Author: plinyblogcom

 Blogpost # M.16                                           POLITICAL MYOPIA (pliny editorial)Sad experience often teaches us that facile decisions or solutions to problems, made in times of stress or frustration, all too often run the imminent risk of effectively exacerbating the problem. The mainstream, loyal American, in understandable apprehension of the extant (MAGA) threat to American democracy, has variously sought solutions to such threat. We have, in prior writings, suggested that all aspirants for the Presidency be, initially and mandatorily, vetted by an impartial board to screen out Trump-like, anti-democratic candidates; thus, preventing their harmful election by America’s unfortunately, large population of the misguided and populist horde. Regrettably, it is too late to implement said solution since the nightmarish Trump has already been designated as a Presidential candidate.

We would be eternally grateful to learn of any proposed solution that would if implemented, serve to protect and preserve our Democratic Republic.  However, this writing is specifically dedicated to the considered restraint of a popular and doubtlessly, well-intentioned, but precariously flawed solution.

The universal dread of mainstream Americans, simply stated, is that the coming Presidential election might result in a populist re-election of the proven and declared autocrat and acknowledged enemy of democracy, the immoral and ego-centric, Donald J. Trump. The demonstrated behavior of Trump, in his one term of office and his public declarations, leave little doubt of his intention to replace our unique democracy, for which many have sacrificed life and health to preserve, with the institution of a fascist autocracy. The cause for panic is, regarding this occasion, empirically rational. Because of worrisome poll numbers indicating only tepid support for President Joe Biden, compared with the huge MAGA cult support for the autocratic and felonious miscreant, Trump, the disquietude of the mainstream American is inarguably realistic, even palpable.

In the dense fog of such anxiety, a solution has been proposed to the effect that an acceptable third-party candidate might be interposed (nominated) who would predictably support a democratic republic; let us say, for example, Gavin Newsome or Liz Chaney. This suggested solution may be well-intentioned, but it is, in reality, myopic and dangerous.

In this context, we need to initially consider America’s (unjust and undemocratic) institution of the Electoral College. Although a popular vote would be significant in ensuring that each vote counted equally and thus, result in a truly representative, democratic nation, we are constitutionally hobbled by an archaic, non-democratic vestigial organ, “The Electoral College.” It is an undeniable fact that it is not the voters who select the President and Vice-President, but the Electors.

This outmoded and undemocratically archaic system affords each State the number of electors, equal to its total number of U.S. Senators and Representatives (total of 528) who select the winners. The voter, in truth, casts his ballot for his party’s State Elector, and not directly for the candidate. The winning Electors choose the President and Vice-President [remember 1/6/21!].

It is puzzling and distressing that the current poll numbers, do not seem to reflect the notably successful performance of President Biden. A sample of his accomplishments would include, his Covid-9 policies, managing and greatly ameliorating the dire effects of the pandemic (following the criminal negligence and mishandling of the problem by Trump, the latter, irresponsibly causing, upwards of one million, avoidable deaths), the lowering of inflation and unemployment, the increase in thousands of jobs, the lowering of prices for medicine, such as insulin, the reduction in oppressive college and professional school indebtedness, the shepherding of a substantial and much-need national infrastructure bill, the wise and competent handling of the Ukraine and Israeli Wars, the appointment of capable cabinet secretaries (as contrasted with Trump’s selection of incapable sycophants) and his compassionate regard for immigrant refugees and the downtrodden in general.

The horrendous and bizarre one-term, twice-impeached, Presidential record of Donald Trump, is undoubtedly, well known. Despite the same and his indictment on 91 felonies, ranging from tax fraud, gross violations of the Emolument Clause, bribery to cover up his brisk commerce with prostitutes, and rape, to the commission of Treason against the Nation, the immutable voting power of his numerous cult of MAGA supporters has effectively destroyed the Republican party and the dynamic functioning of our democracy. Further, in addition to his election denial and promulgation of an insurrection against the nation, he has expressed his clear intention to become a dictator.  There is a rational basis for alarm.

However, we must point out that a certain, popularly proposed solution, consisting of a third-party candidate, as an attempted mode of assurance of the defeat of Donald Trump, and the consequent survival of democracy, is quixotic and perilous. In our view, given the flawed dynamics of our electoral system, viz., the existence of the Electoral College system, should the result of such a proposed three-candidate election, result in the failure of any one candidate to win a requisite number of Electors, the House Of Representatives, then, has the constitutional choice of electing our Chief Executive.

It is instructive to recall the diminished responsibility of the majority MAGA-loyal House and to consider the public spectacle of its shameful inability to agree on a Leader. The practical result would be a bizarre combination of an un-American and Kafka-like nightmare.

