Who would want to ask our young people to scale back their dreams and goals?
Politicians like Clintons and others that share their neoliberal third way philosophies are schooling young people to expect less and ask for less rather than discussing policies and goals to inspire people, especially young people, who will have to deal with the mess once we middle-aged and older people have passed on. What will we leave for them? I’m glad that Sanders is putting inspirational perspectives into the political conversation, and it’s up to us to turn it into policy!! Things like access to higher education and health as a right, things like achieving a sustainable future rather than destroying a biosphere for profit and perpetual war.
IMO Bernie’s approach gives them the opportunity to fight for idealistic things, The Clintonite vision of “Me my banks and I” approach, devoid of actual policy, depending on Identity politics, attacks, lesser evilism, adapting to unaffordable education, and acceptance of class and wealth disparity and advocating endless warfare only discourages fighting for, or dreaming of, a future they want, a future they need, telling us all instead to rely on her and others like her to compromise away the fight in favor of “getting things done” One can only assume by finding common ground with a John Birch Society/near fascistic Republican party, something our “centrists” claim only they can do.
If such Mentors as the Clintons, and Henry Kissinger are any indication of how they would “get things done” it would not only mean giving up on fighting and dreaming of a better, more equitable future, it would mean compromises that favor the wealthy, cut funding for the needy (and likely encourage more profit from college debt), more private prisons with more quotas to fill them, and more free trade that represents corporate interests that will send more jobs overseas leaving our youth nothing but service jobs at a min wage where centrists would begin negotiations at $12/hr and “compromise” on something less. Such compromises represent the “mentorship” of those like Bill and Hillary Clinton.
The values Hillary and her followers learned from their mentor Henry Kissinger will leave our young people another option to min. wage jobs, a career in the military as they will continue along the path (one of their now most consistent paths) to fight in wars sometimes preemptively as per a New Democratic faith in the Bush Doctrine, as well as engaging in regime change across the world including, but not limited to, overthrowing Democratically elected leaders in favor of any blood-thirsty warlord that will agree to allow US corporate interests to thrive, let’s call that the Kissinger doctrine (or what he calls a pragmatic use of our military might to help further our country’s interests)
They (the younger generation) deserve a chance to fight rather than have no power as the chosen establishment pieces move about the board compromising away their hopes, dreams, and futures.
I want them to have the chance that we did when we fought the good fight and achieved some of our liberal goals. They decided (our party in the eighties, culminating in ’92) that there would no longer be a party to fight with the idealistic youth for things like labor rights, The New Deal, The Great Society, Civil Liberties, Equality for Women and the last attempted fight that died on the vine, the fight against poverty that was abandoned in favor of a fight against the poor via welfare reform.
They deserve to fight for these things as we did, not because they are easy, but because they are necessary to their survival.
They deserve more than the smell of sulfur that summons forth a demon of lesser evil that says “no you can’t!” – “I will compromise away your fight for you so you may have the crumbs my corporate sponsors allow you to have.”
They deserve the right to fight as well as leadership that will help rather than hinder that fight.
We all had that (us older folk) but took it for granted. They have only had dismissal and the lack of support offered by Vichy Republican collaborators.
Let us all help them elect someone (in fact a great many unpurchased idealistic representatives) that will allow them to fight!
Comments
Without Ideals Life Has No Meaning.
I could write volumes but there is no need, and where there is need for such, there is no hope.
Only ideals create a better world, those without them destroy
Reminds me a bit of Lao Tzu, "Those that say do not know, those that know do not say" or "existence is beyond the power of words to define"
I enjoy responses that induce reflection and thought - thanks.
Was that quote of a writer unknown to me that I'd benefit learning from, or are you that writer yourself if I may ask?
There must be a source somewhere ...
The quote just seemed to fit, so I wrote it. It must be a paraphrase of something I read a long time ago, but I have no idea from whence it came. Lao Tzu is a good guess, but particle physicists are often caught in this state of mind, so I suspect it is derived from that realm.
There comes a time when your thoughts and the thoughts of those you admire become entangled and it becomes difficult to untangle the threads.
I have often wished I knew the language of advanced math
I had a roommate a few decades ago that was working on a PHD thesis involving string theory, his peers could discuss the many fascinating theories beyond the standard model, things involving supersymmetry, dark matter, extra dimensions, shadow matter particles and other esoteric (to me anyway) models attempting to obtain what appeared to me to be their holy grail of a Grand Unified Theory.
The only way they could communicate clearly was via the language of math (a language beyond me at the level they used it), but I do remember I learned enough to make a well received joke asking if we should order pizza from "neutralinos" rather than the local takeout.
I do believe you may have been right that the basis of that quote came from particle physicists as oddly enough, the one language we all talked well about was found in taoist expression and over half of his acquaintances enjoyed and studied taoist teachings, the same sort of minds appear from my limited exposure to understand taoism as well as physics at that level. My favorite collection of translated stories by Chuang Tzu was also oddly published by a pair of particle physicists that studied taoism rather extensively (had I ever visited Colorado I'd have liked to have met them).
Regarding intertwined thoughts, I believe that if we are lucky, Jung's theory of an acausal connecting principle (synchronicity) and a concept found elsewhere but often dismissed known as The concept of multiple discovery (also known as simultaneous invention) reveal more than simple coincidences, in fact I sincerely hope that we are on the cusp of a simultaneous re-invention of a new way of governing beyond the tired old model of an aristocracy under whatever name, which siphons all wealth until pitchforks or guillotines end the party.
Any revolution that might be able to save the world for future generations would have to leave out bloody revolution as well as bloated aristocrats and so I sincerely hope such an evolution of thought, action and shared prosperity in balance with our biosphere does indeed rise from some collective unconscious as our species evolves beyond self destruction before it is too late.
