[May 7, 2022] The question that underlies many hot-button issues of the day is whether the world’s trajectory, perhaps our country, is headed upward or downward toward good or bad, success or failure.
This article is Part 1 of 2 on how to navigate hot-button issues. There are two basic methods, and I will be addressing each. Today, I’m setting the stage and laying out where we are relative to our past.
In the last 50 years, many good things have been almost unbelievable, yet we do not hear about them. For example, according to the World Health Organization, more people have been lifted out of abject poverty than in the planet’s entire history. Starvation is almost non-existent. Worldwide, formal education is at its highest level.
Except for the Ukraine War, there have been no major wars in the West since World War II, ending 77 years ago. And the land used for the production of food crops is the largest ever; crop production efficiency continues dramatically upward. That makes me somewhat optimistic.
This does not mean that there are no problems because there are undoubtedly severe environmental, health, social, and political issues that plague us. Pollution of the air, land, and water, overfishing in the oceans, the COVID pandemic and the heavy-handed government response, expanding illegal drug markets with cheap highs, and water scarcity are reportedly serious concerns. Much of them have an immediate effect on us all, especially the poorest.
Yet the idea that our problems are driven by a corrupt and evil capitalist system of patriarchy is not just a bad idea; it is wrong. The claim itself is terrible, demoralizing, and damaging because it encourages the further destruction of the very human systems that have advanced us to where we are today. And the politicization of our institutions has created a carelessness in both scientific studies and political reporting.
So much animosity, usually politically driven, results in losing the trust and confidence we have in our most trusted institutions. The open hostility, bitterness, and inability to ‘see’ the other side or compromise are serious problems that deserve our attention.
Tomorrow I will publish Part 2 and lay out two possible ways of dealing with hot-button issues.
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Please read my new book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
Hey guys, how do we address the invasion at our Southern border? The inmates are in charge of our prison. 👍
The nuts are in charge, so great question.
After reading now, Part 2, I will compliment you, Gen. Satterfield, on a great article. What I see is that there is no easy solution. But, of course, that is your point. If it was easy, we would have solved the problem by now. Sometimes it is good, IMHO, to struggle with ideas. But we also need to inject morality into the picture and not ignore the many centuries of accumulated wisdom.
Excellent article. Worth the read. Tomorrow will be worth a read too. Hey Gen. Satterfield, I bought your book and will have it by tomorrow. Got lots of recommendations. Anyone interested should go to Amazon and buy it. ‘Our Longest Year in Iraq.” Great title too.
76 Wife, I too bought the book, a while back. Wonderful to read about what’s happening behind the scenes. Brig. Gen. Satterfield has written “Our Longest Year in Iraq.” If you’ve not bought it, get it now. You won’t regret reading it.
Part 2, I’m too looking forward to tomorrow’s article. I still read Ann Landers. She has good advice too on similar topics.
Ann Landers was right, at least most of the time. Here’s her website:
https://annlanders.com/advice.php?title=Dear-Ann-Landers%3A-I-am-a-15-year-old-sophomore-girl.&id=2354
Got a few minutes? Read it.
Men? They’ll just go have a beer. 👍 👀
Great lady with great advice. We need more Ann Landers.
Good topic, Gen. Satterfield. Too many of visits by my relatives have turned into a shouting match. I’d like to know a realistic counter to that scene. But when you argue with someone who is emotionally vested in that posiition, it’s really hard.
Hey folks, just a prediction, there’s going to be a slaughter politically for the Democrats in the upcoming November election. Why is that? The average Democrat will say that they are not sufficiently convincing us that open borders, high inflation, high crime, violence in the streets, defunding the police, retreating from Afghanistan, and killing babies is a GOOD thing for us. Us pions have not sufficiently believed. But they have convinced nearly all young people and college educated white women. Maybe the ancients didn’t let women to vote for a reason. ha ha ha ha
Ouch! ✔
You forgot that they haven’t yet convinced us all that men can have babies. 😊 Or that men are women and women are men.
” … the idea that our problems are driven by a corrupt and evil capitalist system of patriarchy is not just a bad idea; it is wrong.” Wow, gonna be a red-letter day for commies when Gen. Satterfield slams their thinking tomorrow.
GEN. Satterfield, great start. I look forward to tomorrow. Might I predict that one of the reasons is ‘just walk away.’ Now that may be a pretty good tactic. Arguing with folks who are have these extreme views is like arguing with a pig – alert, you may already know where I’m going with this – you get dirty and the pig likes it. No win for you even if you do win. The pig (er, the liberal) will not change at all. They’re always happy as a dirty pig.
Right, don’t try to change their mind thru logic because they didn’t get their religion thru logic to start with.
Nice, looking forward to tomorrow for techniques to bash my brother’s mind to mush. He’s a whacko liberal. ❤ We can’t all have sane relatives.
If only ===== remember that liberalism is a mental disease.
At the very least liberalism – along with its crushing sister communism – destroys not just braincells but a host of bodily functions, like men birthing children —- duh.
You guys are kicking it this morning. What’s got into you. Gen. Satterfield is trying to run a serious website and you are joking about crazy liberals. Oh, sorry, you are soooooo rightttttt.
Fun Fun Fun… wasn’t there a 1960s song with that name. Hey, loosen up a little.
Must not be in the DNA. It’s in the propagandizing of kids by leftist teachers and supported by teacher’s unions who don’t care about kids anyway. And, never will. Get rid of teacher’s unions and the world will be a much better place.