Author: photog

27APR2024 – OCF Update

photog Current Events

So, Camera Girl is yelling and throwing stuff at me and threatening me with grievous bodily harm if I don’t do some of the things on the honey do list.  Most pressing in her mind is raking and disposing of all the leaves in her flower beds.  Now this is grunt labor because I’ve never gotten organized.  What I should do is rake the leaves onto the lawn and run the mower over them.  Because a lot of it is oak leaves this reduces them significantly down in volume and makes disposal much less onerous.

But I’m just that lazy that coordinating getting the mower ready for use and piling the leaves on the lawn defeats my initiative.  So instead I’ll go out there and spend ten hours going through this ritual of backbreaking stooping and scooping the leaves into a garbage pail and hauling them to the edge and hurling them into the bottomless abyss that yawns below the Cliffs of Utter Chagrin.  So let me be brief.

It’s a third beautiful day in a row.  No rain.  No clouds.  No wind.  The Lord himself is telling me to get up and go outside and

DO SOMETHING!

So thatsa whata I’ma gonna do.

I’ll be back later with something sad or sublime or inspired.

So please enjoy the morning and we’ll see about later.

SONY DSC

Utopian Hangover

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My recent foray into utopian/dystopian nation-building has satisfied my desire to have my say about our disastrous political situation.  Amen.

Okay moving on.

In the here and now America Melting Down and its impact on Election 2024 including the Show Trials of Donald J Trump unfold in their Kafkaesque grandeur.  It’s hard to imagine a fictional cast of characters and a plot to rival the Keystone Kops film festival that we see unfolding around us.

Laughable prosecutions based on kindergarten versions of legal proceedings that keep getting bounced out of court by Appellate and Supreme Court reviews and cartoon judges and prosecutors strutting around kangaroo courtrooms trying to convince even partisan jurors that they know what they are talking about.

It’s preposterous.  But eventually this level of organized railroading must eventually culminate in at least one prison term for Trump.  I’m guessing it will be in New York.  And I’m also guessing that this will embolden the hapless and utterly corrupt Republican Party to ban Trump from the ballot in November.  And that will signal the end of the Republican Party as a viable political entity.  And it will also represent the end of belief in the legitimacy of American politics.  Unmask! Unmask!

Of course all of this is a cataclysm but I’m secretly looking forward to it as a relief from this sham theater that we have to endure every two or four years.  Having to imagine people like Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson as our “heroes” or even our allies is too nauseating to continue indefinitely.  Let it all crash and burn.  Let the Democrats steal every last penny left and pour in the millions of illegals and outlaw the Bill of Rights.  Hurry up and bring on the People’s Republic of Leftwingistan, with that haircut in California Gavin Newsom as its cardboard cutout “leader” and that mindless nitwit Kamala Harris as its poster child.

I’ll spend the apocalypse attempting to do the things that I find interesting and amusing.  Art will have to substitute for reality.  Sure, eventually deprivation and loss of freedom will put an end to any actual joy as we head down the road to neo-Marxian repression and poverty but at a certain point you stop fighting a losing battle and find consolation in whatever bits of life are left to you.

Even in a prison there is the potential for joy.  The inner life of the mind is something that can replace the outside world for those who no longer have access to freedom.  Gee, that sounds grandiose or ridiculous; depending on your point of view.

Well, I’ll watch our little passion play with a mind for the humorous and absurd situations.  I’ll record for myself and anyone who is reading along what strikes me as interesting.  But more and more I think that we are looking at a new world.  The people in charge have rigged the game thoroughly and the only consolation is that the pretense is over and we can see the progress of the game without much difficulty.  The Bushes and the Kennedys shook hands and agreed on Obama and now the Clintons have agreed that Joe Biden is the clown face of the Uniparty and we will find out just what that means in the weary years ahead.

But I’ll try to make it fun.

photog’s Republic – Postscript

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Thanks to everyone who read and/or commented.  I guess I just wanted to think out loud about what would represent a pretty good place to live in.  Not a paradise, not a hell but something in the middle for the people in the middle.  Not too good, not too bad.  Not too smart, not too stupid.  Not too rich, not too poor.  Just reasonably somewhere in the middle.

