Controlling our own destiny, as a nation.

I realize that from writing the review below that the story of us is about whether we understand historical process and use our common understanding of all mankind to shape our future in a humane way. By that I mean that if we let external events that were unforeseen or ignored shape what happens we end up cleaning up the tragedy of misguided actions by people who take advantage of us or of leaders who betray our trust. So in hindsight was see how Hitler came to power or how Bin Laden took advantage of our openness, how by ignoring things put us at a disadvantage.

The anger directed at Politicians, even after having been in office for two years, at not solving economic problems and helping distressed people reveals a short attention span and a desperate belief in the myth that these public figures had as much ability to make a difference so fast, reveals ignorance of cause and effect and of history.

It is as if the way we teach history and talk about the past and causes of events is all wrong. For one, there is too much emphasis on American History as if no other history matters, as if our experience is so valuable that we have nothing to learn from other nations. Our attitudes toward business and economics and the abuse of power by the rich would surely be different if Americans were more aware of the history of Europe through the Industrial Revolutions and the shift of power from clan and peerage to business tycoon and the response of labor movements to it. I think this topic is under explored by American historians because they are afarid of reprisals from the conservative capitalists that fund their academic institutions. This is one of many blind spots in the academic and intellectual life of this nation that will not serve us well to cope with coming challenges.

The myths that come out of schools of economics and business schools are related to the same food chain of support for academe, there must be lots of people in those disciplines revising theories that were fashionable for a long time. If Alan Greenspan can admit in his understated obscure way that he was wrong about the bubble that burst in 2008, than maybe lots of others that touted market fundementalism can reconsider.

The craziness of our politics, driven by media feeding frenzy, probably meant by the
wealthy owners of the (NOT) Liberal Media, as a distraction to what is going on behind
the scenes, not, mind you, in some grand conspiracy, but in the long term changes to the political and economic landscape that take far more patience for the average short-attention-span consumer to understand: the shift of wealth in the world, the demographic changes both at home and abroad, as well as the better known climate change and energy costs. The Nightly News' lame accounting of what the Stock Market does, daily attributing its motions to this or that particular cause, is clearly misinformation. People blame the public figures because they can be examined by the
press, the same malfeasance goes on in private business, and worse, but is much less visible, so the average Joe, who already envies business people, will have the skewed view that the problems are all with the government. Americans have very short memories and in the latest crisis they seem to have forgotten that for 28 of the last 30 years that people other than the current crop of politicians were shaping events. There is a far greater connection between Reagan and the Bushes and Bill Clinton, who is in fact a conservative pro-business Democrat, and the economic collapse then the current administration and yet they are upset that the current people can't make it all better
overnight and then say they are going to put the same sorts of ideas that created the mess back in power.

It may be the case that these people far from being shallow really do believe that Conservatives of all types had nothing to do with the meltdown, or that they are so desperate to keep their life style that they will sell themselves to any rhetoric that sounds like it will make it easier to get that next job. Remembering the demographic that a large number of voters were not around in the 1950's that they are simply not aware of the risks of uncontrolled markets; again, this is where the historians fail to educate people about the past.