Are You a Regressive or a Modernist?

Yesterday I read this article from a link on John's Facebook page - The Commandments: The Constitution and Its Worshipers. This morning, Mike featured it in his blog post. You really need to read it and think about it. Do it now. I'll be waiting in the next paragraph.

Done?

Okay, now read this article by Michael Lind - America in the Age of Primitivism. Here's a quote that sums up the starting point of the argument:

"Following the world wars, the U.S. and other liberal democracies rebuilt themselves as modern, technology-based, progressive societies that offered a higher standard of living to ordinary people than ever before. Gradually they liberalized their cultures, shedding the vestiges of priestly control, moved toward meritocracy away from aristocracy and dismantled racial caste systems. They devoted themselves to great civil engineering projects, like hydropower dams, nuclear power plants, continent-spanning highways and space exploration.

"And then their people suddenly got tired of modernity and tried to crawl back into the past."

The article is well worth your time to read and ponder. Having read it, you can better appreciate the definition offered by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary: "Conservative: noun, A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others."

Oh, and he also defined Congress as "A body of men who meet to repeal laws."

How's your health care?

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo