Guns are currently a hot topic in the US, with the recent mass shooting at a Florida high school leading to renewed calls to finally take some substantial steps to reduce gun violence. My own opinions on such matters are pretty clear cut - more guns lead to more gun violence, no civilian needs to (or should be allowed to) own a semi-automatic weapon or high-capacity magazine, a thorough background check should be completed for every single gun sale, and a national gun registry should be established. But in the interest of, ahem, fairness, I'll let the "guest" author of a prior post on guns present his side of the argument:
A few years ago I made a modest proposal to prevent school shootings: we should arm not only the teachers but the students as well. Unfortunately, not even the most dedicated of the patriotic gun loving politicians had the boldness to formally advocate this. Now look what's happened! People should have listened to me! Still, at least some of them have once more promoted the intermediate step of arming the teachers. Some naysayers argue that this would be expensive, as we'd be talking several hundred thousand teachers at a minimum. But come on now, our country should be willing to spend as much as it takes to put guns in teachers' hands. It would be a much better investment than paying for things like books or school supplies, because education has to take a backseat to getting more guns out there...I mean, making schools safe.
Some argue that having a bunch of armed teachers wouldn't necessarily make schools safer either, since even battle-hardened soldiers can have trouble in an actual shootout, let alone teachers who've had a little training but have never actually had someone shooting at them. But don't those people know that life is like a movie or video game? The good guy will always manage to get his shot off under pressure. And the same argument applies to those who say that going up against a semi-automatic weapon with a handgun is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Just give the teachers the guns and we can count on them. If they should panic and run, or accidentally hit a student, or otherwise mess up when they're under fire, we'll just put the blame on their personal inadequacies. Guns are always right, it's the people who use them who are sometimes wrong.
As for this crazy idea of banning semi-automatic weapons or instituting universal background checks, it's like Marco Rubio, one of the gun lobby's most loyal paid...er, that is, friends in Congress, said, if some bad guy really wants to shoot up a school or something, he'll find a way to get the gun he needs... so we should make it as easy as possible for him to do so. And if he does, and he goes on a rampage, we'll be certain to blame the authorities for failing to take note of his obvious mental health issues, even if he hadn't actually been known to have any. At least if he's a white guy; if he's black or Muslim or something then it was clearly his ideology that should have alerted authorities. In any case, it will always be authorities' fault for not knowing this person was dangerous. The fact that he could buy a really powerful weapon without having to go through an onerous background check will never be the problem. After all, tougher background checks might inconvenience me and others who want to buy more beautiful, beautiful guns, and a ban on guns like AR-15s would stop us from buying them. We can't have that. Aside from the fact that they're just cool and so we shouldn't be denied them, I can imagine possible situations where I might actually need one. Some may claim the chances are small, but you always have to prepare for any eventuality, however unlikely. A refugee who went through years of vetting might still be a terrorist, so we can't let them in; my cat might decide to murder me in my sleep by lying on my nose and mouth and suffocating me, so I have to lock it out of my bedroom at night; aliens might be controlling my neighbor so I can't let him in my apartment; and I might be attacked by a gang of robbers or a squad of government agents, so I need to be able to buy a semi-automatic weapon.
Finally, all these companies ending their relationships with the NRA are absolutely crossing the line. Like some of the NRA's loyal pets...I mean friends in the Georgia legislature said, not letting NRA members have a special discount for being NRA members is clearly discrimination against conservatives. If you don't give us preferential treatment, you are discriminating against us.
So I hope that clears everything up. Guns are not the problem, they are the solution. And the fact that other countries that don't have nearly as many guns also have a lot less gun violence is purely coincidence.
Hmm, okay then....
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
A Brief Tribute to Two Giants: John Young and Ursula Le Guin
In this past month the world has lost two larger than life individuals: John Young, one of our greatest space explorers, and Ursula K. Le Guin, one of our greatest science fiction writers - indeed, one of our greatest writers of any genre. Admittedly, neither death could be considered a great shock, as they were both in their late 80s (Young was 87, Le Guin was 88). Nevertheless, it's always sad to know that the world has lost one more great individual, and that there is no chance of any more wisdom or knowledge coming from ones who have provided so much in the past.
Not long after Young's death, I posted a short tribute on Facebook, which I am basically just copying here, with a few modifications: John Young had one of the most impressive careers of any space traveler. He was one of only two dozen people who flew to the Moon, one of the dozen people who actually set foot on it, and the only astronaut to fly on Gemini, Apollo, AND the space shuttle (he flew two missions of each type, including the very first space shuttle flight). He was the only person to have piloted four types of spacecraft, as he flew both the Apollo Command Module and the Apollo Lunar Module in addition to Gemini and the Space Shuttle. His total of six spaceflights is still among the highest ever, with only two astronauts having flown seven times and only six others equaling Young's total - in fact, Young actually launched into space seven times if his taking off from the Moon is included, by which count he would be tied for the record. He was one of only three men to fly to the Moon twice; both he and fellow moonwalker Gene Cernan, who died last January, were on Apollo 10, which flew to the Moon without landing just two months before the historic landing by Apollo 11. The Apollo 10 mission holds special significance for me due to its timing (let's just say my mother tells me she listened to news of the mission in the hospital). Sadly, Tom Stafford is now the only member of the crew who is still alive. Only five of the dozen moonwalkers are still alive, as are eight of the additional dozen who flew to the Moon without landing (the command pilots from the six missions with landings, and the crews of the three missions that went to the Moon without a landing). With Young's death, none of the pairs who walked on the Moon together is still intact; there is one man left from five of the six missions with a moon landing. The entire crew of Apollo 14 has died. The only crew with all three members still alive is, ironically, that of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly to the Moon. One of that crew was Jim Lovell, who also flew to the Moon twice, but never landed because of the accident suffered by his second mission, Apollo 13. Charles Duke, who walked on the Moon with Young, is by several months the youngest of the moonwalkers; he'll be 83 in October. Of those who only flew to the Moon without visiting, the youngest, Ken Mattingly, is 81. In another decade or so, there may be only one or two people left who have visited the Moon (unless SpaceX pulls off its planned Moonshot in the next few years). Even so, the legacy of John Young and his fellow Apollo astronauts will live on as long as we keep their memory alive.
As for Ursula Le Guin, she was widely regarded as one of the best writers working in the genres generally known as science fiction and fantasy. Her writing was never flashy and her worlds were not as elaborate as many other fictional ones, and yet they felt very real. Perhaps in part because of her background - her father was an anthropologist while her mother was a writer - she was able to create very convincing societies, even if they were often quite different from any that exist in the real world, such as those in books like The Left Hand of Darkness. She used the genre of speculative fiction to explore many real world issues, including gender relations, war and violence, environmentalism, the contrast between socialism and capitalism, and much more. Yet her books didn't preach; they simply painted a realistic picture and left the reader to draw their own conclusions. There is still much of her work that I haven't read, and a number of books that I've only read once and have now mostly forgotten, but I have enjoyed pretty much everything I've read of hers, from well known classics like her Earthsea books, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed to more recent works like her Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts, Voices and Powers), and I'm sure I'll be coming back to these and others of her books for years to come. The little I've read of her non-fiction prose has also been clear, concise and well-reasoned. I highly recommend her work to all readers, regardless of age - she has written a number of children's books, and the Earthsea books were aimed at young adults - and genre preference - her characters and themes are universal, and one doesn't have to be a fan of science fiction or fantasy to appreciate her work.
Not long after Young's death, I posted a short tribute on Facebook, which I am basically just copying here, with a few modifications: John Young had one of the most impressive careers of any space traveler. He was one of only two dozen people who flew to the Moon, one of the dozen people who actually set foot on it, and the only astronaut to fly on Gemini, Apollo, AND the space shuttle (he flew two missions of each type, including the very first space shuttle flight). He was the only person to have piloted four types of spacecraft, as he flew both the Apollo Command Module and the Apollo Lunar Module in addition to Gemini and the Space Shuttle. His total of six spaceflights is still among the highest ever, with only two astronauts having flown seven times and only six others equaling Young's total - in fact, Young actually launched into space seven times if his taking off from the Moon is included, by which count he would be tied for the record. He was one of only three men to fly to the Moon twice; both he and fellow moonwalker Gene Cernan, who died last January, were on Apollo 10, which flew to the Moon without landing just two months before the historic landing by Apollo 11. The Apollo 10 mission holds special significance for me due to its timing (let's just say my mother tells me she listened to news of the mission in the hospital). Sadly, Tom Stafford is now the only member of the crew who is still alive. Only five of the dozen moonwalkers are still alive, as are eight of the additional dozen who flew to the Moon without landing (the command pilots from the six missions with landings, and the crews of the three missions that went to the Moon without a landing). With Young's death, none of the pairs who walked on the Moon together is still intact; there is one man left from five of the six missions with a moon landing. The entire crew of Apollo 14 has died. The only crew with all three members still alive is, ironically, that of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly to the Moon. One of that crew was Jim Lovell, who also flew to the Moon twice, but never landed because of the accident suffered by his second mission, Apollo 13. Charles Duke, who walked on the Moon with Young, is by several months the youngest of the moonwalkers; he'll be 83 in October. Of those who only flew to the Moon without visiting, the youngest, Ken Mattingly, is 81. In another decade or so, there may be only one or two people left who have visited the Moon (unless SpaceX pulls off its planned Moonshot in the next few years). Even so, the legacy of John Young and his fellow Apollo astronauts will live on as long as we keep their memory alive.
