Archive for July, 2010
As Published On
The Policy Think Site: www.jaygaskill.com
THE REAISSANCE 411 BLOG – Ground Zero for the Renaissance
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2010 by Jay B. Gaskill, all rights reserved….
A time-limited license to publish, distribute or print all or part of this article (except for personal use) is needed. [A one time license for use in group discussions is almost always routinely given.]
For permissions, please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail law@jaygaskill.com
As posted in htm format —
http://jaygaskill.com/TwoReallyBadSeductiveIdeas.htm
THE TWO MOST DANGEROUSLY SEDUCTIVE
IDEAS OF OUR TIME
&
Their Unintended consequences
A Reflection
By
Jay B Gaskill
Introduction
I’m an “ideas have consequences guy”. And over the years, I’ve also learned that there are no “perfect” ideas. The Judeo-Christian notion of mankind living in a “fallen” state captures an essential corrective. Call it the Murphy’s Law of social engineering, to wit: Perversely, people (in general, not necessarily as particular individuals) will always game any form of social organization in the search of dominance and spoils. This is why the search for Utopian perfection is doomed, and why the founders of this great country built a system of checks against power concentrations.
The result is that the wise people of good will choose to pursue the optimum, not perfection, and why they patiently leave room for correction and even reversal of course. This is also why elites always tend to form up within organizations, and why – periodically – they need to be fired.
The liberal project is to make the world a better place by overcoming boundaries, while the conservative project is to keep the world from becoming a worse place by protecting boundaries. In the optimum relationship between these two natural forces, the liberal and conservative projects become more cautious. Both seek to overcome the arbitrary boundaries to progress, while protecting the essential ones on which the vital social order depends. This is the Great Dialogic wherein for the liberal side a boundary is provisionally arbitrary and from the conservative perspective it is provisionally necessary. Neither side is so hypnotized by a Great Idea that actual, real world experience is ignored.
We now are entering an era when the excesses of the liberal project reach a tipping point. This is not the end of liberalism. The recent Trifecta in American politics (POTUS, House and Senate in the hands of liberal elites) was not the end of conservatism. Every movement reaches its apex just before its sharp decline.
As I say, ideas do have consequences. And liberalism has reached the precipice of decline because of its infatuation with two particularly Bad Ideas. I must acknowledge one other issue, looming in the background, an overarching concern that has obsessed liberalism’s left wing for the last 80 years: The differences between the material conditions of those who occupy the various roles within the economic order. Society’s tolerance for such inequalities is a huge issue, but I’m setting that aside to describe two toxic ideas.
Idea One
The Seduction of Power-coercion
This is the all to attractive notion that the power of the state is a proper tool for well-meaning persons to make the world into a better place. Employing the engines of coercive power for “good ends” is seductive.[1]
But there are real costs – as Dr. Faustus could attest.
The seduction of power-coercion always comes bundled with a set of arrogant attitudes:
(1) Why bother with persuasion when you have access to coercion?
(2) Why bother with dialogue when you live in a bubble?
(3) Why reconsider any position when “all decent people” agree on the policy prescriptions that will lead us to Utopia?
These attitudes are diagnostic clues – meaning that when we are confronted by “bubble people-in-charge”, we are being herded towards somebody’s idea of Utopia.
Elites, almost by definition, live in self-supporting bubbles. Their natural arrogance is the inevitable result of the confluence of three modern tendencies:
(1) the temptation of comfortable elites and their trusting followers to believe that one’s good intentions trump incompetence and excuses even brutal means;
(2) the fatal attraction of power-sublimation for social engineers for whom the human condition is a plastic medium to be shaped, as opposed to an inheritance to be safeguarded;
(3) the substitution of ideology for ultimate moral authority (the kind that flows from deep tradition and/or universal deity)
When these attitudes prevail, ordinary dialogue degrades into irreconcilable hectoring, and disagreements become apostasy.
These conditions are the seedbed for the emergence of the Dystopian Prison.
Idea Two
The Pursuit of Materialistic Heaven
We are living in an era wherein the heavenly state has become a sought-after secular achievement, the modern utopia. This is a “paradise” characterized by the substitution of creature comforts for the worthy life.
