Wunderbar! as we say here in Germany. Thank you very much for this. Your mother would be proud of you and we, your readers and listeners, are so grateful for your words and your actions. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get much better, which requires enough people saying "Basta! Enough!" and I think that the US has reached that point. The moral arc of the universe has resumed its course, I think, hope.
There's a line in a movie I loved... The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The owner is eternally optimistic. Whenever he came up against a challenge, he would say, "Everything will be all right in the end. If it's not all right, it is not yet the end." (Look up the movie from 2011. It's a little treasure with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, among others.)
Thanks, Donna! I'll check it out, and let me say that an excellent memoir is "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." It rises to the level of literature and was written by the late, great poet, Maya Angelou (who spoke at Bill Clinton's inauguration). She was optimistic through many trials, and quoted several times in her multiple memoirs, a perhaps, more balanced phrase of advice that her mother continually told her: "Always hope for the best and plan for the worst." - FRANK TALK, jr.
Here's another one for you, Donna__ Life is Beautiful. The protagonist of the tale knew that his life was soon to end, and so he acted to secure the survival of his son, the ultimate act of courage. Like the soldiers who rescued the orphan from the hellscape of a failed tyranny, it is up to us to defang the monsters who are gutting our civil authority from within. "We Shall Overcome". All of our mothers are Mrs. Reich today. Thank you for the memento, Professor!
And also a link below on You Tube to the FIRST movie!
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/Quote from YouTube Check in again and gear up for more love and laughter as new arrival Richard Gere joins an all-star ensemble cast — including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and Maggie Smith — returning for this heartwarming sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!
Hi Donna, Thanks very much for this comment and for the tip on the film. I will definitely find it and watch it. (With Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, how could one go wrong?). It's a weird thing about one's basic attitude toward the world: whatever it is, it influences how that world goes, in either direction, positive or negative. Thus, paranoid people end up with people disliking and avoiding them and pessimists find that the world continues to disappoint them. Optimists? Well, things can go wrong for them, as happens to everyone, but they tend to pick themselves up, start all over again and make an effort to improve things. And, lo and behold, it often works. They get people on their side and things often then go a bit better, sometimes a lot, at least moving in the right direction. Let us take a clue on this from Mrs Reich and this fictional hotel owner and keep going in a positive spirit, however gloomy the present scene might look.
“Possibly Lorne, Matt and Russell have Harvey's name tattooed on their butts. Dame Judi Dench, who played Queen Victoria in another upscale Oscar-bait Weinstein production, does - and she's happy to lower her knickers and show it to you. Or she was, until Sunday. Maybe, all over town, Hollywood A-listers are frantically booking emergency removals of their Weinstein tramp-stamps.”
Hmmm, well this certainly says something about Dame Judi's capacity to judge human character. But she is still a fine actress, which is the thing I was referring to.
I think we expect our celebrities to be perfect ... or to be like their movie characters. So, we're disappointed when they are imperfect humans, just like the rest of us. Why would we want them to faultless when we can't even do that? I certainly can't...
Hi Donna, I agree 100%. As I have gotten older -- I am now 81, to my great surprise (being 81, hey, that is something for the elderly to engage in!) -- I have tried to be more considerate and thoughtful in my actions but more tolerant and forgiving of others' shortcomings. Am succeeding a little, I think, in at least the latter.
Professor Reich, this is the right Mother’s Day piece. Adam, du hast recht.
Pessimism is honest about the cost column. Cynicism gives up on the mechanism. And the mechanism just shifted.
For centuries the American system ran on one mechanic: the institution could absorb cost the individual could not. That asymmetry crushed civil rights claimants, survivors of domestic violence, working people the state came after.
The institutions are being gutted und gleichzeitig the tools to fight back just got handed to everyone. Both lines are crossing on the same chart. Cynics only look at one.
Your mother was right, for a reason her generation could not yet see. The arc bends because bending it just got cheap.
To her, to mine, to yours, and to every woman in a cell tonight because the man who hurt her is still free: the country we haven’t built yet will look a lot more like the ones already run by women than the one that has spent centuries running them.
Paula, I would like to believe this -- that human females are always wiser, more empathetic than us men -- and I used to but no longer can. Think of Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, or more currently, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Karoline Leavitt, just to name a few. All group generalizations are at best statistical generalizations, hence with lots of exceptions. One always has to judge people as individuals, that is one at a time.
I think that most people don't like women who think more like men -- that is, without the tempering facets of the female brain. Look at how we treat women who have tried to break into the "men's club." I shudder when I think of the sexually explicit jokes about Kamala Harris simply because she had a long-term relationship with Willie Brown. And yet, voters chose a serial philanderer who admitted to assaulting women just because "when you're a star, you can do it."
I have friends and family who didn't vote for Harris "because of her silly laugh." (???) And yet they chose a man who sucks air through his teeth when he talks and who can't formulate a coherent sentence.
The fact remains that men can get away with things that women are crucified for. Women who are tough are called b*tches. Ball busters. Psychologically unbalanced. If only they had a man to keep them under control...
Again, I agree completely. There is still, for many people (including many women!) this double standard and like all such, it is stupid, wrong, destructive. Yet, even while there is still a lot of bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, I think that there is less today than there used to be. Certainly, there are more women in high places -- government, publishing houses, science -- than there used to be and they are treated as equals by many of their male peers (which of course is the way it should be but still worth noting).
Thank God for the good guys. Men like you don't need to push women into the background. Self-assured men know that women make great partners ... in business, government, medicine, technology, family, etc. Fortunately, I've had some good ones in my life, and they make up for the ones who are insecure.
Johan, I appreciate this reflection, especially in the context of Robert’s post about his mother’s optimism.
Your distinction between pessimism and cynicism, and the idea that the “mechanism” itself may be shifting even while so much feels like it is breaking down around us, feels deeply connected to what he was trying to hold onto.
I also appreciated the recognition of generations of women who carried dignity, resilience, care, and moral clarity through systems that often marginalized those very qualities.
The closing lines point toward something larger than politics alone. Not simply replacing one power structure with another, but the possibility of building societies rooted more deeply in relationship, humanity, participation, and care.
I respectfully beg to differ with Prof R's definition of cynicism. Yes, it is indeed different from pessimism, which is the expectation of bad outcomes. Cynicism, in its modern (post-Hellenic) sense, is the view that people typically act in their own self interest, thus people's motives generally cannot be trusted. It doesn't necessarily deal with outcomes, and it doesn't preclude hope. It's an interpretation of lived experience that (potentially) better equips the cynical person to work for and hope for positive outcomes. It is unalloyed pessimism, not cynicism, that leads one to nihilism.
I think that this is only partially true. There are different kinds of cynicism and one kind is a real kind of dead-enderism, which I think is the sort referred to by Dr R. I think that the more useful kind you are describing is better described as "skepticism" (or "scepticism" in the British spelling version.)
Genau, genuch shoen wieder! Did I write & spell that correctly? My German is not so good; I never studied it but learned informally some conversational phrases from my wife & now deceased mother of my daughter (who I met and married in my 2 years there: '69 -'70) who was German (cancer took her in 2008). I thank you for your "WONDERFUL" reply to Professor Reich's article today. I think that the German phrase I tried to express above means: "Precisely, enough already!" You remind me of the lyrics of a song I admire greatly: "THE ROAD IS LONG, FROM WHICH THERE IS NO RETURN, BUT HE AIN'T HEAVY HE'S, MY BROTHER!" Thanks to all sisters & brothers everywhere; together "WE SHALL OVERCOME!" - Frank Talk, jr.
This is wishing all you out there who qualify as being Mothers, the happiest Mother's day possible. You stand as the rocks us men were chiseled from. Whether we were derived from granite or sandstone, the love you instilled in us remains the driving force that keeps our clocks ticking. We can never express our gratitude in any terms that would equal the love and kindness you gave us during our maturation process. Us men are in your debt and we love you far more than we can ever express. Thanks mom--wherever you may be.
I love the photo of you and your mom, Mr. Reich. I also love the Martin Luther King, Jr., quote.