As for Ursula Le Guin, she was widely regarded as one of the best writers working in the genres generally known as science fiction and fantasy. Her writing was never flashy and her worlds were not as elaborate as many other fictional ones, and yet they felt very real. Perhaps in part because of her background - her father was an anthropologist while her mother was a writer - she was able to create very convincing societies, even if they were often quite different from any that exist in the real world, such as those in books like The Left Hand of Darkness. She used the genre of speculative fiction to explore many real world issues, including gender relations, war and violence, environmentalism, the contrast between socialism and capitalism, and much more. Yet her books didn't preach; they simply painted a realistic picture and left the reader to draw their own conclusions. There is still much of her work that I haven't read, and a number of books that I've only read once and have now mostly forgotten, but I have enjoyed pretty much everything I've read of hers, from well known classics like her Earthsea books, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed to more recent works like her Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts, Voices and Powers), and I'm sure I'll be coming back to these and others of her books for years to come. The little I've read of her non-fiction prose has also been clear, concise and well-reasoned. I highly recommend her work to all readers, regardless of age - she has written a number of children's books, and the Earthsea books were aimed at young adults - and genre preference - her characters and themes are universal, and one doesn't have to be a fan of science fiction or fantasy to appreciate her work.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
What I've Been Reading: Mid to Late 2017
As has been the case for a couple of years now, I haven't been able to read nearly as often as I would like to, and so I haven't read all that many books this year. All the same, I have finished a number of interesting books since the last time I wrote about my reading, which has also been a rather long time. As has sometimes been the case in the past, it has been so long since I finished some of these books that I no longer all the things I originally planned to comment on, and it's even possible that there are a few books that I've read in this period that I completely forgot to comment on at all. But these are the main books I've read over the past seven months or so; I only finished the last two on the last day of the year.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
This is a well-written sci-fi novel that is set in a near-future world in which the world is recovering from a ecological and economic collapse which almost completely destroyed global trade. While exactly what happened is not laid out in detail, it seems that not only has global warming raised sea levels around the world, but harmful genetic modifications of crop diseases and pests have run rampant, decimating the world's food supply and creating a situation where a handful of Monsanto-like "calorie companies" dominate the world food market with their proprietary food products that have been genetically modified to resist the new diseases and pests, though these same companies are deservedly viewed with great hostility in much of the world, as they seem to have been at least partly responsible (whether intentionally or out of negligence) for many of the problems in the first place. The story takes place in Thailand, one of the few countries in the world to have mostly stayed free of the economic power of the calorie companies, as the kingdom has its own gene bank generating food that is mostly disease free.
One interesting aspect of the story is that while the story focuses on a number of characters, the only one who is totally sympathetic is Emiko the windup girl herself, who is an android somewhat reminiscent of those in Blade Runner, though considerably more vulnerable. Anderson Lake, the "calorie man" who the story opens up with, seems less sympathetic as the story goes on, and as noted above he is working for a company that resembles a more powerful and even more evil version of Monsanto. His Malaysian Chinese subordinate Hock Seng gains sympathy for his past, in which his entire family was murdered in a genocidal massacre, but despite having been the victim of racism he is very racist himself, and has only limited empathy for others. The Thai environmental enforcement officer Jaidee is a more positive character than the main non-Thai characters, but he is rather self-righteous and his role in the latter half of the book is limited, for a reason that I will not mention here. His subordinate and protege Kanya is also fairly symapathetic, but she has her own issues. On the other hand, there are several characters who are pretty thoroughly unsympathetic, particularly a couple of high ranking Thai officials. But given human nature, especially when faced with a grim, dog-eat-dog world like the one the story is setting in, I have to say the characters seemed rather more realistic than not. The portrayal of the local cultures - right down to inclusions of words and phrases from Thai and occasionally other languages such as Mandarin Chinese as well - struck me as quite realistic too, speaking as someone who has spent a fair amount of time in Thailand (and Malaysia, a country which of course figures in Hock Seng's background), speaks Chinese and a bit of Thai and has at least some degree of knowledge about the cultures and history of the region, though I do wonder whether it is likely that so little would have changed culturally given all the other major changes between our present day world and the world of the book. It's not only the Thai characters who behave very much like the Thai of today; the farang (Western expats like Anderson) are similar to characters you might see in Thailand in the present. Hock Seng, in turn, is almost a throwback to an early era, as he seems at times to be a bit of a stereotype of a 20th century (formerly) wealthy ethnic Chinese chauvanist, though again there are most likely still people like that in the region today. Despite these caveats, both the characterisations and the portrayals of the local cultures are overall among the book's strong points, and are part of the reason that I recommend it to pretty much any kind of reader.
The Kingkiller Chronicle Day One: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This is a fantasy book that I picked up a number of years ago, as I'd heard some favorable mentions. I'd even gone ahead and bought its sequel, but I only got around to reading it recently. It proved indeed to be quite good, with a well-realized world and a compelling story. The main character, Kvothe, does hover at the edge of unbelievability due to his incredible range of talents, but then he is supposed to be an exceptional individual, and as an added twist, he himself acknowledges embrodiering stories about his deeds to boost his reputation. In any case, he is an interesting character, and not without his flaws, so while this could be characterized as heroic fantasy in the tradition of Conan of Cimmeria, it is heroic fantasy told with flair and style. Kvorthe's own tales of his life are invariably entertaining, and the prelude and interludes to his recital are equally engrossing and draw the reader deeper into the world the characters inhabit. In fact, the biggest downside that I discovered to the novel is one that is not part of the book itself. I knew that the book was the start of a trilogy and as I noted I had already bought a used copy of the second book. Having found that the first book matched its rave reviews, I decided to look for the third book, even if I had to get it new (though in paperback form - aside from price considerations, my overstuffed bookshelves really don't need any massive hardbacks stacked onto them). But I discovered to my surprise that even though the second book was published in 2011, the third book is not out yet, and there isn't even a prospective release date for it. I discovered that there was a lot of comment online among fans about this, with many complaining about the long wait (often making comparisons to George R.R. Martin, whose Song of Ice and Fire series is also coming along rather slowly), though others have defended Rothfuss's right to take as long as he needs. In general, I tend to sympathize with the author, since I realize that producing any kind of writing, let alone a literary masterpiece, on demand is very difficult, and Rothfuss may want to take especial care to ensure that the ending of his tale meets the expectations raised by the rest of it. Nevertheless, I also hope he manages to finish soon, and as much as I enjoyed the first book, I'll probably hold of on reading the second one until there's a clear prospect of seeing the third in print not too long afterwards. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys fantasy or well-written adventure fiction in general, with the caveat that at this point the story remains unfinished.
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
A wide ranging science fiction novel that directly or indirectly encompasses many centuries of time, numerous star systems and a number of different civilizations. The main story takes place over a period of decades in an unusual star system where the parent star goes through peculiar but regular dormant states in which its only planet goes into a deep freeze. This star, its planet, and the developing alien civilization that lives there become the object of attention from two human civilizations, one a long-lasting, wide-ranging trading civilization and one a newer, well-organized but essentially tolitarian civilization just beginning to expand. The collision between the two human groups, the growing pains of the alien civilization and the increasing contact between the aliens and the humans drives the plot. Among the intriguing aspects of the novel are its portrayal of a biotechnologically based form of slavery, its picture of life on a planet with a very unusual climate and its portrayal of human efforts to understand a truly alien civilization. Though at times Vinge seems to betray a rather excessive faith in the power of trade and the so-called free market, this doesn't interfere greatly with the story which remains entertaining throughout. One thing I would have liked to see is a little more clarity on the fate of a couple of the main characters, though from an artistic standpoint I can see the virtue of leaving a few things unresolved.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
I read this classic American novel of the Dust Bowl era many years ago (in high school, I believe), but I had forgotten most of it. The Joad family's situation remains pretty grim throughout, with only brief periods of relief, but Steinbeck makes a point of portraying their resilience and that of their fellow refugees from the Dust Bowl, even as he also paints a blacker picture of how they are exploited and despised by those that they encounter. The novel ends unresolved, though its final image is one that reinforces a theme that runs through the novel, that being the recognition of the need to help those in distress, even while those providing the help are themselves are in little better condition. It should be noted that while Steinbeck is certainly trying to make a political point here, his characters are not one-sided; whether among the Joad family itself or among their fellow "Okies" (the disparaging term given to them by the people of California) the willingness to help their fellows is not universal and even those that do help do not always do so without reservation. While those that exploit or oppress the refugees tend to be more one dimensional, even there occassional glimmers of humanity show through, such as when the inspection station officer allowed the Joads through without inspection because he believed Granma was sick. Overall, the novel is a keen portrayal of a bleak part of America's history, one that many would do well to be reminded of, particularly now, when climate change threatens to create many desperate refugees like the Joads, not only outside the US but, if current trends continue, within the country as well.
Paradise Lost by John Milton
This famous epic poem from the 17th century has left a number of marks in later literature from the frequent appearance of quotes like "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" to inspiring entire works, such as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Regarding the latter, while superficially Pullman approaches the subject matter from the opposite direction than Milton, who conspicuously remains an orthodox Christian in his beliefs, it is worth noting that William Blake once said of Milton that he was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." It is certainly true that Milton's portayal of Satan is not lacking in sympathy, and in fact he shows Satan himself reflecting philosophically on his fate and even feeling some regret about taking the path he has taken. While Milton clearly did not consciously side with Satan in any way, many readers are left with a more equivocal view. Another interesting aspect of Milton's poem is its more obvious equivocation between a Ptolemaic (Earth-centered) and Copernican (heliocentric) view of the Solar System, or rather the universe, as the distinction between the two was not clear at that time. Galileo is mentioned a couple of times, including a reference to his telescopic observations. There's even a reference to the possibility that there may be life elsewhere in the universe, though ultimately Adam is told he should concern himself too much with such things. This brings up a more obviously negative aspect of the poem, and that is its almost unremittingly sexism. Both before and after the fall, when Adam is visited by angels serving as messengers from God, Eve is expected to remove herself (during the earlier visit, though she does listen in some, as she is still close by) or is actually put to sleep while the angel explains things to Adam. There are numerous references to women's intellectual and spiritual inferiority and their duty to submit to the lead of their husbands. Of course this view of women as inferior and submissive to man was widespread in Milton's time, but it is still rather off-putting to read, especially as it crops up constantly. Despite this, the poem is worth reading (though it is not a particularly easy read, as the language is quite different from today's English and less straightforward than the slightly earlier works of Shakespeare), as it remains an important and influential work of English literature.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
This is a well-written sci-fi novel that is set in a near-future world in which the world is recovering from a ecological and economic collapse which almost completely destroyed global trade. While exactly what happened is not laid out in detail, it seems that not only has global warming raised sea levels around the world, but harmful genetic modifications of crop diseases and pests have run rampant, decimating the world's food supply and creating a situation where a handful of Monsanto-like "calorie companies" dominate the world food market with their proprietary food products that have been genetically modified to resist the new diseases and pests, though these same companies are deservedly viewed with great hostility in much of the world, as they seem to have been at least partly responsible (whether intentionally or out of negligence) for many of the problems in the first place. The story takes place in Thailand, one of the few countries in the world to have mostly stayed free of the economic power of the calorie companies, as the kingdom has its own gene bank generating food that is mostly disease free.
One interesting aspect of the story is that while the story focuses on a number of characters, the only one who is totally sympathetic is Emiko the windup girl herself, who is an android somewhat reminiscent of those in Blade Runner, though considerably more vulnerable. Anderson Lake, the "calorie man" who the story opens up with, seems less sympathetic as the story goes on, and as noted above he is working for a company that resembles a more powerful and even more evil version of Monsanto. His Malaysian Chinese subordinate Hock Seng gains sympathy for his past, in which his entire family was murdered in a genocidal massacre, but despite having been the victim of racism he is very racist himself, and has only limited empathy for others. The Thai environmental enforcement officer Jaidee is a more positive character than the main non-Thai characters, but he is rather self-righteous and his role in the latter half of the book is limited, for a reason that I will not mention here. His subordinate and protege Kanya is also fairly symapathetic, but she has her own issues. On the other hand, there are several characters who are pretty thoroughly unsympathetic, particularly a couple of high ranking Thai officials. But given human nature, especially when faced with a grim, dog-eat-dog world like the one the story is setting in, I have to say the characters seemed rather more realistic than not. The portrayal of the local cultures - right down to inclusions of words and phrases from Thai and occasionally other languages such as Mandarin Chinese as well - struck me as quite realistic too, speaking as someone who has spent a fair amount of time in Thailand (and Malaysia, a country which of course figures in Hock Seng's background), speaks Chinese and a bit of Thai and has at least some degree of knowledge about the cultures and history of the region, though I do wonder whether it is likely that so little would have changed culturally given all the other major changes between our present day world and the world of the book. It's not only the Thai characters who behave very much like the Thai of today; the farang (Western expats like Anderson) are similar to characters you might see in Thailand in the present. Hock Seng, in turn, is almost a throwback to an early era, as he seems at times to be a bit of a stereotype of a 20th century (formerly) wealthy ethnic Chinese chauvanist, though again there are most likely still people like that in the region today. Despite these caveats, both the characterisations and the portrayals of the local cultures are overall among the book's strong points, and are part of the reason that I recommend it to pretty much any kind of reader.
The Kingkiller Chronicle Day One: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This is a fantasy book that I picked up a number of years ago, as I'd heard some favorable mentions. I'd even gone ahead and bought its sequel, but I only got around to reading it recently. It proved indeed to be quite good, with a well-realized world and a compelling story. The main character, Kvothe, does hover at the edge of unbelievability due to his incredible range of talents, but then he is supposed to be an exceptional individual, and as an added twist, he himself acknowledges embrodiering stories about his deeds to boost his reputation. In any case, he is an interesting character, and not without his flaws, so while this could be characterized as heroic fantasy in the tradition of Conan of Cimmeria, it is heroic fantasy told with flair and style. Kvorthe's own tales of his life are invariably entertaining, and the prelude and interludes to his recital are equally engrossing and draw the reader deeper into the world the characters inhabit. In fact, the biggest downside that I discovered to the novel is one that is not part of the book itself. I knew that the book was the start of a trilogy and as I noted I had already bought a used copy of the second book. Having found that the first book matched its rave reviews, I decided to look for the third book, even if I had to get it new (though in paperback form - aside from price considerations, my overstuffed bookshelves really don't need any massive hardbacks stacked onto them). But I discovered to my surprise that even though the second book was published in 2011, the third book is not out yet, and there isn't even a prospective release date for it. I discovered that there was a lot of comment online among fans about this, with many complaining about the long wait (often making comparisons to George R.R. Martin, whose Song of Ice and Fire series is also coming along rather slowly), though others have defended Rothfuss's right to take as long as he needs. In general, I tend to sympathize with the author, since I realize that producing any kind of writing, let alone a literary masterpiece, on demand is very difficult, and Rothfuss may want to take especial care to ensure that the ending of his tale meets the expectations raised by the rest of it. Nevertheless, I also hope he manages to finish soon, and as much as I enjoyed the first book, I'll probably hold of on reading the second one until there's a clear prospect of seeing the third in print not too long afterwards. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys fantasy or well-written adventure fiction in general, with the caveat that at this point the story remains unfinished.
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
A wide ranging science fiction novel that directly or indirectly encompasses many centuries of time, numerous star systems and a number of different civilizations. The main story takes place over a period of decades in an unusual star system where the parent star goes through peculiar but regular dormant states in which its only planet goes into a deep freeze. This star, its planet, and the developing alien civilization that lives there become the object of attention from two human civilizations, one a long-lasting, wide-ranging trading civilization and one a newer, well-organized but essentially tolitarian civilization just beginning to expand. The collision between the two human groups, the growing pains of the alien civilization and the increasing contact between the aliens and the humans drives the plot. Among the intriguing aspects of the novel are its portrayal of a biotechnologically based form of slavery, its picture of life on a planet with a very unusual climate and its portrayal of human efforts to understand a truly alien civilization. Though at times Vinge seems to betray a rather excessive faith in the power of trade and the so-called free market, this doesn't interfere greatly with the story which remains entertaining throughout. One thing I would have liked to see is a little more clarity on the fate of a couple of the main characters, though from an artistic standpoint I can see the virtue of leaving a few things unresolved.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
I read this classic American novel of the Dust Bowl era many years ago (in high school, I believe), but I had forgotten most of it. The Joad family's situation remains pretty grim throughout, with only brief periods of relief, but Steinbeck makes a point of portraying their resilience and that of their fellow refugees from the Dust Bowl, even as he also paints a blacker picture of how they are exploited and despised by those that they encounter. The novel ends unresolved, though its final image is one that reinforces a theme that runs through the novel, that being the recognition of the need to help those in distress, even while those providing the help are themselves are in little better condition. It should be noted that while Steinbeck is certainly trying to make a political point here, his characters are not one-sided; whether among the Joad family itself or among their fellow "Okies" (the disparaging term given to them by the people of California) the willingness to help their fellows is not universal and even those that do help do not always do so without reservation. While those that exploit or oppress the refugees tend to be more one dimensional, even there occassional glimmers of humanity show through, such as when the inspection station officer allowed the Joads through without inspection because he believed Granma was sick. Overall, the novel is a keen portrayal of a bleak part of America's history, one that many would do well to be reminded of, particularly now, when climate change threatens to create many desperate refugees like the Joads, not only outside the US but, if current trends continue, within the country as well.
Paradise Lost by John Milton
This famous epic poem from the 17th century has left a number of marks in later literature from the frequent appearance of quotes like "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" to inspiring entire works, such as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Regarding the latter, while superficially Pullman approaches the subject matter from the opposite direction than Milton, who conspicuously remains an orthodox Christian in his beliefs, it is worth noting that William Blake once said of Milton that he was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." It is certainly true that Milton's portayal of Satan is not lacking in sympathy, and in fact he shows Satan himself reflecting philosophically on his fate and even feeling some regret about taking the path he has taken. While Milton clearly did not consciously side with Satan in any way, many readers are left with a more equivocal view. Another interesting aspect of Milton's poem is its more obvious equivocation between a Ptolemaic (Earth-centered) and Copernican (heliocentric) view of the Solar System, or rather the universe, as the distinction between the two was not clear at that time. Galileo is mentioned a couple of times, including a reference to his telescopic observations. There's even a reference to the possibility that there may be life elsewhere in the universe, though ultimately Adam is told he should concern himself too much with such things. This brings up a more obviously negative aspect of the poem, and that is its almost unremittingly sexism. Both before and after the fall, when Adam is visited by angels serving as messengers from God, Eve is expected to remove herself (during the earlier visit, though she does listen in some, as she is still close by) or is actually put to sleep while the angel explains things to Adam. There are numerous references to women's intellectual and spiritual inferiority and their duty to submit to the lead of their husbands. Of course this view of women as inferior and submissive to man was widespread in Milton's time, but it is still rather off-putting to read, especially as it crops up constantly. Despite this, the poem is worth reading (though it is not a particularly easy read, as the language is quite different from today's English and less straightforward than the slightly earlier works of Shakespeare), as it remains an important and influential work of English literature.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Republican "Tax Reform": Robbing the Poor, Giving to the Rich
As usual, there have been a number of things in the news that are worth writing about at length, but I have been far too busy to write even one long essay, let alone several [in fact, though this is my November blog post, I didn't actually finish it until a few days into December; I had to back date it to the end of November]. But I would like to comment briefly on the "tax reform" bill that was just narrowly passed by the US Senate, a slightly different bill having been passed by the US House sometime ago. The two versions still have to be reconciled and the House at least has to vote again on the final version, so the bill is not final yet and there's still a chance that nothing will get through. Nevertheless chances are probably better than even that something will get passed and signed by the sleazy buffoon in the White House (who will try to claim the majority of the credit for it, even though he's unlikely to have more than a superficial understanding of what's in it). That would be a disaster for the United States and less directly for the rest of the world, as it would be hard to write a wose "tax reform" bill if you tried.
I'm not going to even try to list all the ways in which this bill is horrible, because there are so many that I'd be sure to miss a few. The bill eliminates numerous deductions that benefit ordinary people, including ones for medical expenses, for repaying student loans, for teachers using their own money to buy school supplies for their students, for tuition waivers for graduate studnets and more. It also eliminates deductions for state and local taxes, so people living in states which have state income taxes will be taxed for money that they've already paid to their state. Meanwhile, most of the reductions in taxes for middle class and lower income families that are touted by those supporting this garbage expire in ten years, so ultimately most non-wealthy people will see their taxes go up, some by a lot. Overall, the bill will raise taxes on those in the middle and lower income brackets by a total in the trillions. Despite this, the bill will balloon US government debt by around $1.5 trillion. Why? Because while it ultimately raises taxes on most people, it massively cuts taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. The corporate tax rate is cut by large amount, and unlike tax reductions for non-wealthy Americans, that cut is permanent. The "alternate minimum tax", a provision that ensures that wealthy people generally can't escape paying taxes altogether by accounting tricks (basically if their taxes as calculated normally come out lower than the AMT, they pay that latter) is eliminated. Even more egregiously, the estate tax is eliminated. This tax is only payable on estates worth something like $10 million or more, so it affects so few Americans that they number in only the hundreds. Though the Republicans and the right wing like to call it a "death tax", of course the dead person isn't taxed; their heirs are. Since the Republicans like to call themselves the party of "individual responsibility", you wouldn't think they'd have a big problem with taking a small portion of a massive inheritance from people who didn't actually earn it in the first place. But you'd be wrong, because as this bill shows, they are actually the party of the ultra-wealthy, intent on entrenching massive inequality for the forseeable future.
Even the fact that the "tax reform" provisions of the bill essentially transfer trillions in wealth from ordinary Americans to the richest doesn't begin to cover all the terrible aspects of this bill. It also opens up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration, which is the kind of massive stupidity that will screw not only Americans but the entire world. It is eliminate the insurance mandate from the Affordable Care Act (so-called Obamacare), allowing healthy people to avoid buying insurance altogether without penalty, which means many will not do so, reducing the number of healthy people paying into the system and increasing costs for everyone else, possibly causing the system to collapse. It will almost certainly trigger cuts in Medicare that will make chemotherapy unaffordable for many cancer patients. And the list goes on and on. Yet all but one Republican in the Senate voted for it (all the Democrats opposed it). So will ordinary people who vote Republican wake up to the blindingly obvious fact that the party they support is working exclusively for the wealthy (like the oaf in the White House, whose family will see a reduction in taxes of up to a billion dollars)? Maybe, but then maybe they'll be fooled by absurd nonsense about trickle down economics and how the tax cuts will magically boost the economy enough that they'll pay for themselves, even though the only economists who support such bogus claims are a tiny handful of kooks. Or maybe they'll consider it worthwhile to hand all the money and power in the country to a handful of plutocrats as long as they can continue to screw over minorities and immigrants, not to mention have a bunch of wildly unqualified extremist judges confirmed to the bench. I guess we shall see.
I'm not going to even try to list all the ways in which this bill is horrible, because there are so many that I'd be sure to miss a few. The bill eliminates numerous deductions that benefit ordinary people, including ones for medical expenses, for repaying student loans, for teachers using their own money to buy school supplies for their students, for tuition waivers for graduate studnets and more. It also eliminates deductions for state and local taxes, so people living in states which have state income taxes will be taxed for money that they've already paid to their state. Meanwhile, most of the reductions in taxes for middle class and lower income families that are touted by those supporting this garbage expire in ten years, so ultimately most non-wealthy people will see their taxes go up, some by a lot. Overall, the bill will raise taxes on those in the middle and lower income brackets by a total in the trillions. Despite this, the bill will balloon US government debt by around $1.5 trillion. Why? Because while it ultimately raises taxes on most people, it massively cuts taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. The corporate tax rate is cut by large amount, and unlike tax reductions for non-wealthy Americans, that cut is permanent. The "alternate minimum tax", a provision that ensures that wealthy people generally can't escape paying taxes altogether by accounting tricks (basically if their taxes as calculated normally come out lower than the AMT, they pay that latter) is eliminated. Even more egregiously, the estate tax is eliminated. This tax is only payable on estates worth something like $10 million or more, so it affects so few Americans that they number in only the hundreds. Though the Republicans and the right wing like to call it a "death tax", of course the dead person isn't taxed; their heirs are. Since the Republicans like to call themselves the party of "individual responsibility", you wouldn't think they'd have a big problem with taking a small portion of a massive inheritance from people who didn't actually earn it in the first place. But you'd be wrong, because as this bill shows, they are actually the party of the ultra-wealthy, intent on entrenching massive inequality for the forseeable future.
Even the fact that the "tax reform" provisions of the bill essentially transfer trillions in wealth from ordinary Americans to the richest doesn't begin to cover all the terrible aspects of this bill. It also opens up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration, which is the kind of massive stupidity that will screw not only Americans but the entire world. It is eliminate the insurance mandate from the Affordable Care Act (so-called Obamacare), allowing healthy people to avoid buying insurance altogether without penalty, which means many will not do so, reducing the number of healthy people paying into the system and increasing costs for everyone else, possibly causing the system to collapse. It will almost certainly trigger cuts in Medicare that will make chemotherapy unaffordable for many cancer patients. And the list goes on and on. Yet all but one Republican in the Senate voted for it (all the Democrats opposed it). So will ordinary people who vote Republican wake up to the blindingly obvious fact that the party they support is working exclusively for the wealthy (like the oaf in the White House, whose family will see a reduction in taxes of up to a billion dollars)? Maybe, but then maybe they'll be fooled by absurd nonsense about trickle down economics and how the tax cuts will magically boost the economy enough that they'll pay for themselves, even though the only economists who support such bogus claims are a tiny handful of kooks. Or maybe they'll consider it worthwhile to hand all the money and power in the country to a handful of plutocrats as long as they can continue to screw over minorities and immigrants, not to mention have a bunch of wildly unqualified extremist judges confirmed to the bench. I guess we shall see.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Current Events: Incompetence and Lies from the White House, Anthem Protests, Fascism Returns to Spain, and More
As usual, there has been a lot going on in the world that I would like to discuss in depth, but as is also usual, I don't really have the time to give the topics the treatment they deserve. In the US, the on-going disaster that is the current administration continues to supply a wealth of material to activists, pundits, comedians, legal experts and psychiatrists. The handling of the
post-hurricane clean-ups, particularly in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, has been abysmal, and it hasn't been made better by the orange-faced narcissist's incessant attempts to praise himself and the job he has been doing. The lies uttered by him and his chief of staff in relation to his handling of condolence calls to dead soldiers were disgraceful, as was his spokeswoman's claim that people shouldn't be allowed to question the chief of staff, despite his attacks on the congresswoman involved being proved totally false, simply because he had a long record of military service. The attempts to distract from the extremely serious scandals engulfing the administration by obsessing over long disproven claims about Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration is pathetic and shows that the fact that Clinton won the popular vote by a large margin still makes Donnie and his minions insecure.
