I'm not a big fan of believing things, which seems to irritate people. Usually, when it comes up, I am told that I have to believe in something. The clear inference it that I am lying, too stupid to know what the word "belief" means, or just ducking using the word while still engaging in the activity. Sometimes people just absolutely torture a bunch of innocent words trying to prove that I must be wrong. A popular example is that, being an atheist, I'm told that means I "believe" there is no god. Which, I guess could be true if you believe there is no tooth fairy.
But that is not how I understand or use the word "belief". It is less a noun - the idea being held - as it is a verb - the action of holding onto the idea. I try not to hold things as "true" that I don't (or can't) know to be true. Also, for me, "knowing" something and "believing" something are mutually exclusive. I can't believe something, engaging to some degree in an act of faith, if I know it to be so. We know the moon orbits the earth, taking that knowledge out of the realm of belief.
It would be possible to believe the moon orbits the earth without knowing it was so, but in that case one would actually be making an assumption. Insisting that the assumption is true, which is what believers do, is nothing more than making an assumption about another assumption. That seems a good enough reason to avoid belief, all of itself.
I don't mind making assumptions. We all do it all the time. It is a basic skill for living through a day and it usually works out just fine. In fact it works so well, and is so basic, that we usually forget that we are working with assumptions at all. But it doesn't work all the time and when it doesn't work the results are sometimes fatal. Which is why professions like aviation specifically train people in the art of not falling prey to assumptions. We call it "situational awareness". What it really means is not confusing an assumption with a fact. It is not as easy as it sounds as there are a lot of factors at work.
One is that many assumptions are just one step removed from a fact. It may be a fact that the instrument landing system is operating at an airport shrouded in fog. The assumption is that the indicator in the instrument panel is accurately following the system. But unless the pilot cross checks that indicator with others available, a second ILS indicator, an altimeter, (or two), keeping in mind something as basic as the relationship between speed-over-the-ground and time, he can't know that his aircraft is, in fact, on a safe path to the runway. The fact is the ILS is working. The assumption is the airplane is following its guidance. If the assumption is wrong the pilot is dead.
Another factor at work is even more subtle. Again from the aviation world, it is amazing how many people actually run their aircraft out of fuel, crunching into Mother Earth short of their destination. Inevitably they realize that their fuel situation is critical. However, the desire to have enough fuel becomes so strong they start to believe there is actually enough in the tanks. Psychological needs turn assumptions into belief. (The good news is a surprising numbers of such incidents end up not being fatal.) It is hard to avoid believing a false thing when one's own mind is conspiring to hide the truth.
Sometimes the assumption lies in accepting a fact as, in fact, a fact, when, in fact, it isn't. This can often be a tough one since such non-fact facts often have a long history. For thousands of years it was accepted as a self evident fact that the earth stood still and the sun, moon, and stars revolved around us. The Wanderers (planets) were a puzzle to the sky watches of old and the phases of the moon weren't easy to explain. But the fact of the planet's central roll in the cosmos was embedded so deep that virtually all major religions hang part of their ideology on it. Some of the first to call this for an assumption that was eventually proved wrong paid for their impertinence with their lives. It is hard, and sometimes dangerous, to spot an assumption that everyone else accepts as a fact. So hard, in fact, that finding a contemporary clear example is problematic. Those who try it usually end up out in crank-land where the crazy live in a world foreign to the rest of us. Yet if history is any guide at least one of those lunatics is on to something.
Being tribal animals works against us as well. Some chain of authority is necessary in our affairs, but that requires that we often give more credence to what those in authority tell us than is wise or warranted. My favorite example is the multitude of talking heads that fill the airwaves and Internet. For the most part they are not expert in any subject except talking into a camera or microphone. Yet anything they say carries a hint of fact just because they said it. So ingrained is this respect for authority that, even when they lie to us over and over, and over, again, we still tend to assume anything they say has some basis of fact in it somewhere. Of course sharing the belief of the tribe is basic to what makes us a tribe. Staying a part of the tribe is so ingrained in our evolution it is a wonder anyone ever examines the tribe's assumptions with a critical eye.
