RE LOWRY

He was called the British Brueghel, which is taking it a little far, but he is closer to such a thing than others.


Lowry was drawn to people on the fringe of society; down and out people; those whom the economic system in places like Manchester, where he lived most of his life, were often seen


In his early work, he did a lot of life drawings. I want to suggest some resemblances between several people, people with particular facial and anatomical features, in his life drawings, and some people seen in his later paintings.

RE L S LOWRY DRAWING PAINTINGS SUBJECTS CONNECTIONS

I want to do several entries on Lowry's figural and physiognomic drawings, particularly the ones I have, on two sides of a large sheet, and relate the images of sitters in them to images either in other drawings from his early years, or to figures in some of his densely peopled later paintings.

RE BUFFETT UPBEAT BBC EDITORIAL ABOUT TO GET BUFFETTED

Re upbeat about the US economy.

Where is his corporation sited?

Where are his corporate assets?

Where are his investments, by continent?

Given that, it's easy to talk upbeat about the 'US economy'?

RE INSIDE JOB

 I guess I will have to watch this.


I would point out, however, that trying to pin the larger political economic woes of the US on just banking malfeasance, or even on just Wall Street activities, by themselves, overlooks the great majority of causes for these downward trends in the quality of Americans' lives.


Not that this is an uncommon problem, that of incorrectly isolating a single bogey to blame.


More on this in a moment.

RE ROBERT MACAIRE SMACK DOWN ADAM SMITH DAVID HUME WESTERN SUMOS CARTOON MISE EN SCENE THINK DAUMIER HOGARTH

Why not........... 


Where is Barry Blitt when you really need him?


Picture an old style wrestling arena. 


Adam Smith, historically a rather dour portly, bespectacled, disheveled, long haired, reclusive (?) Scottish personage, apparently both physically uncoordinated and awkward in real life.


His plump comical middle aged carcass is face and body down, face turned toward the viewer, 'for the count', say one booted foot raised up and back in a pose of futile rebellion at his plight.


His visible hand is being held firmly behind his back and also held up for our inspection, by the also corpulent personage sitting calmly, triumphantly, and lazily, but heavily, atop him, in dapper 19th Century wrestling attire with loose smoker billowing over it, delicately but firmly holds a large cigar lazily in his other hand: 


the Adam Smith conqueror is none other than Monsieur Robert Macaire, aka The Maverick Executive, Don Giovanni, Casanova, many other disguises, including such august personages as David Hume.


The referee will resemble, of course, a wiry and starved but very animated and authoritative Bertrand, conducting the count.


An alternative referee is none other than David Hume!


Rigoletto might be drooping, somewhere nearby.


The caption above:
Western Sumo Titans 
Smack Down 


The one below:
The Invisible Hand


Term search Casanova, Macaire, Thurston, fattening things up, cartoon, lazy fare, Mary Poppins, etc., etc., etc. 

RE AMERICAN FREE TRADE HAS BEEN BLIND TRADE mise en scene CARTOON THE CRUSHED AND THEREFORE INVISIBLE HAND

This seemed a nice conjunction of terms, and an image, given the utopian, and Whiggish, antecedents to the laissez faire process.


Picture the Adam Smithian 'invisible hand', as being now almost invisible, 


not only because we cannot see it in the real world, 


but also because its owner cannot, as a hand of a blind person.


One can imagine various cartoon possibilities.


One good one might be, say, a blind, eg blindfolded, Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, etc.,  very flat on the ground, his hand outstretched toward the viewer, crushed beneath the enormous bubble person or entity, could be Macaire, a sumo, my blobbal image, etc.,  crushing his torso only, from which his head and legs still protrude, and also crushing his now almost 'invisible' to us, reduced to two dimensional paper image, crushed hand.




The caption above:
The invisible hand


The caption below:
market forces at work.

