I am reminded of two quotes from two centuries apart:
Alexis de Tocqueville: "The strength of free peoples resides in the local community. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science: they put it within the people's reach"
Newt Gingrich: "December 7th 1941 to August 14th, 1945 is less than 4 years. In less than …
I am reminded of two quotes from two centuries apart:
Alexis de Tocqueville: "The strength of free peoples resides in the local community. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science: they put it within the people's reach"
Newt Gingrich: "December 7th 1941 to August 14th, 1945 is less than 4 years. In less than 4 years, we defeated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Today it takes 23 years to add a 5th runway to the Atlanta airport. We are simply not prepared, today, to be a serious country."
How do we bring the spirit of the young, agarian America (that deTocqueville celebrated) into the 21st century to combat the aging imperial decadence (that Gingrich laments) which we now find ourselves in? I suspect the answer lies in decentralization and federalism (deTocqueville thought that too), but our roads all lead in the opposite direction today.
"The top six companies by market capitalization in the U.S. are technology companies. The prevailing trend of this century is that technology will continue to improve civic functions in this country"
Considering the anti-social and anti-democratic behavior of these same companies over the last 5 years, the confidence expressed here appears misplaced. Regardless, this was a good perspective, and a great example of why I subscribe here.
We have given to much power to the Tech companies they are in total control of everything our votes our lives our very existence this is the question how do we turn it off how do we get rid of this cancer when we do that we will all be reborn and be human again (also get rid of Amazon it’s killing mom and pop operations)
Stop using them. That would be a great first step.
Next steps: get rid of your smartphone, turn off Amazon Prime, delete your Facebook and Twitter profiles, then go somewhere and do things with real people.
Yes, there are lots of political things that need doing too, but (as Aristotle, Augustine and Madison have all said) self-government begins with learning to govern yourself. If you want the world to change, start by changing the piece of it you have control over.
To that I would add volunteer during the elections at your local election administrator. 1) it is about the only truly local thing left; and 2) it is very much real world involvement with real world people.
You are exactly right take back our control take back our lives go off your smart phone use it only when necessary go off Twitter go off Facebook don’t shop at Amazon and don’t Google you don’t need the info 24/7 and take your children and grandchildren off instagram and Tik Tok get them into community projects get them into real life tell them it’s not only about them it’s about all of us start small we can grow a movement (in Bernie’s words) we can do it!!!
You can get 4G flip phones on eBay for less than $50 easily, and US Wireless or RedPocket both have cheap (no data) plans.
I didn't mention kids, but I concur 100% about keeping them off social media. However, that comes across as hypocrisy if they see their parents addicted to it. It was enforcing our ban on smartphones / social media for our teens that forced me to adopt similar rules for myself.
Bingo. Getting $hit done in the name of bettering the lives of the vast majority of our CITIZENS used to be the sine qua non of America. Today, the left has put so many spanners in the gears that we can't even clean the crap off our streets any more. Welcome to the 18th century!
*Great* quotes, Sir. And I would say *seriously* misplaced.
Road ahead? Ignoramoose. Dunno who said that the voters end up getting the government they want. The voters want two parties that don't amount to, seriously, squat. IMHO, of course.
JT, I have a substack related question for you. How did you get your "Writes inciteful experiences" tag to show up on all your comments? I can't figure out how to do that with my own.
I am reminded of two quotes from two centuries apart:
Alexis de Tocqueville: "The strength of free peoples resides in the local community. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science: they put it within the people's reach"
Newt Gingrich: "December 7th 1941 to August 14th, 1945 is less than 4 years. In less than 4 years, we defeated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Today it takes 23 years to add a 5th runway to the Atlanta airport. We are simply not prepared, today, to be a serious country."
How do we bring the spirit of the young, agarian America (that deTocqueville celebrated) into the 21st century to combat the aging imperial decadence (that Gingrich laments) which we now find ourselves in? I suspect the answer lies in decentralization and federalism (deTocqueville thought that too), but our roads all lead in the opposite direction today.
"The top six companies by market capitalization in the U.S. are technology companies. The prevailing trend of this century is that technology will continue to improve civic functions in this country"
Considering the anti-social and anti-democratic behavior of these same companies over the last 5 years, the confidence expressed here appears misplaced. Regardless, this was a good perspective, and a great example of why I subscribe here.
We have given to much power to the Tech companies they are in total control of everything our votes our lives our very existence this is the question how do we turn it off how do we get rid of this cancer when we do that we will all be reborn and be human again (also get rid of Amazon it’s killing mom and pop operations)
Stop using them. That would be a great first step.
Next steps: get rid of your smartphone, turn off Amazon Prime, delete your Facebook and Twitter profiles, then go somewhere and do things with real people.
Yes, there are lots of political things that need doing too, but (as Aristotle, Augustine and Madison have all said) self-government begins with learning to govern yourself. If you want the world to change, start by changing the piece of it you have control over.
To that I would add volunteer during the elections at your local election administrator. 1) it is about the only truly local thing left; and 2) it is very much real world involvement with real world people.
You are exactly right take back our control take back our lives go off your smart phone use it only when necessary go off Twitter go off Facebook don’t shop at Amazon and don’t Google you don’t need the info 24/7 and take your children and grandchildren off instagram and Tik Tok get them into community projects get them into real life tell them it’s not only about them it’s about all of us start small we can grow a movement (in Bernie’s words) we can do it!!!
You can get 4G flip phones on eBay for less than $50 easily, and US Wireless or RedPocket both have cheap (no data) plans.
I didn't mention kids, but I concur 100% about keeping them off social media. However, that comes across as hypocrisy if they see their parents addicted to it. It was enforcing our ban on smartphones / social media for our teens that forced me to adopt similar rules for myself.
Bingo. Getting $hit done in the name of bettering the lives of the vast majority of our CITIZENS used to be the sine qua non of America. Today, the left has put so many spanners in the gears that we can't even clean the crap off our streets any more. Welcome to the 18th century!
*Great* quotes, Sir. And I would say *seriously* misplaced.
Road ahead? Ignoramoose. Dunno who said that the voters end up getting the government they want. The voters want two parties that don't amount to, seriously, squat. IMHO, of course.
JT, I have a substack related question for you. How did you get your "Writes inciteful experiences" tag to show up on all your comments? I can't figure out how to do that with my own.
Ignoramoose again, Sir Brian. Sorry. It just shows up. (If You look at my Substack, You can SEE I never do anything with the Substack. ;)
Thinkin... But comin' up blanks. Sorry again.