I was watching the production of "Suffs" on PBS a couple of nights ago about the suffragist movement, women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fighting for the right to vote. It took them 72 years. They struggled, suffered and some died in the pursuit of the 19th Amendment. We need that kind of fight, determination and dedication to recover our democracy. Hopefully it won't take 72 years
I agree. At 82 I’ve finally realized that young people everywhere want freedom from tyranny, & opportunities to grow & express themselves without fear of heavy-handed reprisal!j
I think the majority of thinking Americans are fed up with trump and he and the Republicans know it. The thing that scares me is the rigging of elections. They will do everything in their power as well as siphoning off the powers of others to achieve their goal. I am optimistic because they want us to feel helpless, and I won't cave in. Thank you for your words of encouragement Mr. Wilkins.
Mary Ann…. My credo is to treat others the way that you want to be treated yourself. We have a 95 year old neighbor whom I visit every few days to say hello… is there anything I can get you? She does have lots of help.
The worst that America has shown itself in Tennessee. I am ashamed of the white majority legislatures, controlled by the Republican Party in the Southern States where slavery existed, showing that racism has not gone away even though a generation has lived with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the Supreme Court, controlled by Donald Trump has declawed. Is governmental power so important? I cannot but feel the same rage that Rep. Justin J. Pearson expresses inside the Statehouse in Memphis Tennessee a few days ago. I cannot but feel the frustration, bitterness of my fellow citizens of color who have struggled their entire lives for an equal, fair, and justice place in society for themselves, their children and their families. For sure, America has entered a darkness that it must emerge from as soon as possible. The people there, must do whatever it takes to reverse what is happening as soon as possible!
I am so disgusted and ashamed to be an American right now especially a Tennessean. Our governor and all our Republican legislation is so ignorant and racist you can’t even imagine how frustrating it is. Truly they drank the Kool-aid and plan on continuing to so they can stay in power. SICK!
It is so hard to even watch this from across the country. I live in a small town in Eastern Oregon. I just turned 90 last month and, like Robert, I remember all of those hard-won terrible struggles with the Civil Rights issues. To see what appears to be the regression in our country is heart-breaking to me. And unbelievable. I just don't get it. Hang in there. With the leader of our country demonstrating that the law is nothing to him and the Supreme Court appearing to agree, it will be another long uphill fight. Fight we must. I need to get busy and contact the senators and representatives and everyone else possible. Have I done it? No. Will I? I hope so. Tennesseans, you are not alone.
Virginia, you have not contacted any senators or representatives??? I have an older congressional directory that People for the American Way sent to me when I joined their organization (which Norman Lear founded, BTW), and I have made around 600 phone calls. Call after-hours and leave a message when prompted to do so. If you don't want them to have access to your phone number, add *67 at the beginning of the area code and number you are dialing. Voila! Get on those calls, Virginia, the United States needs you like never before!!!
I share your anger about the Callais decision and this maladministration’s desire to return to the worst of our past. The worst possible people are in charge of our government, and it shows. They want Jim Crow back, which we do NOT want. They want us to regress, to be free59 exercise racism and misogyny, and it is horrid to see.
America is currently "ruled" by a Tryanny of the MINORITY. A ruthless, racist, White nationalist MAGA minority. At most 25%-30% of Americans strongly approve of the MAGA agenda. 60%-70% disapprove. Regardless of gerrymandering, which may not work for the GOP, the inhumane TRUMP/MAGA agenda, gives us the REAL opportunity to bring many hard working Americans back to the inclusive, human agenda of the Democratic party. The contrast couldn't be greater. FRET LESS. DO MORE!! WIN!!
Kathy - In November hopefully people will understand what rights are being taken away from them by this administration and the states and will show up in numbers to exercise their right to vote and regardless of their attempts to gerrymander the maps (by both parties - past and present) the people will speak loudly with their voices and vote and still deliver the independents and democrats into office. It might be difficult if there’s no choice other than a republican running (at this point I am not sure that a republican wouldn’t tie themselves to T) so this time around we can’t leave any office unopposed. If we don’t do it now I’m not sure that we will get another chance. Jim Crow was a lesson that no one should forget. Women’s suffrage is a lesson no one should forget. Men standing up to the bullies and the ugliness should not be forgotten. The past is something that should be remembered but also learned from as we look forward and not backwards.
Probably could have said all of that better than I did but in a nutshell: Our past generations worked hard to get us to where we are now but our present generation shouldn’t destroy our future generations.
Norman, you are correct about the South, and especially the state of Tennessee, which has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the nation. Its governor is a feckless twit, owner of a company that would not rehire employees who got called away to serve in Bush-Cheney's grievously misguided attack on the country of Iraq. When the first school shooting happened in March of '23, I believe it was, his constant lament for DAYS was about the woman who was supposed to be coming for dinner at their house (!) but who was one of the people killed; NOTHING about the CHILDREN KILLED, OR THE OTHER ADULTS! "SENATOR" MARSHA BLACKBURN, WHO HAS AN A+ RATING WITH THE NRA, DID ZILCH AFTER THAT ABOUT GUN CONTROL, AND HER ONLY RESPONSE WAS "Chip (her husband) and my hearts are broken"! MARSHA BLACKBURN, GENOCIDAL MURDERER AND ENABLER OF PERDU PHARMA AND THE SACKLER FAMILY, TOOK OVER A MILLION $$ FROM THEM AND H-E-L-P-E-D THEM SPREAD THEIR OXICONTIN DRUG ALL OVER, WHICH RESULTED IN MANY OVERDOSES AND DEATHS. MOUSEY MARSHA BLACKBURN, WITH THE TEENY TINY VOICE AND STRAGGLY BLONDE HAIR, NOW PLANS TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE! UGH, UGH, BARF! 😤😡😠 The Deep South states rushed to gerrymandering and redistricting just as soon as the NOT Supreme Court made it possible -- SHAMEFUL!!!
We have to do everything in our power to keep this ——from being our Governor! She is as evil and worthless as Trump. Money and power are her goals to continue to hurt our citizens especially women!
You got it, Betty, she is as weird and ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE AS THEY COME! Her weirdo husband is president of the Bow Tie Society!! This would make me laugh if it weren't so absurd!!! My grandfather's friends, some of them, wore bow ties back in the '40s and '50s!!!
Let’s not forget what Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote about the cycles of American history. Most periods of cynicism and corruption in history have been followed by periods of reform. The Gilded Age begot the Populist and Progressive eras. The corruption of the 1920s and the resulting Depression begot the New Deal. McCarthyism, Jim Crow and Vietnam produced the civil rights and anti-war movements and the Warren Court (which, sadly, was followed by Reaganism). A broad reaction against Trumpism is inevitable and signs of it are everywhere. Because the corruption has been the worst in the modern history of this country, the reaction to it will be all the more seismic. It will overwhelm any effort by the Supreme Court and the right-wing billionaires to contain it, because it will come from the people themselves, including the white working class. They are finally coming to realize that they’ve been had. Mother was right. We just have to be patient and keep on resisting — and keep on reading the sage and inspirational voices of people like Robert Reich.
Well said, and I agree...resistance against this lawless, corrupt regime must grow exponentially and usher in the removal of those enabling it. A massive turnout in November can render the gerrymandering useless.
Well done William. As a history major, I learned to appreciate the wisdom of my own dear mother’s steady refrain: “This too shall pass.” Wishing you mothers out there all the best.
William - I wonder if in the age of social media and quick clicks if someone took out an ad (or however social media works) that plainly shows exactly what T and the administration has been spending our taxpayer dollars on while people continue to struggle to pay for their own way of life? Maybe the staggering amount might get some people to pay attention to the fact that they don’t care about the people. Especially the ones who aren’t beholden to the stock market since that’s how T thinks we all base our wealth and decisions on. Might or might not help. We need something to get people to pay attention.
