"Why Have Politics Become So Hateful?"

 To replace the retiring Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Stephen Breyer, President Biden promised an “historic appointment,” a black woman. Consider how much more powerful his words would have been (and more important to the appointee) if he had promised to nominate the most qualified individual, and then named a black woman.

 

Last Thursday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, something we should all honor in a world with rising anti-Semitism. I recall my father telling me, about a decade after he had returned from combatting the Germans in Italy’s Apennines, to never forget what the Nazis did, in attempting to eliminate the Jewish people.

 

Here in Connecticut, we are getting a full winter blast – low temperatures, a blizzard and high winds. It is beautiful to look at, as long as one can remain indoors.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Why Have Politics Become So Hateful?”

January 29, 2022

 

“Don’t let anger control you.

Don’t let hate enslave you.

Don’t let negativity overcome you.

Don’t let bitterness conquer you.”

                                                                                                Attributed to Matshona Dhliwayo (1982 -)

                                                                                                Zimbabwean-born Canadian author

 

In a September 2021 Public Agenda/USA Today/Ipsos poll, 72% of Americans thought it would be “good for the country” if there were less political hostility and a greater focus on common ground. Yet only 9% of respondents thought hostilities would decrease in the next decade, while 42% expected them to increase. Why have political differences made us so bitter? Why do we hate those with different opinions so intensely? What does this anger mean for the future of our nation?

 

Political hatred has had a long gestation.  It is easy to blame the crude and narcissistic Donald Trump. But this bitterness preceded him. He made things worse, but he was not its genesis. He reflected the animosity felt by rural and mid-Americans toward coastal elites. He widened and deepened the divide, but he was not its cause. Barack Obama, as the first African American elected President, was one who could have bridged racial dissensions. Instead, he made things worse. It is true that Mr. Obama was despised by a few right-wing racists, but most criticisms of his policies were assumed by his supporters to be race-based. President Joe Biden ran on a platform of unity, yet he has fanned the flames of partisanship; an example – when in Georgia he referred to Republicans as similar to Jefferson Davis, George Wallace and Bull Connor, ironically all Democrats. Political hatefulness has deepened because of social media and cable TV.

I do not presume to know all reasons why we have become so angry. But I suspect three culprits play a role: wokeism, identity politics, and a breakdown of traditional ethical norms. Wokeism is a creed that uses Jacobin tactics to foster economic chaos and property destruction, as it obsesses about climate, race, class and gender. Climate evangelists call opponents deniers – those who suggest adaption and see natural forces as an important cause of climate change. Then we have transgender women allowed to compete in women’s college sports. Wokeism in the classroom and the boardroom has replaced meritocracy with equity, in the belief it will produce equality of outcomes. In their unbridled zeal, these acolytes of wokeism, with their self-righteousness and absence of common sense, remind one of Dickens’ Mrs. Jellyby. 

 

As for identity politics, for years politicians compartmentalized the electorate into addressable groups. Old people care about health and security. Young parents care about schools. Farmers care about vicissitudes of the weather. Coal miners care about loss of jobs, while environmentalists worry about climate change. Immigrants (legal ones) care about citizenship, while Americans who live along borders care about illegal crossings. The wealthy care about tax rates, while the needy care about assistance. Now, promotion of gender and racial politics have aggravated differences. Affirmative action was used to address years of discrimination, and which, while necessary fifty years ago, has had the consequence of again, segregating people by race. Once divided, these groups became difficult to stitch back together.

 

Perhaps it is unsurprising that in a multicultural country, traditional ethical behavior is seen as “too white,” too reflective of western values. Yet it has been those values, along with rule of law, protection of private property and guarantees of free expression, that attracted immigrants to this country. But is the U.S. still that country? Civics and civil behavior are no longer taught. Church attendance has been in decline. since the early 1960s. Family formations have been in decline for forty years. The average age of Americans in 1960 was 29.5. In 2000, it was 35.3 and today it is 38.3. To help fill diminishing state treasury coffers, states like “blue” Connecticut promote gaming, the lottery, and on-line and sports betting, while dismissing the attendant increase in gambling addiction and the regressive nature of such funding. People become disillusioned when sold false promises of riches. An aging and shrinking population hampers economic growth, which leads to impatience that gives birth to stress. 

 

Barring a war or national emergency, unity is difficult in any country. But it is especially so in a multi-racial nation of assorted ethnicities. The government’s handling of COVID created dissension. One would have thought that a Chinese-originated infectious disease – whether from a wet market or a lab – would have unified the U.S. (and the world) against China. Instead, the disease was politicized. Inter-governmental agencies with financial ties to China have impeded investigations as to the pandemic’s origins. “Follow the science” became the mantra, even as the science was changing. Special powers were granted governors. “You are with us or against us” are the words of a tyrant. There was no middle way, no room for debate.

