“Just Want To Make Sure It Cures You, and Doesn’t Kill You”

Hey, I understand your anger, but don’t forget that most Americans who voted in the last election did not support Bush, and a large number of us plan to vote against him in the next one. Some of us pay attention to what really is going on, and lots of us are angry about it.

- Subdued Citizen

Yeah .. sorry. I know very welll that there are many many fine good aware intelligent human beings that live in the United States. Just a momentary flash of anger and frustration at the way some values and frames of reefernce have helped create elements of a culture that will and has supported some significant exploitattion of other countries, cultures, and your own.

And frustration that somehow … awareness, the education about issues and citizenship, and all of us being on the same planet together isn’t so easy for many people to grasp and incorporate into their daily lives and communities. The manipulation of the American society by the neocons and the Bush dynasty seems obvious, it seems to me, to the rest of the world, with little exception.

You can’t reach a variety of people here. The hard core Bushists would eat poison before admitting they’d made a mistake. The indecisive voters kinda feel that voting against Bush is voting against the troops — and we all know how the peace movement treated the Vietnam vets so. . .

Yes, the manipulation is incredible. I can’t understand how anybody could find Bush and his people credible. When he was talking about how we haven’t been able to devise a system that will protect the country from shoddy Canadian drugs…. It seems utterly obvious to me that even he does not believe a word of what he is saying — how could he? So it’s like listening to a machine — the mouth opens, and emits sounds that ordinarily carry certain meanings that we recognize by conventions of human language. But it is not real communication between minds. Yet Bush’s handlers must believe that this sort of manipulation works, and judging by the polls, it does.

P.S. That last comment at 7:36 PDT was from me.

P.S. I love the term “asshats.” Hadn’t heard that one before, but judging by its wide distribution on the “Internets,” over 56,000 results in Google, I am behind the times.

Asshat goes well with recto-cranial inversion.

Thanks, “dued”. BTW, I remember the sadness I felt for all of us the first time I read your “bio” on your blog.

Your previous point aboutFurious George being all hat and no cattle reinforces my feelings of amazement. The country is being governed by, and this governance is being ferociously defended by about 50% of the citizenry (probably less, but his supporters are vehemently pro-active), meaningless SLOGANS. Propaganda at its insidious, menacing best. I remember a year ago or so, when some well-known bloggers where beginning to compare the USA to pre-WWW II Germany, and many people scoffed atthe ridiculousness of that comparison.

Not so much scoffing anymore, methinks, except that the Germans’ leader was smarter than the Dubya mock puppet. Not only is Chimpy dumb, but he refuses to reflect or admit mistakes, and when confronted at all … well, we’ve seen how well he does annoyed and angry.

No wonder none of the generals in the basement of the WH dared cross him …. they might well have thought there was something that hurts waiting for them outside the meeting room, or maybe they were thinking “maybe this guy really does believe in the saying “shoot the messenger” ?

I’ve wondered, without the economic knowledge to conclude anything, about something you suggest here: after the Bush lunacy and the consolidation of a fundamentalist populace, to what extent is it now in the interest of a lot of countries, even allies, to make the U.S. economy tank? Or: to what extent would it be serviceable to start bleeding off the most intelligent and productive members of the society (i.e., the looking-over-their-shoulder Left) by offering them good jobs in Canada and Europe until all of America looks like Mississipi–which it seems to want to become in any case? I know there aren’t many slots in a crowded world. I know people depend on American trade. But still… the rest o’ the West dream of Kerry winning, right? But is there a tipping point down the road at which the rest o’ West, like Osama, will want to see George’s kin elected so they’ll bring the country to its economic knees? After all, the mythology has it that we beat the Soviets by nothing but taunting. Come and get us, redboys, keep spending on those weapons till you’re broke! Nyah nyah! Perhaps history will tell of the Machiavellian brilliance of France.

This is really just an oblique way of saying that if somebody set me up with a decent career in a terrific city like Montreal I’d move in a heartbeat. So, you know, Jon, if there’s anything you can do.

