Problem is that the MAGA fans probably are totally ok with criminality as long as it’s their side doing it. That is the implication, isn’t it? It’s a theme going back centuries. One set of laws for the in-group and another set for the out-group. Privileges of the manor-lord, don’t you know. (In the American experience this g…
Problem is that the MAGA fans probably are totally ok with criminality as long as it’s their side doing it. That is the implication, isn’t it? It’s a theme going back centuries. One set of laws for the in-group and another set for the out-group. Privileges of the manor-lord, don’t you know. (In the American experience this gets tied up with slavery and adds an existential energy to it.) One of the innovations of Enlightenment thinkers was the concept of the universality of the human condition and thus the universality of human rights and the application of law. The preamble to the Declaration of Independence was maybe the purest distillation of the concept. And some Americans have been trying to wriggle out of it ever since. So while we may see The Shovel’s piece as delicious irony, our opponents are—at an emotional level—wondering what’s so funny.
Not only "ok with criminality as long as it’s their side doing it", also ok as long as only the other side get caught and penalized. And also ok with minority rule as long as they are minority: The issue of changing the border of Oregon was on Swedish radio yesterday: The reporter asked someone who said: "Well you know we have this right to be governed by the people we want". No more questions! No mention of basic democracy, that you have the right to be governed by the majority, which might very well not be the people you want. The depth of ignorance was left to speak for itself. In these times I think we need journalists who make it clear that claiming a right does not always make it legitimate.
Discourse magazine has a very nice article on how a 19th century Supreme Court in effect nullified part of the 14th amendment and eliminated the broad view of individual rights the founders intended - we need to codify that to restore what was supposed to be our birthright.....
Back when the court was even under more corporate control than today. That ruling was also the one where the judge said as an aside that "corporations are persons."
My reply to that is that if corporations are "persons" then they should be limited to the $2800 per person in political donations that individuals are as well..... The Supreme Court in the Discourse article was in the 1870s or 80s, I believe - Reconstruction stuff.....as the Court was in the old days.
I responded yesterday to Christines comment on TC' letter from Saint-X: -"And now, for your comparison, communications has become so much more abundant, and complex, and it seems it is just this abundance that has advanced the possibilities of lies and propaganda. Maybe for the hand and the eye to come together this body still needs presence, and for a soul to emerge a space that cannot be "flooded with sh*t."- but yes, here we are with a glimpse of the soul level. 🌱
My husband, Mark, was a soldier in WWII. He enlisted as soon as the Army would take him. As a young man of 18 he felt the truth of the mission. Mark was in the Signal Corps, climbing polls and connecting the wires for communication between the troops. This good man was buried in October, 2018, There is a strong resonance between the fascists in Germany in the 1930s-'40s and those now in America but not the same.
Thank you for leading me to the, Letter to an American”, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and to Christine's comment.
I was wavering with participation here. You remind me of a poem by Rumi:
Thank you Fern! From what I think I know of Rumi: that he was writing as one of an upper class left over after the Mongol destruction, it is amazing that he is holding out the light in the vicinity of such massive dark matter. This poem is a beautiful torch for us all in all times. As a European I felt well to read this letter to Americans from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the question: would we do the same for you? We have to remind ourselves more often than we do. So, you have that close connection to WW II; I was born 1945 and always felt I have just been given all the opportunities and advantages. My father went to Finland as a doctor with the Swedish Ambulance during the war. Had the Nazis taken Sweden he would have been gone, because his mother was Jewish, and he had an idea that someone else would take care of my four older siblings if he had done this for Finland. My grandfather and the Ribbings are old nobility, so I am a bit of a left over upper class, after the liberal and social democratic reformation of the Swedish society! No comparison to Rumi. 🙂
Funny piece.
