Dually truck leads to thought on causation

[bill_schubert]

My day began as it nearly always does with my dog, Zoe, insisting I take her on her morning walk.  

On our way back to the car a dually pickup did a screeching acceleration past us.  I take great exception to that kind of behavior.  We live in a neighborhood and that is not acceptable.  He was clearly a worker so when I got to my car I followed intending to get the phone number of his company to report him to the builder that hired him.  But, of course, he did not have any markings on his truck.  He was a window installer with a huge Trump 2020 applique covering the back window of his pickup.  And he had sport wheels like some Friday Nights kid.  It all made sense.  It was a demonstration of American Exceptionalism in action.  

And as such things will happen, I ran across this from Rolling Stone today:

The Unraveling of America  

Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era

www.rollingstone.com

The TLDR is that we're watching the end of the American century.  Not the end of the world any more than the British Empire ending brought it on.  But with the ascension of China we're seeing the start of their century while watching the end of American exceptionalism.

I do not think I've ever read an article with more quotable lines in it.  The author, an anthropologist has a few things to say about Trump but then:

Odious as he may be, Trump is less the cause of America’s decline than a product of its descent.

This, I think, is clear.  He is a symptom to which we are attaching unwarranted causation.

I'm not sure even how I feel about what appears to me to be the passing of the baton. Or the getting the baton ripped out of our hands.  No civilization gently relinquishes what they perceive to be their control of the universe.  But neither do they recognize it when it is happening.

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Comments

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Intentional or not, good for him! And after all, we all know he had plenty to choose from - there are binders full of them:).

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Binders full of them.... I'd forgotten all about that. Yeah, whew, been a long time.