tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post4623574899065626367..comments2023-10-17T06:31:19.294-07:00Comments on Isolation Incomplete: On appreciating, not worshipping, the founding fathers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post-20267180242381765612011-02-18T13:49:24.638-08:002011-02-18T13:49:24.638-08:00I've just discovered your blog and am delighte...I've just discovered your blog and am delighted! However, I wish you would reconsider the black background with the yellow script -- it blurs my eyes...Classof65https://www.blogger.com/profile/15620524862669295761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post-81285997428128155422011-02-17T05:24:24.847-08:002011-02-17T05:24:24.847-08:00P.S.
the correct spelling of the first name of...P.S.<br /><br /> the correct spelling of the first name of the author of "Le nouveau gouvernement du monde" is <i>Georges</i> rather than George as I inadvertently misspelled it.<br /><br /> CLAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post-59078472125403256812011-02-17T05:16:35.318-08:002011-02-17T05:16:35.318-08:00While I'm forced to agree that much about our ...While I'm forced to agree that much about our contemporary society (almost everywhere) is (or ought to be seen as) rather depressing, I remain convinced that there are always possibilities for people to rediscover what has been neglected and sometimes simply lost and to ocassionally and temporarily learn from errors--even the 'best and the brightest', the leaders and engineers of this world of mess can sometimes manage it. Most of what I've pointed out has been the dominant trend for over at least half a century if not more than twice that. A very long perspective on human progress is one of the best antidotes to sheer despair and resignation. Perhaps in our lifetimes we won't see significant improvements but so far I'm not convinced of this. My point here has not been to overwhelm what you may possess in natural optimism. Rather, I hope to take advantage of what you show in (a rather unusual, I'd say) open mindedness which entails a readiness to face facts even when they are very discouraging.<br /><br />And that leads nicely to this next point on which I'll close this comment. Your blog so far shows itself to be both a place for interesting discussion and one which is open to comment that ranges outside the safety of conventional opinion. If you've appreciated my comments so far, you have your own qualities to thank for my finding this a promising site in which to join discussion. I've seen many and often been badly disappointed at length--always by the site management's narrow-mindedness and stubborn insistence on defending mediocrity and nonsense.<br /><br /> I glanced at your last main page post and here I'll mention that I can well imagine the work load you're already carrying in graduate school so I won't indulge in unrealistic expectations of the amount of time you have to read and write here. In placing your studies first, you have your priorities right. After all, they're certainly costing you some important sums of money.<br /><br /> best wishes in your continuing reading and study.<br /><br /> CLAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post-7610510655229675152011-02-16T22:40:13.370-08:002011-02-16T22:40:13.370-08:00@CL: "But for the vast majority, they can and...@CL: "But for the vast majority, they can and do find ways to put their consciences to sleep and almost everything about modern technological culture of western industrial societies (WIS) is devoted to helping ensure that most people do that."<br /><br />Depressingly, this increasingly seems to me to be true. I keep thinking, though, that it can't quite be that simple -- that people have to be more complex, that they can't all be so willing to tune out and not ask the questions which, as you noted, seem so unavoidable to me. But then again, why not? If one lacks the compelling need to understand, why not just "tune out"? Anyway, I'm still not 100 percent sure how the dynamics of this work, but it seems like thinking about these things is almost too existentially difficult for people, ie too emotionally disturbing. But I think I'll be reflecting about that a lot on this blog. <br /><br />Thanks for your thoughtful contributions!Robin Mariehttp://isolationincomplete.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post-73847883501865593402011-02-14T07:30:56.903-08:002011-02-14T07:30:56.903-08:00(I'm changing my nom de plume here to "co...(I'm changing my nom de plume here to "confirmed Luddite"--since there are a number of readers who post as anonymous; I posted the previous comments regarding your post at Paul Krugman's column, "Their Own Europe" and, later, one offering some reading suggestions on issues of society and technology. So, henceforth, it's "ConfirmedLuddite" or "CL" for short.)<br /><br /> You're so right about the problems of "original intent". The only original intent that matters is that the founders recognized (as you do) that they couldn't forsee the nation's distant future nor the particular urgent needs and conflicts beyond the enduring one that power-holders seek to concentrate and extend their power.<br /><br /> So they reasoned--whether they liked it or admitted it--that the people of a distant future would have to reason, judge and determine what pressing issues must be settled and how that should be done. That was the "gift" they bequeated to us: heavy burdens of responsibility to think for oursleves and settle our conflicts wisely.<br /><br /> But clearly, the great majority of people --in the U.S. and elsewhere--don't want that burdensome gift even if we suppose for a moment that they were up to shouldering it and, clearly, today, Americans are not up to shouldering it.<br /><br /> It took and it takes a remarkable kind of people to muster the morall and intellectual prerequisites of even a so-so version of democratic self-government. Modern sociery (and this one major reason among many why the matters of technology are so terribly important) has made most of the imperative prerequisites of any real social responsibility for self-government so difficult to manage that they're now simply out of reach.<br /><br /> You are one among a very small minority--people who think about such matters because they understand that they're important and such people find it impossible not to think about them. But for the vast majority, they can and do find ways to put their consciences to sleep and almost everything about modern technological culture of western industrial societies (WIS) is devoted to helping ensure that most people do that.<br /><br /> One more title to recommend to you if and when it becomes available in an English translation:<br /><br /> "Le nouveau gouvernement du monde: idéologies, structures, contre-pouvoirs" by George CORM. (isbn : 978 2 707 16419 3 ) éditions La Découverte, Paris, 2010<br /><br /> See also: www.georgescorm.com<br /><br /> "CL"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178845628822671538.post-60522830235916678822011-02-14T05:05:53.116-08:002011-02-14T05:05:53.116-08:00As a former history minor at Binghmaton College (t...As a former history minor at Binghmaton College (then SUNY Binghamton!) I really enjoy your blog. People seem to have gone nuts with talk about the Constitution forgetting it was written in such a different time it would take pages to go into just how different. Guidelines, not rigid rules!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com