Here’s a good reminder of how the United States is regarded today.
No, it’s not like it was just a few years ago when we were a land of laws, and we had allies all around the world that admired our democracy.
Now, the leaders of Canada, Panama, and Greenland all fear for their safety, and the world lives in fear of the insanity into which the U.S. has descended.
We’ve all read what the great 20th Century American engineer “Bucky” Fuller said here at least a hundred times, but maybe it’s time to explore its truths and its limits.
If we want to replace landline telephony with cell phones, we all get it. Maybe you want to invent the automobile that will replace the horse and buggy. Excellent.
If we want to address the fact that our planet is being taken over by sociopathic criminals, you have a thornier issue.
Perhaps you’re concerned that this planet is in the process of baking itself, due to nothing other than human greed.
If Fuller were still here, I would have liked to speak with him about this.
Pete Buttigieg, always on point, brings clarity to the matter.
At home, we have tax cuts for billionaires while children starve, stagnant wages for the working class, homeless veterans, the National Guard in our streets in an effort to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist, the catastrophic decline in our educational system, the abdication of our duty to prevent environmental collapse, and the most disgusting display imaginable of corruption and other forms of criminality in the Trump administration.
Most people wouldn’t trust you to walk our dogs, let alone run another country.
As the author of the words at left suggests, the Founding Fathers probably did give us too much credit.
But to be fair, they couldn’t have possibly imagined that the descendants of their countrymen would have, 250 years later, devolved into a nation in which criminal thugs would be held in the highest regard by a country full of ignorant and hateful people.
When we Boomers were growing up in the last half of the 20th Century, crime bosses were viewed as scum, even when they somehow avoided dying in prison. Now they have taken over the country, and the greatest of all time lives in the White House.
The words at left come from an old college friend who had a stratospheric career in law, especially as it applies to the workplace, and went onto to teach, coach, mentor, and author books on the subject.
America at this point is on the same moral footing as Russia in its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
With its long history of democracy and rule of law, it could have been argued that the Unites States was a great country at some time in the past.
Now, we’re a disgrace on the world stage.
If by “modernism” we mean further development of science and the use of the scientific method to find answers to life’s most persistent questions, then yes, we can all understand why St. Pope Pius X said what he did at left.
We’ve all had bad luck.
Here’s an example from my life as a marketing consultant to large tech companies, including IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
I had just flown into Phoenix from Boston, landing in the late evening and getting a taxi to a posh resort for an all-day team-building exercise with my client the next day.
I saw someone get into a limo as I got out of the cab and yanked my luggage out of the trunk, and I asked someone, “Do you happen to know who that is?”
“Oh yes,” someone explained. “Oh yes. That’s John Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas).” He was performing with his wife (Michelle, pictured at left). They just finished.”
I had missed the Mamas and the Papas by about 20 minutes.
Yes, we Americans can turn off the news feeds and let nature take its course, as Trump leads our descent from a democracy to a fascist state.
Most of us think this is a terrible idea.
My father took three years off from “living” and “being with family” to join millions of brave soldiers who made sure Hitler didn’t take over the world. The situation here and now is no different.
My father wasn’t a liberal. He was a conservative Republican patriot who understood what patriotism really means.
To the reader who sent me this:
This is entirely untrue. What’s the point of spreading malicious lies?
Please Google “World reaction to US invasion of Venezuela.”
Fortunately for this pathetic, dying planet, international law still means something.
You should be deeply ashamed of yourself.