The appropriate, safest, and most effective solution is for the mainstream, democracy-loving, citizen to energetically undertake to actively and responsibly assure the continuance of our democracy by being a vocal spokesman for its continuance in promoting the re-election of the proven capable and democracy-loving, Joseph Biden.  

-p.

You must remember this,
A bris is just a bris
A “Sy” is just a “Sy”
There’ll be a savory breakfast,
Bagels, lox, or matzo brie.

It’s still the same old story,
To strive for ritual glory
On that, you can rely
Commencing with this elemental fete,
“As time goes by.”
-p.

For clarity, we have employed the adjective, “Societal” before the dynamic noun,” Evolution” to distinguish our intended theme from the classic Darwinian use of the term. Darwin’s classic, secular explanation of the origin and progress of the earthly species is fundamentally grounded on the development and inheritance of physical traits, advantageously adaptive to survival and procreation in the presenting physical environment. Our chosen theme is distinguishable from that of Charles Darwin since its chosen context is not relevant to the subject of adaptive physical traits (or” mutational” development) enabling survival. It is specifically and narrowly confined to our perception of human transformational behavior and mindset, responsive to modern technology’s exponential “advances,” notably, computerization.

The present writing notes the striking contrast in humankind’s regressive alteration in perception and evolved societal lifestyle (“evolution)” responsive to the rapid and revolutionary changes in technology as compared with the same existing only less than one century ago., It is our considered view that metaphysically and fundamentally, humankind’s resultant changes in perception and lifestyle have far more humanistic, societal import than the facile convenience afforded by such advancements.

For reasons of practicality, and brevity, we have selected modest, but illustrative, samples of such changes. Moreover, our discussions of such observed social changes (social evolution) are relatively brief since many have been amply included within the scope of previous essays.

[Interactive communication] We have consistently maintained that computer (smartphone) communication in its signature transmittal of impersonal and inexpressive digital symbols to a small, lighted screen of another’s like device, and responded to (in the like manner) at a subsequent time, by bright comparison with natural interaction (in person or by telephone) is socially and emotionally inadequate; such inadequacy as reported, often portending feelings of loneliness, insularity, and even depression. The absence of the assurance of a recognizably nuanced voice and the untimely response from the conversant has resulted in a notable unhealthy, impact on society, particularly, the young; the latter, as reported, often characterized by increases in episodes of anxiety and depression. The negative impact of said digitally, impersonal “advance” was exacerbated by the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which mandated the prophylactic separation of individuals.

[The Family] We are old enough to remember a time and tradition when families routinely spent time together at meals, vacations, and holidays and often in the evenings, listened together to the family radio for news and programs. The latter activity was later upgraded to the mutual watching of a small screen, black and white television, which progressively improved to a large screen color television. The programs, themselves, advanced from primitive offerings (ex. Howdy Doody, Milton Berle) to todays, virtually unlimited access to popular sports, sophisticated programs, and choices of (Roku) films.

The radio, as mass entertainment, is virtually dead as is, lamentedly, the tradition of familial activities and general togetherness. In many cases, the former “family” dynamic has now functionally morphed into an analogous, “Bed and Breakfast” relationship among family members; the nature of the latter, often exemplified by younger family members privately addressing their smartphones, held under the table at family meals for conversational or other use.  In our view, the traditional context of “family” was further downgraded by the stated, computerized impersonality of interaction. In addition, the context of the stereotypical family contemporaneously portrayed by the entertainment industry has furthered the morphing of the close, and self-sustaining unit to a mere familiar, functioning, legal entity.

[Letters, Shopping, “Fast Food.”]  We are somewhat dubious as to the extent of the functional utility of the U.S. Post Office Department, given the apparent and truly unfortunate extinction of social letter writing. The ubiquitous use of hand-held digital cell phones for facile messaging has, inarguably, replaced said uniquely valuable mode of, thoughtful and deliberative communication. Even the mailing and joyful receipt of greeting cards have been replaced by computer transmissions.

Gone are the days when Alice and Sara would participate in a “shopping date,” viz., getting together for “window shopping” and lunch. General shopping at stores does exist to some degree, but most purchases are made by computer and delivered by carriers such as Amazon or FedEx. Returns are similarly effectuated (by computer and truck). Many retail establishments have not survived this evolutionary, commercial change in behavior.

