Rising Tide

We've been waiting for the rising tide that lifts all boats.  That was the way our economy worked when I was in Economics 101, but things have changed. Curious why it doesn't trickle down?

• In the 80's, big business abandoned the multifaceted concerns of community and common good for just the bottom line.  Profitability and competition by acquisition are the rule now.
• Regulatory reform - relaxation of constraints on risk in the finance marketplace gave us the Great Recession along with today's continuous flow of wealth into the finance industry.
• Income - wages have been flat for the bottom 80% since the 70's.  At the top, extraordinary increase.  Wages affect profits, so common practice is to pay the least possible for needed skills.  Employees are a managed cost of production.
• Limited hours - as corporations grow in size, a variety of mechanisms have emerged for keeping benefits low for employees, the most common of which is artificially reduced hours.   Employees need only be treated well enough to avoid costly problems.

Not that WalMart is the only predator in the marketplace, but the WalMart heirs have more wealth among them than the economically lower third of Americans combined.  There are several million extraordinarily wealthy folks in the U.S., but only a few who have earned it.  Most have inherited it or gained it through the efforts of others.  

U.S. tax regulations allow a number of escape paths for the very wealthy.  Channeling income through Bermuda, for example, costs millions but avoids hundreds of millions in taxes for the exceptionally wealthy.  

Forecast:  This is neither an equitable economy nor culture.  It has morphed in the last half-century into a rather predatory capitalism.  The GAP between the privileged few and everyone else continues to widen at an accelerating pace.  

Income inequality is not uniform among the states.  After tax income inequality in 2009 was greatest in Texas and lowest in Maine.^[a]

Scholars and others differ as to the causes, solutions, and the significance of the trend,^[1][2] which in 2011 helped ignite the“Occupy” protest movement.  Education and increased demand for skilled labor are often cited as causes,^[3] some have emphasized the importance of public policy; others believe the causes of inequality’s rise are not well understood.^[4]  Inequality has been described both as irrelevant in the face of economic and social mobility in America^[5], and as a cause for the significant decline of that same mobility.^[6]

Happy New Year. 

The near future

Have large corporations always been considered untrustworthy? Actually, yes.

In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I hope that we shall . . . crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

From Woodrow Wilson, “There was a time when corporations played a minor part in our business affairs, but now they play the chief part, and most men are the servants of corporations.”

Mitt Romney gave us, “Corporations are people, my friend . . . of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People’s pockets. Human beings my friend.”  For comparison, Senator Elizabeth Warren at the Democratic Convention in 2012 countered, “No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. People have hearts. They have kids. They get jobs. They get sick. They thrive. They dance. They live. They love. And they die. That matters. That matters because we don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for people.”The last two decades have given us ample evidence of the influence big business has in our governments.  Regulatory changes 'purchased' by the finance industry gave us the Great Recession.  The Trans-Pacific Partnership is more of the same.On the Forbes list of America's most trustworthy corporations, there's not a single bank or finance entity.  No surprise there.
The issue, of course, is not the existence of incorporated businesses.  Small and local businesses are the backbone of the economy.  Our difficulties emerge from the extraordinary power inherent in the largest corporations.  They seem to become extractors of wealth and resource, thriving at the expense of employees and suppliers, and even regions, channeling benefits away from communities and across the country to the wealthy and fortunate few.  They exert inappropriate influence in both the marketplace and in government for their financial success rather than for the benefit of the nation or the citizens.  Of particular concern are finance and oil corporations, many of which are bigger than countries.
Of the world's 100 largest economies, 63 are countries and  37 are corporations.  Of those 37 corporations, most of them are oil companies or banks.  These are economic behemoths that are larger and more influential than most of the world's nations.   The 'economic convergence' theories defend big business citing the equivalent of international trickle-down promises.  It hasn't worked, and a significant number of developing countries have seen zero growth over decades while their resources and wealth are consumed by the international marketplace.  

In the absence of significant regulatory reform, eco & poly sci forecasts are for continuing transformation of national governance in favor of greater economic dominance, economic conquest and empire, if you will.  

Things will indeed change in the near future. Do you know how your vote affects the issue?  And your faith?