 

One thing that could help restore a sense of unity would be a political leader with the self-deprecating humor of a Lincoln, Coolidge or Reagan. Lincoln, when accused of being two-faced: “If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?” Coolidge, when asked what it felt like to be President: “Well, you got to be mighty careful.” Reagan, when in debate with Mondale and the subject of age arose: “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” None of these quips were nasty or injurious. Non-aggressive humor, unlike today’s political cartoons and late-night TV, has a bonding effect. Such humor is missing in today’s partisan swamp.

 

Differences are important in a democracy and debate is critical to understanding. But so is civility. We will never (nor should we) agree on everything. Compromise is not a four-letter word. There is unnecessary nastiness in Democrats claiming that a Republican win in the midterms will put democracy at risk, as Nancy Pelosi declared in her re-election announcement. Keep in mind, it was the Democratic Party that issued mandates, canceled speakers, censored speech, enforced segregation – now against Asians and whites – and jailed without habeas corpus many of those who invaded the Capitol last January 6.  This is not a call for blind patriotic devotion, but neither is it to agree with Samuel Johnson declaration: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” It is to acknowledge that just as evil exists, so does goodness, in people and in nations. It is to argue that the United States, despite obvious historical and current warts, has been a force for good in this world, more so than any other nation – deserving of pride. And it has been so because it has always put first the freedom of the individual, while combining, as the late conservative political philosopher Roger Scruton noted, a suspicion of government with the acknowledgement of its necessity.

 

Without a reduction in political animosity, how will the U.S. address the real problems we confront: China’s and Russia’s aggression; nuclear weapons in rogue states; the failure of our K-12 public schools? Balancing the budget. Problems at home and in the world are real. Hatefulness will not solve them.

Essay from Essex - "Ancestry"

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Essay from Essex

“Ancestry”

January 23, 2022

 

“Everything, from when and where we are born to when and how we die,

is out of our hands. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

                                                                                                                                J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

                                                                                                                                The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954

 

The pandemic prompted an interest in genealogy, made easier because of the internet and with companies like Ancestry.com, 23andMe.com and MyHeritage.com. This interest was not so much about deifying one’s ancestors, as was common in preliterate societies, it was more about learning of inherited diseases. Nevertheless, those companies saw their businesses double over the past two years, and Ancestry.com, a billion-dollar revenue company, was sold to Blackstone for $4.7 billion in December 2020.

 

Curiosity about one’s ancestors also played a role. We inherit traits from those who came before us, and gene and DNA technology have made tracing one’s ancestors easier. As well, I have long been fascinated by the math of evolution. Everyone descends from two people. Assuming three generations per hundred years, looking back a thousand years to the Norman invasion of England, a child born today would descend from 536,870,912 twenty-seven great grandparents. With the population of the world in 1066 estimated to be about 340,000,000 how would that be possible? The only answer is that we have common ancestors. My parents, for example, were fifth cousins, both descended from William Greenleaf (1725-1803) and Mary Brown Greenleaf (1728-1807). For most of human history populations lived in low-density rural areas. In 1790, 90% of Americans lived and worked on farms. Spouses were generally neighbors and likely to be 2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th cousins. It was 1920, three hundred years after the first Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, before more Americans lived in cities than in the country, a consequence of the Industrial Revolution and a surge in immigrants during the last half of the 19^th Century and the first couple of decades in the 20^th.

 

Nevertheless, with so many preceding us, we each carry the genes of some fascinating forebearers, who should be judged by the moral standards of their time, or else we would disown many of them. At the time of the Civil War, roughly 10% of the U.S. population was comprised of slaves – about 3.1 million. Slavery was not novel to the U.S. While inhuman, it had been ubiquitous throughout most of human history. It appears in the Bible and in the Code of Hammurabi. It was pervasive in classical Greece and in republican and imperial Rome. It persisted in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia and still exists in parts of the world. Helen Keller, in The Story of My Life, perhaps quoting Plato or Socrates, wrote: “There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”

 

At the time of the Civil War, almost all slaves in the United States lived in the south. Seventy-five percent of southerners owned no slaves, while 1,733 families owned more than a hundred each. Among those families were one set of my eight two-greats grandparents in rural Tennessee, about 30 miles north of Nashville. In 1860, according to the Tennessee Encyclopedia, the farm contained about 13,000 acres, had 274 slaves. It was the largest grower of dark fire-cured tobacco in the U. S.

