The above ditty, which I've surely butchered from exactly what John Stuart Mill gave us, continues to resonate for me. Life experiences have seemed to confirm this for me yet I like what Bertrand Russell and John Kenneth Gailbrath (check out Daniel Ben-Ami's piece via UK's Spike for nice treatment of JKG) have shared on the idea of being certain.
Irregardless of the truth of the above, Georgia10 at Kos has another amazing piece that has me just about convinced me that reasonably smart people can't be against Progressives/Liberals ideas. It is perhaps just that it helps to be relatively sharp and motivated to really understand the complex world we share to be able to cut through the talking points and crappy mass media we surely have now. I just heard WaPo's E.J. Dionne say something on Meet the Press(I trust transcript will be up soon) about how we have been lately divorced from complexity. Mr. Dionne writes on the same theme as applies to democracy yielding a Hamas victory. That this administration is not interested in complexity (or reality) is indeed an understatement yet is the average American voter really motivated with complexity?
I also watched Dr. Bill Frist ( on Russert's Meet the Press) offer up various idiotic assertions and excuses for his ethical issues and Bu$hCo and ... that I'll not bother with laying out here. Surely National Review's Byron York is no idiot yet he was offering up some angles that were simplistic at best, disengenous at a half way point, and truly toting the White House's water at worst. So what gives with these guys and their ilk?
I still think it mostly a question of message and time. The Republican machine is indeed amazing. Networks of attack dogs (from the media to dirty tricksters) and think tanks and ... that have been nurtured for years. Holy warriors and backlash voters and wingnuts and ... are ready foot soldiers. If you are willing to go over to the dark side and write/work/shrill for them you can make some serious coin. Regular folks educated in schools that are often sub-standard and now substantially controlled by the conservatism movement, as exemplified by No Child Left Behind, are often not well prepared to truly think and learn on their own. (NCLB is of course more accurately NDOBLB ... No Data Obsessed Bureaucrat Left Behind ... yet I digress.)
These regular people are so busy making a living in an economy that has not really worked for them in the last twenty or thirty years. Easy money via credit and low interest home loans and cheap imported stuff at Big Box Mart has them satiated maybe. Still, many of these Good Americans do work serious hours to simply stay afloat and live in decent neighborhoods so their kids can attend tolerable schools. Plus they are entertained (distracted?) to a level that can't be healthy for a democracy. Sounds like the "bread and games" of the Romans to me. I have to work hard to stay informed. The main stream media continues to let me down. Blondes on Blondes or Whacko Jacko or Blathering Bill's War on Christmas or ... even on the cable news channels. I once read P.T. Barnum offered up something like "It's hard to go broke underestimating the American public." and don't even get me started on Master Mencken.
Conspiratorial maybe yet surely it seems like the system has been designed to keep the Big Mules harnessed up and well fed. So maybe what I hope is that we can begin to approach and educate the little guy/gal trying to make it through life as best as they can. I know perhaps more than most the trouble in educating the masses. It is hard work and at times they dig in their heels. Educators must take the long view on the efforts. Maybe Progressives do as well. It is hard to hang in there and I do get frustrated. But I intend to stay in the fray.
Today's Sunday so I'll leave off any threat of "War!" and close with "Peace".
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