{"id":3517,"date":"2009-08-31T22:58:51","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T04:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=3517"},"modified":"2009-08-31T22:58:51","modified_gmt":"2009-09-01T04:58:51","slug":"still-thinking-out-loud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=3517","title":{"rendered":"Still Thinking Out Loud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Harvest Moon<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.&#8221; &#8211; Albert Einstein<\/p>\n<p>Einstein&#8217;s notion reminds me of the definition of insanity:\u00a0 trying the same thing over and over expecting different results.\u00a0 Of course, any one familiar with computers knows that sometimes this works just fine.<\/p>\n<p>It also gives me some pause before I write my liberalism series.\u00a0 An article in this month&#8217;s Dissent asked, &#8220;Does liberalism have enough  resources to re-energize itself?&#8221;\u00a0 I like this question because it focuses my thinking.\u00a0 This is why I&#8217;m interested in pursuing liberalism.\u00a0 Does it have enough historical and philosophical oomph to make a difference in this and tomorrow&#8217;s world?<\/p>\n<p>10 years ago I would have said no.\u00a0 Absolutely no.\u00a0 As a card carrying member of the New Left, liberalism was as much the problem as conservatism, perhaps even more since it was liberals who got us into the war in Vietnam, who ran corporate america and the government, aka the System and, BTW, Ike Eisenhower&#8217;s military-industrial complex.\u00a0 Hard to recall a time when the liberals were in power at this point in recent American history, but I grew up under a liberal hegemony.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m older and less convinced of drastic, sudden change as either possible or workable, too much risk for too little reward.\u00a0 At least right now.<\/p>\n<p>If we&#8217;re not gonna have a revolution, then we have to consider the hand we&#8217;ve been dealt and it&#8217;s our peculiar brand of American liberal democracy.\u00a0 That means looking for all the possibilities in likely and unlikely places.<\/p>\n<p>At night the trees dwarf the houses, their bulk massing up against the sky.\u00a0 During the day we can pretend they are just plants, but as dark falls their true nature emerges.\u00a0 We are the Lilliputians in their Brobdingnagian world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Harvest Moon &#8220;We can&#8217;t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.&#8221; &#8211; Albert Einstein Einstein&#8217;s notion reminds me of the definition of insanity:\u00a0 trying the same thing over and over expecting different results.\u00a0 Of course, any one familiar with computers knows that sometimes this works &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=3517\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Still Thinking Out Loud<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,100],"tags":[1772],"class_list":["post-3517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-politics","tag-liberalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3520,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions\/3520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}