 

While some of the letters and papers stayed with the family, most of the original documents from Wessyngton, as the farm was called, were donated to the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville. The best history of the place was written by a descendant of some of those slaves, John F. Baker, Jr. of Springfield, Tennessee in 2009: The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation. In this book, which Kirkus Reviews calls “an enriching, deeply personal history,” he traces his ancestry. One set of Mr. Baker’s two-greats grandparents, Emanuel and Hennie Washington, had been born into slavery at Wessyngton. An 1891 photograph of them, with their two sons, adorns the cover of his book. A copy of the same photograph hangs in our apartment in Essex, Connecticut. Wessyngton was founded by a three-greats grandfather, Joseph Washington in 1796, the year Tennessee became a state. With John Baker and Stanley Rose (a third cousin) as the impetus, a Wessyngton Memorial Monument was dedicated in October 2015 listing the names of over 200 slaves known to have been buried there. As a youngster, I visited Wessyngton when two of my maternal grandmother’s siblings lived on the farm. In the early 1980s, our oldest son spent two summers working in the tobacco fields.

 

Another story that I used to hear told was of Richard the “Indian Killer.” Richard Hunnewell, born about 1645 in Devonshire, England and migrated to Scarborough, Maine (then part of Massachusetts colony). His wife and one child were killed in an Indian raid, and he was killed by Indians at Massacre Pond in 1703. However, there were several Richard Hunnewells and records are confusing. The Richard from whom I believe I descend lived a more prosaic life, as a mason and bricklayer in Charlestown, Massachusetts. 

 

There are other nuggets tucked into the recesses of my ancestry, as there are with everyone. Asa Messer (1769-1836) was a three-greats grandfather on my father’s side. In 1804 he became president of Brown University, the same year the college took its present name. He served until 1826, when his belief in Unitarianism created concern from some of the Congregational trustees. My middle name comes from him. A four-greats grandfather on my mother’s side was Noah Webster (1758-1843) of dictionary fame. A great-grandfather, Joseph Edwin Washington (1851-1915), spent ten years as a Democrat Congressman from Tennessee. Edward Augustus Silsbee (1826-1900) was a great uncle of my paternal grandmother. He was a bachelor sea captain who became fascinated with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and was the inspiration for Henry James’ novelette, The Aspern Papers. Our second son was named for him. Gideon Welles (1802-1878), nicknamed “Father Neptune” and Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War, was one of my great great-grandmother’s (Isabelle Welles Hunnewell – 1812-1888) second or third cousins. A framed photograph depicts my maternal grandmother with her godfather, Fitzhugh Lee (1835-1905), no relation but a nephew of Robert E. Lee. Through the Webster side of my family, we trace our ancestry to William Bradford of the Mayflower. However, if you think that is bragging, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants estimates there are 35 million living descendants of those 100 or so people who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts on November 11, 1620.  

 

Stories of ancestors provide entertainment, and they make history more interesting, as we associate historic events with those from whom we descend. They help us realize how far we have come. Have you wondered what kind of a life your great grandmother lived, or what made your ancestors leave their home country to come to an unknown new world? We all have interesting forebearers among the hundreds of thousands from whom we descend. Among them are likely kings and slaves, as well as ruffians and preachers. We cannot change them or the times in which we lived. But we should know something of them.

 

It is Gandalf’s advice, quoted in the rubric that heads this essay, that I find inspirational. There are aspects of our selves we cannot change – the color of our eyes, our height or gender. But we were all given life, which is a miracle when one considers the odds against being born. It is how we conduct ourselves and what we do with the life given us that should be our focus. Two hundred years from now some descendant might query about his or her ancestors. No descendant of mine will remember me for my accomplishments. I will have no Wikipedia page. But I hope to be remembered for having lived honorably. 

"Trust"

 Watching Biden’s press conference on Wednesday afternoon, I felt sorry for the man, anger at those responsible for him and embarrassed for our country. Perhaps it is my age, and apologies to all millennials, but, with few exceptions, most of the reporters struck me as children.

 

Fortunately, we are a large and diverse nation, with a deep bench of competent people, so I believe we will get through this period. But, like Job, we are being tried.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Trust”

January 21, 2022

 

“Trust dies, but mistrust blossoms.”

                                                                                                                Attributed to Sophocles (c. 496BC – 406BC)

 

Like all species (or, at least, those of which I am aware), man is born with an innate trust for the female who gave him birth. We would not survive, without the care and feeding by she who gave us life. As we age, caution grows. As Sophocles said, “mistrust blossoms.” Nature has instilled in most animals a sense of wariness of danger, be it predators, fire or some other peril. This allows the rabbit to avoid the coyote, the mole to avoid the fox, or the deer to run from man. We have the same instincts. It is why the hair on the back of our neck stands up when unseen hazards lurk, or why we become suspicious when someone says, “trust me.”

