"Common Sense - Where Has It Gone?"

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Common Sense – Where Has It Gone?”

September 29, 2021

 

“Common sense is seeing things as they are,

and doing things as they ought to be.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)

 

Common sense: noun – sound and prudent judgement. Its best antonym: unreasonable – without reason.

 

Common sense is a phrase we all know but rarely practice. So why is it called common? In A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote: “Common sense is not so common.” It does not appear to exist among our cultural and political elite, where reason has given way to ideology. Ralph Waldo Emerson is alleged to have said: “Common Sense is genius dressed in working clothes.” That is, perhaps, what William Buckley meant when he said he would rather be governed by the first four hundred names in the Boston telephone directory than the Harvard faculty? Today, politicians, professors, CEOs, the media and many in the world of entertainment dress more informally, which may be sensible in terms of personal comfort, but a lack of common sense pulsates through their daily activities and commentaries. 

 

Common sense has been banished by the self-righteous. This part of Connecticut is not immune. Last week, in my local paper The Day, appeared an article about the sensible (my word) refusal of Old Lyme’s First Selectman (a Republican) to bring to a vote a resolution proposed by the Democratic Selectwoman which would identify racism as a public health crisis. His refusal was based, first, on the question: What does racism have to do with public health? Secondly, he pointed out such a resolution would imply the town has a race problem. Even the Democratic Selectwoman has said that she does not believe the people in Old Lyme are racist, yet she wants this resolution. Admittedly, the town of 7,000 is estimated to be 97.4% white, but that does not mean the community is racist. Certainly, the Republican First Selectman is not. His daughter is married to a black man whom, with his wife and children, we often see at our beach club. And Old Lyme is among a handful of Connecticut towns that welcome refugees.

 

So, why does she insist on such a resolution? Does she feel pangs of “white” guilt because of who she is and where she lives? Does she believe systemic racism infests Old Lyme? Or does she expect that accusations of racism will help Democrats’ cause? The answer seems obvious. She is motivated by politics and a lack of common sense. Social justice, systemic racism and anthropological-caused climate change are lightning rods, which activate the juices of hypocritical progressives. Common sense be damned.

 

We see this lack of common sense everywhere. Does it make sense to say that the “rich” should pay their “fair share,” and then say you want to reinstate SALT (state and local taxes) deductions, when 95% of the benefit accrues to the top one percent of wage earners? Or is that simply hypocrisy?  Corporations have adopted to this new world by claiming support for all “stakeholders.” It is a feel-good word, but does it say anything new? Years ago, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) observed: “He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits.” In Iacocca: An Autobiography (1984), Lee Iacocca wrote: “In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, products, profit.” Over four million businesses were created in 2020, with about 600,000 failing. According to the Center for M.I.T. Entrepreneurship, most new businesses are not cash flow positive for 3-5 years. If a business is not profitable, no one is served – not the employees, customers, suppliers, tax agencies or owners. Consider, when the Left decries the inequities of capitalism, the words of Thomas Sowell in Controversial Essays: “No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk, but the free market walks the walk.”

 

Bjorn Lomborg, in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, wrote that according to a forthcoming Lancet study: “More than 45% of people 16 to 25 in the ten countries surveyed are so worried (about climate change) that it affects their daily life and functioning.” Does that reflect sensible behavior on the part of their teachers? Was it common sense that allowed an uncompromising focus on renewables to cause electricity prices in Connecticut to rise by 14% last June? Regarding the stalled $3.5 trillion spending bill, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently tweeted: “Paid leave is infrastructure. Childcare is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure.” Common sense tells us they are not. Bridges, tunnels and roads are infrastructure, not entitlements. Her comments are part of a narrative that lacks reason and truth. It was “virtue-signaling that led to pride flags, gender studies and George Floyd murals in Kabul,” as Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote, when common sense would have had the U.S. maintain Bagram Airfield until the last American, ally, and Afghani who had assisted allied forces had left Afghanistan. Did General Mark A. Milley show common sense when he made those Dr. Strangelove-like calls to General Li Zuocheng? Do calls for defunding the police, despite rising murder rates in inner cities, reflect common sense? What about the discrimination exhibited in schools and colleges in setting different standards for students based on race? Is not that sanctimonious discrimination? Does it make common sense to mandate masks and vaccinations for university students and business employees, yet let in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, without requiring either masks or vaccines? 

