We are hollow...
(by Richard)
America has hollowed out their textile, steel, optics, small appliance, semi-conductor, customer service, automobile, and newspaper industries...and has left us with aerospace, lawn care, insurance, and financial services - all of which are bloated, inefficient, bad for the environment, and of limited value on the World's stage.
Worse yet, Christian evangelicals and the G.W. Bush administration have actively worked to severely restrict the nascent bioengineering industry on so called "moral grounds". As have modern day Objectivists who raised objections to Green industries being State supported, or the Luddites who attempted to discount scientific knowledge, especially on Biology, Global warming, Family Planning, Energy sourcing, and Earth's ecology.
Our educational system which is the second highest absorber of local taxation fails to graduate half of their students. We rank poorly in International standards for philanthropy, educational attainment, political participation, multicultural and multilingual skills, we're untrained in and unappreciative of the fine arts, we are jingoistic, physically obese, socially stratified, fearful, and highly judgmental.
As an American progressive in late 2008, the prospects look bleak for the country I fought for, have loved and hated, and had such high hopes for in the past. We are the hollow land, the stuffed land, the dumbed down land, whose world view consists primarily of YouTube style videos. The only things we really have in our favor is the knowledge that most other countries of the World are at present in a worse overall condition than we are, and that America is the preeminent military power on Earth. Not at all inspiring is it...
T. S. Eliot » "The Hollow Men"
(by Richard)
America has hollowed out their textile, steel, optics, small appliance, semi-conductor, customer service, automobile, and newspaper industries...and has left us with aerospace, lawn care, insurance, and financial services - all of which are bloated, inefficient, bad for the environment, and of limited value on the World's stage.
Worse yet, Christian evangelicals and the G.W. Bush administration have actively worked to severely restrict the nascent bioengineering industry on so called "moral grounds". As have modern day Objectivists who raised objections to Green industries being State supported, or the Luddites who attempted to discount scientific knowledge, especially on Biology, Global warming, Family Planning, Energy sourcing, and Earth's ecology.
Our educational system which is the second highest absorber of local taxation fails to graduate half of their students. We rank poorly in International standards for philanthropy, educational attainment, political participation, multicultural and multilingual skills, we're untrained in and unappreciative of the fine arts, we are jingoistic, physically obese, socially stratified, fearful, and highly judgmental.
As an American progressive in late 2008, the prospects look bleak for the country I fought for, have loved and hated, and had such high hopes for in the past. We are the hollow land, the stuffed land, the dumbed down land, whose world view consists primarily of YouTube style videos. The only things we really have in our favor is the knowledge that most other countries of the World are at present in a worse overall condition than we are, and that America is the preeminent military power on Earth. Not at all inspiring is it...
T. S. Eliot » "The Hollow Men"
The Hollow Men
T. S. Eliot
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
...
posted by Richard at
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
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