 

Trust is akin to a sixth sense, like echolocation that allows bats to fly in the dark. It is defined as a belief in the reliability of someone or something, be it a spouse or an automobile. It reflects both emotion and reasoning, as in the faithfulness of a relationship, or the trust we have for an old car. Trust in the business world, according to a December 2021 article in The Atlantic, is about two things: competence and character. Once lost, it is hard to re-build. The article suggests three steps to help recover lost trust: the use of humor, sharing one’s vulnerabilities and promoting transparency – lessons for those who govern us.  

 

A September 2021 Gallup Poll found trust in government near record lows. It mimicked a Pew Research Center survey published last May. The Pew poll saw trust in government at 24% as of April 2021. That could be compared to trust in government at 68% during the height of the anti-War movement in 1968. The Gallup poll showed that a lack of trust in government extends to all branches; it is lowest in the legislative branch and highest in local governments. In the Gallup poll, a mere 7% of respondents had a great deal of trust in the media. As recently as September 2018, that number stood at 14%. Distrust in government and the media may manifest wisdom on the part of the people, but it reflects poorly on those judged. 

 

It is ironic that in the mid 1960s, amid Civil Rights and the early stages of the anti-war movement, left-wing rioters protested a government more trusted than today’s. Then, the establishment was the enemy. Today, those weed-smoking, long-haired, unwashed hippies of the ‘60s have become the establishment – in academia and Washington. They still profess to be of the left yet are now elites who champion conformity and dependence and have become censors of what they dislike. Can we trust them to select and train the best future leaders of this country based on an equitable distribution of race, ethnicity and gender? What does it mean for the United States if they ignore traits that built this nation, like character and merit?

 

Trust among individuals is pervasive or should be. Love of a spouse is based on trust. We learn to trust that our children have learned and adopted the values we taught them. We trust that our computers will start when turned on, that the mailman will deliver our Christmas cards and that the supermarket will stock the milk we want. When approaching an intersection, with the green light in our favor, we trust that unseen traffic coming at right angles will obey the red light they face. But trust without skepticism, leavened with common sense, permits scammers, con-artists and swindlers to work their magic. In his 1991 horror novel Needful Things, Stephen King wrote: “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” But his next three sentences – all questions – put his observation into better perspective: “So, is it wrong to love from the bottom of one’s heart? Is trust now forbidden because cheats and liars are on the prowl? What if we were all too wise to trust anymore?” Good questions not easily answered.

 

Trust can be good or bad, depending on the situation. In dealing with the Soviets in the mid 1980s, President Reagan borrowed an old, commonsensical Russian expression, doveral, no proveral, “trust, but verify.” On March 3^rd, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that allowed James Pollack, Director of the U.S. Mint (who apparently did not trust mortals for the health of the U.S. currency), to place the words “In God We Trust” on all gold and silver coins. Given our current crop of politicians and bureaucrats, it was a sensible decision. 

 

Trust must be earned, whether one is speaking of individuals or institutions. We cannot live civilized lives without trust, but neither can we exist as naïfs. In Ideas and Opinions, his 1954 collection of essays and letters, Albert Einstein wrote: “Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust, and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.” But those institutions, too, only function when they radiate trust. Trust is critical to happiness, yet it must be accompanied with agnosticism. A combat soldier is naturally anxious of the enemy and the unknown, but he must trust his comrades, his instincts and his weapon. The United States has survived as a democratic republic because the people have had trust in its institutions and for the individuals that work within them. However, when a political party chooses to rule, not govern, trust is lost. In 1775, it was distrust of the British government that allowed revolutionaries to sow seeds of independence, fight for liberty and let freedom flower. Trust is critical to our survival, but so are caution, common sense and wisdom.

"Imperialism in the East"

 Martin Luther King’s emphasis on character over race is a lesson for us all, as we in the United States and in these discordant times, celebrate his birth today. Unlike our color, height or biological sex that are determined genetically, character is a quality for which we bear responsibility, and something on which we can all work.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Imperialism in the East”

January 17, 2022

 

“…the American left should focus on where empire

as an ideal truly endures, which isn’t in the West.”

                                                                                                              Robert D. Kaplan (1952-)

                                                                                                              American author and political commentator

                                                                                                              The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2022

 

President Biden’s two immediate predecessors fractured the nation with divisive talk. In his campaign, Mr. Biden promised unification. Instead, he has increased dissension, focusing on identity politics, federalizing voting laws and diminishing the role of the traditional family, all the while calling his political opponents misogynists, racists, xenophobes, bigots and domestic terrorists who want to destroy democracy. Such intemperate language does little to bridge legitimate differences between Democrats and Republicans – progressives and conservatives. He has wasted political capital, personally denigrating those with whom he disagrees, which has meant less time on issues that affect all Americans, regardless of Party – from the economy, inflation, education and illegal immigration at home to the consequences for the United States as to what is happening in the Middle East, Central Asia, China and Russia.

