re: #126 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

I’ve considered the U.S. a failed state since Reagan was elected. I’ve had brief two-year gleams of hope after the ‘92 and ‘08 elections, but I’ve totally given up on it now. Not that I won’t continue to vote against the bastards, but I don’t fool myself that there’s any point to it.

Large societies don’t change quickly.

Even when new toys (engineering marvels) enter the picture, societies have shown a tendency to not want to change.

In physics we’d call that “stiffness”, as in material science.

The idea of “elasticity” in economics is not really the same thing, but can also be used as an analogy to what I am addressing.

As we grow older it is very hard to change our habits.

And we are a society with lots of old people.

During my lifetime we have seen change. The Civil Rights movement did indeed bring about change. The “sexual revolution” has indeed brought about change.

However, these changes are into a matrix of a society born out of a very rigid patriarchy, and the changes are incremental.

When my grandfather came to this country, roughly a quarter to a third of the African Americans living at that time had been born into slavery.

Something to think about.