Got me with ‘media sensationalist age creating implacable polarities’. And I mourn your wasted time trying to point out the illogical beliefs of the faithful.
Propaganda doesn’t usually work as effectively on well-paid, well-housed and well-educated people. The true signs of a healthy country. Maybe a nod to Bhutan and its Ministry of Happiness.
So yes to Scandinavian countries and their humane approach to their people…I’d count in Holland too. Germany’s not far behind.
To most Canadians, the Dems are our Conservatives…Bernie Sanders more of a centrist Liberal/slightly left wing NDP.
And yet, as a good friend of mine once pointed out, the Democrats and Republicans are two broken wings on the same bird. Witness the squandering of money that feeds the military and the protections given to companies as entities, to say nothing of robbing the infrastructure to maintain the bulwarks of wealth.
So to me, it comes down to the mind-numbing inequity in America’s distribution of said wealth. That’s why most thinking people saw that the Dems, despite shooting themselves in the foot by delivering talking points to Fox News and the Republicans, were/are the only hope.
As to Voltaire and his belief in reason. Will have to reread Candide.
Maybe you’re right. Voltaire made it to 84 during disease ridden times, so to be passionate about thought can be an elixir. Too bad so many on the right care not a whit for reason. Can’t eat reason.
I’m also going to read Victor Hugo’s oration on Voltaire. Give me some sanctuary in the bell tower of my mind as I try not to watch too much of what Toynbee wrote about in Western Civilization: the fall of empires.
Lastly, there’s a new book out by Wade Davis, Angus Deaton and Anne Case, entitled ‘Deaths of Despair and the future of Capitalism’, a precis of the book is highlighted in our city’s rag:
I hope it has not stolen your thunder. Perhaps it explains the anger, and who really likes to think when enraged, in so many working class Republicans.
Thanks for making me think.
Daryl