 

The calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan sent a message to its allies that the United States’ commitment means little, and to its enemies that America need not be feared. The Abraham Accords, one of the Trump Administration’s finest achievements, has been stalled by the anti-Israel stand of the Biden Administration, and by a desire to reinstitute the Iranian nuclear deal. While Western imperialism of an earlier time is, perhaps justifiably, denigrated, its reincarnation in the East – in China and Russia – is ignored by the same pundits who criticize the West. Recent riots in Kazakhstan and the plight of the Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang Province are examples of unrest that are being dealt with harshly by Russia and China, while the West turns a blind eye.

 

Under both land-based and sea-based Belt and Road initiatives (BRI), Chinese banks and companies fund and build roads, power plants, ports, railways, 5-G networks, and fiber-optic cables around the world. According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), as of last March 139 countries from five continents have joined BRI. Not all members host projects, but all endorse BRI as a concept and “pledge to cooperate with China to promote the initiative.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has lauded China’s BRI for having “sustainable development as the overarching objective,” and pledged that “the United Nations stands ready to travel this road with you.” China’s Belt and Road initiative began, shortly after Xi Jinping assumed the Chinese Presidency in 2013. The absorption of Hong Kong and China’s threat to Taiwan have shown what they can (and will) do to free markets and political freedom. In increasing the dependency of member states on China, BRI is reminiscent Ivar Kreuger’s early Twentieth Century scheme to create monopolies in myriad countries for his match businesses, by lending the countries money. Kreuger’s business collapsed in bankruptcy in 1932. China has an anti-democratic, authoritarian government that competes for the hearts and minds of people around the world, with their supposed economic success. It risks impoverishing its Belt and Road members by indebting them.

 

The threat in Ukraine appears more imminent. Over 100,000 Russian troops have gathered on Ukraine’s eastern border and have been joined by tanks and other weapons from Russia’s east. “Mr. Putin,” wrote Kathryn Stoner, author of Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order, in Saturday’s The Wall Street Journal, “has a history of using foreign policy to improve his domestic standing when he has felt his status slipping.” COVID-19 and the economy have caused his poll numbers to slip. They are now at their lowest level in ten years. Last September’s national election saw proceedings so corrupt that even the Communist Party – the “loyal opposition” – cried foul. In December, a Russian court closed the Memorial Human Rights Center, originally established to document Stalin’s crimes against humanity. In 2014, with his poll number slipping, Putin invaded Crimea, and then saw his approval numbers jump from around 60% to 90%. Since, they have slipped. Vladimir Putin justifies his imperialistic tendencies by claiming concern for the security of his homeland. It is true that the Baltic states, which had been part of the Soviet Union after World War II and at least six former Warsaw Pact countries have joined NATO. However, the only threat Ukraine poses to Russia is the pitting of democracy against authoritarianism. Putin’s interest in Ukraine is personal. As Ms. Stoner wrote: “What does any autocrat truly fear? Being strung up by his own people from a lamp post.” 

 

What we are seeing is what Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal termed the “Great Power competition.” The question: What will the West, led by the United States and Europe, do to deter this trend? The prognosis does not instill hope. Wokeness and identity politics dominate both cultures. Europe’s focus on social welfare has meant that it spends little on defense. Led by Germany, the Continent has become dependent on Russian energy. At the same time, the United States has given up its oil independence and has been embroiled in battles of self-hatred, focusing on what is wrong with our lifestyles and government, rather than what is right. The West is smug, fat and complacent. Europe’s lack of defense and now buying oil and gas from Russia, and with Mr. Biden disparaging his political opponents as enemies of democracy, the West risks the world becoming more authoritarian.

"It Can Happen Here, But Not for the Reasons You Might Think"

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“It Can Happen Here, But Not for the Reasons You Might Think”

January 13. 2022

 

“History balances the frustration of ‘how far we have to go,’ with the satisfaction

of ‘how far we have to come.’ It teaches us tolerance for the human shortcomings

and imperfections, which are not uniquely of our generation, but of all time.”

                                                                                                                Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (1907-1998)

                                                                                                               Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1971-1987

 

In 1935, while Nazism and Fascism swept across Europe, Sinclair Lewis published a novel, “It Can’t Happen Here.” The story was based on Huey Long, then governor of Louisiana. It tells the story of how “Buzz” Windrip, running on a populist platform and portraying himself as a champion of traditional values, defeats FDR at the Democratic convention and then goes on to win the 1936 election for President. He soon takes complete control of government and, with a paramilitary force, like that of Hitler’s and Mussolini’s, he imposes totalitarian rule.

