Who the Heck Are We?

1.22.18 Study Group

News yesterday: Chaos.

News the day before: Chaos.

News last week, last month: Chaos.

News today: Chaos.

News tomorrow? Chaos.

News: Chaos.

At best, democracy is always messy, as it should be, because no one is singularly in charge, but, rather, a whole lot of people, agencies, and entities.

But, and you knew a “but” was coming, these days strike me as odd, in the ferocity of their chaos … “no one is in charge” with a vengeance, and the party in power seems helpless to craft reasonable policies, either domestic or foreign, appointing people with marginal experience and often lousy track records.

Yet, I give myself away … for me, the role of government is vital to the wellbeing of the nation … it’s always, for me, the third leg of our strength: corporations, unions, and government, working together to bring balance and direction, paying attention to the past, yet knowing that the past is a done deal; what lies open to us is the future, yet right now, no one seems to be paying attention, while 45 deconstructs our government, unravels long-standing policies and throws foreign policy into chaos, playing to a rather small, but vociferous, and often violently religious, base.

I’m reading a remarkable book on FDR, A Political Life, by Robert Dallek … once again, I’m struck by FDR’s determination to use government to lift up the needy with emergency assistance, and job creation … while regulating big business and banks, in contrast to Hoover, who was a good and decent man, and stymied and saddened by the Depression, but held prisoner, or so it seems to me, by his Republican philosophy.

As FDR went to work, it didn’t take long for his detractors to start calling him a Communist, a Fascist, and a dictator, telling America through their newspapers (the wealthy owned nearly all of America’s leading newspapers) that FDR was going to ruin America’s democracy, destroy our economy and become a dictator like Mussolini (whom many of the rich secretly admired for his take-charge attitude, an admiration that would, but a few years later, include Hitler for his anti-communist stance - and both admired for their pro-business attitude).

William Shirer, in his autobiography, writes:

The General Strike in Britain that spring [1926] had shown the malaise in British society. Its failure had brought out the determination of the upper classes to keep the lower classes down on depressed wages, which were near the starvation level. Obviously, class war in Britain was far from over and the upper classes were winning [p.280, vol. 1].

Writing of France in the same time period, Shire notes:

I had begun to suspect that in France the possessing classes were even more greedy and venal than in Britain and at home. All through the crisis of the franc they had sent their capital abroad and thus further weakened the country’s precarious position. Appeals to their patriotism were in vain. The tax system was shocking, soaking the poor and sparing the rich [p.281].

And adds:

They feared that democracy in France, however badly it was served by Parliament, might continue to threaten their money bags. They began to look over the Alps at Italy to see if perhaps the rights of Big Business and Big Finance might not be better protected by a system of government the had destroyed democracy [p.282].

I doubt if any of us gathered around this table can comprehend the madness of wealth, the fears associated with losing even a dime of it. Or as Eric Trump said of his father, He’s not racist; there’s only one color he sees, and it’s green.

Then or now and throughout our history, there are those who look askance at democracy as a threat to their moneybags. And I think we’re deluding ourselves to ever hope that the possessors might think or behave differently. It is the disease of money that shapes their world view, and as long as the disease persists, so will their attitudes of greed and fear.

Such attitudes gave us, of course, the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.

As Hoover helplessly stood by as the country slid into the Great Depression, one of his associates said, “Sooner or later the economy will straighten itself out” (good Republican thinking).

To which an associate of FDR replied, “People don’t eat sooner or later, but today.”

For many years now, beginning with Reagan, the mantra has been: Government is the problem, a theme which has resonated convincingly with many voters who unwittingly miss the point of just how helpful big government has been for them. Since Reagan, we’ve seen much of our government deconstructed (something Bill Clinton also abetted); the civil service greatly reduced, life-time employees devoted to their agencies replaced by political appointees, most of whom come from the very industries these agencies were created to regulate.

In a recent sermon, I offered the following:

Can we be hopeful today?

Can we we face the harsh winds of life and be brave?

 Can we speak truth to power, because we believe in the truth, the truth of Christ, the truth that really sets people free?

Can we look at the homeless on our streets and demand that the organs of government get their act together and do a better job for the needy and the downcast?