Which brings up an even better reason to shy away from belief, we tend to believe what we want to believe with no regard to facts or truth at all. Which makes belief an act of narcissism. This is what I think, so it must be true. I didn't learn it, I didn't study it, I didn't approach the issue with the least bit of skepticism, but I claim to "know" it is true because believing it is true is what I want to do. (It is probably what my tribe thinks as well, but that does not mean I haven't appropriated it completely unto myself.) Belief is not a virtue. Believing things does not lead to wisdom. In fact, as I look around the world, belief leads mostly to violence, intolerance, and ignorance.
Which only happens when those who accept belief as a virtue then confuse it with knowing.
I am not a big fan of belief.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Abortion wars
An on-ramp in my route to work is closed so, for the next few weeks, each drive takes me past the city's Planned Parenthood office. In front, on days when the weather isn't too bad, gather protesters trying to end abortions. Mostly they carry signs that read, "Pray to end abortion". Actually thinking about that demand brings up a couple of thoughts.
One is that the protesters are not praying to end abortion. They are protesting to end abortion. They may be praying as well but clearly they have decided that prayer alone is not going to get the job done. Even if god is interested in ending abortions, (though given his reported history of genocide, infanticide, and a world wide flood makes it hard to imagine he is) apparently he expects people to do something on their own. Prayer isn't working. Protesting is really working to well either. Even if the protesters succeed in getting abortions outlawed they will not succeed in eradicating them. Abortions have been performed throughout history and, given technologies available today, will not be ended with a law. What will happen is that women less well off economically will have a harder time finding a safe alternative and will suffer being killed and maimed at a higher rate than the well to do. Those well to do will just spend a little more on travel expenses. (Or, in the case of the middle class white girl living in a "red state" who is most likely to get pregnant, Daddy will.)
If, on the other hand, one really does want to end abortions for all practical purposes, we know how to get that done. In fact it is actually pretty simple and involves only a few policy changes. One is open, honest, and real sex education for the young. Sure this would include some frank discussions that would likely embarrass the religious fanatics among us because, well, we are talking about fucking. Religious people seem to talk mostly about not fucking, though occasionally they will allow as married people fucking is okay. But for the most part rational discussions about fucking are off the religious table. Too bad really, with most kids no longer growing up in an environment (like a farm or ranch) where sex is nothing but nature being nature, basic, factual information about sex is necessary. It would help if we included some basic information of the emotional and biological realities that make fucking nearly universal in the animal kingdom. (Of which we are a part, thank you.) A little basic information about various expressions of sexuality, along with discussions of a free society's need for its citizens to be responsible, tolerant, and honest, would help as well. The incentive to pro-create is fundamental, nearly universal, and will easily overwhelm any dictate of "abstinence only". (Something the teen pregnancy rate in the red states makes undeniable.)
Another required policy change is health care; as in making it available to everyone in the country. Health care that included free birth control completely at the discretion of every woman without a doctor's prescription, a husband's approval, or a priest's blessing. Ending abortions is as easy as ending unwanted pregnancies. Which is pretty much the end of the discussion. If one really wants to end abortions one would do everything possible to make sure every pregnancy is a wanted pregnancy. It seems rather self evident that sex education and birth control are integral to making that happen.
Yet if I walked up to those protesting outside of Planned Parenthood and offered my help in ending abortions by working with them to elect people who will implement and fund real sex education and universal health care including birth control, I don't get the impression they would be very enthusiastic. In fact my guess is they would see me as one of the enemies for even mentioning sex education and birth control. And that makes me think they are not really interested in ending abortions at all. What they are interested in is dictating to others how they should live, who they should love, and (most importantly) to which god they should pledge their allegiance and how that allegiance should be expressed. All ideas, by the way, that should be anathema to a free society.