I’m aware that it’s impossible and people gravitate to some dysfunctional equilibrium where the winners and losers sort themselves into an aristocracy and an underclass but it must be the American Catholic school background that traps me into a fantasy where “We all just get along.”

Well, no harm done.  It cheered me a good bit to express that thought experiment.

As Plato found out tyrants aren’t philosopher-kings.  It was Machiavelli who formulated the saying, “the ends always justify the means—no matter how cruel, calculating or immoral those means might be.”  We’ll see.

27APR2024 – Quote of the Day

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Among the causes of the tremendous confusion characterising present-day Europe is the transplantation of British institutions to the Continent where they are in complete contradiction to existing conditions, so that their application becomes either illusory or distorted. The so-called “British school” has been the cause of the French Revolution, and the consequences of this revolution, so anti-British in tendency, devastate Europe today. The concepts of freedom and order are so inseparable in the British mind that the last stable-boy would laugh in the face of the reformers if they appeared by preaching his freedom.

Klemens von Metternich

Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 26APR2024 – Power to the People

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I used to think that the wealthy in this country recognized that a healthy middle class was good for business, literally that a strong middle class is a “win-win” for everyone. I have now come to the conclusion that I was terribly naive. The uber wealthy want both money and power.

Once a person hits a certain level of wealth they no longer need more money. Sure, a bigger villa in Tuscany or a larger yacht may be nice but does it really matter? What’s an ambitious person to do? It looks like the answer is power. Sure you own a lot of nice stuff but look how many serfs I have.

I remember a few years back, Tucker Carlson was in a discussion (maybe with Ben Shapiro?) where he said that driverless trucks should be banned. He wanted the ban because so many American workers with only high school diplomas work as truck drivers that much of the middle class would be impoverished. I agree with Carlson on that. We need policies that encourage a strong middle class even if it hurts economic efficiency.

Economic efficiency is another thing I have become very leery of. I always liked Milton Friedman and at one time he had me convinced of the righteousness of completely free trade with no tariffs or import quotas. His argument went something like this: if American manufacturing goes to cheaper overseas manufacturers those products will still be sold in the U.S. The dollars generated from those sales will ultimately need to be spent in the U.S. thereby encouraging formation of new, more efficient businesses here. How did that work out? Well, all the manufacturing from the Midwest was relocated overseas and the profits generated did come back to the U.S. as bond sales. The Midwest was sucked dry but New York city (where the bond trading takes place) profited handsomely. Thanks but no thanks. Milton Friedman was wrong.

I also agree about encouraging direct participation in our own governance. I’m not sure what the solution is but I’m willing to hear anyone’s ides on the topic.

photog’s Republic – Part 5

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Unlike my predecessor Plato, I do not have unlimited access to papyrus scrolls so I have to be careful not to get too carried away with my rant.  So let me wrap this up.  I have highlighted some of the steps I think will be needed to make Goodenoughia a better place to live than 2024 America.  And not being a political scientist, I’m probably ignoring vast areas of reform that must be considered; the currency, laws on business monopoly, government revenue, the government’s role in research and development of new technologies, and on and on and on.

But what I see as the most crucial change in the way the country is run lies in the “mission statement.”  What we need to be striving for is to focus on increasing and strengthening the “middle class.”  That is where thought and research need to be expended.  What are the things that the states and the federal government can do to grow the proportion of the population that is functional and thriving.  I’m not sure what the philosophy of this is called.  It’s not exactly Utilitarianism.  Let’s make up a name and call it photogian middle-classicalism.  I want to see as many families as possible raising their kids successfully and enjoying a good life.

Maybe we’ll find that the efficiency we’ve gained by automation is anathema to this middle-class maximization.  If we can prove that’s the case then I’d propose abandoning it, even prohibiting it.  Maybe a world where we employed wagons and horses would be better than one with automobiles.  Who knows?  But we should find out.  That’s what political science should be about, increasing human happiness.  Because currently we have the opposite.  The whole adult and adolescent population and now even small children are glued to a small screen being narcotized by pixels and sounds that really have no value (except of course this content!).

So, that’s what I think.  What I imagine will be found is that the only way for government not to devolve back to the oligarchy that we currently “enjoy” is for there to be a few brakes on wealth.  I never thought I’d say this but maybe having a handful of people controlling 80% of the disposable income in the country is a really bad situation.  Maybe it should be 70% or, heaven help us, 65%!

And I’ve also begun to believe that it is necessary to have some degree of coercion to force regular people to take part in their own local government.  Possibly offices will be distributed by lottery, sort of like how jury selection is handled.  If your number comes up, you’ll have to be on the town zoning board or the budget committee.  Sure, we’ll make allowances and deferments but we can’t have only retirees and women in charge of communities.  It can be like what goes on for the members of the National Guard and Reserve.  Businesses will have to make allowances and forcing citizens to know how their towns are run will become normalized.  Make some kind of incentives to get people to attend the town meetings.  Give away scratch tickets or something.  Who knows, people might start finding out who their neighbors are.  They might even find out they don’t hate some of them.

I’ll cut it short here.  Leave your comments on what you disagree with and what I left out of Goodenoughia that needs to be in it to make it goodenoughia for you.

O damn Glaucon!  With all this talk we’ve missed the festival of the Thracian goddess Bendis.  I guess we’ll have to stream it on Netflix.

 

Update:

War Pig

Wagons and horses are not ideal. Believe me, we have a lot of Amish in my county and the pollution they deposit on the highways makes keeping your car or truck free from funk quite difficult. Every few hundred yards will be a scattered pile of horse apples. Would you want to have to house, feed, water and medicate a couple of horses who produce copious amounts of manure to be shoveled, collected, then placed on a steaming, odiferous compost pile that draws flies and their maggots as well as various rodents and large members of the order coleoptera?

 

Master Diver

In the 1890s, the horses in New York City produced over 2.5 million pounds of manure and sixty thousand gallons of urine every day. A wonderful source of rat, insect and airborne diseases.

 

photog

I’m seeing two votes against horsepower.  Duly noted.  But that was just a for instance.  The biggest changes to our world have occurred in the last few years and have been spurred by the indoctrination of our children to despise the civilization that produced them and all the things they take for granted.  Maybe the analysis says the change needed is the selection of teachers and school administrators.  Someone needs to start thinking about the problems that are now endemic in our society.  Women aren’t having children.  That way lies collapse.

 

TomD

And then, there is the baked in Achilles heel that ultimately destabilizes all democratic governments: When the population learns they can vote themselves “largess”. Elections soon devolve to a competition for politicians promising the most goodies.

Economic instability follows.

photog

In reply to TomD

Tom, eliminating the income tax and deficit spending might help to hold back some of this largesse.

 

Glenn W

I used to think that the wealthy in this country recognized that a healthy middle class was good for business, literally that a strong middle class is a “win-win” for everyone. I have now come to the conclusion that I was terribly naive. The uber wealthy want both money and power.

Once a person hits a certain level of wealth they no longer need more money. Sure, a bigger villa in Tuscany or a larger yacht may be nice but does it really matter? What’s an ambitious person to do? It looks like the answer is power. Sure you own a lot of nice stuff but look how many serfs I have.

I remember a few years back, Tucker Carlson was in a discussion (maybe with Ben Shapiro?) where he said that driverless trucks should be banned. He wanted the ban because so many American workers with only high school diplomas work as truck drivers that much of the middle class would be impoverished. I agree with Carlson on that. We need policies that encourage a strong middle class even if it hurts economic efficiency.

Economic efficiency is another thing I have become very leery of. I always liked Milton Friedman and at one time he had me convinced of the righteousness of completely free trade with no tariffs or import quotas. His argument went something like this: if American manufacturing goes to cheaper overseas manufacturers those products will still be sold in the U.S. The dollars generated from those sales will ultimately need to be spent in the U.S. thereby encouraging formation of new, more efficient businesses here. How did that work out? Well, all the manufacturing from the Midwest was relocated overseas and the profits generated did come back to the U.S. as bond sales. The Midwest was sucked dry but New York city (where the bond trading takes place) profited handsomely. Thanks but no thanks. Milton Friedman was wrong.

I also agree about encouraging direct participation in our own governance. I’m not sure what the solution is but I’m willing to hear anyone’s ides on the topic.