 

Is Lewis’ story a lesson for today? Despite accusations from Democrats, I suspect the threat to democracy is more likely to emerge from left field. As Gerard Baker put it in Tuesday’s The Wall Street Journal, regarding Democrats’ desire to preserve political power as we head toward the mid-terms: “…the identification of the domestic opposition as a seditious enemy may be their last, best hope of salvaging something.” After a failed start to his Presidency, it is all Mr. Biden has left.

 

There is a natural tendency to look to the past as a guide for dealing with today and tomorrow. Professor George Santayana (1863-1952), in his 1905 book Reason in Common Sense, warned: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Wise advice, but perspective is also needed. Politics is a competitive sport, appealing to many who make it their life’s work. Power, prestige and money are on the line. It was unsurprising when outsider Donald Trump, acting as a populist and portraying himself as a patriot and champion of middle-American values, was deemed a threat to democracy. He was narcissistic and loose with facts, and he fed off the resentment of many middle-Americans toward coastal elitists who dominate Washington’s bureaucracies, especially its intelligence agencies, run universities, manage media and entertainment companies, professional sports, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. But was Trump a threat to our democratic system? I think not. Too many forces were assembled against him.

 

While history teaches us what did happen, it is not a fool-proof forecaster of what is to come. Evil does not always appear in the same guise or enter through the same gate. Threats to democracy can come from other directions. An (unintended?) consequence of today’s schools and colleges emphasis on pedagogy, rather than creating a foundation for students based on the classics, civics, literature and history, is that teachers, professors and administrators have actively censored conservative thought, while they have instilled left-wing propaganda. Democracy is best defended when schools and universities encourage open debate, sprinkled with skepticism while encouraging individual thought. “Blind belief in authority,” wrote Albert Einstein in a 1901 letter, “is the greatest enemy of truth.”

 

Ours is the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. We have lasted because diversity of opinions had been allowed in our schools, colleges and legislative bodies. We remained strong because of the founders’ emphasis on debate and restraint, rather than on mandates and self-indulgence. We became wealthy because free markets rewarded merit, rather than connections. Today, with conformity in and disagreements out, opinions that do not hew to a prescribed agenda are denied. Merit has been replaced with quotas. The use of Executive Orders has surged, with the pandemic as justification, and some Democrats want to kill the filibuster, do away with the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court and they question the Constitutional requirement that all states, regardless of size, have an equal number of U.S. Senators. In the lexicon of the woke, diversity is defined as race, ethnicity and gender. Equity refers to equivalence in outcomes, not opportunities, and inclusion means racial and gender balance. 

 

Democrat leadership have been telling us that the Republican Party has become radicalized against democracy, yet the ramparts are well-manned against right-wing uprisings – by our Constitution, the military and mainstream media. Instead, real risks to democracy are more subtle. They stem from the growth of the administrative state, where Congress has delegated legislative powers to agencies populated with unelected bureaucrats. Risks are fueled by social media platforms that cancel the accounts of those they dislike and result from military officers who, against convention and rules, side with political parties. Risks come from open borders that let in those who come not for opportunity, but for the freebies the U.S. offers. Risks to democracy come from the erosion of individual rights and from the tribal desire to segregate people by race and gender, and from a growing dependency on the state. It is this doctrinal, religious-like allegiance to woke beliefs that threatens our democracy. And mainstream media is silent.

 

Democracy assumes a belief in the collective wisdom of the people, that they are capable of self-government. The United States has the most diverse population, in terms of race and ethnicities, of any country on Earth, with between 350 and 420 languages spoken. Yet, the country has been a melting pot, as millions of immigrants from myriad backgrounds who came her, learned English, assimilated, intermarried and became Americanized. They emigrated to the U.S. because of the freedom and opportunity to better themselves, not to be compartmentalized by racial, ethnic or sexual identity. While they had pride in their heritages, it was their desire to become proud citizens of the most successful country the world has ever seen that made the United States what it is. This we must preserve if we want to save our democracy. Democracy is not meant to be efficient; it is meant to be fair, to offer opportunity to those willing to make the effort and to reward merit. It is a system where character is more important than race. 

 

President Reagan used to warn about the fragility of democracy – of how it could be lost in a generation. And that remains possible, but I believe our democracy is resilient. It has withstood difficult challenges over the course of its first 233 years – from tax rebellions in its early years, to a Civil War, bank runs, two World Wars, the Depression and an attack on its homeland by Muslim Extremists. But that does not mean we can rest on our laurels. Given the woke orthodoxy of Progressives, we must be vigilant. The foundation of our democracy is a universal liberal public-school education that is open to competition and to all opinions. Democracy demands the freedom and self-reliance of the individual, along with the acknowledgement of his God-given rights – it is a system we should cherish, must never forget and certainly not lose.

