Today I renewed my membership in the American Political Science Association (APSA), the largest group of professional political scientists, most of whom (but not all) are academicians. I first joined as a graduate student in 1965, so that is 45 years ago. A long time ago, and a lot of back issues of scholarly journals are gathering dust in a big storage locker.
I almost didn't do it. After all, I've been retired for seven years. I spend essentially no time on professional activities, don't attend national conferences except rarely, may not even vote on the slates of officers. Most of the colleagues I knew well are gone from the scene.
But here is what occurred to me. When I started this Vox blog, my chief interest was in travel, and that shows in its design, I think. And travel still is my main personal interest my chief desire. At the same time, I do find myself posting more and more often about political and public policy issues, not in a truly scholarly or professional way, but just thoughts off the top of my head. This is a direction I did not anticipate.
Back in 2003, I didn't really expect to live to see the end of the G. W. Bush administration. That was the view of the medical personnel I consulted. But what do you know, with good treatment, I did! And then we got into a really dangerous but exciting period in the economy, and in the way our politics is conducted, with the bright spot of having a young new President of astonishingly good character, patience--wisdom really--a pragmatic and bi-partisan spirit, informed by history, and a simply brilliant mind. Who would have thought that possible? He is just 48 years old, with limited experience (although a great education).
So nowI have at least in part come full circle, back to the professional interests that long preoccupied me, and moved a bit away from the focus on recreational travel that really is the passion of my later adult years. I don't do anything with them "seriously," and really my health doesn't permit that kind of concentration any more than it does really extensive travel, but still, I comment often.
Maybe I ought to change the Vox's appearance to show its new character, with pictures of the flag and Thomas Jefferson perhaps?
One place where the two interests cross is in my little motto "See America before its gone." We are indeed losing many aspects of our traditional American way of life, and also great swatches of our natural beauty. And we are losing, too, the traditions and practices that made American democracy something that so many in the world wanted to emulate. Remember the Statute of Liberty young Chinese protesters erected in Red Square? We are also losing our economic leadership. Did you see in the news that now the Chinese buy more automobiles than people in the USA do? And they have faster trains.
It is all a shame, it is tragic. I am a big Obama backer and fan, but really, I don't imagine that he will be able to reverse the many self-destructive forces that have been unleashed in this country, especially since around 1980. We had our run, for a long time we were "at the top" after WWII, but then we lost the will, we ceased to make the effort.
When we were in Detroit recently, I was impressed to talk with people, blue-collar folks, who really knew a lot about every aspect of automobiles and how they are made. And houses, too, they knew a lot about housing construction. How many American boys or girls aspire now to knowing how to actually "do" anything anymore? Everyone wants an easy buck in a field where they are vastly overpaid, like finance or "wealth management." Or they are counting on the lottery coming through.
I do want to put in a plug of the microcomputer industry. That is something that was made in America, which has had a transformative effect; it was something we (or at least some among us) did. But what is going on now? What preoccupies our efforts? There is nothing we are making, and we don't have major "public" efforts like those that existed during the Great Depression, although Obama has attempted to generate some of that spirit. But it is all small potatoes, and much objected to by our right (really, our wrong) political wing.
We are a nation of whiners, of debtors, self-centered and not-civic minded, some of us struggling to live as well as our parents did, and a few at the top enjoying the excesses of absurd and wholly undeserved wealth.
It is a shame.
Renewal is indeed what we need. So I sent in my dues.
[this is good]
Posted by: Random Musings | 03/30/2010 at 05:58 AM