The general theme of this blog is populism by which I don’t mean something (a) all that elegant or (b) that harks back to some grand ideas from ancient Greece. “Hell no” about sums it up.
In the simplest of terms, public officials — and all people — should ride for the brand, as we are instructed by the Code of the West. Times was people did that for the most part but no mas.
In 1972, I once had a duty as a lieutenant in the Army Reserve to escort inspecting generals around an NCO leadership academy at Ft. Wolters, Texas. One such gentlemen was BG Walter Stark, a decent sort, who had been a platoon leader in Europe during WWII. On the last day of the war he saw another soldier killed by a splinter from an artillery round. I asked him what it was that he looked for when he inspected any unit and his answer was simplicity itself. He said he merely looked to see if people are doing their jobs.
In the America of our day it is simply the case that our officials, editors, journalists, scientists, and academicians are not. ZeroHedge commenter gcjohns laid it out in a few choice words:
The Petty, vain, venal, neurotic, obsessive, corrupt and cowardly denizens of our national political apparatus inherited the greatest concentration of wealth, industry, goodwill, and military power in 6000 years of history and squandered it in a single generation.
They believe themselves superior.
He left out “vicious.”
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