Supplementing the evolving impersonality concerning the decline in family traditions has been the advent and pedestrian facility of “fast food” franchise outlets.  For our active and mobile society, especially for the youth and young adults, street-accessible cheap hamburgers (“burgers”) and French fries, pizza, and tacos, have, in large part, replaced family meals such as roast beef and vegetables or roast chicken with potatoes. In large part, the benefit of social, nourishing, and leisurely enjoyed meals and accompanying social interaction has gone the convenient, and unaesthetic route of facile, convenience, sacrificing the ritual folkway of mealtime ritual and culinary pleasure.

[Sexual mores, dating] We can remember that following a pretty girl’s providential acceptance of a (nervously expressed) request for a Saturday night date, the following episode, (or a slightly varied factual version) would ensue. When the awaited time, perhaps 7:30 P.M. arrived, the young man, after checking his hairdo, would ring the doorbell, encounter the father of the girl, and wait until she was ready to go with him to the movies; the latter event, often preceded by some precautionary instructions from the mother.

The ensuing events, typically, were as follows. After the conclusion of the first of the two features the young male dater, might by hesitant and anxious degrees, bravely place his arm on the top edge of the girl’s seat back, which often stiffly and painfully remained in place, until the (mutually distracted) end of the second feature. Thereafter, the two, customarily, would go to the local diner or luncheonette for an ice cream soda and then, return to the girl’s home. At this perilous juncture, the male suffered from the anxious issue as to the permissible adventure of bravely attempting to kiss the cute female “on the lips.” Traditional conferences by the young man and his intimate friends, the following Sunday morning, would dwell on the valorous (or quixotic failure) of the male success at “kissing on the first date.”

The evolved change in mores can simply and cursorily be described by a brief reference to a viewed televised discussion during which the interviewed young female indicated, among other notable details, that she customarily spends a lot of money on her “dating panties.” The radical evolution of behavioral “folkways” can be attributed to an immodest “sophistication” derived from the portrayal of male-female behavior by popular entertainment sources such as cinema, theater, and public print sources.

We might cite innumerable additional instances of perceived social evolution, however, we presume that they would uniformly evince similar characteristics; the tragic and unhealthy decline in the caliber and value of humanistic relationships in thoughtless and disadvantageous exchange for facile convenience.

-p.

Reiterating an initial, semi-conscious act of awakening from sleep each morning, we roughly cast off the covers before opening our eyes to meet the early-muted light of the bedroom. We then slide, painfully, to the right edge of the mattress and swing rather ungracefully, to an upright sitting position. After a brief time, our bare feet radially explore the cool wooden floor in search of warm slippers, often losing patience and rising barefoot. This daily, wake-up ritual is customarily concluded by the act of briskly scratching our head, bizarrely, even when not prompted to do so by some motivational scalp itch.

We continue to reprise our stereotypical morning performance, by sleepily, ambling over to the nearby bathroom, intent on achieving a measure of needed physical relief, and then washing our hands. The daily terpsichorean performance then continues with such steps as, brushing our teeth, showering, and when the mirror autocratically mandates, shaving. In accordance with our established performance protocol, we then dress for the coming day, depending on our intended activity.

The performance, cheerfully, continues in the kitchen with the ubiquitous and pleasant, folkloric ritual of making coffee, and toast (this time, a sesame bagel), consulting the refrigerator for milk for the coffee, butter, cheese, or jam (or all three), for application on the toasted bagel, and, lastly, to the cabinet for the pragmatic securing of a coffee cup and silverware.

It is a regular part of our signature morning performance, as we butter and dress our toasted bagel in anticipation of enjoying the morning meal, to routinely switch on the small kitchen television in a repeated and sleepy forgetfulness of its predictable function as a stark, dimensional “portal,” transitioning us from the intimately cozy, and unperturbed state of mind to the harsh reality of the troubled world existing beyond the finite dimensions of our breakfast table. 

We are, once more, encouraged to recall the poetically incisive statement of the protagonist in “Macbeth” written by the greatest playwright and poet, of all time, William Shakespeare:  “… Sleep, that ravels up the ragged sleeve of care.” An aesthetically beautiful and concise, poetic, analogy, and one that is irrefutably, and ubiquitously valid; empirically, at least for a circumscribed time.

As we now, unsettlingly, sip our coffee and partake of our breakfast we are once more, grimly reminded of the contemporary mix of horribles, internationally: the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Hamas barbaric attack on Israel, the Houthi terrorism against our shipping, the famine and wars in Ethiopia, the growing right-wing influence and autocracy in Europe, the suicidal disbelief of Global warming, and, nationally: by the cogent threat to democracy imposed by Trump and his cultish MAGA hordes, the persistence of  White Christian Nationalist militias, and the era’s ubiquitous bigotry regarding gender identity, the wrongful denial of women’s right to abortion, anti-Semitism, gross deceit of the evangelicals, the systemic injustice of the Criminal Justice System, the steep and shameful decline of SCOTUS, Covid, economic injustice, the toll in human lives caused by the absence of gun regulation, widespread voter interference, inflation and dire poverty, disability and incurable disease, the emotional disabilities caused by cell-phone communication in lieu of human interaction, atavistic and cruel capital punishment and an uncountable myriad of others.