 

It is not as though the U.S. is not faced with real problems, which common sense would address. To name four: Debt and deficits: The ratio of federal debt to GDP is approaching what it was in World War II, and that does not include unfunded liabilities for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In 1960, mandatory spending (entitlements, like Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid, etc.) accounted for about 25% of the federal budget. Today, that number is close to 70%. Education: We spend more per student than most any other country. Yet, we are failing many, mostly in Democrat-controlled, inner cities. In the 2018 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), which tests 15-year-olds around the world, the United States ranks below the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) average. As well, college costs have become untethered from reality. Families: It is well understood that children raised in two-parent households fare better economically and emotionally. Yet, family formations have been in decline in the U.S. for sixty years. In 1960, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, 73% of children were raised in two-parent households. By 2014, that had declined to 46%. Culture: As a nation, we have descended into a morass of multiculturalism, political correctness and wokeism, which has left us bereft of a national moral compass.

 

Common sense is looking at the world through clear lenses. It sees the world as it is, as Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote, not as one would like it to be. Like classical liberalism, common sense is based on empiricism, experience and research.; it is skeptical of fashion. It recognizes differences in people, not in races. It acknowledges there are two biological genders, not the 57 that OpenLearn suggests. It adheres to the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have done unto you; it is learning right from wrong and practicing the civilities once taught by parents, and in schools, Synagogues and Churches. Common sense allows us to focus on the individual, rather than the collective.

 

Horse sense is a synonym for common sense. The former was once defined by the comedian and actor W.C. Fields: “Horse sense is a thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.” Yet we, with people-sense and with government encouragement, bet on everything, from Lotteries to sports to horses – which common sense tells us is a loser’s game and regressive taxation. Common sense, where have you gone? 

"Illiberal Liberals"

                                                                   Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Illiberal Liberals”

September 19, 2021

 

“The individual is foolish, but the species is wise…We have inherited from the past the instruments

which the wisdom of the species employs to safeguard man against his own passions and appetites.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Russell Kirk (1918-1994)

                                                                                                   The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, 1953  

 

While healthy policy differences separate Republican from Democrat, extremist woke culture, propagated by sanctimonious, illiberal progressive elitists, has infested schools, universities, the arts, churches, banks, large corporations and sports teams. It threatens to transform our Country and do irreparable harm, with emotion replacing reason. It was behind the fatal decisions in Afghanistan, where military leaders had debated single-sex bathrooms and focused on gender identity and white oppression, rather than considering the consequences of an inauspicious withdrawal. Wokeism is a danger to all who love freedom.  

 

……………………………………………………

 

Wokeness is a belief in presentism. It is an ideology endorsed by people ignorant of history and unaware of consequences for the future. It exists under the banner of social justice, embedded in words like diversity, equity and inclusion. It inspires virtue-signaling by privileged whites feigning awareness of “social inequities.” It is a manifestation of the illiberal liberal. Its leaders are intent on uprooting liberal democracy, which cherishes free markets and individual freedom and replacing it with authoritarian socialism, where government’s powers are enhanced, and individual’s rights and liberties are suppressed. The responsible citizen is replaced with the obedient subject. Fear of government too large was important to the founding fathers. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison: “I own I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.” Yet, a 2018 Gallup Poll showed that 57% of Democrats had a positive view of socialism, while only 47% felt the same way toward capitalism.

