Editor’s Note: It is The Day, or at least one of them, and all the amazing things that have brought us from the ballot box(es) of November to the seasonally acceptable day in late January. It should be the concluding chapter in the exciting new Socotra best seller “The Seventy Days: Big Things in Motion.” But it is not. Now the new thing is starting, with the promise for all sorts of amazing things to be worked with digital magic. 33 million people are here illegally and now have hope their presence will be rewarded. More seem to be coming this way, again with hope that they will be welcoming warmly and entitled to all sorts of material things. In the meantime, the redoubtable Marlow has some thoughts on the sort of things that are in play, starting at noon today. Socotra advice continues: Avoid Crowds. Keep seatbelts on.

– Vic

We Need Change

With a new national leadership team taking office this week, I thought I’d share with them some last-minute thoughts. Well, only one — we need change.

What should we folks and you do to get some?

First as a matter of philosophy we and you should

Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. The moment you set that example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

Make new friends. In dangerous times of unrest and war, those who escape and survive generally know people whom they can trust. Having old friends are the personal politics of last resort. Making new ones is a big early step toward change.

Stop counting to make points. Dead human beings have provided us post WW II retrospective arguments for the rectitude of policy. The Holocaust led to Israel, US poverty numbers led to the Great Society, and so on. Hitler and Stalin also used numbers like the death of millions to make the case that their policies were necessary or desirable. There must be more to our arguments. A human dimension that takes time to tell and nuance to understand is of first priority.

Stop feeling comfortable with our American “Truths.” Self-evident they no longer are nor are they held broadly. We need a massive increase in public understanding of what used to pass for core high school classes in the 1950s and 1960s entitled “US Civics,” “Problems of Democracy,” etc. As a demos, we are cataclysmically ignorant in these matters.

Ban all short form news. Long form programs like TV’s McNeil Lehrer, radio’s PBS news, and commercial free civil discussions of opposing views that are not talking point scripts or Alexander-Kirkpatrick bitching-fests are de minimis. In fact, let’s tax ourselves to fund this news approach at the national, state and local levels. Remember you get what you pay for. Right now, this free crap on broadcast TV, cable, radio and the internet is shit. Perhaps subsidizing investigative journalism and journalism scholarships for students across the political spectrum should be programs.

Stop all hostile foreign power money funding of internal US influence operations. Included would be the instant PNGing any and all Wolf Warrior practitioners and an absolute ban on these powers’ agents, commercials or ads appearing on the pages of US internet feeds, print news organs and TV. Extirpate them.

Cease publicly wearing symbols of loyalty whether it’s to political parties, clothing manufacturers etc. We are now so enamored of our membership belongings and tribes that we are closing in on awarding yellow stars to folks. Our huge internet monopiles like GMail are already marking our emails as DANGEROUS and then blanking out parts of them we are sending to each other.

Sidetrack all victimhood trains. They dull the impulse of self-correction.

Consider banning reality TV shows. Scripted reality as entertainment is bullshit and putrefies the mind and soul.

Avoid systemic blaming or social justice solutions. Pushing collective responsibility is simple collusion with history’s greatest totalitarians and their propagandists. It the abolishes healthy political thought and debate and denies individual agency.

Reject distracting arguments from influencers and politicians regarding their inability and unwillingness to reform. Same goes for their exhortations to experience elation and outrage at short intervals which drown the future in present emotiveness.

Ban all internet bots. Yes, even legitimate ad bots. They are the manipulative playground of our enemies, anarchists, thieves, and Peeping Toms. Make them Class A felonies.

Cultivate non-comformists.

Avoid cynicism and any effort to look hip, edgy, or alternative. It has supercharged your fellow citizens’ slide into the morass of indifference and hopelessness.

Do a complete and utter document dump on Hunter. A leader who dislikes investigators is a potential tyrant.

Reject “end of history” arguments. The inevitability of the present being our future is bunk. Consult Murphy’s Law and Shit Happens bumper stickers.

Treat internet writing and communication as not just ephemeral but skywriting. Act accordingly.

Please pass laws that strictly prohibit government and business snooping and trading “we the people’s” private information. Surrendering freedom in the name of safety or convenience is an inherently bad trade space. We folks are free only insofar as we exercise firm control over what people know about us, and in what circumstances they come to know it. Right now, that ain’t happening.

And, oh yeah, eliminate American hunger in six months. Believe it or not, that’s the easiest thing on this list.

PS As the credits roll at the end of today’s show, I’m torn as to which tune should accompany them. My final candidates are

Coconut by Harry Nilsson
I Did It My Way by Sid Vicious

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