And then of course there were his disgusting attempts to use the bully pulpit to attack NFL players protesting racial injustice by quietly kneeling during the national anthem. There is much I could say on this latter topic, and I might elaborate on it more in the future. But to summarize some of my thoughts: first of all, I don't even think they should be playing the national anthem before public events like NFL games in the first place. But since they do, whether the players sit, kneel, raise their fists, lock arms, scratch themselves, or lie down and nap has no effect on anyone else either present at the game or watching on television, so no one has any good reason to object. Those who say the players should "just play ball" should just shut up, as the players have continued to play ball to the best of their ability, and what they do during the pre-game activities in no way disrupts the actual games. Finally, the anthem (which is just an old, though fairly interesting, tune written for an English gentlemen's club paired with rather bellicose lyrics written by a fellow who had a rather mixed record on slavery) and the flag are just symbols. It is absurd to elevate them above the actual principles on which the nation was founded, such as freedom of opinion and liberty and justice for all, by saying people should be obligated to stand solemnly for them rather than silently kneel in order to draw attention to the gap between the country's ideals and the reality lived by many of its citizens. Attempting to force people to stand for the anthem is more befitting an authoritarian state than a free and democratic society.
On the international front, the situation in Catalonia is another mess. The Catalonian leadership bears some responsibility for this, as its handling of their independence drive has been erratic and clumsy. But the major responsibility for the rapid deterioration of the situation lies with Spain's central government. The heavy-handed and violent attempt to prevent the Catalans from holding a referendum made it look as if the current regime wants to take Spain back to the days of the fascist Franco regime (and the king's similarly pro-repression speech shows that Spain was fortunate to have his father, not him, on the throne in the post-Franco period when there was an attempt to restore the dictatorship). While one could argue whether it is actually a good idea for Catalonia to become independent or under what conditions they could actually become independent, there is no excuse for using violent methods to attempt to block the vote. Other European leaders haven't looked too good in the whole affair either, as they tacitly supported the Spanish government, even if they had reservations about some of their tactics.
Then there are the ongoing crimes against humanity taking place in Myanmar, which while they have slipped off the front pages should still receive international attention until Myanmar changes its ways. The wars in Syria, South Sudan, Congo and other places shouldn't be forgotten either. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping is continuing his campaign to set himself up as a virtual dictator in China amid continuing suppression of dissent.
On the positive side, there were some cool astronomical discoveries, the biggest being the observation of gravitational waves and various forms of electromagnetic radiation from the merger of two neutron stars in a galaxy over 100 million light years away. More recently, an object was spotted passing through the inner solar system that seems to be on a hyperbolic orbit, meaning that it came not from the distant Oort Cloud like most long period comets but from outside our solar system altogether. While I haven't seen anyone else mention this, this discovery is reminiscent of the beginning of the Arthur C. Clarke novel Rendezvous with Rama, though presumably there are no signs that this real-life interstellar visitor is a rapidly-spinning cylinder....
Saturday, September 30, 2017
An Audience with the Dalai Lama (Who Has a "Small Difference of Opinion" with the US President)
In early September, I joined a group of representatives from a Taiwan-based NGO on a trip to Dharamsala. This NGO was formed by Taiwanese and Tibetan activists in Taiwan to focus on human rights issues relating to Taiwan and Tibet, and to promote communication between Taiwan and Tibetans. Its members include activists at various human rights NGOs in Taiwan, Tibetans living in Taiwan, professors, scholars and several members of the Taiwanese legislature. In fact, one legislator was originally going to join our group, but at the last minute was unable to go, though her assistant joined us (two legislators did go on a prior trip to Dharamsala with other members of the NGO). My wife is one of the founders of the NGO, along with her sister, and I joined as a volunteer (I helped with some of the English material put out by the group) and someone who has spent a fair amount of time studying the political history of China and Tibet. Over several days, we met with a number of people from the Tibetan Central Adminstration (the Tibetan government-in-exile), but the highlight came on our first morning, when our group had an audience with the Dalai Lama himself.
As might be expected, the Dalai Lama keeps a busy schedule, one that is all the more impressive when you consider that he is now 82 years old. He was leaving Dharamsala, I believe for a tour of Tibetan exile communities elsewhere in India, the day after our arrival, so we were told he might only be able to greet us briefly, as his aides hoped he could get some rest later in the day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the security around him is quite tight. There was a layer of security around the temple in the outer part of the compound that was controlled by the Tibetans, but the security for the inner compound was controlled by the Indians. We had to leave all our things in lockers, including phones and cameras, and go through metal detectors and pat downs. My wife and I had each brought books written by the Dalai Lama for him to sign, but at first the Indian guards didn't even want to allow those. Our Tibetan chaperones persuaded them otherwise, though we weren't allowed to carry them ourselves (they were handed over to a monk in the entourage of the Dalai Lama to bring in at the end of our audience). Once into the inner compound, we were first taken to a waiting room near the entrance, where we could hear the Dalai Lama speaking to a crowd of Tibetans in the temple area. Then we were taken to another room, where after another wait, the Dalai Lama himself came in, accompanied by several aides.
The Dalai Lama briefly greeted each of us in turn as he came in (there were eleven people in our group, including two children, my daughter and her young cousin). When he came to me, he asked me in English where I was originally from, and I answered "America". I should say that I generally consider myself fairly worldly, not the kind of person to be completely overwhelmed at meeting a well-known person. I've met a few famous Taiwanese people in my life, and I once met the well-known Bangledehi writer/dissident Taslima Nasrin. Still, the Dalai Lama is on entirely different plane, so, while I can say I wasn't as obviously stunned as some others in our group, as he sat down and invited us to sit as well I couldn't help but think things like "It's the actual Dalai Lama, in person! He's sitting only less than two meters away from me! He actually spoke directly to me!" But there was even more to come.
Aside from the Dalai Lama and the eleven of us, there were several monks accompanying him, and one of his secretaries. Our group sat on two parallel couches that were facing each other, the Dalai Lama sat in an arm chair to the right of one couch and his secretary sat next to him in another chair. I was on the end of the couch nearer to the secretary, but still only a few feet from the Dalai Lama. His secretary had spent time in Taiwan and was fluent in Mandarin Chinese, so for the most part the Dalai Lama spoke in Tibetan and his secretary translated into Chinese. Though, as I said, we were told to expect a very brief meeting, he talked to us for quite some time (someone told us later the audience lasted nearly an hour), to the point where the children, especially the youngest one, got a bit restless. One of the monks fetched some treats for them, and the Dalai Lama remarked that the two children were the most free of all of us (though they probably didn't feel that way at the time). One of our group made a few remarks, but mostly we were content to listen to whatever advice the Dalai Lama had to give (not to mention the fact that we didn't want to take up any more of his time than necessary). A lot of his remarks were quite interesting. At one point, he noted that the term "Tibetan" as used by the Chinese was problematic, as the Chinese use it only for their so-called "Tibetan Autonomous Region" (which needless to say is not at all "autonomous"). This excludes historically Tibetan regions in what are now other Chinese provinces. After a quick canvass of the Tibetans in the room, he pointed out that by the Chinese definition, there were only two "Tibetans" present, and that he himself was not "Tibetan" by that definition, as he was born in Amdo, which is now part of the Chinese province of Qinghai. He also talked about the importance of developing relationships with people all over the world, including Chinese people. But the most notable part of the audience for me came toward the beginning.
After we first sat down, the Dalai Lama began by emphasizing our common humanity. He noted that whether Tibetan, Taiwanese, or even Chinese, we were all human beings first and thus had a shared responsibility for our world, including our environment. Here he suddenly switched to English, and addressed me directly (giving me another surreal moment of "The Dalai Lama is talking to me personally!"). I'm going to have to paraphrase a bit here, because since I was still somewhat discombabulated by the situation, I'm not sure of my memory of the exact words he used. But more or less, what he said, following immediately on his statement in Tibetan about the importance of all people caring about the environment, was this: "So when your president talks about America First...," he also mentioned the withdrawl of the US from the Paris Agreement, though I can't remember the precise wording he used, "...I have to say I have [here he gestured with his fingers] a small difference of opinion." I had enough presence of mind to answer, slightly unidiomatically, "Me also." But he wasn't quite done with me yet. He then said to me, "Now translate", with a wave at the others. A bit flustered, I started to stammer a rough translation in Chinese while frantically trying to review in my mind exactly what he had said. Fortunately, his secretary came to me rescue with a more smooth and complete translation.
That was the extent of my direct interaction with the Dalai Lama, except for an exchange of thank yous as he said farewell to each of us individually at the end of the audience. But he was very much like he seems in his other public appearances; relaxed, down-to-earth, wise and yet humorous and even a bit mischievous. While all the security and the different waiting rooms and just the fact of how important a person he is can't help but make his visitors tense, he is able to put people at ease, at least as much as is possible in a situation like that. So while the time we were able to spend with him was limited, my impression was that he just as much of a remarkable person as he seems.