 

The world of the woke is filled with hypocrites: During the recent California gubernatorial election, a white woman wearing a gorilla mask threw an egg at Republican Larry Elder, an African American who the Los Angeles Times called “The Black face of white supremacy.” There was nary a peep of complaint from mainstream media. To be racist is okay if it is worn under a mantle of wokeness. Last year, California’s Governor Newsome kept public schools closed to in-person learning, while sending his children to private schools where all classes were held in person. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore the words “Tax the Rich,” embroidered in red on her white, designer gown, to a $30,000-a-seat benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an annual event where elites outdo one another, to impress the media and the masses, knowing that their wokeness, despite their privilege, exempts them from condemnation as oppressors. Hypocrisy and wokeness are partners among illiberal liberals.

 

A belief in those aspects of character which inspired Martin Luther King and that made the United States an exceptional nation – aspiration, initiative, merit, talent, hard work, tolerance, personal responsibility and adherence to families and churches – have disappeared into a mire of political correctness. Critical race theory, a Marxist view which teaches that racial prejudices and preferences determine academic and economic outcomes, has divided the nation into white supremacists and people-of-color victims. While critical race theory has been around for half a century, with some legitimacy to its tenets, it has been adopted by those on the left to Balkanize the American people. And it is racist, in that it is the group not the individual that is condemned or praised, based on perceptions, not facts.

 

It has been this freedom of the individual, where allegiance is to the law – not to men – that makes Western culture unique: Freedom to express ideas, freedom to pray as one chooses, freedom to own property, freedom to be considered innocent until proven guilty, freedom to have a trial of one’s peers,  freedom to avoid the siren call of presentism, freedom to learn from the past and to profit from its lessons for the future, freedom to believe in colorblind justice, freedom to understand one’s talents, as well as one’s limits – all freedoms that illiberal liberals, with their woke police, would banish.

 

In a 1961 debate with Barry Goldwater, Norman Thomas, a perennial socialist Presidential candidate on the Socialist Party ticket between 1928 and 1948, argued that in a world that consists of an “anarchy of nations” a government of elected officials and administrators is needed to “manage our extraordinary scientific and technological achievements and our resources for the common good.” Has that been true for students in inner-city schools? Wealthy urban, white progressives have options in school choice, while Black and Hispanic parents and children have no choice, except for the few Charter schools where demand exceeds supply. A true liberal would offer inner-city parents a choice and not be hornswoggled by powerful teachers’ unions Have unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, ever “managed” our achievements and resources well? There have been examples of collaborative efforts, like the War Production Board during World War II and Operation Warp Speed set up in 2020. Both were successful because government-imposed regulations were eased. Creativity and Innovation are manifestations of free-market capitalism.  

 

In terms of tax policy, “Pay your fair share” and “Tax the Rich” are empty slogans of illiberal liberals. The proposed tax bill is thousands of pages long, filled with exemptions and exclusions for the very wealthy. If a fair tax was wanted, Congress would enact a flat tax, with no exemptions. But, one suspects, those in the legal and accounting fields would not react well to a bill that deprived them of an income. And what is fairanyway? According to taxorganization.org, in 2020 the top one percent of income earners in the U.S. paid 38.5% of all income taxes. The bottom 90% paid 29.9 percent. 

 

The fumes propelling “wokeism” are expelled by the narrative, not by facts. In Tuesday’s The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins lamented that the CDC, with 21,000 employees and an annual budget of $15 billion had been unable to produce detailed research on COVID-19, on the numbers of people with natural immunity, and on breakthrough infections, despite having data on 40 million individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 200 million who have been vaccinated. “This isn’t,” he wrote, “the Manhattan Project. Its epidemiology 101.” Could it be that facts are secondary to the narrative?

 

………………………………………………………..

 

In his book, The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk wrote that he became a conservative because he was liberal. He was open to debate, the free flow of ideas and, surprisingly, to change. In that same book, Mr. Kirk expressed one of the canons of conservative thought: “Science must alter, for prudent change is the means of social preservation; but a statesman must take Providence into his calculations, and a stateman’s chief virtue, according to Plato and Burke, is prudence.” In contrast to the woke, true liberals want to preserve the good of the past and learn from mistakes made. They understand reality. They know it is wrong to ban books and tear down statues. Such actions do not change the past; they simply change one’s perception. Real liberals seek equality of opportunity and equality before the law for everyone, regardless of race, religion or gender, not a false promise of equity. Today’s progressives tell us they are liberal, but their policies are illiberal. Barton Swaim ended a recent column in The Wall Street Journal on the loss of liberalism with an appropriate sentence: “You can’t fix the city as long as the souls are a mess.” 