"Freedom is not Easy"

 Today, Democrats will be out in force reminding us of the disgraceful events of a year ago. Ironically, Trump has become Democrats’ biggest asset, just as he has become Republicans’ biggest liability, as we head toward November’s mid-term elections. Democrats will claim he represents the Republican Party. It will be a message their allies in mainstream media will deliver with persistence and glee. It will be the main item in their playbook, to help retain the House and the Senate. But, as can be seen by Senator Schumer’s attempt to do away with the filibuster, it will have nothing to do with democracy.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Freedom is Not Easy”

January 6, 2022

 

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little

temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

                                                                                                              Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

                                                                                                              Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1791

 

Many believe democracy is threatened. Those on the left cite the narcissistic and dreaded Donald Trump as the instigator of the January 6 protest that devolved into a disgraceful, though unarmed, attack on the Capitol. Those on the right, like me, bring up cancelled conservative speakers on college campuses, property-destroying riots and rising murder rates in cities across the nation, lockdowns and mandates relative to COVID, and a “wokeness,” which redacts speech, expurgates books, and removes art that is not grounded in race-and-gender consciousness. But perhaps both sides are mistaken? Perhaps democracy is stronger than we believe? Perhaps it can withstand these assaults? But both sides owe the public apologies.

 

The one-year anniversary of the January 6 riot has filled the media with reports on the “insurrection” that failed. Of course, it did. The protesters were unorganized and unarmed. They had no acknowledged leader on their march to the Capitol. In fact, members of ANTIFA accompanied the Trump supporters. The Capitol police, oddly, were unprepared, even though the march was widely publicized. The protesters did not have the military behind them, nor did they have media support. One person was shot, and that was a female, a veteran, who was shot by an unnamed member of the Capitol police. In fact, the cynic in me whispers that the episode has been welcomed by progressives, as it manifested proof (in their minds) of their claimed autocracy of Donald Trump and his supporters.

 

This is not to support the rioters, but criticism should always be placed in perspective. Nevertheless, the cause of the riot was the refusal by Mr. Trump to accept the results of the 2020 election. The fact that Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton, refused to accept the results of the 2016 election – and, in fact, initiated a four-year investigation of an alleged (and false) collusion between Mr. Trump and Russia – did not justify the January 6 protest. Democracy is fragile and rests on a foundation of custom, continuity and good will. Country before party should always be the message, and compromise should always be the method. It was what allowed President Reagan and Speaker Tip O’Neill to pass legislation in the 1980s, and it is what allowed Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich to do the same in the 1990s. 

 

Republicans, to be successful, must rise above the mendacity of current day politics, (as should Democrats, but for that I will let someone else speak). I believe Republicans can succeed, and Mr. Trump could play a role, if he chooses. He must, however, endorse conservative beliefs: support for the Constitution, individual liberty, separation of powers, limited government, rule of law, fiscal responsibility, free markets, strong defense, legal immigration through secure borders, an enduring moral code, human dignity, and constraint, both in government and in individual behavior. If Mr. Trump cannot envision playing within those confines, he should pass the baton to a new generation, which, given both his age and his character, I hope he does. He should rest on his accomplishments as President: an economy that brought minority employment to levels never before seen, energy independence, vaccines developed at “warp speed” and the Abraham Accords, which have given the Middle East its best chance for peace in generations.

 

Freedom is not easy; it requires responsibility and accountability. It means some succeed and others fail. It requires a recognition that while we are all equal in our rights as citizens and before the law, we are not all equal in ability or perseverance; so, while opportunities for success should be equal, outcomes will never be. Political success in a free society requires the spirit of compromise – that the tug-of-war between permanence and change must be reconciled through debate and cooperation.

 

Yet, in this winter of our discontent, we have reason for hope – the possibility for a spring of more optimistic days. People are exhausted by political extremism and by unending mandates regarding a disease that is becoming endemic. They are worn out by sanctimonious politicians pontificating to small but noisy segments of their constituencies. They are tired of the negativism expressed by those who condemn our history, tear down our statues and insult our character. They are fed up with academic deans who refuse to allow contrary opinions to be expressed on their campuses, and by teachers’ unions who put students last. They are drained by those who predict dire consequences for our planet if we don’t buy electric vehicles. They are annoyed by those who tell us that gender is a choice, not a biological determinant. And they are wearied by not being able to speak freely, to laugh, to enjoy life, away from the wokeness of today’s illiberal, bullying progressives.

 

The spirit of independence, which takes commitment and builds character, runs freely through the American people. We see it every day, in Americans across this land. But there will always be those who want to wrest it from us. When people in other places lose their freedom, it is to America they turn. Should we lose our liberty, whether from the right or the left, to whom would we turn? Where would we go? Freedom is hard work; it is worth preserving.