As for his brief aside regarding the current part-time resident of the White House, this was delivered with his usual gift for ironic understatement. The Dalai Lama doesn't make harsh remarks about people. His crack to John Oliver about Chinese hardliners missing the part of the brain that generates common sense was about as strong a statement as he ever makes about people directly (in one of the early waiting areas they had an old edition of a Tibetan monthly newsletter in English with an article about John Oliver's encounter with the Dalai Lama in which they reported that a Chinese spokesman said that while the Dalai Lama "seemed humorous", the things he said were "lies" -- the latter is their usual slander, but even they had to admit he was humorous!). So the mere fact that he made a point of stating his "small" (to be honest, I can't remember for certain whether he said "small" or "little" or even "slight", but it doesn't affect the gist of his statement) difference of opinion with Don T. on the environment and "America First" made it clear to me that in truth he strongly disagrees, as the irony in his statement was obvious. Somehow, a mild, ironic rebuke from the Dalai Lama comes out as devastating as a strongly critical rant from someone else; regrettably, the narcissistic conman in question is not likely to pay any heed, even if he learns what the Dalai Lama thinks of his policies.
As might be expected, the Dalai Lama keeps a busy schedule, one that is all the more impressive when you consider that he is now 82 years old. He was leaving Dharamsala, I believe for a tour of Tibetan exile communities elsewhere in India, the day after our arrival, so we were told he might only be able to greet us briefly, as his aides hoped he could get some rest later in the day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the security around him is quite tight. There was a layer of security around the temple in the outer part of the compound that was controlled by the Tibetans, but the security for the inner compound was controlled by the Indians. We had to leave all our things in lockers, including phones and cameras, and go through metal detectors and pat downs. My wife and I had each brought books written by the Dalai Lama for him to sign, but at first the Indian guards didn't even want to allow those. Our Tibetan chaperones persuaded them otherwise, though we weren't allowed to carry them ourselves (they were handed over to a monk in the entourage of the Dalai Lama to bring in at the end of our audience). Once into the inner compound, we were first taken to a waiting room near the entrance, where we could hear the Dalai Lama speaking to a crowd of Tibetans in the temple area. Then we were taken to another room, where after another wait, the Dalai Lama himself came in, accompanied by several aides.
The Dalai Lama briefly greeted each of us in turn as he came in (there were eleven people in our group, including two children, my daughter and her young cousin). When he came to me, he asked me in English where I was originally from, and I answered "America". I should say that I generally consider myself fairly worldly, not the kind of person to be completely overwhelmed at meeting a well-known person. I've met a few famous Taiwanese people in my life, and I once met the well-known Bangledehi writer/dissident Taslima Nasrin. Still, the Dalai Lama is on entirely different plane, so, while I can say I wasn't as obviously stunned as some others in our group, as he sat down and invited us to sit as well I couldn't help but think things like "It's the actual Dalai Lama, in person! He's sitting only less than two meters away from me! He actually spoke directly to me!" But there was even more to come.
Aside from the Dalai Lama and the eleven of us, there were several monks accompanying him, and one of his secretaries. Our group sat on two parallel couches that were facing each other, the Dalai Lama sat in an arm chair to the right of one couch and his secretary sat next to him in another chair. I was on the end of the couch nearer to the secretary, but still only a few feet from the Dalai Lama. His secretary had spent time in Taiwan and was fluent in Mandarin Chinese, so for the most part the Dalai Lama spoke in Tibetan and his secretary translated into Chinese. Though, as I said, we were told to expect a very brief meeting, he talked to us for quite some time (someone told us later the audience lasted nearly an hour), to the point where the children, especially the youngest one, got a bit restless. One of the monks fetched some treats for them, and the Dalai Lama remarked that the two children were the most free of all of us (though they probably didn't feel that way at the time). One of our group made a few remarks, but mostly we were content to listen to whatever advice the Dalai Lama had to give (not to mention the fact that we didn't want to take up any more of his time than necessary). A lot of his remarks were quite interesting. At one point, he noted that the term "Tibetan" as used by the Chinese was problematic, as the Chinese use it only for their so-called "Tibetan Autonomous Region" (which needless to say is not at all "autonomous"). This excludes historically Tibetan regions in what are now other Chinese provinces. After a quick canvass of the Tibetans in the room, he pointed out that by the Chinese definition, there were only two "Tibetans" present, and that he himself was not "Tibetan" by that definition, as he was born in Amdo, which is now part of the Chinese province of Qinghai. He also talked about the importance of developing relationships with people all over the world, including Chinese people. But the most notable part of the audience for me came toward the beginning.
After we first sat down, the Dalai Lama began by emphasizing our common humanity. He noted that whether Tibetan, Taiwanese, or even Chinese, we were all human beings first and thus had a shared responsibility for our world, including our environment. Here he suddenly switched to English, and addressed me directly (giving me another surreal moment of "The Dalai Lama is talking to me personally!"). I'm going to have to paraphrase a bit here, because since I was still somewhat discombabulated by the situation, I'm not sure of my memory of the exact words he used. But more or less, what he said, following immediately on his statement in Tibetan about the importance of all people caring about the environment, was this: "So when your president talks about America First...," he also mentioned the withdrawl of the US from the Paris Agreement, though I can't remember the precise wording he used, "...I have to say I have [here he gestured with his fingers] a small difference of opinion." I had enough presence of mind to answer, slightly unidiomatically, "Me also." But he wasn't quite done with me yet. He then said to me, "Now translate", with a wave at the others. A bit flustered, I started to stammer a rough translation in Chinese while frantically trying to review in my mind exactly what he had said. Fortunately, his secretary came to me rescue with a more smooth and complete translation.
That was the extent of my direct interaction with the Dalai Lama, except for an exchange of thank yous as he said farewell to each of us individually at the end of the audience. But he was very much like he seems in his other public appearances; relaxed, down-to-earth, wise and yet humorous and even a bit mischievous. While all the security and the different waiting rooms and just the fact of how important a person he is can't help but make his visitors tense, he is able to put people at ease, at least as much as is possible in a situation like that. So while the time we were able to spend with him was limited, my impression was that he just as much of a remarkable person as he seems.
As for his brief aside regarding the current part-time resident of the White House, this was delivered with his usual gift for ironic understatement. The Dalai Lama doesn't make harsh remarks about people. His crack to John Oliver about Chinese hardliners missing the part of the brain that generates common sense was about as strong a statement as he ever makes about people directly (in one of the early waiting areas they had an old edition of a Tibetan monthly newsletter in English with an article about John Oliver's encounter with the Dalai Lama in which they reported that a Chinese spokesman said that while the Dalai Lama "seemed humorous", the things he said were "lies" -- the latter is their usual slander, but even they had to admit he was humorous!). So the mere fact that he made a point of stating his "small" (to be honest, I can't remember for certain whether he said "small" or "little" or even "slight", but it doesn't affect the gist of his statement) difference of opinion with Don T. on the environment and "America First" made it clear to me that in truth he strongly disagrees, as the irony in his statement was obvious. Somehow, a mild, ironic rebuke from the Dalai Lama comes out as devastating as a strongly critical rant from someone else; regrettably, the narcissistic conman in question is not likely to pay any heed, even if he learns what the Dalai Lama thinks of his policies.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Confederate Monuments in the US
I have talked about the issue of Confederate monuments (or more accurately, Confederate flags) on this blog before, but in light of the events that took place in the US in the past month, it's worth revisiting the issue. But before I get to that, I would like to join almost everyone with the exception of the part-time resident of the White House and his dedicated followers in saying that "very fine people" don't march alongside white supremacists, neo-Nazis and others of that ilk and there is no equivalence between such people and those who protest in opposition to them. Of course it is not acceptable for counter-protestors to initiate violence, but the worst violence, including of course the use of a car as a weapon of mass slaughter, was initiated by the white supremacist side. Even if the issue they were using as an excuse to gather and chant hateful slogans was a legitimate one, no decent people could or should allow themselves to be associated with them in any way. That's even if the issue was a legitimate one, which it was not.
I've talked more than once about the difficulty of objectively judging historical figures. But if we are deciding which ones should be prominently memorialized, then an effort to do so has to be made. Of course no human being has ever been perfect, and every single historical figure, no matter how great their achievements might have been, has flaws. So obviously if we're going to have public memorials to any individuals at all, we can't rule out the establishment of memorials to people simply because of some negative aspects of their careers (though the fact that no one is perfect should be sufficient reason to avoid any memorials that deify or excessively elevate those they are dedicated to). But this doesn't mean that we should simply avoid making any judgments at all and simply allow every public memorial to stand. When the bad in a historical figure's legacy outweighs or is even comparable to the good, we should be at a minimum very cautious about how prominently we memorialize them, especially without placing them in proper context. While it might be reasonable to have a statue of Andrew Jackson in his hometown or at the site of the Battle of New Orleans, even there you would ideally want any descriptive plaque or inscription to mention some of the awful things he was responsible for, and he certainly shouldn't appear on the nation's currency, which is a more singular honor and one where proper contextualization is impossible. Similarly, it makes sense to at least question how prominently we should honor people like Woodrow Wilson, considering his racist attitudes and other flaws.