"9/11 Remembered"

                                                                     Sydney M. Williams 

“9/11 Remembered” 

September 11, 2021

 

The attack on September 11, 2001was unique for our country, in that it was perpetrated by a state-less, Islamic terrorist organization and cowardly directed at civilians. Nevertheless, one cannot help but contrast that attack with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 (“A day which will live in infamy!), especially when we consider the state of our nation twenty years out. Both were surprises and both resulted with our country going to war.

 

What is most striking between 12/7 (Pearl Harbor) and 9/11 is the difference twenty years meant. In the first instance, we had moved on with confidence. In the second, we are mired in self-doubt. Approximately 75 million people died during World War II, in a world that had less than one third of the population it has today – an incomprehensible loss of life. The two principal protagonists, Germany and Japan, had their economies destroyed; within four years both had surrendered unconditionally. Yet, by 1961 both had rebounded and represented the third and fifth largest economies in the world. In large part that was because of the forward thinking of the victors, acceptance of loss by the losers, and the compassion and generosity of the people of the United States. To help stabilize both countries, troops were stationed in their homelands, with U.S. troops still there. In the second instance, the enemy was amorphous. They were Islamists and terrorists, but not representative of a specific country. Fifteen of the nineteen terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Lebanon and one from Egypt. All were affiliated with the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda. They had been given sanctuary in the Taliban-run country of Afghanistan. Over the past two decades, US and NATO forces exorcised the Taliban from governing Afghanistan, but this unconventional enemy was always difficult to define and defeat. So that. as of August 31, 2021, the black and white Taliban flag once again flew over the capital city of Kabul.     

 

…………………………………………….

 

Even before 2001, September 11 had special meaning for me and my wife. It was on that day in 1966 our first child was born. In 2001 that son, his wife and six-month-old son were living in London. The weekend before that fateful day they arrived at our home in Old Lyme. He was on a business trip, which took him to Boston on Monday the 10^th and to New York City that evening. When the two planes hit the Twin Towers the next morning he was, thank God, at his hotel. Later that morning, he came to my office in midtown, and together we walked the twenty blocks north to New York Cornell Medical Center to give blood.

 

Our youngest son’s wife was on an early morning flight from Buffalo to LaGuardia. She landed before the terrorists struck. He was in his midtown office where they were both employed as security analysts. Later that morning, they both – she six months pregnant with their first child – walked the fifty blocks north to their apartment. Our daughter was at her home in Rye, New York, with her fourteen-month-old daughter. Her husband, our son-in-law, was in his midtown office. He walked the eighty blocks north to catch a train to Rye.

 

My wife and other daughter-in-law were driving from Old Lyme to Rye. When I was finally reached them, I urged them to turn around, but my wife (correctly) insisted we all be together.

 

………………………..……………………

 

When the first plane hit, I thought, like many, that a small plane had veered off course. By the time the second plane hit, which was televised, we knew it was a deliberate act of war. Hearing about the plane that hit the Pentagon and United Flight 93, which crashed, because of the actions taken by brave passengers, into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, we all felt a plethora of emotions: incredulity, disbelief, sorrow, anger and a sense of patriotism – we were all Americans.

Now, twenty years out, we should acknowledge that evil does exist, but even more important, we must never forget that the United States, with all its flaws, is an exceptional nation – that freedom and opportunity are rare, that they are not free, but that we have them. Now, there are those who would like to change our system of free-market capitalism; they would like to increase the role of, and dependency on, government. It sounds an attractive objective, but it is one that comes with a loss of self-reliance, individual liberty and brings with it an authoritarian government. It is an avenue we should consider wisely and carefully before committing ourselves. In the meantime, we should give thanks for the good fortune that is ours to live in this place – a nation that is hated by a few extremists (and loathed by some of our own citizens), but it is one that serves (and has served) as a beacon to the world’s oppressed, those who yearn to be free, and who want the opportunities the United States offers.

