Setting aside the excellent Darwinian quotes, this brilliant essay provides a number that are eminently quotable.. that about running away from Either/Or frames for one, that of the irritable dialectics for another. Well done, Baird! The ME/WE characterization of our two major parties is a very fruitful way to examine their actions. But politics and politicians are so... hypocritical. They'll jettison their principles in a trice if that serves whatever ends they currently are pursuing. We've had political parties that were profoundly disinterested in dyadic conflicts but in our sad land such parties never survived for long. They were ruthlessly suppressed by the rules of aggregating power and suppressing it, imposed by what Saint Nader once called the "Duoarchy.". I know whereof I speak, I once was in the ranks of the Peace and Freedom Party, now lost to living memory.
Thanks Michael! I appreciate your shedding light on hypocrisy and corruption as two animating forces in our politics.
Good to see you mention Ralph Nader. His rep was tarnished (unfairly) in the Bush v. Gore fiasco, but he has been right about most everything for 50 years. A pre-Bernie Sanders. Talk about a prophet wandering in the wilderness ...
Baird, thanks for what I think is a appropriately broad and useful frame. Reminds me of a book published many years ago by George Lakeoff, "Don't Think of an Elephant". When I have the time I will share more and I will try to keep in mind this is a dialectic , not a diatribe....
Setting aside the excellent Darwinian quotes, this brilliant essay provides a number that are eminently quotable.. that about running away from Either/Or frames for one, that of the irritable dialectics for another. Well done, Baird! The ME/WE characterization of our two major parties is a very fruitful way to examine their actions. But politics and politicians are so... hypocritical. They'll jettison their principles in a trice if that serves whatever ends they currently are pursuing. We've had political parties that were profoundly disinterested in dyadic conflicts but in our sad land such parties never survived for long. They were ruthlessly suppressed by the rules of aggregating power and suppressing it, imposed by what Saint Nader once called the "Duoarchy.". I know whereof I speak, I once was in the ranks of the Peace and Freedom Party, now lost to living memory.
Thanks Michael! I appreciate your shedding light on hypocrisy and corruption as two animating forces in our politics.
Good to see you mention Ralph Nader. His rep was tarnished (unfairly) in the Bush v. Gore fiasco, but he has been right about most everything for 50 years. A pre-Bernie Sanders. Talk about a prophet wandering in the wilderness ...
Baird, thanks for what I think is a appropriately broad and useful frame. Reminds me of a book published many years ago by George Lakeoff, "Don't Think of an Elephant". When I have the time I will share more and I will try to keep in mind this is a dialectic , not a diatribe....
Thanks Mark! Always glad to hear your thoughts on such matters.