The ultimate hollowness of material comfort is exposed by the pervasive human hunger for the missing spiritual dimension once some basic comfort is achieved. When we achieve the conditions for baseline survival, we tend to become consumed by one of two things: the authentic pursuit of meaning and purpose, or the meaningless pursuit of distraction.[2]
Somehow the empty secular paradise has been credibly marketed as a replacement for moral integrity. It has even been offered as sufficient stand-in for the Ultimate human connection. That connection, whether or not it is understood in traditional religious terms, is essential to the authentic human life. [Many of the religious among us experience it as a demanding but fulfilling relationship with the Creator Being[3].]
The pursuit of the hollow, secular paradise has given birth to the modern entitlement howl:
It is right because we want it.
We deserve it.
What real harm would it do, anyway?
That entitlement howl has given birth to the ideologies of collective envy. And those ideologies have given birth to a new model of human society, the enforced utopia. And that naïvely brutal construct has, in turn, given birth to a new form of authoritarian tyranny – one simultaneously occupying the moral high ground and utilizing the very basest of methods.
It is the supreme irony of the last 120 years that the pursuit of a materialist paradise has led us into at least two versions of Existential Hell (the Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet gulags).
The power coercion fantasy and the materialist utopian ideal have combined in a malign alchemy that transmuted Secular Utopia into the Dystopian Prison. Our social engineers have transmutes fools gold into fecal matter via a simple spell.
And we thought the era of magic was over!
JBG
Jay B Gaskill is a California lawyer. Having served as the Alameda County Public Defender, he has given up his life of crime.
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[1] Ironically, the left has issues with using state power to preserve the existing peace and order. Why there should be such liberal ambivalence about law and order puzzled Eric Hoffer in the 1960’s and remains a contradiction to this day.
[2] The dropout of the underlying moral order, particularly in sophisticated urban settings and the high crime areas of the country is no accident. It origins can be traced to the secularization of ethics and the concomitant confusion about moral boundaries and consequences.
[3] This is not intended to be a brief for any particular religion, but it is a cautionary note: morality is not self-executing. When the underlying religious support systems are stripped away, the moral order is weakened unless and until an equivalent belief system is substituted. The materialist ideologies of Marxism and Nazism were offered as substitutes for religion, and you see where that got us!
July 15th, 2010
As Published On
The Policy Think Site: www.jaygaskill.com
THE REAISSANCE 411 BLOG – Ground Zero for the Renaissance
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2010 by Jay B. Gaskill, all rights reserved….
A time-limited license to publish, distribute or print all or part of this article (except for personal use) is needed. [A one time license for use in group discussions is almost always routinely given.]
For permissions, please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail law@jaygaskill.com
CRASH WARNING
THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO POSTED, IN HTM FORMAT, AT –
http://www.jaygaskill.com/CrashWarning.htm
The US fiscal growth engine in careening towards a catastrophic collision with reality.
I’m not alone in this assessment.
Federal spending in excess of federal income has been going on for decades, generating a sovereign debt crisis of epic proportions.
US political and economic behavior (over four decades), in which a malign feedback loop between subsidy-hungry political constituencies and vote-buying politicians has driven a debt-financed bubble this resembles something all too familiar. The profile is eerily similar to substance abuse addiction. At some point all of those ‘too good to be true’ scenarios end in a crash.
The USA’s collision course with the FISCAL WALL has been radically accelerated by the current administration.
JUST HOW CLOSE TO THE CRASH ARE WE? THAT IS UP TO THE CHINESE.
An excerpt from my recent piece, “THE COMING FISCAL EARTHQUAKE AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT” (YES, WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.)
WHAT WILL THE WALL LOOK LIKE IN THE YEAR WE HIT IT?
At present, almost all of the “stimulus” spending and about 20% of every federal dollar is borrowed. In practice that means that the everyday operations of the federal government require that the borrowing continue. When that becomes impracticable because the lending markets lose confidence in the US economy, lenders (particularly foreign lenders) will no longer be willing to subsidize our government’s spending on any terms that will support the current budgets. That’s when the politically driven economies hit the WALL.
The resulting crash will resemble the credit freeze that followed the collapse of overleveraged real estate assets. But we used borrowed money to bail ourselves out of the real estate-driven bank crash. If and when our government’s fiscal scheme crashes, there will be no bailout. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed, benefit checks will be slashed – eventually fiat money will be printed, then ordinary commodity prices will double and more.
But…within a few weeks or months of the FIRST WALL EVENT, those measures will be obviously insufficient
LINK
http://jaygaskill.com/FiscalEarthquake.htm
WHAT WILL THE WALL LOOK LIKE BEFORE WE HIT IT?
