Category: Society & Culture

No More Mister Nice Guy

America, Government, Media, Politics, Society & Culture

Got home late Wednesday and turned on the third night of the Republican Convention coverage. Watching the live feed from C-Span I was struck, as many have already pointed out, by the high production values of the broadcast (that’s a synonym for stagecraft, which in turn is media-speak for the skills and techniques used in the enhancement of motion picture or television productions). For grins and giggles I flipped over to first, MSNBC, then CNN to see what they were saying.

I wanted to throw up. The sniveling, the dismissiveness, the mischaracterizations, the “don’t listen to them, look at this shiny object over here” deception, the projection of everything the Left has been saying and doing onto the RNC speakers…it was infuriating.

Whether or not you thought the administration of the oath of citizenship the night before or the speech given by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from Jerusalem were theater, for the Leftists to cry and gnash their teeth that these were “political stunts” made me yell at the screen, “You are the MASTERS of political stunts…you ought to know!” Please see Exhibits A, B, C and D: the spying on the Trump campaign, the Russia collusion hoax, the pathetic and treasonous impeachment nonsense, and the Kavanaugh character assassination, just to cite a few premier examples of the Left’s political stunt production!

I relished the thought that for once, the GOP had taken the gloves off and started to fight fire with fire. I also thought…”You can dish it out Democrats, but you just can’t take it can you?”

It was as if I was standing on the side of the path leading down to the gates of Hell, watching with revulsion a hydra with all but its last head severed, writhing back and forth as flames surrounded it and it strained against an invisible force pushing it back down into its black hole in the earth. The Left is that hydra, and while it may not be completely dead after November 3rd, it will, I predict, be wringing its claws and licking its wounds for a long time into the future.

I recently had a conversation with a Brit living here in the U.S. who, though a conservative, finds the demagoguery and mud-slinging of the current campaigns detestable, or in her words, “bad form”. “Why”, she asked, “can’t the politicians simply state what they have done or will do, how it will benefit their constituents, and avoid all the trash-talking?” “Why won’t the GOP take the High Road.”

I calmly explained that the Republican Party has been taking the High Road for 40 years plus years. But though using reason, logic, espousing patriotism, traditional values and motivated largely by wanting to do what is right for this country, the GOP has fallen further and further behind the Left in the court of public opinion. The Left’s production values, in recasting their deceit, hypocrisy and antipathy towards the values and principles that made the United States great as something GOOD rather than the evil it actually is, has brainwashed, warped the thinking of and created a false reality that is bought only by the holier-than-thou-the-rules-don’t-apply-to-me-cocktails-in-hand Hollywood, Tech-land and Wall Street elites, the naive snowflakes of Gen Z, the permanently dependent, the self-made losers and victims looking for the next free Obama-phone. In recent years they have numbered just about half of the population, unbelievably. Trump, bull-in-a-china-shop disrupter, New York real-estate thug, street-fighter and counter-puncher, who, like the Democrats, doesn’t care what people think of him personally, was precisely the kind of candidate in 2016 who could take on and defeat the Leftist/Clinton machine.

In 2020, I explained, the Left having had their butts handed to them in 2016 and learned something from it, have pulled out all the stops…in fact, they will stop at NOTHING, to try to avoid their writhing, thrashing, wailing, burning retreat into the black place from which they emanated.

Civility, decorum, good manners, understatement, “rising above it all” be damned. The Right has to fight and if that means descending into the muck with the Left and throwing the BS flag whenever they spout garbage so be it. The future for our kids and grand kids was at stake in 2016. We won that battle, but the stakes are even greater in 2020.

So the answer to the question as to why the GOP can’t take the High Road this time is embodied in the coffee cup quip…

“No more mister nice guy!”

Analog vs. Digital

America, Entertainment, Society & Culture, Technology

When was the last time you listened to a phonograph record, a nice clean one without pops and scrapes? I hadn’t in years but the other day I dusted off my old turntable and put on my now antique Moody Blues, “Days of Future Passed” album. Some of you may recall it was one of the first that blended psychedelic rock with backing from a classical orchestra.

As the opening score of “Dawn is a Feeling” diffused through the room, I suddenly remembered why God gave us ears! The sound of the analog recording, with its rich textures, melodic undertones and overtones, its depth and the haunting strings punctuated by the brass… honest to goodness made me misty. “Cold hearted orb, that rules the night…”

The clarity, the smoothness, the absence of that over-produced tininess that accompanies all the stuff coming off Pandora, was jarring. 

I thought to myself, “We’ve become so accustomed to the digital and systems-driven world we’ve forgotten how superior the analog one is!” The shortcomings of the digital world are manifest everywhere. Think of how good it is to actually reach a human being once you’ve gotten through voice-mail jail? Or how good a hamburger on the grill tastes compared with what you get from the drive-up window.

The Wall Street Journal had an op-ed the other day with the title “Why Are There Still Not Enough Paper Towels?” The crux of the answer is that systems and digital, just-in-time manufacturing results in the slimmest inventories of everything from paper towels to automobile parts. When there is a surge in demand, such as with the pandemic, manufacturing simply cannot keep up.

Alas, therein is the consequence of moving from an analog to digital society. Hyper efficiency and the quest to maximize profit results in bare shelves when a virus explodes demand for hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

Can or should we move back to a kindler, gentler world, one where we don’t try to extract maximum utility from every minute of every day using apps and robotic shelf stocking?

Regrettably, it ain’t gonna happen. Gen Z doesn’t know what an LP sounds like, and frankly, wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the original analog recording of “Nights in White Satin” and the compressed, 44k sampled digital version emanating from their ear buds.

From spraying artificial flowers with fake flower scent, which means you can make a philodendron smell like jasmine…to almond milk which tastes kind of like real milk, the virtual world is becoming the REAL WORLD.

“So what”, you say?

Well, find yourself a stereo turntable hooked up to a McIntosh tube amplifier and a pair of quality, vintage speakers, put on a pristine 33 1/3 LP of “Days of Future Passed”, sit back, close your eyes and listen.

THAT’S what.

Their Platform is Chaos

America, Education, Government, Health Care, Media, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

Who but limousine liberals unaffected by government policy either through exemption (e.g. Leftist politicians) or due to inoculating wealth (e.g. Hollywood celebrities or tech tycoons)… the intellectually indolent, the perpetual victims, the “low information voters” as Rush Limbaugh calls them (a euphemism for illiterate or cerebrally lazy people easily swayed by demagoguery), the race-baiters or the grievance acolytes… could possibly support the Democrats in 2020?

Really, no-one who has any self-respect – who cares about principles such as meritocracy, excellence, achievement, probity, self-reliance, self-determination, traditional sexual identification, traditional education, traditional family structure, that life (or at least the potential of life) begins at conception, that there is a God (or at a minimum a set of eternal rules of right and wrong that are immutable and transcend all generations)…could support the Democrats in 2020!

I had a conversation the other day with my Board-certified internist during my annual physical exam who, when asked for his opinion on the Wuhan Virus pandemic, started to recite the scripts of WHO, CDC, AMA, Johns Hopkins, and other canned platitudes. Little did he know at first that I spent several years running an early intervention healthcare company based on epidemiological research. When I began to confront him, gently mind you as he was about to check my prostate, with the emerging evidence that the Wuhan plague/pandemic is no worse than a bad flu and cited evidence of how faulty is so much of the data on which decisions are being made and regulations being promulgated, did he start to back off and admit that “we just don’t know.”

I was going to let him off the hook until he said, “I’m concerned, however, about the Second Wave.” At that, I asked him the question, “What is the metric that will allow kids to go back to school normally, that will allow us to stop wearing face diapers, that will signal an end to the crisis?” I was gratified that he conceded that should the Democrats prevail in the coming election, everything will all be over beginning November 4th, not because he’ll vote Republican, but because it was an admission that most of what underpins the rhetoric and discourse is political.  I then ran down the list of disastrous economic and societal consequences the government response at all levels has wrought and then, fortunately, found common ground with him as we delved into a cost-benefit discussion and both agreed that rational decision making and critical thinking was sorely needed.