"Open Letter to President Trump"

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Open Letter to President Trump”

September 11, 2021

 

Open Letter: “A published letter of protest or appeal,

usually addressed to an individual but intended for the general public.”

                                                              Merriam Webster dictionary, 1995

 

 

Dear Mr. Trump, I wish you well, but I hope you do not choose to run for President in 2024.

 

I write this with all due respect for you and your Presidency. Democrats are in disarray, with a President who is more puppet than leader, and with far-left extremists having seized control of the Party. So, my caution may seem odd. Moderate Democrats recognize they are at risk in the 2022 mid-term elections, barring a miraculous or unforeseen event. But you are a unifying factor for Democrats and independent “Never Trumpers.” Your candidacy, I believe, would unite the opposition and hurt Republican prospects.

 

Taking a supporting role is against your nature. Nevertheless, my hope is that you will campaign for Republicans in the mid-terms and back their choice for President in 2024. Twice I voted for you. Your disruptive technique was welcome, as I wrote in an essay in January 2019. In my opinion, your Presidency was a great success in every way but one. Deregulation, along with personal tax cuts, unleashed an economy that had been mired in sub-three percent growth. Your corporate tax cuts repatriated an estimated $1.5 trillion, which was reinvested back in the U.S. Unemployment declined and employment increased, especially for minorities. According to the Institute for Energy Research, the U.S. achieved energy independence in 2019 for the first time since 1957. With help of the “Wall,” illegal immigration through our southern border was reduced. At your insistence, our NATO Partners increased their share of spending on defense. China was called out for its aggression in the South China Sea and for its Belt and Road initiative, which creates dependency on China on the part of participating nations. Moving our Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, along with the Abraham Accords, did more for Middle East peace prospects than any other proposals since Israel’s founding in 1948.

 

You appointed nearly as many appeals court judges in four years as your predecessor did in eight. You added three conservative Justices to the nation’s highest court. You took us out of the toothless Paris Agreement, a sop to climate self-interests, and you vacated the ill-conceived Iran nuclear deal. Despite all the media hype and disinformation to the contrary, you handled COVID-19 as well as could be expected. The dramatic economic slowdown in 2020s second quarter was nearly offset in 2020s third quarter rebound. Regarding the pandemic, you were forced to navigate between myriad (and often conflicting) medical recommendations, all claiming to be based on the latest scientific evidence. Your Operation Warp Speed delivered a vaccine far sooner than medical experts expected.

 

But, in one important way your Presidency failed the American people: Your narcissism helped widen the chasm that divides left from right. Extremists on both sides retreated to their respective corners. Political polarization preceded your time in office so is not your fault. But you made it worse. For many years, mainstream media has had a left-wing bias. Reagan was an “amiable dunce.” George W. Bush was “Dumbo.”  This bias on the part of the media goes back a long time. William Greider, in a 1984 article in Rolling Stone on Roone Arledge of ABC, wrote: “If the politics of 1984 describes the future, then Americans are being reduced to a nation of befogged sheep, beguiled by false images and manipulated ruthlessly.” The Bush-Gore election in 2000 hardened the divide. Since, the press has become less factual and less honest. President Obama, as the first Black American President, had an opportunity to address the problem of race. He did not. In fact, racial tensions increased during his years in office. But you are, as you know, a polarizing figure.

 

While you did nothing to heal that divide, you should not be blamed. The cards were stacked against you. We are not, as the left would have us believe, a nation of innocent victims and racist oppressors. We are a diverse people divided by ideas – not by race, gender or religion. But we should be unified as Americans. Our schools and colleges have become conduits through which ill-educated, progressive conformists are funneled. They do not educate students to think independently or instill in them a sense of mutual respect and personal responsibility. Again, this is the world you inherited when you became President. But we needed reflection, sobriety and humor, while you provided bluster, exaggeration and drama.

