some sunday night reflections
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Jeff Duvall
Oct 6, 2008, 4:49:49 AM10/6/08
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On Monday the stock market took its greatest numerical drop in history, on the news that the bail out bill had been voted down in the House. I am over joyed that despite passage of an amended version on Friday, the stock market still closed lower than it had Monday.
An inflated stock market shows that people are betting on high consumption, and on corporatism itself. They are betting on this because there isn't much else available. Back when the dotcom bubble started to form, I said that it was a sign of economic unhealth. People were putting money into something so tenuous, because there was nothing more substantial for them to put it into.
Financial speculation is not healthy, its just the fatalistic mentality of gamblers. The more people that are involved, the more serious the disease. I'm not saying the stock market should go to zero, but I would like to see it much much lower. During the times when it has been lower, the public discourse changes and the psychology changes too.
I am most pleased that Dennis Kucinich of Ohio had continued to vote against the bail out, and is still denouncing it. I voted for Kucinich in the California Presidential Primary. I wrote to him last week and said we don't need a bail out, we need another New Deal. We need to change the way our economy works, and not just to keep trying to inject confidence by feeding bubbles. Maybe he heard me? He is calling for a percolate up approach to any intervention, and for another WPA.
**************************************************************************************
I am most distressed by the messages being put out by Sarah Palin. One savy commentator said that what she really is is another Anita Bryant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Bryant
http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/general/n036934.jpg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1686511806865059193&pr=goog-sl
What Palin is appealing to is what the Republicans have for a long time, the Normal American. George H. W. Bush did this in the second debate of his 1988 campaign, against Michale Dukakis. Bushes first statement was, "One of us is main stream, one of us is not." This was the central theme of his entire campaign.
Of course these kinds of campaigns do a great deal of damage to the national psyche. Palin has shifted from talking about Hockey Moms, because Hockey is not that popular, to talking about Soccer Moms.
I think soccer is a great game. When I was growing up it was popular because we had lots of Italian Americans. That's how I was exposed to it. But for everyone else it was not yet popular. Soccer is not quite as rough, and is much more free flowing, and involves much more running, than American football. I am glad that girls are playing it too.
But what Palin is appealing to, and trying to say is the only form of legitimate form of Americanism, is a suburban, middle class, consumerist, and fairly performative sort of family. She is promoting conformity and outer directedness. The specific cultural references are of the 1950's, updated to the 1980's and beyond. But the origins of this type of thinking go much further back, to the origins of western religion.
I am grateful to Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming, the rise of christian nationalism, for exposing how the Christian Right works, and what it really believes. She has written for Salon.com.
http://www.kingdomcoming.com/
Here is an interview with Goldberg, of two years ago.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=14349
She comes in at the half way point of the two hour show, 1:08
Here she talks about Sarah Palin.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=28735
She comes in at 43min.
The she comes in again at 55min, and goes onto say that the most extreme hawkish support for Israel is coming from Christian fundamentalists. They promote a form of Zionism which goes far far beyond the vast majority of American Jews. They see Israel as playing a key role in the End Time. It is a notable that it is also a vision which requires the conversion, or elimination, of Jews.
Palin is also connected to the ex-gay movement. This is a movement where gay people try to be heterosexual. That is, they try to be Normal.
An inflated stock market shows that people are betting on high consumption, and on corporatism itself. They are betting on this because there isn't much else available. Back when the dotcom bubble started to form, I said that it was a sign of economic unhealth. People were putting money into something so tenuous, because there was nothing more substantial for them to put it into.
Financial speculation is not healthy, its just the fatalistic mentality of gamblers. The more people that are involved, the more serious the disease. I'm not saying the stock market should go to zero, but I would like to see it much much lower. During the times when it has been lower, the public discourse changes and the psychology changes too.
I am most pleased that Dennis Kucinich of Ohio had continued to vote against the bail out, and is still denouncing it. I voted for Kucinich in the California Presidential Primary. I wrote to him last week and said we don't need a bail out, we need another New Deal. We need to change the way our economy works, and not just to keep trying to inject confidence by feeding bubbles. Maybe he heard me? He is calling for a percolate up approach to any intervention, and for another WPA.
**************************************************************************************
I am most distressed by the messages being put out by Sarah Palin. One savy commentator said that what she really is is another Anita Bryant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Bryant
http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/general/n036934.jpg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1686511806865059193&pr=goog-sl
What Palin is appealing to is what the Republicans have for a long time, the Normal American. George H. W. Bush did this in the second debate of his 1988 campaign, against Michale Dukakis. Bushes first statement was, "One of us is main stream, one of us is not." This was the central theme of his entire campaign.
Of course these kinds of campaigns do a great deal of damage to the national psyche. Palin has shifted from talking about Hockey Moms, because Hockey is not that popular, to talking about Soccer Moms.
I think soccer is a great game. When I was growing up it was popular because we had lots of Italian Americans. That's how I was exposed to it. But for everyone else it was not yet popular. Soccer is not quite as rough, and is much more free flowing, and involves much more running, than American football. I am glad that girls are playing it too.
But what Palin is appealing to, and trying to say is the only form of legitimate form of Americanism, is a suburban, middle class, consumerist, and fairly performative sort of family. She is promoting conformity and outer directedness. The specific cultural references are of the 1950's, updated to the 1980's and beyond. But the origins of this type of thinking go much further back, to the origins of western religion.
I am grateful to Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming, the rise of christian nationalism, for exposing how the Christian Right works, and what it really believes. She has written for Salon.com.
http://www.kingdomcoming.com/
Here is an interview with Goldberg, of two years ago.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=14349
She comes in at the half way point of the two hour show, 1:08
Here she talks about Sarah Palin.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=28735
She comes in at 43min.
The she comes in again at 55min, and goes onto say that the most extreme hawkish support for Israel is coming from Christian fundamentalists. They promote a form of Zionism which goes far far beyond the vast majority of American Jews. They see Israel as playing a key role in the End Time. It is a notable that it is also a vision which requires the conversion, or elimination, of Jews.
Palin is also connected to the ex-gay movement. This is a movement where gay people try to be heterosexual. That is, they try to be Normal.
***************************************************************************
I reflect back more than 20 years to someone I knew when I was a university student. Her name was D. She had grown up in a particularly elitist suburb. D was clearly uncommonly intelligent. She also had a record of tremendous academic accomplishment.
D was not only proud about this, it had much more importance to her. It served as one of the standards by which she would judge someone's personal worth.
D would go on and on about how you have to accept everyone, and no one should be diminished. But more than just about anyone I have ever met, D was judgemental about people, on a whole host of very strict standards. This of course included her doctrine of acceptance, and on academic aptitude, and on much more.
She boasted, "I don't just take the word of other girl's, I find out for myself."
I wanted to ask her, "What exactly do you find out? Why do you always feel it necessary to evaluate or judge people." But instead I just listened.
Once two younger friends, still in their high school, came down to visit her. The friends were exactly the same way.
D was not openly religious, but she had one Jewish parent. She didn't have interest in explicit religion, but she did support family ambition. Her two friends were Jewish.
At the time I was oblivious to all this. About a year later D told me she was getting married. I thought, "good".
Some 10 years later I had a dream about D. Dreams are often not realistic. For some reason, I ran into her at a laundry mat in her elitist suburb. I didn't really want to even talk with her. Her level of judgement about people, about everyone, was so intense. It underlayed everything she did. It was completely covert, but so very very obvious. I had come to feel that D really was a malicious person, and should be treated as such.
In the years since, I have come to feel that I was being subjected to a particularly Jewish type of thinking. But I also know there are different variants on it within other groups. In the end it comes down to land, money, and power, based on a justification for elitism.
The movie, Welcome to the Doll House, satirizes this.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114906/
***************************************************************************
I am still troubled by the demise of radio talk show host Bernie Ward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Ward
I do not in anyway condone what he did. I support the prosecution of anyone who distributes such pictures. I am very bothered by the direction his fantasies, expressed online, seemed to be going. He was really stupid. He crossed lines which just must not be crossed.
But there are also other aspects of this which still concern me. As far as we know, the only offenses he actually committed were the distribution of pictures, kiddie porn, which he obtained freely. So in the absence of court room evidence to the contrary, we have to assume he did nothing else.
To me, 7 years in the federal pen, seems way too harsh. What harm did he really do? What sentences have other people gotten in similar circumstances.
Why did they wait to prosecute for 3 years? Given what we are learning about the Alberto Gonzales justice department, and the firing of US Attorneys for purely political reasons, I am very concerned. The absence of Bernie Ward does make a difference in this Presidential Election.
I am concerned about how people are running from Bernie Ward, distancing themselves. I have watched ABC News clips. SexFarie was so determined to make people know that she is not a dominatrix, "I am a Normal Girl."
http://www.michaelpritchard.com/
Micahel Pritchard, the opening act for John Paul II in his US appearances, is sanctimonious beyond belief.
As much as I believe that what Ward did is wrong, and should be prosecuted, I am also disturbed by SexFarie, and especially this Michael Pritchard.
I believe now that Ward was the product of a particularly Roman Catholic type of familyism. This started to be exposed during the clergy sex abuse scandal, where Ward had helped.
It was explained that for Catholic Good Families, there are only two routes available. One either has to replicate the Good Family, or one has to take religious vows. Any other lifestyle will be looked upon with suspicion. So of course you get lots of screwy priests and nuns, like 90%, and they all preach the virtues of the Good Family. Its all lies and denial. People in a state of denial are dangerous. Sexual abuse is about power.
Now, in certain respects, Protestantism is even more narrow. And I have recently gotten the impression that conservative Judaism is also just as narrow. Both are really dangerous.
Alice Miller cites the statistic that in Germany, 60% of incarcerated sex offenders are the sons of Lutheran clergy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Miller_(psychologist)
Ward was a ceaseless advocate for the virtues of the Good Family. Now for him, this was an enlightened and caring family, so he was not like conservatives. It was his emotional tie to the Good Family which made him such an effective on air liberal voice. He spoke to a scrappy, emergent ethnic, and Catholic listener ship. These are people who could go either way. Ward was fierce and moralistic in his denouncement of rightest thinking.
Though I don't share his world view, I always found him entertaining, and I believe he was very effective. He was able to counter much of the folk wisdom which supports the Right. He was a thorn in the side of the Right, and probably of the Vatican too.
Ward seemed to suffer from an inferiority complex, or have some need to prove himself, which clearly comes from this Catholic Good Family ideology. Ward was very angry once because he found himself unable to effectively help his son with math homework. Ward just is not good at math, or he may even suffer from a learning disability.
Ward went to San Francisco's Sacred Heart high school. This means that for those who support the ambitious Catholic Good Family, he was second tier. The first tier displays greater academic aptitude and goes to the Jesuit Saint Ignatius high school. Ward has brothers who are much more the movers and shakers than he is. It is a very ambitious family. I'm sure his brothers went to Saint Ignatius.
Ward then went on to become a priest, the only path away from the ideal of the Good Family. But where as most Catholic Good Family boys who seek this will opt to become Jesuits, he opted for the Franciscans. What is expected academically is going to be less.
He ended up teaching at Jesuit institutions, Saint Ignatius, and San Jose's Bellarmine College Prep. He was still supporting the doctrine of the ambitious Good Family. This is the price one has to pay for an exemption.
But finally he decided the price was too high, so he left the priesthood to form his own Good Family.
I don't condone Ward's interest in kiddie porn. I don't condone the abusive clergy either.
But I also know that in such a system, you are going to have very high rates of such secret, covert, and abusive sexuality. The system is built on lies and denial, and on the suppression of consensual adult sexuality. This goes back to the roots of western religion. Its about power, land, and money. Its about repression of the spirit. Its Moria and its Golgotha. We have to learn to live in other ways.
***************************************************************************
I am still troubled by the demise of radio talk show host Bernie Ward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Ward
I do not in anyway condone what he did. I support the prosecution of anyone who distributes such pictures. I am very bothered by the direction his fantasies, expressed online, seemed to be going. He was really stupid. He crossed lines which just must not be crossed.
But there are also other aspects of this which still concern me. As far as we know, the only offenses he actually committed were the distribution of pictures, kiddie porn, which he obtained freely. So in the absence of court room evidence to the contrary, we have to assume he did nothing else.
To me, 7 years in the federal pen, seems way too harsh. What harm did he really do? What sentences have other people gotten in similar circumstances.
Why did they wait to prosecute for 3 years? Given what we are learning about the Alberto Gonzales justice department, and the firing of US Attorneys for purely political reasons, I am very concerned. The absence of Bernie Ward does make a difference in this Presidential Election.
I am concerned about how people are running from Bernie Ward, distancing themselves. I have watched ABC News clips. SexFarie was so determined to make people know that she is not a dominatrix, "I am a Normal Girl."
http://www.michaelpritchard.com/
Micahel Pritchard, the opening act for John Paul II in his US appearances, is sanctimonious beyond belief.
As much as I believe that what Ward did is wrong, and should be prosecuted, I am also disturbed by SexFarie, and especially this Michael Pritchard.
I believe now that Ward was the product of a particularly Roman Catholic type of familyism. This started to be exposed during the clergy sex abuse scandal, where Ward had helped.
It was explained that for Catholic Good Families, there are only two routes available. One either has to replicate the Good Family, or one has to take religious vows. Any other lifestyle will be looked upon with suspicion. So of course you get lots of screwy priests and nuns, like 90%, and they all preach the virtues of the Good Family. Its all lies and denial. People in a state of denial are dangerous. Sexual abuse is about power.
Now, in certain respects, Protestantism is even more narrow. And I have recently gotten the impression that conservative Judaism is also just as narrow. Both are really dangerous.
Alice Miller cites the statistic that in Germany, 60% of incarcerated sex offenders are the sons of Lutheran clergy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Miller_(psychologist)
Ward was a ceaseless advocate for the virtues of the Good Family. Now for him, this was an enlightened and caring family, so he was not like conservatives. It was his emotional tie to the Good Family which made him such an effective on air liberal voice. He spoke to a scrappy, emergent ethnic, and Catholic listener ship. These are people who could go either way. Ward was fierce and moralistic in his denouncement of rightest thinking.
Though I don't share his world view, I always found him entertaining, and I believe he was very effective. He was able to counter much of the folk wisdom which supports the Right. He was a thorn in the side of the Right, and probably of the Vatican too.
Ward seemed to suffer from an inferiority complex, or have some need to prove himself, which clearly comes from this Catholic Good Family ideology. Ward was very angry once because he found himself unable to effectively help his son with math homework. Ward just is not good at math, or he may even suffer from a learning disability.
Ward went to San Francisco's Sacred Heart high school. This means that for those who support the ambitious Catholic Good Family, he was second tier. The first tier displays greater academic aptitude and goes to the Jesuit Saint Ignatius high school. Ward has brothers who are much more the movers and shakers than he is. It is a very ambitious family. I'm sure his brothers went to Saint Ignatius.
Ward then went on to become a priest, the only path away from the ideal of the Good Family. But where as most Catholic Good Family boys who seek this will opt to become Jesuits, he opted for the Franciscans. What is expected academically is going to be less.
He ended up teaching at Jesuit institutions, Saint Ignatius, and San Jose's Bellarmine College Prep. He was still supporting the doctrine of the ambitious Good Family. This is the price one has to pay for an exemption.
But finally he decided the price was too high, so he left the priesthood to form his own Good Family.
I don't condone Ward's interest in kiddie porn. I don't condone the abusive clergy either.
But I also know that in such a system, you are going to have very high rates of such secret, covert, and abusive sexuality. The system is built on lies and denial, and on the suppression of consensual adult sexuality. This goes back to the roots of western religion. Its about power, land, and money. Its about repression of the spirit. Its Moria and its Golgotha. We have to learn to live in other ways.
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