Yes, that is the question — how to make the working class realize that Republican policies are hurting their interests. For the last decade, the Democratic Party has been abysmal at finding a way to do that. As you say, there needs to be a social media presence that captures the attention of Trump’s base the way the demented conspiracy theories of QAnon once did. The approach must be emotional rather than intellectual, because Americans don’t respond to intellect. The only thing moving the needle now is Trump’s obvious insanity, Epstein, the Iran war and the price of gas. The Democratic Party seems content to sit back and let Trump hang himself. But that is no substitute for a message. The party has to stand for something. I follow politics obsessively, and I couldn’t tell you what the party stands for. My personal belief is that it should focus squarely on the corrosive influence that corporations have on our society. Bernie Sanders is one of the few politicians willing to do that. But the Democratic Party and the mainstream media don’t follow his lead. They do every thing they can to marginalize him and keep Democrats from focusing on the obvious source of most of the world’s problems — corporate greed.
Past performance is no assurance of future results. If the past reforms were effective we would not be experiencing what we are now. in other words, the LOWS would not be as low. But things have never been WORSE. As if we never learned.
Take Covid-19. When it first got on the radar screen in January 2020, I tried to imagine the number of fatalities that would represent the worst outcome for the entire pandemic. I rounded up the number of names on the Vietnam memorial to 60,000 and multiplied by five.
We lost 400,000 in the first year alone. (Japan lost 5,000 in 2020 -- and 75,000 total for the pandemic.)
There is a VERY powerful truth underlying that performance, and an unwillingness by a vast majority of Americans to come to grips with it.
Thank you Prof. I have been feeling very low and yes discouraged that our elected leaders are either cowards or complicit in this Administration's total destruction of our country. They are money grabbling grifters...all of them. Evil people. I will try to keep positive that "it will all work out in the end". Chin up folks...WE CAN DO THIS!! UNITED WE STAND! Thank you to all of you for your insight. Happy Mother's Day!!
This age is almost over. Precisely when is to be determined. The only thing I can say for sure is that it will be this decade, but it could be this year, and it could be next month. It depends on us.
If I appear to be “absolutely” certain, then the appearance is an illusion. Rather than “describing,” talking about the future is merely “predicting” what empirical (directly observable) evidence will be.
On the other hand, I am absolutely certain that Lincoln was absolutely certain in 1858 when he said, “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions.”
Oh, James - I think about this alot! I do not believe that this current crew, with their regressive plans for our country, can succeed and it is simply because we are otherwise! We, the public, the many of us, are steeped in the very history that they are trying to sweep away. Our understanding of ourselves is antithetical to what they are doing. So I deeply agree with you (and Abraham Lincoln). It's a no go.
Good question. My guess is he'd be thinking the same way as he was thinking when he found out Confederate forces had fired on Federal troops at Fort Sumter. And my guess is that "thought" was a version of what JFK was thinking when he wrote, "I know there is a God, and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I believe I am ready."
Your mother was right. Thank Goodness her son believed her. Thanks for the good work you do, Robert Reich. As a member of the Silent Generation, I hope I can live long enough to see the change. This disintegration of society and human behavior is hard to watch.
She sounds a lot like my mother. Despite the hardships she went through, she developed a positive outlook. I think a lot of it was based on her habit of reading philosophy books, especially those by Thomas Merton and Saint Augustine. It helped her raise eight kids without falling apart. And she taught us a lot about how to manage our own challenges. She left this world at age 97. I was lying in her bed next to her, with my arm around her. Even today, I can hear her voice in my head... "Put people before things. Don't live for the things you can accumulate... I've never seen a U-Haul trailer following a hearse. Watch how a man treats his mother because he'll treat you the same way. Never date a married man because if he cheats WITH you, he'll also cheat ON you." All good advice...
Thanks for sharing your mother's wisdom, Donna. "Put people before things" especially resonated with me. Glorification of wealth is at the core of the American zeitgeist, and it's led to a widening wealth gap, corruption of the government, and disintegration of the country's social fabric.
If people were put before hoarding wealth, there'd be far fewer billionaires. Just think how much better off we'd all be...
LOLOL! Well, when you think of all those treasures inside the pyramids that were supposed to accompany the pharaohs into Paradise, it proves that you can't take it with you.
And she raised one hell of a good daughter. That would be you Donna. Stand up and take a bow. Assuming for the moment that you are also a mother, I honor you and your mother today.
Thanks, Sweetie! Yes, I am the mother of two great kids and three adult grandchildren... although the oldest passed away last year from severe diabetes. But he always will be counted as one of mine.
My mother gave her first birth (of 5) in a small community hospital and the doctor at the time overdosed her with ether. My parents first son was therefore oxygen deprived at birth and relegated to a life of simple and very hard labor. He worked hard, he loved his mother to the very end, and he became a bird expert. He was always one of hers too. These are the tragedies that mothers endure. Fathers are different. Many tend to handle grief poorly and are unable to pick themselves back up like mothers. This is the weakness of men. Both are made to suffer greatly, but respond to it differently. Thank God for mothers.
Happy Mothers Day Donna! You were blessed to have had your amazingly strong Mom for 97 years, to have been able to physically touch and be with her as she left this world and to have benefited so much from her loving, wise advice. She sounds so much like my own Mom who died at 94 and also having survived much hardship which only made her even stronger and also steadfast in such loving, moral values that she gave me. All of the advice you mentioned from your Mom, I ironically heard the same practical, wise teachings from my own Mother. We were so lucky. The hardships that most women have endured have really instilled and created immeasurable strength inside all of them if only they could trust their inner voices and become empowered. They need to become the new leaders in our world as they have both brilliant minds and more importantly, compassionate hearts that together are essential in helping us create a "New Earth" founded on moral principles for "all" living life forms as many have written about such as Four Arrows in his "Restoring the Kinship WorldView" which is one of my favorite books from which we can learn so much.
Hi Lilla... We were fortunate, indeed, to have the mothers we were given. We kids always used to say, "How lucky we are to have a real live saint for a mother!" I'm sure both of our mothers are enjoying some well-deserved rewards wherever they are now.
As you can tell by my Substack handle, I've got optimism baked into my political activism. This is because I've seen the overwhelming beauty of compassion, dedication, and a hunger for social and political justice among tens of millions of us. I've used this hashtag for a long time:
#22ndCenturyThinking
That is what that beautiful essence I celebrate now is emblematic of. This is the mindset that can prolong our species. This is the mindset that can bring down #RepubloFascism, no matter how messy and ugly that will be.
And this is the mindset we see in you, Robert, which is why we're all here ready to pounce on the wave of your wisdom every night at 1 AM..
You are exactly right, A Glass-1/8-Full Perspective! Compassion, dedication and wanting social and political justice is exactly what we need more of! This is a beautiful comment! Thank you!
As a fellow traveler in the 1/8 category, I would explain it this way: the ship has sunk, but many of us made it into the lifeboats together. Thus, things are very grim, but hope remains. An eighth sounds about right.
I came up with that name during the era when Biden was President yet things looked so bleak because of Trump's domination of the GOP and the cynical opportunism that led to states tilting the scales on the basis of #TheBigLie.
I saw things as 7/8ths bad when Manchin and Sinema stopped the #ForThePeopleAct in its tracks. That was our big chance to take big money out of politics.
Let's hope we see another version, retooled to thwart all the new Trumpian tactics, signed into law this decade.
Things are far worse now, yet the weight of our voice and power can still prevail.
Robert Reich has posted a remedy to obscene amounts of money in politics. He pointed out in a video that States have rights because they can ban big money in political campaigns. Citizens United does not have ro be repealed, because states have the power to restrict big money to prevent election stealing and the buying of seats and legislation, Allowing the voters' voices to be heard.
I'm glad you brought that up, because that's another pressure point that our millions can work on. Being that it is within the powers of state corporate charter systems to deny political contributions, the corporate campaign contribution spigot can be shut down to just a drip.
That would help level the playing field in spite of the interference of the Supine Court. remember Elon Musk jumping around on a stage with a giant check while wearing a cheese hat in Wisconsin, trying to buy a State Supreme court seat? He thought it would be an easy slam dunk. It bombed, which showed us all that knowledge is power, and the voters in Wisconsin would not take the money. It would be truly GREAT to see something like that again. Kind of like what happened to Victor Orban in Hungary. He was soundly beaten. Hungarians were tired of being the poorest citizens in the world.
