"Physician, heal thyself": U.S.''s problems are within

[MoonWater]

This is an excellent Bill Moyer interview with Andrew Bacevich. You can view the video or read the transcipt: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08152008/watch.html

Here's an excerpt:

ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I've been troubled by the course of U.S. foreign policy for a long, long time. And I wrote the book in order to sort out my own thinking about where our basic problems lay. And I really reached the conclusion that our biggest problems are within.

I think there's a tendency on the part of policy makers and probably a tendency on the part of many Americans to think that the problems we face are problems that are out there somewhere, beyond our borders. And that if we can fix those problems, then we'll be able to continue the American way of life as it has long existed. I think it's fundamentally wrong. Our major problems are at home.
.......

BILL MOYERS: Here is one of those neon sentences. Quote, "The pursuit of freedom, as defined in an age of consumerism, has induced a condition of dependence on imported goods, on imported oil, and on credit. The chief desire of the American people," you write, "is that nothing should disrupt their access to these goods, that oil, and that credit. The chief aim of the U.S. government is to satisfy that desire, which it does in part of through the distribution of largesse here at home, and in part through the pursuit of imperial ambitions abroad." In other words, you're saying that our foreign policy is the result of a dependence on consumer goods and credit.

ANDREW BACEVICH: Our foreign policy is not something simply concocted by people in Washington D.C. and imposed on us. Our foreign policy is something that is concocted in Washington D.C., but it reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what we want, we the people want. And what we want, by and large - I mean, one could point to many individual exceptions - but, what we want, by and large is, we want this continuing flow of very cheap consumer goods.

We want to be able to pump gas into our cars regardless of how big they may happen to be, in order to be able to drive wherever we want to be able to drive. And we want to be able to do these things without having to think about whether or not the book's balanced at the end of the month, or the end of the fiscal year. And therefore, we want this unending line of credit.

BILL MOYERS: You intrigued me when you wrote that "The fundamental problem facing the country will remain stubbornly in place no matter who is elected in November." What's the fundamental problem you say is not going away no matter whether it's McCain or Obama?
ANDREW BACEVICH: What neither of these candidates will be able to, I think, accomplish is to persuade us to look ourselves in the mirror, to see the direction in which we are headed. And from my point of view, it's a direction towards ever greater debt and dependency.

 

[MoonWater]

I hadn''t fully finished reading this interview before posting but I just did and I have to say I''d toss Obama and McCain aside to elect this guy President. I think it''s shameful that the average American, which would be the majority, can not comprehend the things he so eloquently says.

 

[strmrdr]

It all comes back to what has been done to the dollar.
The dollar was kept artificially high and interest rates artificially low.
That led to a guaranteed crash.
It is really simple to many dollars and credit were put out.

The root cause is that a mutual back scratching economy can not survive because no real wealth is created, what is created is garbage like the loan backed securities.
That money should have been invested in expanding the US manufacturing and technology base.
Instead it was spent buying foreign goods, exporting jobs and junk investments.
Why? The dollar was to high!

Real estate prices went through the roof.. why?
interest rates kept artificially low, and junk investments supporting the borrowing frenzy.

 

[MoonWater]

Karl, that''s definitely one of the problems. Did you read the whole thing though? I know it''s long but I really think he gets to the root(s) of our issues. I just wish we all (collectively) were really ready to solve them.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 10/1/2008 6:26:17 PM
Author: MoonWater
Karl, that''s definitely one of the problems. Did you read the whole thing though? I know it''s long but I really think he gets to the root(s) of our issues. I just wish we all (collectively) were really ready to solve them.

I read the whole thing.
I agree with a lot of what he says, disagree with a lot to.
I think we needed to invade Afghanistan it had to be done.
I was against the Iraq war at the start and still think it was a bad idea.
But we are stuck we can''t just withdraw and go home.
We are also winning when the politicians keep their noses out of it and let the troops do their job and give them the tools to do it.

But you know what that comes back to the dollar also........
What if investors were putting money into r&d instead of junk securities?
What if the high dollar hadn''t killed U.S. r&d and manufacturing?
What if a leader had the political will to stand up and say we are going to build nuclear plants of this design all over as a stop gap measure for the next 30-50 years then do it?
We may have been on a path to solved the energy mess by now.
It is going to take 30-50 years to solve it totally but we could be 10 years into it by now.

