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recent bookmarks from jerrykingJimmy Carter’s ‘Malaise’ Speech Aged Well2023-02-27T15:18:38+00:00
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jimmy-carters-malaise-speech-aged-well-ex-president-citizen-habitat-for-humanity-address-white-house-polarization-3db889d1?mod=opinion_lead_pos10
jerryking>He aptly described the **demoralization** that preceded today’s hatred and polarization.<<
I’ve been meaning for the longest time to write about Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech, long derided by history and cited to explain his landslide drubbing by Ronald Reagan 16 months later.
It was, in fact, a good speech—brave, original and pertinent to the moment. It failed because he was exactly the man who couldn’t give it, and he gave it at exactly the moment it couldn’t be heard.
The backdrop was an air of crisis.[i.e. = "underlying messages"] Summer 1979: The oil crisis, inflation entering double digits, interest rates rising, unemployment too. [i.e. = "hard times"] There was widespread >>fear<< America had lost its economic mojo, perhaps forever......Carter never used the word malaise—that’s the word people used to damningly describe it.......A speech planned for 10 days before had been canceled because he meant to talk about the energy crisis but had come to think his real subject was why we couldn’t work together to solve it. Our “true problems” were deeper than gasoline lines......He’d met at Camp David with thinkers from “every segment of society” and wanted to share what they’d said.....It was remarkable to hear an American president critique himself in this way, through the words of others. He’d concluded America was suffering “a >>crisis of confidence<<,”...........“We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.”.............Our nature as a people was changing. “Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.”.........We’re voting less, producing less, saving less. We’ve grown pessimistic, and disrespectful of our institutions.........Our people see the federal government as an incompetent “island,” apart from the main. Congress is “twisted and pulled” by well-financed “special interests.” Extreme positions are “defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another.”................We have to remember who we are, he said. We are the heirs of those who faced world wars and the Great Depression. We have that in us as “the same Americans who just 10 years ago put a man on the moon.” We’ve come together to fight for racial equality. Our choice is “fragmentation and self-interest” or “common purpose and the restoration of American values.”
At the end, poignantly: “Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country.”
Redrawn and reconceived, that speech would have made a good farewell address......Soon after the hostages were taken in Iran, and that was that. But Mr. Carter had captured some >>hard truths<< about his era and put them forth in a >>daring<< way.........the reason Jimmy Carter's speech didn’t succeed was that he thought America was suffering a crisis of confidence. It was. But the more immediate problem was that it was >>losing confidence<< in him. 2.5 years into his presidency, people were beginning to doubt his ability to lead. They didn’t see him as appropriately pondering events; they thought he’d lost control of events. In the summer of ’79 they didn’t want sensitive dilating on the quandary. They thought: Save that for when the crisis passes.
**Here is a thing in politics, and in life, that is very important, crucial as you go forward. From the Scots-language poet Robert Burns: “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us / To see oursels as others see us!”** [i.e. = "self-awareness"]
What a boon and help in life to have an accurate sense of how the world perceives you [i.e. ="self-perception"]. You see yourself as struggling to be heard; the world perhaps sees you as always interrupting. You see yourself as beset and erect strategies to counter this; the world sees you as combative.......This is especially true in politics in a democracy. Jimmy Carter justly had pride in his >>personal talents<<—a logical mind, first-rate scientific and mathematical abilities. But he saw himself as politically astute [i.e. = "political_savvy"] in ways he wasn’t [i.e. = "blind spots"]..........Mr. Carter lacked talents that might have ensured his political longevity. One was understanding his exact position with the public. It had been evolving. He was elected in 1976 on a wave of idealism—he wanted a government as good as the people, he located the cynicism that had captured Washington during Watergate. “I will never lie to you,” he said......But once in the White House, with problems piled high, people wanted not a mood or sentiment but a plan [i.e. = "action plans"]—a philosophically coherent outline of what to do. There he struggled..........“All political careers end in failure.” Yet his didn’t. After the White House he went home to his plain house in Plains, Ga. [i.e. ="Second Acts"]...... He would be a citizen. He set himself to doing good—building houses for the homeless, mediating disputes, curing infectious diseases. He taught Sunday school.........He had felt called to the presidency. His true calling was to be an ex-president, one of the most constructive and inspiring in our history......What a good man who tried so hard to understand America and help the world.]]>'70s Communicating_&_Connecting Jimmy_Carter Peggy_Noonan public_speaking retrospectives self-awareness speeches White_House action_plans blind_spots crisis_of_confidence daring fear hard_times hard_truths political_savvy Ronald_Reagan Second_Acts self-perception underlying_messages demoralization America_in_Decline? malaise loss_of_confidence personal_talentshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:03d3ff0f175e/To Sir, with cynicism2015-02-20T15:02:49+00:00
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/to-sir-with-cynicism/article769653/
jerrykingteaching teachers OISE Colleges_&_Universities letters_to_the_editor expectations public_schools demoralization public_education unhappiness contradictions cynicism high_schools idealism shortages heroic_leadership Hollywood lowered_expectations burnout great_teachershttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:2f3449a673bf/There needs to be a sober examination of our state of affairs Georgetown, Guyana2013-12-10T14:37:15+00:00
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/opinion/letters/12/06/needs-sober-examination-state-affairs/
jerrykingGuyana letters_to_the_editor failed_states hopelessness brain_drain emigration politics governance discrimination corruption mismanagement unemployment precarious misgovernance Guyanese young_people Frank_Fyffe demoralization despair Allan_Fenty ennuihttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:dd69429e81fc/Native despair: face to face with ennui on a reserve - The Globe and Mail2013-08-26T14:45:07+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/how-i-came-face-to-face-with-ennui-on-a-reserve/article13934582/
jerrykingaboriginals demoralization natives reserve_communities ennui despair hopelessness ineffectivenesshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:b719816e7ec3/As America unwinds, Canada rewinds2013-08-18T00:20:33+00:00
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/as-america-unwinds-canada-rewinds/article13359558/?service=mobile
jerryking>"The Unwinding" by George Packer.<<
It tells the story of the descent of inner America, the collapse of structures as a result of deregulation, the rampant insecurities with the decline of permanent jobs, debates overtaken by extremes of opinion. Mr. Packer’s theory is that the United States has been Wal-Martized. Lower wages, lower prices, lower standards. It’s been good for the company, and as he says: “Eventually six of the surviving Waltons would have as much money as the bottom 30% of the country.”
But the decline of the big economic middle is ominous, as is the seizure of the national discussion by polemicists. How can a country move forward without a rallying consensus? Not even Barack Obama, with his balanced mind, his instinct for compromise and his eloquence (as most recently manifested on the topic of the Trayvon Martin verdict) can stop the fraying.
The book’s author is not an American declinist. There have been other unravellings; rebuilds inevitably follow. But the context is different now. America’s greatest century is behind it. Its degree of dominance will likely never be the same.
In response to all this, how does Canada, the big neighbour to the north, position itself?...Canadians are divided in their view of the monarchy. I’m not an enthusiast. As was well argued on these pages Monday by Ratna Omidvar, swearing allegiance to the Queen is an outmoded pastime. But the British heritage is an integral part of our definition, our identity. A stronger etching of it in the public consciousness and a greater reach to other markets is not unhealthy at a time when American paramountcy is fading, when our dependency on the United States is diminishing, when a distance in the bilateral relationship is growing.
It may be the beginning of a big turn. There are still major stakes in play, such as the Keystone XL pipeline, but Canadian trade volumes with the United States are in decline after a century of continual growth.
That slide is expected to continue as Asian powers and others take up greater market share. U.S. reliance on Canadian energy resources is on the wane; some project a dramatic falloff. Although 9/11 has dragged Canada more deeply into the U.S. intelligence-gathering network, we no longer rely on U.S. defence protections, as we did in the Cold War days. Culturally, the workings of time have brought us a stronger, more distinct stamp. As for our border, it has thickened rather than easing away. We now need passports to cross it.
While Americans undergo their unwinding, so do we. In recognition of new realities, we unwind from them.]]>Lawrence_Martin crossborder America_in_Decline? middle_class books downward_mobility demoralization Keystone_XL beyondtheU.S. national_identity George_Packer bilateral outdated intelligence-gathering public_consciousness Queen_Elizabeth_IIhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:7e061d6944c5/The decline of optimism in America -2011-10-11T21:19:23+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/gwyn-morgan/the-decline-of-optimism-in-america/article2196192/
jerrykingGwyn_Morgan America_in_Decline? demoralization crossborder declinehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:c6b00b811504/McGurn: A Requiem for Detroit - WSJ.com2011-04-12T15:15:53+00:00
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471904576229003143739080.html
jerrykingDetroit leadership Dave_Bing William_McGurn population_trends demographic_changes dysfunction downward_mobility demoralization depopulation talent_flight white_flighthttps://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:7c0682614a58/