Barbarians

The Greeks called those outside their linguistic tribe “barbarians” because their language sounded like “bar bar bar” (or “blah blah blah”) nonsense. The name stuck for anyone not abiding by the “civilized” rules _ implicit and explicit _ of any given society. Being a barbarian is in the eye of the beholder .

“Uncivilized” attitudes and behaviors from those within a tribe are more difficult. For the most part, that comes down to ignoring laws and customs and saving a special treatment (good and bad) for friends and family. Living and possibly ruling by petulant whim .

Obviously not all barbarians arrive from “outside” like Attila the Hun. Internal monsters and their gang are frequent interruptions in “the march of progress” which includes peace and prosperity. More importantly, civilization implies a stable or rising economic framework and basic security for its members.

Once a barbarian clique gains power, it is difficult to dislodge, since it uses all the leverage of the state to maintain position. It seems most such situations are resolved more by internal squabbles and knives than by anybody legally replacing them. And on occasion a violent revolution. Or, of course, outside invaders.

The best hope for those trapped in a culture captured by barbarians is to lie low and hope they quickly eliminate each other .

Coda

July 4th was a family gathering, senior generations, young adults, grandchildren. As the younger folks spoke of ambitions, hassles, fears and the future, the elders reminisced about what had been and how magically much of life had happened .

Then the party ended and we elders went back to whatever normal lives we each inhabit. And I realized that in this culture – at least for the more fortunate – old age is a kind of coda on reality .

Finally we are free of admonitions about what to do, what we must do, especially what we are supposed to do. Mostly the young – even as they love us dearly – want us to stay out of the way as they race along their narrow paths .

Earlier, that was somewhat frustrating, as we were used to racing ourselves. But sometime in our late ’70s, life truly slows into rocking chair time at least for stretches of our days, however much we may regret it .

And what we learned at the party was to pull out the old memories and nostalgia and personal tales, since it is as raconteurs that the young treasure us most .

Blame Game

All revolutionary, authoritarian, mob rule movements eventually come down to blaming someone else for your problems. MAGA voters are no different .

Once it was aristocrats, or Jews. Now it is illegal aliens who are responsible for crime, minorities who keep you from getting a good job, conspiracies which keep prices up, evil elites who burden good people with rules, fiendish Chinese who enable drug addiction. And on and on .

There’s a lot wrong with the world, and enough blame to go around. Now the populists are in power, rampaging like the directorate of 1793. No one and nothing is safe. There MUST be a simple fix to complex problems. SOMEONE is preventing us from using it .

But since the election, none of the cultists seem to ask: is crime down, are prices lower, are jobs better, does the future seem brighter, has anything actually improved in day-to-day individual life? The standard answer for all leaders in such a fix is “we have not gone far enough.” Punish more enemies. Check if they hide among your acquaintances, friends, family. Roll out the guillotines, send professors to the farms! Double down on what we are sure will work, somehow

It’s an old and continuous disease of every civilization that ever existed. We’ve never found a vaccine, cure, or antidote. Just plain human nature, I guess .

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is where most citizens interact with any government. Naturally, it is usually hated. The functions may be necessary, but no one loves a tax collector. Including the tax collector .

In the modern world, bureaucracy is the most stable institution of government. “Rulers come and go”, the tax collector remains. Soon it is all wrapped into a hated “deep state”. Since the days of the ancient empires, no matter who gets in charge, a tax collector or other agent will show up. “Meet the new boss …”

Our founding fathers didn’t think much about bureaucracy. There’s nothing about it in the Constitution. Except for national defense (and even most of that) they left it as a local matter to towns and states. They just figured folks would be temporarily hired at need .

It didn’t work. Bureaucracy grew from the beginning. But who was in charge? Just as corporations became “persons”, bureaucracy magically turned into an “executive function.” That’s surely wrong. It really should be fully controlled by the legislature. One of the big – really big – powers of the presidency that is completely unchecked .

And now, after centuries of civil service reform, it appears to be reverting to a “spoils system”. The second leg (politicization of the military is first) of establishing authoritarianism .

Paradigm Shifts

A paradigm shift occurs when former ways of thinking and living no longer work. In personal terms it means our common sense and traditional values no longer apply, and new ones must be created .

Joseph Campbell in his books on mythology made the interesting point that such historic cultural breaks often occurred rapidly (in about a hundred years) then settled in for a long time (thousands of years). A good example is ancient Egypt .

We seem to be in the midst of the whirlwind. Our thinking is forced into new patterns every year or so, sometimes even more often. And unfortunately, it is impossible to tell what will emerge or whether we will like it at all .

My point is that our times may be very unusual. After the dust settles – for better or worse – whatever system of thought survives may last for a very long time indeed .

Okay, a comforting long-term thought. But it doesn’t help each of us now as the storm rages and high waves rock the boat. All we can do is deal with changes as they wash over us one after another .

The curse of “interesting times”. At least we still have the option of imagining various happy outcomes .

Limits

There are two main purposes for any government. One is to provide group security. The second is to maintain social stability. If either fails, government change will occur .

