dagblog - Comments for "Tea Party, the "dream vacuum" and the souring of America"

But damn....the pic looked so

cmaukonen — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:28:56 +0000

But damn....the pic looked so good on ebay and the seller said it was in perfect condition.

I think people were

David Seaton — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:46:08 +0000

I think people were "responding to goodness" when they voted for Barack Obama, but as so often happens in American merchandising they are now suffering "buyer's remorse".

Actually a centrist or

David Seaton — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:55:44 +0000

In reply to Really? Then why are you so

Actually a centrist or "moderate" Republican president like McCain used to be would have probably kept the Tea Party down.

And.... barp.

quinn esq — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:21:36 +0000

In reply to You don't really bother

And.... barp.

So today's election will test

quinn esq — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:21:04 +0000

In reply to You don't really bother

So today's election will test your theory?

My God. Your head's caved in.

Really? Then why are you so

artappraiser — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:18:07 +0000

In reply to "C" is my man

Really? Then why are you so scared of the "tea party" crowd? They are a standard part of our country, the same 1/3 that hated Clinton, and their equivalents are a standard part of many other countries.

And that reminds me--what happened to the David Seaton that wanted McCain to win over Obama because he thought that would radicalize the electorate to true liberalism as opposed to settling for centrism? Now that the GOP, with some crazies leading them, are probably going to gain some power, you've changed your mind?

Keep digging, David. Keep

Donal — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:01:51 +0000

In reply to Did you know that Japanese

Keep digging, David. Keep digging.

I guess it feels good to

we are stardust — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:55:46 +0000

In reply to Tea Party, the "dream vacuum" and the souring of America

I guess it feels good to high-five each other over your agreement on the nature of humanity and its divisions being almost innate. I don't think a sentence like this: "One of the biggest delusions that the left insists on hanging on to is that America is one big happy family or could be if we only just tried hard enough." is anything but a cynical twisting of what many try to acknowledge, and that is that it's hard, but necessary task, to appeal to each other's Better Angels or innate humanity and empathy for others. MLK says it pretty well. In a comment stream I read under an economics blog recently, people were comparing (roughly) Hobbes/Locke v. Rousseau, and found this far more nuanced:

"There is a strange dichotomy of disturbing dualism within human nature. Many of the great philosophers and thinkers through the ages have seen this. It caused Ovid the Latin poet to say, “I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do.” It caused even Saint Augustine to say “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.” So that that is in human nature. Plato, centuries ago said that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions, so that within our own individual lives we see this conflict and certainly when we come to the collective life of man, we see a strange badness. But in spite of this there is something in human nature that can respond to goodness. So that man is neither innately good nor is he innately bad; he has potentialities for both. So in this sense, Carlyle was right when he said that, “there are depths in man which go down to the lowest hell, and heights which reach the highest heaven, for all are not both heaven and hell made out of him, ever-lasting miracle and mystery he is?” Man has the capacity to be good, man has the capacity to be evil.

And so the nonviolent resister never lets this idea go, that there is something within human nature that can respond to goodness. So that a Jesus of Nazareth or a Mohandas Gandhi, can appeal to human beings and appeal to that element of goodness within them, and a Hitler can appeal to the element of evil within them. But we must never forget that there is something within human nature that can respond to goodness, that man is not totally depraved…
"

–Martin Luther King, Jr., “Love, Law and Civil Disobedience,” address before the annual meeting of the Fellowship of the Concerned, 16 November 1961

Did you know that Japanese

David Seaton — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:29:25 +0000

In reply to Another great essay. Another

Did you know that Japanese people find the smell of caucasians disgusting?

"C" is my man

David Seaton — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:27:06 +0000

In reply to One of the biggest delusions

"C" is my man