I love this post Graham. While I despise authoritarianism, I agree our half-hearted democracies are terribly flawed. Nor do I have any "smart" answers. Any government, in any country, is predicated on trust. Far more often than not that trust is abused. Personally, I prefer the freedom of choice. But it is rare for that to last very long,
In my chosen country, the United States, it lasted from 1933 to 1973. 40 short years. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, despite coming from a family of wealth and privilege truly believed he had a duty to the people to help them overcome the Great Depression, caused solely by GREED, then a duty to stop a veritable monster - Adolf Hitler - from plunging the world into mass genocide, irredeemable poverty and abject slavery.
Having achieved that FDR promptly died. His legacy lasted pretty much intact until 1973. FDR was not perfect. How could he be? He was a Homo sapiens. (And even cats have flaws, although they'd never admit it)
I grew up with a father I adored. He loved me unconditionally. He strongly believed I could do and be anything I wanted to be. He was very encouraging. Consequently, I have no desire to be ordered to do anything. I refuse to accept hatred of other Homo sapiens because they have different skin colors, languages, sexual orientation. Nor am I in awe of status or wealth.
Will we ever have a true National concern for the good of everyone? I certainly hope so, but I will be long dead. We've never achieved this level of caring in 300,000 years of existence. Unless we find a way to depress greed, I doubt we ever will.
Mr. Snowden did what he felt he had to do. I respect him for his strength of belief. I think the US treated him abominably. I seriously doubt he is treated that well in Putin's hell hole. I realize the US was shamed. Those people should be ashamed. I suppose I am spied upon, frankly I don't care. I have no assets worth stealing and no secrets worth revealing, so who cares?
(1) "We've never achieved this level of caring in 300,000 years of existence." Allow me to quote from an earlier essay: "An anthropologist—perhaps really, perhaps apocryphally—posited that the birth of civilisation occurred when the first human was cured of a broken femur. The time needed to bind the leg and allow the bone to re-knit showed that somebody cared, and that was, for her, the inception of civilisation. It’s an interesting approach. But how, I would ask her, would she characterise the moment in human development when we, instead of healing another’s broken femur, started to break them—deliberately"? https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/due-process-of-law.
(2) "[T]o stop a veritable monster - Adolf Hitler - from plunging the world into mass genocide, irredeemable poverty and abject slavery."
You needn't look far to read warnings like "Do we never learn from history?" with regard to the Hitler period. However, Adolf Hitler didn't spring out of nowhere. It is the feigned modern-day surprise at the rise of the right (politicians aghast, asking, "How did this happen?!") that is as disingenuous as to say, "We must learn from German history." What we must learn is how German history became German history and apply *those* lessons.
I agree whole heartedly with your last paragraph. Beautifully stated, Graham. Our problem is we never do learn from history.
In my youth I could place the blame on teachers - from at least the 1930's through the 1940's history was taught through a series of memorizing dates. Dates when certain kings ruled. Dates when certain wars were fought. Good kings were always English (I was a Canadian) and always won. The only bad king was John because he lost.
No wonder Johnson and Nixon were paranoid about "being the first President to lose a war"
I have said my father taught me what fascism was bad - but he explained why it was bad. Not one teacher ever explained this. Until I read William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I didn't really understand why the German people willingly followed Hitler.
I love this post Graham. While I despise authoritarianism, I agree our half-hearted democracies are terribly flawed. Nor do I have any "smart" answers. Any government, in any country, is predicated on trust. Far more often than not that trust is abused. Personally, I prefer the freedom of choice. But it is rare for that to last very long,
In my chosen country, the United States, it lasted from 1933 to 1973. 40 short years. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, despite coming from a family of wealth and privilege truly believed he had a duty to the people to help them overcome the Great Depression, caused solely by GREED, then a duty to stop a veritable monster - Adolf Hitler - from plunging the world into mass genocide, irredeemable poverty and abject slavery.
Having achieved that FDR promptly died. His legacy lasted pretty much intact until 1973. FDR was not perfect. How could he be? He was a Homo sapiens. (And even cats have flaws, although they'd never admit it)
I grew up with a father I adored. He loved me unconditionally. He strongly believed I could do and be anything I wanted to be. He was very encouraging. Consequently, I have no desire to be ordered to do anything. I refuse to accept hatred of other Homo sapiens because they have different skin colors, languages, sexual orientation. Nor am I in awe of status or wealth.
Will we ever have a true National concern for the good of everyone? I certainly hope so, but I will be long dead. We've never achieved this level of caring in 300,000 years of existence. Unless we find a way to depress greed, I doubt we ever will.
Mr. Snowden did what he felt he had to do. I respect him for his strength of belief. I think the US treated him abominably. I seriously doubt he is treated that well in Putin's hell hole. I realize the US was shamed. Those people should be ashamed. I suppose I am spied upon, frankly I don't care. I have no assets worth stealing and no secrets worth revealing, so who cares?
Thank you, Fay, and what a lovely little essay.
Two points:
(1) "We've never achieved this level of caring in 300,000 years of existence." Allow me to quote from an earlier essay: "An anthropologist—perhaps really, perhaps apocryphally—posited that the birth of civilisation occurred when the first human was cured of a broken femur. The time needed to bind the leg and allow the bone to re-knit showed that somebody cared, and that was, for her, the inception of civilisation. It’s an interesting approach. But how, I would ask her, would she characterise the moment in human development when we, instead of healing another’s broken femur, started to break them—deliberately"? https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/due-process-of-law.
(2) "[T]o stop a veritable monster - Adolf Hitler - from plunging the world into mass genocide, irredeemable poverty and abject slavery."
You needn't look far to read warnings like "Do we never learn from history?" with regard to the Hitler period. However, Adolf Hitler didn't spring out of nowhere. It is the feigned modern-day surprise at the rise of the right (politicians aghast, asking, "How did this happen?!") that is as disingenuous as to say, "We must learn from German history." What we must learn is how German history became German history and apply *those* lessons.
I agree whole heartedly with your last paragraph. Beautifully stated, Graham. Our problem is we never do learn from history.
In my youth I could place the blame on teachers - from at least the 1930's through the 1940's history was taught through a series of memorizing dates. Dates when certain kings ruled. Dates when certain wars were fought. Good kings were always English (I was a Canadian) and always won. The only bad king was John because he lost.
No wonder Johnson and Nixon were paranoid about "being the first President to lose a war"
I have said my father taught me what fascism was bad - but he explained why it was bad. Not one teacher ever explained this. Until I read William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I didn't really understand why the German people willingly followed Hitler.
Shirer graces my own bookshelves, also!