Nobody can be Tigger all the time, so I am going to give voice to my inner Eeyore. Herewith in no particular order are the things weighing on my mind.
.1. Yesterday Trump said he would campaign in Georgia for the two runoff candidates. Maybe he will change his mind but I have been counting on him in a snit to refuse, thereby strengthening the call among his supporters to boycott the election.
2. The reports about rates of infection, hospitalizations, and deaths in the virus are simply terrifying. The next three or four weeks are going to be horrendous and then we will have Christmas to deal with. Several hundred thousand more people are going to die from this thing before the vaccines even become available widely.
3. I watched a YouTube video yesterday about the effects of global warming on river deltas and low areas all around the world and so far as I can make out, well after I am dead, more than a billion people are going to be displaced at a minimum. Rich countries will do better than poor countries and within each country the rich will do better than the poor. By the time my grandchildren are my age the world may very well be a god-awful place to live.
4. Leaving aside what the future holds for us, right now something like one in four or one in five children in the United States is "food insecure" which is a polite way of saying they do not have enough to eat. Mitch McConnell is staking out a place for himself on the list of all-time mass murderers. Do not tell me about centrist Democrats. At least they are willing to pass $2 trillion bill to help those suffering.
5. And as if that were not bad enough, this is the middle of a four day weekend at a time when the day is at its shortest. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, does not begin to cover it.
All right, I got that out of my system and onto the page of my blog, just in case any of you thought I had not noticed that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Tomorrow I will be Tigger again, all chipper and cheerful, shoveling shit in the stable and looking for my pony.
16 comments:
I am engaged in a constant struggle between my optimistic and my pessimistic sides, like the dueling hands of Rev. Powell in “Night Of The Hunter.” And the recent events in Argentina, for example, where mourners grieving the death of a soccer hero turn to violence and rioting to honor his memory, make me pessimistic about the future of homo sapiens.
Maybe "the hand of god" sometimes scores an own goal? (That's a reference, for those who don't follow football, to the famous England v. Argentina match.)
Re: #3. The glaciers in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges as well as the ranges further north are shrinking and will continue to shrink. Several billion people depend on the rivers fed by those glaciers. Four nuclear powers and not enough water - what ever could go wrong?
1. no comment
2. human rationality is much over rated; rich countries are revealing that they’re on the verge of becoming failed states
3. climate-change induced mass migrations are likely already happening, in part for the reason aaall noted; for a great many people the world is already a god-awful place to live
4. repeat parts of 2 and 3; also relevant wrt food insecurity, http://johnpilger.com/articles/britain-s-class-war-on-children
5. no SAD, the sun is shining here again today
Sounds like you have covid fatigue.
What a fun bunch you all are
Black is beautiful, Professor.
Mitch McConnell is staking out a place for himself on the list of all-time mass murderers. Do not tell me about centrist Democrats. At least they are willing to pass $2 trillion bill to help those suffering.
You know, it's entirely possible to criticize the outrageous policies of the Republicans without apologizing for the Democrats.
The Democrats only agree to policies that might help the public if they can enrich themselves and their friends in the process. They block proposals that would threaten to substantially alter the structural dynamics that result in widespread hunger and people dying for lack of insulin, a drug that listed for about $450 a month in 2016.
Kakistocracy.
You can have a bowl of caca from the Republicans, or a bowl of caca covered with whipped cream and a cherry on top from the Democrats.
Professor Wolff --
You wrote the following: "just in case any of you thought I had not noticed that the world is going to hell in a hand basket."