HINT -
READ THESE TWO REPORTS
ONE
U.S. marks 3rd-largest, single-day debt increase
$166 billion jump spurs concerns over policy
The nation’s debt leapt $166 billion in a single day last week, the third-largest increase in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when Congress is balking over higher spending and debt has become a key policy battleground.
The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30 – bigger than the entire annual deficit for fiscal year 2007 and larger than the $140 billion in savings the new health care bill will produce over its first 10 years. The figure works out to nearly $1,500 for every U.S. household, or more than 10 times the median daily household income.
LINK-
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/7/us-marks-3rd-largest-single-day-debt-boost/
TWO
China rules out ‘nuclear option’ on T-bills
By Geoff Dyer in Beijing and Peter Garnham in London
Published: July 7 2010 10:44 | Last updated: July 7 2010 23:56
Given the US government’s huge funding needs, some analysts worry that China’s stated objective of diversifying its reserves could also lead to higher US interest rates if it buys fewer Treasuries.
However, Safe said that the “nuclear” option of selling huge volumes of US assets was “completely unnecessary”. Given its security, liquidity and low transaction costs, the US Treasury market was “a very important market for China”. It added: “Any increase or decrease in our holdings of US Treasuries is a normal investment operation.”
LINK-
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f038fc8-89a3-11df-9ea6-00144feab49a.html
WHAT, ME WORRY?
China’s reassurances are like that of a predator with one claw against the prey’s aorta, speaking softly and soothingly. We have become beguiled by our addiction that we chronically misread the signs OF OUR PERIL. We think that our drug dealer, sorry I meant our BIG CREDITOR was saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t cut you off,” when, in reality, the statement was more like, “I expect payment, you know, and I will get it by any means necessary, just not today….”
OUR POLITICAL LEADERS ARE LIVING IN A DELUSIONAL WORLD IN WHICH THE ‘BORROWING ALWAYS FUELS PROSPERITY’ BROMIDE ATTRIBUTED TO ST. KEYNES STILL HOLDS TRUE IN THE INTERNATIONALIZED ECONOMY.
NOT SO, IMHO.
Jay B Gaskill
Attorney at Law
LINK
“The Keynesian Collapse http://www.jaygaskill.com/KeynsianCollapse.pdf
July 8th, 2010
THE START TREATY SIGNED BY OUR PRESIDENT IS AN IMPROVIDENT EXERCISE IN UNILATERAL DISARMAMENT, DISGUISED AS A BILATERAL TREATY WITH RUSSIA.
As former Governor Romney in today’s Washington Post swrites –
Whatever the reason for the treaty’s failings, it must not be ratified: The security of the United States is at stake. The only responsible course is for the Senate to demand and scrutinize the full diplomatic record underlying the treaty. Then it must insist that any linkage between the treaty and our missile defense system be eliminated. In a world where nuclear weapons are proliferating, America’s missile defense shield must not be compromised. As currently drafted, New START is a non-starter.
For the entire OP Ed, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/05/AR2010070502657.html
I agree…and would add that Mr. Romney is looking better and better and the GOP’s best choice for 2012.
JBG
July 6th, 2010
As Published On
The Policy Think Site: www.jaygaskill.com
THE REAISSANCE 411 BLOG – Ground Zero for the Renaissance
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2010 by Jay B. Gaskill, all rights reserved….
A time-limited license to publish, distribute or print all or part of this article (except for personal use) is needed. [A one time license for use in group discussions is almost always routinely given.]
For permissions, please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail law@jaygaskill.com
As posted on The Policy Think site –
http://jaygaskill.com/PullingTheIranianNuclearStinger.htm
PULLING THE IRANIAN STINGER
Dr. L White (http://einbrera.blogspot.com ) has circulated a compelling set of articles containing convergent opinion and analysis that support the view that Iran’s atomic bomb ambitions cannot be stopped by sanctions or diplomacy, that the Obama administration has already decided to allow that to happen and that, once armed with nuclear weapons capability, the Iranian regime will not be deterrable in the same way that the US and Soviet Union were during the Cold War. Some of Dr. White’s sources are linked here
http://www.mythsandfacts.com/article_view.asp?articleID=172
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/iran-cannot-be-contained-15462?page=all
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
Naturally I am in full agreement with this assessment.
