tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post6890981089214779645..comments2024-03-27T23:28:20.274-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Cocooning and authoritarianism, the basic pictureagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-48881750723619945712012-09-06T14:43:55.540-04:002012-09-06T14:43:55.540-04:00Don't spazz out. The secular growth of the sta...Don't spazz out. The secular growth of the state has been going on since forever, so changes from one period to another are seen in the second derivative -- accelerating or slowing / plateauing. Here's a graph:<br /><br />http://www.truthfulpolitics.com/images/us-size-spending-by-president.jpg<br /><br />Most of the accelerating periods are in the mid-century and from the mid-'90s through today. There was a carry-over from the mid-century into the '60s, probably because legislation has more momentum and doesn't respond as quickly to societal changes as the grassroots do.<br /><br />The slower-growing periods are more from the '60s through the early '90s.<br /><br />Not to mention the acceleration or slowing-down growth of regulation, huge during the mid-century and in the past 15-20 years, but slowed down during the '70s and '80s. (Not all of that deregulation was for the better.)<br /><br />The main change is in people's moods, preferences, etc. If all you're pointing out is that these changes are interacting with independent changes, like the steady growth of the state or of the level of technology, so that zeitgeist changes don't map one-for-one into societal changes, well no duh. agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-46901497851833952492012-09-06T13:40:29.103-04:002012-09-06T13:40:29.103-04:00Whether or not the 60s - 80s people believed in sm...Whether or not the 60s - 80s people believed in smaller government than the 30s - 50s people, they sure as fuck didn't make it smaller. They didn't reduce regulation or the sheer size in employment by the bureaucracy and they didn't make it cost less.<br /><br />Whether the 60s - 80s people believed in entreprenuerialism more than the 30s - 50s people, they sure as fuck didn't grow the private economy any larger. Is there any evidence small business grew better during the 60s - 80s than before, or that large business grew less?<br /><br />There is just no reverse of sign here. Who gives a damn what these 80s people idealised? - doesn't appear to have done them or us a whit or good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-83506329772077506732012-09-05T23:54:08.460-04:002012-09-05T23:54:08.460-04:00We are clearly overdue for a rising crime period. ...We are clearly overdue for a rising crime period. I think I see the early signs in a general increase of spiritual disarray, or they could just be symptoms of a deeper madness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-40629228975272099902012-09-04T04:33:33.669-04:002012-09-04T04:33:33.669-04:00"You harass young people into going indoors.&..."You harass young people into going indoors."<br /><br />That's not my sense of what happened, which was that young people willingly and eagerly began locking themselves indoors. By now nobody needs to harass them at all.<br /><br />Kind of like the mid-century. The coppers were cracking down on youthful exuberance during the 1920s and early '30s, but by the '40s and '50s, young people were mostly happy to avoid raucous public spaces, and didn't need to be harassed into staying indoors.<br /><br />Otherwise we would've heard (then and now) most young people complaining about all the barriers to their plan of having fun outside their home. At most you might hear the skateboarders complain about police harassment, but that's about it.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-6752633013580103092012-09-03T19:21:09.635-04:002012-09-03T19:21:09.635-04:00Interesting stuff.
Do you think that cocooning ...Interesting stuff. <br /><br />Do you think that cocooning was instigated, and is being maintained, by government crime policies?<br /><br />This was started by Reagan, with the War on Drugs, and building of more prisons. Clinton continued with the mass hiring of police officers, and then of course there was the Patriot Act. <br /><br />Think about it. When you beef up the police force, you start cracking down on what were considered minor crimes. You crack down on drugs, guys fighting each other. You harass young people into going indoors.<br /><br />Apparently, under Obama there has been mass hiring of SWAT officers. What are they gonna use those guys for? Breaking up fights in high school?<br /><br />Anyway, on the flip side, Nixon was actually soft on crime. He did some kind of thing where those arrested for drugs were taken to a treatment center. Of course, the fruits of his policies was the 1975-1990 rising-crime period.<br /><br />Just to be clear, I don't like fights or doing drugs. Just saying.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com