Real and self-imagined elites. War shorts. Hanging up the cup.
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When Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson was running for president in the 1950s, a supporter purportedly said to him: "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "I'm afraid that won't do — I need a majority."
One of the great pleasures of this Covid affair has been the emergence of so many brilliant "thinking persons" on Internet forums such as Substack. Their brilliance absolutely overwhelms the numerical superiority of the self-anointed elite majority.
Toby Rogers, who posts as uTobian, has eclectic but generally brilliant observations on the world situation. I offer a couple here for your enjoyment.
The Legal Right to Refuse Medical Treatment in the U.S.A.
In the latter, he writes:
I’m haunted by this social media post by a friend
“Annihilation is my love language” she wrote. It was a provocative, smart,
and nuanced post — about trauma, abuse, addiction, pain and ways to
transcend all that through meditation.
The sentence has stuck with me because I think it describes far more
than just her experience. The reason I am so fierce in my critique of
bourgeois culture is because that is the world I come from. Those are
my people and I know what that journey is like.
Annihilation is definitely their love language.
I went to Swarthmore College for undergrad. Depending on the year,
it is ranked as the #1, #2, or #3 liberal arts college in U.S. News & World
Report and has been for decades. And it is the unhealthiest place on
earth. Everyone is engaged in some form of self-annihilation. The vast
majority of students engage in cult-like sleep deprivation and push
themselves to the brink of collapse. It’s not even clear why. I imagine
initially it was in pursuit of a goal. Then it just became about winning/
domination. And then the pain in pursuit of winning became the point.
The women starve themselves. Sexual violence is rampant. More than
25% of students end up needing psych services over the course of four
years. Self abnegation is the defining ethos of the place. It’s like a
Jordan Peele horror movie satire of white culture come to life.
This could have been written about Reed College, which I attended from 1960-62, which fancies itself as a West Coast version of Swarthmore.
The great thing about the Substack approach is that, not having to toot our own horns all the time to put bread on the table, we are able to be generous in our recognition of genius. Toby provided this link from the second post above about our purpose in life. Here is Charles Eisenstein with an article entitled "Reinventing Progress - How to Move Beyond Technocracy." It quite succinctly sums up my notion of my own purpose in life. When this war is over and I get back to writing, I hope that my aging brain remembers how valuable I consider this piece to be as I read it.
In war news, General Petraus has good observations about why Russia is failing. Jibes with my post yesterday about the Russian character. Ukraine is having success knocking out high ranking officers. Easy, because their military is top-heavy. Necessary, because without them underlings do not function well.
Despite the stories of Russian brutality, one of the surprising observations one makes of this war is the frequent civility between the opposing sides. Gary from London sent this video today.
The seamier side of Philadelphia is pretty raw. Same as the underbelly of wartime Saigon. It takes a clear eye and a certain delicacy to write about it. Linh Dinh's article today reminds me of the dives of Oakland that my taxi driver friend (and subscriber, and namesake of my son Edward) exposed me to when we served together in the National Guard, and the less savory parts of Saigon that privileged civilians such as I only occasionally ventured into. Linh, as a young boy, had a very different perspective on Saigon than we American contractors.
Time for a three month checkup on giving up the cup. Alcohol was getting to be too much of a burden – messing up my stomach, giving me gout and so on. Just as I had quit smoking on my 21st birthday, I quit drinking on my 79th. Time for a checkup.
My stomach feels better. I don't have as much acid reflux. Less Maalox. My gout has diminished somewhat, though it certainly has not gone away. Despite the fact that I am taking in just as much fluid, it doesn't have the diuretic effect of alcohol. I don't have to get up in the middle of the night.
Quite unusual, I suspect, for a guy who put away a fifth of spirits every three days, I don't have any psychological issues. I don't miss it. It appears that years of drinking didn't do me any lasting damage, though that won't be known for another couple years. It hasn't affected my health, my weight or my exercise this way or that. I doubt I'll be invited as a featured speaker at temperance revivals. I have no regrets about drinking.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the men are no stronger for being more virtuous; the good looking women have lost, in Oksana's dad and my having given up alcohol, a staple of matrimonial discord, and the children are oblivious to the good example we are setting.
10:30 a.m. Stupid war news: We listened as we dug our garden while the Russians pounded the hell out of Brovary again this morning. Although I sometimes imagine I am hearing bombing or artillery, the constant throughout the bombardment is isolated loud bangs. Since I doubt the Russians are able to coordinate missile, air and artillery attacks my guess is that I'm just hearing different varieties of missiles. They have been using them throughout the war. Though they have brought a lot of damage they have not been very effective militarily, nor have they reduced Ukrainian resolve. I've edited a map of the Kyiv area into the main post, with Irpin, Hostomel and Bucha in the upper left and Brovary in the middle right. We live along the unfinished and not yet usable highway you see crossing the river from Podil to Voskresenka.
Added a comment at 10:30. It is appended to the main article because I wanted to include a map.
Zelensky and Biden. Two 'leaders' who were installed by trickery. Illegitimate, both.