I was partly inspired to write this by having to deal with some of the worst of the worst petty tyrants and collaborators, average academics who become managers. They are actively participating in destroying education and opening the door to welcome AI. They are a nightmare.
Another excellent essay. I had held some hope that soldiers, generals, and members of the military would stay true to their oaths when (not if) trump gives the command to shoot protestors. Watching Trump lead uniformed troops at Ft. Bragg, where he illegally held a maga rally on a federal base and got soldiers in the US army to boo a former president, current governor and mayor of California, then boo the press in attendance erased my naiveté. as you say, eager to point their guns at a live target may prove compelling.
Perhaps our personal ethics comes down to paycheck/ career-riisk? Loyalty to principle, rather than person is a deciding factor. The Constitution comes to mind for citizen-soldiers. Yet economic suasion is powerful stuff! The words of Upton Sinclair may apply to near the top — including all of the joint chiefs, regarding career risk. But the top chief, Dan Caine, is clearly personally “loyal” to the “commander-in-chief” rather than the Constitution. Here’s Upton Sinclair: “It’s hard to get someone to understand something when their salary depends on them not understanding it.” I’m with you on this, Glenn. Those Generals or Privates who prattle “but I was being a good soldier, following orders” is no excuse. ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Our society is crowded with the prosperous hustling masses who drive expensive cars to airports where they park in expensive car lots while they climb aboard expensive jets to go long distances to accomplish something they could do from home. The hustle is necessary we are told, over and over all the time. Hurry hurry hurry. More faster. Don't walk, run. Bomb don't resign. Shoot don't think. Follow the crowd. But don't save. Give Don't take. Don't stand out.
There are alternatives but you would lose that american "lifestyle" where very comfortable, mildly or vigorously engaged employees do what they're told without concern it is contributing to the pollution of the prescious atmosphere we live in, the water we drink, the soil we grow food in.
Here's a hint. Fiend a single person who knows their carbon footprint and can demonstrate their success in reducing it.
Some people are very successful at reducing their (moral) calamity upon the planet. There's a name for them. We call them Homeless people.
Amy, anyone who uses the term "Palestinian genocide" without satire...
(quotation)
"You have been taken in by a Confederate Lost Cause pseudohistory narrative. When Southern white man Trent Lott said in 2002 that America would have been better off if only the good-hearted Southern white man Strom Thurmond had won the presidency and prevented the creation of racial conflict in the 1950s, anyone who had taken an American history course knew he was wrong. If you had ever taken a Middle Eastern history course, you would know your position was wrong too." (end quotation )
And I am not being a jerk -- never mind that AI and HRW (controlled by secular and well-to-the-left intellectuals) seem to swallow the wildest claims at face value (e.g. that the separation barrier is there because of "apartheid" and not because the Palestinians kept sending suicide bombers. And for most of its length it is actually a chain link fence - the wall part is largely in sections where Palestinian snipers decided to be).
Much of the worst restrictions are because of the Palestinians' own actions - Munich, Klinghoffer and Dolphinarium being three of the worst -- and those are also among the least likely to be forgiven or forgotten -- and IMO, they should not be.
I was an jobbing kid actor/print model back in the day (as with most of us "formers", I worked a bit but was never a star). I ended up betrayed over the decades. Multiple times. the Quiet on Set documentary has become a thing and there is a reason for that.
I have no doubt that those adults (and not all were guys) would sing from the Nuremberg libretto as well.
The sadism of the Holocaust continues, directly, to this day influencing torture programs, styles and rituals all over the world. Palestinian genocide is a means to the Third Reich.
Your words are so potent. To pray for the souls of the actors of evil within hierarchical structures is so important. They have more power than they realize and together can resist the carrying out of the “plan”.
I was partly inspired to write this by having to deal with some of the worst of the worst petty tyrants and collaborators, average academics who become managers. They are actively participating in destroying education and opening the door to welcome AI. They are a nightmare.
Another excellent essay. I had held some hope that soldiers, generals, and members of the military would stay true to their oaths when (not if) trump gives the command to shoot protestors. Watching Trump lead uniformed troops at Ft. Bragg, where he illegally held a maga rally on a federal base and got soldiers in the US army to boo a former president, current governor and mayor of California, then boo the press in attendance erased my naiveté. as you say, eager to point their guns at a live target may prove compelling.
Hi Glenn,
Perhaps our personal ethics comes down to paycheck/ career-riisk? Loyalty to principle, rather than person is a deciding factor. The Constitution comes to mind for citizen-soldiers. Yet economic suasion is powerful stuff! The words of Upton Sinclair may apply to near the top — including all of the joint chiefs, regarding career risk. But the top chief, Dan Caine, is clearly personally “loyal” to the “commander-in-chief” rather than the Constitution. Here’s Upton Sinclair: “It’s hard to get someone to understand something when their salary depends on them not understanding it.” I’m with you on this, Glenn. Those Generals or Privates who prattle “but I was being a good soldier, following orders” is no excuse. ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Our society is crowded with the prosperous hustling masses who drive expensive cars to airports where they park in expensive car lots while they climb aboard expensive jets to go long distances to accomplish something they could do from home. The hustle is necessary we are told, over and over all the time. Hurry hurry hurry. More faster. Don't walk, run. Bomb don't resign. Shoot don't think. Follow the crowd. But don't save. Give Don't take. Don't stand out.
There are alternatives but you would lose that american "lifestyle" where very comfortable, mildly or vigorously engaged employees do what they're told without concern it is contributing to the pollution of the prescious atmosphere we live in, the water we drink, the soil we grow food in.
Here's a hint. Fiend a single person who knows their carbon footprint and can demonstrate their success in reducing it.
Some people are very successful at reducing their (moral) calamity upon the planet. There's a name for them. We call them Homeless people.
Amy, anyone who uses the term "Palestinian genocide" without satire...
(quotation)
"You have been taken in by a Confederate Lost Cause pseudohistory narrative. When Southern white man Trent Lott said in 2002 that America would have been better off if only the good-hearted Southern white man Strom Thurmond had won the presidency and prevented the creation of racial conflict in the 1950s, anyone who had taken an American history course knew he was wrong. If you had ever taken a Middle Eastern history course, you would know your position was wrong too." (end quotation )
And I am not being a jerk -- never mind that AI and HRW (controlled by secular and well-to-the-left intellectuals) seem to swallow the wildest claims at face value (e.g. that the separation barrier is there because of "apartheid" and not because the Palestinians kept sending suicide bombers. And for most of its length it is actually a chain link fence - the wall part is largely in sections where Palestinian snipers decided to be).
Much of the worst restrictions are because of the Palestinians' own actions - Munich, Klinghoffer and Dolphinarium being three of the worst -- and those are also among the least likely to be forgiven or forgotten -- and IMO, they should not be.
I was an jobbing kid actor/print model back in the day (as with most of us "formers", I worked a bit but was never a star). I ended up betrayed over the decades. Multiple times. the Quiet on Set documentary has become a thing and there is a reason for that.
I have no doubt that those adults (and not all were guys) would sing from the Nuremberg libretto as well.
The sadism of the Holocaust continues, directly, to this day influencing torture programs, styles and rituals all over the world. Palestinian genocide is a means to the Third Reich.
Your words are so potent. To pray for the souls of the actors of evil within hierarchical structures is so important. They have more power than they realize and together can resist the carrying out of the “plan”.