Three Stories-December 2024

 

There were three seemingly unrelated stories in the news this week. A Miami Dolphin player was carried off the field on a stretcher, a NY Times article of a clinic outside Tijuana Mexico, and a school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. The common thread is the brain. Yes, that 2.6 to 3.1-pound organ that uses its 86 billion neurons to allow us to function as human beings.

While we normally value our brains, we seem willing to risk damage for financial or other rewards. In last Sunday’s game between the Dolphins and the Texans in Houston, a Dolphin player suffered a helmet-to-helmet collision with another player and had to be treated on the field for 12 minutes while the TV stations filled the time with commercials. The Miami Dolphins are no stranger to brain damage as their star quarterback has suffered several concussions and has missed part of the season.

In the NY Times article, there was the story of a van filled with U.S. Special Operations veterans crossing the Mexican border to receive treatment. They were seeking relief from the physical and emotional scarring they suffered as a result of their post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury symptoms. The treatment they sought is not available in the U.S. That treatment involves the unlikely use of a psychedelic extract from a West African shrub known as ibogaine which is followed by smoking the poison from a Sonoran desert toad.

As unlikely as it may seem, the treatment appears to work. A Stanford University follow-up of 30 veterans who were so treated, found a 90% improvement in their PTSD symptoms and depression and also noticed improvements in their cognitive performance and their ability to learn and remember.

There is not much to say about the Wisconsin school shooting as it is just another normal day in America. To quote President Biden, "From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison, to so many other shootings that don't receive attention — it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence." We only know that the shooter this time was a 15-year-old girl. One might reasonably assume she was suffering some emotional upset that triggered her deadly outburst. Decades of “thoughts and prayers” have failed us once again. Go figure.

On the playing field, those in peril are paid large sums of money to risk their most important organ for our viewing pleasure. On the battlefields and training fields, our soldiers are subjected to repeated brain injuries from the countless large artillery explosions and from rapid-fire smaller weaponry for little reward. For the thousands of soldiers who have to trek to Mexico for treatment for the damage they received fighting our government-directed battles, we should be ashamed. For the 50 million U.S. school children who must prepare to shelter and cower in place hoping to be saved from perhaps one of their own who “went over the edge” and also had access to a firearm, we too should be ashamed.

For those of us with still functioning brains, it should be clear that these are all problems that can be addressed. Perhaps some of our politicians should visit that clinic in Mexico. Who knows what benefits might be found in a little African tree bark and from smoking “some toad.” One Green Beret was quoted as saying that he saw tiny hummingbird elves that healed his body while the spirit of his grandmother flowed into his soul. The next day he said he had just slept well for the first time in years.

To quote the 1972 campaign slogan used by the United Negro College Fund, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Perhaps we should value this precious human commodity more highly. The problem may lie in the fact that those who might be able to take some action to “make America better,” don’t yet have the right financial incentive.

The Return Address

Through the marvels of modern science, advanced DNA reanimation, and the engineers of Industrial Light and Magic, the remains of Abraham Lincon have been brought back to life, albeit only for a day.  He has received a transdermal infusion of all knowledge of our intervening history and current events.  He has chosen to speak to our nation through this, his Return Address.

I give you our 16th president of the United States, Mr. President.

Abraham Lincoln 2024

“Twelve score and eight years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great war of unrest, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. You are met on the social media platforms of that war.  You have done battle on the steps of our nation’s capital in an attempt to overthrow our elected government.  You now have re-elected the president who was responsible for that insurrection and he will free the perpetrators of that heinous crime.  This president comes to dishonor those who gave their lives that this nation might live. It is neither fitting nor proper that he should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not accept—we can not condone—we can not allow—this one man to destroy our democracy. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled before us, would want us to legally resist his efforts to remake our democracy in his own image. The world will little note, nor long remember what I say here, but it can never forget what HE did here. 