One is that the protesters are not praying to end abortion. They are protesting to end abortion. They may be praying as well but clearly they have decided that prayer alone is not going to get the job done. Even if god is interested in ending abortions, (though given his reported history of genocide, infanticide, and a world wide flood makes it hard to imagine he is) apparently he expects people to do something on their own. Prayer isn't working. Protesting is really working to well either. Even if the protesters succeed in getting abortions outlawed they will not succeed in eradicating them. Abortions have been performed throughout history and, given technologies available today, will not be ended with a law. What will happen is that women less well off economically will have a harder time finding a safe alternative and will suffer being killed and maimed at a higher rate than the well to do. Those well to do will just spend a little more on travel expenses. (Or, in the case of the middle class white girl living in a "red state" who is most likely to get pregnant, Daddy will.)
If, on the other hand, one really does want to end abortions for all practical purposes, we know how to get that done. In fact it is actually pretty simple and involves only a few policy changes. One is open, honest, and real sex education for the young. Sure this would include some frank discussions that would likely embarrass the religious fanatics among us because, well, we are talking about fucking. Religious people seem to talk mostly about not fucking, though occasionally they will allow as married people fucking is okay. But for the most part rational discussions about fucking are off the religious table. Too bad really, with most kids no longer growing up in an environment (like a farm or ranch) where sex is nothing but nature being nature, basic, factual information about sex is necessary. It would help if we included some basic information of the emotional and biological realities that make fucking nearly universal in the animal kingdom. (Of which we are a part, thank you.) A little basic information about various expressions of sexuality, along with discussions of a free society's need for its citizens to be responsible, tolerant, and honest, would help as well. The incentive to pro-create is fundamental, nearly universal, and will easily overwhelm any dictate of "abstinence only". (Something the teen pregnancy rate in the red states makes undeniable.)
Another required policy change is health care; as in making it available to everyone in the country. Health care that included free birth control completely at the discretion of every woman without a doctor's prescription, a husband's approval, or a priest's blessing. Ending abortions is as easy as ending unwanted pregnancies. Which is pretty much the end of the discussion. If one really wants to end abortions one would do everything possible to make sure every pregnancy is a wanted pregnancy. It seems rather self evident that sex education and birth control are integral to making that happen.
Yet if I walked up to those protesting outside of Planned Parenthood and offered my help in ending abortions by working with them to elect people who will implement and fund real sex education and universal health care including birth control, I don't get the impression they would be very enthusiastic. In fact my guess is they would see me as one of the enemies for even mentioning sex education and birth control. And that makes me think they are not really interested in ending abortions at all. What they are interested in is dictating to others how they should live, who they should love, and (most importantly) to which god they should pledge their allegiance and how that allegiance should be expressed. All ideas, by the way, that should be anathema to a free society.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Center right?
The conventional wisdom seems to be that the people of the US are "center right" meaning, I guess, that we are basically a conservative people who will tolerate a bit of innovation and forward thinking so long as it doesn't offend us too deeply. And clearly I am not one to accuse my fellow Americans of being overly progressive, or liberal, or just plain rational for that matter.
(I will admit to being slightly more jaded than usual, having just spent three days in various parts of Mississippi. At one point I actually heard a group of people agree that - and I am quoting this EXACTLY - "those stupid niggers aren't smart enough to get a job that pays more than minimum wage" as part of a conversation on how Obama was doing "real damage" to the country. The leading shit-head in this collection of ignorant red necks was a career Air Force officer - retired. This level of pure idiocy was on display for several hours but I was waiting for passengers and could neither leave the premises or risk starting another civil war. And well, fuck, I was in Mississippi after all ... it isn't like I should have been surprised. My work requires that I spend a lot of time south of the Mason Dixon line and my experience is that this kind of racism is expressed openly and often.)
Any yet, if the polls and my conversations with people in other parts of the country are any indication, "center right" includes some very non-right ideas. Civil rights for gay people is a done deal. It will take a while to implement given the retrograde jack asses that still hold a lot of state offices, but it is a done deal. Most people think women actually should have control over what happens to their own bodies with only the very few thinking the victim of rape or incest should be victimized again by being forced to carry such a pregnancy to term. The vast majority of families in the US, including Catholic ones, use birth control. Some overwhelming majority are for real and rational gun control. The legalization of pot is a pretty popular idea as well. Very few seem to approve of the current level of spending on the military or of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, drum roll please, there even appears to be a growing understanding that not everyone believes in the Jewish / Christian / Muslim god and that is okay.