But in the case of statues to Confederate leaders the issue is not even as complicated as it is for people like Jackson and Wilson. At least Jackson and Wilson did make some significant, positive contributions to the US that are deserving of some recognition, as long as we don't lose sight of their flaws. But for most Confederate leaders, their primary claim to historical significance is that they fought for the cause of slavery. As I explained in my previous writing on the subject, this is unquestionably what the Civil War was about. Claims to the contrary are at best historically ignorant and at worst deliberate white supremacist revisionism. The Confederates were only fighting for "states' rights" in the sense that they were fighting for the right of slaves to maintain the institution of slavery, and they were only fighting to maintain "the Southern way of life" in that the Southern way of life was based on slavery. Not only was this made explicit in their secession resolutions and a major speech by the Confederacy's vice-president, but all the disputes and tensions between North and South in the decades leading up to the Civil War were over slavery, from the Great Compromise to the Kansas-Nebraska Act to the election of Abraham Lincoln. It's also beside the point that there was plenty of racism in the North or that there were Southerners who treated their slaves decently. The war was over the continued existence of slavery as an institution, and that institution was inherently evil, regardless of the character of the individuals fighting for and existence. So even if some Confederate leaders were noble individuals (and the hagiography regarding people like Robert E. Lee tends to whitewash some of the worst aspects of their characters - in Lee's case, for instance, there is reason to believe he was fairly cruel to his slaves or at best indifferent to their suffering), the cause they fought for was evil. There is no reason to have any monuments to people whose historical significance derives from fighting for such a cause.
The argument that removing the statutes and other monuments is erasing history is nonsense. For one thing, we don't learn much history from a statue, unless it is accompanied by a detailed explanatory plaque (and even then people have to actually read it). Americans should of course learn about the Civil War, but they should learn about it in more detail than they can from monuments. More importantly, what they learn should be factual and objective (not necessarily neutral, which is not the same thing - for instance, as noted about, the Confederates were fighting for the cause of slavery, a fact that must be emphasized in any discussion of the war, even though it puts them in a bad light). Furthermore, if monuments were to serve as the starting point for people's education about the history of the US South, then there should be monuments to all the other significant people from that era, including slaves and ex-slaves like Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner, the black soldiers who fought and died for the Union, and the many victims of lynching in the years after the war, the black and white people who fought to end segregation in the South. There are vastly more monuments in the South to those who fought for slavery and against African-American rights than to those who fought on the other side of those struggles, even though it is the latter who truly deserve memorializing. If statues and monuments are to represent the history of the region, then they should be an honest representation of the whole history. Instead, most of them represent a narrow segment in terms of both time and population, and they glorify what should be condemned. Even their representation of Confederate leadership is biased in exactly the wrong direction. While there are plenty of statues to Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and many other of the top Confederate leaders, there are relatively few of James Longstreet and William Mahone, two high-ranking Confederate officers who deserved with distinction in the war. They don't particularly deserve to be memorialized for that any more than their fellow Confederates do, as they also were fighting for the cause of slavery, but they both worked in favor of integration in the post-war period, something which would be worth honoring. Instead, for that very reason, they were largely ignored by the segregationists who put up all the statues of their comrades.
Speaking of Confederate generals, recently someone offered a bizarre argument that the reason for all the Confederate monuments is because of all the Civil War battlefields around the region. This is absurd, as the vast majority of monuments, and certainly the ones that have received the most attention, are (or were, for those that have already been removed) not on battlefields but in town squares, parks and other such places. An actual battlefield might be one place where I could see statues to the military leaders of the pro-slavery cause being appropriate - but even there appropriate context is a must. If there are statues of the Confederate generals, there should of course also be ones of the Union generals, and explanatory plaques at the site should again not whitewash what the Confederates were fighting for. But in any case, the main issue is all the statues in other places, not to mention the schools, streets, and other things named after Confederate leaders. Much as here in Taiwan all the statues of the dictator Chiang Kai-shek should be removed from public places, statues of Confederate leaders who represent the causes of slavery and white supremacy should be removed from the towns and cities of the American south (a stance that has also been publically supported by several descendants of the men in question, including Jackson and Lee). There are no good excuses for not doing so.
I've talked more than once about the difficulty of objectively judging historical figures. But if we are deciding which ones should be prominently memorialized, then an effort to do so has to be made. Of course no human being has ever been perfect, and every single historical figure, no matter how great their achievements might have been, has flaws. So obviously if we're going to have public memorials to any individuals at all, we can't rule out the establishment of memorials to people simply because of some negative aspects of their careers (though the fact that no one is perfect should be sufficient reason to avoid any memorials that deify or excessively elevate those they are dedicated to). But this doesn't mean that we should simply avoid making any judgments at all and simply allow every public memorial to stand. When the bad in a historical figure's legacy outweighs or is even comparable to the good, we should be at a minimum very cautious about how prominently we memorialize them, especially without placing them in proper context. While it might be reasonable to have a statue of Andrew Jackson in his hometown or at the site of the Battle of New Orleans, even there you would ideally want any descriptive plaque or inscription to mention some of the awful things he was responsible for, and he certainly shouldn't appear on the nation's currency, which is a more singular honor and one where proper contextualization is impossible. Similarly, it makes sense to at least question how prominently we should honor people like Woodrow Wilson, considering his racist attitudes and other flaws.
But in the case of statues to Confederate leaders the issue is not even as complicated as it is for people like Jackson and Wilson. At least Jackson and Wilson did make some significant, positive contributions to the US that are deserving of some recognition, as long as we don't lose sight of their flaws. But for most Confederate leaders, their primary claim to historical significance is that they fought for the cause of slavery. As I explained in my previous writing on the subject, this is unquestionably what the Civil War was about. Claims to the contrary are at best historically ignorant and at worst deliberate white supremacist revisionism. The Confederates were only fighting for "states' rights" in the sense that they were fighting for the right of slaves to maintain the institution of slavery, and they were only fighting to maintain "the Southern way of life" in that the Southern way of life was based on slavery. Not only was this made explicit in their secession resolutions and a major speech by the Confederacy's vice-president, but all the disputes and tensions between North and South in the decades leading up to the Civil War were over slavery, from the Great Compromise to the Kansas-Nebraska Act to the election of Abraham Lincoln. It's also beside the point that there was plenty of racism in the North or that there were Southerners who treated their slaves decently. The war was over the continued existence of slavery as an institution, and that institution was inherently evil, regardless of the character of the individuals fighting for and existence. So even if some Confederate leaders were noble individuals (and the hagiography regarding people like Robert E. Lee tends to whitewash some of the worst aspects of their characters - in Lee's case, for instance, there is reason to believe he was fairly cruel to his slaves or at best indifferent to their suffering), the cause they fought for was evil. There is no reason to have any monuments to people whose historical significance derives from fighting for such a cause.
The argument that removing the statutes and other monuments is erasing history is nonsense. For one thing, we don't learn much history from a statue, unless it is accompanied by a detailed explanatory plaque (and even then people have to actually read it). Americans should of course learn about the Civil War, but they should learn about it in more detail than they can from monuments. More importantly, what they learn should be factual and objective (not necessarily neutral, which is not the same thing - for instance, as noted about, the Confederates were fighting for the cause of slavery, a fact that must be emphasized in any discussion of the war, even though it puts them in a bad light). Furthermore, if monuments were to serve as the starting point for people's education about the history of the US South, then there should be monuments to all the other significant people from that era, including slaves and ex-slaves like Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner, the black soldiers who fought and died for the Union, and the many victims of lynching in the years after the war, the black and white people who fought to end segregation in the South. There are vastly more monuments in the South to those who fought for slavery and against African-American rights than to those who fought on the other side of those struggles, even though it is the latter who truly deserve memorializing. If statues and monuments are to represent the history of the region, then they should be an honest representation of the whole history. Instead, most of them represent a narrow segment in terms of both time and population, and they glorify what should be condemned. Even their representation of Confederate leadership is biased in exactly the wrong direction. While there are plenty of statues to Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and many other of the top Confederate leaders, there are relatively few of James Longstreet and William Mahone, two high-ranking Confederate officers who deserved with distinction in the war. They don't particularly deserve to be memorialized for that any more than their fellow Confederates do, as they also were fighting for the cause of slavery, but they both worked in favor of integration in the post-war period, something which would be worth honoring. Instead, for that very reason, they were largely ignored by the segregationists who put up all the statues of their comrades.
Speaking of Confederate generals, recently someone offered a bizarre argument that the reason for all the Confederate monuments is because of all the Civil War battlefields around the region. This is absurd, as the vast majority of monuments, and certainly the ones that have received the most attention, are (or were, for those that have already been removed) not on battlefields but in town squares, parks and other such places. An actual battlefield might be one place where I could see statues to the military leaders of the pro-slavery cause being appropriate - but even there appropriate context is a must. If there are statues of the Confederate generals, there should of course also be ones of the Union generals, and explanatory plaques at the site should again not whitewash what the Confederates were fighting for. But in any case, the main issue is all the statues in other places, not to mention the schools, streets, and other things named after Confederate leaders. Much as here in Taiwan all the statues of the dictator Chiang Kai-shek should be removed from public places, statues of Confederate leaders who represent the causes of slavery and white supremacy should be removed from the towns and cities of the American south (a stance that has also been publically supported by several descendants of the men in question, including Jackson and Lee). There are no good excuses for not doing so.
