This may turn out to be another rant about why America is going to the proverbial inferno in the proverbial vehicle. (This one I am doing on the fly; I usually do the more serious ones off-line and edit them carefully.)
Saw an article in the paper this morning, one of many I've seen the last few years. Basically, it said that middle class jobs of the future will need much more education than in the past. Most people see this as a plain fact; some seem to think it a good thing. I am pretty unusual in seeing it as ominous. If it continues, I believe that it will ultimately be a destabilizing factor in American society. Here's why.
When I was young, a sober, industrious young man (yes, "man" in those benighted days) could aspire to the middle class suburban life with a plain high school diploma. With a decent job at a (usually unionized) manufacturing plant, he could marry, have a few kids and live comfortably in a nice house with some yard, and expect to own it outright by retirement. This was a reasonable expectation for anyone, of almost any background. Even the most run-down inner-city slum high school would provide what you needed for this hope. It required no expensive college or trade school, or even underpaid apprenticeship.
Now, for all practical purposes, this dream is dead. The low-skill jobs, union or otherwise, have mainly left the country. Remaining well-paid jobs require a high degree of some kind of skill. The problem with this is that skill is the result of a combination of talent and training. The training, or education, can be very expensive these days, and government doesn't support education beyond high school. And for people who lack talent, even expensive training is not enough. We now have people who finish high school and have no reasonable chance to get out of the working poor. That can only breed dissatisfaction with their society.
One of my heroes, G. K. Chesterton, said "There cannot be a nation of millionaires, and there never has been a nation of Utopian comrades; but there have been any number of nations of tolerably contented peasants." (Outline of Sanity CW. V. 192) When too many peasants are no longer contented, trouble looms.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Spring in the back yard
Ahhh... A warm spring day, Sunday afternoon ... in the newly mown back yard ... Mass in the morning, a hearty brunch, several necessary chores accomplished ... a comfortable chair, a good book and a cold beer ... our Father's house has many rooms, and one of them is exactly like this.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Flyers Win!
Hey, the U. D. Flyers men's basketball team won their first-round NCAA tournament game, for the first time in 19 years. Yay, I'm happy about sports for the first time in quite a while. Sure, I still have some reservations about how the University is being run these days, but the team is still Dayton's team, and I'm still a Daytonian. Now if my alma mater, Wright State U., can just get it together it will be really great in our town. Go Raiders!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Me - Arms Merchant!
Wandering around the Internet a while ago, I ran across a quote that cheered up this librarian wannabe and disgruntled centrist no end:
Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides.
-James Quinn
Don't know who James Quinn is, but he has said at least one really clever thing. I found it on the Nancy Pearl Action Figure website, http://www.mcphee.com/laf/, and I may need to buy a figure to repay them for that quote and others on that web page. I love that thought; as a librarian I stick strictly to no side, not even the middle, impartially providing everyone whatever they think they need.
I have been amazed lately at just how much I like the library, and the possibility of me being a librarian. I have always liked being helpful to people, and one thing that was hard to come by in information technology was having someone say "Thanks!" It did happen; I had some really good people to work with at U. D. But it is an everyday occurrence at a reference desk. God, please get me a reference job soon. Thanks in advance.
Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides.
-James Quinn
Don't know who James Quinn is, but he has said at least one really clever thing. I found it on the Nancy Pearl Action Figure website, http://www.mcphee.com/laf/, and I may need to buy a figure to repay them for that quote and others on that web page. I love that thought; as a librarian I stick strictly to no side, not even the middle, impartially providing everyone whatever they think they need.
I have been amazed lately at just how much I like the library, and the possibility of me being a librarian. I have always liked being helpful to people, and one thing that was hard to come by in information technology was having someone say "Thanks!" It did happen; I had some really good people to work with at U. D. But it is an everyday occurrence at a reference desk. God, please get me a reference job soon. Thanks in advance.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A humble suggestion to our new president
I have one new idea (at least I haven't seen it elsewhere) which I would love to see our new administration implement. The President could introduce it as the Obama Doctrine, and it could be stated quite simply: It is not the policy of the United States to establish a permanent military presence in any other country, except at the invitation of the people (NOT the government) of that country. This is a hard world. Sometimes a temporary military presence may be necessary, or it may be the least evil option available. But our country will never have any permanent bases outside our territory, except at the invitation, by impartially observed popular election, of the people of that country. And that presence will end if a subsequent election revokes that invitation. It will not be sufficient for the government of a country to approve: a government might be controlled by a powerful minority, or not be representative of the actual people.
Why this policy? I think that throughout the world, the actions of the current U. S. regime have inspired a fear of a revival of colonialism: the nineteenth-century practice of the great powers of taking over a country and extracting its resources, with no real benefit to the people already living there. This is particularly true in the Middle East and, obviously, in Iraq. People there fear that the West in general and the USA in particular is tempted to take over, extract all their petroleum and leave them with little or nothing. The actions of the Bush administration have done next to nothing to allay these fears, and much to inflame them. This has been the Islamofascists' most potent weapon. They can exploit this fear to silence many ordinary people who might support us, or at least want to just live their peaceful lives. Anyone who speaks or acts against the terrorists is tarred as a supporter of the neocolonialists. No people who love their country want to seem like that to their neighbors. We need to make it plain that this is not our intention, not now and not ever.
I really believe that one short paragraph like that one can do more for peace in Iraq, and indeed most of the world, than every soldier we could send.
