Experimental Science Is Fascinating, But I Don't

War Has Dug Itself Into Economic Systems, Where It Offers A Livelihood To Millions ... It Has Lodged In Our Souls As A Kind Of Religion, A Quick Tonic For Political Malaise And A Bracing Antidote To The Moral Torpor Of Consumerist, Market-driven Cultures.

The Only Truly New Ideas [the Right] Has Come Up With In The Last Twenty Years Are (1) Supply Side Economics, Which Is A Way Of Redistributing The Wealth Upward Toward Those Who Already Have More Than They Know What To Do With, And (2) Creationism, Which Is A Parallel Idea For Redistributing Ignorance Out From Its Fundamentalist Strongholds To Those Who Know More Than They Need To.

But The Economic Meltdown Should Have Undone, Once And For All, The Idea Of Poverty As A Personal Shortcoming Or Dysfunctional State Of Mind. The Lines At Unemployment Offices And Churches Offering Free Food Includes Strivers As Well As Slackers, Habitual Optimists As Well As The Chronically Depressed. When And If The Economy Recovers We Can Never Allow Ourselves To Forget How Widespread Our Vulnerability Is, How Easy It Is To Spiral Down Toward Destitution.

Money Does Not Bring Happiness' - Only The Wherewithal, Perhaps, To Endure Its Absence.

Employers Have Gone Away From The Idea That An Employee Is A Long-term Asset To The Company, Someone To Be Nurtured And Developed, To A New Notion That They Are Disposable.