So an America that most Americans would recognize is one where pot is legal, gun control is real, women and their doctors are left alone, birth control is still widely available and equally widely used, gay people get married, military spending is down, and atheists just are.
I haven't talked with anyone who thinks those worth multi-millions of dollars or corporations should get special tax breaks. I don't know of anyone who believes the tax code of this country is anything but a farce. No one thinks that current election system bought and paid for by "Citizens United" is a good idea. Everyone is appalled by the crumbling infrastructure of the country and understands full well that fixing it is both a good source of jobs and an investment in the future. Everyone wants the schools to do a better job of educating our kids and no one thinks an education should be the purview of the rich alone. The vast majority don't want their kids to be taught that religious doctrines are the same as science.
So an America most Americans would recognize would be raising taxes on the very wealthy, have a tax code utterly unlike the current one, would pass and enforce real campaign finance reform, would be mobilizing a work force to fix its roads, bridges, dams, waterways, water and sewer systems, and would be spending more money on its public schools and teachers. Protestant Christian Fundamentalism would not be writing the text books.
No one I know wants to breath poisonous air, drink contaminated water, pave over all the wild parts of the country, or thinks the global weather is not changing dramatically and before our very eyes. No one thinks the oil is going to last forever or that alternative energy sources are a bad idea. An America most Americas would recognize is pro-environmental protection and pro-clean energy.
Such a country would not even be "center-left", it would be a progressive nation once again championing universal civil rights, religious tolerance, and social justice and responsibility. Yet it appears to be impossible to elect a government that reflects this national consciousness. How could such a situation be described as a "democracy"?
I don't think it can. Whatever this is, this two party system that serves only the elite and the war machine, where those holding office answer only to the lobbyists, religious fanatics and gun nuts who pay for their election campaigns, can not be described as a democracy. It will be no great tragedy when the collapse into something new, maybe even something remotely democratic, takes place.
Which, one must admit, appears to be happening before our very eyes. The government of the US is now completely broken. The sequester looms, apparently unstoppable. The Senate is locked up over approving a Purple Heart recipient, Vietnam war veteran for national service. Gun control, revising the tax code, revoking "Citizens United", virtually nothing is getting done. I don't know what happens next, but warm weather is right around the corner. Going outside, maybe in masses, maybe in masses surrounding the Supreme Court or the Capital building, maybe in masses surrounding the Supreme Court and demanding the resignation of some Justices, surrounding the Capital building and demanding some democracy, might be good exercise for a lot of us. See the sights, take some pictures, carry a few signs, chant some slogans, push back some police lines, dodge a little tear gas, maybe turn over a few limos carrying congressional leaders (make sure their seat belts are fastened first, don't want to hurt anyone) ... a little resistance training and some cardio work. It might be good for all of us.
(I will admit to being slightly more jaded than usual, having just spent three days in various parts of Mississippi. At one point I actually heard a group of people agree that - and I am quoting this EXACTLY - "those stupid niggers aren't smart enough to get a job that pays more than minimum wage" as part of a conversation on how Obama was doing "real damage" to the country. The leading shit-head in this collection of ignorant red necks was a career Air Force officer - retired. This level of pure idiocy was on display for several hours but I was waiting for passengers and could neither leave the premises or risk starting another civil war. And well, fuck, I was in Mississippi after all ... it isn't like I should have been surprised. My work requires that I spend a lot of time south of the Mason Dixon line and my experience is that this kind of racism is expressed openly and often.)
Any yet, if the polls and my conversations with people in other parts of the country are any indication, "center right" includes some very non-right ideas. Civil rights for gay people is a done deal. It will take a while to implement given the retrograde jack asses that still hold a lot of state offices, but it is a done deal. Most people think women actually should have control over what happens to their own bodies with only the very few thinking the victim of rape or incest should be victimized again by being forced to carry such a pregnancy to term. The vast majority of families in the US, including Catholic ones, use birth control. Some overwhelming majority are for real and rational gun control. The legalization of pot is a pretty popular idea as well. Very few seem to approve of the current level of spending on the military or of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, drum roll please, there even appears to be a growing understanding that not everyone believes in the Jewish / Christian / Muslim god and that is okay.
