When my friends and I were growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, we regarded California as if it were a foreign country–if not another planet. The widespread speculation was that California was one big movie/TV studio, that had beaches for the thousands of blond-haired surfers who spoke some extremely hip language, and had adoring, bikini-clad girls clinging to them.
Yet living here soon taught me that, though this perception of the Golden State was in some measure true for the cities and towns on the Pacific, a trip 30 – 40 miles inland exposed a culture that wasn’t altogether different than that of Central Pennsylvania, or Central Alabama for that matter.
I bring this up because of the recent announcement (see above) that the University of California, with its 10 campuses, won five Nobel Prizes recently. UC Santa Barbara alone has 11 Nobel laureates, nine of which are in physics and materials science. That’s a lot of intelligence floating around in a city whose population is only about 89,000.
Per my point, however, 2GreenEnergy “headquarters” is about 30 miles inland from Santa Barbara. Where they have people speaking French and discussing quantum physics, we have saloons and rodeos.
I’m not complaining (too much). It’s still a great place to live, and if I want to find someone to converse with on the subject of quarks and neutrinos, they’re only a short drive away.
I join those who say that the human race has evolved to be tribal and selfish. We are largely indifferent to the needs of others, and the capitalist society we’ve built has only served to reenforce this.
As Tom Waits observed, “We’re monkeys with money and guns.”
Now, are there some extremely decent and kind people spread around the globe? Of course. But they tend not to be the billionaires who make all the important decisions as to the how our culture will conduct itself.
Well, never is a long time, as they say.
Yet imagine this scenario, which is quite possible:
Trump is impeached and removed. Almost immediately, there is an incredible outpouring of information on an additional set of crimes committed by Trump and his administration. Simultaneously, the U.S. morphs into a social democracy, and its people enjoy quality education, access to healthcare, and prosperity, not unlike those in Northern Europe and elsewhere around the globe.
Yes, there will always be Republicans promising mass deportations and whatever else appeals to a dwindling MAGA base, but I would think they will have one hell of a hard time winning a national election.
The GOP can say the American economy is skyrocketing. But then there’s that nasty little piece of reality that people can’t afford groceries and are suffering financially more generally.
Or they can day that people are suffering financially, but it’s Biden’s fault. Oops. Biden left office 588 days ago.
Or they can say that the war in Iran has driven up gas prices, but that will turn immediately because we’ve won the war. Yikes. What can we say about all these bombs?
Or they can say that all the racial hatred and divisiveness is Obama’s fault. No, that’s problematic, since he’s been gone for almost 10 years.
Trump supporters may not be too sharp, but even they are having trouble accepting all this crap.
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