|
THE HEAD AND HEART OF POLITICS
NEWSWEEK (2008) 2/11 BEGLEY 34-36.
Pre-modernism assumed that man is irrational and thus leaders kept a heavy hand on the population with such things as divine right of kings. Modernism assumes that man is rational. That does not hold up to the chagrin of economists. Postmodern assumes that humans are non-rational. That means they are a combination of rationality and non-rationality. Further humans find that emotionally it is better to be happy than right.
The latest findings in political science and sociology are that people can vote against their best economic interests. Many blue collar folks vote for the candidate that is anti-abortion but will cut their incomes and increase their taxes. On the other hand, there are techies and hedge fund managers who vote Democrat because they don’t like Christian fundamentalist’s agenda. They should really stick with the Republicans.
The heart generally wins over the head. Folks are non-rational. Thus, a key element in the Republican Party is to scare folks so that voters will go their way in terms of military security. On the other hand, if voters are mad at not having enough to live on and the sense of fairness in the tax system, they go for the Democrats.
Then the phenomena emerge of the appearance, the public personality, and speaking ability of the candidate. Some who really removed from the political system vote for the best looking.
9/11 EXPOSED ISIKOFF (45)
A new book by NEW YORK TIMES WRITER Philip Shenon discovered that in going through the 9/11 commission raw material that Richard Clarke of the Bush Administration kept writing e-mails to Condoleezza Rice that an attack was imminent on the United States. His last e-mail warning was 9/4/2001 a week before the attack. The commission kept the lid on as one of the members kept badgering the others that Clarke was mentally ill. Thus, it was not covered in the main report. George Tenet and Bill Clinton are also discussed. Rove and Gonzales worked on covering up the whole thing.
SADNESS BEGLEY 50-52
At key times in one’s life, one loses a loved one or makes a terrible mistake in terms of social skills and they feel the blues. This is natural and should not be medicalized with anti-depressants and related. Psycho-genetic or long term sociological struggles can help individuals with depression, but losing a lover is another matter.
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT (2008) 2/11
HOW DID OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM GET SO BAD?
ZUCKERMAN63-64
It is just beginning to hit the average person that we are heading for the worst recession since the BIG DEPRESSION of the 30’s. Very smart people took foolish risks for greed. With little regulation, financial systems and all the players bet on paper. The paper was supposed to be rated as AA or AAA. The paper is called by many names due to their ability and role they play in the market. Many are exotic. We will call them securities. Real money, glorified I O U, s and other exotics were bundled together and sold at a profit as if they were solid and worthwhile money. They then spread through the financial system like cancer. As the cancer got worse, it went in all directions and hit a tipping point where few if any knew who owed what to whom. That means that funny money has clogged the channels of commerce. So what are lending institutions doing? They are lending very little, asking for higher upfront costs, and have little trust for other banks. We have almost hit a freeze. The Bush and the Fed for ideological reasons that free markets should never be interfered with has looked the other way.
What should be done?
|
| Home | Essays | Small Talk | Books | About Joel Snell | Publications | Links |