That made me laugh (ha!), since I have been saying that almost daily since 1981. One key difference, however, is what I always follow it up with: "and no one cares." Knowledge and awareness of the negative impact of climate change within the scientific community is not new -- in fact it is old hat. It has existed in several quarters for at least a century. A definitive document was finally published by Roger Revelle and Hans Suess in 1957 ("Carbon Dioxide Exchange Between Atmosphere and Ocean and the Question of an Increase of Atmospheric CO2 during the Past Decades," Tellus: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography, Vol. 9, No. 1, Feb, 1957, p. 18-27.). The problem is, acknowledging the consequences of this reality means changing business as usual. Very few people and institutions want to voluntarily change business as usual (witness the current example of how difficult it is to convince some people to simply wear a mask in order to save lives). The military industrial (educational, biomedical) complex has no intention of changing business as usual. Does the general public? Some do and some don't. But entrenched power does not care (C. Wright Mills' "Power Elite" is just as relevant today as it was in 1956). I was a bit disappointed to see democratic party hack John Kerry appointed as the "climate czar" by Biden. There are so many other individuals far more knowledgeable and qualified. But Kerry won't disrupt business as usual. For those of you who want an idea of what the future of your children and grandchildren will look like, a good predictive bet is captured by the 1973 film "Soylent Green," depicting climate change and vast economic inequality. Sorry to say it, but all evidence points to the following conclusion: our current way of life as we know it is screwed. Oh well.
Shifting gears, is Professor Wolff or anyone else on this blog familiar with the work of the economist Mariana Mazzucato? Wondering what people think -- commentary has been interesting and her work looks promising.
-- Jim
(Tip: For those of you in this for the long haul (i.e., under age 60 with no pending terminal illnesses), start stocking up on fruit preserves. As honeybees, butterflies and other plant pollinators continue their path towards extinction, the value and scarcity of this product will skyrocket. Do it now during the pandemic so people don't think you are weird for buying items in large quantities. You will miss it as it becomes exceedingly scarce.)
This afternoon I was doing some channel surfing and came across a program which highlighted the mansions of the rich and famous. They showed mansions owned by various Hollywood stars, e.g., Kevin Costner, Jeff Bridges, a producer surname Toll, etc. These mansions are valued at $5 million and up. They feature 10 bedrooms, 4 dining rooms, several kitchens, indoor and outdoor pools, several theatre size entertainment centers, indoor and outdoor fireplaces with automatic lighting. Now, I like Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges as actors, and acknowledge that they have talents which I lack, and therefore deserve the wealth they have acquired. But they could not possibly use all the space and rooms in their homes on a daily basis. The space would come in handy for large dinner parties, but how many dinner parties can one attend and still feel that you are meeting new and interesting people, rather than just showing off and comparing the opulence of your lifestyle to that of your guests? At what point would even this lifestyle get boring? Many of them are probably Democrats, supported Biden and detested Trump. I am sure that they make generous donations to various charities. Yet, even given the jaded nature of their lifestyles, would any of them consider giving up their life style in order to help those less fortunate? Not on your life.
The author of this blog and its reader are all well educated, literate individuals. We have all worked hard at our chosen professions, but I suspect none of us earns more than $500,000 per year, and many earn quite a bit less. I have dedicated my legal career to representing underdogs. This has given me a degree of satisfaction when I won, but by no means has made me wealthy. I am a somewhat A personality, but it is not devoted to making money, the way I suspect Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges have been. This does not make them bad people. They made the best use of their God given talents and, with some luck, achieved the American dream. Most Americans who are in the middle and poorer classes would trade places with them in a minute.
The super-wealthy in our society live the lives of the French aristocracy of the 17th and 18th centuries. Unlike the French nobility, they achieved their wealth not by birth, but, for the most part, by hard work and talent (the Kardashians are an exception). But the chasm between their wealth and the that of the vast number of other Americans is unfathomable. When the cataclysmic effects of climate change start hitting home, they will survive while others perish. We are not going to have a Bastille Day in this country. The sophistication of weapons today far exceed the swords and flintlocks that were available in 1789, so I believe the prospects of a violent revolution unseating the super-rich is not going to happen. As I watched the program about the mansions of the super-rich, the realization came to me that not much is going to change in this country, no matter how many of us decry the unfairness of the disparity of wealth in this country, or any other country.
