There is a Paradigm Shift Now in Progress

I would say a couple things here... I would suggest that what we will find, after this is all over, it that folks will be less likely to want to depend on the ability of other nations to produce and provide the mundane things that the elite, especially in this nation, were too hoidy toidy to want to have to produce in our nation. Where elites took advantage of third world nations to chase more profit, we'll find that enduring the cost at home will do and make our supply chains more secure, and less vulnerable to the carelessness of other nations who dabble in horror for their own amusements..

I suppose that these kinds of decisions will certainly change the way globalism is viewed. And I expect that a far less globalist view will be adopted in the future. When folks like Joe Biden rail that the US will no longer produce Oil, it's from his ridiculous ego asserting that this nation become dependent on the folks that pay Joe's bills... And frankly, the US public will not tolerate his kind of sell out. Yes, I think globalism certainly took it on the chin.

 

Let me see if I understood your position. Conservatives intend to hunker down and try to shut out the rest of the world as if it does not exist so as to keep themselves safe from future Pandemics? Is that the gist of your point?

 

No.

 

-Nope, I am not on any sort of fictitious board that has apparently been cooked up in your head.

-Why does positive thinking and a general belief that our country is great "seem to matter so much in this country"?....Probably because it is far preferable to pessimism, and sometimes an internal belief system that one is from a superior/winning tradition, can motivate and propel oneself to work harder and achieve greater heights. I believe that this mindset is most prevalent in the world of sports, where an internal belief that one is going to win is generally accepted as an essential requirement before one has any chance of actually winning. I believe that most people whose childhood was at least partially centered around sports understand this instinctively, and that people who played very little if any sports tend to be the ones that have such difficulty grasping this concept.

-Life IS a competition. If you do not know this, you are starting two steps behind.

 

LOL - 'on board' is an expression.

I don't see 'life' as competitive. It is not a sporting competition. And I am not a pessimist. I simply don't see it as being necessary to be 'the greatest nation in the world'.

 

I think you missed the class mother nature taught on human survival, failed to learn how millions of species have thrived for millions of years, using values that are the polar opposite to the speil you have just delivered.

 

If you do not see life as competitive, you are incorrect. There are winners and losers at virtually everything in life. There is nothing wrong with believing that one comes from a great tradition in order to motivate oneself ( or for those whom one is rooting) to reach greater heights. The chants of "U-S-A" or "We Are Penn State", are designed to motivate the participant by reminding them that they are part of something greater than themself in an effort to help them gain a psychological edge.

A simple example of the motivating power of this principle....If the Johnson family has 4 children, and the first three all graduated with honors. If it is impressed into the brain of the 4th Johnson child that the Johnson's all get good grades and we take great pride in that fact, that 4th child is far more likely to push themselves academically and not accept mediocrity in their grades. If we Americans face a great challenge that seems insurmountable, there is nothing wrong with harkening back to the Manhattan project or the moon landing, and therefore believing that we Americans can make the impossible come true. This type of belief system, justified or not, is a powerful motivator, and as such, produces positive results. Everyone has an internal voice in their head, and this type of motivation is trying to ensure that the internal voice is that "I am a winner" rather than "I am a loser". Creating confidence, justified or not, is a good thing.

Every country should have some level of nationalistic pride. When one is proud of the traditions of their country, that does not denigrate other countries, it is only a reflection of their own belief system. When someone believes that the United States is the greatest country, that is not an insult to Germany. German citizens should also think that they are the best. For some reason, people like yourself see nationalistic pride as an affront to the rest of the world, but it most certainly is not. I do not get angry when a German citizen expresses pride in their country. In fact, I respect their belief and subsequent pride. People like yourself need to chill out, and stop worrying so much about how other people choose to motivate themselves. It really is none of your business.

 

We agree - nationalistic pride is a great thing. And I don't believe that a demonstration of that pride is an affront to citizens from other countries.

Where we disagree, obviously, is in the constant mention (sometimes erroneously) that the US is (insert superlative here) in the world. Even this morning as Trump is addressing the country, he is adding in commentary using the words unprecedented and fastest when describing his actions. They are incorrect but, more importantly, unnecessary.

 

The belief that one is a part of a greater tradition IS nationalistic pride. I am not sure that anyone is truly constantly chanting U-S-A, but to whatever extent that one expresses a nationalistic pride, I see absolutely not one thing wrong. I believe whole-heartedly in the psychology of motivation.

I dont want to make this about Trump, because then it becomes about either hating or liking Trump. I would rather keep this about the underlying principle. Using a nationalistic belief system to motivate one (and others) to be their best, is a good thing.

 

I can't disagree with anything you've said. But my initial post was about how the administration is promoting itself as the greatest - so to leave Trump out of the discussion is diverting from my intent. As an example, he just said "The country is strong. The strongest we've ever been." That is just wrong, on many fronts. I understand motivation and keeping a positive attitude, but the fact that these platitudes are falling out of his mouth at a time when clear and honest communication is vital is disingenuous. And it assumes that Americans are fools - believing everything they are told. I don't think he should be sharing negative doomsday messages - of course not. But laying off the superlatives would be a great thing.

 

Agreed!

In dire situations like these genuine leaders know that honesty and sincerity is what counts even if you are telling people bad news that they would probably not know about.

We have examples of how the leaders of other nations have been communicating with their people and it is significantly different to what the criminal IMPOTUS is spewing.

We have a serious Pandemic on our hands and the repercussions are already being felt in the Stock Market and will shortly result in job losses and wholesale layoffs as corporations try to preserve their profits for their shareholders.

We the People are not fools and we know that he BS'ing because he lacks the ability to be honest and sincere.

