Ken Wolf: While it is normal for humans to be proud of their homeland and culture, it is not normal to exalt individualism and personal freedom and wealth to the point that it is destructive of community and what used to be praised as “the common good.”
Ken Wolf
Ken Wolf is an author and professor emeritus of history at Murray, Ky., State University.
Democrats and Community—Compassion, Conscience, Change
Ken Wolf: The path on which we now find ourselves was paved by thirty years of growing income inequality, greed on the part of the very rich, and a serious mistake by Democratic leaders in the 1990s who embraced Wall Street and turned their back on the “least among us.”
Democrats and Community—2018
Ken Wolf: Trump’s behavior doesn’t really bother his hardcore supporters because it just shows that he isn’t a politically correct elitist; he is not one of “Them.”
Trump: A “Blessing” in Escrow
Ken Wolf: Can those Republicans who have made a Faustian bargain with “the Donald” in order to get taxes cut and executive orders issued ever be forgiven by those of us who believe that God comes to us in the form of our neighbors and strangers and a healthy planet?
Help Others, Help Yourself OR Rugged Narcissism?
Ken Wolf: Maybe it is time to recognize at a deeper level what is happening in this country now that our fellow citizens have installed Donald J. Trump and his deplorable authoritarian haters in our seats of power in Washington, D.C.
Does Capitalism Equal Unsustainable Growth?
Ken Wolf: Since the President can affect only the rate of productivity in a reasonably minor way, the American economy is not likely to grow by 3.5 percent or more during the coming years.
Donald Trump: Anti-Prophet and Blessing
Ken Wolf: Perhaps we have never before in the history of our country seen such a clear, widespread and dramatic demonstration of angry immorality as we see in the 2015 Trump phenomenon.
How to Save the World?
Ken Wolf: To significantly reduce systemic injustice in our world (say, by even 50%), we need a billion people, each infused with a passion for compassion and with a social and political intelligence.
American Individualism
Ken Wolf: Our admirable refusal to eat shit has led us to force others to do so (something cummings was not saying)—especially if they were/are different, something we like to call “un-American”.
Is the United States an “Adolescent Culture”?
Ken Wolf: Were an American leader to say that it is time to look beyond our own comfortable lives long enough to put the welfare of others on the planet on a level with ours by addressing some of the problems created by climate change, the result would be predictable.
Thoughts on Passing the Statue of Liberty
Ken Wolf: I can imagine Lady Liberty wincing at our mistaken view of liberty that prompted those wars and the arrogant Jingoism that still flourishes as we try to extract ourselves from them.