The escape from the daytime nightmares of reality (Shakespeare’s “raveled sleeve”) universally offered by sleep is ephemeral (no more than approximately eight hours) and pragmatically a mere temporary postponement of the painful, but healthier, acceptance of reality. After washing and drying our coffee cup, with lips tightly expressive, we determinatively reach for our phone.

The act of temporal avoidance or diversion from the disturbing phenomena extant in the Nation and the World is acceptable, even, salutary, provided the same is not eternally utilized as a convenient or defensive denial of reality. After escapist sleep and a buttered bagel breakfast, we need to affirmatively strive to achieve solutions to humanity’s problems; rather than to irresponsibly, dedicate ourselves to a facile, temporal reliance on an oasis in the middle of an unrelenting hot and lethal desert.

*Thanks to Henry Roth, for the use of the title of his fine novel, “Call It Sleep.”

-p.

[N.B. The context of this writing is not set in the Israeli-Hamas conflict nor is it, fundamentally intended as an observation of current events. Its salient message is the metaphysical existence and survival of a People, historically and eternally threatened with destruction.]

It may be useful to, initially, recite a brief and contextually significant, review of recorded history:

At the time Britain obtained control of the territory, then known as, “Palestine,” from the Ottoman Empire and chose to issue the historically impactful  Balfour Declaration (1917), declaring its support for “Zionism” and the legal establishment of a (National) home for the Jewish People, the territory had a majority Arab, Muslim population with Jewish and Christian minorities.

The British Declaration’s promise of a Jewish State, in their Biblical homeland, motivated hundreds of thousands of Jews, fleeing from Nazi prosecution and the horrific events of the “Holocaust,” to migrate to Palestine. Clashes between Palestine Arabs and Jews grew in tandem with the increase in Jewish migration. In 1947, Britain declared its exit from the territory, and as a consequence, the United Nations agreed to partition Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian Arab States. Many Palestinian Arabs rejected the U.N. plan. Thereafter, a Civil War ensued following Israel’s declaration of independence in May 1948, after which Five Arab Nations promptly attacked Israel.

It is contextually relevant to this capsulized recitation of history, that before the founding of the State of Israel, Jews, everywhere had been eternally defenseless against the cruel and baseless persecution and mass murder that impacted that people’s history for upwards of two thousand years. In every venue to which Jews were thereby obliged to flee, they established viable communities and thrived for periods of time, only, to be subsequently persecuted, expelled, attacked, and murdered. The Crusades, in the year 1096 killed thousands of Jews, likewise, did the religious-based Spanish Inquisition, the many riots in the Arabic Territories, regular Russian pogroms, and, pointedly, Nazi extermination camps (six million murders). History pitilessly and inarguably taught the Jewish people that their sole available route to avoiding extermination was, when and if possible, the existential sanctuary of an established, Jewish State, (Zionism); a Nation that had the defensive capability to fight back to ward off those (many) who desired their destruction.

It may, permissibly, be said that the 18^th Century watchwords relevant to the historic revolutionary establishment of the American Nation, were “Liberty” and “Independence.” The single operative (ancient) watchword of the Jewish People has, eternally, and fundamentally, been survival. The salient moral virtue of the State of Israel, regardless of temporal considerations of transitory, events, is its morally and historically appropriate, humanistic existence and pragmatic function as an ethnic and cultural Sanctuary.

-p.

By universal literati consensus, the most difficult-to-understand work of fiction is “Finnegan’s Wake” by James Joyce. The novel, written in Joyce’s arcane stream of consciousness, employs dense and complex language, wordplay, various foreign languages sophisticated puns, and allusive references. By stark contrast, the eulogy or the posthumous portrayal of the recent mortality of the Republican Party is transparent, and a notably instructive scenario with a foreseeably disastrous outcome.

The traditional platform of the deceased Republican Party (the “G.O.P.”) was “conservative,” i.e., espousing “small government,” free market trade policies, nonregulation of industry, restrictions on labor unions, gun rights, the death penalty, the restriction of abortion rights and immigration, increased military spending and firm opposition to social programs like affirmative action.