T.V.

T.V. … it’s a extremely good question, and a valid wonderment on your part imo. And I have several responses …

I know of people who have made the move … and brainpower has been our gain, up here. the question came up surprisingly often at a summit I recently attended atthe Banff new media summit, in Banff Alberta … and a good friend of mine who is an Assoc. professor at both UBC and SFU here in Vancouver (an originally an American, btw) is fond of saying that the last four years has been a real boon for the academic scene in Canada … lots of high-quality academics from the US want to come up here, and are actively seeking ways to do so.

If you want a closer-to-the-ground story, go look at Inspector Lohmann’s blog … he is extremely happy he made the move, and several of his posts (look in his archives) deal with some of the positive life-and-society affirming experiences he’s had.

Re: economics … it’s my firm belief that power resides not only in guns, tanks and bombs, and that countries like Japan and China (especially China) are much more crafty than the USA gives them credit for, and may just be waiting for the right time … namely, when the economies of China, Russia, India and Japan combined (along with the smaller Asian economies) are sufficiently robust to “make a market” whereby they don’t have to depend upon exporting to the US. Ceasing to homnour the American overdraft would hurt the US quite rapidly, I think .. and of course they (in theory) couldn’t yell about it, being the foremost evangelists of “free markets” .. however, I think such a wounded animal such as the US would then be might very well lash out, with nuclear capability.

I do think France is marter, and wiser, than the US gives them credit for. I also suspect that, unknowingly, the US is somehow fearful of such “socialist” states as France and Germany, conventional wisdom being that free markets and privatization of everything are the best guarantors of a robust and vibrant economy and society. Jeremy Rifkin has a new book out (I haven’t read it) titled The European Dream … the title is deliberately positied, provocatively, as a counterpoint to The American Dream (in all its fading glory).

IMO it all depends upon how you define vibtrant and robust, the role of an economy in a society (they aren’t one and the same, as it is taken for gospel that they are in the US), and how we treat all members of a society … old and young, poor and rich, caucasian and other races/peoples … and there … some suggest canada may become a model for the 21st Centruy. We do a lot of “society” things pretty well up here, esp. given how close we are, physically, culturally and economically, to the US.

I like Canada, but sure wish I lived somewhere in Europe.

As for career prospects and moving to Canada, I suspect these days may be a very interesting window, for people who are smart and have some development behind them. Depends upon your field and background … what do you have to offer, what’s your field, what do you want to do ? I do know interesting, forward-thinking, well-placed and connected (and most importantly, inclined to be helpful) people in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

No skills or prospects I’m afraid (left academia with lips pursed & am untrained for aught else save starting from scratch which I’m working on but so emigration ain’t an option) and no funds (me & wife jointly unemployed and burning up the savings purty fast). Guess I was being facetious (except I wasn’t). This goat’s here until the Rapture and he don’t much like it.

Cherish your blessings. Montreal is a way cool city. (The above comment was also partly inspired by your previous I-learned-French-in-my-thirties-by-talking-to-people-in-Montreal post, which was just, well, really envycausing and mean.)

T.V.

I do cherish my blessing … but thanks … sincerely, for reminding me. I’ve now lived in vancouver for 10 years, upon returning from London and Paris, and I used to live in Montreal prior to moving to western Europe.

Vancouver is nice, and the weather is generally better than Montreal (not as cold by a long shot, in the winter), but I rue the day I decided not to return to Montreal when returning to Canada. In many ways - mostly the people, their openness, warmth and a certain je ne sais quoi - it is the most funky and most human-scale liveable city i’ve ever visited on this planet … and that’s quite a few of them.

I doubt - strongly - that you have no skills. I was an HR and organizational consultant for quite a few years, with graduate training in coaching. If you’re at all interested, let’s get into dialogue by email (me - jon AT wirearchy.com) and lets see if we can make something happen, somehow. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.