(Continued)
Our daughter has been spending time with us this week during the Thanksgiving Day vacation. She has been binging on a Netflix series of a TV show that used to be on CBS called Survivor. I eschewed it when it was originally telecast, but I have to say, watching it with my daughter, it is a fascinating production. I suspect that game theorists and sociologists played a role in its creation. The program pits a group of 10-12 people against each other at a remote location, competing in “tribes” to complete various physically and mentally challenging tasks, as the losing participants vote to eliminate people from the tribe, until there is one winner, awarded $1 million. Success requires physical and mental agility, social skills and deviousness. One series that we watched was filmed in China. One of the competitors, Denise, was in her 50s and worked as a lunch room employee in a public school in Massachusetts, earning $7.00 hr. She was matronly looking and bulky. But she was a tough competitor and made it to the final four. In order to have a shot at the $1 million, she had to avoid elimination. She had formed an alliance with one of the other three, an attractive 20 something, Amanda, who was a model and made a comfortable living. In private, Denise pled with Amanda not to vote her out, noting that this was her only chance at achieving a degree of security for her husband and family, and that Amanda, being young and attractive, would probably succeed in life regardless whether she won. Amanda told her she had her back – and then, at the tribal meeting when the votes were cast, she voted Denise out. The Amanda of this world are not going to share their wealth with the Denises, no matter how much empathy they may pretend to have.
MS:
"I have dedicated my legal career to representing underdogs. This has given me a degree of satisfaction when I won, but by no means has made me wealthy. I am a somewhat [Type] A personality, but it is not devoted to making money"
Thank you for fighting the good fight and representing underdogs. Since you consider yourself "Type A" and since you're concerned about extreme income and wealth inequality, I recommend reading Piketty's 'Capital in the 21st Century' and then his 'Capital and Ideology.' Piketty rigorously and systematically addresses the issues of income and wealth inequality. You may disagree with his prescriptive recommendations (e.g. a global wealth tax; steeply progressive income taxes, estate taxes, wealth taxes, and corporate taxes; means-tested basic income; and a universal capital endowment) but he nails it in terms of his analysis of economic inequality.
"The super-wealthy in our society live the lives of the French aristocracy of the 17th and 18th centuries. Unlike the French nobility, they achieved their wealth not by birth, but, for the most part, by hard work and talent (the Kardashians are an exception). But the chasm between their wealth and […] that of the vast number of other Americans is unfathomable. When the cataclysmic effects of climate change start hitting home, they will survive while others perish."
Again, see Piketty’s books. In an interview with Amy Goodman in the spring, Piketty briefly discussed the coronavirus pandemic in terms of the “violence of social inequality.” (Link)
"In private, Denise pled with Amanda not to vote her out, noting that this was her only chance at achieving a degree of security for her husband and family, and that Amanda, being young and attractive, would probably succeed in life regardless whether she won. Amanda told her she had her back – and then, at the tribal meeting when the votes were cast, she voted Denise out."
This does not surprise me at all. Lately, I have been using the term "millennial pathologies" to describe the pathologies that a certain subset of millennials (and Gen Z) has: narcissism, sociopathy, Machiavellianism, laziness, entitlement, arrogance, perceived (intellectual) superiority to everyone else, obsession with social media, etc. I want to emphasize that these traits are a matter of degrees, that not all millennials have these traits, that many millennials have none of these traits, and that one should generally evaluate people as individuals and not based on generational stereotypes. But I do see the trend: Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, Martin Shkreli, Billy McFarland, Amber Heard, and the Amanda you mention. In particular, see the section (especially the images) on inherited wealth in the documentary version of ‘Capital in the 21st Century,’ which is on Netflix. For example, consider young, female models or influencers wearing t-shirts saying “Stop being poor.”
C,
Thank you for your comments on what I wrote and your recommending the books by Pikkety. I will obtain them from my local library.
I am currently reading “The Meritocracy Trap,” by Daniel Markovits. Markovits maintains that the principle of meritocracy in the U.S. is a fiction and is actually destroying the middle class and has backfired against those who regard them as the elites.
Regarding the show Survivor, although I had avoided it for years as reality TV trash, it is actually a very well produced and artfully crafted show about social interactions and competition. In addition to the China series on Hulu, I would recommend the series on Netflix titled Cagayan, in which three teams of 6 players each were pitted against one another; one team made up of college graduates, called the nerds; a team of athletic types, representing brawn; and a team of male and female models, representing beauty. The scheming and strategizing that goes on – and its verisimilitude to competition in professional life - I found fascinating.
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