My half hour session went an hour. A nurse had to bang on the door of the exam room to remind my Doc he had another patient waiting.

As I left the office I got to wondering about how it is that a highly-educated, highly-skilled physician could be persuaded to lazily rely on and spout institutional pablum. I concluded that the damage caused to all our institutions: medical, educational, social, religious, economic, even family structures has created so much chaos that even the smartest among us are overwhelmed by the tsunami of, frankly, BS that has invaded every facet of our lives. Out of sheer enervation even the strongest of us have had to pause from the fight to catch our breath. Meanwhile, the ability of the Left to sew chaos through outright deceit, lies, projection (especially projection) and carpet-bombing with idiocy has continued unabated. The megaphone in the hands of the Leftist media, regrettably, doesn’t take much electrical power.

This is precisely what the Left wants to do. Create so much chaos that only THEY can fix things. Only THEY will be able to unravel the mess…so long as they are granted unlimited power to do so. For that is their goal…POWER! I didn’t used to believe it. I thought there were Democrats who were classic liberals, who believed in the American way of life but wanted to ensure that we looked after those who truly were less fortunate, were REAL victims… No more. Now the Democrats just lust for power as they arrogantly, absurdly believe that if they control everything and everyone they’ll move us all toward their utopian fantasy. That fantasy is the stuff of socialism/communism and while they know it’s a fantasy, it isn’t about actually creating a utopia. It’s about POWER, the thing Leftist politicians must have much as water or oxygen.

We must shake off our weariness and continue to fight to expose the Left’s dysfunctional, delusional, adolescent enchantment with and pipe-dream of utopia and their deplorable thirst for power.

In a small way, having that extended conversation with my doctor made me feel like I was able to get off a few rounds in that fight.

Prejudice and Discrimination

America, Morality, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture

I admit it. I am guilty of prejudice and discrimination. I am prejudiced against a whole host of things. And yes, I discriminate. I am discriminating in my choices of many things. Neither makes me a racist, a white supremacist, a misogynist, a warmonger or any of a range of other labels the Left would love nothing more than to attach to me.

I am prejudiced against uncivilized behavior. Growing up in Europe in the 60’s I cringed at the often loud, madras-clad American tourists who would act as if they owned the world, and I was embarassed by them. Today I’m equally repulsed by the barbaric behavior of so-called “protesters” rioting in so many cities across the country. I am put off by people in restaurants who speak loudly and laugh uproariously as if they were the only patrons in the establishment. People who walk through public places with boomboxes blaring on their shoulders are equally odious.

I’m also prejudiced against the abuse of the English language that violates my eardrums every time I venture into a public space and can make out the mumbling emerging from behind what are now affectionately referred to as face-diapers. It’s not just the prevalence of foul and profane diction – it’s also the incessant misuse of the simile “like”, and both “upticks” and “vocal fry!

Hypocrisy stirs up my resentment juices too. We’re all guilty of some hypocrisy of course. But that of the Left dwarfs by a thousand-fold that which is exhibited by the Right. I am prejudiced against people who pollute my neighborhood with Leftist slogans on lawn signs. Though I find the placement of arrows on the aisles of my local supermarket ridiculous, I am prejudiced against those who wantonly ignore them. And while I am yet to be convinced that wearing masks does anything more than fog up my glasses and make me uncomfortable and difficult to understand unless I yell, I am even more prejudiced against those who try to shame anyone who refuses to wear them!

And I’m prejudiced against megalomaniacal politicians or anyone else who deliberately deceives, prevaricates, dissembles, misrepresents or outright lies to gain power or recognition. It doesn’t matter what their skin color is, their heritage, their religion, their sex…it is their attempt to impose their warped and often evil ideology as well as the assault on my freedom and my principles that I find so abhorrent.

I discriminate daily…in my choice of which channel I watch on television, which websites I visit, which coffee or bread I buy at the market. I discriminate in what I read, what form of exercise I choose, what wine I serve at dinner, what soap I prefer in the shower. I will continue to eschew places and people I find offensive, will judiciously avoid vacation destinations where I’m made to feel uncomfortable as I seek to enjoy the finest things I can afford…things I worked so hard at for so long and deserve.

Keep it up Leftists and you’ll be able to apply even more labels to me. Soon you’ll pejoratively label me a “worshipper”. Perhaps you’ll even accuse me of being “a man”.

My Dad, as he saw what my generation did to the America his (The Greatest Generation) fought so hard for, used to quote the title of the 60’s Musical, “Stop the world I want to get off.” I’m close to begin repeating that quip as well.

Tactics of the Left

America, Economy, Education, Government, Headlines, History, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Values

John Hawkins is one of my favorite conservative authors. In an essay penned back in October 2017 he listed, presciently, how the Left was then destroying and would in the future destroy our culture. With full credit and attribution to Hawkins, who’s full essay is available on Town Hall, here’s a summary:

First, to quote his introduction (Note: I’ve replaced the term “Liberalism with “Leftism, “Liberals” with “Leftists”:

“There was a time when we used to be a nation that pushed freedom, responsibility, decency, patriotism and hard work. Some of us still believe in those things, but because of Leftism, much more destructive values have seeped into our culture like toxic waste. There are many ways that Leftists have degraded our culture, but these are the worst of the worst.”

And here’s his list:

1.            The Politicization of Everything.

2.            Political Correctness.

3.            Victimhood.

4.            Leftist Feminism.

5.            Tribalism.

6.            “Non-Judgmentalism”.

Today, one has only to open one’s eyes and ears to see these weapons on display. I would add to his list:

7.            Atheism. While I believe that the only Being in the universe who can prove to you whether He exists or not is God, faith is a very individual thing. By way of contrast, Atheism is a collective imposition of an ideology that doesn’t just eschew faith, but condemns and seeks to eradicate it. It’s obvious that the Left, by seeking to destroy faith, is seeking to replace God with its own brand of religion.

8.            Saturation. The Left seeks to dominate the airwaves in every form and in every medium so as to crowd out, squash, eradicate any dissent.

9.            Falsehood. “Creative Misrepresentation” is the euphemism that Leftist intellectuals use to describe the outright lying and deception used to advance their poisonous ideology. This should be obvious to any paying-attention individual.

10.          Projection. Have you ever noticed that the Left screams at the top of their lungs accusations at the Right that represent precisely what the Left is doing? There is no end to the hypocrisy and deceit they will use to achieve their ends.

11.          Hijacking the Vocabulary. “Choice”, “Social Justice”, “Democratic Socialism”, “Extremism”, “Investment (a.k.a. ‘taxation and spending’), “Science”, “Fair Share”, “The Wealthy”, “Balance”, “Liberal”, “Progressive”, “Racist”, “Undocumented Immigrant”, “Domestic Terrorist”, “Universal Background Checks”, “Assault Rifle”, “Diversity”, “Inclusion”, “Affirmative Action”, “Globalism”, “Climate Change”, “Resistance”, “Human Rights”, “Tolerance”, etc. All of these terms and countless others have been utilized, twisted, turned into Orwell’s Doublespeak, used as euphemisms or been completely destroyed and replaced by the Left.

12.          Revising History. The 1619 Project, the tearing down of historical figure statues, Howard Zinn, the vilification and attempted discrediting of historical leaders like the Founding Fathers…need I say more?

I expect if I thought about it long enough I could expand this list considerably. No matter. My readers know exactly what I’m talking about anyway, and could similarly add to it. The key is to fight, advance and not retreat in the face of these Leftist tactics.

We must pick our battles, yes, but not shun the fight.

Right Before Our Very Eyes

America, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

I just read one of the most damning and frightening exposés ever written by my most respected conservative intellectual. Victor Davis Hanson has penned a piece describing not only what is currently happening to our country and society, but also what more could happen to it if the Left gains any more power.

I strongly recommend reading the entire essay, entitled “Will 2021 be 1984”, available here. To wet your appetite, the first paragraph follows:

“Cultural revolutions are insidious and not just because they seek to change the way people think, write, speak, and act. They are also dangerous because they are fueled by self-righteous sanctimoniousness, expressed in seemingly innocuous terms such as “social activism,” “equality,” and “fairness.”

I’ve often used the fable of the frog dropped in a pot of water as well as the adage “a death by a thousand cuts” to describe what’s happening to us. The former, just in case you’re not familiar with it, teaches us that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. If, however, you place a frog in lukewarm water and turn up the heat gradually, it will remain until it is boiled to death. The latter, of course, refers to how we could bleed to death while hardly noticing it.

Referring to these in either case, what I’ve suggested many times is that it is by small steps and increments that the evil ideology perpetrated by the Left has infiltrated virtually every aspect of our lives. And, truth be known, it has gone past the point where we can openly criticize it for fear of our personal safety, livelihoods and property not to mention our communities. Teaching by example doesn’t work. “Hitting them up side of the head” doesn’t work. Shaming their disgusting behavior and exposing their lies, distortions and idiocies doesn’t work. Now, we have cause to be fearful that even the ballot box and our ability to vote out the fools will be violated.

Could it be that our pugilist/counter-puncher-in-chief and those on the Right, fractious and fractured as they may be, will nevertheless successfully defend what’s left of Good and triumph over Evil? Alas, I wish I were young again and had the strength, clarity of mind and resources to add my outcry and condemnation to the cause of preserving our liberty, meritocracy… in short, our way of life. I hope by bringing to the attention of my now hundreds of readers the words and ideas of people far smarter and articulate than I, I will have done a small service to countering the noxious noise with which the Left has saturated the air.

I fear that we’ve traveled so far down the slippery slope that it will take something akin to another 9-11 or a counter-revolution from within to leash or better, destroy this Leftist cancer. On the other hand, the optimistic view is that perhaps, what we’re seeing are the remaining, thrashing, death throes of a dying hydra. I pray it’s the latter and urge EVERYONE who values what’s RIGHT to courageously speak up, defend yourselves and your families against the scourge, and vote, futile as it may seem, accordingly.

Maintaining Sanity

Entertainment, History, Society & Culture, Values

In the midst of the pandemic (I’m talking here not about the Wuhan Virus but the metastatic insanity befalling our nation), I’ve decided to do more than just turn off the ‘news’. I’ve returned to doing something that I haven’t done adequately since the beginning of the World Wide Web…READING.

But what to read. I’ve got numerous lists of “The Great Books”, but I don’t want just great literature. I want prose that is uplifting, inspiring, filled with good triumphing against evil, morals without “preachiness”. For what it’s worth, I’ve compiled this reading list for myself and I commend it for those who are similarly sick and tired of all the negativity, the constant whining and gnashing of teeth that is permeating virtually everything we hear and see today, not just on television, but on store notices, advertising, even invoices!

Advise and Consent (Allen Drury, 1959) – In the context of today’s politics, this timeless novel deals with the inner workings of Washington and particularly, the juxtaposition of political ambition against fundamental integrity.

Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy, 1998) – The techno thriller that displays the virtues of a G.I. Joe group of counter terrorist soldiers who go after cells worldwide.

Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy, 1986) – Another great Clancy novel for the guys that pits NATO against the WarsawPact.

The Time it Never Rained (Elmer Kelton, 1973) – A western novel with a lot of homepun wisdom.

Freddy and Fredericka (Mark Helprin, 2005) – A tongue in cheek about a prince and princess of Wales banished to the United States.

Shelley’s Heart (Charles McCarry, 1995) – A political thriller that exposes the corruption of Washington.

On the Road (Jack Kerouac, 1957) – The fictionalized story of Kerouac’s journey across America.

Caribbean (James Michener, 1989) – Since I can’t travel there this year, think I’ll tour the islands and their history by re-reading this one.

The Blackford Oakes Series (William F. Buckley, Jr. 1967-2005) Spy novels from the pre-eminent conservative intellectual.

And I’m still going to binge on videos. I’ve hauled out, for example, my collection of “24” and look forward to see Jack Bauer take on the terrorists and bad guys again.

ANYTHING, ANYTHING to keep away the horror show that’s unfolding in our major cities and even some secondary ones. And anything to drown out the constant Wuhan Gloom and Doom!

I’m At a Loss for Words

America, Economy, Education, Family, Morality, Politics, Religion, Society & Culture, Values

Dear Readers and Patrons of Grumps Report,

I truly am at a loss for words. The emotions coursing through me at this moment are so powerful that I expect anything I write might not reflect what I think and feel even a couple of weeks from now. I’ve run out of adjectives and adverbs to describe the emotions: sadness, fear, disgust, hopefulness, resolve, patience and impatience, anger, compassion, hate and love, just to name a few.

Physically, I’m fine. I had a routine medical procedure last week that required me to visit my doctor. I thus had a COVID test and am negative. I don’t know whether I’ve got antibodies. I’ve stopped watching and reading the news on this topic because my economist/banker/businessman’s critical thinking training has me so put off by the so-called experts, even many whom I’ve trusted and relied on in the past, that I’ve shut them all out.

Spiritually and emotionally I’m sickened by what I see happening to our country. Having grown up in the 60’s witnessing all the rebellion and profligacy of that decade, I never saw anything like the soul-crushing necrosis I’m seeing today. I’m of course referring to the rioting, looting and what’s almost worse, the cowardice, demagoguery and genuflection on the part of Leftist politicians to what truly is domestic terrorism. In the 60’s it was easy to write off the chaos and attribute it to fringe lunacy. The great majority of Americans, while silent, appreciated what we had and were mostly bystanders to what was generally accepted to be foolishness or youthful exuberance. The vast majority of us still cherished and appreciated all that was good about America.

Today we’re seeing the fruits of the dark underbelly of the 60’s, amplified and expanded thanks to the internet and decades of indoctrination by the same losers who lacked self-control and self-discipline then. They now populate academia, law, and above all, government. Even the military and law enforcement haven’t been spared. There are neurotic, unproductive or barely productive adult children in virtually all our institutions.

I’ve already said too much. I will now go back to my bucket-list pursuit of reading all the Great Books. In them I find refuge, wisdom and truth that transcends all the nonsense bombarding me from all directions every minute of every day (were I to allow it).

Keep your seat belts fastened and your seat backs and tray tables in their full upright position. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for some time to come.

But this too shall pass.

Intellectual Bankruptcy

America, Society & Culture, Values

So much to write about. COVID-19, Michael Flynn…now the riots around the country in the wake of the George Floyd killing. So many people smarter than I have said it better than I could regarding the last item. Think I’ll draw on and repeat things that have been said that I wish I could have said!

John Podhoretz, in an op-ed titled “Only an Intellectual Could ‘Justify’ These Riots” May 31st in the New York Post:

“George Orwell’s timeless admonition, ‘Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them,’ has been given new life by the desperate efforts of pundits, scholars and Twitter blue-checks to defend the violence, looting, disorder and general monstrousness that have overtaken America’s cities.”

The glorification of mob violence and petty criminality that was one of the disgraceful hallmarks of bien-pensant thinking throughout the 20th century resonates through every tweet, ­every deep TV observation and every piece of writing that casts the coast-to-coast destruction and anarchy in a positive light.”

Comparisons have been made between the violent rioters setting fire to police precincts and department stores over the last few days to the ‘hoodlums’ of the past. Podhoretz cites in his article the difference is:   “…our insurgents are fully aware there is a phalanx of media and academic apologists at the ready, who will not only excuse their behavior but laud it. This both provides them internal psychological cover for the unleashing of the evils inside them and a vocabulary to explain away the evils they release.”

“Making excuses for rampant violence has been a reflexive habit among the cognoscenti in the United States since the 1960s, from the Leonard Bernsteins hosting the Black Panthers at the elegant party ­immortalized by Tom Wolfe in his essay “Radical Chic” to the aftermath of the 1977 New York City blackout, when the looting of entire neighborhoods causing more than $1 billion in damage ($4.5 billion in today’s dollars) was justified in the op-ed columns of The New York Times as a consequence of (wait for it) a cutback in city-provided teenage summer employment.

Ideological partisans of all stripes face this temptation every day — the temptation to believe that those who seem to be making the same argument you make but then add violence to the mix only do so out of an excess of zeal. In other words, the violent people may be wrong in their tactics, but their passionate loathing of injustice simply got the best of their good intentions.

Perhaps they feel it necessary to do so because they don’t want the bad behavior to discredit their beliefs, or because they can’t bear to examine their ­beliefs in light of the violence and wonder if they are a part of what made the violence happen.

Or they double down and come to think that the violence is a mark of virtue — that the ­violent are even more committed than the cowardly couch potatoes who sit on the sidelines bemoaning injustice but refuse to put it all on the line. That was also the story with the cop-killing and bank-robbing terrorism by the Weathermen and others that erupted from the anti-Vietnam-War student protests.

The perpetrators were romanticized rather than vilified. That was half a century ago. And the spiritual virus that provided such rancid moral “immunity” has surged anew with a recurrence of the evil.”

Wish I could have put it like that. Thank you John.

The Death of Quality

America, Economy, Morality, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

I used to be able to pick up the phone sitting on my desk and 99.9% of the time I’d get a dial tone and be able to call out. Today about three quarters of the time I use my cell phone the call either gets dropped, I can hear him but he can’t hear me (I feel like the guy in the commercial, “Can you hear me now???”), or I get one bar or no bars from the start.

Technology has delivered many conveniences to be sure. But personal attention is certainly not one of them. And reliability (a.k.a. quality) has been a casualty as well. So help me, if I here the words, “It’s software, what do you expect?” one more time I’m liable to scream “arrrrrggggghhhh!” right in the face of whomever uses those words with me!

What happened to craftsmanship? What happened to companies who’d boast about the quality of their products and due to real competition, didn’t charge a highway robber’s take for it?

Technology is what happened. Benefits gave way to features. Reliability gave way to creature comforts. Stuff that would last forever gave way to planned obsolescence. In short, an honest profit gave way to greed and Good Housekeeping seals of approval gave way to “5 Star Comments” on Amazon, honest or not!

I have a personal example. About 30 years ago I bought a Black and Decker Workmate portable workbench. It folds up nicely, flexibly adjusts, and is made of solid steel and wood, the screw mechanism that adjusts the vice having many threads. It still serves me as well today as the day I bought it.

Wandering around Home Depot the other day, I saw my Workmate’s 2020 version. It was, to put it succinctly, a piece of, well you know what, compared to mine and cost in today’s dollars, roughly twice as much.

Another example. Over 40 (yes 40) years ago I bought a fun kid’s sled made by a Norwegian company called a Sno-kart for my own children. It was made of steel tubing and high density polyethylene plastic with strongly welded joints. My grandchildren still gleefully use it today.

I checked, and the company still exists but their sleds now are made of cheap plastic throughout. I can’t imagine they’d survive my grandson’s first run down the hill!

Another thing that technology has caused is a decline in honesty. Doctors will tell you, “Everybody lies about their health.” That may be true, but the phenomenon was, until the last twenty years or so ago, largely restricted to the medical field. Today, it seems everybody lies about everything! I don’t just mean blatant, with a straight face bald-faced lying. I also mean lying by omission, lying by “creative misrepresentation”, or “lying for the greater good.”

In other words, there has been a serious decline in the quality of truthfulness, of probity, of ethics, of morals…one could even say a decline in the quality of reality!

Quality being almost completely dead, a renaissance is needed.

I have re-committed myself to giving 100% to everything I do, of restoring quality to my everyday tasks and professional endeavors. I have also re-committed myself to be not just truthful and honest, but to being forthright as well.

The other side of this coin is that I will continue to throw the yellow or red BS flags on the field whenever I see they’re warranted. I will refuse to abide or tolerate dishonesty of all kinds in my interactions with vendors, agents, advisors and most definitely with politicians!

I sincerely hope and pray I’ll be successful and may be able to influence others to join in the fight to restore quality to everything we have and do.

Copyright © 2019 - 2026 - All rights reserved - Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy