November 20th, 2016

11-20-2016

Selfishness, Greed, and Identity Politics

Leon Botstein offers nine "Speculative Thoughts on the Trump Presidency." Here are the first two.

"So for what it is worth, I have these speculative thoughts on the coming Trump presidency. 1. The Trump presidency is the consequence of dominant culture of selfishness and greed that has flourished in this country for decades, ever since the Reagan 1980s. In my view, even the collapse of communism helped discredit any value system capable of competing with an Ayn Rand style individualism focused on individual comfort and advantage and therefore money and wealth. Trump is the ideal symbol — the very essence of an American culture that holds that wealth is the only proper measure of human success and superiority. Kim Kardashian style super stardom and fame are close runner-ups. In the eyes of the electorate — particularly those without more than a high school education — Trump, falsely, of course, is the embodiment of the American dream. One of the unintended consequences of the end of communism is the vacuum of any plausible value system that is not about wealth and mega-fame. The rise in executive pay, and the prominence of the so-called 1 percent have eroded any pride in middle class status, and in modest virtues such as character, service and learning. In a culture that justifies the notion that if one were truly smart, one would be rich, who else should be president other than a Trump, who passed himself as a successful entrepreneur. The consequences of radical inequality are cultural as well as material. Voluntary conformism — the absence of desire to use freedom — is one such consequence. 2. We have systematically eroded any sense of shared citizenship. We prize subordinate identities — by race, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, and religion — all at the expense of a common notion of the citizen in a free society. What goes along with that is an oppositional attitude to government as a necessary evil, not as an asset or a virtue. As a consequence, there is a decline in the quality of public servants, elected and appointed. Anyone with a career in the public sector is seen as inferior to someone in the private sector. So Trump’s having never served as a public servant, and never paid his taxes, was seen as a badge of honor."

Form more information visit: https://medium.com/amor-mundi/some-speculative-thoughts-on-the-trump-presidency-9d0de5b8955d#.n9caro925

When Words Cease to Matter

[caption id="attachment_18479" align="alignright" width="300"] First Lady Michelle Obama meets with Melania Trump for tea in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House, Nov. 10, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)[/caption] Marianne Constable reflects on the election and "When Words Cease To Matter."

"As we struggle to understand the shock of the 2016 Presidential election, we realize how deeply language, on which productive debate depends, has been abused. Words matter. As so aptly and ironically put in Melania Trump’s plagiarized words at the Republican national convention, “your word is your bond.” The gravest problem at this moment then lies not in the hate- and fear-mongering racism and misogyny that critics accuse the Republican candidate of engaging in, although these are indeed frightening for many. It lies in the willingness of the President-elect himself and of others to disregard things he has actually said. Such disregard of language goes beyond lying and giving offense. It ruptures the possibility of a meaningful political sphere. Dialogue and discussion, including civil disagreement, depend on words. All become impossible when words cease to matter. Deliberate disregard of language poses a worse danger to political discussion and to the public realm than do ignorance and lies. Ignorance can be met with education. Falsehood and deception can be called out as illusion; they can be challenged in the name of what actually appears to be. Even insults can be acknowledged and addressed. When, by contrast, speakers and hearers routinely disavow or neglect the utterances that they hear or make, they cast words adrift, and language no longer shows us a shared or common world in which to take our bearings. Such indeed is the situation in the U.S. in the days of disorientation, unease, and unrest following the election of Donald Trump as President. Regardless of what kind of president Trump turns out to be, or of the policies he puts in place, the rhetoric of this election season has shaken our faith in the possibility of meaningful public exchange. This is not because persons are afraid to speak, although some will be. Nor is it because mainstream media has missed or mischaracterized the story, although it has. Our faith is shaken because to deny one’s words is to disregard what is. When this disregard coincides with more talk than ever before, the upshot is a mistrust in the possibility of genuine public exchange."

Form more information visit: https://medium.com/amor-mundi/draft-c-when-words-cease-to-matter-fe71c3637099

The Time for Pessimism

Joshua Foe Dienstag argues that when optimism is dashed, we should not respond with despair. Instead, he counsels pessimism.

" As for the future, it is always surprising to me that when optimistic hopes are dashed, people turn to despair or anger but rarely to pessimism. Pessimism, I hasten to add, is not negativity or resignation. It is the belief that history is on no one’s side, that our achievements are perishable and that there is a fundamental absurdity to our existence. If we choose to beat on in these circumstances, then we must do so with the understanding that there are no guarantees from nature or gods in the ultimate success or justice of our cause. The freedom for all that we seek may come at considerable expense to our happiness — or it may never come at all — but do we need a guarantee of success to fight for what we believe? Is our commitment to it that shallow that we require a pre-validation by history? Some years ago I wrote: “optimism makes us perpetual enemies of those future moments that do not meet our expectations, which means all future moments.” So many (and I do not exclude myself from this) did not believe that a Trump victory was possible because we allowed ourselves to be lulled into complacency about some supposed ‘arc of history’ that bent in some particular direction. Camus always insisted that historical trajectories were a mirage and, hence, that “he who dedicates himself to … history dedicates himself to nothing.” When we find ourselves in such a moment of disappointment, we should not multiply the feeling by imagining that we have been cheated of some historical destiny. But to what would we dedicate ourselves if not an imagined future? “Real generosity to the future,” Camus also wrote “lies in giving all to the present.” By this, I believe, he meant that we attend to the emergency in front of us without insisting that our work be tied to some larger narrative that will redeem it later on. Resistance to anti-democratic threats carries its own justification."

Form more information visit: https://medium.com/amor-mundi/pessimism-contra-trump-fb4a9bc70c08#.rdgi8flw8