But that is not an excuse for his incompetence that resulted in us being in our current situation.

We will hold him accountable in November.

 

When seeing your quote.. "The paradigm shift that SHOULD be happening is a realization among Americans - through the handling of this virus - that we are NOT the greatest nation in the world. Likely, I'll be painted as unpatriotic, but such is not the case. I am simply a realist. And it doesn't bother me one iota if I am living in a country that is NOT the 'greatest'."...

I fail to see why that is a "paradigm shift that SHOULD be happening". In fact, I think that I have more than adequately made my point on that subject.

If you want to make this about Trump saying that "The country is strong, the strongest weve ever been"....what is wrong with him saying that? Is he supposed to say that we should all crouch down and kiss our a**es goodbye? It seems to me that the job of a leader in this situation is to quell any rising feelings of panic. Pointing out the very true reality that the country is strong seems aimed at that specific objective, and adding the caveat the strongest we have ever been can most certainly be substantiated on a lot of levels. It is NOT untrue. If you want to say "not the strongest in regards to the risk from an outbreak" you can most certainly make that assertion and countless other areas where we are not currently the strongest, but that isnt what he was intending to convey. Just because you can craft a sentence that points to things that are not currently at its strongest point does not therefore make his statement untrue. You can choose to look at the glass as half empty or half full. When trying to quell a rising panic, there is nothing wrong with choosing to see it as half full. Somehow I suspect if Obama were to say a similar glass is half full statement, you would be completely fine, but since it is Trump, you all of a sudden want to start unnecessarily parsing every word that comes out of his mouth.In that sense, your beef is not with what he said, but rather that it came out of the mouth of a man that you despise with every fiber of your being.

In my opinion, there is NOTHING productive in your position on this topic. It is nothing more than just yet another expression of TDS. I do not believe this is the proper time for you and others to be grinding your political axe. Being that has been the case nonstop for the better part of 4 years, dont you think that a week or month off might be the proper course of action at this juncture?

The guy is understandably trying to quell a panic. That is an important and worthwhile goal. There is therefore no reason to freak out because he made a glass is half full statement.

 

Things will return to normal after the hysteria subsides.

 

You've made many assumptions about me - you are free to do so. But it doesn't make you correct. And you are also welcome to suggest that there is nothing productive in my position. You are free to disengage.

 

I try to be fair minded. Is there an assumption about you about which I have been incorrect? Have you not been complaining about Trump for the better part of the last 4 years? Do you not hate him with every fiber of your being? Do you have a history of complaining about glass is half full type statements made by Obama back in the day?

 

Fair point on pollution, to a large extent anyway.

The virus spread could have been reduced with more tightly controlled borders, by the simple logic that it didn't begin here.

 

yup, I went on **** tons patrols and raids, and that was the attitude I had every time I kicked in a door or rolled down an IED infested highway. If it is time, it is time. No point in getting worked up over it. Just live life to the fullest until it ends.

 

I hope we nnever get to where you want to go.

It totally destroys any idea of sovereignty and the world is ruled by mega banks and ccorporations that exploit the poor for labor.

A fracking nightmare .

 

When the Wuhan Bastard Virus mutates then the soon to be acquired immunization won't work anymore and the world will be in another dungstorm. Or it could mutate even before an immunization is acquired.

I want everyone guaranteed riches, entrance to Harvard, and a 130 year life without disease, and I want it now.

 

When we hunker down it's serious. And whoever comes to try to take what we got while we're in hunker down mode is going to get shut out. We owe absolutely nothing to the rest of the world.

Has China sent us a million masks to return the favor of a million US masks that were donated to them when Wuhan first got in trouble? Hell, no.

The US don't owe the world shet, and it's a mistake to give stuff away.

 

Alibaba's Jack Ma Sends Boxes of Coronavirus Test Kits and Masks to U.S.

Yes, they have.

 

I stand corrected. No argument with that.

It was great that Wuhan had only one new death from coronavirus yesterday.

 

That is good news.

 

What about illegals?

 

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It is now obvious that our national privatized for-profit health care system is unable to defend against a world epidemic precisely because it is highly efficient, i.e. profitable. However, highly efficient systems have no resiliency because they lack redundancy. But why should a hospital have any redundant capacity? They shouldn’t. And that’s the problem. For example, why should a hospital store expensive, but perishable snake anti-venom that isn’t likely to be used? Again, there is no business reason so that anti-venom is often stored in a single distant hospital out of most HMO networks.

Only immediate profit is the concern for the corporation regardless of the danger to human society and nature.

Even in Engels’ time the search for profits by corporations was inflicting devastating environmental damage just as today the diverse forests of Brazil are being burned for beef production not for import, but export!

Trump’s pandemic response team is a collection of private corporations. Their press conferences sound like one long infomercial. Remember the utopian Theranos? Behind the scenes Trump and his cronies are making deals to privatize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Trump administration’s first response—like in authoritarian China, Italy, and Iran—was to conceal evidence of a pandemic to protect factional economic interests, and political power.

Also, the CDC withheld ‘crucial’ information about Covid-19 symptoms from doctors, issued faulty test kits, stopped displaying numbers of Americans tested on website to keep the infection “number” low. In order to profit from a potential medical monopoly, Trump’s CDC refused World Health Organization (WHO) virus tests. The CDC's only legal virus tests were flawed. So the pandemic is one big business opportunity fair to write monopolistic business contracts while Americans are dying—but profits are will be up!

This same pattern of exploitation can be seen with the Deep Water Horizon oil spill (2010), the current Fukushima Daiichi triple nuclear core meltdown (2011) leaking radioactivity into the Pacific Ocean, and catastrophic global climate change. Punctuating each global disaster is economic calamity.