“Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back.”― Piet Hein, Grooks 1
“The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long.”― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
Problems are something people like to avoid. It's a rare person that will leap headfirst into a problem without being prodded to do so by others like a stubborn mule. It's rarer that the person will find a simple solution without a great deal of self investigation and the stripping away of preconceived notions. Solutions to any real problem do not come easily, and solutions are much harder to find when fouled knowledge and psychological defense mechanisms are between the person and solution. Right now, the United States has an abundance of problems that aren't being addressed due to denial and excuse making.
Propaganda News- News organizations have become fully untrustable. When they aren't pushing news about people dying, they're pushing their political stance and trying to get people to 'see it their way'. Opinion has therefore replaced real news coverage. This includes hyperbole and blatant lies combined with the will to cover up crimes, such as the Epstein story that was cut and the leaking of which that got a reporter fired without any evidence she was even a part of the leak. They willfully push polls with questionable results such as the ones leading up to the '16 election that showed Hillary with a large lead, and also push Neo-McCarthyism by fueling the Russophobia that has taken hold of people who don't actually stop and think about our own problems: the country has an increasing obesity rate, increasing overdose rate, increasing suicide rate, increasing prescription drug use, increasing homelessness, declining educational standards, colleges bloated with ideology instead of learning, increasing debt load, a government that barely functions between taking money from lobbyists, all while exporting our manufacturing and along with it our real economy. (See some of my other essays for more information on those subjects.) And people think Russians could do something worse to us. Yeah, they could do worse, they could nuke us, which is the only thing remotely worse than what we're doing to ourselves.
Strategic Overstretch- The United States has ~800 military bases spread throughout ~80 countries, depending on the source and what people want to call a 'base'. No nation has ever survived such strategic overstretch. The ability to be strong on all fronts does not exist. Ask the English. The Spanish. Portuguese. The Dutch. Rome. All their empires fell due to not having the resources to properly defend the territory they set up shop on, combined with confrontations with all the enemies that went after them that were created from them carving pieces of influence out of the world around them. This is made even more troublesome with the fact that even many of our allies have problems with us. South Korea is tiring of the whole 'Korean War' fiasco. Europe is tiring of our outdated thinking that says the 'USSR', which hasn't existed for decades, is still a problem. Iraq wants us kicked out of that country. Japan is weary of our undisciplined troops killing their citizens. We don't have the means to maintain the status quo as it is for much longer with a military that can't win a war against people in Toyotas. Not to mention the questionable dealings with militants which always end with them turned against us and trying to bomb us. Americans have a notion that WW3 would be us and our allies against some 'bad guy', when in reality, it's shaping up to be us and a couple satellite nations like the United Kingdom against the world, with us being the 'bad guy'. And we will lose spectacularly if that happens, because we've turned out too many people who are so emotionally weak they're hurt by words alone and will fold like paper mache in the face of an actual fight.
Calcified Government- So many of the people in our Federal government have been there so long it's no wonder they still talk like the USSR is a thing, because it was when they first entered office. Our governments, both at the state and Federal levels, are full of people bloated on lobbyist money due to pandering to special interest groups for decades. They're so disconnected from the world and the country in general that they don't even realize that trying to say something like in Bolivia isn't a 'coup' is like someone trying to say Epstein killed himself. Only people that habitually buy such nonsense on a regular basis without any thought believe it anymore. The Deep State gave up trying to be secret and essentially made itself fully visible, which is the best thing about the Trump Presidency that would never have happened if Hillary or Bernie had won '16: Hillary pandered to the Deep State and Bernie pandered to people for votes. Our government still thinks people believe what they say, rather than rolling their eyes. The government still thinks we have a network of allies across the globe, rather than a few nations being bullied into being allies. They still think people think they'll be able to retire one day. Of course, some people in the country still think those things, especially those who are older who want to deny the situation we're in and those who are barely adults that swallow propaganda like it's breakfast cereal.
Social Security fund- Some people under 50 still think they'll retire. I assure you that is a joke of cosmic proportions for everyone that isn't disciplined enough to save money and pay everything they have off. And the joke is on almost everyone. The Social Security fund is running out of money. Meanwhile, we're spending billions on war machines while sending billions more to other countries to buy them as allies for a short amount of time. There's your retirement and disability: up in smoke because of some bullshit 'Commie' threat that doesn't exist (except for Marxist professors on campuses). Chances are those that think they'll retire will really join the ranks of the homeless or those that work until the day they drop dead on the job, while those entirely dependent on disability will end up eating pet food like some of those already living entirely off SS payments, which isn't a pretty sight. I've seen it for myself in Florida.