"Knowledge versus Wisdom"

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Knowledge versus Wisdom”

January 1, 2022

 

“The endless cycle of idea and action,

Endless invention, endless experiment.

………………………..

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

                                                                                                                                T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

                                                                                                                                Choruses from “The Rock,” 1934

 

Eliot’s concern, during the dark days of 1930s Depression, was the loss of religious faith. While faith is still missing from many of our lives in these temporal times, the more pressing concern is the lack of wisdom amidst so much knowledge. Our leaders, not only in politics but in business, the media, schools, colleges, Hollywood, Wall Street and professional sports, are steeped in the knowledge that specific jobs require, but there is a paucity of wisdom. This concern is not new. The Book of Proverbs, written around 700 BC, addresses the issue in chapter 4, verse 7: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”

 

Earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Modern homo sapiens arrived about 160,000 years ago, and recorded history dates back 5000 years. Do we ever consider the shortness of our own lives within this continuum of life? The physical conveniences we take for granted – communication, transportation, flush toilets, medicine, heating and cooling, photography, recreational pursuits – date back only a little over 200 years. My three-greats grandparents lived lives more recognizable to those who lived a thousand years previously than to us today. We live in what is called “The Information Age,” an historical period that followed the industrial age, beginning in mid-20^th Century. It is characterized by an epochal shift from an economy based on mining and manufacturing to one based on information technology and genetic modification. Unsurprisingly, growth in technologies have exceeded our ability to adapt. We have gained knowledge, but do we understand and appreciate its consequences? 

 

As more time has been spent acquiring knowledge, we have become less wise. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) created the Knowledge Doubling Curve, which showed that until 1900 the amount of information extant doubled every century. By the end of World War II, information was doubling every twenty-five years. Today, data is estimated to be doubling every year, and IBM reckons the “internet of things” will lead to a doubling of knowledge every twelve hours.  Yet, the wisdom of the ancients is unchanged and is as relevant today as when the words were uttered: Tacitus, “The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise;” Confucius, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail;” Marcus Aurelius, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” Sadly, the classics, which are filled with wisdom – from the Bible to the Greek poets, from Roman philosophers to Shakespeare, from Aesop to J.R.R. Tolkien – are no longer required reading in schools and universities. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses have replaced them. The latter are, of course, crucial disciplines in today’s competitive, technological world, but when they are not accompanied by classics the ability to place all that knowledge in perspective is lost. 

 

Wisdom, it is said, is gained through experience. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote: “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day.” As well, it can be learned by listening to wise people and through reading books that have stood the test of time. Before the advent of movies and television, authors, like Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, Thomas Mann, Leo Tolstoy and Miguel de Cervantes, wrote wisely of eternal truths, of people and their relationships, where the characters would not be lessened or enhanced by a vision on a screen. Wisdom can be found within their pages. 

 

Open debate, individualism and independence are necessary for wisdom. Censorship, conformity and dependence are detrimental. Is it wisdom that says we should abhor our past, bequeath to our heirs $30 trillion in national debt and allow urban murder rates to skyrocket? Which policy reflects wisdom in government: assimilation or identity politics? Is it wise for citizens of a nation, built on principles of individual liberty, rule of law, merit and hard work, to abandon those principles in favor of policies that mandate equal outcomes regardless of ability or effort? Institutions are not wise. It is the individuals who comprise them that make them so…or not so. According to England’s Royal Society, as of last August 210,183 reports related to COVID-19 had been published. But did individual government and educational recipients of that information make wise decisions regarding the pandemic? A government that tries to protect its citizen from all risk will lose the independence of its people – of their ability to think freely and to act wisely. Churches, when they are not being used to advance a favored political cause, like gender identification or man-caused climate change, are places where wisdom can be acquired. The Old Testament and the New Testament are filled with moral stories, each containing lessons – from the Garden of Eden to Exodus, from the Gospel of Matthew to Revelations. Borrowing from an 1896 campaign speech by William Jennings Bryan, do not sacrifice wisdom om a cross of knowledge.

 

As we begin this new year, we should take time to consider the need for wisdom in a politically correct, information-filled world; we should not lose our way in a sea of knowledge. A wise Henry Kaufman, when director of research at Salomon Brothers in the mid 1980s, once said he preferred to see his analysts leaning back, thinking, rather than staring at and absorbing data from a computer screen. Like Kaufman’s favored analysts, we should spend part of each day in contemplation. The Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who lived five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, once wrote: “Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in few.” It is a lesson by which I will try to abide in 2022.

 

I wish you a happy and healthy 2022!