Society and "place"

I recall a past episode of the TV program called "Downton Abbey" in which the lord of the manor tells a young friend, who is reluctant to use the valet his new position offers, that it is "important for everyone to have a place" and to use the valet's services.  I also recall an article recently about a police shooting in Iceland-the first of its kind in modern Icelandic history-and the comment that while guns are available in Iceland the economic gap between the rich and poor is very narrow, leaving everyone in that society with a "place" or a committment to the whole society. 

My thought in regard to this is that our society has not found a way to ensure everyone a meaningful "place" or connection to the whole or interest in the operation of a orderly and just society.  Fascism imposed on European societies in the 1930's and 40's gave everyone a place by making all classes work for the interest of the state.  I am certainly not advocating that form of government, but our system must find a way to give all people a sense of belonging to a greater whole and having an interest in the betterment of society.  There are just too many people in our society without jobs, or a decent quality of life that would give them a sense of "place".  There is just too much of a gap between those few at the top of the economic ladder and those at the bottom, especially when we hear (via TV, movies, and ads) all the time about the things that money will buy.  Without that sense of "place" all kinds of anti-social actions will be taken by those with nothing to lose.

Snowden and the NSA

A few items of interest from The Record on Dec 26, 2013 regarding the issue of Edward Snowden's release of thousands of documents about the NSA surveillance program.  A District Judge-Richard J. Leon-said he believed the program was "probsbly unconstitutional" but it seems he had no way of making that case legally. But Snowden's disclosures have given Leon the "chance to weigh in on the matter".  "Earlier challenges (to surveillance programs) were thrown out of court because civil libertarian plaintiffs couldn't prove that the NSA was collecting data about them".  Now the NSA has had to acknowledge the existence of the spy program so court cases can go forward, and one is expected to reach the US. Supreme Court.  There was a Supreme Court case in 1979 that the NSA claims gives them the authority to gather information.  It seems that the 1979 case "held that telephone records aren't private because citizens share them with the telephone company".  This, of course, is an ongoing issue with much more to follow.  Till then.

Why War?

I have often wondered why countries like ours seem always to be in a state of warfare.  Is it a result of a capitalist society or does it have to do with the position of our country in the world scene; the leader of the free world as they say.  We always had a Department of War until the name was moderated a bit by making it the Department of Defense, but the concern for warfare is still present.  We have the Joint of Chiefs involving the heads of the four major military branches and their access to the President and their advise on the need or ability of the armed forces to respond to a given problem.

But recently I have thought of other reasons we seem to be willing to enter into a state of armed conflict.  We have the pictures of many (men and women) who have served in the armed forces and use their picture from that time in their obituaries.  They show a younger state of the person in uniform and they almost always have a smile on their faces and a service hat jauntily tilted to one side.  This observation may only apply to the veterans of WWII and it may not be seen in obit pieces of the Korean War and Vietnam veterans.

I remember my mother telling us kids about her brother-my Uncle Al-who flew with the "flying tigers" in the "great war".  She said it seemed to be the best years of his life; that everything else since was kind of down hill.

I even remember my feelings on being drafted in 1967, being anti-war but somehow excited about going off to a different experience, meeting people and even getting married in my "dress blues".  Even now being proud to say I am a veteran.  I also remember form my reading of history, Gen William T. Sherman (Civil War) saying that "it was good that war is so terrible, or we would grow to like it too much".

I recently read a novel entitled "Snow Island" that was set in the days prior to and after the US entered the war in 1942.  One passage I will quote here as follows.

"...he heard the clink of silverware and the murmur of voices.  The entire world had taken leave of its senses.  The war was like a drug people craved.  You could see it in the glassy-eyed stares of people on the trains, in the streets, in the hallways of the hotel.  They were drunk with the war.  One glimpse at the dinning room as he went quickly past confirmed his sense of it all.  The tables were full. Laughter shot back and forth across the crowded room, and he saw, as he glanced in, champagne glasses raised over one table in a toast".

I always thought that we could teach peace, but maybe war is what people want and not for any high moral purpose or even for a country's glory but for a sense of personal pride, excitement and and involvement>

Litchfield Experiment

While watching an old episode of the "X-files" I came across reference to a US cold war project called the "Litchfield Experiment".  The program claims that the government made an attempt to clone the super-soldier or the super-intellect by eugenics to bred babies that would grow into these super humans.  I am not sure myself how this all might work but it seems the embryos were produced in the lab by the process of in-vitro fertilization and then implanted in unsuspecting women.  The offspring were referred to as "Adam" or "Eve" and each was given a number.  The experiment was conducted by the Luther Stapes Center for . Reproductive Medicine and run by a Dr Sally Kendrick.  The date in the program was 1985.  I googled "Litchfield Experiment" and found that there was such a program run by the US government in the 1950's because we were afraid the Russians were doing the same thing and we didn't want them to get ahead of us in this field.  For some reason the program was abandoned.  The "X-file" program claims that the surviving Adam and Eves were kept locked up in some kind of prison.  How true is the premise of his program?  I don't know. 

The Domino Theory

Many of us-my age-remember the use of this term to justify our position in the war in Vietnam.  If the US allowed South Vietnam to "go communist" then it would cause of ripple effect causing other neighboring countries to also fall to the communist aggression.  They would fall like dominoes, we were told, and the world would be much more dangerous.  As we know that turned out to be wrong.

I understand that now, in our efforts to punish Syria for using chemical weapons on areas of it population, we must now respond because if we did not then other countries around the world would also use chemical weapons against its own citizens or others who they were at war with.  Another foreign policy of the US based on the "domino theory".  I  believe the theory holds no water.

(Source: "Syria not likely to retaliate against US" by Anne Gearan of The Washington Post.  In The Record (of Bergen County, NJ) on 8/31/13.

Lock and Load

In Houston, Texas-the state that might just be the gun capital of America-a birthday party for an 18 year old ended with a gun fight.  The OK corral is back.  One party goer took out his handgun and fired off a round in celebration, much like they do in middle east countries to note a victory against the great satan of North America.  Problem being is that another party goer pulled out his handgun and fired back in what he thought was self-defense.  This is  what one might expect if everyone was carrying a piece; a vision of the NRA's perfect society

Obama and Race

The election of Barack Obama has done nothing to resolve the racial problems of our country; on the contrary it may have made them worse.  Many whites can now say "enough"...that the black man has finally achieved equality in our society.  I am sure many whites felt that voting for him in 2008 was there way of showing that they were no longer racist.  His re-election in 2012 leaves me scratching my head; is my observation wrong or was Romney just the "right" opponent to insure another victory for racial justice?

It should also be noted that Obama is not our first "black" president; he is our first "brown" president. Remember his mother was white and he was raised in a white world by white grandparents.  To say other wise is discount the effect of our mothers on our upbringing and I don't know anyone who would claim that. I am also thinking about that Langston Hughes poem that in part said;  "if your white, you're alright.  If you are brown, hang around.  If you are black stay back".

In The Nation magazine from Sept 2/9, 2013 is the following statement.  "Black unemployment is almost double that of whites; the percentage of black children living in poverty is almost triple that of whites; black life expectancy in Washington DC is lower than in the Gaza Strip; one in three black boys born in 2001 stands a lifetime risk of going to prison; more black men  were disenfranchised in 2004 because they were felons than in 1870, the year the 15th Amendment ostensibly secured their right to vote".

The same source notes the following. "Yet the fact remains that African Americans are no better off materially as a result (of his election), even if they may have been worse off had he lost, and that the economic gap  between blacks and whites has grown under his presidency".