Lewis Latpham is among the most trenchant observers of American society (see his Wikipedia entry for a bio). This is an excerpt from “Lights, Camera, Democracy”, a chapter in his book Waiting for the Barbarians (1997). These are observations from a dinner party on East 64th Street. It was originally published in August5 1996. To …
How did America get into this mess? The usual explanation in the mainstream media is that bad guys did it, just like in the movies. The designated evil doers vary, oddly enough, with the political affiliation of the writer. Bad guys from the Left, usually associated with the Democratic Party. Bad guys from the Right, …
A major theme of this site is America’s broken connection with reality. The late John Boyd (Colonel, USAF) described this connection as our observation-orientation-decision-action-loop (the OODA loop). A key component of the OODA loop for western societies is the mainstream media. As is obvious by now, America’s professional media has decayed durign the past few decades. A …
The magic of the mainstream media changes even the plainest words into face powder Read More »
Excerpt from Money and Class in America, Lewis Lapham (1988). Lapham talks about America’s decreasing willingness to bear the burden of self-government, a long-standing theme of this site (at the end you will see links to other posts on this subject). The Precarious Eden (page 158-159) Under a republican form of government the citizenry supposedly …
Are Americans still willing to bear the burden of self-government? Read More »
This is another in a series of posts examining the deterioration of America’s ability to cope with reality, called the observation-orientation-decision-action loop (aka the OODA loop; at the end are links to other chapters in the series). The rise of the Green religion is an example of this, as the previously majority religion (in Lewis Laptham’s …
A note on the green religion, one of the growth industries in America Read More »
