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6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, February 17, 2020 4:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
How America Became “A City Upon a Hill”

“A society that is both clear and articulate about its intentions is something of a rarity in modern history,” Perry Miller lectured. “Most of the nations of Europe and Asia grew up by chance and by accident either of geography or politics.” In other countries, so much had changed over so much time, he explained, “that even the most patriotic citizens would not dare say to what conscious purpose the nation was originally devoted.” Europe had legends and myths, a murky past misted over by a cloud of unknowing. But America had a recorded past — a written and articulate beginning. All one needed to do was gather up the texts. All one had to do was check the sources. All one really had to do, Miller insisted, was read a single sermon by Winthrop.

This need for a purpose — this story of a nation founded in purpose and defined by it ever since — resonated with a wide range of thinkers and writers following the close of World War II and the opening of the Cold War. In the late 1950s, for example, Henry Luce, the powerful editor of Life magazine, asked respected intellectual and political leaders to articulate and explain the purpose of the country. “More than anything else,” he claimed, “the people of America are asking for a clear sense of National Purpose.” Respondents included politicians, poets, journalists, evangelists, and government officials — everyone from Billy Graham to Adlai Stevenson.

Most in this august group were haunted by a nation that seemed to have lost its way. As John Jessup, a prominent journalist, wrote, “Is there not a connection between the rise of nations and great purpose, between the loss of purpose and their decline?” The problem, it seemed, was complacency. Wealth had made Americans weak. “Part of our problem,” John W. Gardner declared, “is how to stay awake on a full stomach.” Nothing was being asked of the American people. Having achieved material success and world power, the United States seemed content to let citizens go about spending and consuming, little caring about a higher cause.

A whole culture of academics and public intellectuals took up these concerns. David Brinkley, Betty Friedan, Richard Hofstadter, C. Wright Mills, David Reisman, William Appleman Williams, and so many others in their own ways condemned American consumerism and anti-intellectualism in works that were broadly digested and debated by the American masses. Miller, who portrayed himself as a “lone wolf,” was by no means alone in his concerns. He, like others, believed that America’s influence might be terribly short-lived. “History is littered with the corpses of civilization that reached the limit of expansion, dug in behind walls and moats, and there yielded to decay,” he proclaimed. According to him, the materialistic culture of America would soon exhaust itself. It didn’t require particular genius “to ask yourself, at least from time to time, whether this American way of life is not rushing at a steadily accelerating pace toward a massive megalopolis which finally, of sheer dead weight, shall grind to an agonizing stop, and then crumble into ruin by the force of inertia.” As one of his students summarized, “He could imagine the end of America, if not of American affluence.” Yet for Miller, as for others, mere affluence constituted its own form of demise.

The content of Winthrop’s sermon — what Miller thought Winthrop was actually saying or proposing as a model — differed radically from what Reagan and others would make of it. According to Miller, this sermon called Puritans to model radical communal solidarity. It had nothing to do with the American Dream, nothing to do with bettering one’s life, nothing at all to do with making money or getting ahead. In fact, Miller claimed, Winthrop specifically rejected all such ideas. Going it alone, pulling ahead of others, getting rich or even trying to — these were the very dangers that Winthrop sought to guard against. Society’s success depended instead on mutual affection, bei

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SECOND

Monday, February 17, 2020 6:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Explain to me how Democrats are the answer to any of this.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Explain to me how cutting back Medicare, Social Security, taxes on the Wealthy, regulations on pollution, and building more H-bombs and increasing the Pentagon's budget is the answer to anything other than making the Rich even more Wealthy. Every time I do another summing up of my own wealth, it has increased at a faster and faster rate and I can only thank Trump and the Republican Party for that. Were Democrats in control I would NOT be swimming in a vast, overflowing pool of money.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

SIGNYM

Monday, February 17, 2020 9:16 PM

Quote:
SIX:Explain to me how Democrats are the answer to any of this.

SECONDRATE: Explain to me how cutting back Medicare, Social Security, taxes on the Wealthy, regulations on pollution, and building more H-bombs and increasing the Pentagon's budget is the answer to anything other than making the Rich even more Wealthy. Every time I do another summing up of my own wealth, it has increased at a faster and faster rate and I can only thank Trump and the Republican Party for that. Were Democrats in control I would NOT be swimming in a vast, overflowing pool of money.

Oh, bullshit. You were rich before Trump, right? You were rich under Obama, right? Worth 100+ million when Trump came into office already, right? You can't have $20 million in tax SAVINGS unless you're already very wealthy, correct?

Do you suppose maybe it's possible that NEITHER Dems nor Repubs are the answer to our problems??

But you hate Americans, so why pretend you care about what happens to the rest of us?

Quote:
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Yanno, this is emblematic of your problem: You're constantly trying to rewrite history.

History happened, son. It's over. You can't undo your bad decisions, just like you can't blame everyone else for your bad decisions. Stop trying -it isn't good for you because it isn't going to work.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

THG

Monday, February 17, 2020 9:32 PM

T

Deep state describes dedicated, educated professionals.

During Trump’s State of the Union Address he told a bunch of lies, did not shake Nancy Pelosi’s hand, gave Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rosa Parks Day, and Guillermo gave the official Spanish language response.

SIGNYM

Monday, February 17, 2020 10:07 PM

Oh, let's remember some of our previous politicians' whoppers ...

"I feel your pain"

"Most transparent administration ever"

"Like, with a cloth?"

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

SECOND

Monday, February 17, 2020 10:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Yanno, this is emblematic of your problem: You're constantly trying to rewrite history.

History happened, son. It's over. You can't undo your bad decisions, just like you can't blame everyone else for your bad decisions. Stop trying -it isn't good for you because it isn't going to work.

This is why I don't think you are a Firefly fan. If you were, you'd know I didn't write that 190 page alternative history of Firefly. Joss Whedon wrote it. Then he could not afford to make it on his budget and within 2 hours running time. He revised to make a 126 page version, which you can also download at the same URL.

Trump is rewriting his history all the time. If you don't know about Joss' two scripts it makes sense you don't know about Trump's ever changing past. ‘Something has to be done’: Trump’s quest to rewrite history of the Russia probe
www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-quest-to-rewrite-the-history-o
f-the-russia-probe/ar-BB103ff5?ocid=msedgntp
or
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/something-has-to-be-done-trumps-quest-
to-rewrite-history-of-the-russia-probe/2020/02/15/ea7a1b06-4f61-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

THG

Monday, February 17, 2020 11:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Yanno, this is emblematic of your problem: You're constantly trying to rewrite history.

History happened, son. It's over. You can't undo your bad decisions, just like you can't blame everyone else for your bad decisions. Stop trying -it isn't good for you because it isn't going to work.

'This is why I don't think you are a Firefly fan. If you were, you'd know I didn't write that 190 page alternative history of Firefly. Joss Whedon wrote it. Then he could not afford to make it on his budget and within 2 hours running time. He revised to make a 126 page version, which you can also download at the same URL.

Yep, she is a russian troll...

T

Deep state describes dedicated, educated professionals.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, February 18, 2020 8:59 AM

Quote:
SECONDRATE: The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

SIGNY: Yanno, this is emblematic of your problem: You're constantly trying to rewrite history. History happened, son. It's over. You can't undo your bad decisions, just like you can't blame everyone else for your bad decisions. Stop trying -it isn't good for you because it isn't going to work.

SECONDRATE: This is why I don't think you are a Firefly fan. If you were, you'd know I didn't write that 190 page alternative history of Firefly. Joss Whedon wrote it. Then he could not afford to make it on his budget and within 2 hours running time. He revised to make a 126 page version, which you can also download at the same URL.

The decision was made, the movie was completed. Why do you keep bringing up coulda-beens? Not very Mal-like of you!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

1KIKI

Tuesday, February 18, 2020 9:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Yanno, this is emblematic of your problem: You're constantly trying to rewrite history.

History happened, son. It's over. You can't undo your bad decisions, just like you can't blame everyone else for your bad decisions. Stop trying -it isn't good for you because it isn't going to work.

'This is why I don't think you are a Firefly fan. If you were, you'd know I didn't write that 190 page alternative history of Firefly. Joss Whedon wrote it. Then he could not afford to make it on his budget and within 2 hours running time. He revised to make a 126 page version, which you can also download at the same URL.

Yep, she is a russian troll...

T

Deep state describes dedicated, educated professionals.

SECOND

Tuesday, February 18, 2020 5:01 PM

How America Lost Its Mind: The Assault on Reason That’s Crippling Our Democracy

Dystopian titles are often nothing more than marketing tools, but such a title is necessary for this book. How America Lost Its Mind describes the sorry state of our democracy at this early point in the twenty-first century. The corruption of thought, information, and common sense is eroding governing institutions and traditions that took more than two centuries and ten generations of Americans to build.

Americans have lost touch with reality. On virtually every issue, from climate change to immigration, tens of millions of Americans have opinions and beliefs wildly at odds with the facts. As I show in the first chapter, today’s level of misinformation is unprecedented and is a far greater danger to our democracy than the long-standing problem of an uninformed citizenry. The uninformed know what they don’t know, whereas the misinformed think they know something but don’t know it, which leads them into senseless decisions. The second chapter examines the link between misinformation and partisanship. On almost every issue, misinformation is concentrated in the minds of either Republicans or Democrats. It has reached the point where, although Republicans and Democrats live in the same country, their minds reside in different ones, making it nearly impossible for them to understand each other, much less resolve their differences.

Age-old incentives—the lure of power, celebrity, and money—have corrupted the media system that is the source of our information. Media dysfunction began decades ago but is now careening out of control. One set of information corruptors, whom I call the “disruptors” and discuss in the third chapter, lust for power and have weaponized information, twisting it to serve their political and personal agendas. Another set, whom I call the “performers,” lust after celebrity and thrive in a mutual-referential world of caricatures and inane chatter. Their role in misinforming us is explained in the fourth chapter. Then there are the “marketers,” who are the subject of the fifth chapter. Their lust is money, and they peddle what sells, no matter how trivial, inaccurate, or distracting. Collectively, these media and political actors have scrambled our minds. We’ve reached a point where we think that nonsense is knowledge. It’s a dangerous position for a democracy. As the philosopher Hannah Arendt noted decades ago, demagoguery is abetted by “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

The forces that have brought us to this point are powerful and will not bend easily. But I discuss in the final chapter what could be done to bring about change. It would require us to wrest power from the ideologues and mind twisters and entrust it to level-headed leaders and reliable sources. It would also require us as citizens to accept our role in the misinformation crisis. We can’t have a thriving citizen democracy if citizens fail to accept the responsibilities of citizenship.

www.amazon.com/How-America-Lost-Mind-Distinguished/dp/0806164328/
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/02/12/when-balance-comes-at-the-exp
ense-of-the-truth/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly