20th Century Man in the 21st Century, part 2, 8-7-2010

 When I was a child, my Aunt Mary Ellen gave me a book about the New York World Fair. That gave the country a bold, vibrant, visionary future. What does 2010 have to offer that compares?

I wish we were less enamored of the military. I see this as a one of the many things that has gone wrong with this country in the past 30 years. Once upon a time, Americans saw a standing army as a threat to republican government. Today, no one would consider remaking Seven Days in May. We are a country that bought most of itself rather than using military conquest. [Considering I read Bury Heart at Wounded Knee while in high school, I should not have written this sentence as it is; just remember I wrote on my bunk while incarcerated and this is evidence of a somewhat incoherent mind. sch 3/12/23.] Without looking at Wikipedia, name our top generals in the Mexican-American War.

The military does not promote the proper mentality for a republic. [Oh boy, did we ever get a lesson how wrong this was - at least, for the generals - during the last days of the Trump Administration; it was the generals who worried about the Constitution and republican government while the President sought to undermine republican government; the real danger now comes from the business leaders who are the only autocrats allowed in America. sch 3/12/23.] Think seriously about the balance between security and freedom that lies nestled in A Few Good Men.

Machiavelli wrote that mercenaries endangered national security, that nations should rely on their own people as soldiers. Twentieth Century Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and China saw the opposite problem - nationalist armies overthrowing governments. I cannot seriously see a successful military coup in America. Perhaps I think Kirk Douglas and Edmond O'Brien can still save the day.maybe I think the military knows its incompetence for running a civil government.

More troubling should be the obedience mentality. Even those opposing Big Government do not speak against the idea of obeying authority. We have imposed this via military service and imprisonment (who would believe convicts prefer Fox news to MSNBC?). After 151 months of imprisonment should leave me quite docile towards authority, don't you think? We fear eccentrics; we fear change. How can we have the creative culture that will compete now and int he future?

It could be the blackness I see overcoming our future is my own depression at work. Could the 21st Century be worse than the 20th Century? Okay, we could have terrorists setting off nuclear bombs, but I came of age when the USSR and the USA had enough nuclear missiles with multiple warheads to destroy the world. I grew up in a world where Doctor Strangelove and Failsafe were thought of as quite possible futures.

Could there be more genocidal dictators? Rwanda's genocide is not yet twenty years old, and Darfur continues as our current outbreak of genocide. But I say it will take a lot to overtake what was done  between the Turks killing Armenians to Pol Pot killing his fellow Cambodians. Something truly nasty emerged with Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. Maybe now that we have seen their works, we are inoculated against their kind - regardless of uneven American and UN attacks on genocide. (And, please, Saddam Hussein was a mere tinpot compared to Stalin or Hitler or Mao.)

[Yet we have Republicans willing to tango with Putin who wants to wipe out Ukrainians. sch 3/12/23.]

But if things get worse? All bets are off then. WE have so lowered our expectations for American society - and thereby world society - anything could be possible. I will say we have more to fear from fascism than socialism. Fascism is the refuge of the frightened, the directionless, those needing orders.

Folks need to buck up and deal with the bad news. Running away never solves anything  - and I speak as one who knows about running away from problems (just ask my ex-wife; she will confirm this fault of mine.) Nothing is perfect in this world; everything can be improved. We can all the be better than what we have been. The question needing asked is do we have the will for self-improvement. I can contribute only my ideas - my felony takes me out of the game. I can write and hope my worries are only illusions of my depression.

sch

[And because I can:

And because this cold, snowy Sunday morning inspires me to be a smart-aleck:

sch.]