What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4.
Some of the greatest foes of ignorance are knowledge, awareness and critical thinking. Key tools in the cultivation of our humanity, without them we would exist in a perpetual present, lacking any kind of contextual ability with which to resist the the dark forces that constantly threaten. Each of us would be, as Hamlet says, A beast, no more.
A key ally and promoter of ignorance is Donald Trump, whose installment in the White House has provided the means by which the bestial aspect of our collective nature is ascendant, and the things that help define and cultivate our humanity are under grave attack, examples of which are painfully evident in the following:
What drives Trump are our darker angels, Lorne. And he appeals to the darker angels in his followers.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, only the light offered by knowledge and thought can exorcise those demons, Owen.
DeleteLast night John Oliver (LWT) did a good job of comparing the tiny savings from the cuts to the costs of the measures being taken to keep America safe. It's so clearly an obnoxious power move to obliterate so many services that cost a fraction of a percent of the budget.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'll check out the episode, Marie.
DeleteThe neoliberal elite Lorne, have finally found in Trump a president who will bring the final destruction of any element of the welfare state and social democracy in America to its total and final demise.
ReplyDeleteWhen the president, congress and the senate can give 54B to the military while cutting back on millions of dollars of food stamps, eliminating services like meals on wheels along with major cuts in medicare, all services to help the poor and they can do this without a second thought, then you know the gloves are off.
The complete ignorance of Donald Trump reflects the vast intellectual wasteland of the American government.
The poor and vulnerable Americans are a huge irritant to their government. They are the people their government despises and now despises openly.
Ralph Nader has said that "the mask is off", the budget is about "militarism, corporatism and racism."
The voices of reason and "the light offered by knowledge and thought" have been silenced. Only the "beast" speaks.
There is one wild card in all of this, Pamela, and that is how many politicians may give sober second thought to some of these cuts since many will face mid-term elections. It may not be a critical mass, but from the fiery demonstrations I have seen at town halls over the replacement for Obamacare, political support for these cuts may not necessarily be a given.
DeleteI hope you're right Lorne. The Town Hall meetings are indeed fiery and they shows me a positive side to American dissent.
ReplyDelete