A Visual History of Women in the US Workplace

         

           

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In other words...Republicans

I found an interesting passage in an e-book I am reading. It was eye-opening for me and a tad disconcerting. It almost sounds like the description of a psychological problem or dysfunction, but it describes many of my friends and neighbors.

From - The Party Is Over: 
How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted
August 2, 2012
by Mike Lofgren

"It is not difficult to find examples in everyday life of acquaintances and associates whose ever-present sense of persecution is nothing more than a rationalization of their own anger and hostility. According to Canadian psychologist Robert Altemeyer, who has written extensively about the characteristics of the authoritarian personality, fundamentalists exhibit a high quotient of authoritarian traits:

They are highly submissive to established authority, aggressive in the name of that authority, and conventional to the point of insisting everyone should behave as their authorities decide. They are fearful and self-righteous and have a lot of hostility in them that they readily direct toward various out-groups. They are easily incited, easily led, rather un-inclined to think for themselves, largely impervious to facts and reason, and rely instead on social support to maintain their beliefs. They bring strong loyalty to their in-groups, have thick-walled, highly compartmentalized minds, use a lot of double standards in their judgments, are surprisingly unprincipled at times, and are often hypocrites."

In other words...Republicans. (empahsis - mine)

I can "feel" it...

In the US, our national experience for most of the last century has been one of stability, in government, in economy, in climate. That is rapidly changing. Our stable climate has grown more and more uncertain over the last 40-50 years, a tiny blip in geological time. I felt the climate changing back in the 1960s. I admit I am much more sensitive to change, of all kinds, than most people. I feel temperature changes, social changes, governmental changes. I feel them before they are noticed by others. Articulating those feelings is useless until someone actually studies the changes and puts them in a chart or a book that details what has happened. "Silent Spring", by Rachel Carson (1962) was the first book to document some of those changes I was feeling at the time. She wrote about pesticides and our food supply and what changes we might expect in our way of life. Lately our government, the media, and business have ignored the science of 'climate change' too long and in future that will endanger our country's overall stability and our current way of life. The more floods, hurricanes, fires, droughts, weird winter storms, etc. we experience, the less our government and our economy will be able to sustain the money drain and disruption in every aspect of living associated with each disaster. We either need to prepare our citizens to expect less from FEMA and other state and federal sources of help, or we need to prepare for an onslaught of climate related disasters in advance. Now would be a good time to start. In fact it might be too late. Disasters can create anarchy locally until the state or US government sends in military help and economic aid. We have already seen what that looks like on TV during Katrina. Hurricanes Rita, Katrina, Ike, and Sandy are just a sample of what is hurtling our way like a locomotive out of control. These storms and mid-western droughts and western fires will grow more intense and more frequent. It is estimated that temperatures in this century will rise 7 to 10 degrees. The current rise of 1.4 degrees F in the last two decades is the hottest we have been in over 400 years. "...United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850." - National Geographic News. I won't be here to see all the changes take place but my grandchildren will. There may be an investment opportunity for them in all of this by trying to protect coastlines from rising waters, developing building materials that can withstand a category 5 hurricane, inventing some super fire extinguisher, building a home that can float, and more. I hope our future earth won't look like the apocalyptic films "Mad Max, Logan's Run, or Soylent Green". Sci-Fi? Sure. But what can be imagined can also become reality. If we can't stop it, we must be prepared to live with it. Climate change is here, I can feel it.