In an “open letter” to Mr. Obama’s Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel on June 15, 2009, I wrote –
“Dear Mr. Emanuel:
“Since you have access to the intelligence information, I’ll get right to the point. The Iranian regime plans to use its nuclear weapons capabilities in an ethic cleansing program aimed at the Jewish inhabitants of Israel. The “liberals” in the regime will be willing to accept ethnic cleansing via forced ex-migration under threat of a nuclear holocaust. The hardliners are willing to actively incinerate 75% of the Jewish population and accept the collateral damage.
“The “liberals” are not in control.
“As you know, the Israeli government is currently debating the timing issue, i.e., how long dare they wait before attempting to mitigate the threat by bombing the known nuclear weapons infrastructure facilities and missile emplacements in Iran.
“You and they know that this effort may not succeed because the technical and logistical demands (well within US capabilities) are at the outer limits of the IDF’s reach.
“You and they also know that any attack by the IDF on Iran will bring retaliation on Israel. The estimates of the retaliatory casualties inflicted on the Israeli population are about 100,000, unless and until defenses are hardened, in which case the estimates fall to a “mere” 10,000 or so. So the timing issue is complicated by intelligence uncertainties and defense preparedness logistics.
“All Americans need to understand the scale of the threat to the Israelis, as I’m sure you do. The US population is about 305 million while Israel has only 7.5 m. The multiplier is 40.666, which means that 100,000 dead Israelis is the equivalent of 4.666 million dead Americans, a “symbolic” holocaust to be sure and the cause for great rejoicing in Teheran. What would be the scale of casualties in the event of nuclear missile attacks on Israel? A true holocaust for sure: Jerusalem has .73 million inhabitants, Tel Aviv .38 m, Haifa .26 m, Rishon LeZion .22 m, and so on, all within missile range.
“The reason that the Iranian regime will not back down is that the ruling clique see only two scenarios, and either scenario is glorious. In the one where nuclear weapons are acquired by the Zion-hating mullahs, Iran becomes the world’s ethnic cleanser-in-chief and the untouchable terror-export bully. This would mark the beginning of a nightmare that would make the cold war standoff of the last century seem like a pleasant dream. The scenario where Israel is provoked into a preventative air strike, followed by a punishing counterattack is equally glorious. The Israelis are too civilized to inflict unnecessary civilian casualties, but the Iranian regime considers killing Israeli civilians a worthy goal. The image of America, sitting idly by while its “evil” friend suffers a retaliatory “symbolic” holocaust, is the jihadist wet dream.
“When a poison snake invades the nursery, you have to kill it on the first try. Half measures won’t work. By now you should have been briefed about the scale of the effort required. This is primarily an air and water mission with limited ground support.
“Iranian progress towards the point of no return, the acquisition of at least one exportable atomic bomb is a game changer. This circumstance is apparently acceptable to the current American administration. But not to any rational person in the region who hopes to avoid a nuclear arms race followed by an ecumenical holocaust – one that will ultimately kill millions of Jews, Arabs and other innocents.”
And so on. I had to try.
Rumors are now surfacing that Mr. Emanuel intends to leave the administration.
Israel, the only nation state with compelling, immediate self-interest at stake, has little choice but to attempt to pull Iran’s nuclear stinger before the point of no return has been reached. We are very, very close to that point.
This is why Iran and its murderous proxies (Syrian, Hezbollah and their front groups) are attempting to smuggle missiles, chemical-weapon warheads, Jihadist warriors and suicide killers into Lebanon, the Gaza strip and even inside Israel itself using tunnels from Egypt and Syria and the “humanitarian” flotilla.
The propaganda campaign against Israel’s blockade is designed to facilitate this multi-focal attack on Israel.
The Israelis – both left and right – are united by the raw survival imperative. Israel was formed as a safe-refuge state because of the indifference of Europe to the last holocaust. Political pressure has confined the Jewish state to unreasonably narrow borders, allowing a launch platform on Gaza itself, putting Jerusalem less than half the distance from a Gaza threat as that between Manhattan and East Hampton Village.
This is why the Saudis are prepared to allow Israel access to its airspace to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7148555.ece
And this is why the Israeli’s are prepared to act in preemptive self defense, even without American assistance.
To pray for Israel’s success in the current situation is to pray for world peace.
This president’s entire legacy will be enhanced or forever poisoned by his willingness to stand with Israel in this critical hour or his shameful unwillingness.
This is a Harry Truman moment but I fear that we have a Jimmy Carter Redux in the White House.
Pray that I am wrong.
JBG
July 1st, 2010