Professor, your mother was absolutely right. Everything does come out in the end. There's only a few months to go before the mid term elections when, hopefully, the Democrats will triumph.
Here in the UK we've just celebrated the 100th birthday of a national treasure, Sir David Attenborough. He's given so much joy to the world with his wonderful wild life programmes and raising awareness about his concerns for the planet. When he leaves us he'll be long remembered. Trump will only be remembered for his duplicity, creating divisions and his complete incompetence at the most important job in the Western world. Just like Hitler.
I have seen the tributes for Sir David and his work showing the natural world to people around the globe. He appreciates nature even as other humans want to destroy it.
Janet - I absolutely love Sir David Attenborough! I still remember the first time I heard his voice and the joy and excitement in it as he described what he was witnessing while allowing us to watch and become the next generation to fight for our planet and all living creatures within it. It is also powerful when he patiently explains how we are destroying all of it. My sibling became a zookeeper because of him. They also traveled to other countries on federal grants in order to learn how to help conservation efforts. My favorite memory is when he giggled with pure joy at the primates who were trying to take his shoes. As children we used to bemoan the fact that our father had control of the tv but we would all come together to watch Attenborough. Thanks for bringing up some good memories for me!
Kamala would have been president now, but for three reasons: First, Biden did not step down in time. Second, certain factions of the Democratic Party maliciously undercut her position. However, she may have been able to overcome the first two hurdles had it not been for the third: The majority of American voters still can't bring themselves to vote for a woman, let alone an Afro-Indian one.
She's right about Trump: He's not stupid. He has run on emotional and psychological grievance since early childhood that, unaddressed and unhealed, has become ever more gangrenous as he ages. And, at a very deep and unconscious, not intellectual, level his supporters identify with him. He deeply intuits this, and has reflexively and craftily weaponized the pull of the subliminal but familiar emotional bond they feel toward him. And THAT is what makes him dangerous to America. And, because he's president of the stumbling world hegemon, the USA, to the rest of the world.
On a linguistic note, the English word "fuck" is likely derived from German by way of Dutch, also a Germanic language, that passed into English, which also has its roots in German.
But for one thing: I would vote for a female president, but it has to be the right one! I held my nose and voted for Kamala, but I did not trust her to be a strong president because she withheld too much of herself during her campaign. Elizabeth Warren would make a great president, as would Gretchen Whitmer. Elizabeth Warren SHOULD NOT HAVE DEFERRED TO HILLARY IN THE 2016 CAMPAIGN, backing out of running because the Dem establishment forced her to do so. Look where that got us -- Donald Trump! Elizabeth Warren has poured her heart and soul into working for all that is right and good for the American people! She created the Consumer Protection Bureau (which of course Trump has gutted!), she is SUPER OUTSPOKEN, and is a TIRELESS, wonderful representative of this nation. Wish she would run now!!!
I agree with you about Elizabeth Warren, who is still working mightily to build a bulwark against this hideous economy. She would have made a great president.
OTOH, “Pretendian” Fauxcahontas was just Schaking Miff up about her “Cherokee ancestry” to get her foot in the first rung of the ladder. Even more ludicrous than Alpacatoes Ofwillie.
As you wrote, Professor, "I'll be damned if I'm going to give up the fight." Me too.
Happy Mother's Day to all. My mother passed away years ago, but I'm still inspired by her activism for peace, equality, and labor rights. Fighting for democracy and social justice are what have given my life meaning and purpose. The optimism I have lies in the knowledge and faith that I'm not alone in the fight.
When I feel pessimism or cynicism creeping into my thoughts and feelings, I remind myself of a quote that's stuck with me through thick and thin:
"Resistance accepts that even if we fail, there is an inner freedom that comes with defiance, and perhaps this is the only freedom and true happiness we will ever know.” -Chris Hedges
Bad news, Robert: Decades of civil service (including Peace Corps) have made me INCREDIBLY cynical! But I can still see the good in people and have occasional crippling bouts of optimism. Like now.
I don't think it's time to give up yet. We still have the midterms, and even gerrymandering won't save a seat if your own party and constituents loathe you. And there are all kinds of options to be pursued if things don't turn out well then.
But the leadership of the Dem party needs to get its act together. If they can't support progressive policies, they need to get out of the way of those who will. It's not enough to say "We're not Republicans!"
Thank you for this lovely column. My mother, of blessed memory, was also an optimist. She believed that life is fortuitous; and that the harder we work, the luckier we get. Don't we all have to believe that this is true more often than it is not?
Wunderbar! as we say here in Germany. Thank you very much for this. Your mother would be proud of you and we, your readers and listeners, are so grateful for your words and your actions. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get much better, which requires enough people saying "Basta! Enough!" and I think that the US has reached that point. The moral arc of the universe has resumed its course, I think, hope.
There's a line in a movie I loved... The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The owner is eternally optimistic. Whenever he came up against a challenge, he would say, "Everything will be all right in the end. If it's not all right, it is not yet the end." (Look up the movie from 2011. It's a little treasure with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, among others.)
I loved that movie, Donna! I would love to have just a 1/4 of that guy's optimism! I love that line, too! Happy Mother's Day!
Thanks, Donna! I'll check it out, and let me say that an excellent memoir is "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." It rises to the level of literature and was written by the late, great poet, Maya Angelou (who spoke at Bill Clinton's inauguration). She was optimistic through many trials, and quoted several times in her multiple memoirs, a perhaps, more balanced phrase of advice that her mother continually told her: "Always hope for the best and plan for the worst." - FRANK TALK, jr.
We read that book in my college lit class. Loved it!!!
Here's another one for you, Donna__ Life is Beautiful. The protagonist of the tale knew that his life was soon to end, and so he acted to secure the survival of his son, the ultimate act of courage. Like the soldiers who rescued the orphan from the hellscape of a failed tyranny, it is up to us to defang the monsters who are gutting our civil authority from within. "We Shall Overcome". All of our mothers are Mrs. Reich today. Thank you for the memento, Professor!
I saw that movie a couple of times. (I'm a movie freak.) Also loved it. A comedy/tragedy with a sad ending.
My motto!
I liked the movie and the music.
Thanks, Donna. That's a great line... And I'm always looking for a good movie.
🥰 And do not forget to watch this, as well! Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are Fantastic!
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Here a trailer! > https://youtu.be/b-Gp5zimvvU?si=mtK5cgcK_loXEvbp
💚🥰💚🎶🎵💚🥰💚
And also a link below on You Tube to the FIRST movie!
...............................
/Quote from YouTube Check in again and gear up for more love and laughter as new arrival Richard Gere joins an all-star ensemble cast — including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and Maggie Smith — returning for this heartwarming sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
🥰Here is the FIRST Marigold Hotel Movie! Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/_ZaKx5IzwZQ?si=Uk4mku9QVZaj1kWa
💚With LOVE from a Swedish Grandmother!🇸🇪
🇸🇪 Swedish Mothers Day is on the last Sunday in May!🥰
I didn't know there was a sequel! Gotta see it...
I was just thinking of that same line. It's not the end and we will not give up!
Hi Donna, Thanks very much for this comment and for the tip on the film. I will definitely find it and watch it. (With Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, how could one go wrong?). It's a weird thing about one's basic attitude toward the world: whatever it is, it influences how that world goes, in either direction, positive or negative. Thus, paranoid people end up with people disliking and avoiding them and pessimists find that the world continues to disappoint them. Optimists? Well, things can go wrong for them, as happens to everyone, but they tend to pick themselves up, start all over again and make an effort to improve things. And, lo and behold, it often works. They get people on their side and things often then go a bit better, sometimes a lot, at least moving in the right direction. Let us take a clue on this from Mrs Reich and this fictional hotel owner and keep going in a positive spirit, however gloomy the present scene might look.
(With Judi Dench ……, how could one go wrong?)
Here’s how:
JD❤️HW
“Possibly Lorne, Matt and Russell have Harvey's name tattooed on their butts. Dame Judi Dench, who played Queen Victoria in another upscale Oscar-bait Weinstein production, does - and she's happy to lower her knickers and show it to you. Or she was, until Sunday. Maybe, all over town, Hollywood A-listers are frantically booking emergency removals of their Weinstein tramp-stamps.”
https://www.steynonline.com/8169/contradictions-and-condescension
Read the whole thing.
Hmmm, well this certainly says something about Dame Judi's capacity to judge human character. But she is still a fine actress, which is the thing I was referring to.
I think we expect our celebrities to be perfect ... or to be like their movie characters. So, we're disappointed when they are imperfect humans, just like the rest of us. Why would we want them to faultless when we can't even do that? I certainly can't...
Hi Donna, I agree 100%. As I have gotten older -- I am now 81, to my great surprise (being 81, hey, that is something for the elderly to engage in!) -- I have tried to be more considerate and thoughtful in my actions but more tolerant and forgiving of others' shortcomings. Am succeeding a little, I think, in at least the latter.
Lovely little gem of a movie, agreed!
I loved that movie! And that is one of my favorite sayings! This IS the time to remember that particular line. Thank you!!!
Love that!
wow!
I loved that movie
Professor Reich, this is the right Mother’s Day piece. Adam, du hast recht.
Pessimism is honest about the cost column. Cynicism gives up on the mechanism. And the mechanism just shifted.
For centuries the American system ran on one mechanic: the institution could absorb cost the individual could not. That asymmetry crushed civil rights claimants, survivors of domestic violence, working people the state came after.
The institutions are being gutted und gleichzeitig the tools to fight back just got handed to everyone. Both lines are crossing on the same chart. Cynics only look at one.
Your mother was right, for a reason her generation could not yet see. The arc bends because bending it just got cheap.
To her, to mine, to yours, and to every woman in a cell tonight because the man who hurt her is still free: the country we haven’t built yet will look a lot more like the ones already run by women than the one that has spent centuries running them.
Basta. Avanti.
Johan 🐌
If the mothers of the world were in positions of power, imagine how different it would be!
I appreciate that Paula and I can imagine a much different world.
This very old great grandmother as well, Christy.🙏💛
Thank you Paula. I think about that a lot.
Paula, I would like to believe this -- that human females are always wiser, more empathetic than us men -- and I used to but no longer can. Think of Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, or more currently, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Karoline Leavitt, just to name a few. All group generalizations are at best statistical generalizations, hence with lots of exceptions. One always has to judge people as individuals, that is one at a time.
I think that most people don't like women who think more like men -- that is, without the tempering facets of the female brain. Look at how we treat women who have tried to break into the "men's club." I shudder when I think of the sexually explicit jokes about Kamala Harris simply because she had a long-term relationship with Willie Brown. And yet, voters chose a serial philanderer who admitted to assaulting women just because "when you're a star, you can do it."
I have friends and family who didn't vote for Harris "because of her silly laugh." (???) And yet they chose a man who sucks air through his teeth when he talks and who can't formulate a coherent sentence.
The fact remains that men can get away with things that women are crucified for. Women who are tough are called b*tches. Ball busters. Psychologically unbalanced. If only they had a man to keep them under control...
Again, I agree completely. There is still, for many people (including many women!) this double standard and like all such, it is stupid, wrong, destructive. Yet, even while there is still a lot of bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, I think that there is less today than there used to be. Certainly, there are more women in high places -- government, publishing houses, science -- than there used to be and they are treated as equals by many of their male peers (which of course is the way it should be but still worth noting).
Thank God for the good guys. Men like you don't need to push women into the background. Self-assured men know that women make great partners ... in business, government, medicine, technology, family, etc. Fortunately, I've had some good ones in my life, and they make up for the ones who are insecure.
Eloquently stated.. ..so.very true, Paula ! BRAVA !👏👏👏!
Johan, I appreciate this reflection, especially in the context of Robert’s post about his mother’s optimism.
Your distinction between pessimism and cynicism, and the idea that the “mechanism” itself may be shifting even while so much feels like it is breaking down around us, feels deeply connected to what he was trying to hold onto.
I also appreciated the recognition of generations of women who carried dignity, resilience, care, and moral clarity through systems that often marginalized those very qualities.
The closing lines point toward something larger than politics alone. Not simply replacing one power structure with another, but the possibility of building societies rooted more deeply in relationship, humanity, participation, and care.
That feels worth holding onto right now.
I respectfully beg to differ with Prof R's definition of cynicism. Yes, it is indeed different from pessimism, which is the expectation of bad outcomes. Cynicism, in its modern (post-Hellenic) sense, is the view that people typically act in their own self interest, thus people's motives generally cannot be trusted. It doesn't necessarily deal with outcomes, and it doesn't preclude hope. It's an interpretation of lived experience that (potentially) better equips the cynical person to work for and hope for positive outcomes. It is unalloyed pessimism, not cynicism, that leads one to nihilism.
I think that this is only partially true. There are different kinds of cynicism and one kind is a real kind of dead-enderism, which I think is the sort referred to by Dr R. I think that the more useful kind you are describing is better described as "skepticism" (or "scepticism" in the British spelling version.)
Genau, genuch shoen wieder! Did I write & spell that correctly? My German is not so good; I never studied it but learned informally some conversational phrases from my wife & now deceased mother of my daughter (who I met and married in my 2 years there: '69 -'70) who was German (cancer took her in 2008). I thank you for your "WONDERFUL" reply to Professor Reich's article today. I think that the German phrase I tried to express above means: "Precisely, enough already!" You remind me of the lyrics of a song I admire greatly: "THE ROAD IS LONG, FROM WHICH THERE IS NO RETURN, BUT HE AIN'T HEAVY HE'S, MY BROTHER!" Thanks to all sisters & brothers everywhere; together "WE SHALL OVERCOME!" - Frank Talk, jr.
Beautifully put, Adam!
To our Mothers---
This is wishing all you out there who qualify as being Mothers, the happiest Mother's day possible. You stand as the rocks us men were chiseled from. Whether we were derived from granite or sandstone, the love you instilled in us remains the driving force that keeps our clocks ticking. We can never express our gratitude in any terms that would equal the love and kindness you gave us during our maturation process. Us men are in your debt and we love you far more than we can ever express. Thanks mom--wherever you may be.
I love the photo of you and your mom, Mr. Reich. I also love the Martin Luther King, Jr., quote.
I was watching the production of "Suffs" on PBS a couple of nights ago about the suffragist movement, women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fighting for the right to vote. It took them 72 years. They struggled, suffered and some died in the pursuit of the 19th Amendment. We need that kind of fight, determination and dedication to recover our democracy. Hopefully it won't take 72 years
- Karen Cooper
I agree. At 82 I’ve finally realized that young people everywhere want freedom from tyranny, & opportunities to grow & express themselves without fear of heavy-handed reprisal!j
Just look at Hungary today, if you doubt that…
I think the majority of thinking Americans are fed up with trump and he and the Republicans know it. The thing that scares me is the rigging of elections. They will do everything in their power as well as siphoning off the powers of others to achieve their goal. I am optimistic because they want us to feel helpless, and I won't cave in. Thank you for your words of encouragement Mr. Wilkins.
It has. I truly see that people want and are nice and kind and respectful to others.
Thanks, Adam! Some day I would love to visit Germany, if not just to remember what a working Democracy feels like.
In each time, the best life to be lived is a life of social conscience. Onward, with love and (sometimes wry, sometimes bitter) laughter!
Mary Ann…. My credo is to treat others the way that you want to be treated yourself. We have a 95 year old neighbor whom I visit every few days to say hello… is there anything I can get you? She does have lots of help.
The worst that America has shown itself in Tennessee. I am ashamed of the white majority legislatures, controlled by the Republican Party in the Southern States where slavery existed, showing that racism has not gone away even though a generation has lived with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the Supreme Court, controlled by Donald Trump has declawed. Is governmental power so important? I cannot but feel the same rage that Rep. Justin J. Pearson expresses inside the Statehouse in Memphis Tennessee a few days ago. I cannot but feel the frustration, bitterness of my fellow citizens of color who have struggled their entire lives for an equal, fair, and justice place in society for themselves, their children and their families. For sure, America has entered a darkness that it must emerge from as soon as possible. The people there, must do whatever it takes to reverse what is happening as soon as possible!
I am so disgusted and ashamed to be an American right now especially a Tennessean. Our governor and all our Republican legislation is so ignorant and racist you can’t even imagine how frustrating it is. Truly they drank the Kool-aid and plan on continuing to so they can stay in power. SICK!
It is so hard to even watch this from across the country. I live in a small town in Eastern Oregon. I just turned 90 last month and, like Robert, I remember all of those hard-won terrible struggles with the Civil Rights issues. To see what appears to be the regression in our country is heart-breaking to me. And unbelievable. I just don't get it. Hang in there. With the leader of our country demonstrating that the law is nothing to him and the Supreme Court appearing to agree, it will be another long uphill fight. Fight we must. I need to get busy and contact the senators and representatives and everyone else possible. Have I done it? No. Will I? I hope so. Tennesseans, you are not alone.
Virginia, you have not contacted any senators or representatives??? I have an older congressional directory that People for the American Way sent to me when I joined their organization (which Norman Lear founded, BTW), and I have made around 600 phone calls. Call after-hours and leave a message when prompted to do so. If you don't want them to have access to your phone number, add *67 at the beginning of the area code and number you are dialing. Voila! Get on those calls, Virginia, the United States needs you like never before!!!
You got that right, Betty!!!
I share your anger about the Callais decision and this maladministration’s desire to return to the worst of our past. The worst possible people are in charge of our government, and it shows. They want Jim Crow back, which we do NOT want. They want us to regress, to be free59 exercise racism and misogyny, and it is horrid to see.
America is currently "ruled" by a Tryanny of the MINORITY. A ruthless, racist, White nationalist MAGA minority. At most 25%-30% of Americans strongly approve of the MAGA agenda. 60%-70% disapprove. Regardless of gerrymandering, which may not work for the GOP, the inhumane TRUMP/MAGA agenda, gives us the REAL opportunity to bring many hard working Americans back to the inclusive, human agenda of the Democratic party. The contrast couldn't be greater. FRET LESS. DO MORE!! WIN!!
Yes!
Kathy - In November hopefully people will understand what rights are being taken away from them by this administration and the states and will show up in numbers to exercise their right to vote and regardless of their attempts to gerrymander the maps (by both parties - past and present) the people will speak loudly with their voices and vote and still deliver the independents and democrats into office. It might be difficult if there’s no choice other than a republican running (at this point I am not sure that a republican wouldn’t tie themselves to T) so this time around we can’t leave any office unopposed. If we don’t do it now I’m not sure that we will get another chance. Jim Crow was a lesson that no one should forget. Women’s suffrage is a lesson no one should forget. Men standing up to the bullies and the ugliness should not be forgotten. The past is something that should be remembered but also learned from as we look forward and not backwards.
Probably could have said all of that better than I did but in a nutshell: Our past generations worked hard to get us to where we are now but our present generation shouldn’t destroy our future generations.
True. My family shares my contempt for the maladministration.
Maladministration -- great word.
This Supreme (ly stupid) court is making me sick to my stomach. They are the antithesis of everything I grew up believing in and fought for.
Norman, you are correct about the South, and especially the state of Tennessee, which has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the nation. Its governor is a feckless twit, owner of a company that would not rehire employees who got called away to serve in Bush-Cheney's grievously misguided attack on the country of Iraq. When the first school shooting happened in March of '23, I believe it was, his constant lament for DAYS was about the woman who was supposed to be coming for dinner at their house (!) but who was one of the people killed; NOTHING about the CHILDREN KILLED, OR THE OTHER ADULTS! "SENATOR" MARSHA BLACKBURN, WHO HAS AN A+ RATING WITH THE NRA, DID ZILCH AFTER THAT ABOUT GUN CONTROL, AND HER ONLY RESPONSE WAS "Chip (her husband) and my hearts are broken"! MARSHA BLACKBURN, GENOCIDAL MURDERER AND ENABLER OF PERDU PHARMA AND THE SACKLER FAMILY, TOOK OVER A MILLION $$ FROM THEM AND H-E-L-P-E-D THEM SPREAD THEIR OXICONTIN DRUG ALL OVER, WHICH RESULTED IN MANY OVERDOSES AND DEATHS. MOUSEY MARSHA BLACKBURN, WITH THE TEENY TINY VOICE AND STRAGGLY BLONDE HAIR, NOW PLANS TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE! UGH, UGH, BARF! 😤😡😠 The Deep South states rushed to gerrymandering and redistricting just as soon as the NOT Supreme Court made it possible -- SHAMEFUL!!!
We have to do everything in our power to keep this ——from being our Governor! She is as evil and worthless as Trump. Money and power are her goals to continue to hurt our citizens especially women!
You got it, Betty, she is as weird and ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE AS THEY COME! Her weirdo husband is president of the Bow Tie Society!! This would make me laugh if it weren't so absurd!!! My grandfather's friends, some of them, wore bow ties back in the '40s and '50s!!!
Let’s not forget what Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote about the cycles of American history. Most periods of cynicism and corruption in history have been followed by periods of reform. The Gilded Age begot the Populist and Progressive eras. The corruption of the 1920s and the resulting Depression begot the New Deal. McCarthyism, Jim Crow and Vietnam produced the civil rights and anti-war movements and the Warren Court (which, sadly, was followed by Reaganism). A broad reaction against Trumpism is inevitable and signs of it are everywhere. Because the corruption has been the worst in the modern history of this country, the reaction to it will be all the more seismic. It will overwhelm any effort by the Supreme Court and the right-wing billionaires to contain it, because it will come from the people themselves, including the white working class. They are finally coming to realize that they’ve been had. Mother was right. We just have to be patient and keep on resisting — and keep on reading the sage and inspirational voices of people like Robert Reich.
Well said, and I agree...resistance against this lawless, corrupt regime must grow exponentially and usher in the removal of those enabling it. A massive turnout in November can render the gerrymandering useless.
Well done William. As a history major, I learned to appreciate the wisdom of my own dear mother’s steady refrain: “This too shall pass.” Wishing you mothers out there all the best.
It feels like America's heading for a tipping point, and Trump and all of his cronies have their feet jammed hard full on the accelerator.
Into a Great Wall of RESISTANCE!
William - I wonder if in the age of social media and quick clicks if someone took out an ad (or however social media works) that plainly shows exactly what T and the administration has been spending our taxpayer dollars on while people continue to struggle to pay for their own way of life? Maybe the staggering amount might get some people to pay attention to the fact that they don’t care about the people. Especially the ones who aren’t beholden to the stock market since that’s how T thinks we all base our wealth and decisions on. Might or might not help. We need something to get people to pay attention.
Yes, that is the question — how to make the working class realize that Republican policies are hurting their interests. For the last decade, the Democratic Party has been abysmal at finding a way to do that. As you say, there needs to be a social media presence that captures the attention of Trump’s base the way the demented conspiracy theories of QAnon once did. The approach must be emotional rather than intellectual, because Americans don’t respond to intellect. The only thing moving the needle now is Trump’s obvious insanity, Epstein, the Iran war and the price of gas. The Democratic Party seems content to sit back and let Trump hang himself. But that is no substitute for a message. The party has to stand for something. I follow politics obsessively, and I couldn’t tell you what the party stands for. My personal belief is that it should focus squarely on the corrosive influence that corporations have on our society. Bernie Sanders is one of the few politicians willing to do that. But the Democratic Party and the mainstream media don’t follow his lead. They do every thing they can to marginalize him and keep Democrats from focusing on the obvious source of most of the world’s problems — corporate greed.
Past performance is no assurance of future results. If the past reforms were effective we would not be experiencing what we are now. in other words, the LOWS would not be as low. But things have never been WORSE. As if we never learned.
Take Covid-19. When it first got on the radar screen in January 2020, I tried to imagine the number of fatalities that would represent the worst outcome for the entire pandemic. I rounded up the number of names on the Vietnam memorial to 60,000 and multiplied by five.
We lost 400,000 in the first year alone. (Japan lost 5,000 in 2020 -- and 75,000 total for the pandemic.)
There is a VERY powerful truth underlying that performance, and an unwillingness by a vast majority of Americans to come to grips with it.
RAH, RAH! Thank you for sharing this wisdom!
Defying!
Thank you Prof. I have been feeling very low and yes discouraged that our elected leaders are either cowards or complicit in this Administration's total destruction of our country. They are money grabbling grifters...all of them. Evil people. I will try to keep positive that "it will all work out in the end". Chin up folks...WE CAN DO THIS!! UNITED WE STAND! Thank you to all of you for your insight. Happy Mother's Day!!
cowards AND complicit
Yes they are both!!
Excellent, Cyndi! I stand with you!
Awww thank you Peggy! I am so grateful for this great community!
Me too!
The distinction between pessimism and cynicism is duly noted, and very much appreciated. Thanks, Prof.
This age is almost over. Precisely when is to be determined. The only thing I can say for sure is that it will be this decade, but it could be this year, and it could be next month. It depends on us.
If I appear to be “absolutely” certain, then the appearance is an illusion. Rather than “describing,” talking about the future is merely “predicting” what empirical (directly observable) evidence will be.
On the other hand, I am absolutely certain that Lincoln was absolutely certain in 1858 when he said, “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions.”
Oh, James - I think about this alot! I do not believe that this current crew, with their regressive plans for our country, can succeed and it is simply because we are otherwise! We, the public, the many of us, are steeped in the very history that they are trying to sweep away. Our understanding of ourselves is antithetical to what they are doing. So I deeply agree with you (and Abraham Lincoln). It's a no go.
There is a reason that President Lincoln is still revered.
Being the first president from the Republican Party, I wonder what Lincoln would think of today's so-called Republican Party.
Good question. My guess is he'd be thinking the same way as he was thinking when he found out Confederate forces had fired on Federal troops at Fort Sumter. And my guess is that "thought" was a version of what JFK was thinking when he wrote, "I know there is a God, and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I believe I am ready."
Give a listen to Let the Bad Times Roll by the offspring. It's in the lyrics!
Lincoln would then
Fit right in
The lyrics say Lincoln would be rolling in his grave.
You are right. I see it now. I had missed it. It's at minute one of about three. My comment, however, was based on the entire song.
"Rolling in his/her grave" is an interesting idiom. They could be called "grave rollers" doing some in-house grave rolling.
He’d probably think they’d wimped out by not arresting Tampon Tim, Prickster, Kotex, Oldscum, and the rest of the rebels, including Boasberg, etc.
He would actually invoke the Insurrection Act and send in professional soldiers.
He’d ask what the Donald was drinking, and order a case for all Republican Congressmen.
I leave his putative opinion of Ilhan “Ptolemaic” Omar to your imagination.
Disparaging people and juvenile name-calling are what Trump takes pride in doing.
Speak for yourselves.
As Lincoln might have said about Maga, "It's the sort of thing people like, for people who like that sort of thing."
You said, "might have said," so I looked it up. You were interestingly close = = = >
https://www.google.com/search?q=did+Lincoln+say+%22It%27s+the+sort+of+thing+people+like%2C+for+people+who+like+that+sort+of+thing.%22&sca_esv=af156264804c4707&sxsrf=ANbL-n4rfBQJ2RRUPmoe5wo3d9bsOvs7Fw%3A1778464148386&ei=lDUBarSeF9GkqtsPs4CIiAU&biw=552&bih=382&ved=0ahUKEwi0uL2ej7CUAxVRkmoFHTMAAlEQ4dUDCBM&uact=5&oq=did+Lincoln+say+%22It%27s+the+sort+of+thing+people+like%2C+for+people+who+like+that+sort+of+thing.%22&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiXWRpZCBMaW5jb2xuIHNheSAiSXQncyB0aGUgc29ydCBvZiB0aGluZyBwZW9wbGUgbGlrZSwgZm9yIHBlb3BsZSB3aG8gbGlrZSB0aGF0IHNvcnQgb2YgdGhpbmcuIkgAUABYAHAAeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgCgAgCYAwDiAwUSATEgQJIHAKAHALIHALgHAMIHAMgHAIAIAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
Your mother was right. Thank Goodness her son believed her. Thanks for the good work you do, Robert Reich. As a member of the Silent Generation, I hope I can live long enough to see the change. This disintegration of society and human behavior is hard to watch.
I totally agree with your thoughts. 👌
I cannot but think after hearing his "We are still here speech, what a grand son she has raised.
She sounds a lot like my mother. Despite the hardships she went through, she developed a positive outlook. I think a lot of it was based on her habit of reading philosophy books, especially those by Thomas Merton and Saint Augustine. It helped her raise eight kids without falling apart. And she taught us a lot about how to manage our own challenges. She left this world at age 97. I was lying in her bed next to her, with my arm around her. Even today, I can hear her voice in my head... "Put people before things. Don't live for the things you can accumulate... I've never seen a U-Haul trailer following a hearse. Watch how a man treats his mother because he'll treat you the same way. Never date a married man because if he cheats WITH you, he'll also cheat ON you." All good advice...
Thanks for sharing your mother's wisdom, Donna. "Put people before things" especially resonated with me. Glorification of wealth is at the core of the American zeitgeist, and it's led to a widening wealth gap, corruption of the government, and disintegration of the country's social fabric.
If people were put before hoarding wealth, there'd be far fewer billionaires. Just think how much better off we'd all be...
I especially liked this part of your mother's advice: "I've never seen a U-Haul trailer following a hearse."
If I didn't know better, I would have my funeral plans to include a U-Haul loaded up and ready to go right behind the hearse.
LOLOL! Well, when you think of all those treasures inside the pyramids that were supposed to accompany the pharaohs into Paradise, it proves that you can't take it with you.
Well, at least they tried!
And she raised one hell of a good daughter. That would be you Donna. Stand up and take a bow. Assuming for the moment that you are also a mother, I honor you and your mother today.
Thanks, Sweetie! Yes, I am the mother of two great kids and three adult grandchildren... although the oldest passed away last year from severe diabetes. But he always will be counted as one of mine.
My mother gave her first birth (of 5) in a small community hospital and the doctor at the time overdosed her with ether. My parents first son was therefore oxygen deprived at birth and relegated to a life of simple and very hard labor. He worked hard, he loved his mother to the very end, and he became a bird expert. He was always one of hers too. These are the tragedies that mothers endure. Fathers are different. Many tend to handle grief poorly and are unable to pick themselves back up like mothers. This is the weakness of men. Both are made to suffer greatly, but respond to it differently. Thank God for mothers.
Your last line brought tears to my.eyes, Donna....remembering the loss of.my own son. My deepest sympathy to you and your family. " May his memories
be a Blessing .'
Sympathy to you, too, Lynn. Losing a child is something no parent should ever have to endure. *hugs*
Donna, your mom sounds like one in a million! Happy Mother's Day!
My mom was like that. She was the seventh of ten children, and she was not into acquiring things. She preferred to give, rather than to receive.
Thank you, Donna, for this. I was also with my Mom as she passed, holding her hand. I want to look up the authors you mentioned, too.
Happy Mothers Day Donna! You were blessed to have had your amazingly strong Mom for 97 years, to have been able to physically touch and be with her as she left this world and to have benefited so much from her loving, wise advice. She sounds so much like my own Mom who died at 94 and also having survived much hardship which only made her even stronger and also steadfast in such loving, moral values that she gave me. All of the advice you mentioned from your Mom, I ironically heard the same practical, wise teachings from my own Mother. We were so lucky. The hardships that most women have endured have really instilled and created immeasurable strength inside all of them if only they could trust their inner voices and become empowered. They need to become the new leaders in our world as they have both brilliant minds and more importantly, compassionate hearts that together are essential in helping us create a "New Earth" founded on moral principles for "all" living life forms as many have written about such as Four Arrows in his "Restoring the Kinship WorldView" which is one of my favorite books from which we can learn so much.
Hi Lilla... We were fortunate, indeed, to have the mothers we were given. We kids always used to say, "How lucky we are to have a real live saint for a mother!" I'm sure both of our mothers are enjoying some well-deserved rewards wherever they are now.
Donna - Love your mother and her sage advice!
As you can tell by my Substack handle, I've got optimism baked into my political activism. This is because I've seen the overwhelming beauty of compassion, dedication, and a hunger for social and political justice among tens of millions of us. I've used this hashtag for a long time:
#22ndCenturyThinking
That is what that beautiful essence I celebrate now is emblematic of. This is the mindset that can prolong our species. This is the mindset that can bring down #RepubloFascism, no matter how messy and ugly that will be.
And this is the mindset we see in you, Robert, which is why we're all here ready to pounce on the wave of your wisdom every night at 1 AM..
You are exactly right, A Glass-1/8-Full Perspective! Compassion, dedication and wanting social and political justice is exactly what we need more of! This is a beautiful comment! Thank you!
I don't understand the "1/8th full" because it means there isn't much that's positive. Can. you explain??
As a fellow traveler in the 1/8 category, I would explain it this way: the ship has sunk, but many of us made it into the lifeboats together. Thus, things are very grim, but hope remains. An eighth sounds about right.
I came up with that name during the era when Biden was President yet things looked so bleak because of Trump's domination of the GOP and the cynical opportunism that led to states tilting the scales on the basis of #TheBigLie.
I saw things as 7/8ths bad when Manchin and Sinema stopped the #ForThePeopleAct in its tracks. That was our big chance to take big money out of politics.
Let's hope we see another version, retooled to thwart all the new Trumpian tactics, signed into law this decade.
Things are far worse now, yet the weight of our voice and power can still prevail.
Robert Reich has posted a remedy to obscene amounts of money in politics. He pointed out in a video that States have rights because they can ban big money in political campaigns. Citizens United does not have ro be repealed, because states have the power to restrict big money to prevent election stealing and the buying of seats and legislation, Allowing the voters' voices to be heard.
I'm glad you brought that up, because that's another pressure point that our millions can work on. Being that it is within the powers of state corporate charter systems to deny political contributions, the corporate campaign contribution spigot can be shut down to just a drip.
That would help level the playing field in spite of the interference of the Supine Court. remember Elon Musk jumping around on a stage with a giant check while wearing a cheese hat in Wisconsin, trying to buy a State Supreme court seat? He thought it would be an easy slam dunk. It bombed, which showed us all that knowledge is power, and the voters in Wisconsin would not take the money. It would be truly GREAT to see something like that again. Kind of like what happened to Victor Orban in Hungary. He was soundly beaten. Hungarians were tired of being the poorest citizens in the world.
Thanks for the explanation!
Big money drowns out modest money, which is a way to steal votes from Every Day people.
It used to be called bribery. And it still is bribery. Out shouting the majority.
Professor, your mother was absolutely right. Everything does come out in the end. There's only a few months to go before the mid term elections when, hopefully, the Democrats will triumph.
Here in the UK we've just celebrated the 100th birthday of a national treasure, Sir David Attenborough. He's given so much joy to the world with his wonderful wild life programmes and raising awareness about his concerns for the planet. When he leaves us he'll be long remembered. Trump will only be remembered for his duplicity, creating divisions and his complete incompetence at the most important job in the Western world. Just like Hitler.
I have seen the tributes for Sir David and his work showing the natural world to people around the globe. He appreciates nature even as other humans want to destroy it.
Janet - I absolutely love Sir David Attenborough! I still remember the first time I heard his voice and the joy and excitement in it as he described what he was witnessing while allowing us to watch and become the next generation to fight for our planet and all living creatures within it. It is also powerful when he patiently explains how we are destroying all of it. My sibling became a zookeeper because of him. They also traveled to other countries on federal grants in order to learn how to help conservation efforts. My favorite memory is when he giggled with pure joy at the primates who were trying to take his shoes. As children we used to bemoan the fact that our father had control of the tv but we would all come together to watch Attenborough. Thanks for bringing up some good memories for me!
Happy Mothers Day
Kamala would have been president now, but for three reasons: First, Biden did not step down in time. Second, certain factions of the Democratic Party maliciously undercut her position. However, she may have been able to overcome the first two hurdles had it not been for the third: The majority of American voters still can't bring themselves to vote for a woman, let alone an Afro-Indian one.
She's right about Trump: He's not stupid. He has run on emotional and psychological grievance since early childhood that, unaddressed and unhealed, has become ever more gangrenous as he ages. And, at a very deep and unconscious, not intellectual, level his supporters identify with him. He deeply intuits this, and has reflexively and craftily weaponized the pull of the subliminal but familiar emotional bond they feel toward him. And THAT is what makes him dangerous to America. And, because he's president of the stumbling world hegemon, the USA, to the rest of the world.
On a linguistic note, the English word "fuck" is likely derived from German by way of Dutch, also a Germanic language, that passed into English, which also has its roots in German.
But for one thing: I would vote for a female president, but it has to be the right one! I held my nose and voted for Kamala, but I did not trust her to be a strong president because she withheld too much of herself during her campaign. Elizabeth Warren would make a great president, as would Gretchen Whitmer. Elizabeth Warren SHOULD NOT HAVE DEFERRED TO HILLARY IN THE 2016 CAMPAIGN, backing out of running because the Dem establishment forced her to do so. Look where that got us -- Donald Trump! Elizabeth Warren has poured her heart and soul into working for all that is right and good for the American people! She created the Consumer Protection Bureau (which of course Trump has gutted!), she is SUPER OUTSPOKEN, and is a TIRELESS, wonderful representative of this nation. Wish she would run now!!!
I agree with you about Elizabeth Warren, who is still working mightily to build a bulwark against this hideous economy. She would have made a great president.
OTOH, “Pretendian” Fauxcahontas was just Schaking Miff up about her “Cherokee ancestry” to get her foot in the first rung of the ladder. Even more ludicrous than Alpacatoes Ofwillie.
I agree you and Kamala about Trump. And on a linguistic note, I will no longer turn to Van Halen for etymology.
As you wrote, Professor, "I'll be damned if I'm going to give up the fight." Me too.
Happy Mother's Day to all. My mother passed away years ago, but I'm still inspired by her activism for peace, equality, and labor rights. Fighting for democracy and social justice are what have given my life meaning and purpose. The optimism I have lies in the knowledge and faith that I'm not alone in the fight.
When I feel pessimism or cynicism creeping into my thoughts and feelings, I remind myself of a quote that's stuck with me through thick and thin:
"Resistance accepts that even if we fail, there is an inner freedom that comes with defiance, and perhaps this is the only freedom and true happiness we will ever know.” -Chris Hedges
My mother told me when I was young, "Use your brain instead of your brawn." That stuck with me and changed my life for the better.
Bad news, Robert: Decades of civil service (including Peace Corps) have made me INCREDIBLY cynical! But I can still see the good in people and have occasional crippling bouts of optimism. Like now.
I don't think it's time to give up yet. We still have the midterms, and even gerrymandering won't save a seat if your own party and constituents loathe you. And there are all kinds of options to be pursued if things don't turn out well then.
But the leadership of the Dem party needs to get its act together. If they can't support progressive policies, they need to get out of the way of those who will. It's not enough to say "We're not Republicans!"
You have put your finger on the problem with Democratic leadership. They are too timid and not bold enough.
Thank you for this lovely column. My mother, of blessed memory, was also an optimist. She believed that life is fortuitous; and that the harder we work, the luckier we get. Don't we all have to believe that this is true more often than it is not?