The second of America’s two-party system, the “liberal” Democratic Party, has historically favored labor unionism, consumer protectionism, workplace safety regulations, equal opportunity, racial equality, regulation of environmental pollution, basic reform of the Criminal Justice System, abortion rights, support for the LBTGQ community, and a clear pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 

 The computed result of the respective outcomes of the popular vote, at various times, determines which of the two parties is awarded majority control, for a term, and becomes the “governing party,” the other is traditionally denominated the “minority party.”  The pragmatic utility to the democratic Nation resides in the dichotomous division of the political spectrum in the equitable and ideological existence of “right-wing” and “left-wing parties. The death or effective elimination of one of the two political parties would dynamically militate against such beneficial balance. Our presented “Wake,” or “Shiva” relates, in fact, to the tragic and untimely death of one of the two traditional parties, the Republican Party.

It is our considered view that the operative cause of death was a virulent and metastasizing pathology whose etiology had (and still has) the lethal two-pronged hazard of a large, previously unaffiliated, amorphous population of ill-informed, populist citizens with varied feelings of grievance, and their awakening, conglomeration and mass response to the demagogic promises of universal (albeit, not specified) relief by the would-be dictatorial charlatan, Donald J, Trump.

In an earlier essay, “POLICING APPLES,” (#M.5) we embraced the empirical phenomenon that “one rotten apple (viz., Trump) can spoil the barrel” (of apples). We would like to supplement that theme by declaring that such a rotten apple, in concert with other decayed fruit (populist and bigoted malcontents), makes for a loathsome and un-American fruit salad.  Without the support of a plethora of ignorant, worshipful discontented, and bigoted followers, there would not have been the tasteless, burlesque of the egocentric escalator ascension and notably, the subsequent existential hazard to American democracy; further, there would have been no resultant mortality of the Republican Party, engendered by said neurotic and autocratically centered, protagonist-in-chief of the present “Wake.”

Trump’s surprising rise to political prominence, from real estate grifter and host of an inane game show, was possible by the Nation’s threatening inclusion of a vast population of inadequately educated and poorly informed individuals, who defensively projected the fault for their personalized grievances on “big government” and the (well- educated), so-called, “privileged “elite.”  Analogous to woodland cicadas, they amorphously rested “underground” for years, unheard and unseen, and, analogous to woodland cicadas, emerged in the propitious year for their active life and joint woodland cacophony.

Donald Trump in his selfish and irresponsible rebellion against propriety, conventional democratic ideals, and visibly and unashamed demonstrable absence of a moral compass was perceived by such amorphous and previously, silent, and immobile malcontents, as a wake-up call to surface and render to him their misguided, cult-like obeisance.

The “death knell” or the “coups de grace” of the “Grand Old Party,” was heard, or administered when the greater part of the party, fearing the voting impact of the large populist Trump cult, irresponsibly forswore party doctrine and constituent responsibility, in exchange for the perceived job security by tactical adherence to the Trump-populist, bigoted and undemocratic programs of misinformation and distorted hype. The disastrous and fatal effects, as reflected in more detail in past essays, were the denigration of, truth, and promotion of conspiracy ideations, including a stolen election and a consequent violent insurrection, attacks on liberal democracy, disrespect for law and the Constitution, the rise of White Christian Nationalism and racial and gender bigotry, anti-Semitism, gun violence, loss of precedential, established abortion rights, attacks on health and safety regulation, opposition to traditional programs of immigration, prejudicial un-American voter interference,  opposition to existential environmental programs, and other non-liberal and anti-democratic action.

Such consequential, ill-considered, and, effectively, “suicidal” morphing of the bulk of the Republican Party, by such abandonment of principle and self-serving, irresponsible, and anti-democratic behavior, in quest of security of position, was the signature death toll, sounding the end of the traditional function of that late political party, whose decease is sadly celebrated by the present, contextual Wake.

-p.

 Our frequent two-hour drive from our legal domicile, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, to our country home in Kingston, N.Y., could be effectively termed, a “journey,” in recognition of our notable alteration in perspective, resulting from such a modest, pilgrimage.

To be clear, we value the exotic pleasure of living in a busy and active metropolis, equally, with the fortuitous opportunity of additionally residing in a cherished rural residence. Our present context does not relate to any trite contrast between the two, social or natural, but rather to said apprehension of our reaction to the radically transformed tempo.

