In-Augur-ation 2017

A student asked me yesterday in class, "Do we get extra credit if we watch the inaguration?" I responded tersely, "No, you lose points."  Instead of watching the inauguration, I have decided to reflect on some of the best of America: no, not Obama, or Reagan, not Kennedy, no, not FDR or TR. One of the few Americans who understood it was... Samuel Langhorne Clemens, yes Mark Twain.

He understand better than anyone how religion is used in the US; how hypocrisy is such a HUUUUUggggge sin here. Allow me to pepper you with a few good quotes.

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

This business about "coming together as a country" and showing unity during a peaceful transition of power that is the American project is all phony elitist beltway provincialism. Don't put me in with the majority rules thing--otherwise, Hillary Clinton would be president, right? I am an American; I don't have to accept the president; he needs our approval; it's not the other way around.

Furthermore, as part of the majority, that 3 million more Americans who voted for her, we need to reflect:  on how we got cheated; how the election was tainted. To return to the voting machines, America is still using a mish-mash of different voting systems, even within certain states:  the old voting machines, yes those that in 2000 were manipulated, are still being used and were used in key swing states. Check North Carolina, Penn, Michigan, and Ohio. Check into sites that discuss voting methods used in different states.

This is after all our second tainted election in sixteen years. That was 2000 (not to mention 2004 as well). Every sixteen years now? That's often; I only get sick every twenty-five years. Trouble is:  American public and media have no memory; it is a collective Alzheimer's disease about our own recent history. It's called long term memory, but we do not have one in terms of politics.

Another Twain quote:
"The best of us would rather be popular than right."  How does that apply to today?

To end it all:
"I have no race prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse." 

That to conclude this post about using one's time well on this "historic" criminal day. America has become THE BANANA REPUBLIC that we have criticized in other countries. It is time to reflect but also to do something. 

One immediate call would be to overhaul the election system. Use standard machines in all 50 states. Create nonpartisan federal election commission. This is a basic first step that should have been taken in 2000 after that international embarrassment. This does not even include discussions about doing away with the Electoral College....

NEW FORMS OF COMMUNITY...FACEBOOK?

One of the ideas mentioned at the end of MacIntyre's After Virtue was that the American imperium is winding down and so may bring on new forms of community. One such possibility is of course the Internet and even this weblog. One popular solution, many friends and colleagues told me, was facebook. I do not merely criticize the lack of capitalization. I spent many months on facebook, including adding photos and adding new friends. My solutions? It is not a good medium for any purpose:  not for connecting with friends, let alone new ones; the language used by participants is dull and obscure; the photos and updates narcissistic and absurd. As facebook went public on the stock exchange, that was the last straw. And the stock is a terrible overpriced stock, even at 22 dollars a share. So much for connecting with old friends. So much for the new forms of community on the Internet. I am more at home on my Blogger soapbox.

Since the one minute philosopher is taken, I have by default decided to create the one paragraph philosopher. Each week I will take up some new philosophical topic and in keeping my CDC Reeve's dictum that some of the best writing is the shortest, I will attempt to introduce the topic and argue in one pithy paragraph. My thoughts on new forms of community will follow.