Covid-19 Means Good Times for the Pentagon

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In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Washington has initiated its largest spending binge in history. In the process, you might assume that the unparalleled spread of the disease would have led to a little rethinking when it came to all the trillions of dollars Congress has given the Pentagon in these years that have in no way made us safer from, or prepared us better to respond to, this predictable threat to American national security. As it happens, though, even if the rest of us remain in danger from the coronavirus, Congress has done a remarkably good job of vaccinating the Department of Defense and the weapons makers that rely on it financially.

There is, of course, a striking history here. Washington’s reflexive prioritizing of the interests of defense contractors has meant paying remarkably little attention to, and significant underfunding, public health. Now, Americans are paying the price. With these health and economic crises playing out before our eyes and the government’s response to it so visibly incompetent and inadequate you would expect Congress to begin reconsidering its strategic approach to making Americans safer. But it cannot agree a badly needed stimulus package at the moment.

So Washington continues to operate just as it always has, filling the coffers of the Pentagon as though “national security” were nothing but a matter of war and more war.(Mandy Smithberger, Tom Dispatch, slightly edited, June 28 2020).

Comment:  There have been persistent rumors that the President is set upon a war, possibly with Iran, starting before November. (Time is running out. Ed!) The point is that a war against the ayatollahs, were it to happen, is handled half as well as the the fight against Covid 19, then the likelihood of winning is slight, and the deaths are even more pointless than other half- baked wars in history. Hopefully, war now seems unlikely, but you never know.

My comment: Epicureans should advocate, not for war, but for rescuing the poor, the sick, the old  and the helpless, without jobs, income or adequate diets, from being the chief sufferers of an epidemic which, if there were a will, could be halted in its tracks in a handful of weeks. We should be ashamed.

Youth needs face time

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To The Times

As a young person who has the misfortune of entering the job market during this crisis, one of the things I’m looking at when applying for jobs is the companies’ attitudes toward home working – unusually, I am looking for companies that are encouraging employees to return to the office. From my perspective, there are many negatives to home working: it’s hard to establish yourself, and even more so to learn from your superiors. It’s difficult to develop relationships and contacts, and as a result it’s hard to imagine a situation in which those working from home would not suffer from lower prospects of advancement. I fear that this move to home working may only serve to entrench the already distinct generational divide. (The Times, 9 Sept 2020)

My take: I think this is a very mature and sensible letter. He is absolutely right. Working from home is like driving a circuitous route through country lanes – you are missing the main traffic on the highway, which arrives at its destination before you. I feel deeply about the young people starting out today. They have less job security and lousy pensions. A very bright and thoughtful young man we know, since leaving university, has had a horrible time getting a job. The competition is fierce and he is pipped at the post by others with “more experience” all the time. The jobs are not there. I fear we are creating a new class of deeply alienated people.

Critical thinking

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“Falsum etiam est verum quod constituit superior”.

False becomes true when the boss decides it is. (Syrus, Maxims).

My comment: One of the most important gifts a good education gives you is critical thinking. (When did you last hear tell about this concept?). To be able to read a newspaper article by a writer you otherwise respect and to spot errors of fact or interpretation is (or should be) part of the mental equipment of a good citizen.

I was speaking the other day to an acquaintance of mine, who told me that voting by mail was riddled with corruption and falsification. Say something often enough on TV and people start to believe it. The current fuss about postal voting has never been a huge issue before. Why? Because the number of proven cases of problems have been infinitesimal. We all know why this is suddenly a huge “problem”, and I don’t want to get into party politics. But since it has been researched to death, and I believe the academics and scientists, I intend to vote confidently by mail. The ballots look incredibly difficult to tamper with – you can see clearly if anyone has altered a ballot. It doesn’t take a bloodhound!

Leftovers of slavery

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Britain is “descending into a cultural war zone”, said Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express. “Bombarded with continual accusations of bigotry and bias”, our institutions are “surrendering to the woke fanatics”. The BBC decreed that “Rule, Britannia!” and “Land of Hope and Glory”would be played, but not sung at the Last Night of the Proms, reportedly as a sop to Black Lives Matter – until it abruptly U-turned this week (while reiterating its insistence that the original decision had been an “artistic” one).

At the British Library, staff have declared a racial “state of emergency”; its “Decolonising Working Group” rails against “Eurocentric maps” and relics of “colonial violence”.

The British Museum, meanwhile, has knocked its founding benefactor, Sir Hans Sloane, off his pedestal, because of Sloane’s links to the sugar trade. A bust of the 18th century physician will now feature alongside signage explaining his work in the “exploitative context of the British Empire”, and will be locked in a cabinet.

One question that is seldom asked is what Britain’s ethnic minority people actually think about these culture wars, said Sunder Katwala on Politics.co.uk. The answer is: “not much”. Polls show around two-thirds of non-white Britons support removing statues of slavers; but a clear majority also feel that this is a distraction from the real issues of race equality. On the Proms anthems, an informal poll of ethnic minority opinion on Twitter “resulted in a broad landslide for indifference”. Overwhelmingly, people think it’s a trivial and divisive argument. “In other words: have your silly season media culture war over the Proms, if you must. But not in our name, thank you very much.”
(The Spectator, Daily Express, Politics.com, and The Week, 5 September 2020)

My comment: I agree with the sentiments in the last paragraph. History is history, often cruel and messy. Put images of these historical figures in museums and let the public draw moral lessons from what they learn, without preaching and finger-pointing.

Read Epicurus , a poem

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Theypeddle fear here;
They peddle fear of terrorists and sudden death;
They peddle fear of rapists and angry drivers;
They peddle fear of government and paying tax;
Of deer ticks, butter, sugar, fat, untested drugs;
Of unknown visitors and dark-skinned men;
Of invasion, war and sudden death;
Of gunmen holding up cashiers;
Of bombs in culverts, school kids murdered with guns;
They peddle inquietude, nervousness, distrust,
And to the terrified, apprehensive, cowed,
They preach damnation, hellfire in the afterlife.
The more they frighten us the more it gains the vote,
And the opinion-makers drivel on in biased turpitude,
Yapping in support of party, church and power.
Command, empire, sway, rule, dominion, supremacy
All depend on mongering fear and bald mendacity.

But then there is Epicurus,
His character assassinated by the church,
Maligned, misrepresented, damned by rote.
He only sought a tranquil mind, a life of peace,
Fearing nothing. For fear, he said, brings pain.
And politics? Striving, ambition, restlessness.
There are no active gods said he, no afterlife,
No spirit out there, evil or benign,
Rewarding, punishing, damning you to hell,
No trumpets, choirs, or seats of the almighty.
Just atoms, molecules, and,in them, everlasting life.
No devils, angels, harps, or golden cities;
No god resembling, oh!, coincidence! a man!
No omniscient god who reads your thoughts,
Or manages the minutiae of your life.
Your life, indeed! Your life it is, subject to fortune,
Tribulations, ups and downs, but in the end just yours.

Try not to chafe and fret, but seek a mental peace.
Pursue the arts, activities you love.
Don’t worry over things you can’t affect.
Seek simple pleasures, food and friends.
Forsake consumerism, shops and malls,
Buying only what you really need.
Do no harm. Mend fences where required.
Cultivate your garden and your peace,
Or get a dog.
All to be done in moderation and with joie de vivre,
For simple pleasures trump all wild excess.

Be fun, be smiling, for life is to be lived – –
What follows lasts a long, long time,
Should some abuse you as an atheist.
Remember! it is a propaganda word, and just a word,
Spoken by people with their own agenda
Read Epicurus! Till your garden, walk your dog,
Enjoy Nature while we have it still.
Reject all superstition, think for yourself
Believe not the religious memes of modern life.
Be gentle, thoughtful and and ask yourself…
Why do they peddle fear here?

Robert Hanrott, January 2006