Manhattan’s Upper West Side is characteristically famous for its multitude of dignified, canopied, and well-maintained brick apartment buildings, many close to one hundred years old, uniformly separated by two-lane streets; the latter, busy with private, commercial, and official vehicles, as well as crowds of daytime pedestrians. The dynamic scene is accompanied by a tattoo or musical continuo, of traffic honks, police, and ambulance sirens, the asthmatic wheezes of stopping buses, the subtle underground roar of the City subway, the energetic summoning of taxis, the hum and grind of equipment engaged in elderly building rejuvenation, the occasional music of carried radios, at times the shouts, adult and child, the barking of leashed and commercially walked dogs, the overhead chirps of sparrows and the throaty gurgles of slow, land lubber, head-bobbing pigeons.  

The (usually, fifteen-story) apartment buildings can observably and functionally, be described as internally lighted, uniform honeycombs, with windows, universally facing the busy, two-way streets. If it were permissibly possible to peer into such windowed honeycombs,  one might observe any multitude of diverse human scenarios, from stationary sitting at tables, watching television, reading, celebrating, or disputing, cleaning, making love, engaging in conversation or argument, sleeping, of the young and the old, the robust and the crippled old and infirm.

The Metropolis is eternally lighted, humming, and charged with human and mechanical energy and, on occasion, unrelenting scenes of joy and pathos. It is an eternal, multi-faceted portrayal and broad display of the infinite variety of Man’s contemporary life.  The omnipresent and unrelenting tempo is uniquely contrasted with the miraculous interposition of the verdant and peaceful Central Park, the latter, a cogent reminder of the choice of alternate scenarios.

Our frequent treks from our Manhattan home to rural Kingston start with familiar views of such described streets, stores, apartment buildings, stores, pedestrians, traffic lights, parked and moving automobiles; in general, the described, multi-tableau of a metropolitan tapestry.  A pivotal event is our signature arrival at the (George Washington) bridge, empirically described as a four thousand, and seventy-six-long, two-tier Bridge, spanning the Hudson River and connecting New York City with New Jersey. Such a factual description is at variance with our nuanced and romantic perception of an exotic portal or gateway to the tranquil tempo and verdancy, exemplified by the nearby venue of Central Park.

The ambiance of our two-hour voyage to Kingston is apt preparation for the themed metamorphosis of our contextual alteration in perception. After leaving the City environment, we soon find ourselves, high up on the cliffs of the Palisades Interstate Parkway in New Jersey, overlooking the Hudson and the skyline of New York City. It is, to us, remarkably symbolic of our mutual, although contrasting, nexus between our City home and our Country residence in Kingston, that the Hudson River, faithfully and symbolically, flows with us to our destination.

In our voyage, we see fascinating, magnificent hills, prehistorically, composed of layered sedimentary rock at the side of the highway, a testament to the eons of successive lakes, or river bottoms having succeeded each other and then fossilized. We see mountains and thousands of trees of every variety, wildlife, birds and buzzards, ponds, streams, and seasonal flowers. Before reaching Esopus Creek in the Catskill Mountains region we see many large areas of cultivated, short, sculptural-looking, fruit trees, which we enjoy as much as artistically sculptured objets d’art. Soon, we, delightedly, reach our Ulster County home on Ruby Road, which we have affectionally named, “Ruby Rose.”

The large, Living Room-Kitchen, and Dining Area is enclosed with glass and has high ceilings with glass clerestories. The outdoor ambiance populated with large, beautiful trees, grass, and outcrop stones, is observably visited by deer and other woodland friends and, in contrast to the steady beat of the cosmopolitan tempo, is pacific, natural, and aesthetically stimulating.

We find both venues to be conducive to writing essays, but the Rubyrose setting and tempo may be somewhat more emotionally suitable for writing poetry.

-p.

We have observed that the reasonable (not immoderate) exercise of the many societally recognized virtues, such as empathy, honesty, truth, accuracy, loyalty, equality, and sensitivity, are universally and eternally laudable and beneficial to society. By contrast, we have learned, by empirical experience that certain generally accepted virtues in the extreme, or practiced in discrete contexts can have negative, and even hazardous effects.

For example, the commendable practice of loyalty, to one’s family, friends, and country provides a needed and comforting sense of belonging and identity; the latter virtue an existential ingredient in Man’s empirical development of self-image and personal place.  Yet, even though a reasonable degree of patriotic and familial loyalty is fully compatible with the (unrelated) virtue of compassion for others, many (MAGA) citizens see immigration as a wrongful “pollution” of the American population. These selfish individuals who have transmogrified their purported (virtue of) loyalty to the Nation to the degree of xenophobic bias, have overtly opposed the Nation’s traditionally empathic admission of needy immigrant families, and so have perverted the otherwise, admirable virtue of loyalty.

Contemporary, industrialized society understandably values the pragmatic virtue of efficiency, indisputably, significant in the commercial context of the profitable, mass production of goods and services. Nevertheless, the misapplication of such virtue has resulted in a grave and observable detriment, to the dynamic functioning of integrated society, on a universal, and permanent basis.  

We take no pleasure in the empirical confirmation of our consistently expressed fear of the application of the otherwise, commendable, and pragmatic virtue of efficiency, being blindly and irresponsibly applied in the context of the humanistic features of society predictably, resulting in irretrievable, harm. As stated in a number of our past essays, the ill-considered application of the “virtue” of convenience and efficiency, in the singular societal context of human behavior, most notably, inter-personal interaction, was inarguably, destined to be antithetical to its requisite dynamics and healthy existence.

Human beings have chosen to live in society due to their innate need for personal contact and interaction with other humans. Such personal interaction is the foundational, experiential basis for the existence of independent, self-awareness and personal identity, the latter, developed by the empirical interactive responses of other humans. In addition, the elements mandatorily comprising personal security and vital societal cohesion are positively confirmed and buttressed by personalized communicative contact. In past writings, we have expressed our deep concern that the substitution of the comforting, mutual recognition of identity, by the parties to a conversation (in person or by telephone) and its inherent facility of spontaneity of relevant response, by the impersonal and “highly efficient” smartphone, would be individually and societally disastrous.

As feared, the World has rapidly become defined and utterly subsumed by the digital world. Mental health, especially of the young, has been negatively affected in a world, dominated by singular handheld screens; such robotic tragedy, further exacerbated by the prophylactic necessity to eschew personal contact during the pandemic. It is our disturbing observation that children seem to have become a different species, adept at navigating the digital world, but often, as reported, depressed and inept at impulse control. In our view, the ubiquitous and thoughtless homage to the “virtue” of facile efficiency has permanently altered society for the worse.

The ages’ societally lauded, virtue of personal ambition, or aspiration for “success,” may be considered a true virtue, perhaps, even a pragmatic necessity, in our enterprising Capitalistic economy. However, the context of such useful virtue, observed in the persona of many individuals, has often demonstrated perverted extremes and neurotic aspirational misconception. Such perversion has driven such nuanced individuals to an insatiable lust for the proverbial, “gold medal” in their misguided aspiration to be the “winner” in a subjectively proclaimed competition, for the amassment of (excessive and, pragmatically speaking, useless) wealth. No one can, as a practical matter, live better, or happier on two billion than on one billion, or, for that matter on ten million, dollars. Neurotic enslavement to a personal financial scoreboard for such insatiably, misguided individuals is their skewed personal perception of the measure of “virtue” operative in their nuanced definitional success.

In our writings, we have, principally and consistently, defined healthy and rationally determined “success,” rather, as the  realistic and joyful personal perception, later in life, of self-fulfillment; the latter an intrinsic, and eternal, contextually applicable, “virtue.”

-p.

While painfully ruminating on certain current negative phenomena (viz. book banning, censorship, and xenophobia) our thoughts,  somehow, wandered back to the time of our senior year in High School and  a memorable character, “Geenzie” or, properly, “Jeremy Klotz.” Geenzie was physically unable to join our coterie of friends who regularly played basketball after school in the schoolyard and rarely accompanied us to dances and parties for the same reason as his non-participation in sports. Geenzie was fat, big-bellied, with short arms and legs, and haplessly, clumsy and poorly coordinated.

Thus, there was scant reason to befriend and socialize with him, with the sole and compelling exception that his family owned one of the rare, newly developed, color televisions with a wider-than-usual screen, acquired by the good fortune of his father, Albert’s, employment as Assistant Manager at the corner appliance store. On most Saturday afternoons, in the appropriate season, we would assemble, at Geenzie’s living room, to enjoy colorfully watching College football games. However, such opportunity to watch College football games in color and on a bigger screen had its countervailing considerations; his apartment was eternally, uncomfortably hot, which latter feature enhanced the less-than-aesthetic impact of the malodorous, deeply-couch-ensconced presence of Geenzie. But, properly, to our theme.

While, we regularly indulged in neighborhood sports and greatly appreciated and much-lauded the demonstrated high skill of the uniquely talented televised players, Geenzie, by contrast, who was as athletic and supple as a burlap sack of stale Vidalia Onions, would loudly and emphatically, deprecate every instance of an incomplete pass or failed tackle. The ironic recollection that he needed to struggle, simply to free himself from the soft surface of his couch yet unashamedly, had arrogated to himself the franchise to jeer and comment at every failed play (albeit by such especially talented football players), informs our present, analogous understanding of the nature of the ironically, low caliber of the book banners, censors and xenophobes, the protagonists of our, disturbing ruminations, as stated above.

