Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving  (which here was yesterday) let me share some of my faith with you. Not the Judeo-Christian kind, but faith in my fellow Americans. Whatever you think of the slogan #MAGA are there any of us who don't want to make American great for our children and the next generation? Don't we all aspire to do deeds that will give them a better life?

We live in a time as Austrian-American economist Joseph Schumpeter noted of "creative destruction" a.k.a. the "gale." Although his work in the 1950's addressed economics the underlying concept is that one needs to tear down existing institutions in order to build new and better ones. We live in a time where a UW / Dallas Cowboy football player raises $38 million in disaster relief on a go-fund-me page and the old media rather lauds another NFL player who disrespects our flag in a juvenle cry out for attention. When every day there are new revelations of malfeasance and sexual harassment by those in power. When a form of governance that has killed 100 million people and is killing more every day in Venezuela is promoted on college campuses and by a former candidate for President of the United States.  When the objective of the media seems to be to create hysteria in order to get "clicks." Yes, there is a lot of #fakenews. Some is psyops by foreign nations, some is lies to support the "narrative", and some is mentally ill people craving attention. We now are required to think, to analyze, to sort through the muck to get to the gold. You know, the facts.

Don't you want to #draintheswamp? Don't you want all those in government, industry, and the media who have used their position and influence in a self serving way to be exposed and castigated? Isn't that the dream of "of the People, by the People, and for the People?" To prevent the back room deals, the power of K Street, the principle of party over Country?

I am thankful to be an American. And I am thankful that for most of the last 20 years we have had a free and unregulated Internet. I absolutely believe that the desire for Internet regulation is the first step in Government control of the Internet. And that the purpose of that regulation is so the "swamp" can regain control of  the "optics" and the "narrative." The idea that "We the People" could have access to the truth scares them to death.

The world is a mess. The country is a mess. But for the first time since the New England village square the People can bypass the establishment to get to the truth.* To me this is the silver lining. Or perhaps a better metaphor the bedrock foundation of a better world.

Today I called my sons to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. They have a tradition of cooking their turkey together. But not this year. My younger son was invited by his girlfriend's parents to join them for Thanksgiving. When they found out about the Jones tradition they added a few seats to the table and invited the rest of the Joneses. There are loving, giving people in America and the world. I have faith that they will work us out of the mess we are in. Quietly, individually, with no fanfare or tweets. They are every day making the world a better place.

Happy Thanksgiving and

Fair winds and following seas :)

* The last time we cut out the middle man was the Protestant Reformation. Nope, didn't need a Priest - you could talk direct to God. IMHO that worked out pretty well.