Questions, Questions

Professor J,


Are you up for a little meandering? Bits of your last post sounded Toynbee-esque. So this week I have a few questions. Toynbee thought in terms of  civilizations as opposed to nations per se, so while we are discussing these issues that Hedges tackles in the last chapter we've been applying them strictly to the good ole US of A. Are we wrong to do that, given how interconnected our various systems are in the new global economy?


Are these national problems or Western civilization problems? To my mind much of it seems entangled (though to varying degrees) but we are certainly the ring leader of the circus.

If Toynbee thought that civilizations died not by murder, but by suicide then I think he would have found Empire of Illusion interesting reading about just how we are going about it:

"We are diverted by spectacle and pseudo-events. we are fed illusions. We are given comforting myths--the core of popular culture--that exalt our nation and ourselves, even though ours is a time of collapse, and moral and political squalor. We are bombarded with useless trivia and celebrity gossip..."


What do you think he would say that we should do immediately to avoid the whole thing going over the cliff we are barreling toward? If he didn't believe we were just locked into predestined cyclical history and he thought we could take action to change the outcome headed our way if continue on the present course, then that gives one (dare I say it?) hope. :) He once compared America to a "large friendly dog" but I wonder how many people around the world might think of other descriptions that are far less endearing, now.

Ha! No answers this week; just questions. That seems oddly familiar somehow. ;)