tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post2528286249412866787..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: Learning to Let Go of the World as We Once We Knew It. The Age of Entropy.The Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-11140101517366131892018-06-09T08:42:42.353-07:002018-06-09T08:42:42.353-07:00..."Constant omnipresence" maybe? ......"Constant omnipresence" maybe? ...Tal Hartsfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05077424958233740898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-12122352383516128482018-06-09T08:38:53.205-07:002018-06-09T08:38:53.205-07:00Too much information is like a game of chronic per...Too much information is like a game of chronic perpetual dodge-ball<br />...things keep coming at you non-stop all the time---causing one to just "shut down" and "not want to deal with anything anymore".<br />Constant omnipresent of any subject or element creates indifference and apathy towards it.Tal Hartsfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05077424958233740898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-67412537112060875682018-06-08T20:13:32.325-07:002018-06-08T20:13:32.325-07:00Couldn't resist this little play on entropy th...Couldn't resist this little play on entropy that I read in a computer mag thirty years ago:<br /><br />* General Theory of Entropy, as encapsulated by Dave Small:<br /><br />If you have a barrel of chickenshit, and you add a tablespoon of fine Bordeaux, you have a barrel of chickenshit.<br />If you have a barrel of fine Bordeaux, and you add a tablespoon of chickenshit, you have a barrel of chickenshit.<br /><br />Fails miserably at the chaos/order dichotomy, but gets a lot of contemporary politics.Danneauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16129916194006552602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-84406119465408595482018-06-08T09:04:26.506-07:002018-06-08T09:04:26.506-07:00Karl, brace yourself. Schweller is a Trump guy. I ...<br />Karl, brace yourself. Schweller is a Trump guy. I wrote another piece today asking the reader to imagine a world in which every leader was some variation of Donald Trump.<br /><br />There's no good that can come of ignoring the decline of liberal democracy and the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism and populism in Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Austria, and yes, the United States but also in Germany, France, Britain and, to some extent, even here in Canada.<br /><br />Those whose first duty was to defend and nurture liberal democracy went AWOL when they abrogated their responsibilities and powers to the corporate sector. Where is this more blatant than in America's "bought and paid for" Congress? The governments of the developed nation have given away the public's democratic birthright. They've turned on their own people and left them angry, fearful and easy pickings for the first charismatic who catches their eye. How else do you explain Trump?The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-70348963614177409152018-06-08T08:30:53.998-07:002018-06-08T08:30:53.998-07:00"Without great wars, we have enjoyed prospero..."Without great wars, we have enjoyed prosperous and peaceful times."<br /><br />Seriously? Ask the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Palestine how they feel about this incredibly myopic viewpoint. The only people living in "peaceful times" are those not under threat of being invaded, bombed and droned by an out-of-control American military machine that sees any expression of political independence by another nation as a mortal threat to be ruthlessly squashed. In America, you only live in "peaceful times" if you aren't a minority or a poor person under constant threat of being executed by trigger happy cops.<br /><br />The only people who live in "prosperous times" are increasingly only a tiny fraction of global elite who are literally stealing it from the rest of humanity as they squeeze every last dollar of profit out of workers and the natural environment. Everyone else is being gradually impoverished if they are not desperately poor already. <br /><br />This guy needs to pull his head out of his rear end, travel around his own country and see just how badly so may of his fellow citizens are doing in these supposedly peaceful and prosperous times. Heck, he's a professor at Ohio State so he wouldn't have to drive very far. Rather than being a visionary, he sounds like a cloistered ivory tower dunce--the type of out-of-touch elitist who utterly missed the rise of Trump because they refuse to acknowledge America's enormous growth in wealth inequality, and the huge role feckless liberals like him have had in making it happen.Karl Kolchaknoreply@blogger.com