The Daily Mull - Ken Watts

Fallacies do not cease...

Ken Watts — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:41:33 +0000

The Collected Works

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

G.K. Chesterton [read more]

Socialism, Religion, Stupak, and the Right

Ken Watts — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:12:28 +0000

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT amaze me about the right is its consistent need to become the thing it claims to hate.

I grew up in the sixties—in a conservative household.

When JFK was running for president there were two things conservatives were taught to be afraid of—Communism and Catholics.

It may seem strange today, but JFK had to reassure Americans, during his campaign for the presidency, that when it came to matters of government he would not be taking orders from the Vatican.

The most frightening thing about the Communists was their desire to force everyone into the same mold, to have a government decreed set of beliefs and values which were mandated for everyone—and that idea is still driving all the fears of "socialism" being fueled by the right today.

In those days the right believed in freedom. [read more]

Love of the republic in a democracy...

Ken Watts — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:36:21 +0000

The Spirit of Laws

Love of the republic in a democracy, is that of equality.

Baron de Montesquieu [read more]

What It's Really About

Ken Watts — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:38:22 +0000

THE FIRST AND SECOND POSTS in this series outlined the following points:

The political struggle—and spiritual struggle—in this country is a continuation of a struggle which has been with us as long as there has been a human race.
In our early, hunter gatherer, days it was a struggle between the community as a whole and the occasional power-hungry freeloader.

The community as a whole—early humanity—opted for equality, individual liberty, sharing, and democracy.

The occasional freeloader, a bully who would run roughshod over the rest of the community if given half a chance, preferred a hierarchy, with himself at the top, cherry picking the wealth of the group.

For over a million years we won that battle, establishing egalitarian communities which shared their power and wealth while preserving freedom and taking care of each other.
About the time of the agricultural revolution—a very short time ago compared to the amount of time we spent in our natural, hunter gatherer, state—the freeloaders managed to wrest control of the culture away from the democrats.

They instituted kingdoms, and began calling themselves kings.

This period lasted, with constant struggle between the freeloaders and the rest of us who do the work, for about the last twelve thousand years.
Recently, the democrats have been on the move again.

Modern democracies began to replace kingdoms.

The United States was created.
But we haven't rid ourselves of the freeloaders, or even brought them under any lasting control.

They still exist.

They don't wear crowns or make grand public appearances anymore.

Instead, they work behind the scenes, disseminating misinformation, financing lobbyists, and generally continuing to make sure that the vast majority of the wealth created by working people ends up in their bank accounts.

One way they do this is with political rhetoric—by getting us to buy into a false picture of the world.

And this is where the constant talk of socialism comes in: [read more]

Sharing is the central rule...

Ken Watts — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:25:26 +0000

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers

Sharing is the central rule of social interaction among hunters and gatherers.

Richard B. Lee and Richard Daly [read more]

The Reign of the Freeloaders

Ken Watts — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:27:19 +0000

IN YESTERDAY'S POST I described the good old days—our natural human years as hunter gatherers in Eden, before the agricultural revolution.

In those days, in the time before kings and priests, we lived in community as the social creatures we are.

We took care of each other.
We shared our wealth, and the work which produced it.
And we carefully guarded our liberty—especially from the kind of freeloader who accumulates a community's wealth and power at the expense of his friends and neighbors.

But then something went wrong. [read more]

All who would win joy, must share it...

Ken Watts — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:54:16 +0000

Lord Byron: The Major Works

All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin.

Lord Byron [read more]

Socialism, Conflation, and Human Nature

Ken Watts — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:37:53 +0000

WE'VE BEEN HEARING A LOT ABOUT socialism lately, particularly from the right.

If we believed for one moment anything we heard from Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or the average Republican politician, we would think that the country had ceased to be a democracy because health care reform was in danger of passing Congress by a majority vote.

I won't quibble about definitions—the word "socialism" has been used in such a wide variety of ways by such a wide variety of people that it's obvious fodder for the usual right-wing conflations.

But I do think that it's important to think about some of the basic assumptions behind the rhetoric—assumptions about what it means to be ordinary decent human beings.

We humans are a social species.

We are no more designed to live as islands unto ourselves than ants or bees.

We have always lived in communities. [read more]

Games, Guns, and Expertise

Ken Watts — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:57:23 +0000

THIS MORNING, ON MY WAY to a dentist appointment, I was listening to an NPR report on a video game—apparently one of the most popular of its kind.

We shared that we were both impressed by the natural empathy of children—by how they seemed to care from an early age about others.

The game, called America's Army, is actually a U.S. military recruiting tool aimed at 13 to 21 year olds.

In the game, they can learn to use a variety of weapons, and practice shooting non-Americans on the battlefield.

It turns out that the game, along with a set of graphic novels, has been surprisingly effective as a recruiting tool.

I arrived at the dentist's office, and was shot full of Novocaine, or whatever the modern equivalent is. [read more]

We are an intrinsic part of the universe...

Ken Watts — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:06:27 +0000

The Voice Of Genius: Conversations With Nobel Scientists And Other Luminaries

We are an intrinsic part of the universe. Much of the history of our galaxy is bound up in us. The carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen that forms the bulk of our bodies was made in the deep interiors of former generations of stars that have died. The salts of the ancient seas circulate in our blood. We see this universe not from outside, but from inside: its stuff is our stuff. I once wrote, "A physicist is the atom's way of knowing about atoms." In our knowing, the universe comes to know itself.

George Wald [read more]