Monday, July 31, 2017
Incomptence, Collusion, Watergate, and Impeachment
I have talked here before about how disastrous the current US administration is and I'm sure I will do so many times more, at least as long as they are still in power. The sheer bumbling incompetence of not only the guy at the top but most of those he has picked to work with (or serve) him should be disturbing to intelligent Americans of every political persuasion, but that same incompetence, along with strong resistance by the Democrats and many ordinary citizens around the country, is helping to hinder the administration in doing a lot of the awful things they have been trying to do. Unfortunately, they have still managed to set the country back in an unbelievably wide range of areas, and they will inevitably do more damage before they can be removed from office. While regrettably it will be impossible to get rid of the entire bunch until 2020 and not until 2018 do the Democrats have even a chance of taking back part of Congress, improving their ability to block some of the worst deeds of this gang of scoundrels, there is some chance that the narcissistic conman at the top of the gang can be removed from office before then. He may decide to resign on his own, as he is clearly not enjoying the job as much as he hoped he would, though given his ego this seems unlikely. Otherwise, at least until 2018, it will be necessary that a sufficient number of Republicans discover their spines and a minimal degree of principles, so that they join the Democrats in impeaching him for one or more of his "high crimes and misdemeanors". Possible impeachable offenses include his blatant self-enrichment and his violations of the emoluments clause, but currently the scandal most likely to result in his removal is the one related to Russian attempts to interfere in last year's election on his behalf, his campaign's attempted collusion with those efforts and the subsequent cover-up. While his defenders try to claim that there was no substantial collusion by the campaign and therefore the whole thing is being overblown, this ignores history. Even if the campaign's contacts with Russia were limited and they did no more than talk about colluding with Russia, and even if Don T. himself was ignorant of the tentative contacts at the time, the subsequent attempts to cover up those contacts and interfere with the investigation alone are enough to impeach him on. To see this, we need only look back at the only time in history a US president has been forced out of office - the Watergate scandal.
The story from the administration has evolved from "None of us had any contacts with Russian officials or agents" to "We did meet with a few Russians, but we didn't talk about the election campaign" to "We wanted to collude with the Russians to win the election, but they didn't give us anything useful." The recently revealed meeting between Don T. Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort on the campaign's side and a Russian lawyer with close Kremlin ties on the other proves that at least some people high up in the campaign were willing to acquire information damaging to Hillary Clinton from the Russians, and that they were made aware that this information was being offered as part of Russia's support for Don T.'s campaign. This alone is arguably damning enough. But let's just suppose that the administration's current story is true (unlikely, given how much they have lied in the past, but at least remotely possible). Let's say that in the meetings that have been uncovered between various Russians and Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, etc. nothing of real import was discussed, and that in the one meeting where collusion was proposed, the Russians really didn't offer anything of value and so no collusion actually occurred. In other words, let's say that all that really happened was a third-rate, aborted attempted at collusion, and Don. T himself really didn't know about it. Well, the Watergate scandal started with a "third-rate burglary" targeting the Democrats that President Richard Nixon apparently didn't know about at the time. So why was he forced to resign? Because he tried to cover up the involvement of members of his administration in the burglary and egregiously interfered in the investigation into the affair. Sound familiar? If Kushner, Sessions, Flynn and that lot had admitted to their contacts with Russians during the campaign, and if Don T. had not fired the FBI director in order to stop the investigation into Russian interference, then perhaps they could make a case that they were not guilty of anything of substance (again assuming that attempted collusion is no big deal as long as it didn't amount to anything in practice). But instead they have lied and interfered with the investigation. Perjury and obstruction of justice are crimes in and of themselves, regardless of whether there were any crimes committed previously. Nixon became a criminal when he obstructed justice, and the same is true of the current incumbent. Republican arguments that the original investigation was making a mountain out of a molehill (laughable coming from the party that spent years and millions in taxpayer money investigating things like Benghazi and Hillary Clinton's email server) are really irrelevant at this point.
Of course as long as the Republicans control Congress and collectively lack either the principles or the courage to impeach Don T. for his obstruction of justice and other misdeeds, he will be able to stay in office. Even if he is removed, we would most likely be stuck with Mike Pence as president, even though he has also told at least a few lies in regard to the Russian affair and may well be guilty of more than has been revealed. If Pence does manage to come out relatively unscathed from impeachment proceedings against his boss, then he would take over, which many argue might be even worse than what we have now. After all, while hardly a man of brilliance, he is not as totally incompetent, and yet ideologically he is probably even worse than Don T. on many issues. This is a guy who is known for his anti-gay, anti-women actions as governor of Indiana, and who has said blatantly absurd and harmful things such as that smoking doesn't kill. As I noted at the outset, the incompetence of the guy currently in charge has helped prevent him from doing more damage. Pence, simply because he is less incompetent, might do more harm. So does that mean we shouldn't push impeachment for fear of a Pence presidency? I would say no, partly because the process will inevitably drag out, and also because Don. T's erratic behavior and clear unfitness for office is dangerous in ways that Pence's more consistent evil is not. But also it's a matter of principle. If a president is clearly unfit and has committed obviously impeachable offenses, he should be removed, no matter who his prospective successor is. If Pence does become president, Democrats, activists and concerned citizens can continue to block as much of the Republican agenda as they can, just as they did with the Republicans' attempts to gut health care, which Don T. played little role in. And starting with the next election, hopefully Americans can begin to repair some of the damage.
The story from the administration has evolved from "None of us had any contacts with Russian officials or agents" to "We did meet with a few Russians, but we didn't talk about the election campaign" to "We wanted to collude with the Russians to win the election, but they didn't give us anything useful." The recently revealed meeting between Don T. Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort on the campaign's side and a Russian lawyer with close Kremlin ties on the other proves that at least some people high up in the campaign were willing to acquire information damaging to Hillary Clinton from the Russians, and that they were made aware that this information was being offered as part of Russia's support for Don T.'s campaign. This alone is arguably damning enough. But let's just suppose that the administration's current story is true (unlikely, given how much they have lied in the past, but at least remotely possible). Let's say that in the meetings that have been uncovered between various Russians and Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, etc. nothing of real import was discussed, and that in the one meeting where collusion was proposed, the Russians really didn't offer anything of value and so no collusion actually occurred. In other words, let's say that all that really happened was a third-rate, aborted attempted at collusion, and Don. T himself really didn't know about it. Well, the Watergate scandal started with a "third-rate burglary" targeting the Democrats that President Richard Nixon apparently didn't know about at the time. So why was he forced to resign? Because he tried to cover up the involvement of members of his administration in the burglary and egregiously interfered in the investigation into the affair. Sound familiar? If Kushner, Sessions, Flynn and that lot had admitted to their contacts with Russians during the campaign, and if Don T. had not fired the FBI director in order to stop the investigation into Russian interference, then perhaps they could make a case that they were not guilty of anything of substance (again assuming that attempted collusion is no big deal as long as it didn't amount to anything in practice). But instead they have lied and interfered with the investigation. Perjury and obstruction of justice are crimes in and of themselves, regardless of whether there were any crimes committed previously. Nixon became a criminal when he obstructed justice, and the same is true of the current incumbent. Republican arguments that the original investigation was making a mountain out of a molehill (laughable coming from the party that spent years and millions in taxpayer money investigating things like Benghazi and Hillary Clinton's email server) are really irrelevant at this point.
Of course as long as the Republicans control Congress and collectively lack either the principles or the courage to impeach Don T. for his obstruction of justice and other misdeeds, he will be able to stay in office. Even if he is removed, we would most likely be stuck with Mike Pence as president, even though he has also told at least a few lies in regard to the Russian affair and may well be guilty of more than has been revealed. If Pence does manage to come out relatively unscathed from impeachment proceedings against his boss, then he would take over, which many argue might be even worse than what we have now. After all, while hardly a man of brilliance, he is not as totally incompetent, and yet ideologically he is probably even worse than Don T. on many issues. This is a guy who is known for his anti-gay, anti-women actions as governor of Indiana, and who has said blatantly absurd and harmful things such as that smoking doesn't kill. As I noted at the outset, the incompetence of the guy currently in charge has helped prevent him from doing more damage. Pence, simply because he is less incompetent, might do more harm. So does that mean we shouldn't push impeachment for fear of a Pence presidency? I would say no, partly because the process will inevitably drag out, and also because Don. T's erratic behavior and clear unfitness for office is dangerous in ways that Pence's more consistent evil is not. But also it's a matter of principle. If a president is clearly unfit and has committed obviously impeachable offenses, he should be removed, no matter who his prospective successor is. If Pence does become president, Democrats, activists and concerned citizens can continue to block as much of the Republican agenda as they can, just as they did with the Republicans' attempts to gut health care, which Don T. played little role in. And starting with the next election, hopefully Americans can begin to repair some of the damage.
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