Those many of us who have valuably and enjoyably included the reading of good literature in the woven fabric of our lives, empirically, could and would not, possess any desire to limit or restrict others’ literary choices The reader’s naturally developed enlightenment and acquired respect for nuanced interests, would, systemically, disincline him from such un-American, arrogant, and despotic activity. In our view, it has, eternally, been the semi-literate, reductionist, based upon some purported, moral or religious grounds, who would choose to trespass on such basic freedom. Such dedicated censors would appear to be more than adequately possessed of the qualities of ignorance and incapacity, and like Geenzie, hopelessly deficient in relevant skill or rectitude.

Identical principles apply to all ubiquitous species of hapless and un-American censorship of the written word, inclusive of the recent advent of the attempted arbitrary constraints relative to the tactical expurgation of academic education. Moreover, these tailors of expression and would-be diluters of empirical history have empirically, demonstrated the personal absence of a modicum of intellectual and moral basis, for their purported “self-righteous” and reductionist behavior. History, like creative writing, is not store-bought hanger merchandise, in need of alteration; and most emphatically, not by such consummately, reductive, and unskilled, tailors.

In addition to their colossal ignorant bias, we assign a “Geenzie” measure of ineptitude and lack of perspective to America’s selfish and provincial xenophobes, who remain in dedicated (MAGA) opposition to the immigration of foreign families, desperately seeking an acceptable way of life. Their myopic ignorance extends to their appalling lack of recognition that our Nation is (virtually, 100%) populated by immigrants and their progeny, (inclusive of the most radically biased and selfish xenophobe). We, as first-generation American citizens, have eternally sided with Lady Liberty, who forever raises her beacon as an invitation to needy immigrants; and as well, with her personal poet laureate, Emma Lazarus, that our fortunate nation, for moral and humanistic reasons, continues to admit foreign nationals, escaping from dangerous or impoverished countries; and seeking a better life, as did we and our forebears.

Notably, American citizens who have had the benefit of the broadening experiences of traveling abroad, and the enlightening satisfaction of social interaction with citizens of other countries and ethnicities, would predictably, refrain from espousing the xenophobic, ignorant prejudice, inherent in stagnant, provincial entities, as personified by our recollected, archetypal- schlemiel, Geenzie.

-p.

It appears to be a universal nuance of the human persona, that repeated cautions and warnings, regardless of the seriousness of the articulated jeopardy, suffer some measure of loss in impact and exigent significance, by their numerous reiteration. Looking back at the virtual plethora of rational admonitions (appropriately and urgently) articulated over the past twelve months, concerning the existential threat, posed by Trump and his unwashed MAGA horde of populists to our democracy, it may be useful (with apologies to Sr. Guglielmo Marconi) to express a description of the imminent threat to the Nation, in the analogous terms of a dynamic electrical grid.

The electrical grid, itself, is a network of synchronized power and its connected consumers. We understand that Grids are synchronized, meaning that all distributive areas operate with a three-phase alternating current so that predictable voltage swings occur virtually, simultaneously.

The empirical likelihood of the election of the darling of the MAGA populists, Donald J. Trump, whose immorality and autocratic intentions proclaim him, historically, as the first American President to be criminally indicted, poses an existential threat to the structural apparatus and the generational power source of our historically unique and reliably functioning, American Democracy. Trump, in, no doubt, in his maiden reputational moment of veracity, has publically and unashamedly declared that, if re-elected, he will be a “dictator,” (i.e., “for one day”). In our selected analogical context, he predictably would autonomously and dictatorially“short-circuit” our democratic and, well-functioning, tri-partite grid and rule.

As analogously expressed, to the scientifically devised structure and operation of the existentially democratically (three-phase) grid, any such consequential power failure or, extinguishment, of our Founders’ constitutionally mandated, architecturally structured design of the Nation’s singular “balance of powers,” would, in very short order, result in a disastrous and irreparable termination of the salutary flow of the foundational dynamics of the Nation’s soundly and equitably established polity and conceivably the ultimate ” blackout” of our celebrated American way of life. Should such a national catastrophe be permitted to occur, as demonstrated by history, such tragic conditions are not, empirically, alleviated by any facile procedure analogously comparable to routinely changing a blown fuse.

As an enlightened American citizen and, notably, in the citizen’s self-interest, it is mandatorily advisable to soberly and responsibly, recognize the coming Presidential election, in realistic, empirical, and impactful effect, as a pitted and ultimate contest between the salutary, free, and enlightened existence ofour constitutionally granted, franchise of personal liberty and the autocratic, historically, predictable, darkened and repressed state of autocracy.

-p.