Why I am putting up a lot of current USA violence and hate related posts; NYT Editorial Board: The Hate Poisoning America
I am an Indian who lives in India. Some readers may wonder why I am putting up so many posts related to violence and hatred in the USA while there is quite a lot of hatred and some form of violence in India as well which I do not focus on. Let me try to answer that.
India is a developing country. The problems faced by its poor and lower middle class citizens are ***huge*** as compared to what citizens in the USA face.
Caste related: SC/ST (Dalit) caste suppression happened over millennia. Democracy has reduced that significantly as their larger numbers have helped them vote their people into power. India also has reservation system for them in education & jobs and also elected political representative (various legislatures) seats. For more on it, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India.
Environmental challenges: Pollution in Delhi is very scary. But that's the case for many cities in India.
Regional anti-immigrant bias: There are regional prejudices and biases. Essentially anti-other and anti-immigrant sentiment is there in India too. But these biases typically do not lead to killings. It is more of forcing 'outsiders' to return to their regions.
India has over one and a quarter billion people. So the people pressure for jobs, resources and even travel (bus/train) services etc. is intense. It can get real nasty at low level business and manual worker positions. As I was a white collar guy who rode the software boom, I did not face much of it except during the years when I was a student and in the first few years of my employment as my family was facing quite severe financial challenges then. But the media reports these problems and we can easily see it ourselves when we inquire into it.
It is brutal in India for positions like waiters and servers and other such low level worker positions in small businesses with no union protection. Bigger businesses have unions. Then it is different. Unions provide significant protection. But bulk of Indian workforce is in unorganized sector and so have no union protection. According to this wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unorganised_sector_(India), in 2005 the unorganized labour force in India was 395 million making up 86% of the total labour force which was 458 million.
And so on ...
But, fortunately, India does not have a problem of guns being easily available to anybody who can afford it. So while there are lots of clashes and even killings at times, it is not so horrific as these mass shootings in the USA.
The Donald Trump presidency is an extraordinary presidency for the USA. He is a ***disruptor*** President. His agenda seems to be to break the current 'broken' system and replace it with a new system he will put in place which will ***fix*** the problems for the people of the USA. I think he got elected as President by some of the USA citizenry who believed in his ability to do this, and so wanted to give him a chance to do this.
I am following USA events somewhat closely, partly due to the impact they have worldwide, including in India.
At one level, he is disrupting the post World War II international order. I try to closely follow that to understand how the international order is changing.
But at another level, he seems to be profoundly changing USA itself!!!
I have lots of old friends and some relatives, and many Facebook Sai devotee friends living in the USA! So that impacts my life. I mean, I have more friends in the USA than I have in North India or East India. But I have lots of friends and relatives in South and West India as I have lived there most of my life in India.
As I became a social media writer after Bhagavan's Mahasamadhi in 2011, I felt I need to know about what's going on in some parts of the world that I am connected to through friends and relatives.
India is OK now. I mean, it has lots of problems. But they are old problems. So people live with them.
USA is under great stress now, IMHO.
Paul Krugman's articles in the New York Times give us one top economist's views on these problems the USA faces. Here's a recent article of his: Health Care, Hatred and Lies, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/opinion/trump-republican-hate.html, 25th Oct. 2018
Economists have become very important people in the 21st century. Military power is important but nuclear powers know they can't get into a nuclear war as that will destroy the world including their countries. So military power has become less important as compared to World War II times.
...
It is economic hardship that brings out the mean nature in society. This is what history teaches us. Jobs - good and well paid jobs - that's what society needs to be peaceful and happy.
One of the big reasons why I am paying a lot of attention to USA happenings is that USA is the biggest military and economic power in the world. It has been the main force for the post WWII world order which has been the world order for all of my life so far (I was born in 1962). USA becoming unstable may mean instability for the whole world.
Now Krugman may have got some things wrong but some of his economic numbers stuff and analysis stuff may be right. His views are that Trump's big gamble on tariffs with China and others is not going to work. And then he writes that to distract the public from all these economic problems that may crop up for the working class and the poor, some people create bogeymen to hate.
I read elsewhere that George Soros is one such bogeyman created by some on the political right. The Globalist Jew! That's Hitler Nazi playbook stuff!!! And that scares me very much.
So I am paying a lot of attention to these matters in the USA. I want to get an understanding so that I can see what may happen down the line and try in a tiny, tiny way to help poor and suffering folks through my writings. And to share what I perceive as wise words from leading thinkers and intellectuals about how to prevent USA sliding into some dangerous social instability. And in that context I would like to share the article given below:
NYT Editorial Board: The Hate Poisoning America, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/opinion/pittsburgh-shooting-synagogue-bowers.html, 28th Oct. 2018
Note that it has been widely reported, including in the above article, that the mass shooter in the Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA shouted "Jews must die"! I find that to be terrifying and monstrous.
