Helping to Pave the Road to Hell—a Quick Note
I ended last week’s newsletter and podcast with the intention of assessing the qualifications of the President-elect’s nominees for various cabinet, department, and diplomatic posts this week—an intention that has been temporarily reassigned to paving the road to hell. Rather, we’ll take a look at some of the cultural givens provided to Americans by modernity. We’ll return to assess the folks who are confirmed and take their positions in the new administration once they’re working in their new jobs.
Sources and Notes
Post World War II America included the continuation of Jim Crow, inequality for women, and dismissal of Native Americans—thus the exceptions and levels of access. Just the number of cold cereals, many of which are just sugary snacks marketed to children, is an example of the abundance, or excess—depending on your perspective—that characterizes the staggering competition for consumer dollars.
Lyndon Johnson, Introduction to Restoring the Quality of Our Environment: Report of The Environmental Pollution Panel, President’s Science Advisory Committee, November 1965, https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/31937-document-2-white-house-report-restoring-quality-our-environment-report-environmental
Alice Bell, “Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored),” Guardian, July 5, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/05/sixty-years-of-climate-change-warnings-the-signs-that-were-missed-and-ignored
Linda Lear, Introduction to the Fortieth Anniversary Edition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin, 2002, 1962), xiv-xvi.
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die, (Broadway Books, 2018), 77-78.
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