{"id":22389,"date":"2024-07-30T17:48:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T00:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=22389"},"modified":"2024-07-30T17:48:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T00:48:07","slug":"nostalgia-weird-ideas-joy-vs-grimness-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2024\/07\/30\/nostalgia-weird-ideas-joy-vs-grimness-prayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia, Weird Ideas, Joy vs Grimness, Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li> Tom Nichols on how nostalgia for the past tells us lies;\n<li> More on JD Vance&#8217;s tribal morality and short-term thinking;\n<li> Robert Reich on Kamala&#8217;s joy and Donald&#8217;s grimness;\n<li> And the meaning of why Trump rallies open with Christian prayers.\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8212;&#8212;<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Tom Nichols.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/K2xKllzUC6HjlYbu8Qd0Y9TzIF0=\/0x0:4800x2700\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2024\/07\/daily_baseballcards_2\/original.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Tom Nichols, 26 Jul 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/archive\/2024\/07\/the-lies-nostalgia-tells-us\/679269\/\">The Lies Nostalgia Tells Us<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;I was a child in the 1960s, and those days weren\u2019t better\u2014but in one way, they were sweeter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Before reading this: <!--more-->I too was a child in the 1960s, but I don&#8217;t have any particular nostalgia for that era. It was crucial for my own personal development &#8212; I discovered things like science fiction and astronomy. But I had no one to share them with. In retrospect I think my childhood was very constrained, not intentionally, but because my parents were small-town kids living in a big city, and we didn&#8217;t explore. It was years later until I heard, belatedly, the popular music of the 1960s. But enough about me&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Nichols begins by keying off the eternal desire for the supposedly better past.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So much of our current national strife is predicated on how much better things were Back Then. For younger people, \u201cback then\u201d is the time they can barely remember, before Donald Trump began polluting our politics. For some people, it\u2019s the years just before 9\/11. Others have fond childhood memories of their first game system, in the 1990s, or their narrow ties and big hair from the \u201980s. My generation\u2014call us <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/what-is-generation-jones-the-unique-qualities-of-the-not-quite-gen-xer\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"504536\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">Gen Jones<\/a>, wedged between the Boomers and the Xers\u2014grew up in the late \u201960s, a nice time to be a child but a period of frightening turmoil for anyone older than us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And then he goes on to discuss his collection of Batman trading cards, and sports cards in general. How he bought his cards at four various places in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where he grew up. The enthusiasm in his neighborhood for the gothic soap opera <em>Dark Shadows<\/em>. And then collectible cards about assassinated politicians, like Bobby Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>But then he gets to the point. Like him, I remember the places where such things happened, and how they&#8217;re now all gone.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When I look at those old cards, of course I feel a flood of nostalgia. Most of the landmarks of my childhood have crumbled or closed. A highway overpass destroyed the center of Chicopee Street. Lapite\u2019s and Knightly\u2019s are long gone. Kane\u2019s is a check-cashing store. Most of the other businesses have disappeared (a few are now storefront churches), although the bars have held out longer\u2014one of my high-school friends was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/news\/2011\/11\/derek_j_fish_sentenced_in_stab.html\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"742846\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">stabbed to death<\/a> in one of them, right next to my house, shortly after our class reunion almost 15 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>When people look back and feel loss, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UdNUtX-lRDc\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"743311\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">I understand<\/a>. But I am old enough now to know that these were not good days, and that the nostalgia is mostly a lie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">I remember Batman and Barnabas and Bobby. I also remember the alcoholism and drug abuse that plagued our neighborhood (and my family). I remember rampant domestic violence, although as children we didn\u2019t know what to call it. I remember hospitals and nursing homes that now seem medieval to me. I remember air-conditioning being a luxury.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>We can cherish our memories, but we should be clear-eyed about the past. I do not want those days back, and I will not support the vengeful authoritarians who sell such nostalgic rotgut. Nevertheless, I still smile at some of those favorite acquisitions of my childhood, including the cards I proudly bought in 1969 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcdb.com\/ViewSet.cfm\/sid\/96371\/1969-Topps-Man-on-the-Moon\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"743795\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">after the moon landing<\/a>. I particularly like a card of Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, because I remember the crisp fall day I bought it from Art Lapite nearly six decades ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have equivalent memories, of buying science fiction magazines at the various drugstores nearby that sold them, for example. But otherwise, I led a sheltered life. I didn&#8217;t know what was going on in the outer world, except for occasional reports about famous people being assassinated. It took me a long time to become aware. Yet my nostalgia for those early days remains, as I presume they do for most people.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/07\/gettyimages-2162475833.