The Electricians: Day 12

[poliphilo]

Khalid and his crew have been here, but it's the window boys who took centre stage. At the end of the day we have power everywhere- except in the kitchen- and four new windows have been fitted, plus the kitchen doors.  It's been a bright, sunny day- and perishingly cold.

A right-wing LJ friend who assured me that our political differences would never come between us has unfriended me- presumably over my Afghanistan poems. I'm a little disappointed.

 I'm reading Ophelia Field's history of The Kit Kat Club.

Tomorrow is Eid. The window boys will be coming in, but Khalid is having the day off; he's earned it.

Comments

The Electricians

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

"Someday this will all end, you know." / Schindler.

I'm off the list too. Don't recall mentioning Afghanistan tho. Not sure how I feel about that war, whether it's practicable and winnable. I do loathe the Taliban. My LJ friend kraygern is a counter-intelligence officer with the US Army who is going to be / is involved with work in Afghanistan. His perception is interesting and a good read.

Re: The Electricians

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm making a point of not defriending him back, because he's an interesting writer.

The Taliban are loathsome, but so are most governments. If we marched into every country whose political elite we disapprove of we'd be fighting a world war.

I'll go take a look at kraygern.

[tinceiri.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about the end of your friendship.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

These things happen on LJ.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I used to believe that in politics there could be such a thing as principled disagreement. While that may still be true, I have come to learn, especially in these past few years, that it is pointless to seek principled discussion, or even principled people, in a morally degenerate nation.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think American politics has always been liable to swing to extremes. I was reading some of the things Adams and Jefferson said about one another when they were running against one another for the presidency- and they were horrendous.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

In fairness to the right-wingers, they tend to just pack their tents, whereas the left-wingers will howl and roar at you in umbrage and bring along their mates to pile on for not agreeing with them

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's sadly true.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is just the exact opposite of here in the states. During the health-insurance 'debate', we had howling right-wing extremists protesting on the Capital steps, literally spitting at US Senators and screaming racial slurs.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Of course. Jefferson was peculiarly hated because of his religious views -- or rather the distinct lack thereof -- and because he liked the French.

What Jefferson and Adams said of each other during the campaign was nothing compared to the Alien and Sedition Acts, one of the most appalling chapters in US history. Basically, a law was passed that made criticism of the President -- Adams -- and Congress illegal, while leaving it okay to criticize their principal critic, Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Ben Franklin's grandson published an editorial, expressing his outrage, and he was promptly thrown in jail and his paper shut down. That is why Jefferson ran against Adams a second time and won.

US politics tends to extremes because of the national character. We are a nation of peasants, who like peasants everywhere are principally motivated by fear. The fact that some of the peasants have a lot of money and run the government for their personal benefit does not alter the fact that they are still peasants and terrified of every hobgoblin that happens along, however absurd. In 1800 it was the French. In the 20th century it was Bolshevism. In 2010, it is our black Moslem President that has them pissing themselves on every channel.

[calizen.livejournal.com]

There is a good reason that politics is put there with religion as things not to talk about in polite American company. The grounds are littered with friendships broken up by being Left or Right and trying to explain one's views to someone holding diametrically opposed ones in America. Politics is something that I found delightfully not prohibited from commenting on when I was on the other side of the Pond.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

American politics is peculiarly toxic, these days. It came very, very close to driving me away from my own elderly parents.

[calizen.livejournal.com]

The main thing I think causing this uproar is the 24/7 "news" which is really driven by demagogues seeking more and more listeners and having access to people driven by their emotions rather than by thinking. Have you watched these broadcasters? Amazing. Not only do they throw their own opinions in as news, but they use their positions as haranguing positions and when guests come in to speak they rarely get 2 words out of their mouths before the host or other interviewees start screaming. I firmly refuse to watch any of these but a lot of people think they're getting the unvarnished truth from them.