(02-12-2019 01:02 PM)Native Georgian Wrote: (02-12-2019 11:29 AM)JRsec Wrote: Altering the language of Samuel Clemens or Harper Lee just alters the reality and impact of the truth they were trying to convey.
Well, yes. In America we now have multiple generations that — in Aaron Sorkin’s phrase — “can’t handle the truth”. So, the truth must be somehow “altered”. Twisted beyond recognition into something more palatable to (modern tastes).
"Modern tastes?" Whose modern tastes? It is part of the corporate/governmental rewrite of all things that can create tension. They believe profits run higher when there is no tension. Therefore anyone who causes tension is a problem whether that is an author from the past or a 74 year old woman in Great Britain questioning the sanctioning of something she was raised to believe immoral.
Rodney King's "can't we all just get along" had this tagged to the end of it "for the sake of the quarterly statement?"
I state again that tension is healthy. The whole process of wrestling with tension is what leads to growth. The denial of it leads to violent change rather than synergistic and natural change. Issues that create tension are the social faults and just as surely as natural faults in the crust of the earth can shift frequently while the structural edifices endure their slow and constant change, issues that create greater tension and which are kept under pressure rupture suddenly and violently.
Governments of the people have built in stress releases intentionally. As long as those governments are answerable to the people and funded by them they function normally. But corporate influence and their amoral social hegemony have corroded the natural governmental safety valves for change. They force on us their world view because they find that best for international business. They see our government as an impediment like a family member whose views interfere with their own agenda. So they buy its influence and voice and impose their values upon it in an effort to further their self interests, interests which are alien to those of the citizens.
With their voices and impact marginalized the citizens's tension builds. Their morality is threatened. Their world view is threatened. But most importantly having a responsive government who looks after their needs first is lost.
What is best for American corporations is not always best for the country or its defense.
The FCC once pursued and brought to justice phone scammers. Yet today international crooks can operate a phone bank in Mumbai and scam our elderly here in the states and neither the FCC, nor AT&T do a damn thing about it! Why? Because the group that profits from the charges of that phone bank in Mumbai is probably a subsidiary of AT&T and they lobby the government to pull the teeth of the FCC. After all as long as the American investor's blue chip stock value is protected they've done their bit for the USA.
It's out of control Native Georgian and it doesn't have a damned thing to do with "Modern Tastes". It has everything to do with trying to appease as many consumers as possible, not only here but abroad, and in so doing distorting the mission of a government to its people. Why no wall? Because illegals funded from the dole by the American Taxpayer are still consumers and the corporations here profit from every dollar they spend whether or not that dollar was earned or given to them courtesy of the taxpayers of the U.S..
Teddy Roosevelt is spinning in his grave, and the modern citizen is too fearful of job loss for themselves or their children to stand up to the pieced together unholy unnatural evil that is corporate America. And they weren't always evil. When constrained they were some of the most innovative and brilliant industries in the world. But when they were "Too Big to Fail" then they became bloated whales past their prime who were profiting not by better product and innovation but by planned obsolescence, faked quarterly statements to drive stock values, and by lobbying for even more power.
It is government which is to blame. Anti-trust and lobbying laws can restore the tension that was healthy for American business when it made them compete to survive and failure was a legitimate possibility. Tension was healthy for our citizens because it was an accommodative process which brought healthy social change and consensus and didn't result in the screaming assaults by two polarized parties.
But it is not a chicken or the egg issue. Curtail the scope and reach of modern corporate conglomerates and you'll restore their vitality because you will restore their tension. Get them out of deciding what is best for the country and their money out of the pockets of our representatives and the people will find their voice and compromise and consensus will return.
But, if we do not a massively violent rupture of our society will occur.
We did not change those words to suit modern tastes. We changed them to fit a failing philosophy that suits the ease of life by bypassing natural tension through the purchase of favor. And that bloated sloppy whale gets hacked for its innovation, and its ties to government contracts allows those hackers to see our defense projects. The safety nets of having big government projects under the wraps of military bases has long ago been lobbied away and with it part of our security.
Business needs to be malleable and face tension to remain healthy. Government can't serve two masters one corporate and the other the people because it will bow to easy money for influence every time and enslave those it was meant to serve.
Healthy business, healthy citizens, healthy societies and a safe world cannot be ensured unless each is kept free of the coercive force of the other. Government shouldn't interfere with the conduct of trade unless in time of war. Business done with government needs to be wholly under the vigilant security of our armed forces, and the representatives should only get paid by the people.
Were we ever that pristine? No. But we've never been more corrupted by money than today.