 

And after the election, and after the courts had sided in Biden’s favor, you should have swallowed your pride and accepted the results. In 1960, it was widely believed that Kennedy’s victory was due to the deceased voting in Chicago, but Nixon accepted the results and focused on eight years out. Your behavior in Georgia cost Republicans control of the U.S. Senate. Your speech on January 6 was okay by my standards, but when a few in the audience marched on the capitol you should have urged them to go home. As for the media, because of your directness in calling them out, you were never going to be treated fairly by them, but it was your post-election behavior that damaged your image and affected your legacy.   

 

2022 and 2024 are critical; they will determine the direction of the country. For conservatives, and for the good of the nation, it is important Republicans retake the Senate and the House. The Far-Left, with their socialist/authoritarian policies, wield power – in Washington; in wealthy, coastal enclaves, and in big cities. They no longer support America’s working middle classes. They have created a “them” versus “us” divide.

 

Republicans have a long and strong bench. In no particular order, here is a list of a few. Governors: Ron DeSantis (Florida), Kristi Noem (South Dakota), Nikki Haley (former Governor of South Carolina and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN), Greg Abbott (Texas), Doug Ducey (Arizona), Larry Hogan (Maryland). U.S. Senators: Josh Hawley (Missouri), Rick Scott (and former Governor – Florida), Tim Scott (South Carolina), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Mike Lee (Utah), Marco Rubio (Florida), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Joni Ernst (Iowa). U.S. Representatives: Mike Pompeo (and former Secretary of State – Kansas), Dan Crenshaw (Texas) and Elise Stefanik (New York). These are men and women who span the spectrum of conservative thought. This list is not complete; the Republican Party is a big-tent Party, so not every name will be everyone’s choice. There are also non-political, articulate spokespeople for conservative causes, like Candace Owens and J.D. Vance, along with my favorite economist and commentator, Thomas Sowell. 

 

We expect elected representatives to find common ground. The idea of a representative government is that it provides a forum to debate ideas. When partisanship rules, we bounce between extremists on both sides, and the nation suffers. The President, the most powerful individual in the world, must have the wisdom to guide the nation, while exercising restraint to temper his or her power.    

 

Holman Jenkins titled last week’s column in The Wall Street Journal, “Is Trump Finished?” His belief is that you will not again run for President but will help pick the next President. I, too, trust and hope you are not finished. The Republican Party and Americans need you, just not as a Presidential candidate.

 

Best regards,

 

Sydney M. Williams

"The Heartbeat of Trees," by Peter Wohlleben - A Review

                                                                   Sydney M. Williams 

Burrowing into Book

“The Heartbeat of Trees”

September 6, 2021

 

“What blood is to people, water is to trees.”

                                                                                                                            Peter Wohlleben (1964 -)

                                                                                                                            The Heartbeat of Trees, 2021

 

This is the third book by Peter Wohlleben I have reviewed – The Hidden Life of Trees (2015) on January 14, 2017, and The Inner Life of Animals (2016) on August 14, 2018 – his first and second books. This is his ninth. In this he focuses more on climate change and our need to preserve forests, which absorb carbon dioxide. While he fascinates, he comes across as a bit of a scold, though he ends with a measure of hope not despair. I don’t want to be too critical, as he has much to teach, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

 

He writes, for example, of a single spruce seed that fell to the ground 9,500 years ago in the mountains of Sweden. The seed germinated and the tree that was born, “Old Tjikko,” survives today – the oldest known tree on the planet. It has seen the extinction of mammoths and the emergence of man from the Stone Age. Since its birth, he writes: “The climate had fluctuated from cold to warm and back again multiple times, but, unaffected by any of this, the spruce was still standing intact today in the place where it had been born.” 

 

As in his past books, Mr. Wohlleben is captivated by similarities between plants and animals, and the connection of humans with nature and the adaptability of the latter. He writes of the need for conservation, that “…with every step we take to help conserve the ecosystem that is the earth, we are at the same time protecting ourselves…”

 

In a chapter on forest bathing, a practice new to me but one that emerged in Japan in the 1980s (shinrin-yoku), he writes of going into the woods with his family for a picnic, walking through a deciduous stand of trees: “We lay there under the trees for one, maybe two hours…We chatted and relaxed and forgot time. And that is forest bathing. For me it was the most beautiful day in the forest that I can remember.” Take a moment, he tells us, to just sit on a stump or a log, which will bring one closer to the feel of the forest. He leaves us with hope: “It is by no means too late to protect nature. We are much too tightly bound to it.” 

 

The adaptability of nature fascinates him. He writes of the bog orchid, which grows in the north and has no bees to serve as pollinators; so, has learned to imitate the smell of humans to attract mosquitoes, which then serve as pollinators. And he writes of a vine that grows in South America that adapts to the tree it is climbing, even to imitating its leaves. If water is to a tree what blood is to us, how does it get from the roots to branches dozens of feet above the ground? The answer, he tells us, is a barely noticeable pump action. Researchers “determined that a tree’s trunk sometimes shrinks by about 0.0002 inches before expanding again.” That is the heartbeat of trees. Mr. Wohlleben is passionate about his forests, as his story attests. 

 

The woods are a good place to gain perspective. This book adds to our appreciation. Walking beneath “the elephants of the plant world,” we realize we are a small part of a large natural world, with its opportunities for us and of our responsibility to it.

"Wisdom"

 As we always have, we live in a dangerous world. There always has been evil and there always will be. It manifests itself in nations and in individuals. Democracies such as ours are formed, in part, to keep people safe from those who would do us harm. It means recognizing the world for what it is, not as we would dream it to be. It is why we have police forces and why we have armies. Political correctness, which has birthed wokeness, is the antithesis of wisdom. Those who really want diversity, equity and inclusion should bring back the draft, as it was in the post-World War II and pre-Vietnam era, when every inductee was subjected to the care of a basic training sergeant. Those NCOs had one goal, which was to convert every recruit into a soldier. They did not care about one’s race, religion or gender. They did not concern themselves with words like “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion.” They did not distinguish between the privileged and the unprivileged , or between oppressors and victims. If a recruit disobeyed orders, they were punished. Some adapted to the discipline more easily than others, but every individual was treated the same. 

 

Enjoy the long, Labor Day weekend. The weather this morning in Connecticut is crisp and cool, a harbinger of the Autumn that is to come.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Wisdom”

September 4. 2021

 

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds

like foolishness to someone else…Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. 

One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

                                                                                                                                         Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)

                                                                                                                                         Siddhartha, 1922

 

Wisdom is defined by Random House Webster’s Dictionary: “The quality or state of being wise; sagacity, discernment, or insight.” If that definition leaves you confused as it did me, then read what Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote in Literary Remains, Volume I, published posthumously in 1836: “Common sense, in an uncommon degree, is what the world calls wisdom.” Wisdom involves judgement and the ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s actions. It involves honesty about oneself and the admission of one’s mistakes and limitations. It is empirical not conjectural; it sees a world where reality – not optics – is the driving force.

 

Wisdom is often associated with age. I recall when I was learning to drive, and that while my father agreed my reactions might be faster than his, he said I lacked judgment. He was right. In The Admirable Crichton, J.M. Barrie wrote: “I’m not young enough to know everything.” But, as can be seen in President Biden’s decision to ignominiously leave Afghanistan, age does not necessarily bring wisdom.

 

It is, of course, presumptuous to write about wisdom, because the reader must assume the author considers himself wise. That is not my claim. I agree with Shakespeare’s court jester Touchstone who in As You like It says: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Wisdom is rare and illusive, especially in our Twitter-filled world. 

