by From Ken Zimmerman (originally a comment) I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost. Frost’s poem is usually interpreted with a positive spin. I give it just the opposite interpretation here. Commenting today on the world around us is difficult because for nearly the last 45 years the US has taken the wrong road. On the economic side the US has tried to force a brutal neoliberal agenda down the throat first of the world’s poorest nations, then the USSR after 1990, then the developed nations, and finally every non-wealthy American citizen. That effort increased world poverty, especially among children, even in the US, destroyed the US as a
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from Ken Zimmerman (originally a comment)
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost.
Frost’s poem is usually interpreted with a positive spin. I give it just the opposite interpretation here.
Commenting today on the world around us is difficult because for nearly the last 45 years the US has taken the wrong road. On the economic side the US has tried to force a brutal neoliberal agenda down the throat first of the world’s poorest nations, then the USSR after 1990, then the developed nations, and finally every non-wealthy American citizen. That effort increased world poverty, especially among children, even in the US, destroyed the US as a manufacturing nation, put the final nails in the coffin of the American middle-class and decimated American workers, deeply embittered three generations of Americans, and facilitated the rise of China as an economic, political, and military world power.
Also, on this road America took a neoconservative path. A ‘Real Politick’ path. The US focused on direct power and control. Often military. For example, the dozen wars in which the US has engaged since 1975. Particularly, the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the 20 year wars following the invasions. Neoconservatism is about projecting threat to and fear for America’s enemies, foreign and domestic. It firmly believes that power flows from the barrel of a gun. But would be appalled to know Mao Zedung wrote this in his ‘little red book.’ Said another way Neoconservatives are both grossly ignorant and grossly arrogant. Proven to be a dangerous combination. Mostly for their victims. All this fits well with the same version of democracy as that of the men who wrote the Constitution. Only white men can vote or hold office. The only legitimate political power is white power.
And you wonder why more folks don’t feel like speaking up.