November 25, 2016
Do we really need more stuff? Instead of shopping today I am linking to two long articles that made me think hard this week. Helping to burn calories from too much food yesterday….
One deals with the role religion plays in the current search for answers about the election results. The piece has been widely shared, as far as I can see, but I thought it is worth posting. The claim is, among other things, that the closed system of religious beliefs of some Trump voters will make a dialogue, that we are pushed to seek, close to impossible.
The other article provided an image that sticks in my head. Here the claim is that many in the precarious middle-class perceive themselves as patiently standing in line, waiting their turn to move to the promised American dream success at the horizon. And then people cut in line, often via government interference, the lazy, the poor, the hand-out takers, the immigrants. All of which isn’t fair and will be stopped under the new regime, or so they assume. Well worth a read.
http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-white-blue-collar-supporters
Tetsuya Ishida Toyota Ipsum , 1996
Martha Ullman West
Skimmed the first article (but why is there no by-line), couldn’t bear to look at the other. The author is bitter, clearly, about his upbringing and generalizing from that. My mother-in-law was a Christian fundamentalist, of sorts, with an eighth grade education. She refused to believe that man was “descended from monkeys” as she put it, but was passionately pro-choice and pro-education: two of her children got Ph.Ds. I won’t go on, except to say there are many, many stories like this, not just my husband’s. And now I have broken today’s vow not to think about the election. And Friderike, I have never in my life shopped on “Black Friday.”
Steve Tilden
I think the first article is spot on. It parallels the book ‘What’s the Matter with Kansas’ (Thomas Frank?). A large proportion of people whose lives are becoming more difficult persist in voting into office people who will make it even more difficult by believing (or taking advantage of) trickle-down economics. Almost a self-fulfilling prophesy; life is unfair, and it’s not my fault.
The second article is excellent, it gave me a sense of how much trouble so many people have making their lives work.
I worry about how Birtukan’s life will be; Avery’s too, his features being Japanese. I suspect neither of them would be safe in Louisiana.
Thanks, Friderike.