As individuals, we perhaps cannot solve the dilemma, but we can make a difference for others.

Trumpisms

Donald Trump continues as a front runner for no discernible reason.  I am at a loss to understand his being seriously considered for public office.  

His performance in business over the years unveils his questionable judgement and equally suspect ethical standards.  His career shows he has branded well but has perhaps provided little of benefit or good to anyone.

His recent statements, many of which are inaccurate and often unwise or inappropriate, continue demonstrating the person we're being offered to represent and lead us as a nation.




"[I am] calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on" - Donald Trump and what appears to be  fear mongering

"An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud" -Donald Trump and a fable disproved long ago.

"Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision.”- Donald Trump and his insults spoken in anger 

"You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you've got a young, and beautiful, piece of @!$%#." - Donald Trump

“I will build a great wall –and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." - Donald Trump and nonsensical exaggeration 

"When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people." -Donald Trump and what appears to be racist fear mongering 

"Our great African-American President hasn't exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore." - Donald Trump and his perhaps racist perspective

·"The Mexican government ... they send the bad ones over." - Donald Trump and international relations

·President Barack Obama "wants to take in 250,000 (people) from Syria."  ·Among Syrian refugees, "there aren't that many women, there aren't that many children."   ·The federal government is sending refugees to states with governors who are "Republicans, not to the Democrats." - Donald Trump, too many inaccurate statements

Says crime statistics show blacks kill 81 percent of white homicide victims. - Donald Trump and more of his inaccurate thoughts on African Americans

The 9/11 terrorists' friends, family, girlfriends in the United States "were sent back for the most part to Saudi Arabia. They knew what was going on. They went home, and they wanted to watch their boyfriends on television." - Donald Trump and just plain wrong accusations

"I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering" as the World Trade Center collapsed.    - 
Donald Trump and his inaccurate claims

"The beauty of me is that I'm very rich." - Donald Trump, perhaps hubris 

"It's freezing and snowing in New York – we need global warming!" - Donald Trump

"My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body." - Donald Trump and inappropriate comments

"If I were running ‘The View’, I'd fire Rosie O'Donnell. I mean, I'd look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I'd say ‘Rosie, you’re fired." - Donald Trump and inappropriate comments in anger

"I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I'm more honest and my women are beautiful." - Donald Trump, and he doesn't seem to know it's an insult.

He would crush the Islamic State and send American troops to “take the oil”.   "We have politicians that are grossly incompetent. We have leaders that are incompetent and we have negotiators that are incompetent." He would “Make America great again” by being a better negotiator than all the “dummies” who represent the country today.  Notice his worldview - “[E]very single country that does business with us” is ripping America off. “The money [China] took out of the United States is the greatest theft in the history of our country.” He would, in some unspecified way, adjust how America protects allies such as South Korea and Japan, because “if we step back they will protect themselves very well. Remember when Japan used to beat China routinely in wars?”
He actually said those things. Popular demagogues in other countries sometimes win elections, and there is no compelling reason why America should be exempt, I suppose. Republicans should listen carefully to Mr Trump, and perhaps vote for someone else.

It would perhaps all be humorous if it weren't such a potential catastrophe.  

18 JAN 2016 - Hoping perhaps to attract evangelicals, Trump attempted a quote from the bible and stumbled rather badly, without a clue what he was reading.  Perhaps just showmanship, nothing genuine.

UPDATE:  30 SEP 2016 - He's the candidate.  

Is there Evil in the world?

“The modern skeptical world has been taught for some 200 years a conception of human nature in which the reality of evil, so well-known to the age of faith, has been discounted.  Almost all of us grew up in an environment of such easy optimism that we can scarcely know what is meant, though our ancestors knew it well, by the satanic will.  We shall have to recover this forgotten but essential truth ‑ along with so many others that we lost when, thinking we were enlightened and advanced, we were merely shallow and blind.” ~Jaroslav Pelikan

Science is doing its best to squash evil under the thumb of neurology. In recent years, there have been several fMRI studies suggesting neural anomalies are the cause of evil behavior. The absence of 'empathy' as a result of a failed neural sequence is the culprit, if the popular analysis is correct.  I.e., a broken brain.

The theory, in order to be valid, requires an absence of free will, and further, an inability of some to consider the feelings of others, plus other troublesome concepts. If the scientists are right, the brain is a machine that follows programming, and if the machine itself has flaws, flawed behavior may follow. From such a rationale, there remains no responsibility for personal actions. They're just the programmed outworkings of a machine, neither truly good or evil, however problematic.

None of us, as we observe our own choices, truly believe that to be the case.  We exercise the opportunity to choose almost continuously. We weigh and evaluate and choose regarding everything from what we'll watch on TV to what we'll do with our lives.  We choose, and conscience plays a part. There is no experiential support for the absence of free will, yet the debate continues as it has for more than a thousand years.

Adding complexity to our question, there are indeed neurological disorders (physical flaws in the brain);  they can be mild to extreme. Those who suffer from disorders report a degree of conflict ranging from mild to extreme difficulty in controlling them. That fits the science.

Moving beyond that physiological nuance, we next find that cause and effect can be misidentified in the course of observation and analysis. Some brain functions are formed by experience, PTSD being a familiar example.  A perfectly healthy brain can be damaged and become dysfunctional due to traumatic experience.  

We understand too that our chosen (or imposed) exposures shape the way we think; our brain function is changed. Chosen and repeated behavior becomes habitual, a formulated context for response.

So then, cause or effect? Does brain function cause the evil actions, or do our choices shape and trigger the brain function?   

There is evil in the world, and one measure is certainly in the individual, but then what of the many?  

Hitler, perhaps the first evil individual who comes to mind, would have been a solitary mental case had he been alone in his thinking, but he was one among many with similar ideological leanings. Beyond Göring, Himmler, and Hess, there were literally hundreds more in positions of authority and power in the Nazi hierarchy who willingly participated in the same behavior.  The Nazi impact on the world was extraordinarily destructive, and millions died, but there were so many who joined in the slaughter.  Thousands enthusiastically pledged themselves to Hitler, loyal unto death, and of their own ... free will?  Suggesting a common neurological defect appearing at the same time in so many is statistically improbable.

Is there some 'spirit' of evil?  Is there a sweeping change of atmosphere that can bend the minds of people en masse?  Of course.  Depending on your theological perspective, you'll have words to describe it this way or that, but we've seen it. So how does it work?

In Nazi Germany, deliberate vision casting (the story they told, propaganda) swept up the populace in agreement to conquer the world, to clean out the lesser races and defective folks, and occupy the lands of Europe. They drank the koolaid. Boundaries were crossed when euthanasia became the accepted solution for mental defects, when citizenship was rescinded for Jews, and deportation became the public solution.  Boundaries were crossed when Albert Speer brought prisoners to be slave laborers in the war industries; they were worked literally to death.  Boundaries were crossed when work camps became death camps for men, women, and children.  It was broadly approved evil.  The result was a sweeping change of national atmosphere that bent them all toward extraordinary slaughter. Everyone knew at least part of the horror story.  They did their best to hide from what they were doing. Front line soldiers in the extermination camps went insane after shooting thousands of men, women, and children; the process had to be industrialized.  As the war turned against them, they tried to destroy the evidence of what they'd done.

Discrimination, oppression, and genocide resurface regularly in history.  How do they spread?

In the middle ages, Europeans were faced with a new world.  The preferred explanation (propaganda again) which kings and clergy endorsed was that the indigenous peoples they encountered in Africa were less than fully human, uncivilized, immoral, unworthy creatures. The same judgement was passed against caribs and amerindians.  The death and suffering that followed defies description. Centuries later, residuals of that thinking still persist.

Mass discrimination against Jews - antisemitism is visible as far back as 300 B.C. It never had a basis.

The Discovery Doctrine - before Columbus, the Christian world decided that if they should 'discover' a country, they could claim and own it by right, even if it was already occupied. The legality was formalized by the Pope and courts.  That was the extraordinary (and unChristian) bending of reason that was their foundation for conquering the world.  The result was the consciousless exploitation of native populations and civilizations.  Conquest, slaughter, and slavery came first.  Class and inequality are the direct descendants.

That was the story they told us all through the subsequent centuries, that it was okay for white people to invade and conquer other nations if they weren't Christian.  At the turn of the last century, they were still telling that to high school students, that 'discovering the new world' and 'settling' the Americas, it was all noble and right and good.

As Americans, it offends us deeply for someone to say we were murderous and immoral in our 'Manifest Destiny' thinking.  Why is that?  The emergence of our new nation brought so much that was spectacularly good, but it included harm to so many as well.

So, to the question, is there evil in the world?  Of course, there was and still is.  Individual and communal evil continues among us.  One question for us, is there any of that in our own thinking, or more accurately, how much?

A father and his son are in a car accident.  The father is killed and the son is seriously injured. The son is taken to the hospital where the surgeon says, “I cannot operate, because this boy is my son.”

This popular brain teaser dates back many years, but it remains relevant today; 40 to 75 percent of people still can’t figure it out. Those who do solve it usually take a few minutes to fathom that the boy’s mother could be a surgeon. Even when we have the best of intentions, when we hear “surgeon” or “boss,” the image that pops into our minds is selective based on our personal bent. 

Similarly prejudicial thinking will apply across racial, ethnic, and political boundaries, across perceived class and economic boundaries, and among religions. The farther we are removed from the individuals involved, the less we care and the more willing we are to just let it pass.  

In the new year, we might perhaps consider the irrational justifications we hold for such thinking and rise up a bit. Most make the effort, but it's not a simple path, dealing with ... evil.  Just how big is it anyway?

Happy New Year.  

Nothing is more insane ...

Smoke rises after the U.S. led coalition air strikes
 hit ISIS positions at Brekida village in Aleppo,
Syria, Dec. 3, 2015.  Time.com

... than war?

We all agree.  We all insist someone else started it, and that we have to defend ourselves.


Imagine a household; among the children are two brothers, and each insists the other is infringing on his territory.  "He took my phone," or "He's in my part of the room!"

Put them in the ring, and fight to the death.  That's a solution, however stupid.

Parental oversight, mediation by family, intervention by neighbors, and action by community law enforcement, all those are appropriate and reasonable options.  Two brothers fighting to the death is not.

WWII in Russia

A Bosnian soldier cries after arriving

at his home village. Three years before,

he had hidden in the  forest and watched as

his family and the rest of the village

were executed by Serb forces.

Few tasks are more difficult than growing up.  Lives overlap and conflict is the normal course of things.  Healthy resolution comes from understanding and cooperation.

International diplomacy is extraordinarily demanding and difficult.  It is reasonable, however.  War is not.  And the death of even one innocent is inexcusable; even one.

But that brings us back to the opening question.

Death by war in the 20th century is estimated at 200+ million. The death toll among children just since 1970 exceeds 300 million, and that is only those under 5 years old who died from preventable causes. Each one was a great loss to their family. Across populations and nations, death and suffering from poverty, economic inequality, and disenfranchisement (the result of today's economic warfare) are beyond measure. Or excuse.

This is a personal, family, community, and country obligation.  We must, at every level, do what is necessary and right to address the circumstance of these innocents.  Figured out what your part is yet?

Trump's Brain

Trump suffers from narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), or at least that's the verdict passed  by psychologists commenting for the media.  He qualifies on all expected traits, we're told, and quite impressively.

“He’s so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example of his characteristics,” said clinical psychologist George Simon, who conducts lectures and seminars on manipulative behavior. “Otherwise, I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He’s like a dream come true.”

• To reach the level of a personality disorder, the behavior must be deeply ingrained, intense, displayed in a variety of situations, and maladaptive, causing long-term difficulties in personal relationships or in functioning in society.   

Whether the disorder is or isn't, Trumps public behavior follows a pattern. Bullying, over-talking, self-focused, an overblown opinion of self and worth; Trump declares, "I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created." He mentions himself with regularity, pointing out his superiority over others. “On social media, I’m the one that’s beloved.”

A favorite illustration; when the Chicago Trump Tower and Hotel project borrowed $640 million from Deutsche Bank to get underway, Trump personally guaranteed $40 million of it.  When the financial crash hit in '07-8, the bank asked for their money, so Trump sued the bank for $3 Billion.  He sued them!  He sued the people he owed money to for 75 times the amount he had personally guaranteed.  He sued them!  He claimed the market turmoil was the equivalent of an act of God, and he shouldn't have to pay.  A reasonable business person would have made a good-faith payment and negotiated the terms for resolving the problem, but not Trump.  Apparently, he'd rather spend money on the battle than pay the debt he actually owed.  

There's a chance that this isn't a disorder, but a strategy.
Consider, Syrian refugees and the Paris violence - All the Republicans are endorsing tighter controls even going so far as to recommend a pause in refugee acceptance.  Trump goes to the extreme and says, "Ban all Muslims from entering the U.S."   In doing so, he became the centerpiece of media discussion for more than a week while other candidates are relegated to sideline commentary.  His recommendation was unreasonable and unworkable in any form.  When asked about it, Trump interrupted and sidestepped from the practical realities while maintaining center stage.

He's oddly persistent when caught in inaccurate statements. E.g., "... thousands of people were cheering as the building was coming down," that Trump claims to have seen in New Jersey on 9/11. When asked, he insists, "I'm not going to take it back."

Trump supporters may not actually agree with him, it turns out, as his claims and proposals often break down when examined.  Perhaps they just share his dissatisfaction with the current government.  With the media-enhanced explosion of fear in the nation recently, little of the discussion is clearly productive.

One down, hundreds up

The town was pressured into taking down their community's nativity scene, so hundreds of residents put up their own.

In Minnesota, the Wadena City Council took down a nativity scene they've traditionally displayed in the city park every year at Christmas time. They were forced into the decision by the Freedom from Religion Foundation which argued that it’s unlawful for a city to display a religious scene, “thus singling out, showing preference for, and endorsing one religion.” They threatened to sue the town.

That's just angry folks being grumpy, I suppose, but such politically correct thinking plagues our nation in so many ways.  Those cannot be happy people.

Anyway, now there are more than a thousand nativity scenes across the town, all on private property.

The community's response caught the attention of local and national news media, so the story has made the rounds.  Local resident Dani Sworski may have started it all.  She says she “wanted to make sure that we stood together, we came together for our faith, as friends as family, and we all kind of grew from this.” Good for them.

It's worth noting, we needn't succumb to the watered down and lifeless norms offered by either the media or the politically correct.  Merry Christmas.

What I think you think

We can best understand the furies of politics by remembering that almost the whole of each party believes absolutely in its picture of the opposition; that it takes as fact, not what is, but what it supposes to be the fact.  ~ The New Republic, Walter Lippman (March, 1922)

As we face the problem of violent extremists, it would be easy to attribute their behavior to the simplistic explanation of religious mandate.  Doing so allows us to categorize and quantify the problem, and to form a response.  It's probably a mistake to do so.

The tendency in us all is to decide before we discern.  We are likely to interpret what we see and hear in terms of our expectations.  If I don't like Democrats (or Republicans), everything they say and do will seem (to me) to justify my disapproval. 

Attributing simplistic motive - it's what pre-reasoning children do when they're in conflict with parents.  "You won't let me go out because you just don't want me to have any fun!" Or, because you just want to be in control, or because you don't want me to have any friends, or because ....  The list is long, and in every case it's inaccurate.  If we attribute motive to another and make decisions on that specious information, we're always wrong.

Always.  There's no progress possible in such a context, only conflict.

Motivation is complex.  If you were to try to explain your own motives in the moment, your explanation would be partial at best.  Why you chose your partner, your career path, your faith, your lifestyle ... all would need a collection of books to cover the actual path to decision. Every action in the moment has a traceable history that is rich with influences.

Similarly, the motives of political opponents or, perhaps more importantly, of violent extremists which we easily ascribe to single-sentence descriptions are in actuality quite complex.  If we're to pursue progress rather than continued conflict, it takes more understanding.  Much more.

As a beginning point for understanding religious extremists in the middle-East, it's worth noting that the current struggle began more than a century ago and is rooted in oppression, persecution, and human rights abuse.  Simply returning fire validates the current uprising.

What kind of response might begin to defuse the situation and address the cause? 