RE AMERICAN POLITICS AND DECLINE OF THE REPUBLIC

The assumptions of most Americans has been that we deal mainly with our picayune domestic political scene within the long existing framework; 


we have tended to leave our weak federal system drifting there, because it is the best system the world has ever known;


and nothing can be better to try to put in its place by reform, other than some form of state by state secession if the federal branch gets too high handed; 


and, when needed, do what is necessary abroad militarily.


Certain broad areas of activity, most notably trade, investment, commerce, diplomacy, etc., and  have usually been viewed by Americans as politically benign and harmless, (except for certain moments of reform, eg trust busting), if sometimes not very helpful for the average American. These have been left largely in private or chief executive hands, because our political system has required it.


Infrastructure has been seen only fitfully as a national priority; and sectional, interest group, and personality issues have driven projects that were built, usually without overarching rhyme or reason.

RE FROM OKLAHOMA TO TOBRUK NYT EDITORIAL DEMOCRACY EVERYWHERE

Great to have all these new Arab bourgeoisie coming aboard, 
sounds really great for global blobbal democracy, welcome,


but, 


e g, Hugo Chavez, duly democratically elected;

but:


China, India, everywhere, as Prestowitz noted, 


Three Billion New Capitalists, coming on board;


but:


'because our security problems do not arise from a competition among the great powers, but rather out of the seething underclass.' Bobbitt


but:


resources are scarcer and scarcer for these billion new hungry middle class wannabe, West's replacement producers, and now eager 'consumers' 


but:


and nationalists, (also civilizationalists ala Huntington) as Margaret MacMillan pointed out,


Paris: 1919, 'vicious from the moment of their birth'.

RE SHOCK DOCTRINE, U. S. A. KRUGMAN NYT EDITORIAL YESTERDAY

He is quite right, but virtually no one reads or understands his rants, and of course I have my axes to grind against the discipline which has given us this compartmentalized economics-think course to follow.


'A harsher, more unequal, less democratic society' 


turns out to be what unfettered laissez faire policies, 


only made feasible by a flawed, and intentionally weak, federal system, 


inevitably appear to end in.


The average American infers, 


from the fact that the existing federal-states system has not 


helped them much lately,


and has been painted as hurting them, 


(which by the way it has), 


that therefore it must be true,


what state and federal politicians have been telling them, 


that any government is bad.


Thus, a popular mandate exists for state and federal politicians,


who now nevertheless owe their political power mainly 


to large corporate and foreign interests,


not to average conservative, perhaps populist, Americans,


(but they cannot admit this openly),


to dismantle government programs 


(not of course their particular political posts themselves)


wherever they find them. 

RE LAST POST POLITICS DIPLOMACY ECONOMICS WAR NYT EDITORIAL PICKING WINNERS IN THE MIDEAST

Connecting these areas is not a new thing. 


Separating them, and then thinking one is saying something smart by showing a connection between them, is.


Particularly illuminating is say pp. 41-62, Ch. 4,  of E. H. Carr's The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939, pb. Harper Torchbooks, re laissez faire economics, politics, diplomacy, and war, including discussion of US foreign policy leading up to WW I, and after.

RE US TRYING TO PICK WINNERS IN THE MIDEAST NYT EDITORIAL

Anyone familiar with this blog will appreciate the irony of this headline.


'Picking winners' is what laissez faire economists have long held cannot ever be done systematically by governments, by incentives, taxes, or subsidies,


as the rationale to allow the invisible hand to perform this critical function for the economic well being of a nation.


It can also serve diplomatic sage pundits, who by use of the term imply that the international scene should be run along similar laissez faire lines, rather than more mercantilist principles adopted by some so called  'free rider' regimes. 


Their reasoning for this is the observation that the US has not very effectively predicted political events in the past.


I would say that simply because so ill informed a beast as the US has not had much insight into political events is no ground for assuming that picking winners and losers, in diplomacy or economics cannot be done by a more skilled regime or person. 


There is after all plenty of evidence to the contrary before anyone who cares to scrutinize it. Much of it has been noted on this blog.