A small extract giving the concluding part of the above article:
Mr. Trump is also setting a low, coarsening standard for how Americans should speak to and about one another. He has urged his supporters to think of his critics as traitors and enemies. Some Democratic leaders appear to be concluding that they will be suckers if they don’t adopt similar smashmouth tactics.
The suspects in Pittsburgh, Florida and Kentucky are responsible for their own actions. Maniacs have always existed in dark crevices of American life, and no amount of public condemnation will ever stop them from developing poisonous ideas. But in this harrowing time, more good speech, from more good people, can remind other Americans of the sorts of values that have, so far, managed to contain the divisions in their country, [Ravi: and remind Americans] of the moral imagination and empathy that Mr. Bowers evidently so feared.
--- end small extract from New York Times ---
US President Donald Trump's tweets on the synagogue mass shooting:
"All of America is in mourning over the mass murder of Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We pray for those who perished and their loved ones, and our hearts go out to the brave police officers who sustained serious injuries...", https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056299896406450176, 27th Oct. 2018
"...This evil Anti-Semitic attack is an assault on humanity. It will take all of us working together to extract the poison of Anti-Semitism from our world. We must unite to conquer hate."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056299897882923009, 27th Oct. 2018
Ravi: So President Trump has clearly called out anti-semitism as poison and evil. That is very commendable.
But President Trump later tweeted these:
"The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!", https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056700376718684160, 28th Oct. 2018
"There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...",
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056879122348195841, 29th Oct. 2018
"....of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!",
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056880287974649856, 29th Oct. 2018
Ravi: While there must be some inaccuracies and exaggerations in some of the USA mainstream media reporting about President Trump and the Republicans, I think President Trump's tweets go way too far by labelling them as Fake News and as "the true Enemy of the People".
President Trump is not able to handle adversarial USA mainstream media, and goes overboard in painting them as enemy of the people. Such language from the US President may stoke violent reactions towards the press from some of his supporters. That seems to be a significant problem here.
The pipe-bomb mailer suspect (who almost certainly is the criminal), captured by Michael Moore's team at a "Trump 2020" rally in Melbourne, Florida on 18th Feb. 2017, verbally attacking CNN, along with others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opM6YIx3gA8, 3 min. 38 secs.
[I thank nytimes.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
India is a developing country. The problems faced by its poor and lower middle class citizens are ***huge*** as compared to what citizens in the USA face.
Caste related: SC/ST (Dalit) caste suppression happened over millennia. Democracy has reduced that significantly as their larger numbers have helped them vote their people into power. India also has reservation system for them in education & jobs and also elected political representative (various legislatures) seats. For more on it, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India.
Environmental challenges: Pollution in Delhi is very scary. But that's the case for many cities in India.
Regional anti-immigrant bias: There are regional prejudices and biases. Essentially anti-other and anti-immigrant sentiment is there in India too. But these biases typically do not lead to killings. It is more of forcing 'outsiders' to return to their regions.
India has over one and a quarter billion people. So the people pressure for jobs, resources and even travel (bus/train) services etc. is intense. It can get real nasty at low level business and manual worker positions. As I was a white collar guy who rode the software boom, I did not face much of it except during the years when I was a student and in the first few years of my employment as my family was facing quite severe financial challenges then. But the media reports these problems and we can easily see it ourselves when we inquire into it.
It is brutal in India for positions like waiters and servers and other such low level worker positions in small businesses with no union protection. Bigger businesses have unions. Then it is different. Unions provide significant protection. But bulk of Indian workforce is in unorganized sector and so have no union protection. According to this wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unorganised_sector_(India), in 2005 the unorganized labour force in India was 395 million making up 86% of the total labour force which was 458 million.
And so on ...
But, fortunately, India does not have a problem of guns being easily available to anybody who can afford it. So while there are lots of clashes and even killings at times, it is not so horrific as these mass shootings in the USA.
The Donald Trump presidency is an extraordinary presidency for the USA. He is a ***disruptor*** President. His agenda seems to be to break the current 'broken' system and replace it with a new system he will put in place which will ***fix*** the problems for the people of the USA. I think he got elected as President by some of the USA citizenry who believed in his ability to do this, and so wanted to give him a chance to do this.
I am following USA events somewhat closely, partly due to the impact they have worldwide, including in India.
At one level, he is disrupting the post World War II international order. I try to closely follow that to understand how the international order is changing.
But at another level, he seems to be profoundly changing USA itself!!!
I have lots of old friends and some relatives, and many Facebook Sai devotee friends living in the USA! So that impacts my life. I mean, I have more friends in the USA than I have in North India or East India. But I have lots of friends and relatives in South and West India as I have lived there most of my life in India.
As I became a social media writer after Bhagavan's Mahasamadhi in 2011, I felt I need to know about what's going on in some parts of the world that I am connected to through friends and relatives.
India is OK now. I mean, it has lots of problems. But they are old problems. So people live with them.
USA is under great stress now, IMHO.
Paul Krugman's articles in the New York Times give us one top economist's views on these problems the USA faces. Here's a recent article of his: Health Care, Hatred and Lies, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/opinion/trump-republican-hate.html, 25th Oct. 2018
Economists have become very important people in the 21st century. Military power is important but nuclear powers know they can't get into a nuclear war as that will destroy the world including their countries. So military power has become less important as compared to World War II times.
...
It is economic hardship that brings out the mean nature in society. This is what history teaches us. Jobs - good and well paid jobs - that's what society needs to be peaceful and happy.
One of the big reasons why I am paying a lot of attention to USA happenings is that USA is the biggest military and economic power in the world. It has been the main force for the post WWII world order which has been the world order for all of my life so far (I was born in 1962). USA becoming unstable may mean instability for the whole world.
Now Krugman may have got some things wrong but some of his economic numbers stuff and analysis stuff may be right. His views are that Trump's big gamble on tariffs with China and others is not going to work. And then he writes that to distract the public from all these economic problems that may crop up for the working class and the poor, some people create bogeymen to hate.
I read elsewhere that George Soros is one such bogeyman created by some on the political right. The Globalist Jew! That's Hitler Nazi playbook stuff!!! And that scares me very much.
So I am paying a lot of attention to these matters in the USA. I want to get an understanding so that I can see what may happen down the line and try in a tiny, tiny way to help poor and suffering folks through my writings. And to share what I perceive as wise words from leading thinkers and intellectuals about how to prevent USA sliding into some dangerous social instability. And in that context I would like to share the article given below:
NYT Editorial Board: The Hate Poisoning America, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/opinion/pittsburgh-shooting-synagogue-bowers.html, 28th Oct. 2018
Note that it has been widely reported, including in the above article, that the mass shooter in the Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA shouted "Jews must die"! I find that to be terrifying and monstrous.
A small extract giving the concluding part of the above article:
Mr. Trump is also setting a low, coarsening standard for how Americans should speak to and about one another. He has urged his supporters to think of his critics as traitors and enemies. Some Democratic leaders appear to be concluding that they will be suckers if they don’t adopt similar smashmouth tactics.
The suspects in Pittsburgh, Florida and Kentucky are responsible for their own actions. Maniacs have always existed in dark crevices of American life, and no amount of public condemnation will ever stop them from developing poisonous ideas. But in this harrowing time, more good speech, from more good people, can remind other Americans of the sorts of values that have, so far, managed to contain the divisions in their country, [Ravi: and remind Americans] of the moral imagination and empathy that Mr. Bowers evidently so feared.
--- end small extract from New York Times ---
US President Donald Trump's tweets on the synagogue mass shooting:
"All of America is in mourning over the mass murder of Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We pray for those who perished and their loved ones, and our hearts go out to the brave police officers who sustained serious injuries...", https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056299896406450176, 27th Oct. 2018
"...This evil Anti-Semitic attack is an assault on humanity. It will take all of us working together to extract the poison of Anti-Semitism from our world. We must unite to conquer hate."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056299897882923009, 27th Oct. 2018
Ravi: So President Trump has clearly called out anti-semitism as poison and evil. That is very commendable.
But President Trump later tweeted these:
"The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!", https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056700376718684160, 28th Oct. 2018
"There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...",
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056879122348195841, 29th Oct. 2018
"....of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!",
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056880287974649856, 29th Oct. 2018
Ravi: While there must be some inaccuracies and exaggerations in some of the USA mainstream media reporting about President Trump and the Republicans, I think President Trump's tweets go way too far by labelling them as Fake News and as "the true Enemy of the People".
President Trump is not able to handle adversarial USA mainstream media, and goes overboard in painting them as enemy of the people. Such language from the US President may stoke violent reactions towards the press from some of his supporters. That seems to be a significant problem here.
The pipe-bomb mailer suspect (who almost certainly is the criminal), captured by Michael Moore's team at a "Trump 2020" rally in Melbourne, Florida on 18th Feb. 2017, verbally attacking CNN, along with others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opM6YIx3gA8, 3 min. 38 secs.
[I thank nytimes.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Comments
Post a Comment