Problem is that the MAGA fans probably are totally ok with criminality as long as it’s their side doing it. That is the implication, isn’t it? It’s a theme going back centuries. One set of laws for the in-group and another set for the out-group. Privileges of the manor-lord, don’t you know. (In the American experience this gets tied up with slavery and adds an existential energy to it.) One of the innovations of Enlightenment thinkers was the concept of the universality of the human condition and thus the universality of human rights and the application of law. The preamble to the Declaration of Independence was maybe the purest distillation of the concept. And some Americans have been trying to wriggle out of it ever since. So while we may see The Shovel’s piece as delicious irony, our opponents are—at an emotional level—wondering what’s so funny.
Not only "ok with criminality as long as it’s their side doing it", also ok as long as only the other side get caught and penalized. And also ok with minority rule as long as they are minority: The issue of changing the border of Oregon was on Swedish radio yesterday: The reporter asked someone who said: "Well you know we have this right to be governed by the people we want". No more questions! No mention of basic democracy, that you have the right to be governed by the majority, which might very well not be the people you want. The depth of ignorance was left to speak for itself. In these times I think we need journalists who make it clear that claiming a right does not always make it legitimate.
Greetings Olof. Have you checked your email?
Discourse magazine has a very nice article on how a 19th century Supreme Court in effect nullified part of the 14th amendment and eliminated the broad view of individual rights the founders intended - we need to codify that to restore what was supposed to be our birthright.....
https://www.discoursemagazine.com/politics/2022/08/05/irrational-basis/
Back when the court was even under more corporate control than today. That ruling was also the one where the judge said as an aside that "corporations are persons."
My reply to that is that if corporations are "persons" then they should be limited to the $2800 per person in political donations that individuals are as well..... The Supreme Court in the Discourse article was in the 1870s or 80s, I believe - Reconstruction stuff.....as the Court was in the old days.
Excellent review, GarySanDiego. You gave TC's piece the historic intellectual heft that it absolutely does not deserve.
GarySanDiego, Your comment may be too highbrow for you know who. It happens to me, too. 🌿
Let it happen! The leaf is appropriate; your "high brow" comments are creating the oxygen in a mental space.
Olof Ribbing, It was good of you to drop by. Thank you. It appears that you picked up a sense of me, and I am grateful for your company. 🌿
I responded yesterday to Christines comment on TC' letter from Saint-X: -"And now, for your comparison, communications has become so much more abundant, and complex, and it seems it is just this abundance that has advanced the possibilities of lies and propaganda. Maybe for the hand and the eye to come together this body still needs presence, and for a soul to emerge a space that cannot be "flooded with sh*t."- but yes, here we are with a glimpse of the soul level. 🌱
Olof, you are a precious messenger.
My husband, Mark, was a soldier in WWII. He enlisted as soon as the Army would take him. As a young man of 18 he felt the truth of the mission. Mark was in the Signal Corps, climbing polls and connecting the wires for communication between the troops. This good man was buried in October, 2018, There is a strong resonance between the fascists in Germany in the 1930s-'40s and those now in America but not the same.
Thank you for leading me to the, Letter to an American”, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and to Christine's comment.
I was wavering with participation here. You remind me of a poem by Rumi:
THE GUEST HOUSE
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
***
Thank you, once more, Olof. 🌿
That's very good, Fern.
Thank you Fern! From what I think I know of Rumi: that he was writing as one of an upper class left over after the Mongol destruction, it is amazing that he is holding out the light in the vicinity of such massive dark matter. This poem is a beautiful torch for us all in all times. As a European I felt well to read this letter to Americans from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the question: would we do the same for you? We have to remind ourselves more often than we do. So, you have that close connection to WW II; I was born 1945 and always felt I have just been given all the opportunities and advantages. My father went to Finland as a doctor with the Swedish Ambulance during the war. Had the Nazis taken Sweden he would have been gone, because his mother was Jewish, and he had an idea that someone else would take care of my four older siblings if he had done this for Finland. My grandfather and the Ribbings are old nobility, so I am a bit of a left over upper class, after the liberal and social democratic reformation of the Swedish society! No comparison to Rumi. 🙂