Term search pick winners, picking winners, lazy fare, maverick, etc., fattening things up, Prestowitz, Trading Places, cartoon.

RE LIFE ON THE RUN FOR DEMOCRATS IN UNION FIGHTS NYT EDITORIAL CENTURIES OF DRIFT

That's Democracy at this point here and there in the US.


It is becoming generalized in leaps and bounds.


Nevins, I believe Volume 1, Ordeal Of The Union, has a few entertaining, but also in the larger scheme of things disheartening and disappointing, passages re House members being ignominiously hunted down in their known Washington boardinghouse haunts, and physically dragged, kicking cursing threatening and screaming, back into the Capitol for legislation quorum purposes.


So it went in the 19th Century, and, at either the federal or state level, not much has changed politically for the better over the past 150 years. Given developments civilizational, developmental, and nationalist developments in the international situation during that span, clearly the US has lost nonrecoverable ground since WW II. 


Referring to the internal domestic scene at various points and long periods leading up to the Civil War, primarily, Nevins tended, in Ordeal,  to refer to the overwhelming stasis of our political system by the term 'drift'. That seems to capture it fairly well, regarding trends throughout the 20th and into the 21st Century as well: drift.  


Some particularly physical Daumier Robert Macaire cartoons spring to mind...... 

RE HOW QUICKLY THEY FORGET EDITORIAL NYT TOY REGULATIONS

One can generalize how quickly they forget to structural problems with the political system which have for centuries now failed to cure themselves.


Some good examples spring to mind, eg US  trade negotiations chronicled by Prestowitz.


It really has been a pathetic story, multitude of fields and topics, how quickly they forget, looking back. 


Institutional memory, political memory itself, is something that has to be worked at.  


Anti intellectual attitudes toward things like this are among the most dangerous tendencies of more powerful forces within such regimes growing frustrated with their ineffective structures, flailing against any reasoned arguments, from whatever quarter,  for some way out.


See also, re how quickly they forget, yet hark back to an impossible colonial dream ideal:


http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-era-begins.html


And DK's comment, to one of his commenters.

RE THE BIG SHORT MICHAEL LEWIS INTERVIEW REFERENCE

For those who are interested, here is a citation to his interview on McNeill Lehrer on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WHrvUf016U

RE MY SELF TEST FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

With everyone wondering whether they aren't perhaps succumbing, I thought I would do a 'self test'; 


I have had McDonough's book, The Argument Of  The 'Tractatus', sitting on the shelf for a few of years unread.


I have actually found it entertaining, 40 or 50 pages along, and not particularly difficult reading, and not too taxing on the attention span; so now believe I may be actually holding Alzheimer's disease at bay.


Of course, there are other issues running around, with a person who could find something like this to be light, entertaining reading. Oh well........ It would be a sufficient consolation to be considered a 'troglodyte' of the species that DK considers himself and some of his readers.


I recommend McDonough to anyone wanting an accessible account of some of the more recherché issues involving logic running around in the early Wittgenstein, which spill over into the later themes.


Regrettably, it has very little to do directly with geopolitics or competitiveness. 


If anything, negatively, this general kind of subject matter is perhaps an example of the susceptibility of academia to obscure compartmentalizations of all types including philosophy specializations. 


Nevertheless, I would suggest, in partial defense of this particular work, that 'basic research' of this type (it touches many subcategories in several fields, typically treated compartmentally) incidentally should be made to serve many applications outside philosophy, if it were properly made known.  


Terms search, say, 'Wittgenstein' for a special thread through certain remarks. 


'Cartoon' will pull in many related themes. 

E H CARR WHAT IS HISTORY LINEAR VERSUS CYCLICAL PASSAGE

He has some very useful suggestions re what to look at first, re history, historians, and their theories. 


Also some very amusing observations re Butterfield's 'deutero' phase, The Englishman And His History, Whiggish, and contra his critical The Whig Interpretation of History, written in his 'proto' phase.


Carr's views here re linear versus cyclical are also helpful, if not slavishly followed.


Reprising British history in the 19th Century and into the 20th: 


"...it was full of meaning... so long as it seemed to be going our way...now that it has taken a wrong turning, belief in the meaning of history has become a heresy...After the First World War, Toynbee made a desperate attempt to replace a linear view of history by a cyclical theory--the characteristic ideology of a society in decline. (fn.2 Marcus Aurelius....Toynbee took the idea from Spengler's Decline of the West.) Since Toynbee's failure, British historians have for the most part been content to throw in their hands and declare that there is no general pattern in history at all." pb, p. 52.


One might draw some critical implications, limitations if you will, for cyclical generational theories, from Carr's perspective.


Re references to the rise and fall of empires, a quote, although somewhat dated now, given the rise of China development since it was published,  from Friedman and LeBard, The Coming War..., quoted also in Chalmers Johnson, Japan: Who Governs?,  may also be apt, to connect an otherwise abstruse topic to others found in profusion on this site re the US and competitiveness:


"'It is easier (for the U.S.) to force Japan to limit its exports of cars to the U.S. and to increase its purchases of U.S. cars than to increase the efficiency of Detroit.  This is the trap of empire.  Empire is first won by the most efficient and industrious.  It is then maintained by political and military efforts, not economic efficiency.  Thus, economics atrophy while armies and navies grow.  This military power is used to transfer wealth from colonies and allies, rather than going to the political effort of rebuilding the domestic economy.  At each point, the imperialist power has a choice of solving an economic crisis through internal effort or increased exploitation.  The latter, being the path of least resistance, is the usual choice.  The result is frequently a vast military force with a hollow socio-economic center, an empire in collapse.' Friedman, LeBard, p. 401.  


This view of course owes a great deal to Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers...." Johnson, p. 322.


Johnson espouses industrial policy, but not also coupled with protectionism for it, at p. 322, 


which seems to me rather to ignore the loud and clear implications of the developmental state phenomenon of which he nevertheless has been foremost in chronicling. See also his MITI.


Term search many other terms.

THE MENU

Greek Cypriot braised lamb shank, with onion, fennel, thyme, oregano, cumin, rosemary, pepperoncinis, capers, garlic, potatoes.


Greek field green onion and tomato salad, with French feta, mild pepperoncinis, and Greek calamata olives.


Dry house red.


Breyers chocolate ice cream.

RE WISCONSIN POWER PLAY KRUGMAN NYT EDITORIAL UNIONS RIGHT BUT ALSO FLATLY WRONG

He is quite right about these matters.


One point I have to point out: 


Why did private sector unions go under, 30 years ago (or more actually), as a prelude to the current assault on public sector ones?

When you are able to offshore your factory, who needs unions anymore?


Where did the advice, that offshoring factories, and buying foreign products rather than those produced by domestic union workers is fine, come from?


Term search: flatly wrong, Krugman, competitiveness.  
They all believe in free trade; some, like Krugman, want a little Keynesian deficit spending, tweaking of the dislocation busts, at home, during the global free trading 'troughs'.


See: "Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession"


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/49684/paul-krugman/competitiveness-a-dangerous-obsession

RE PRIVATE MEETING SILICON VALLEY ENTER PREENERS AND PRESIDENT OBAMA

Venture capital enter preener spotter put together this meeting, of enter preeners and President Obama.


Private meeting, thank you.


BBC report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12503494

term search entrepreneur, rail to rail, Macaire, cartoon, etc.

RE KRISTOF NYT WATCHING PROTESTERS RISK IT ALL WHAT'S HISTORY GOT TO DO WITH IT?

More like say 1789, 1848, or even 1917, than 1776.


But what's history got to do with it now?


Ready for 3 billion new freedom loving capitalist entrepreneurial
brothers?


Why then not embrace a huge new Kristof-chanting freedom-loving middle class, in China and India?


Guess what, they all want a piece of a vanished ideal.

