Previously posted on my Facebook Page.
The ability to listen is lost. Not gadget dependency. But due to a New Moralism that promotes self-righteousness. I was the quiet kid, listening. The reason why I evolved as a writer. I had to write what I heard. Journalists then asked and listened more than they talked and talked. I was barely in my 20s when I was part of a city mayor’s advising team; later with a think-tank for a presidential candidate back home. I learned a lot listening to older strategists.
Funny that when I was younger, during family/kinship gatherings, while everybody talked and talked and talked—I’d simply sat and listened. The following week, whatever they talked about would be in my week’s newspaper (or magazine) column. Of course, I never mentioned a name. That’d coaxed my family to read me each time a new issue of the paper came out. 🗣👂✍️
Old. Although I still read politics as ever, now it’s all leisure time thingy. I don't give so much damn anymore about benevolent assimilation, partisanship pedagogy (!) critical race theory, Objectivist Epistemology. I just want to end wars, feed the hungry, be with dogs and cats, watch sports TV or a good series with less spoonfed politics. Better be, my day’s struggles are now confined with wishing the backyard veggies grow faster. I beat inflation with good ole ramens.☯️💝☮️
When you present a certain insight that (usually) delves from the popular/partisan thinking, with historical backgrounders and cornucopia of data, more often than not—you’d be dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist.” Because you read/reread stuff past and present, connect dots, figure some analysis out, then formulate your opinion out of those. You’d get this annoying emoji 😂 as response, mostly from people who “craft” their own smart takes of/from life via this source: 😂
Life is smothered by gargantuan contradictions. Such as this: The United States and Europe are so high and hot on climate change yet higher and hotter on wars. Frustrating. Wars: Tanks flatten vegetation, bombs scar landscapes, explosives ignite fires. Weapons spew toxic gases and particulates into the air and leak heavy metals into soil and water. In massive amounts. Billions of dollars blown away; lives wasted. Then we say: “Love the environment, love life!”☯️💝☮️
A popular meme: Blame oil titans for the cost of gasoline, not Joe. Here: ExxonMobil is a multinational corp. run by a CEO. The oil/gas giant 2021 revenue: $270+ billion. Corporate profit exponentially increases annually. If it fails, CEOs are fired. The government runs a country’s economy, not a corporation’s operations. Ergo: The U.S. economy is not run by Darren Woods. President Biden runs the world’s #1 economy, which is now sunk in a murk of 8.6 percent inflation.
Maybe you are wondering. Venezuela’s inflation rate last year was 600+ percent. These days? 4.4 percent. The U.S. is #1 producer of oil. Venezuela was a top 10 oil producer but these days, coming from an economy that grossly tanked, it is only at #25, globally. Cost of gasoline per gallon in Venezuela? Less than a dollar. Same cost average in (also) oil-rich Middle East. ⛽️💰⛽️
We protest the (war) draft. Yet I notice that dogs sent to war aren't so big a deal. Then we worry about our dogs getting’ stressed' with fireworks or thunderstorms. Why don’t military tech R&D invent and develop gadgets that can do what dogs do in war? I am fine with dogs used in law enforcement. They can sniff 13 substances: Cocaine, bath salts, meth, opioids etcetera. Arrow can sniff-sniff 26 or more. But nope! I don’t want Arrow The Brat Doog to go to war. 🐕👃🐕
Freedom of Speech? I learned it first from my family. Dad, on the dinner table: “If you have nothing important to say, don’t. Eat!!” Mom: “If you have important things to say, say it—in complete sentences.” Speak your mind. But speaking/talking didn't include cussing and cursing. The time that we’d be hushed—no matter how important or urgent our message. I am still the same. Quiet. Yet when I talk/write, it’d be via complete sentences. Not with that silly emoji. 🗣👀✍️
Years ago, as a journalist back home, I covered the surrender of a top rebel leader. His mother was present along with the media. Mom’s first words to son: “Are you hungry?” Sublime Love of a Mother. I posted last night that Draymond Green had a better game because his mom hollered at him to lose the drama and play! I was raised by a mother who disciplined me when I misbehaved and didn’t do my house chore. When I did good, she rewarded me with a fine dinner! Mom. 👩🦳💓👵
New York Times: “Blowout losses by Democrats send signal to Biden.” And adds: “Biden has leaned left since becoming president. But big ideas pushed by party progressives are radically disconnected from everyday life, which spells political peril.” I was drawn to the Left most of my life due to its direct connection to/from everyday life. The people. The gut-level ideology is gone. The New Left promotes via media narrative a New Moralism that I couldn’t grasp. 👤🗣🫂