       (The challenge is to have uncomfortable conversations.  Because there are really only two choices: conversation or violence.  If there's a third way, human beings haven't discovered it.  ~ Sam Harris)

Merry Christmas, Ben Stein

My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a nativity scene, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'we reap what we sow.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world is in.

My best regards, honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein
More from Ben Stein, Christmas '11

What is a nation?

Largest ethnic group or race as percentage of total population:
Dark yellow: 85% or more are from majority ethnicity
Yellow: 65%-84% are from majority ethnicity
Light yellow: 64% or fewer are from majority ethnicity
Dark blue: 85% or more are from majority race
Blue: 65%-84% are from majority race
Light blue: 64% or fewer are from majority race
Source: The World Factbook, with data as of 2000–2008.

Nation, sovereign state,
   city-state, nation-state ...
      multination state, empire ...

We identify ourselves by origin.
We're from the U.S., the E.U., or from
Australia or Africa ...

Where did that come from,
and what does it mean?

Despite our belief that national identity
has always been with us, it's actually
rather new.  Perhaps around the mid-
18th century, people began to identify
themselves with the country at large, rather
than the smaller units of family, town, or province.

Nation (Latin: natio "people, tribe, kin") is a social concept with no agreed definition. In common use, it is a place with population that shares common culture, tradition, values, and perhaps language.  Nations are formed over time, generation after generation, merged together into a common identity with agreed values. If you add 'state' (as in nation-state), that's the political legitimacy part where governance and sovereignty enter the picture. There's much more, but what difference does it make to the individual?
  
So, nation, state, and our identity, or our concept of ourselves in relation to geography...

Past:  'Nations' perhaps began to emerge in common understanding along with advances in cartography and map publication, mercantilism and regional economies, and politics, around the 15th century.  The 'state' (or formalization of national sovereignty with constitution, law, and borders) came later.  Most historians see the nation-state as a 19th century European phenomenon.  In any case, it's recent in human history.  

Before there were nations, one's place-identity was simply cultural and ethnic affiliations with some small geographic context, however imprecise.  There were large and small places with lords, vassals, and fiefs (or their local equivalent).  A fiefdom might be a valley and its occupants, just few hundred folks.  Sometimes marriage between noble houses would merge one area with another.  An empire might swallow you and your community for a few centuries as part of their domain, their realm of rule.  Boundaries were rivers and the sea, mountains and the horizon ...

Present:  Boundaries today are political and precise.  One problematic reality - cultures and ethnicities may not fit inside those boundaries.  

In some cases, ethnic geography and the political state largely coincide; Japan, Egypt, and Albania are examples.  There is little immigration or emigration, and little diversity of the sort we might see in the Americas.

More often, political boundaries intrude into cultural life.  Innumerable conflicts have arisen and continue to spring up where political boundaries do not correspond to ethnic or cultural boundaries.  After the breakup of the Soviet Union, ancient conflicts between the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes resurfaced, and 'ethnic cleansing' became part of modern vocabulary.  Civil wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 90's displaced large segments of the populations and segregated societies whom the CCCP had attempted to assimilate and rule.  Virtually all colonial efforts have had similar results.  There are few boundaries in Africa that were not drawn through the middle of ethnic groups, even through villages and towns.

Left to itself, Africa would be

perhaps a dozen countries.

Left to itself, speculation suggests, Africa would be perhaps a dozen countries.  The 50+ we see are just lines drawn by outsiders for various advantages, and the turmoil continues today.

Multifaceted nations may or may not merge into a single culture.  Success varies, perhaps unifying, perhaps polarizing, often determined by ideology and values, and by the performance of leadership.  Cultures may divide over values.

National loyalties wax and wane, similarly dependent on how well the leadership serves and how clearly values are preserved.  

Most violent conflicts today are cultural/ethnic vs. political.  The imposition of governance and boundaries, particularly in the modern form, can be as much divisive as it is unifying, as much provoking as pacifying.  

Yesterday's conflict examples?  The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the abolition of slavery and the U.S. Civil War, and the world wars.  The underlying question in the minds of the populous, "Can I approve and acquiesce to that which is being imposed on me and my children by those who rule?"

Today's conflict examples?  The Arab Spring, the Syrian Civil War, ISIL/ISIS, Russia and the Ukraine.  Internal conflicts over ideology, national values, discrimination, inequality.