Most find such thoughts unrealistic and silly to say the least, but I actually believe such is possible as "mad" as that may make me and my strange mind that can now visualize multiple dimensions even if I lack the math to express them.
Think Different ...
has been a favorite exhortation of mine for sometime (and yes I lifted it from my friends in California). I tell my students that when we get to the actual presentation of results we need to deal with very concrete logic and established procedures.
I tell them, to actually accomplish the process of science you need to be exceptionally creative. You must "think outside the box" to see the possibilities, the what might have been, and the what might be.
While these exercises in "flights of fancy" might not count as "productive" in a conference or in a laboratory setting, they can be very productive in identifying an important previously unseen goal or approach to an old problem.
I spend most of my time teaching that first, last, and always good science is a creative endeavor and that while getting the math right is important it is not what defines us or our discipline.
Our youth got a really bad deal.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
A bad deal that grows worse by the day
I only hope there is still time and enough activists willing to fight regardless of party or lack thereof to help form a political revolution stronger than either purchased party that work in tandem to destroy their future before there is no future for them to envision and fight for.
I see all the symptoms of end stage capitalism, that stage where the oligarchs in charge of our Inverted Totalitarian form of government (which has replaced our Republic) begin to suck the very bones of any remaining marrow after nearly killing the 99% with economic exsanguination.
I am too old and ill to care much about a future for myself, but I would gladly do anything I could to help the young ones to have a future to fight for and shape into something they could themselves happily raise children in. (My wife died before I had any of my own).
The future is looking more and more like "The Road,"
from what I've read of it so far: a bleak, apocalyptic wasteland of roving survivors subsisting on whatever they can forage.
My friends' kids are getting out of college tens and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. And that massive problem is two-fold, and is part of the parasitic nature of predatory crony capitalism.
First, to be that young with that much of an albatross around your neck is overwhelming in and of itself. It dovetails then into a forced desperation for one to start earning money right away. Now you're at the mercy of shit jobs that pay well or at least a steady income.
Ever notice how many of those empty husk, gleaming new banks occupy space in all of our towns, along with franchise drug stores and other national monopoly chains?
The Economic Terrorists of Wall St got themselves a twofer with the crash of '08. Besides the obscenity of brazenly paying themselves huge bonuses, they took all that money and solidified their positions in the real estate market and as an attempt at public relations, opened as many bank branches as possible, glutting the entire country where there would have been empty storefronts that were foreclosed upon during the crisis. This goes for all the monopolies in the insurance sector and Big Pharma too. The monopoly corporate franchise is now ubiquitous as the dominant part of American life.
In this scenario, they could hire legions of middle level flunkies/recent college graduates to occupy these completely unnecessary operations, with promises of a salary, benefits and corporate-ladder opportunities. Those desperate college grads on the hook and unemployed mid-level managers would now have fealty to the banks, despite most everyone considering them the arch villains of this age. Mark Twain called this fealty to wherever ones gets his money, "corn-pone opinions."
Between the horrific low-wage, dead end, minimum wage McJobs and the banks predatorily corralling vulnerable graduates with staggering student debt, it is dystopia beyond belief. They're caught in the vice grip of unbridled Capitalism.
I have an infant son, and friends whose kids are being thrown into this world right now, and this is on my mind constantly.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Unfortunately I too can see such a dystopia awaiting them
It does not appear that we have either the time or the political freedom to stop the destructive results of end stage unfettered capitalism.
I have no children of my own, but seeing the innocence and trust that lies within any child's eyes has convinced me to try to buy them enough time to try to wrestle back a future for themselves with the hope that they will not only survive what may now appear inevitable, but even create something far better for their own children someday.
I'd be lying to claim such hope is anything other than a quixotic dream, but I'd rather dream of the impossible than to give up all hope of a better future for those left after my easy death long before the worst comes for them. I just can't idly leave them to face such horror without even trying to help them avoid such a fate.
debt evader
I refused to sign up for the ever-spiraling debt roughly my sophomore year in college.
When certain folks decided to tell me the truth: that, starting in the 1977 academic year, I could expect to borrow $1000 x my year in school, i.e., $1000 for freshman, $2000 for sophomore, $3000 for junior, and $4000 senior year, and that I probably wouldn't be able to borrow what I needed, I said "screw this!". It also didn't help that my college openly stated that it expected financial aid students to save $1000 in their seven-week-long summer term. (Remember, minimum wage at the time was $2.30/hour and that's all a college kid could really expect to earn.)
I have paid for that decision -- student debt evasion -- with a life essentially devoid of any kind of material prosperity, despite attending post-secondary trainings of various kinds. A stable, decent livelihood was never to be available to me, no matter how hard I worked at it.
The financial powers that be DO. NOT. WANT. there to be any actual freedom among working-class American adults. Debtless youth who can still make a decent living are far too dangerous for them to contemplate.
I do not blame you for being worried! Thank Cat I have no children!! But I have nieces and a great nephew for whom I am terrified!
And more than a little pissed off!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It was my fear of debt that caused me to leave higher education
I had just finishing my first semester and after working the entire time, selling everything I had, I found I still had to borrow from friends just to pay the rent and tuition I owed to avoid de-matriculation and/or becoming homeless again.
I had lived on my own since I was 16 and knew I had to work just to survive with no family to help. I did not want to go into debt because I feared it would ruin me, so I took my 4.0 for my only semester, my pride, and my survival skills and went back to working full time just to pay off what I had borrowed and keep a roof over my head and food enough to eat.
In retrospect I honestly do not know if the debt would have paid off with a better career enabling me to pay it or if I dodged a bullet, but since my major was biology with an eye towards a postgraduate degree in ecology I doubt that such a career (although I felt it would have been both fascinating and needed) would have helped much in remuneration and repaying a large debt owed.