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&amp;w=1440\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Vox, Zack Beauchamp<\/strong> (I&#8217;ve ordered his book), <strong>30 Jul 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/363473\/jd-vance-weird-voting-parents-demeny-postliberalism\">Where J.D. Vance\u2019s weirdest idea actually came from<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;How Vance\u2019s proposal to give parents extra votes illustrates the fundamental flaw in his politics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixd lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg0\">\u201cLet\u2019s give votes to all the children in this country and let\u2019s give control over votes to the parents in this country,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixd lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg0\">It\u2019s an old idea called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/03\/03\/opinion\/sunday\/parents-teenagers-voting.html\">Demeny voting<\/a>,\u201d named after 20th-century <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ae-info.org\/ae\/Member\/Demeny_Paul\/CV\">Hungarian demographer Paul Demeny<\/a> (a vocal champion of the idea). Typically, the argument for Demeny voting is rooted in fairness. Children are people who, like anyone else, deserve political representation. Since they lack the maturity to make informed choices about their interests, parents should vote on their behalf \u2014 much in the same way they make decisions about children\u2019s medical care or education. To get a sense of how this argument works, I\u2019d recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4723276\">a recent paper by two law professors<\/a> at Harvard and Northwestern making the case at length.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixd lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg0\">But for Vance, the policy isn\u2019t just about ensuring fairness for families: it\u2019s about punishing childless adults. Vance sees Demeny voting as a tool for creating two-tiered citizenship, one where parents have more and better political representation than other adults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to rationalize the situation the opposite way, as I mentioned a post or two ago. Key points: First, this is the essence of tribal mentality: expansion of the tribe trumps every other consideration. Second: It cannot continue forever; the world is filling up, and humanity is destroying its ecosystem. But conservatives dismiss long-term consequences. They&#8217;re all about babies.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa58f83c6-b9be-471d-9b21-b9e9fef6a472_989x556.webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, 30 Jul 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/kamala-and-the-politics-of-joy\">Kamala and the politics of joy<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Versus Trump\u2019s politics of grimness&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The last few years have been so bleak \u2014 Trump\u2019s disastrous four years in the White House, the police murders of George Floyd and other Black men and women, COVID deaths, climate crises, Trump\u2019s big lie, Biden\u2019s declining health \u2014 that I had almost forgotten politics can be joyful.<\/p>\n<p>And then Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic candidate for president.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s filling politics with a hope and exuberance I haven\u2019t seen since John F. Kennedy ran for president. Her smile is spreading cheer. Her laugh projects joy. Her joyfulness is igniting excitement and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>She is still deadly serious about what America is up against. But she\u2019s combining it with a jubilance that tells us we can triumph.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Coincidentally, I read part of a book (by Sebastian Junger) today that discusses violence, as a part of human nature. Combatants, in boxing say, never smile. They are always grim. Any hint of a smile of a sign of weakness, of submission. That&#8217;s how human nature works. Is that the world most people want to live in?<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/riaCZ9U8gIoz2ceMXSMlBO4T7O4=\/159x1:1880x2152\/665x831\/media\/img\/2024\/07\/24\/DIS_Coppins_PrayerFinal\/original.png\" width=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, McKay Coppins, 29 Jul 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2024\/09\/trump-rally-prayers\/679152\/\">The Most Revealing Moment of a Trump Rally<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;A close reading of the prayers delivered before the former president speaks&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A week before Christmas, an evangelical minister named Paul Terry stood before thousands of Christians, their heads bowed, in Durham, New Hampshire, and pleaded with God for deliverance. The nation was in crisis, he told the Lord\u2014racked with death and addiction, led by wicked men who \u201crule with imperial disdain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith every passing day,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/PuXi35ok62Y?feature=shared&amp;t=8487\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen31117857_899=\"61268\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"61268\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">the minister said<\/a>, \u201cwe slip farther and farther into George Orwell\u2019s tyrannical dystopia.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Or course, Project 2025 sounds a lot like Orwell&#8217;s dystopia.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But because God is merciful, there was reason for hope. One man stood ready to redeem the country: Donald Trump. And he was about to come onstage. \u201cWe know what he did for us and how he strove to lead us in honorable ways during his term as our president\u2014in ways that brought your blessings to us, rather than your reproach and judgment,\u201d Terry prayed. \u201cWe know the hour is late. We know that time grows shorter for us to be saved and revived.\u201d When he finished in the name of Jesus Christ, Amens echoed through the hall. Soon Trump appeared to rapturous applause and Lee Greenwood\u2019s \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Much more; it&#8217;s a long article. There&#8217;s only so much time. I&#8217;ll repeat what I&#8217;ve said before: the religious right&#8217;s support for Trump completely discredits (as if their theology hadn&#8217;t already) their entire campaign. Their claim of morality, all of it. They have no idea what they&#8217;re doing. Or what the world they&#8217;re living in is actually all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Nichols on how nostalgia for the past tells us lies; More on JD Vance&#8217;s tribal morality and short-term thinking; Robert Reich on Kamala&#8217;s joy and Donald&#8217;s grimness; And the meaning of why Trump rallies open with Christian prayers. &#8212;&#8212; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2024\/07\/30\/nostalgia-weird-ideas-joy-vs-grimness-prayers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,54,20,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-history","category-politics","category-psychology","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22389"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22393,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22389\/revisions\/22393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}