RE ENTREPRENEUR AMERICAN STYLE AYN RAND'S EGOIST RALPH KRAMDEN

This is the classic example, the best image I can think of, except perhaps for Robert Macaire,  of the type of individual who typifies the harsh (if also, at time, comical) reality behind the American dream of entrepreneurship, 


also identified with Ayn Rand's egoism or 'reason', 


Honeymooner, Ralph Kramden:





In 21st Century America, 


picture him now well armed,


and radicalized.


Not perhaps such a laughing matter.


Macaire was a bona fide crooked character, whereas Kramden is a mere entrepreneur wannabe, typified by now-vanishing middle America.

RE THE PROBLEM OF REFORM AND THE PROBLEM OF SUCCESSION

Watching Garrett Fagan's lectures last night, on the Imperial period of the Roman Empire, the 100s AND 200s AD, (before the advent of Roman Christianity), 


and reading David Kaiser's current post,


I was struck by analogies between the ubiquitous 'problem of imperial succession', and problems of 'reform' which all regimes face in one or another way, or ways, with the passage of time, and changes in circumstances both internal and external. 


If one looks at the 'decline' of the Roman Republic, one can survey a period lasting 100 years, from 134 to say 31 BC.


The American political system, existing for a shorter period, has been stubbornly resilient, as vested political systems quickly become, and fairly resistant to needed structural reforms, in my judgment.   


Often, it seems, a need for structural political reform is, at least temporarily, 'solved', or perhaps only 'masked over', by expedients, innovations, taken by an authority figure, say an FDR. 

The Civil War, itself, an expression of structural flaws, an expression of needed structural reforms, in some ways a great  'masking over', although it did conclude certain issues, at least for our time.


The American Presidency, itself, is a classic example of a political office notoriously ill suited, within the existing framework, for most of the kinds of tasks either heaped upon it, offered to it, or denied to it, within the American political system.

RE TOWARDS THE GILDED AGE

These were some of my comments on DK's blog, re his topic: Towards the Gilded Age:

"Anonymous said...

Now the Republicans have had to cope with one big problem: their policies are bad for America and bad for the American people.

The policies which got Americans where they are today are, most unfortunately, those long shared by both parties.

Sad but true.

11:37 PM

  

I hate to be greedy on someone else's blog site, but re Justice Thomas' views, he scarcely ever saw an issue that did not, somehow, need 'closer judicial scrutiny'.

Some Americans may say that is a good thing; some of us lawyers may wonder.

All the best,

10:06 PM  

 

If I may be forgiven for writing too much,isn't it less a question of 'funds being progressively made more available to suggestible political parties', than of consequences of politically intended structural weaknesses of a long established liberal system of governance lacking sufficient internal integrity and focus to flourish in an adverse globalized political environment?

Those who long and valiantly clamored, in vain, for an industrial policy, witnin that weak system, are now seeing their warnings falling on largely uncomprehending ears.

10:32 PM  

 

"Although the Republicans have frequently bent the law (most notably in 2000 and again this week), they have successfully undid the work of our parents and grandparents mainly through legal means."

Today, May 25, 2010, in the new York Times, an article re drastic state and local government reforms in several states; including elimination of counties, consolidation of local govs, etc. (Question: Why not fewer states? Say, 5?)

The motives and ends, of these often 'conservative', tea, or 'republican', political players can be questioned, in that they have little to put in its place, and think mainly of 'less is best', rather than a more qualitative idiom.

But, 'democrats' should also seriously consider whether they are not, also, at a point (geopolitically) where serious domestic political reform, consolidation at both state and local levels, would be in their best interests, too; a leaner, perhaps meaner, 'welfare' state, or a leaner and meaner fascist one, but leaner and meaner seems on the cards either way, and very, very long overdue, whether either likes it, or not.

9:42 PM  

 

Coincidentally,

Krugman's May 24 article, "the old enemies", points out who the most obvious adversaries of reforms/consolidations, even minor ones, would be: the big (largely foreign) interests now lying mostly behind the Republican party, large MNCs, and foreigners.

