Facism and WWII

What is fascism? It is a form of far right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalism. It is characterized by dictatorial power, and forcible suppression of opposition. A strong regimentation of the economy is part of it as well and is often forgotten.

It was a recoil against Enlightenment individualism, the idea that good societies allow reasoning, rights bearing people to define for themselves the worthy life. 
In a country where a quality education is in short supply, I wonder how the average American would define fascism. I suspect most people do feel that the WWII generation were great and want to honor them. But how do you honor their legacy?  Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin (who ironically was an ally to the anti-fascist American forces) were all variations. What did the average American believe he was fighting against and for that matter, what was he fighting for? 

Since Bill Clinton was elected, I have continually heard the right wing complain about the government and this deep-seated fear that their rights were in danger. Most of that fear was built around gun rights and a belief that they were being taxed to support a bunch of no-good lazy "black" people. But nothing could have been further from the truth. Since 1992, the US has become the wild wild west when it comes to guns. They are everywhere in everyone’s hands. Assault rifles are easily accessible and we have all become numb to the constant mass shootings, at schools, movie theatres, and concerts. Of course one on one shootings are equally wide spread in poverty stricken areas of the country. 

Now it feels like people are ready to accept martial law and fascism in the US as long as it is only directed against those that support Democrats. If the Democrats ever came close to doing to the republicans, what is being done to them, the violence would have escalated a long time ago. But here we are, and the idea of a second civil war seems possible and some days it feels inevitable. If this should happen, I truly that this generation will be able to sort out how it happened. When you are getting your news from such different sources and there is no shared narrative or view of the truth, it is unlikely people will see it as it is.

I wonder if that is how it went down in Germany? There was no Fox news but somehow, I am sure that people were in complete denial of what was going on. I have never understood how anyone could hate the Jewish people so much. But having grown up in America, I see race hatred and fear and I often wonder if it is the same thing. It must be.  The only history that they seem to cling to is a false narrative around the Civil War. 

Technology and Jobs

 

In their 2011 book, "Race Against the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsso and Andrew McAfee lay out how information technologies are affecting jobs, skills and wages.

Their premise is that technology will result in a need for fewer workers. Those that are still needed will need to be highly skilled. A great restructuring is going to occur as the algorithms are better than ever.

We should remember that there is no economic law that people will benefit from technological progress. We can  but there is work to do in order to assure that is so. We are entering new territory in the quest to lower labor costs. The current revolution in artificial intelligence will do to white collar jobs what robotics did to blue collar jobs. This will lead to a complete restructuring of the economy.  In the new digital world, competition, labor and leadership are less important than collaboration, creativity and networks. While some point to a technology stagnation as the root cause, this book suggests the opposite. The digital revolution is allowing technology to replace skilled workers, doing things that only humans could once do. Digital innovation increases productivity, reduces prices  and grows the overall economic sphere. But it has also changed how the benefits of that world are distributed. As technology zooms ahead, it can leave many people behind.  They suggest that not only are worker skills not keeping up but organizational structures are also not keeping up. 

How We Got Here

This book was written by Andy Kessler and published in 2005

He says:

Lower prices drive wealth

Intelligence moves to the edge of the network

Horizontal beats vertical

Capital sloshes around seeking its highest return

The military drives commerce and vice versa 

Industrialization was not some master plan to move workers from their century old tasks, but a complete re engineering of life based on the ability to lower the costs of daily staples. This price drop would repeat itself through history as a sign of big change, increased standard of living and turmoil. 

The ability to trade in and out of holdings is the key to capital markets. Value comes from liquidity. Land, animals, and equipment are hard to sell. Money is a conduit credit is the value of work to be done. 

In times of peace, banknotes are not trustworthy and must be backed with gold. In times of war, banknotes are pure fiat, trust out of thin air. 

Money is a stand in for work already done. Credit is a promise of work to be done. Trading in commodities is worth more than pillaging gold. 

The need for precision weapons led to the digital revolution, transistors in 1948, lasers and integrated circuits in 1958, packet switching in 1964, and micro processing in 1970. 

Make intellectual property, not the end product. This was Intel’s lesson when it got into the market for a product like expensive watches. 

Risks are often socialized (fire fighting or law enforcement) but profits are not. This is a profound argument. 

Health insurance became a tax efficient way to pay workers, that is how it got tied to work. I also think the link stays because it gives businesses leverage over workers. 

Critics say that SS was a bribe from younger workers to older workers to retire.  

The High Cost of Higher Education

There seems to be a growing trend to allow workers into career paths without college. In St. Louis, there is a program called Launchcode that offers anyone with self taught computer programming experience the chance to work in a paired programming environment that could ultimately result in a full time job. There are no education requirements, just a skill requirement.  This idea is beyond just St. Louis. I recently read an article about a recruiter that is trying to find those special unique individuals to join the top tier companies such as Facebook and Google so that they are not limiting their recruitment to the MIT or Stanford grads. They want diversity and that can be about where you did or did not go to school. A select few are able to get into those programs and even with scholarships, extremely expensive universities can be out of reach for many. While those colleges are outliers on the cost scale, even many top tier state universities will now leave a four year graduate with a mountain of debt. I know a java programmer that recently joined a company in St. Louis who attended a middle tier school that cost his parents $35,000 per year. Yes, he is now making around $60,000 but he is only coming out ahead because the college education was a gift from his family. Fewer families can now give that kind of gift.

The same thing is happening in the food industry with a return to the old school apprenticeship model in lieu of high priced culinary schools. It is called staging and allows a budding chef to work in different aspects of the kitchen for no money but also at no cost. In some top tier European kitchens, the opportunity to stage could even come with room and board so the only cost is transportation. This can provide a much less expensive learning opportunity.

This concept may never catch on in the medical field or law, occupations where credentials hold much more value and are an integral part of those career paths. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds as the cost of higher education has become so prohibitively high and colleges seem more interested in their athletic programs, buying land and expansion than they do on providing an education for all. We need to find lots of creative ways to solve this challenge. Education is still the key to our future but can’t it come at a more reasonable price.

When it isn't OK to express opinions?

When those opinions endanger lives.

I have tried to avoid the Duck Dynasty controversy because I don't like to bring attention to ideas that I believe are harmful and divisive. But finally, I had to put down my thoughts. The stakes are too high. 

Here is the problem. Straight, supposedly religious people have gay kids. It is unfortunate but it is just the way it is. And I know, believing that we are born gay is not universally accepted in the way that the Big Bang or evolution is not universally accepted. But it is true and a fact of nature.

Most kids know they are gay when they are still too young to leave home and thus, lives are endangered by those opinions. Growing up with a parent who will tell you that you can change or that who you are is intrinsically evil, is in fact a form of child abuse. And that is that.  Gay kids kill themselves because of this and it is a form of parental bullying and that is that.

In this country, those kids, if they survive childhood can grow up and live happy, healthy lives after they work through their parent issues. But in other parts of the world, this idea and message continues to spread in large part with the help of so called Christian evangelicals. Take a close look at Africa and you see that this is a message that is endangering lives. So while you spout off your opinions, you have a role in the torture and abuse of innocent gay people all over the world. When do those opinions become the same thing as crying fire in a crowded theater?

Accountability and Government spending

I was reading an article in Newsweek about private for profit companies that do contract work for the U. S. Government. I think that the topic especially resonated in light of the failure of the IT team that built the Affordable Care web site. The gist of the article was that while non-profits are held to a high standard by the government, profit based companies often are not.

The article referred to this government site and suggested taking the data on here with a grain of salt-USA Spending Government Site

And here is another interesting government site  Payment Accuracy

Twelve Steps Toward Political Revelation

Walter Mosley's 2011 book, "Twelve Steps Toward Political Revelation" is based on the 12 step program for addicts and really compares our lack of political awareness around our role to that of an addict. He explains how we are manipulated to believe many falsehoods by the power brokers of our current economic system. His term for the wealthy is to call them the "joes" in an effort to point out how they are really just ordinary human beings who have somehow managed to control our system to which we all play our proscribed roles.

Step One is simply admitting there is a problem and then defining that problem. I think we can all agree that there is a problem. 

Step Two is learning how to speak to the problem. I think that is a huge step because we are manipulated by the words that are thrown around, terms like socialism or welfare. Mosley uses this chapter to point to our failed educational system as one of the reasons we cannot have a common language to discuss big ideas. 

Step Three is telling the truth and he advocates that many of us lie to ourselves out of fear. When we see a truth but are afraid to speak out, we should write it down. Perhaps sometime in the future, we can work our way to speaking the truth. I found this chapter compelling and tried to think of an example that I could call out. One of the lies I think is that we have come to believe is that government cannot do a good job of anything. While government is not perfect, neither are profit based corporations.  

Step Four is Defining the Classes and this goes back to the truth telling. Can you really say where you fit in. He makes the point and I agree that if you live paycheck to paycheck, no matter to what scale, you are not really solid middle class. You are one bad thing away from being poor, a job loss, a sickness, etc.

Step Five is about using psychotherapy in political development and the ideas are a tad esoteric. 

Step Six is about practicing this truth telling, questioning, and re-evaluation every day. It is like any new habit, you have to do it regularly or it never catches.

Steps Seven and Eight are about becoming better citizens 

Step Nine is about not  living in the past and is one of my personal favorites. 

Step Ten is truth telling around really understanding cost and the true value of things. 

This leads to Step Eleven which is understanding your own true worth. 

Step Twelve is the coming together of minds to become greater than anyone of us. The sum is greater than its parts.

I think the idea of examining the things we are told is key. We know we have to do that in our lives. An unexamined life is not worth living. But we have to do that politically and economically as well. Who knows where it all might lead?