Why this policy? I think that throughout the world, the actions of the current U. S. regime have inspired a fear of a revival of colonialism: the nineteenth-century practice of the great powers of taking over a country and extracting its resources, with no real benefit to the people already living there. This is particularly true in the Middle East and, obviously, in Iraq. People there fear that the West in general and the USA in particular is tempted to take over, extract all their petroleum and leave them with little or nothing. The actions of the Bush administration have done next to nothing to allay these fears, and much to inflame them. This has been the Islamofascists' most potent weapon. They can exploit this fear to silence many ordinary people who might support us, or at least want to just live their peaceful lives. Anyone who speaks or acts against the terrorists is tarred as a supporter of the neocolonialists. No people who love their country want to seem like that to their neighbors. We need to make it plain that this is not our intention, not now and not ever.
I really believe that one short paragraph like that one can do more for peace in Iraq, and indeed most of the world, than every soldier we could send.
Monday, November 10, 2008
A New President
Well, we have a new president, and the first non-white-male president. Hooray for us and all that! Still, I hope (probably in vain) that the new administration will not assume that the whole country is overwhelmingly in favor of a hard left turn. If so, he will be repeating the mistakes of previous administrations. Mr. Obama, please remember that a lot of us were voting less for you and your policies than against the Republican policies of the last eight years. George W. came in and installed a ton of hard-right policies that many people hated. The distraction of 9/11 is the only reason the Republicans were not bounced out of Congress two years later, as the Democrats were in 1994. If our country keeps swinging from far left to far right every four to eight years, sooner or later it will rip us apart. There are a lot of us who would like to see our country steer a middle path when one is available. We are feeling disenfranchised and increasingly bitter at both the direction and the tone of life in our country these days. For a worst case example, I greatly fear that the first new policy will be an executive order declaring open season on the unborn. May God forgive us.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Kent State, May 4, 1970
This was originally a post to the KSU mailing list in response to a report on the Graduate Student Senate which included a mention of a memorial for the students killed and wounded by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State on May 4, 1970. Having composed the piece, I thought it could go here too.
Wow, the reference to May 4, 1970 took me back. Currently I am a graduate student of KSU at the Columbus extension, working towards a MLIS degree and hoping to become a librarian. But on that day, I had recently dropped out of Miami University as a Systems Analysis major for financial reasons. At MU I had been a leftist radical, burning my draft card and the whole nine yards. Seeing those news reports, especially the picture, now everything was different. The Selective Service System in its wisdom had given me a I-Y rating, eligible in case of war or national emergency (like Vietnam wasn’t?) so I was not in personal danger of being shipped off to Nam to get my a** shot up. But now I could have that privilege right here at home. What had been an abstract, academic political opinion instantly turned into real life. Even Miami U., stolid, upper-class, Republican Miami, where we radicals had felt like a tiny minority, was shut down by “student unrest.” Even the frat boys felt the fear of war: this could be me, not just the lower orders. I went back as soon as I could, and found my friends mostly at Hueston Woods State Park, relaxing and hoping that Miami was not next on the list. Of course hippies had our own strains of elitism and arrogance, sneering that revolution was this year’s fraternity party. But something fundamental had changed. We had enjoyed parading our fear of the government, but now it wasn’t a pose anymore. Strange days, they were. May 4th changed the world for us Baby Boomers, like nothing since JFK was killed, like nothing until 9/11. Ask your parents, how did they react to the news?
And now here I am 38 years later, a student of that same University. As the poet said, what a long strange trip it’s been. I am grateful to God for finally getting me to a place where, in many ways, I have always wanted to go. I may get the Master’s degree I always wanted, and get into a profession that is a vocation, not just a job, just a source of income. How interesting that it will come from a school with such a huge influence on my generation.
Wow, the reference to May 4, 1970 took me back. Currently I am a graduate student of KSU at the Columbus extension, working towards a MLIS degree and hoping to become a librarian. But on that day, I had recently dropped out of Miami University as a Systems Analysis major for financial reasons. At MU I had been a leftist radical, burning my draft card and the whole nine yards. Seeing those news reports, especially the picture, now everything was different. The Selective Service System in its wisdom had given me a I-Y rating, eligible in case of war or national emergency (like Vietnam wasn’t?) so I was not in personal danger of being shipped off to Nam to get my a** shot up. But now I could have that privilege right here at home. What had been an abstract, academic political opinion instantly turned into real life. Even Miami U., stolid, upper-class, Republican Miami, where we radicals had felt like a tiny minority, was shut down by “student unrest.” Even the frat boys felt the fear of war: this could be me, not just the lower orders. I went back as soon as I could, and found my friends mostly at Hueston Woods State Park, relaxing and hoping that Miami was not next on the list. Of course hippies had our own strains of elitism and arrogance, sneering that revolution was this year’s fraternity party. But something fundamental had changed. We had enjoyed parading our fear of the government, but now it wasn’t a pose anymore. Strange days, they were. May 4th changed the world for us Baby Boomers, like nothing since JFK was killed, like nothing until 9/11. Ask your parents, how did they react to the news?
And now here I am 38 years later, a student of that same University. As the poet said, what a long strange trip it’s been. I am grateful to God for finally getting me to a place where, in many ways, I have always wanted to go. I may get the Master’s degree I always wanted, and get into a profession that is a vocation, not just a job, just a source of income. How interesting that it will come from a school with such a huge influence on my generation.
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