So an America that most Americans would recognize is one where pot is legal, gun control is real, women and their doctors are left alone, birth control is still widely available and equally widely used, gay people get married, military spending is down, and atheists just are.
I haven't talked with anyone who thinks those worth multi-millions of dollars or corporations should get special tax breaks. I don't know of anyone who believes the tax code of this country is anything but a farce. No one thinks that current election system bought and paid for by "Citizens United" is a good idea. Everyone is appalled by the crumbling infrastructure of the country and understands full well that fixing it is both a good source of jobs and an investment in the future. Everyone wants the schools to do a better job of educating our kids and no one thinks an education should be the purview of the rich alone. The vast majority don't want their kids to be taught that religious doctrines are the same as science.
So an America most Americans would recognize would be raising taxes on the very wealthy, have a tax code utterly unlike the current one, would pass and enforce real campaign finance reform, would be mobilizing a work force to fix its roads, bridges, dams, waterways, water and sewer systems, and would be spending more money on its public schools and teachers. Protestant Christian Fundamentalism would not be writing the text books.
No one I know wants to breath poisonous air, drink contaminated water, pave over all the wild parts of the country, or thinks the global weather is not changing dramatically and before our very eyes. No one thinks the oil is going to last forever or that alternative energy sources are a bad idea. An America most Americas would recognize is pro-environmental protection and pro-clean energy.
Such a country would not even be "center-left", it would be a progressive nation once again championing universal civil rights, religious tolerance, and social justice and responsibility. Yet it appears to be impossible to elect a government that reflects this national consciousness. How could such a situation be described as a "democracy"?
I don't think it can. Whatever this is, this two party system that serves only the elite and the war machine, where those holding office answer only to the lobbyists, religious fanatics and gun nuts who pay for their election campaigns, can not be described as a democracy. It will be no great tragedy when the collapse into something new, maybe even something remotely democratic, takes place.
Which, one must admit, appears to be happening before our very eyes. The government of the US is now completely broken. The sequester looms, apparently unstoppable. The Senate is locked up over approving a Purple Heart recipient, Vietnam war veteran for national service. Gun control, revising the tax code, revoking "Citizens United", virtually nothing is getting done. I don't know what happens next, but warm weather is right around the corner. Going outside, maybe in masses, maybe in masses surrounding the Supreme Court or the Capital building, maybe in masses surrounding the Supreme Court and demanding the resignation of some Justices, surrounding the Capital building and demanding some democracy, might be good exercise for a lot of us. See the sights, take some pictures, carry a few signs, chant some slogans, push back some police lines, dodge a little tear gas, maybe turn over a few limos carrying congressional leaders (make sure their seat belts are fastened first, don't want to hurt anyone) ... a little resistance training and some cardio work. It might be good for all of us.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Giving way
With yet another budget crisis looming it is kind of fun to browse what the the pundits write on the subject. The end of the world is coming yet again, with massive layoffs and a tanking economy due to the cuts, particularly (at least according to the Republicans) the cuts in military spending. This is a bit amusing since the Republicans have been crying for years that government spending is universally bad and that cutting such spending is the only way to save the nation. (I'm not sure how they get out of this one. If budget cuts do tank the economy what are they going to say, "Ops, sorry, we really have been lying to you for the last 32 years"?) This level of hypocrisy is so stark that many political observers seem compelled to comment on it. A few have even taken the next step and made the claim that military spending is out of control and a threat to the viability of the nation. There are even a very few conservative voices in that chorus.
So suddenly there are a lot of voices saying things that I kind of agree with, even discussions taking place on close-to-main-stream media. There is mention of actually reducing military spending in real dollars, not just slowing the rate of growth and calling it a "cut". There are even voices talking of closing most, if not all, off-shore military bases. Hell, I have even heard a whisper or two of drastically reducing (if not totally eliminating) nuclear weapons.