 

The ego-driven ex-Presidencies of Clinton, Obama and Trump show none of the wisdom of former retiring Presidents, like Truman and Eisenhower. Is it wise to assume interest rates will always remain low? What will be the costs on thirty and more trillions of dollars of debt when interest rates do rise? Regarding the federal budget, has it been wise to let discretionary spending (about half of which is defense) decline from 67% of the budget in 1962 to 30% in 2019, while mandatory spending (mostly entitlements) increased from 25% in 1962 to 62% in 2019? In 1962, we were faced with a USSR that wanted to “bury” us. Today, we are faced with a combative China, a resurgent Russia and myriad Islamic terrorist groups who chant: “Death to America.” Yet defense spending, as a percent of GDP, has declined from 9.3% to 3.4%. Has that been wise? Was it wise to leave billions of dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan, thereby making the Taliban-led government – harborers of terrorism – one of the better armed nations in the world? Should social justice be the goal of our armed forces, or should they focus on strategy and winning wars?

 

In a competitive world, is it wise for schools and universities to focus on diversity (except for opinions), and to promote inclusion, equity and social justice while ignoring the benefits of aspiration, ability, merit, dedication and hard work? Which would be better for our nation one, two and three generations out? Would it not be wiser to encourage economic mobility than a static equity? Would it not be wiser to encourage unity rather than division? Should we not demand equality before the law and promote opportunity in a color-blind world, rather than preaching racial hatred in a world of oppressors and victims? Are the administrators at Amherst College wise to require students to double mask when inside and refrain from leaving campus, or are they over-reacting to the detriment of students’ mental health? As an airline passenger, would you rather the pilot be selected based on a diversity quota or on ability, regardless of his or her race or gender? And what about the neurosurgeon about to cut into your brain?

 

Will corporate managers focused on “wokeness” serve all stakeholders in businesses better than managers focused on profit? A Profitable business can pay its employees, and it pays its suppliers on time. A business is profitable because of satisfied customers. Businesses that make a profit pay taxes and contribute to the community. Of course, owners and shareholders benefit when a business is profitable, but if it incurs losses everyone suffers. Is it not wiser to make profitability the principal goal?

 

Wisdom involves thinking through issues, something in our hectic, harum-scarum world that has become passé. Generation Z – those born between 1995 and 2010 – has become, in the words of Jeremy Adams, author of Hollowed Out: A Warning about America’s Next Generation, “prisoners of presentism.” They are experts on Instagram, Twittering, You-tube, and they are hyper-aware of the latest fads and pop-culture. But can they think? What do they know of history and the classics? Will multiculturalism destroy what generations of wisdom have wrought? 

 

Wisdom, like the skepticism critical to science, is based on reading, listening and questioning – making decisions based on facts. In his poem “Little Giddings,” in Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot wrote:

 

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

 

Eliot was telling us that sometimes we must return to where we started, to understand where we have been. The search for wisdom is enduring and its path is characterized by doubt. Gandhi once wrote: “It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

 

It is, however, today’s lack of wisdom that is most apparent and most troubling. It permeates our political classes, our universities and cultural institutions, our large banks and corporations, and much of media. How do I know? Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart response when asked to explain “hard-core” pornography in 1964: “…I know it when I see it.” This lack of wisdom is highly visible. We know it when we see it. It is in Washington, where partisanship has replaced statesmanship. We see it in schools and colleges that call for diversity, except in ideas. We see it in corporations that feel the need to hire diversity, equity and inclusion managers. We see it on the lawns of wealthy, white, virtue-signaling suburbanites with their signs supporting BLM, an organization that promotes racial disharmony. We see it with sports and entertainment figures who call for equity but whose own success is based on singular talent, merit and hard work. Animals have an innate sense – the wisdom to adapt – something we seem to have lost. We complain about rising seas and anthropological-caused super storms, yet we continue to build homes in risky, coastal tidal zones. 

 

Leaders sometimes mistake idiocy for wisdom. A few days ago, Victor Davis Hanson wrote for American Greatness: “In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 servicemen, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise.” Really?