heart".  They talked about liberty and community and noted that we as a nation have always been concerned about both.  They then wondered why the tea party types are not more concerned about community type things.  

It apparently never occurred to them that the fact that the Federal Government is now spending almost one fourth of the national income on programs that are "community" type programs of helping and supporting people, might have a role to play in that.  That in fact the "community" type things are getting much more attention as it is, so that perhaps it is natural for people to be more interested in the other side of that.
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Individualism without group purpose

What follows is a my own assessment of our politics, our society, and our economy. It is probably short-sighted in a number of areas, and certainly dark. I hope that you all can pick it apart so that you can give me hope.

Politics: This begins with the current state of affairs in Washington. The vast majority of the politicians seem to have no overall compass guiding them, and so when they find themselves lost in partisan rhetoric they can't find their way out and they don't even seem to realize that their statements are irrational. I believe that the Peggy Noonan article (The Divider vs. the Thinker) that was posted awhile back contained a compass for them and for us all, and I wish that Washington and the country were introspective enough and honest enough to read an article like that and take some guidance from it. Unfortunately they are neither. Our pendulum (between the individual and the collective) has swung so far to the individual side, that too many people don't consider anything but what they consider to be their own ideal state. Four years ago, I thought that Obama had the charisma to pull a critical mass of people together to work for a common good, but he wilted. Now the next person to come along to lead has to overcome not just the problems we have but also disillusionment over what happened with the promise of Obama.


Society: Why should we expect much of our politicians: they are only a reflection of ourselves, since they sculpt what they say so as to get us to vote for them. We're without a compass ourselves. We know something is lacking, but we can't quite put a finger on it. We do seem to remember that our country seems to hold the individual as important, and so we take a certain part of that to an extreme. We now seem to be a country of individuals who are concerned with others mostly to the extent that it affects *me*. Moreover, for some reason many people seem to need to express their status/importance by getting the newest-greatest thing that money can buy or by standing out in some other way. I have a theory that so many people do things just to be 'in' and attract notice (including multiple earrings-and-tattoos-who-knows-where) because they do not invest enough effort anywhere to stand out by achieving something...anything. I think we all have a need to have something to be proud of, and being able to plumb a house well is something to be proud of; however that requires substantial effort and time investment which won't pay off for years. In my father's generation, that was what it meant to 'discover who you are', although he remarked that he didn't understand the phrase. Did you ever notice that the intersection of the crowd that accomplishes things and the crowd that shocks others is mighty small?


Economy: Globalization might have its advantages, but I think that some disadvantages are: (i) the resource waste by shipping things across the world that could have been produced a few hundred miles away, (ii) we've given up so much manufacturing in this country that (a) we'll be in a fix if we have to pull another WW II-like armament build-up and (b) a lot of the good blue-collar jobs are gone and replaced by jobs like serving coffee and lattes [not only do they not earn much, but at the end of the day, what do you have to show for your day's work]. Our economy and the world economy are built on spending. From media accounts, it seems that the economy has to grow at close to 2% a year or we feel that something is wrong and that our standard of living is dropping. Various events of the last decade have put a real strain on the economy, but even if these events had not happened I think that things would have faltered sooner or later. In order to continue to grow the economy at this rate (or to continue to bolster our standard of living with the new and trendy), we would have to burn through resources faster and faster; faster than can be maintained for long. Once the economy couldn't keep pace any longer, then all the rest of the toothpicks we were using to balance our elephant would no longer be able support its weight and it would come crashing down. We're burning not only our grandchildren's money, but their natural resources as well.


I think that the real individualism of this country was tied to self-actualization. We all need to be able to pursue certain occupations such as meet this need and simultaneously support ourselves and contribute back to society. Globalization for the sake of the economic engine has made it difficult for many to realize their potential, a compass that used to be a good guide. Without this, we are a society that lacks group purpose or direction...except to keep earning more and buying more. However, now our economic future looks dark and we need statesmanship to lead us out of this difficulty. Unfortunately, the society fractured by a hollow and extreme individualism seems incapable of either following or rewarding such statesmanship.

Hypocrisy

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Hypocrisy has a value too.

When a society or an individual claims any sort of moral high ground for itself and then doesn't live up to that ideal they are called hypocrites.
This is generally condemned. But there is a silver lining. If one claims the moral high ground then their children may just call them on it. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner comes to mind and the whole boomer generation who tried to hold their parents to account resulting in the antiwar movement and women's movement etc.
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perspectives

A lot of what the young do to make themselves attractive is not appealing from my point of view. Specifically, piercings and droopy pants.

But, you have to keep your eye out for the brighter side and remember that it is all OK, because it is not me that they are trying to attract.

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