We as a people need Bells labs and IBM labs and Motorola labs and Intel Labs and AMD labs and hundreds more!
But we can not have them if because of the high dollar all the profits go to retailers and overseas manufacturing.
It is a shame on us that foreign companies are building profitable plants in the US while we are closing plants that are losing money left and right.
They are using our money to build them with thanks to the high dollar.

 

[MoonWater]

Good points. It''s so utterly frustrating. I hate this consumerism mentally combined with the lack of production (seriously, wtf?). I guess that''s why I still have a problem with this bailout.

 

[ksinger]

Pretty much like the stuff I read. And I love Bill Moyers. Ever since his "Power of Myth" series with Joseph Campbell, I''ve been a fan.

As an aside, On Faith, a section of the Washington Post where I occasionally make comments, Susan Jacoby has a new piece. It is a list of questions she would ask both Biden and Palin. You''ll love ''em. You really should go there and read it...

 

[MoonWater]

Date: 10/1/2008 8:55:13 PM
Author: ksinger
Pretty much like the stuff I read. And I love Bill Moyers. Ever since his 'Power of Myth' series with Joseph Campbell, I've been a fan.

As an aside, On Faith, a section of the Washington Post where I occasionally make comments, Susan Jacoby has a new piece. It is a list of questions she would ask both Biden and Palin. You'll love 'em. You really should go there and read it...

Interesting. I certainly wish at least some of those questions could be asked and answered tonight. I'll start holding my breath...

ETA: and I need to keep a look out for her next book: "She is working on a book about the relationship between American anti-intellectualism and political polarization, to be published by Pantheon in 2008." (wait, is this the same as The Age of American Unreason)

 

[ksinger]

Date: 10/2/2008 4:44:34 PM
Author: MoonWater

Date: 10/1/2008 8:55:13 PM
Author: ksinger
Pretty much like the stuff I read. And I love Bill Moyers. Ever since his ''Power of Myth'' series with Joseph Campbell, I''ve been a fan.

As an aside, On Faith, a section of the Washington Post where I occasionally make comments, Susan Jacoby has a new piece. It is a list of questions she would ask both Biden and Palin. You''ll love ''em. You really should go there and read it...

Interesting. I certainly wish at least some of those questions could be asked and answered tonight. I''ll start holding my breath...

ETA: and I need to keep a look out for her next book: ''She is working on a book about the relationship between American anti-intellectualism and political polarization, to be published by Pantheon in 2008.'' (wait, is this the same as The Age of American Unreason)

Oh, unless she is just incredibly prolific, I suspect that The Age of American Unreason is the book of which they speak.

Another germaine-to-the-moment-bordering-on-freaky-prescient excerpt:

"Is it possible that American voters have learned something about the consequences of choosing an intellectually challenged chief executive on the basis of a beer test? Whatever one thinks of their respective political views, the most active candidates for the presidential nomination in both parties over the past year cannot be accused of being dumb. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney - even though they come from very different backgrounds, ranging from near poverty to immense wealth - can all form intelligible and grammatical English sentences. Each of them pronounces the word "nuclear" correctly. It is a safe bet that all of them read newspapers and that none of them waits for a staff briefing each day in order to avoid being exposed to "opinions" from the outside world. It remains to be seen, as the campaign heats up and comes down to the final two, whether "elitism" will resurface as a political negative. One wonders whether any candidate, instead of trying to prove that he or she is just one of the floks, would dare to tell voters that the nation needs not an ordinary but an extraordinary person as president and that one crucial qualification for the nation''s highest office is the intellectual ability to distinguish, in times of crisis and on a daily basis, between worthwhile and worthless opinions." pg 286-287

Scary ain''t it?

 

[MoonWater]

Date: 10/2/2008 8:31:14 PM
Author: ksinger

Date: 10/2/2008 4:44:34 PM

Author: MoonWater

Date: 10/1/2008 8:55:13 PM

Author: ksinger

Pretty much like the stuff I read. And I love Bill Moyers. Ever since his ''Power of Myth'' series with Joseph Campbell, I''ve been a fan.


As an aside, On Faith, a section of the Washington Post where I occasionally make comments, Susan Jacoby has a new piece. It is a list of questions she would ask both Biden and Palin. You''ll love ''em. You really should go there and read it...

