Lately I have been very confused.
Conservative, right-wing Republicans attack their political opponents calling them dirty Communists but then are commonly seen supporting the heavy balls of Vladimir Putin while caressing the bare chest of the Russian leader. Holy cognitive dissonance, Batman!
But then I realized that the monolithic evil empire of Soviet Communism which I had been force-fed in the 1950s was long gone except in the epithets of angry white men trying to revive the glory of “53.
I’m not an economist but I understand that if Capitalism is not regulated, it will eventually create a society of such great and growing disparity that the idea of a democracy is lost. Russia, seeing this inevitability simply skipped over the many years of growing capitalistic expansion and installed a corrupt and greedy kleptocracy dedicated to the few and riding on the backs of the many. No wonder Republicans nowadays are in awe of Russia and Vladimir Putin.
How can so many Americans be so closed minded so as to endanger their freedoms?
This last weekend presented a significant series of images demonstrating the issue. First, a pack of delusional truckers wasted a lot of expensive fuel to drive across country and then to make a sad effort to disrupt traffic on the DC Beltway. Why? To demand their freedom, initially from being forced to cover their face to restrict a raging pandemic. The second image is Ukraine where Russian armored vehicles are tearing up the roads and guided bombs are destroying buildings and killing people indiscriminately. Now, imagine that the mighty DC convoy was headed for Kyiv. Would the right-wing conservatives and Trump-supporting Republicans be able to identify the freedom in the twisted metal and exploded bodies of the rolling protesters?
I need to cool down. Perhaps a review of last month’s suggested reading will help.
02-01-22 – The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science — Seb Falk
02-02-22 – Wizards, Aliens, & Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction — Dr. Charles Adler
02-03-22 – Pigeons on the Grass — Wolfgang Koeppen
02-04-22 – The Life of the Mind — Christine Smallwood
02-05-22 – At Night All Blood Is Black — David Diop
02-06-22 – Loop — Jeremy Robert Johnson
02-07-22 – Leave Society — Yao Lin
02-08-22 – Milk Fed — Melissa Broder
02-09-22 – The Golden Legend — Nadeem Aslam
02-10-22 – The Performance — Claire Thomas
02-11-22 – Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now — Ayaan Hirsi Ali
02-12-22 – “E” Is for Evidence — Sue Grafton
02-13-22 – War: How Conflict Shaped Us — Margaret MacMillan
02-14-22 – The God Equation: The Quest For a Theory of Everything — Michio Kaku
02-15-22 – Termination Shock — Neal Stephenson
02-16-22 – Gold Diggers — Sanjena Sathian
02-17-22 – The Final Revival of Opal & New — Dawnie Walton
02-18-22 – Intimacies — Katie Kitamura
02-19-22 – When the Stars Go Dark — Paula McLain
02-20-22 – Free Speech: And Why It Matters — Andrew Doyle
02-21-22 – Beautiful Ruins — Jess Walter
02-22-22 – Gideon Planish – Sinclair Lewis
02-23-22 – Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment — Daniel Kahneman
02-24-22 – The Enemy — Lee Child
02-25-22 – Fuccboi — Sean Thor Conroe
02-26-22 – Black Narcissus — Rumer Godden
02-27-22 – Shape — Jordan Ellenberg
02-28-22 – Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going — Neil deGrasse Tyson
A Celebration of Reading 