Sustainable Democracy

Response to “Rich” at A Parallax View

This post is a response to “Rich” at A Parallax View written by one of my good friends.

If you haven’t read “Moral Politics” yet. Do so immediately. Well worth the time and some of the high level philosophy better covered by Lakoff’s much longer works.

The book discusses the language and metaphor used by each political party. The more interesting part is that it is written by a very liberal professor who has to talk quite a bit about why conservatives win when it comes to talking and gaining the confidence of people.

When McCain talks about being rich, he says:

I think that rich is — should be defined by a home, a good job and education and the ability to hand to our children a more prosperous and safer world than the one that we inherited.

This is a powerful metaphor. We get warm fuzzy images of families and good old fashioned values. Not only that, but every time any republican opens their mouth on this issue, a very similar set of words comes out. They have clearly defined what they want people to think about these topics.

The line from Obama that you quoted (from some other news source) is:

Obama added that those making more than $250,000 a year are in the top 3% or 4% of the population. He added, “Now, these things are all relative and I’m not suggesting that everybody that is making over $250,000 is living on easy street, …

All I have is a set of numbers that would be better displayed in a pie chart. A the last time I really felt an emotional connection to a pie chart was… well… never. The last part of the quote above is:

… but the question that I think we have to ask ourselves is if we believe in good schools, if we believe in good roads, if we want to make sure that kids can go to college, if we don’t want to leave a mountain of debt for the next generation, then we’ve got to pay for these things. They don’t come for free.”

Now I have an image. Schools, roads, and a politician stripping my wallet down to leather. It’s not the image he wants to put out, but that is what people are going to see when they hear him talk about taxes. The pie chart that shows most people will not only not pay more for these, but might get a tax break has no solid connection to the easily understood concept that things aren’t free.

The democrats continuously fail to realize the power of metaphor. It is the essence of how we think and reason in everyday life. Not only do democrats not use metaphor well, but they exert no control over how their members talk about issues. What we end up with are a bunch of very different sounding opinions from a bunch of politicians who we don’t identify with very well.

The republicans do control what party members say. They do not give opinions, they push a message. Their may have been fighting between the candidates during the debates, but now that McCain is “Red Leader” they have fallen nicely back into line with every member repeating the carefully crafted metaphor. It instills faith that they have a clear message, a plan, and are working toward some noble ideal… the fact that none of that may be true is of little value.

Obama began the campaign with a strong metaphor. Hope and Change. I have argued before that this has little real meaning. But now in context I can explain why. No one else around him is trumpetting the same message. Obama also doesn’t do a good job of using metaphor on his own.

The above statements from the recent debate show that Obama is attempting to use good old fashioned logic to persuade people at a speech. If he were in classroom, this would be great, but he is not. Facts, figures, and statistics do not excite people who are looking for meaning and to find faith in a candidate. “The top 3% or 4% of the population” is not Hope & Change.

I’m sure we’ll have some spirited debates on this point. And I very much look forward to them!

Posted in Economics, Philosophy | No Comments »

Credit Card Truth

If you didn’t read the recent article by Shannon Gass, read it now!
Because what he said about credit cards brought up a number of old issues I had been ruminating in my head.

All quotes in this article are directly from Mr. Gass’

While Generation X is not as concerned about working all the time to make money so they can buy more stuff, they ARE still getting things. Better yet, Generation X does not have to work so hard to buy them. How so? There is the most obvious reason – credit cards!

That’s right. Buying things back in the day was not an easy thing to do. We forget that credit cards are a very recent invention. Before their time you actually had to pay cash for everything you wanted. A store could certainly extend credit to you, but it was a rare offer and it was done because the owner trusted you. Now we have magic money sticks to eliminate that need for trust. After all, you don’t actually pay the store, the company that issued your card does.

If you ever wondered why stores do not seem to care that much about you anymore, consider this statement. You are no longer the paying customer. When you use a credit card the store is guaranteed to get their money, so as long as they can get it in your hands, they don’t care as much about making you happy for the rest of the trip. Therefore the burden of your debt is not the problem of anyplace you stop and shop, only the company you have sold yourself to.

There is strong likelihood that a Depression today could wipe out an entire generation. If the credit card industry was destroyed, Generation X would be rendered unable to purchase necessary living expenses… Today, we are so dependent upon credit cards to pay for our lifestyles, we have lost sight of America as a democracy; instead, we live in America as the world’s greatest shopping mall.

The turth hurts. And the truth is we have given our rights and souls to the company. It may sound as much like an ephemeral ghost as big brother but it is very much more real. Big Brother may or may not be watching, even if it has the power to do so it might be looking somewhere else instead. The company, however, is watching and every time you slide your credit card at a counter you have its full attention. It sums you up, takes a poll of your reliability, and takes credit for all your decisions, because it will be coming to collect on those decisions soon. And the scariest part of the whole deal can be summed up in one line.

… working to pay the company store debt.

The Company Store was one of the most vile and heartless of institutions in American history. It would give you all the credit you needed to purchase what you needed for your family. After all, you were a loyal worker, and the company was glad to help. They knew you would be getting paid soon, in fact, they knew exactly how much of the debt you would be good for when you returned. The things was, though, the prices were always a little more than that paycheck would cover.

America has become the Debt Company store. You can buy and buy, and the whole while they keep that percent they add on the top just over what they know you can get out from under. They will gladly sell you your rights back at a premium, and yank them out if you come up short.

Personal debt may be the one greatest threat to our society. Luckily the holiday season is arriving just in time to mask your worries.

Every time you think about holiday cheer this season remember one thing. You can’t buy happy, and you certainly can’t expect The Company to give you a break if you give in and hope you can try.

Posted in Philosophy | No Comments »

Conflict: Work Ethic

Throughout the ages, there have always been differences between the generations, but never has there been such a classic struggle for the future of democracy, when… BABY BOOMERS vs GEN X collide!

Today’s conflict: “You don’t work hard enough” vs. “There is no golden retirement watch, get over it”

As a child, I have fond memories of riding in the doughnut truck with my dad at 4am while he made deliveries. In those days, he would work 10-12 hour days and still not keep pace with his father, who enjoyed to complain, “if only I could find someone to work as hard as me, this business would really take off!…” My father, my stepfather, and every significant Baby Boomer Male that I have known has lived in the shadow of his own father’s work ethic. It seems the self-esteem of the males of the Baby Boomer generation sustains itself directly from, firstly, his “work ethic” and secondly, the size of the souped-up engine in his car of teenage yore.

This is not quite so of Generation X, who, in large part, derive their work ethic from, firstly, their best video game coup-de-grace, and secondly, the size of the souped-up processor in his computer today (!flame! You will burn in the after-flame of my overclocking, byeatch!) Generation X does work, in consideration they have legitimized video gaming as a competitive sport, complete with cash prizes.
Video gaming is work, especially to really buckle down and beat Halo 3 on Legendary level over the weekend.

There is a difference of approach between the generations. Baby Boomers seem to be hurrying about constantly while Generation X is more, well, sedentary. More significantly, there is a difference of concern. Generation X is certainly not as concerned about making money.

The goal of a Good American man, I have learned through example, is to work as hard as he can to make as much money as he can. But what do you do with all that money you make, papa? Well, er, you save it, and you occasionally buy things, but truth be told, you make more money so you can afford bigger monthly payments (bigger house, bigger car, fancier department store) and more of them!
A Good American measures his success in the quantity and quality of items owned and on display.

While Generation X is not as concerned about working all the time to make money so they can buy more stuff, they ARE still getting things. Better yet, Generation X does not have to work so hard to buy them. How so? There is the most obvious reason – credit cards! Consider, my mother requested I not mention to my step-father that I was accepted for an American Express card at 18 when he had only recently earned his own. “Such a privilege wasted on such youth!” he would have said.

There are other influences which ignite a Molotov Cocktail of doom for American democracy. First, more stuff is made more cheaply today, so while we all are behind inflation in annual raises, we are now able to buy more for $20 at the Super Wal-Mart. Secondly, Generation X is the third generation of spoiled brats in American history, and we can all point our fingers of suspicion towards the Depression Survivors for starting it all. So grateful were they for surviving the Depression, they fatefully decided their own children shouldn’t suffer the same fate, and bought their kids lots of stuff and worked really hard to pay for it all.

There is strong likelihood that a Depression today could wipe out an entire generation. If the credit card industry was destroyed, Generation X would be rendered unable to purchase necessary living expenses; none writes checks, and only druggies carry cash! Today, we are so dependent upon credit cards to pay for our lifestyles, we have lost sight of America as a democracy; instead, we live in America as the world’s greatest shopping mall.

The guaranteed rights of the Constitution do not seem to protect the right buy whatever we want, however much we want. Our country serves poorly as an example of democracy when we show off our ability to buy things. American democracy should shine with efficiency and balance of people who work to live, instead of working to pay the company store debt. People who live in insurmountable debt have lost more than a paycheck – they have lost their souls!

Posted in Philosophy | 1 Comment »

Six Long Years

It has been six years since September 11th, 2001. In many ways it seems like it has been much longer than that, even if the memory of the tragedy is regularly refreshed. I was still in high school when it happened. I made it to school not very long after the first plane had hit, and witnessed the second hit in one of my school’s computer labs. Now I have graduated from college, lived in Japan, and am making a new move to Boston.

In that time there have been two wars, the bombings in Bali, Madrid, and London, and there have been dozens of terror plots (some that have turned out to have never been plots) defused. America has shifted from a reactive state to a preemptive state. The Right-Wing Conservative Christian movement has gone from being a blip on the radar to getting close to controlling the radar. And we have seen drastic changes in the way many nations view civil liberties and national security.

The amount of media on both sides of the fence about what may have happened on 9/11 is also staggering. No matter what you believe it is extremely hard to go more than a few days without some reminder or tv special about the tragedy. In many ways I believe this constant coverage and rumination is detrimental to our society.

9/11 was indeed an event that has and will continue to shape our nation and many others. But the unrelenting use of the event and its victims has almost become a macabre ritual. The basis of your politics is now centered on this event as a US citizen. It is almost dangerous to attempt to focus political debate on any issue not directly related to 9/11 if you are seeking a political career. The old notion of “America the Great” has seemingly been replaced by “America, the 9/11 Nation”.

We should all remember the event. It should never be forgotten. But it should not become the banner by which we represent our nation.

Posted in Philosophy | 1 Comment »