Interesting. I certainly wish at least some of those questions could be asked and answered tonight. I''ll start holding my breath...


ETA: and I need to keep a look out for her next book: ''She is working on a book about the relationship between American anti-intellectualism and political polarization, to be published by Pantheon in 2008.'' (wait, is this the same as The Age of American Unreason)

Oh, unless she is just incredibly prolific, I suspect that The Age of American Unreason is the book of which they speak.


Another germaine-to-the-moment-bordering-on-freaky-prescient excerpt:


''Is it possible that American voters have learned something about the consequences of choosing an intellectually challenged chief executive on the basis of a beer test? Whatever one thinks of their respective political views, the most active candidates for the presidential nomination in both parties over the past year cannot be accused of being dumb. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney - even though they come from very different backgrounds, ranging from near poverty to immense wealth - can all form intelligible and grammatical English sentences. Each of them pronounces the word ''nuclear'' correctly. It is a safe bet that all of them read newspapers and that none of them waits for a staff briefing each day in order to avoid being exposed to ''opinions'' from the outside world. It remains to be seen, as the campaign heats up and comes down to the final two, whether ''elitism'' will resurface as a political negative. One wonders whether any candidate, instead of trying to prove that he or she is just one of the floks, would dare to tell voters that the nation needs not an ordinary but an extraordinary person as president and that one crucial qualification for the nation''s highest office is the intellectual ability to distinguish, in times of crisis and on a daily basis, between worthwhile and worthless opinions.'' pg 286-287


Scary ain''t it?

Holy crap...can I call her for lottery numbers??

 

[ksinger]

Date: 10/2/2008 11:23:12 PM
Author: MoonWater

Date: 10/2/2008 8:31:14 PM
Author: ksinger

Date: 10/2/2008 4:44:34 PM

Author: MoonWater

Date: 10/1/2008 8:55:13 PM

Author: ksinger

Pretty much like the stuff I read. And I love Bill Moyers. Ever since his ''Power of Myth'' series with Joseph Campbell, I''ve been a fan.


As an aside, On Faith, a section of the Washington Post where I occasionally make comments, Susan Jacoby has a new piece. It is a list of questions she would ask both Biden and Palin. You''ll love ''em. You really should go there and read it...

Interesting. I certainly wish at least some of those questions could be asked and answered tonight. I''ll start holding my breath...


ETA: and I need to keep a look out for her next book: ''She is working on a book about the relationship between American anti-intellectualism and political polarization, to be published by Pantheon in 2008.'' (wait, is this the same as The Age of American Unreason)

Oh, unless she is just incredibly prolific, I suspect that The Age of American Unreason is the book of which they speak.


Another germaine-to-the-moment-bordering-on-freaky-prescient excerpt:


''Is it possible that American voters have learned something about the consequences of choosing an intellectually challenged chief executive on the basis of a beer test? Whatever one thinks of their respective political views, the most active candidates for the presidential nomination in both parties over the past year cannot be accused of being dumb. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney - even though they come from very different backgrounds, ranging from near poverty to immense wealth - can all form intelligible and grammatical English sentences. Each of them pronounces the word ''nuclear'' correctly. It is a safe bet that all of them read newspapers and that none of them waits for a staff briefing each day in order to avoid being exposed to ''opinions'' from the outside world. It remains to be seen, as the campaign heats up and comes down to the final two, whether ''elitism'' will resurface as a political negative. One wonders whether any candidate, instead of trying to prove that he or she is just one of the floks, would dare to tell voters that the nation needs not an ordinary but an extraordinary person as president and that one crucial qualification for the nation''s highest office is the intellectual ability to distinguish, in times of crisis and on a daily basis, between worthwhile and worthless opinions.'' pg 286-287


Scary ain''t it?

Holy crap...can I call her for lottery numbers??

LOL! You will of course note, that I posted that BEFORE the debate?

I giggled a lot as I typed that out...and snorted from time to time when I wasn''t giggling....

How about that "nuclear" comment? (insert Twilight Zone music here.)

 

[MoonWater]

Oh heavens, I was at home and was listening to her on the phone because FI set his phone next to the tv for me. I couldn''t believe what I was hearing. I said it before and I''ll say it again, what''s the difference between a hockey mom and Bush...