But, I would point out,also partially infesting the Democratic penthouse as well; (and not the grass roots red neck, tea drinkers, or union members, of either).

If some irascible 'conservatives' say 'eliminate governments', say, some state governments, say twenty of them or more, say forty, and many thousands of local ones, by referendum; I say, bring it on, long, long overdue; but not for the 'no government' reasons they espouse.

3:39 PM  

I hate to put this in print, but it goes almost without saying that a first step, federally, in such directions, were the exec branch so inclined, would be 'repacking' somewhat (in Roosevelt's sense) the SC.

Still, such reforms would also have to start as so called 'grass roots' initiatives.

Further, what state political apparati would voluntarily decide to consolidate with 5 or 10 others?

Yet, those are the kind of changes needed, to begin to set right the stultifera navis.

4:40 PM  

 

In case anyone wonders why I suggest such thoroughgoing reforms and consolidations, to state and local governments, among other things; either to head off or bring on another gilded age; I offer the late Robert S. Lorch's book State and Local Politics: The Great Entanglement, as some evidence of reasons why the USA needs state and local government reform.

I only have the first edition, where perhaps he candycoated less his later views. Although dated, few larger details of his account have changed much. It is a great introduction, probably even in later editions, to a very sorry situation.

Especially the gray panels at the beginnings of chapters are worth the price alone. 1 and 3 are perhaps my favorites, but all should be read.

8:31 PM

RE THE EMPEROR OF BELGIUM

I am, at least for the moment, the self-appointed Emperor of Belgium.


As they have not yet formed a government, they are not in a position to challenge my claim.


That is la regle du jeu

the menu

Certain menus one lives to regret, though delicious at the moment:


Mexican organic black bean soup with lamb shank drippings.


Tossed romaine, vinaigrette Romano.


Broccoli stalks marinated in mild Greek pepperoncini juice (!)


Certain 'mathematical' presocratics, Pythagoreans, had cautioned to avoid beans, 


in that beans were thought to contain 'souls', and thus, presumably, should not be eaten.

RE BOOMING ASIA

 I recommend making that part of the platform of any successful American political party.


If Asian boom is not part of the platform; 


or then if elected, if measures aren't then put into place to assure Asia booms, 


then turn the incumbents out.


We can fight over the dirty details, 'do you promote Korea over China, Or Japan over Taiwan, or two of each over two of the others', 


but the big picture has to be boom Asia, 


and Committees can work out the details.

RE BERNANKE

No criticism of unbridled capital movements here:


"...the primary cause of the breakdown was the poor performance of the financial system and financial regulation in the country receiving the capital inflows, not the inflows themselves...."


One cannot have too much of a good thing.


Here is a good image of a 'large capital inflow' touching down, light as a feather, on the WWW:

TERM SEARCH PHILOSOPHERS

RE MAVERICK EXECUTIVES RELAXING WITH ZEPHYR

One of my favorite Mavericks, Jackie Gleason; (reminds me of my uncle). Seen here cavorting, with Brendan Behan, below the Wind God....................


see also Le Charivari, December 24th, 1837, Delt. 425. Macaire and Bertrand cavorting. 


Compare Kramden with Macaire, and of course, Norton with Bertrand.  This was not, by any means, an accidental pairing, of these two great comedians, Gleason and Carney, the fat and the thin.


See generally term search eg: Robert Macaire; Daumier;  Flore et Zephyr; entre preener, entrepreneurs; maverick executive; venture capitalists, rail to rail, cartoon, beautiful ugly, philosophers, fattening things up, etc.

RE CURRENCIES COMMODITIES AND INSTABILITY

With oil ready for a huge tank, when the Middle East ignites, 


and fiat currencies being inflated apace, 


it certainly looks like hard metal specie is set for a good panic run, 


when global blobbal lazy fair-induced 'peace' hits the war fan, shortly.