Can we look at our schools and demand that as a nation we stand by our children, we fund our schools, we keep them in repair, and see to it that our children are safe and secure?

Can we look at the elderly in our land and celebrate what Social Security has meant to millions of Americans, hard working Americans, decent and good Americans who need Social Security to avoid the abyss of poverty?

Can we celebrate the goodness of Medicare … for millions of Americans who need decent health care… 

Can we truly be patriots, and care for one another … 

Can we be Christian enough to know that we owe a debt of love to one another … and that God desires good government … God is the god of kings and queens and prime ministers and parliaments, and Senators and Legislators and Presidents, too … and all who hold the reigns of power will be held accountable before the LORD of heaven and earth, not for how much money they saved, but for how much money they spent, to make life better for children, for women and young mothers, for all who have needs, for all who are in want … God will not ask our leaders about walls built to keep people out, but bridges built to welcome the world! Not about war, but about peace. Not about exclusion, but welcome. Not about punishment, but forgiveness … and how we all cared for God’s good earth.

Both conservatives and socialists live in a world of ideals … focused on economic principles, with the former believing the market to be the ultimate arbiter of social wellbeing … and the latter believing that government regulation is the solution to social ills. 

Seems to me the strength of America has best been achieved when elements of both are combined into what might be called a thoughtful capitalism, or, as in Norway, democratic socialism … a reliance on the market, yet, also a realistic understanding that markets, left to themselves, ultimately result in the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, resulting in a growing economic and social disparity and the expansion of poverty, and only with careful and consistent regulation, can markets truly deliver the goods on social wellbeing.

Given this, I’ve long believed that America’s Middle Class is an artificial construct - thanks in large part to FDR, and subsequent administrations that understood America’s market system is fundamentally sound when sufficiently regulated to insure that those who have much won’t have too much, and those who have little, won’t have too little (2 Corinthians 8.15).

Jesus makes it abundantly clear that wealth is a problem, not a blessing, and those of wealth are likely to miss the meaning and purpose of life (the Kingdom of God). 

No doubt, elements in the Old Testament, and subsequent Christian tradition, celebrate wealth as a sign of God’s blessing, God’s approval, and poverty as a sign of moral failure and personal sloth and even God’s punishment. 

Sadly, this paradigm has taken root with a vengeance in American evangelicalism. But the New Testament, and the words of Jesus, give us a very different message, essentially ignored by many contemporary Christians and much of America, with our long-standing Horatio Alger stories, our love of wealth, our admiration for the wealthy and their power, our fascination with their life styles, and our continuing belief that the wealthy really have our own best interests at heart.

As a nation, we’ve not yet decided who we are, nor have we decided how to be a nation of 330 million, as we often imagine ourselves still a frontier nation, with all of our silly notions of guns, wilderness, wagon trains and toughness, flavored by White Supremacy (well established in our European ancestors), the legacy of Southern slavery, and States’ Rights, creating a maelstrom of American Exceptionalism, an illegitimate idea that can be defended only by bombast and the threat of violence, just to prove how righteous we are.

Into this mix, toss DACA and immigration issues (a long-standing struggle in America), and we have the perfect storm for bigotry, racial and religious violence, and the strange “election” of a man unfit for the Oval Office.

We have a real mess on our hands, and much of it is because we cannot decide who we are - John Wayne or Martin Luther King, Jr..

Hoover and FDR represented two radically different notions of government. While times change, and situations differ, the fundamental struggle remains between a Laissez-faire form of government that let’s the market (and those who profit most from it) have its way and a pro-active government willing to take on big business and banks and to provide welfare for the needy.

As for the needy, we will always have them, for a variety of reasons - DNA, drugs, hideous poverty, illness, the luck of the draw - and a nation unduly fussy about “putting them to work and getting them off of welfare” will ultimately become cruel in its social policies, as we have seen with many of our congressional leaders who endlessly fixate on those who are “abusing the system,” playing upon the sentiments of white voters on the bottom of the social ladder, who at least feel slightly better about themselves when they can still look down on others.

Yet, I contend, those who most abuse the system are the wealthy of this nation, the possessors, who have been able to buy our political system and manipulate it to funnel even more wealth into their pockets, wealth that creates very few jobs, because it’s funneled into exotic financial devices, likely overseas, hedged about with unintelligible language and an army of accountants and attorneys, making even more money for the possessors, but producing little of material value to society and changing nothing for the better.

Often, the conservatives talk about running the government like a family and its budget … while I fundamentally disagree with that notion, I might add this: many a family has a needy child, and because of physical or mental limitations, that child will remain needy to the end of her days. Does that family turn a cold shoulder to the child, reprimanding it for not working, not standing on her own two feet, making a living for herself? Not at all. But, rather, the family knows that it will have to provide support, nurture, and safety for the long term. If there’s an example from family life that has some bearing on the nature of our economy and those who remain needy, this works for me.

Prior to FDR’s election in 1932, he looked at the nation and said:

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it and try another. But above all try something.

Nothing works a 100 percent … but some things work better than others, and it’s clear to me that FDR’s efforts, and those of other administrations who believed in the role of government to effect positive social change while regulating the engines of commerce have more than proved their worth.

———————————

1. What parts of this paper caught your attention? … and why?
2. How free should our markets be?
3. Government as problem? What was Reagan, do you suppose, seeking to accomplish with this?
4. Evangelicalism seems to have lost its way … more in service to the wealthy than to Christ. ???
5. Where do Roman Catholic teachings fit into this?
6. Any thoughts about Social Security and Medicare?

Wages

An early morning drive,
To get some gas;
Noticed some working folks who were likely
Not paid much ... I caught a face or two ...
And saw their anxious eyes ... 

And by a huge public works construction project.
Workers, lots of 'em.
Plenty of good cars and trucks.

Good wages build the economy.
Low wages wreck the soul.

Two Systems Locked in Battle

We have two competing systems of thought for how our nation needs to work, to realize its dreams and fulfill the promises of the Declaration of Independence.

One system focuses on wealth, the building of wealth and the protection of wealth - a system that our Founding Mothers and Fathers knew well, a system from which they sought escape, a system they would not repeat here.

The other system focuses on wellbeing, the mutual responsibility we all have for one another, to maximize the benefits of life here and now and provide protection for those who need it, whatever the reason may be, because at the heart of a wellbeing system is generosity without condition and kindness without questions.

In the wealth-system, some do exceedingly well, many struggle, and a few are plunged into misery. The wealth-system is very good at wealth for the few, and poverty, or near-poverty for the many.

The wellbeing system sees to it that everyone enjoys a minimum of good life - wages, benefits, education and retirement. It's a system that produces lots of wealth, but not at the expense of the many.

Right now, these two systems are locked in mortal battle for the soul of our nation.

Huge amounts of wealth are poured into promoting and protecting the wealth system, telling huge lies about how good it will be for all of us once the wealth system is fully in place, everything privatized, and big government replaced by big business. For the time being, the wealth system has prevailed, and we see its fruits clearly: wealth, great wealth, for the few, a shrinking middle class, and the spread of poverty - here and abroad, as America's gigantic wealth-system sucks life out of the world, for that's how wealth-systems function, like parasites.

There are plenty of people right now, people of faith, various philosophies, politicians and professors who see clearly the goodness and power of a wellbeing system, and they labor mightily for America's better day.

The choice is up to us - to buy the lies of the wealth-system and be cheated of life, or to embrace the wellbeing system and share life, abundantly, with one another.

The wellbeing system is biblical, what the prophets envisioned and worked for, what Jesus offers and gave his life to raise up and what the early church practiced. To be faithful to Jesus is to embrace the wellbeing system - wherein the mandates of creation are honored and the goodness of the covenant practiced - wherein the earth is cared for and all creatures honored, and the biblical "trinity of human need," the widow, the orphan and the alien, is welcomed, loved and cared for.

That's how I see it, and to that end, that's how I live.

The Free Market Will Correct Itself???

Expecting the "Free Market" to correct itself and stop the rapid flow of cash out of the economy into the pockets of the few is like ...

Expecting a raging forest fire burning out a village to change

course and put itself out before destroying more homes.

Well, a forest fire IS likely to burn itself out, after devouring thousands of acres and who-knows how many homes.

Yes, the forest fire will stop, when it has no more fuel ...

The Free Market will "correct" itself when it crashes, after enormous damage to the nation, to the economy and to millions of people who've been "burned out" by the conflagration fueled by the greed of Wall Street Jockeys, the vanity of the hyper-rich and the wannabe desires of millions more who believe themselves to be "just a heartbeat away from being a millionaire."

The economy, like forest fires, needs regulation ... too much, and the economy slows down, of course ... too little, and the economy runs wild and consumes everything in its path.

Those who believe the Free Market will correct itself are idealists, dreamers and romantics, assuming that the Market and the forces of greed driving it will somehow suddenly develop a conscience, a heart, something loftier than its own aggrandizement.

History stands against these utopian dreams.

Theologically speaking, those who believe in a Free Market Utopia need a good dose of Calvinist reality - sin drives remorselessly toward absolute dominion, and without regulation, restraint, management, will devour everything around it, including itself.

FDR understood this ... and the best and wisest economists also know this to be true.

Like a Fire Jumper, FDR got ahead of the flames, cleared a firebreak, and brought it to a halt, after the crash and burn of a Free Market feeding frenzy.

Good economies have plenty of regulatory devices to keep the economy, like Goldilocks' porridge, not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Times Always Uncertain

When haven't times been uncertain?

For the last hundred years, times have always been topsy-turvy … but good government, working with the unions and private enterprise have always taken the bull by the horns and made strong moves.

These days, I think, there is a profound greed at work in our nation, and rather than calling it greed, it's called caution. I don't buy it for a moment.

We have a good President with vision, but a Congress stymied by state's-right obstructionists and a business ethos driven by Wall Street mania. It's time for all of these to work together FOR AMERICA!

Wendell Berry on the Economy

"If the Golden Rule were generally observed among us, the economy would not last a week. We have made our false economy a false god, and it has made blasphemy of the truth. So I have met the economy in the road, and am expected to yield it right of way. But I will not get over. My reason is that I am a man, and have a better right to the ground than the economy. The economy is no god for me, for I have had too close a look at its wheels. I have seen it at work in the strip mines and coal camps of Kentucky, and I know that it has no moral limits. It has emptied the country of the independent and the proud, and has crowded the cities with the dependent and the abject. It has always sacrificed the small to the large, the personal to the impersonal, the good to the cheap. It has ridden questionable triumphs over the bodies of small farmers and tradesmen and craftsmen. I see it, still, driving my neighbors off their farms into the factories. I see it teaching my students to give themselves a price before they can give themselves a value. Its principle is to waste and destroy the living substance of the world and the birthright of posterity for a monetary profit that is the most flimsy and useless of human artifacts."

Watching It Unfold

Been watching the economy ... wondering ... and looking at Obama last night - did I see deeper lines, or was it just TV?

The power of blogs, 24-hour news and constant connectivity allow for a greater for a micro-management of events - like Nervous Nellies, we monitor things moment-by-moment, a depressing experience at best, as the economy bumps and grinds its way through one of the worst downturns since the Great Depression.

I appreciate those who remind us of just how great the Great Depression was, and that we've learned  critical lessons, putting in place safeguards that are likely to prevent the onset of anything similar.

I'm wondering about Germany. They're weathering the storm better than most Euro-countries, but I wonder where the voice of the church is these days. Are there theologians and pastors calling for a broad-minded view of Germany's place in the world? That the other nations, especially the former Soviet Bloc nations, need special attention and support? Sadly, we Americans get very little international news, and I'm wondering what kind of discussion is being raised in Germany.

I am  pondering the plight of the Conservative Movement here. How deeply alienated they must feel and how reactive they are to Obama, but I think the real key to understanding them right now is the squabble between Steele and Limbaugh - it's not about doctrine, it's about ideology, and the problem with ideology is that it allows for no adjustment. Ideology is fixed and becomes a self-sustaining, self-defending, group of thoughts increasingly isolated from history. The idea is everything. The reality that may have prompted the idea initially is forgotten, and current events are irrelevant.

But I appreciate their dilema. When Bush and Gang were around, I found myself wanting them to fail, even if it meant hardship for everyone. I think it was Graham Greene who noted in "The Heart of the Matter" when Scobie momentarily daydreams of his wife's death so that he can carry on an affair just how relentlessly self-interested we can be at someone else's expense, and that, of course, is the definition of sin: relentless self-interest.

It will be interesting to see what the G20 offers, and how Timothy Geithner fares.

Some who would like to see solutions quickly take effect are already calling for his resignation or removal ... hmmm. What's up with that kind of thinking? Of for the days before the Pony Express when it took three or four weeks for news and a letter to cross the nation; that gave everyone time to think, and these days, thought is clearly in short supply; reaction and criticism are abundant.

Will the stimulus work?

Of course it will ... because history is on the move, and the things we do, or fail to do, make an impact and shape the course of human events.

Will the auto companies make it? Now that's another question. But I have a lot of friends in Michigan, and I wonder how wise it would be to let this huge industry simply collapse and all the suppliers with it.

Lots of questions, lots of thoughts ... it will unfold, as history does, and when it's all done, what will we think of ourselves?

America's Greedy Sickness

Article about Yahoo's new CEO:

Shareholders are looking for Yahoo to rekindle talks with Microsoft Corp. or possibly sell off assets -- anything that earns them a quick return. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said as recently as last week that he’s still open to a partnership with Yahoo, something that may be first on investors’ agenda.

Does anyone here ask real questions?

Like viability? or long-term growth? or purpose? Quality?

Apparently not. Let's just gear up merger talks, drive up the stock price, so we can sell and make a killing.

Is this not the final disease? The unrelenting greed of hedge funds and brokers - Medoff or the poor guy who just recently faked his own death via a plane crash? Who's "pretty wife" is now suing him for divorce, who's multiple companies are being investigate for fraud, and so on and so forth.

Should Yahoo survive? I don't know, but the heart of this article is everything that's wrong with American industry and business right now.

Prosperity is not about bottom line or quick profits. Never has been, but Wall Street has gone crazy - a game played by 30-something ninnies who know little about the world in which they live, who can see no further than their own bottom line, who play with people's money like they played with their action-adventure figures.

I'd love to see Yahoo tell 'em to take a hike and jump into the lake (naw, that would be pollution of the worst kind).

American business is no longer about enterprise and productivity, thanks to Wall Street and its unregulated madness.

And Americans themselves aren't a whole lot better off emotionally.

It was all spend and consume, and now we've got to pay the piper.

Have we learned anything?

I doubt if the Wall Street big boys have ... as they beg for more money from Uncle Sam so they can continue to pad their coffers and live lavishly on the government dole.

I hope and pray that Obama and Team will have the vision and the courage to shut down this insanity - install a whole new process of tight regulation, to force this nation onto a fiscally responsible path - for government and business.

We can do it; and I don't think we have any choice.

The war in Iraq and elsewhere has all been underwritten by China and Japan buying government securities ... is this the way to do business?

We have spent ourselves silly, on all fronts. But it's time to take a deep breath, redistribute the wealth - the upper crust doesn't need to be so thick, and the lower echelons need a little more.

Ah well ... let's see if we can do it!

Obama and the Economy

I'm 64, and can't recall a time when a President-elect had quite so much on the plate. I believe comparisons to Lincoln and FDR are appropriate.

The headlines this morning: Obama calling on economic experts for their advice.

It's going to take a lot of cool-headed thinking to find an approach, likely, multiple approaches, to resolving the world's financial crisis brought about by ideological thinking.

As Greenspan noted in his recent testimony to Congress, "everyone has an ideology."

That's true, but some ideologies are spelled with capital letters and others are a bit more fluid.

When Greenspan admitted that his Ideology, held for forty years, was flawed, he might well have said, "Any Ideology, spelled with capital letters, is flawed." Life doesn't yield to superimposed models (see Chaos Theory). Life requires a fluid, responsive, approach - a commitment to principles, but a willingness to revise the game plan and made lots of mid-course adjustments.

What we've seen since the halcyon days of Reagan has been an IDEOLOGY - ill-thought, never tested in a complex modern economy, looked upon as foolish by our Allies, and for my take on things, essentially fascist - the linking of business and government via the instruments of deregulation and low taxes. The fatal flaw of Greenspan's Ideology: what's good for business will be good for everyone.

Now is not the time for Ideology ... now is the time for intelligence.

Does Obama and his team have what it takes?

I believe so, but only time will tell.

The magnitude of our problems is immeasurable ... it took a long time for us to get here, and it will likely take some time for us to find our way through and out.

But I am heartened by Obama's style - to consult with the best and to think his way through, reminding us with the truth: it will take time - a year or two, maybe even the first time. This is the kind of honest talk we've needed to hear for a long time.

If confidence-building is one of Obama's primary tasks, it will be done with the truth!

And, as Jesus said, "the truth is what sets us free."

Campaign

Will the Dems slug it out?

Hope not, but even if they do, two candidates vying for the nomination will at least keep the cameras turned away from McCain.

I have no doubt that McCain is a man of integrity and intelligence, though I disagree with him on most everything.

The easy way he says, "I'm a conservative," caves in to the mantra of the right-wing, which hasn't had a constructive or coherent thought in decades, if ever, simply because it relies upon cliches and slogans that fire up the heart of the unthinking!

The current collapse of the economy is the fruit of a Repub policy and a fruitless war that can only bring more heartache to our world, and now that the news is out, that soldiers are committing suicide at a higher-than-ever rate, we ought to review our foolish ways and become a partner with the world, rather than trying to be a world-dominating superpower - which simply means pretension and hyperbole - there is no such thing as a superpower, but only large nations with vast sums of money to support a huge military machine.

Superpowers are deluded by their own dreams, and always and ever extend themselves beyond their capacity, only to experience humiliation and loss, at which point, we can go back to the moral drawing board, or in a fit of pride, exert our powers all the more (which is exactly the trap into which Bush and Gang have fallen).

All human greatness is from God.
All human greatness becomes arrogant.
God brings down all human arrogance.

Connect the Dots

The economy is in shambles.

Ethanol is a joke, requiring more energy to make a gallon than its worth, and if every cob of corn in America were made into ethanol, it would only be 7% of our oil consumption. Meanwhile this boondoggle funnels billions into the midwest corn belt, raising the price of corn, and raising the price of just about everything else related to the food chain.

We borrow billions from China to buy oil from the Saudis.

Low taxes have bankrupted the government.

Programs of mercy and hope are slashed, but breaks for the wealthy remain - check out the "yacht tax" for a small example.

What's wrong with this picture?

The same thing that was wrong during the Harding Administration - unregulated capitalism -wherein the voice or profit and greed dominates government policy.

This kind of capitalism reared its ugly head with a vengeance during the Reagan Administration and has been roaring ever since, yet headed for the same debacle it always creates - the collapse of the bubble. Greed is it's own poison; tragically, the middle class pays the price, and the poor die.

Such capitalism has nothing in common with Traditional Capitalism, a economic partnership between business and government underpinning the middle class.

Unrestrained capitalism - a profound evil - destroys the middle class, leaving only a slight percentage of super-wealthy and their minions, leaving the rest struggling, with millions struggling at the lowest levels. Check out the Middle ages - when church and king were in collusion with the wealthy, and the rest of society in serfdom.

Connect the dots.

Bush and his cronies have shamed us before the world, committed crimes against our character and our people, talked nonsense while beguiling us with talk about defense and terrorism, and robbing us blind.

Connect the dots!

Economy Surge

Hello?

Does anyone talk about how our economy was looted by Bush and Gang in their foolish neo-con adventure to conquer the world for oil?

Of course, our economy is flagging. It's been beaten and brutalized, and the essential roll of government - to infuse confidence and to selectively provide support for the needy - has been lost.

A case in point: the mortgage debacle.

Could this have happened if we understood the nature of genuine capitalism as a regulated capitalism?

The mortgage fiasco simple reveals what happens when capitalism is left to its own devices - it goes crazy and commits suicide.

Leaving capitalizing to its own "ethics," is like hiring a fox to guard the hen house.

Let's the tell the truth here, please!

We have been robbed by the barons of Wall Street, and Bush is their minion!