Dear J,
"I just have never done well with politics, perhaps because of my Irish irrationality..." You have never done well with politics because you have never studied politics, and because you're surrounded by academics, who have never studied politics either but who are very convinced of their own opinions.
"I wonder if some of the people in the Tea Party movement are interesting to talk with." No, they won't like you; that's because you've never studied politics (or Shakespeare) but are very certain of your own opinions.
I love the Tea Party movement. It's a movement of intelligent, informed, honest, freedom loving people against unintelligent, uninformed, dishonest, totalitarian people, all of whom are very certain of their own opinions, who have not read Shakespeare, and who want to boss other people around.
You might begin to see that I'm developing a theme. The elites have become disgusting. I mean all colleges and universities, the scientific community, Hollywood, the media, bureaucrats, philanthropic organizations, and almost all politicians. In reference to the scientific community --I've pointed this out to you again and again-- their failure to argue that the science behind climate change is bogus makes them laughingstocks. They are corrupt. There is no way they can any longer expect respect from any honest man (not as institutions or organizations, and certainly not the leadership.) They've been corrupted by dollars. They no longer do science, they do grants. You get your money from the government, you think what the government tells you to think... and then since you're an academic you persuade yourself that what you believe is because you are so very wise. Honest people have had enough. That's why there's a Tea Party movement.
I don't think you have any idea how corrupt our universities have become (and everything elite in general). I don't think you have any idea how easily the average citizen recognizes that corruption. I bet you even think the average citizen is wrong. All academics think the average citizen is wrong. They have no self-awareness of how far they have fallen.
I repeat the same thing to you a thousand times. I don't think there's any chance you're ever going to understand, but this is a hopeful time. A great contempt has developed, and that's just very very good, because the elites have made themselves contemptible. For an absolute certainty this contempt is good for the individual, because it's an accurate perception. Whether the contempt will be enough to destroy the universities as they now exist I don't know, but hopefully there will be movement. Sixty years ago the universities were not as foul as they are now; and it's only in the last ten that the sciences have caught up with the corruption of the arts. People do get sick of stink, even in universities. There might be some cleansing, and some of it might be internal.
And as I've said, I've repeated this again and again and you aren't going to understand.
For myself, I've never been more optimistic about America, and it's not something I foresaw at all. I had thought America could only gain excellence again if excellent ideas were taught, but that's very hard. It seemed impossible. I've spent a lifetime trying to get an education, and I'm having difficulty, and I want an education. How do you educate some dope at a university who doesn't want an education but is just very content with being very certain of his own opinions? Well of course, you can't. But you can just dismiss them as insignificant, and eventually replace them with others. That may happen. That contempt might create something vital by destroying something moribund is what I hadn't foreseen.
Anyway, it's a hopeful time. The probability is that the Republicans will come in in great numbers. Then they will "compromise" (after all, the leaders are present members of the elite, and are just as corrupt as any other elite). And then there may be a third party and a vast political shake-up. There could be state successions. Things could become violent, touching on civil war. Could be. We haven't had a good internal war in a long time. Maybe it's time to give it a try again. --Oh, and there will never again be a black President, and the new racial separation will probably never close.
See you, --M
PS,
I might put this in my blog because it's a theme I've been hammering. --Of course this up-swelling of contempt has all been stimulated by the debt and the exceptionally bad recent governance, but the contempt for rotten culture and scientific malfeasance --the general contempts-- have always been there, it's just that now those contempts have been inflamed and so everything contemptible may feel the effects.
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