Mind you, I think the Republicans are full of shit when it comes to the "dept crisis". The only time they bring it up is when they are trying to get back into the White House. But I will agree with them on this, starving the beast is a good way to rein in a run-away bureaucracy. They want to starve a democracy that serves the majority of the people so the military corporate state (which serves only the elite) can reign supreme. Most of the people of the US, and the world, would be better off if the military corporate state were starved so a democracy that serves most the people can thrive. The two are mutually exclusive. Sadly, those in power want the former. Which is tragic (or perhaps tragically stupid) since everyone, including the elite, will do better in a thriving democracy than they are in a failing military state.
For we are, at the moment, a failing military state. It turns out our generals (of which we have way, way too many) are media burnished heroes with feet of clay. They lied us into wars, about the wars, when the wars would end, what the wars would cost, and what they would accomplish. They spent trillions upon trillions of dollars over the decades, and failed to see 9/11 coming. (Though novelists wrote such attacks into their stories for years.) The war on terror is self perpetuating - gestating two new terrorists for every one killed by a drone strike or night raid. Which the military must love since it means they can demand need more drones, more ships, more planes, more money, and "a free hand" to protect the nation. The security apparatus can now execute American citizens without any civilian oversight or review.
Maybe though, just maybe, the cross currents of history are twisting around to save us from ourselves. The Republican engineered "budget crisis" may backfire by throwing a spotlight on just how much waste, fraud and corruption is being sucked down the military black hole of a budget. (We will know that's is happening as soon as million dollar toilet seats once again make it into the headlines.) The war in Afghanistan is ending badly and will surly be regarded, along with the one in Iraq, as a colossal waste of human life; taking some more of the shine off of the military and both of the political parties that were so quick to climb onto the war wagon. If the budget cuts throw thousands of defense workers into unemployment lines who are they going to vote for next time around? The Democrats who will be blamed for cuts defense spending that put them out of a job, or the Republican / T-party types who have sentenced them and their families to poverty by eliminating the social programs they now need to survive? The two party system serving the corporate / military system will have conspired to betray millions of Americans in a most glaring way.
I am still off the reservation, but it appears that a few on the reservation are looking in my direction. That doesn't mean the US of A is on any kind of a healing path, that die may be cast. One can hope though. What if the working assumption becomes how the two-party system controlled by unregulated corporate money supporting an out-of-control military is utterly failing the citizens of the country? (And, for that matter, of the world.) How would it be if large numbers of people realized that a 9.4 percent cut in defense discretionary funding and a 10 percent cut in mandatory defense spending (though I am having trouble believing that this actually means a cut in military spending of close to 20%) isn't really a disaster but just getting close to the numbers needed to avoid becoming a failed military state?
The Drone War is coming out of the closet. Even some on the far right may start to wonder just how much they have given up by handing the military a blank check for both spending money and eliminating civil liberties. They may even start to understand that the Second Amendment means nothing if the First has been given away. (Actually the Second Amendment doesn't mean anything now though it is possible the the right wing will never figure that out.)
Fundamental changes in the two party system? A serious slashing of the military? Could such actually be in the offering? There is already a better than even chance that civil rights for gay people has turned a corner with religious fundamentalists and social conservatives having been thoroughly routed. Some see a growing realization that global climate change really is a scientific fact as exposing the anti-intellectual, anti-science crusaders for the charlatans they are. Gun violence getting some of the scrutiny it deserves. The lost drug war is getting some press and there is even a sliver of light being cast on the appalling failure that is America's privatized prison system. Even the death penalty is squinting a little from the light being cast its way.
The reservation is under siege from itself. The America that embraced the failed policies of war, robber baron capitalism, and religious fundamentalism, is showing definite signs of cracking under the pressure. What grows up in its place it yet to be determined. The chances are good the first couple of tries will be false starts, but at least they will be starts of some kind.
So suddenly there are a lot of voices saying things that I kind of agree with, even discussions taking place on close-to-main-stream media. There is mention of actually reducing military spending in real dollars, not just slowing the rate of growth and calling it a "cut". There are even voices talking of closing most, if not all, off-shore military bases. Hell, I have even heard a whisper or two of drastically reducing (if not totally eliminating) nuclear weapons.
Mind you, I think the Republicans are full of shit when it comes to the "dept crisis". The only time they bring it up is when they are trying to get back into the White House. But I will agree with them on this, starving the beast is a good way to rein in a run-away bureaucracy. They want to starve a democracy that serves the majority of the people so the military corporate state (which serves only the elite) can reign supreme. Most of the people of the US, and the world, would be better off if the military corporate state were starved so a democracy that serves most the people can thrive. The two are mutually exclusive. Sadly, those in power want the former. Which is tragic (or perhaps tragically stupid) since everyone, including the elite, will do better in a thriving democracy than they are in a failing military state.
For we are, at the moment, a failing military state. It turns out our generals (of which we have way, way too many) are media burnished heroes with feet of clay. They lied us into wars, about the wars, when the wars would end, what the wars would cost, and what they would accomplish. They spent trillions upon trillions of dollars over the decades, and failed to see 9/11 coming. (Though novelists wrote such attacks into their stories for years.) The war on terror is self perpetuating - gestating two new terrorists for every one killed by a drone strike or night raid. Which the military must love since it means they can demand need more drones, more ships, more planes, more money, and "a free hand" to protect the nation. The security apparatus can now execute American citizens without any civilian oversight or review.
Maybe though, just maybe, the cross currents of history are twisting around to save us from ourselves. The Republican engineered "budget crisis" may backfire by throwing a spotlight on just how much waste, fraud and corruption is being sucked down the military black hole of a budget. (We will know that's is happening as soon as million dollar toilet seats once again make it into the headlines.) The war in Afghanistan is ending badly and will surly be regarded, along with the one in Iraq, as a colossal waste of human life; taking some more of the shine off of the military and both of the political parties that were so quick to climb onto the war wagon. If the budget cuts throw thousands of defense workers into unemployment lines who are they going to vote for next time around? The Democrats who will be blamed for cuts defense spending that put them out of a job, or the Republican / T-party types who have sentenced them and their families to poverty by eliminating the social programs they now need to survive? The two party system serving the corporate / military system will have conspired to betray millions of Americans in a most glaring way.
I am still off the reservation, but it appears that a few on the reservation are looking in my direction. That doesn't mean the US of A is on any kind of a healing path, that die may be cast. One can hope though. What if the working assumption becomes how the two-party system controlled by unregulated corporate money supporting an out-of-control military is utterly failing the citizens of the country? (And, for that matter, of the world.) How would it be if large numbers of people realized that a 9.4 percent cut in defense discretionary funding and a 10 percent cut in mandatory defense spending (though I am having trouble believing that this actually means a cut in military spending of close to 20%) isn't really a disaster but just getting close to the numbers needed to avoid becoming a failed military state?
The Drone War is coming out of the closet. Even some on the far right may start to wonder just how much they have given up by handing the military a blank check for both spending money and eliminating civil liberties. They may even start to understand that the Second Amendment means nothing if the First has been given away. (Actually the Second Amendment doesn't mean anything now though it is possible the the right wing will never figure that out.)
Fundamental changes in the two party system? A serious slashing of the military? Could such actually be in the offering? There is already a better than even chance that civil rights for gay people has turned a corner with religious fundamentalists and social conservatives having been thoroughly routed. Some see a growing realization that global climate change really is a scientific fact as exposing the anti-intellectual, anti-science crusaders for the charlatans they are. Gun violence getting some of the scrutiny it deserves. The lost drug war is getting some press and there is even a sliver of light being cast on the appalling failure that is America's privatized prison system. Even the death penalty is squinting a little from the light being cast its way.
The reservation is under siege from itself. The America that embraced the failed policies of war, robber baron capitalism, and religious fundamentalism, is showing definite signs of cracking under the pressure. What grows up in its place it yet to be determined. The chances are good the first couple of tries will be false starts, but at least they will be starts of some kind.
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