An Urge to Bear Down

  Why exactly are we competing with China for global hegemony?   Why exactly are we engaged across the entire globe in wars and insurrections?   How much does this cost?   The traditional rationale of such things was to keep the world safe for trade, keep the oil flowing, and maintain the world order.   And that if the US did not do these things, then either Russia or China would.   We work very hard to keep nations dependent on us so that we can be the nation that essentially runs things. This has sort of worked.   We spend blood and treasure running around the world trying to get everyone to buy into this system through either pay-offs, threats of force or just straight bombs.   And in return, US corporations flourish as money flows easily to their coffers.   It is good for US consumers in that we get cheap flat screen TVs and we get to offshore our greenhouse gas emissions to the third world.   After all, the pollution and detritus ...

  Every day I remain silent in the face of increasingly discriminatory policies at my Fortune 50 company.   Quotas, or ‘targets’, are formulated.   Training programs are ‘offered’ that proclaim me a racist for the color of my skin.   Struggle sessions, or ‘difficult conversations’, are orchestrated where we are segregated by race or gender and encouraged to talk about how some people’s culture, by dint of their skin color, harm women, people of color, or the LBTQ community.   We talk about equity and how lack of equal outcomes are toxic; and how people of a certain skin color, stand in the way of racial progress. I take all of this in and say nothing.   For saying anything that contradicts the religion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will get me fired.   Even asking questions that may illuminate contradictions or the potential unintended consequences of such thinking is enough to limit your career at the very least.   You are quickly seen as ...