I would really like to believe that the foxes truly replace the wolves over time. But I'm afraid they are simply the minimum amount of force necessary to preserve a position that was originally gained through violence.
Some time ago you wrote about gun ownership as the result of the original American sin, if I remember correctly. Anyway, I think most of these things are not uniquely American but universal (or at least European), in the sense that those most willing to use violence ultimately stay on top.
Your argument reminded me of Miroslav Krleža's Na rubu pameti and, sadly, of what may be the only possible solution suggested by its recent film adaptation, Svemu dođe kraj (It All Ends Here). I thought both might be of interest to you.
Justin, your comment, "Our current world order is psychopathic, and to take the claim to sovereignty by nation-states as legitimate, to take the psycho-pimp-warlord who claims to be protecting us at his word, is to buttress this order and to remain under the terms of a murder-suicide pact that only desperate cowering creatures, not free human spirits, could ever accept"
is an extremely insightful aperçu. It complements the guardedly optimistic and hopeful assessment of America's psychopathic leader by social and forensic psychiatrist and violence expert Dr. Bandy X. Lee, who recently offered the following regarding the American public's urgent need to forge greater control over Trump and his supporters:
"...[T]he consciousness that the people could adopt [involves them realizing] that they are the president’s employers who have the right to demand competent, independent expertise and intervention....
"....Now people can see how important mental capacity is as a prerequisite for any rational system to work. No court can function without the basic building blocks of mental capacity, and Donald Trump has spread his incapacity through 'Trump Contagion,' or prolonged exposure to a severely symptomatic person in an influential office. This has resulted in propagating his paranoia, violence-proneness, detachment from reality, and delusional 'religious' beliefs.
"The end result of this contagion is shared psychosis —folie à deux when occurring in a pair, or folie à millions when happening by the millions. The treatment is to remove the exposure.
"Our current inability to remove a mentally-incapacitated president is not because of flaws in the 25th Amendment or any other provision, but because we have allowed this exposure to continue for too long. Now, our nation collectively acts as if we were psychotic — in ways that our progeny will wonder what happened to us. When a population is mentally-incapacitated, no system can work, no matter how well-constructed. This is why my focus has been on educating the public, understanding how our mental health is affected, and ultimately elevating our level of consciousness.
With self-awareness, we can fix almost any human-generated problem."
Now I wonder idly if Brel was referencing John Donne, in a very differently toned poem. Probably that’s too anglocentric a guess and it’s just the persistence of that old metaphoric sense of America…
Great and cathartic piece. I looked up “ epos” and was told it means electronic point of sale. Noooo
Thank you! This is a piece I very much needed, a nudge enough to change the vector toward despond into something more reflective. Antinomies indeed!
The genius of Melville's joke is that Washington was a literal cannibal. Just look at his stolen teeth.
Imagine Trump, only tacky.
“the narcissism of minor differences” = A+
I would really like to believe that the foxes truly replace the wolves over time. But I'm afraid they are simply the minimum amount of force necessary to preserve a position that was originally gained through violence.
Some time ago you wrote about gun ownership as the result of the original American sin, if I remember correctly. Anyway, I think most of these things are not uniquely American but universal (or at least European), in the sense that those most willing to use violence ultimately stay on top.
Your argument reminded me of Miroslav Krleža's Na rubu pameti and, sadly, of what may be the only possible solution suggested by its recent film adaptation, Svemu dođe kraj (It All Ends Here). I thought both might be of interest to you.
Thank you for another great piece.
Justin, your comment, "Our current world order is psychopathic, and to take the claim to sovereignty by nation-states as legitimate, to take the psycho-pimp-warlord who claims to be protecting us at his word, is to buttress this order and to remain under the terms of a murder-suicide pact that only desperate cowering creatures, not free human spirits, could ever accept"
is an extremely insightful aperçu. It complements the guardedly optimistic and hopeful assessment of America's psychopathic leader by social and forensic psychiatrist and violence expert Dr. Bandy X. Lee, who recently offered the following regarding the American public's urgent need to forge greater control over Trump and his supporters:
"...[T]he consciousness that the people could adopt [involves them realizing] that they are the president’s employers who have the right to demand competent, independent expertise and intervention....
"....Now people can see how important mental capacity is as a prerequisite for any rational system to work. No court can function without the basic building blocks of mental capacity, and Donald Trump has spread his incapacity through 'Trump Contagion,' or prolonged exposure to a severely symptomatic person in an influential office. This has resulted in propagating his paranoia, violence-proneness, detachment from reality, and delusional 'religious' beliefs.
"The end result of this contagion is shared psychosis —folie à deux when occurring in a pair, or folie à millions when happening by the millions. The treatment is to remove the exposure.
"Our current inability to remove a mentally-incapacitated president is not because of flaws in the 25th Amendment or any other provision, but because we have allowed this exposure to continue for too long. Now, our nation collectively acts as if we were psychotic — in ways that our progeny will wonder what happened to us. When a population is mentally-incapacitated, no system can work, no matter how well-constructed. This is why my focus has been on educating the public, understanding how our mental health is affected, and ultimately elevating our level of consciousness.
With self-awareness, we can fix almost any human-generated problem."
Now I wonder idly if Brel was referencing John Donne, in a very differently toned poem. Probably that’s too anglocentric a guess and it’s just the persistence of that old metaphoric sense of America…
Just finished reading this and then the very next email I read was about this: https://ssl.drgnetwork.com/flex/SMT/BKTPOAN/
Perhaps that can help you feel more patriotic? Ha ha, JK!!! :-)
And the thing about Madeleine is... elle n'arrive pas.