On Aug 26, 2008, at 11:27 PM, Rceeberger wrote: > On 8/27/2008 12:10:37 AM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > wrote: >> On Aug 26, 2008, at 9:49 PM, Rceeberger wrote: >> >>> You have a weird perspective. It >> isn't that America is moving down, >>> it is >>> that so many are moving up into our realm. >> >> Beg to differ. In the last three or so decades we've >> seen a rise in >> disparagement of education,* particularly in the sciences, a loss of >> critical thinking ability in the general population, and a trend >> toward becoming a service-based economy. This doesn't strike me as >> evidence that the US is holding its own; the sense to me is one of an >> empire in decline. >> >> * When intellectuals are called "elitists", for instance, I >> disbelieve >> that things bode well. >> > While I would agree that intellectualism is and has been the subject > of much > trash talking, our standard of living has risen during my lifetime > modestly > while it has risen dramatically in much of the developing world (Frex > China).
I can't say I disagree there, but I wonder how it looks from the perspective of the Chinese. They seem to have taken notes from the Cheney administration regarding "free speech" or "protest" zones, which apart from a few minor mentions in major US news organs went more or less totally ignored. Except, apparently, by a few protestors who got arrested. > It seems to me that a narrow focus on ones hobby horses and axes is > not > conducive to a critical appraisal. I'm not sure what's "narrow" about having a worldview that tries to take in perspectives outside of the US. We're not doing well in the diplomacy department, we're engaged in two losing wars in the Middle East, our economy is imploding, Louisiana seems to be worried it might get creamed by another hurricane which we won't be able to help with any more than we did with Katrina, we've ignored our interstate system for three decades, we're locking up increasing numbers of people on crimes which would be petty or nonexistent in any other industrialized nation, and our schools are laughingstocks. These are hardly hobbyhorses; they're more or less indisputable facts. > Life here has not begun to suck while no longer sucking in other > parts of > the world. Heh, yes, that's true. It is, however, beginning to suck more than it did before. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