Failed 'Education' System- I won't get into how the rest of the world is ahead of us in math and science. That's so old news it's not funny. But I will point out that many colleges have reduced themselves to bastions of hooliganism and ignorance based on ideology. I won't get into the 'professors' that want to push Marxism or those that want to claim there's no biological difference between males and females (even though these are evidence of what I've said for a while now: the entire 'education' system needs revamped, except I don't think people really understand what I mean: I mean the entire system needs reduced to fundamental basics, all ideology removed, and then rebuilt into something that benefits society instead of working against society as it's currently doing) but we certainly have hooligans running rampant on campuses because of the ignorance they're swallowing. (I won't digress to how I refuse to go to college due to not wanting to risk coming out stupider and with a narrower view than when I entered, because as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, 'Education doesn't make you smarter.' and what we see on these campuses is proof of that.) The latest demonstration of this is the 'protesters' at Ann Coulter's Berkeley appearance yesterday. Protesting is one thing, physically barring people from entering a building is another. That's oppression. Pure and simple. Protest all you want against who you want, I could care less, but you're actively oppressing people once you try to keep them from something they have the right to go to. That falls back to the essay I wrote the other day, 'Freedom: A Great Lie', in which I point out the moment you say you can make the rules you're saying someone else can't, which means you become the oppressor. Argue with circle talk all day long about how 'they're standing up for bigotry and it's their right': it doesn't matter, because they're making themselves the bigots, and if I accept their view that Coulter is a bigot for the sake of argument, it's bigots against bigots, which is called 'even', meaning neither has a right to claim having 'a higher moral ground'. Not only that, but using your free speech to try taking away another person's free speech breaks the ninth amendment that says you can't use your rights to take away another person's rights. So forcibly keeping someone from speaking or others from hearing them speak is bigotry, oppression, and a violation of the constitution.
None of these problems can be sorted out and fixed until people stop denying them and pushing the blame on others. We're not special. No one is 'after us'. No one is screwing up our society except ourselves. Why these problems have gotten to the point they have gotten is because of denial and sticking of the head in the sand so far only toes show. The 'Russophobia' is a perfect example of it: let's blame some other country for messing with our elections instead of admitting the person that lost laughed at a man's brutal murder and made decisions that lead to the brutal death of one of our diplomats in response to Gaddafi's death. This mentality is pure denial and excuse making, and denial and excuse making always lead to catastrophic failures (just go ask Boeing how it worked out for them). The only way to start turning this around is to take responsibility for our own bad decisions and the bad decisions of our government and the people that are part of it. Nonsensical excuses aren't going to work much longer. Pushing blame on others isn't going to work much longer. Circle talk rationalization that doesn't really say anything isn't going to work much longer. Shrugging and saying 'it'll be okay, something will get figured out' isn't going to work much longer. Until we take responsibility, I stand by the answer I gave to a direct question two years ago: 'Do you think Trump will be our last President?' 'No, but I think the one after him could be.'
Further reading:
Facts vs. Opinion and Fox News-https://community.aarp.org/t5/Politics-Current-Events/FACTS-VS-OPINION-AND-FOX-NEWS/td-p/2017676
Russian Federation: Official Analysis of American Russophobia-https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/04/21/russian-federation-official-analysis-of-american-russophobia/
CBS News Fires Staffer Over Leaked Amy Robach and Jeffrey Epstein Audio-https://www.thewrap.com/cbs-news-fires-staffer-over-leaked-amy-robach-and-jeffrey-epstein-audio/
The US Has Military Bases in 80 Countries. All of Them Must Close.-https://www.thenation.com/article/the-us-has-military-bases-in-172-countries-all-of-them-must-close/
The Danger of Imperial Overstretch-https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2014/07/15/the-danger-of-imperial-overstretch/
If North Korea and Japan went to war, South Koreans would support Kim Jong-un, says new survey-https://www.rt.com/news/472834-south-korea-kim-versus-japan/
NATO experiencing 'brain death', France's Macron says-https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-nato-france-idINKBN1XH1H9
Iraqi defense minister gives US troops 4 weeks to leave Iraq-https://nypost.com/2019/10/23/iraqi-defense-minister-gives-us-troops-4-weeks-to-leave-iraq/
US troops in Japan banned from drinking after fatal crash-https://apnews.com/5026201eca474b1cbda3aa8560255d72
79 Members Of Congress Have Been In Office For At Least 20 Years-https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-18/79-members-congress-have-been-office-least-20-years
Deep State Admits They’ve Finally “Gotten a Grip on Trump” Liken Him to George W. Bush-https://thedailycoin.org/2017/09/22/deep-state-admits-theyve-finally-gotten-grip-trump-liken-george-w-bush/
Social Security is running out of money, with benefits on track to be reduced by 2035-https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/social-security-running-money-benefits-track-reduced-2035/story?id=62557507
Congresswoman: Some of My Constituents 'Eat Dog Food When Their Food Stamps Run Out’-https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/congresswoman-some-my-constituents-eat-dog-food-when-their-food-stamps-run-out
Homelessness Among the Elderly Expected to Triple in 10 Years-https://invisiblepeople.tv/homelessness-among-the-elderly-expected-to-triple-in-10-years/
Don't celebrate Karl Marx. His Communism has a death count in the millions.-https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/05/05/karl-marx-communism-death-column/578000002/
Wharton’s Adam Grant eviscerates viral Google memo: Differences between men and women are slim to none-https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/adam-grant-on-google-memo-differences-between-sexes-are-slim-to-none.html
UC Berkeley P.D. release names of people arrested at Coulter event-https://www.ktvu.com/news/uc-berkeley-p-d-release-names-of-people-arrested-at-coulter-event
Ninth Amendment-https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/ninth_amendment
Benghazi victims' families file suit against Clinton-https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-benghazi-families-sue-hillary-clinton-20160809-story.html
Hillary on Gaddafi - "we came, we saw, he died."-https://youtu.be/UtH7iv4ip1U
How Airbus finally seized the Boeing 737's title as the world's most popular plane-https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/a320-more-popular-than-737-most-orders/
Dr. Forina Hill made it abundantly clear in testimony yesterday, that it was the Russians who sent all that misinformation into social media where gullible right-wing people picked it up and spread it around like jam on women are inferior sandwiches. Like Dr. Hill stated, those smears have long been debunked, but I get them in my email to this day. Why is it that people still wish to change the past to their liking even when it already changed to their liking?
I agree with you on military spending and overreach. We need to get out of trying to be the police for the world, and especially, meddling in foreign affairs. Our past history with regimes around the world should be an indication. Military failures that occurred like the attempt to rescue the hostages in Tehran and the failure to protect and rescue the ambassador to Libya when Gadhafi fell will haunt us forever, along with the failure to recognize that the Twin Towers could be brought down by the simple mechanism of hijacked passenger planes. But the military-industrial complex has too much at stake to give up their hold on the United States budget easily will.
You failed to mention the multinational corporations and oligarchs of this country that use their money and influence to control elections and foreign policy to their interest, like our president recently removing troops from a portion of territory were Kurds live, only to send reinforcements to protect an Exxon oil installation. The same reason we got into Iraq in the first place. Not Osama bin Laden, but oil.
So, you were/are afraid to go to college because you might find someone smarter than you to figure you out. I ran into your kind in college quite often. Some of them became professors. I got three degrees in five colleges and taught in another five. I will agree with you that the quality of education has declined because of the dumbing down of content and grading as some sort of way of buoying up inadequate behavior. Otherwise, my observation is entirely different from yours. What I saw was an emphasis on teaching how to make money, professors finding ways to make money both with teaching and outside of teaching, often research of no value. I also saw the money shifting from teaching the basics, like philosophy, logic, mathematics, physics and English to business courses and the latest highest paying job opportunity that shifted from science and technology to business and accounting. Administrators and bean counters now make the most money. Philosophy and core course teachers now make the least and football coaches and athletic directors often make more than college presidents. I see little influence of Marxism in classroom teaching. I do see an exchange in ideas between students who are free while in college to engage in groups that find causes worth protesting.
Ron