What happens when things change?  What happens when the values we cherish disappear from the nation we've claimed as our own?  Does it make a difference when the traditions we hold dear are no longer reflected in national policy?  If our family roots are tied to ethical standards which no longer permeate the national culture, are we still tied to the nation?

If you're an American with traditional inclinations, you probably have more in common with a Muslim cab driver in Mombasa than you do with decision makers on Wall Street or Pennsylvania Avenue.  From the top of the list: healthy community and family, fair business, freedom and equality, a reasonable world with education and opportunity for your children; you could talk comfortably for hours if the cab ride lasted that long.  Try that with JPMorgan.

America's reputation has declined internationally.  American patriotism is on the decline among the younger members, and we generally disapprove of our national governance.  What's next?  What are the issues of conscience and conviction that citizens need to tackle?  Are they issues of law or liberty?  Of cultural unity and common values?  Of justice?

Future:  Globalization is changing the nation-states.  The global marketplace (especially finance), communications, multinational corporations (many larger than countries), cross-boundary connectedness and political awareness, all are moving faster than governments can regulate and leverage.  Political scientists speculate that the nation-state is outdated and may become obsolete; we are offered either a one world government or a zero world government (communal anarchy) as the expected replacement.  Humorous extremes, perhaps, but we're reminded that things do change.

As long as we're being humorous, this one showed up in my email from a tongue-in-cheek conservative yesterday ... 

The Rebirth of America

1.  President Marco Rubio and Vice President Carly Fiorina are sworn into office.

2.  In a rare event on inauguration day, Congress convenes for an emergency meeting to repeal the illegal and unconstitutional Socialist healthcare farce known as Obamacare.  The new Director of Health and Social Services Dr. Ben Carson announces that an independent group of healthcare management professionals is hired to handle healthcare services for poor and low income people.  They are also assigned the duty of eliminating Medicare and Medicaid fraud.  Government’s costs for public healthcare are reduced by 90%.  Healthcare insurance premiums for working Americans are reduced by 50%.  The move saves billions of taxpayer paid dollars.  Healthcare service in the U.S improves 100%.

3.  Newly appointed department of Homeland Security Chief Donald Trump announces the immediate deployment of Troops to the U.S. Mexico border to control illegal immigration and the immediate deportation of illegals with criminal records or links to terrorist groups.  New bio-encrypted Social Security ID’s are required by every American citizen.  Birthright is abolished. All immigration from countries that represent a threat to the safety of American citizens is terminated indefinitely. The move saves American taxpayers billions of dollars.  Several prisons are closed.

4.  Newly appointed Secretary of Business and Economic Development Ted Cruz eliminates more than half of the Government agencies operating under the Obama administration saving taxpayers billions of dollars.  Stocks rise 100%. 

 5.  Newly appointed Director of Government Finance Rand Paul announces the abolition of the IRS and displays a copy of the new Federal Tax Return form.  It consists of one page.  The instructions consist of two pages. The Federal Reserve is audited. The move saves American Taxpayers billions of dollars and increases tax revenue.

6.  Hillary Clinton is in jail, where she belongs.  Her cell is directly across from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who are serving time for ‘Hate Crimes”.  She bitches at them constantly from behind the bars of her cell in what some might call cruel and unusual punishment.

7.  Bernie Sanders is in the nuthouse, where he belongs.  His room is directly across from Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chris Matthews and Al Franken.  They meet for tea every day at ten and discuss the success and benefits of Communism and Socialism throughout the world.  They also wonder when the “Mothership” is going to pick them up and return them to their home planets.

8.  Windows 12 is released.  It is designed for humans, doesn’t try to satisfy the needs of every person on the planet, doesn’t require a degree in nuclear physics to operate and looks just like Windows 7 except it is easier to use.

9. Oscar Meyer announces the introduction of a new cholesterol and fat free pepperoni that tastes just like regular pepperoni.

10.  Dead people are no longer allowed to vote in Chicago, a blow for the Democrat Party in the State of Illinois.

And this constitutes THE REBIRTH OF AMERICA!!!!!!
(a little humor can soften the reality, perhaps)