MONEY WINS

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/opinion/05sat3.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211



The Casanova hand.


Theme song, say, perhaps, Private Dancer.


On a related topic, and similar theme, say call it something like 'Private Dancer Casanova Hand Equity Market', 


see Jan 4 NYT article I have previously adverted to re Facebook, and Russian heavy private investment: "Cozying Up To Facebook As It has to Others, To Win Big Business", 






and the related article in the same edition:


http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/facebook-deal-offers-freedom-from-scrutiny/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25
.

RE RECRUITING IN CHINA

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/education/12college.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

I think we should get our soldiers there too. 


IT SEEMS ONLY (LAISSEZ) FAIRE.

RE BBC CHINA GOVERNMENT COMPANY BUILDING AIRPORT KHARTOUM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12466832

State sponsor of terrorism, cannot use or bid dollars....very convenient.


Soros, Paulson, China, savvy global investors, and many savvy terrorists, going off or at least betting heavily against the dollar, all at once.


They share these views with very many conservative Americans. Kindof funny, really.


Term search other posts, eg fattening things up, bubble, etc.

RE REAGAN AND REALITY BOB HERBERT

A much needed corrective view.


Also, term search Reagan. 


One might substitute Obama for Reagan in prior cartoons, now that he has come out. Or a Tea party candidate.


Those are the political parties.

RE FELIX SALMON NYT ARTICLE

Good commentary.


The so-called 'shareholder democracy' never really was what he alleges, and got only worse as the latter half of the Century unfolded.

RE COMPARTMENTALIZATION DOVETAILS INTO ANTI INTELLECTUALISM

Rather recherché topic, but bear with me for a moment.


Everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of highly educated, advanced science, professional Muslim young men persuaded to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center.


There are many other manifestations, of what I would call anti intellectual compartmentalization within academia itself.


Some notable examples among the religious intellegentsia in the West are exact science technicians and physicians who nevertheless, in their spare time are creationists on the side when they think about ultimate things or go to church.

RE US TRADE DEFICIT BALLOONS battle of titans

RE BBC ASKS WHAT IS THE TEA PARTY BATTLE OF TITANS

Kindof like Reagan, all over again.


His longtime employer and sponsor had been GE. 


He made more or less the same speech, with changes, both before, for GE, and after he became President.


Most anyone can figure it out.


Trading big guvmnt for big corpratuns. A battle of titans.


Trading places.

RE ABRAHAM LINCOLN, INFLATIONIST

True enough, but many complex issues, and assertions, running around here besides.

re Egypt's Christians and Muslims join forces against Mubarek

Nice, kind of ignorant, 'feel good', kind of phrase.


I am reminded, somewhat, of the French Revolution, and of  the 'joinings of forces' that went on there, at various different times.

RE STIFLED CHANNELS FOR UPWARD MOBILITY SHIELD OF ACHILLES

'Stifled channels for upward mobility',


Could serve as the theme song for the next 20 years or so.


World population, itself, is increasingly, 'economically', call it specifically 'structurally', superfluous, 


in the face of relentless labor saving technologies, combined with excess capacities.


The only 'solutions' for these excessive billions:


starvation, holocaust, or probably, both together.


Very sad situation.  


Term search, see prior post:
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2011/02/re-pj-cats-and-stifled-channels-for.html

RE THE JAPANESE VIEW OF THE US TORT SYSTEM

Not at all unusual among foreigners. 
They perhaps have a really good point.

http://blogs.forbes.com/danielfisher/2011/02/10/funny-video-shows-japanese-view-of-u-s-tort-system/

Question: where do you stand?
Second question, in our system: Who cares?

RE MUBAREK SURPRISE

Not a surprise to me. 


Can you say, 
confounded 'reliable sources'.

RE WORLD FOOD PRICES ETC

See eg this video:


http://www.realecontv.com/page/1108.html

The French Revolution had a large component of food shortage.


Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, contains extensive illuminating discussions of food production and prices, 1500 to 1700, Volume I mainly, as I recall.

RE UP WITH EGYPT THOMAS FRIEDMAN NYT EDITORIAL

Thomas Friedman, of course, believes that all uprising bourgeoisie, everywhere, not just Egypt, deserve, as of human right, 'a seat at the table' of a laissez faire cornucopia and of global 'democratic' decision making.


Great utopian ideal.


Unfortunately, see last post:


'It is, also, an increasingly, Hobbesian, Leibnizian atomistic individualism, dog eat dog situation, everywhere.'




See also, eg:




"...(because our security problems do not arise from a competition among the great powers, but rather out of the seething underclass, domestically and in the Third World, that has been seduced by the cult of consumption at a time when the future dictated by its demographics moves this class ever farther from realizing its fantasies)..." 


Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles, p. 258.


Unfortunately, a great unacknowledged dimension of our security problems do in fact involve competition among the great powers.


Re 'seduced by the cult of consumption', see also term search: the Casanova hand, lazy fair, cartoon, etc.

Re THE HOBBESIAN DOG EAT DOG BLOBBAL SITUATION

It is, also, an increasingly, Hobbesian, Leibnizian atomistic individualism, dog eat dog situation, everywhere.

RE SOCIAL SCIENTIST SEES BIAS WITHIN WHERE ARE THE ECONOMISTS OR POLITICAL SCIENTISTS MANAGEMENT BUSINESS OR CRIMINOLOGY ACADEMICS IN HIS ACCOUNT

Great essay.


One comment:
He, and his audience, and the society, assume the existing political categories 'liberal' or 'conservative', as valid and relevant, terms that in fact cut across everyone's political needs, in differing ways.  


The author's distinction, between social liberal versus fiscal conservative, captures something of this vagueness, but the problems with these terms are much more deep and diverse than that.


Another comment:


One might find some more 'conservatives' among the social scientists, if one were to advert to economists (I consider them social scientists), or to political scientists (I consider them social scientists), although there are many notable exceptions in this group.


If you throw in various, what I would call, modern social science amalgamation specialties, such as business administration or management studies, or even criminology (very popular too), for which so-called academic scholars are legion, then 'conservatives', in academia, begin to look very much more plentiful, perhaps even preponderant.


SEE ALSO COMPARTMENTALIZATION, ETC.

RE BANKER BASHING MARKET FIXING TEAM PLAY SUMOS TOO BIG TO FAIL DUELING ZEPHYRS CARTOON

The caption above:
Dueling Zephyrs Lighter Than Air


The one below:
Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Fall


See also, term search: fattening things up, flore et zephyr, Nixon Shock, Daumier, cartoon, Venus of Willendorf, Venus, Caesar, beautiful ugly, philosophers, Robert Macaire, maverick, team play, Thurston, security umbrella, Gods, Mary Poppins, etc.


Economics, for those which practice it by its rules, is terminal.


La Regle du jeu. 

RE ECHOES OF THE DISTANT PAST

This DK topic title, suggests an irresistible comment here, (why not also echo another really distant past), on a series of lectures I've been watching, 


even in the face of  well deserved Whig fallacy (Butterfield's sense) criticism:


Garrett Fagan, The History of Ancient Rome, especially the series of lectures dealing with the decline of the Roman Republic, lasting 100 years. 


We are now down to 45 BC, and Caesar's takeover of the government after the deaths of his co triumvirs, Crassus (in Parthia, then Persia, fighting it); 


and Pompey, murdered by treacherous Ptolemaic Egyptians, after escaping Caesar's wrath, on the shores of the then, fawning, Egypt.


The picture painted of the Roman state at this time is not a pretty one.


Commenting on DK's current topic, and some of his remarks on democracy, I would also add something like, 


'echoing' his comments on Brooks and Kristof, 


Democracy is, and has been, a highly 'relative' term, 


and not always very much a 'Whig Interpretation Of History' march, toward higher ground.