Who am I kidding?  You guys really shit the bed on this one.  You really screwed the pooch.  What were you thinking?  I mean the guy is an open book.  He flaunts his incompetence and corruption and that’s seen as a desirable change?  Hell, I was sick and had the early stages of smallpox when I gave my speech at Gettysburg.  You were able to eradicate smallpox with a vaccine and now you want your president to appoint a vaccine skeptic who thinks vaccines cause autism to head your health services?

Speaking of heads, the hole in mine is beginning to hurt and I think it is time I return to my almost-eternal slumber.  Please don’t wake me up again until you have fixed this nonsense.  Pay attention to your history.  Your last Civil War didn’t end well and where you are headed won’t get you what you want.  Learn from the past.

It is for you the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which your predecessors fought for and so nobly advanced. It is rather for you to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before you——that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”

Dystopian Future

 Wealth and power don’t thrive in a vacuum. A king without subjects is just another guy. The wealthy need some form of measure, or their financial status is meaningless. Both wealth and power are just abstract terms without a way to compare their relative strengths against others. The wealthy may spend much of their time comparing their baubles and discussing their wealth with others who might be impressed. It seems to bring them pleasure.

Morlock with an Eloi

The poor may also aspire to symbols of advanced status. While I don’t intentionally listen to rap music and much of it is, to my ear, incoherent, some of it has crept into movie soundtracks where closed captioning has recorded the words. I see aspirations to bling, flash, stacks of money, drinking “Dom” in the clubs, etc. To quote one rapper, “Having money isn't everything, not having it is”- Kanye.

While I might have a more positive outlook for America than some pundits who predict a more dystopian future, I can’t help but draw at least some analogies and certain parallels with previous descriptions in science fiction classics. While Orwell’s 1984 is often used for comparison, I will reference two others. Both novels were made into movies and painted a bleak outcome for mankind brought about by circumstances not dissimilar to our current societal environment.

The first was based on a book written in 1895 by H.G. Wells and later made into a movie. The protagonist has invented a time machine and uses it to visit the future. Both the book and the movie had the same title, The Time Machine. The movie is set in 1900, but, unlike the book, the movie, made in 1960, had the advantage of 65 years of actual history. It managed to accurately predict our two world wars and went on to forecast the eventual extinction of much of the human race that resulted from a 326-year war in the distant future. The survivors of that war were divided into two groups, the Morlocks and the Eloi.

The Eloi were a vapid group of young vegetarians who played all day, didn’t work, didn’t operate machines, didn’t read, and knew nothing of their history. Except for the vegetarian part, I can think of a few young people today who still live with their parents, play video games all day, don’t work, don’t read, and couldn't care less about history.

While visiting this future world, the movie protagonist visits an abandoned library where books have all but disintegrated. There were, however, some “talking rings” that told of the long war and the move of the few survivors to an underground world. They eventually split into two groups. At some point, the Eloi returned to their above-ground world while the Morlocks remained below.

The dark and dank underground world seems in stark contrast to the more utopian above-ground world where everyone mindlessly plays all day. We eventually learn, however, that the Morlocks are the superior beings, and the Eloi are merely their cattle and are used for food.

The second movie was made in 1973, loosely based on a book written in 1966. This dystopian future-world movie was called Soylent Green and is set in a then-distant 2022. In this future, the planet is suffering the dire effects of climate change where the greenhouse effect has killed much of the life in the oceans, causing year-round high humidity, pollution, poverty, food shortages, overpopulation, and sparse resources. The story is set in a future New York where the current population has reached 40 million.

The city is divided into the haves and the have-nots. The uber-wealthy live in spacious apartments with servants, concubines (sex slaves called furniture), and armed security. The majority of the population, however, live in dire poverty and squalor, forced to eat processed food wafers made by the Soylent Corporation. There were but two flavors, Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow. At the time of the story, the company has just introduced a more nutritious and more flavorful product made from plankton called Soylent Green.

The story unfolds as the recent murder of a corporate executive of Soylent is being investigated. Spoiler alert ahead. Without going into much more detail, the big reveal at the end of the movie and the motive for the murder was that the victim was about to reveal that the tasty Soylent Green was actually made from euthanized humans who sought assisted suicide at government clinics due to their severe depression. The protagonist in the final frame shouts to the surrounding crowd, “Soylent Green is people!”

Both movies received mixed reviews. The Time Machine was the better reviewed of the two. One Time Machine reviewer lamented a lack of comic relief. It holds a 76% position on Rotten Tomatoes. On Soylent Green, one reviewer questioning its validity asked several questions. “Where is the democracy? Where is the popular vote? Where is women’s lib? Where is the uprising poor, who would have suspected what was happening in a moment?” I guess those might have been questions that a reviewer might have considered valid…, in 1973. I wonder what she would have written today. Might she question, what’s really in Sour Patch Kids? Why did Twinkies disappear? Or, how does a Hostess Ding Dong have a shelf life of 9 years? Hmmm?

Are we destined to be further divided by an American caste system where the wealthy control all forms of a faux democratic system for their own reward? Can they accomplish this by keeping the masses under-educated, misinformed, and motivated by a carrot on an ever-lengthening stick? Will the occasional lottery winner, nouveau riche athlete, or rock star provide enough incentive to keep them in line performing their assigned tasks so that the more affluent can continue to gain even more?

This is not about a single election and an isolated turn of events. The current environment was built slowly over time with almost imperceptible losses of our freedoms. There is a psychological term, “death by 1,000 cuts” (named after the Imperial China form of torture and death) that describes the way a major negative change happens slowly in many unnoticed increments that is not perceived as objectionable. So far, the masses have welcomed the changes at the ballot box and they have been joined by a gleeful wealthy class who see an engorgement of their riches.

This recent election was but a symptom of a greater effort by the few to control the many. Placate them with promises that we, the ones who created this environment, are the only ones to fix it. Trust us. The people did. Now what?

IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID

“The economy stupid” phrase was first coined by James Carville in 1992, while he was Bill Clinton’s strategist.  It was true then as it was true in the most recent election.  Democrats might be stupefied that the current economy was a factor when looked at through the traditional lens of professional economists.  The reality is that there are all those fancy numbers, charts, studies, analyses, and formulas that consider unemployment, stock market trends, building permits, consumer expectations, credit indexes, etc., but those things don’t matter to the average voter.  A rosy stock market doesn’t matter to those who don’t participate.

The most important economic factor is perception.  Your perception changes depending on whether or not you are looking up or looking down.  Those in the stock market with investment portfolios have a totally different perspective than others who gauge the economy on their perceived position in the overall economy.  If they see that some people are doing much better than they are doing, the fact that they have enough to eat, a roof over their heads, etc., isn’t as important as the fact that they could be doing much better.

With years of forced income inequality, the wealth gap has become a chasm.  Low wages, union limitations, right-to-work laws, and limited educational opportunities, combined with monopolistic price gouging for consumer goods, food, and fuel all lead to a continuing perception of a poor economy.  People in this situation will always be looking for a change. 

Many believe that the government is wholly responsible for all their perceived financial ills.  The reality is that they are only partly right.  Human greed and political corruption are the prime culprits and changing government leaders without holding them accountable for corruption will never solve the problem.  When Supreme Court judges can be wined and dined by billionaires and government leaders are wholly reliant on deep-pocket donors for their continued employment, we can expect public corruption to continue.

The Bro-Factor; Welcome to the Manosphere

 

Two recent opinion pieces I read dealt with observations on a phenomenon that influenced our last election process. They both centered on the current situation among young men and a crisis of identity and social roles. One talked of the changing dynamic between men and women as women become more powerful in the workplace. It discussed the shift in advanced education where women represent 58 percent of the enrollment in 4-year schools within the 18–24-year-old population. Women also had a higher graduation rate. Since 2019, more college-educated women are in the workforce than men. The national birthrate was down to 1.67 per woman in 2022, below the rate (2.1) where our population is sustainable. In the last 124 years, the marriage rate is down 54%. Cohabitation with less financial commitment is on the rise.

The first article I read was titled, How Our Messed-Up Dating Culture Leads to Loneliness, Anger, and Donald Trump. It discussed the “bro culture” of disaffected young men who feel threatened and no longer fit the historic gender stereotype of successful breadwinners. The article also tossed out a term with which I was unfamiliar, manosphere. Wikipedia defines it as the diverse collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism. The result of these changes has been resentment, loneliness, declining birthrates, and a vision of Trump as a champion of their cause.

What is their cause? I’m not sure but it certainly wasn’t going to be found in supporting Kamala Harris. I’m not sure there is a “cause” here, only a situation of common circumstances where a group of lost souls represents yet another vulnerable population to be exploited by politicians and businesses hawking products that appeal to their threatened testosterone levels.

[Aside-I just watched several football games over Thanksgiving and one product seemed to dominate, Blue Chew. I thought it might be some new tobacco product, but it turned out to be a treatment for erectile dysfunction.]

The second article talked about “Barstool Conservatism” which the writer titled referencing this same group of largely disenfranchised young males. The association here is that these might be the same individuals influenced by a media (sports apparel) company, Barstool Sports. The writer lived in Michigan and conducted an informal analysis by talking to such individuals in bars in his state.

The group of young males he “interviewed” over drinks was a mixed bag that might hold to the values of traditional conservatives, libertarians, or who might be otherwise ideologically unpredictable souls with but one common trait, they loved Trump. Issues of abortion, cannabis, family values, pornography, religious freedom, and organized labor might get varied responses, but support for Trump was universal. Beyond their love of Trump, the only discernable common trait was a perceived threat to their masculinity by the societal advances of all who lack a Y chromosome.

June Cleaver from Leave It To Beaver

I don’t foresee us setting the calendar back to a time when young girls wait to find their prince charming to whisk them away and live happily ever after. Nor do I see a future with June Cleaver waiting at home in her high heels and pearls for Ward Cleaver to return home after a hard day at work to ask what mischief the Beaver got into that day. Some within this “study group” might want a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear but that ship has sailed. Trump’s personal lifestyle example might be something they would aspire to, but his locker room macho attitude without a large financial carrot incentive, will likely be ignored by most of the opposite sex.

The times have certainly changed. Women are more powerful and independent. Men need to find satisfaction in working and living in this new world. They should feel comfortable in their own skin and not be threatened by the opposite sex. Failure to come to terms with this new reality will result in a banishment to the confines of the manosphere where your priorities are fantasy football and betting apps but not romantic relationships. I see long periods of celibacy in your future.

While understanding the dynamic of this group of confused young men might be difficult, if Democrats don’t find a way to garner support in this culture, the way forward will be more difficult than finding a way to get a boyfriend to watch a Hallmark movie at Christmastime while the big game is on.

My Generation

 

In 1965, Pete Townshend of The Who wrote My Generation. Rolling Stone placed the song at number 11 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  Repeated throughout the lyrics is the phrase, “Talkin’ ‘bout my generation.”  It was supposedly written in response to the fact that the Queen Mother had Townshend’s 1935 Packard hearse towed off the street because the sight of it offended her on her daily drive through his neighborhood.  The song emphasized the generational differences that created a cultural clash when those from different age groups came into contact.

The Who

I grew up during a great time in our country.  We had just ended World War II.  Our troops came home to a country that had been unified against a common enemy.  Our industrial economic machine, which had manufactured the tools of war, was being returned to more peacetime endeavors.  The Greatest Generation (1901-1927) and the Silent Generation (1928-1945) were about to detonate the Baby Boom (1946-1964).

Returning soldiers had the GI Bill to help them buy a new home and start a family.  Our middle class was on a firm footing.  Almost half the jobs had private pensions which, when combined with savings and investment and supplemented with Social Security, represented the “three-legged” stool of stability for a successful retirement free from financial worries.

This is the first table I found that just calls me "Mature"
Most call the pre-Baby Boom, The Silent Generation.

That generation grew up, got old, retired, and began to enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Somewhere during the generations that followed, things went horribly wrong.  Gen X, Millennials aka Gen Y, and Gen Z members saw corporate greed and public corruption come in to cripple the middle class.  Our financial ship was steered on a course that would virtually eliminate the middle class of our society.  Gone were the pensions.  They had been added to the corporate bottom line to prop up huge salaries for corporate bigwigs and fat cat investors.  Salaries stagnated.  Unions were broken when possible or made ineffective with “right to work” laws.  We were returning to an economic period not dissimilar to the late nineteenth century and its Gilded Age. 

Andrew Carnegie of The Gilded Age

"What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?— dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." — Mark Twain-1871

 

Today, 40% of older Americans survive on Social Security alone.  The stable “3-legged” financial stool had been replaced by a pogo stick.  Only 7% of current retirees have Social Security, a pension, and investment income. 

The Republican Study Committee recently released a 2025 budget proposal that would cut Social Security for 257 million Americans and would cut Medicare and the Affordable Care Act while further cutting food assistance for children.  This will make room for new tax cuts that would mostly benefit wealthy Americans.  One of the methods in this proposal is to keep moving the retirement age to force people to work longer before being eligible for benefits.

Herculean efforts were made in the 1960s to bring to being “The Great Society” with aid to education, improved health policies, Medicare, urban renewal, conservation, and the removal of obstacles to the right to vote.  The first decade of the new millennium even saw the implementation of the Affordable Care Act which expanded health insurance coverage to allow for preexisting conditions at affordable rates.  Those were but a couple of bright spots in an otherwise dim reversal of fortune for those who would normally occupy that middle ground between the very wealthy and the poor.

LBJ and The Great Society
1964 with 20% of population below the poverty line

Today, the middle class has been decimated and is now being threatened further with cuts to healthcare, a loss of personal freedoms including reproductive freedoms, attacks on voting rights, and stagnant wages.  Much of this is being accomplished under the smoke screen of threats blown completely out of proportion.  That smoke screen uses the new tools of social media fraught with misinformation, half-truths, and exaggerations and capitalizes on the diminished role of the Fourth Estate, aka the free press.

The intent is clear.  Cut social programs, restrict wages, make good education available only to those who can afford it, and move more money to the coffers of the wealthy.  As of two years ago, the top 1% of households in the US held 31% of the country's wealth while the bottom 50% held just over 2%.  Household income rose by 41% between 1970 and 2000, averaging an annual rate of 1.2%, it has since slowed to an annual rate of just 0.3%. One of the many downsides to this current equation that skews opportunities overwhelmingly toward the elite class of generationally well-off individuals is that it almost assures the future failure of that nation.  Historically, the elite classes, being the only ones afforded a good education or opportunities for advancement, become reliant on a much smaller group for innovation and creativity.  Without technical and social advancement such societies become victims to outside intervention or internal strife that causes collapse. 

Financial inequality is a fact of life. There will always be those who succeed through hard work, smart investment, and a little luck. As a nation, we have always provided a fertile field for financial growth for those willing to make the effort. The only problem seems to be when access to that “fertile field” is not equal and that inequality is the design of others.  The end result is a complete distortion of financial equity and opportunity in favor of a ruling class not willing to relinquish control to something as bothersome as democracy. 

Better for them to promote authoritarian rule disguised as a democratic entity. In that environment, to quote a popular gambler’s expression, “money talks and bullshit walks.”