A new book by Phil Gramm claims government should avoid all economic interaction. Like most capitalist visionaries, he certainly does NOT mean that government should not protect property or enforce contracts. Capitalism, after all, requires a certain amount of coercion .

Most of us have come to agree that free enterprise competition, “within limits” is the best economic system. Yet even fervent capitalists agree that monopoly – a natural tendency of successful business – is hardly free enterprise. ONE fruit seller in the market is not the way to better product and lower prices .

But the second purpose of government is what is in question right now. How many limits (“regulations, taxes”) should be placed on capitalistic enterprises to assure security continues? Zoning laws, poverty relief, public spaces, protection of natural resources (air, water) and on and on. It’s not as simple as the narrow-minded ivory tower economists pretend .

Many of us believe that in the modern world of abundance, a certain minimum level of lifestyle should be provided to all adults and a high lifestyle to all children. Not doing so is not only immorally mean, but also a danger to our civilization itself .

Smash and Dream.

Or maybe dream and smash? Angry people often believe that every problem is somebody else’s fault. If they can’t find an avatar scapegoat, they blame immigrants, government, society, or vague cabals. Somebody is obviously making them victims, because they’re not doing as well as mommy and daddy told them they would .

So they dream of a better world, like most of us. But they are certain that vague and evil powers will stop their desires. So first they must smash and destroy everything and rebuild in the rubble for a glorious future .

Oh, sure, lots of people will be hurt and die. Maybe even they will die. But they will be happy martyrs, welcomed into their vision of eternal heaven, admired down the future ages. Happy imaginations .

Usually, they expect that right will prevail. A little because it must be true and right. A lot because its purity will make it a strong survivor. To be honest, most of the greatest smashers also believe they will remain since they are the strongest .

Finally successful. Mommy and daddy must be proud .

And now – all settles down to sweetness and light .

Finally, the right people in charge .

The more things change …

Fantastic Tales

I enjoyed Bible stories as a youth. Then those of the “golden age” of science fiction. Even now some space opera and fantasy. All had little twists and turns, many preached a certain view of society. Fortunately, I never confused them with science or history. Sociology – well that hung out somewhere in the middle .

I know the attraction of all those (mostly) male superheroes or charmed individuals who thrive against all odds. But, again, I rarely confused their exploits with what happened in my real life .

What bothers me now is that many people are overwhelmed with a glut of knowledge that still seems unable to predict their individual future usefully. So they cling to militaristic utopias like Heinlein’s StarshipTroopers. Or unfettered economic systems _ some controlled, some free. Or libertarian or dystopian or … And worse, these become not merely touchstones for their own consciousness, which may be a genuinely useful function, but also a blueprint for how society should really be, or actually is, or how they should act .

Ayn Rand is my personal hate. But any fiction is – really – fiction. Each person is more complex than described in a novel. Each society more chaotically unpredictable. Each solution encrusted with its own problems . And each individual life unique.

But not in these tales. “If only” has replaced “once upon a time” in our current fairy tales .

“If you can keep it”

Franklin’s famous phrase is somewhat opposed to the current meme “rule of law.” In some sense, any organized society lives under a kind of rule of law – laws determined by whoever is in charge, even if the “law” is “I can do whatever I want and you must obey me” .

The founders considered a republic to be based on rights grounded in ideas of liberty. Laws which infringed on that liberty were wrong and should be unenforceable.

Those founders did not see much difference between liberty and “rights” owed to any adult white males living in the country. Those folks were supposed to preserve the idea of liberty (even if they treated women, slaves, etc differently.) Fundamental rights included being able to defend oneself, protect property and contracts, and think and say what you wanted. In a libertarian manner – they did not initially see any need to explicitly enumerate a bill of rights – freedom to do anything that doesn’t harm someone else .

All would of course be forever preserved by the innate virtue of the ruling elite. After the founders finished laughing, they constructed a complicated federal system of checks and balances. Alas, over the years, we have deconstructed most of that in the name of “pure democracy” – what the founders called mob rule.

We may be in the final stages of a semblance of a republic. It was, for a while, a nice nearly working dream .

“Life is short, art is long”

“Life is short, but art is long” is one of those old Roman sayings that seem to make sense until we think about it. Up to a few hundred years ago, people conceived of time much differently than we do. Aboriginal tribes existed in a perpetual present, surrounded by “dreamtime” past and future. Civilized folks considered the past as a few hundred or thousand years – back to the Egyptians or some mythical beginning. Deep philosophers assumed the world to always have been as it is, possibly cycling through various stages .

More than that – in direct opposition to current ideas of progress – that past was always better, golden, inhabited by gods or semi-gods. Ancient art was always to be copied or imitated since the degenerate present could not compete. Thus “art is long”.

Now we laugh at a few thousand years. We know the world goes back a few billion, amazing creatures hundreds of millions, people like us over 100,000. And the world keeps changing. And “new improved” is demonstrably better than the old junk .

As for art … well it’s really as “short” as life. Useful for a generation or so at most. Like any legacy, soon gone with the wind, without even the solace of a grave marker .

As for other ” wise”, “golden”, sayings, ideas, and ideals of classic ancient cultures – don’t get me started .