time to save the American Government's finances.
I had intended to list the planks one by one, but first, it will make less sense, and seem less cohesively thought out, if I do it that way, so here are the main planks affecting Finance
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If you had told me twenty years ago that I could be (reasonably, correctly, relevantly) connected and in some senses identified with either the John Birch Society OR someone like Glenn Beck, I would have looked at you as if that was impossible.
But shamefully and unhappily, it isn't impossible. (I don't listen to Glenn Beck but have heard enough of his speech to know I don't want to stand anywhere near him. And the Birchers? Ugh, back when I was a kid, they were some of the most bigoted, biased, misinformed people in America.)
I don't watch any TV news. My only news comes from Economist mag., The Guardian, NPR, and snippets I may pick up here and there. This article is only the second time I have heard about the modern Tea Party. I don't like the group, I don't like much of what I have heard about their individual actors, the only person in the whole article I like is Ron Paul, but even he is flawed. But all of these people and crackpots (and myself) have a few things in common, even if every other element of their beings is different.
We all think what the US government is doing now is wrong.
We all want to change that.
It has been a long time since the movement and motivation for real change in America has been felt by more than a minority, I am not even sure the last time, 50 years ago, felt this strong. But all of us feel it.
I am definitely obsessed with this. It worries me greatly. I just looked up 'deranged' to get an accurate feel for the word. I think there is increasing disorder in US policies that have become immovable forces in themselves, traditions built up over centuries that have become too brittle to withstand the forces, are going to break and cause a much more chaotic state. Is that disorder happening to the USA or is it just happening in my head (and the heads of a great many others, many of them known crackpots)?
I have asked my psychiatrist if I am crazy. She won't say either way.
I'll ask the neurologist next time I see her. She'll probably do the same.
I don't think I am insane, but I do think my thinking is not mainstream, I am on some fringe somewhere. I just don't know where....smile....
Thanks for the terrific link.
I appreciate it.
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I have to assume that you're not referring to the civil rights movement here. If that's the case, what are you referring to?
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That statement and my experience suffers from a recency bias, namely, today's situation is now and that was then, the now always feels more "strong" than the then. Additionally, I was but a child then, living in a bigoted town, a smart kid, but not really understanding enough of the situation. Now, I am more (or less) aware, depending.
The word I should have used instead of "strong" was "pervasive". I DO think the injustices suffered previous to the civil rights movement and the corrections made were felt much more strongly by a part of our population then than they almost anything anyone could be feeling now. The Subjugation released was so important, more strong than any fear anyone could be currently realizing. Something like that.
But I DO think that the current movement against the Government is more pervasive than what was occurring then. Back then, the oppressed, their saviors, and the few enlightened knew what was happening and felt the movement strongly. There were more fence-sitters, people who didn't feel anything. There were many more opponents, people who actually fought against the Civil Rights Movement.
Today's anti-Government movement is more subtle in that it isn't generating the same strength of emotion in anybody that probably occurred in Tommie Smith and John Carlos. That emotion was not seconded by many Americans. Today's slow motion "rebellion" is coming from a much more broad-based group of supporters, and I don't know anyone who DOESN't think the US government needs change of some sort. I knew plenty who didn't think equality for women or blacks was necessary. That is about what I was trying to say.
So, I apologize to the CR movement, and for the misleading words here. Part of it is, Americans have been politically apathetic for a long time now (imo), and to see so many diverse groups all (generally) wanting the same thing (Change), that feels like a newish phenomenon to me. The CR movement was different. And in most every sense, Stronger.
Thanks.
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