Tag: history

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 4.

On By southwerkIn business ethics
(Borrowed with gratitude from Wikipedia Commons- THANKS.)

Taking Care of Yourself!

If you have been rugged and read the first three of this series, I hope you have decided to resist the current regime.

But if you do that there can be little doubt that the road will be long and difficult. You will have to be strong and possessed of great courage. As in most important tasks, dogged persistence will be a necessity.

Self-care over this long haul will have to be a priority.

Obviously, you know to eat right, get good rest and practice good health habits like exercise. But there are some additional things this situation makes appropriate.

I recommend you change your reading habits. Read American History, especially books about the Revolutionary War. (I am planning a series called “What a Patriot Reads,” that will be later.)

And, of course, there are those great patriots, the “muckrakers,” Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Nellie Bly and Julius Chambers. All of their works are available for free on Project Gutenberg (almost my favorite web site in the world – that is Wikipedia).

But above all read the stories of the American sagas, those terrible times in American history like this one where everything was at stake and yet victory came to those who believed in the future and promise of democracy. There were times like the Civil War where everything was at stake. The Great Depression called into question whether democracy was fit for the economics of the 20th Century. Read the stories of those Americans who faced the test and succeeded in continuing the dream, the quest of representative government.

What will be most difficult will be dealing with the “followers” of our current regime. They are inclined to violence, insults and trolling.

If they are members of your extended family, I am very sorry. But it is necessary to remove them from your social media and your life for your wellbeing in particular your mental health. They are continuously updating their propaganda commands from the various web sites they find compelling. Their childlike, cultish devotion to the latest internet outrage is pitiful and a sure sign of their lack of judgment.

Don’t let them afflict you with their nonsense. Protect your mind from those who tell you that lies are truth and above all that free speech means allowing people the freedom to spread lies and slander. Defend yourself at all times from these people. Cut them off and move on. There are American patriots willing to be your friends. You have only to seek them out.

Find web sites and news sources you can trust, friends you can count on and causes that impress you with their morality and righteousness. Remember that the Christian message found in the New Testament is the basis of much that is good and compelling in our lives, and that the distorted teachings of many evangelicals are just nonsense. Read the book your self and delight in the nobility and kindness of Christ and notice how little of what is claimed by so many to be part and parcel of Christian belief simply isn’t there.

It speaks well of you and your character, that you are willing to act on behalf of democracy, your nation and like-minded patriots all over the world. God bless you.

What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a terrible time to live in America. What is happening now in Washington infuriates any decent citizen.

The horrible people doing these things are counting on you to not take action, to not stand up, and to not be counted. They want you to go quietly away while they perform their neo-fascist fantasies.

Each one of us is powerful in our own right. Yes, that is a fact. We are not atoms flowing about helplessly in society as one famous right-wing loon claimed. We are human beings with the rights and privileges associated with self-government.

Each of us is powerful but in association our power multiplies. And you are not alone. All over the United States, there are million of citizens equally appalled, equally angry and desperate to take action.

Now, here’s the rub. This isn’t a problem that can be solved in a week, a month or a year. Are you willing to commit to laboring for justice and right for years on end? Is it important enough to you? If you have doubts, maybe your desire to fight for your country and its future is not enough to sustain you for the long haul?

I know it is awful to have to fight for what is obviously right against outright nut jobs and fools. And I know that we as a people and as a nation go over the same ground and the same issues, year after year after year. And it gets exhausting.

If you are going to commit to repair the damage done and live in a working democracy, understand that it is a major decision and it will affect a great deal of many other things in your life. There will be pain. There will be obstacles. There will be friends and family who don’t get why you care and worse, there will be friends and family that actively oppose you. Many, many families are cursed with members whose devotion to the neo-fascist cause is more important than other family members, their friends or their duty as patriots or citizens or as Christians. Consider them lost, casualties in a war for the soul of our democracy.

The first step in struggling against what is happening, against the threat of a burgeoning fascist state is to decide to act.

If you have the heart of a warrior, fight! If you believe in the visions of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, fight! If you have seen the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the struggles against dictatorships and evil, and you don’t want them to have suffered and died in vain, then fight.

Welcome aboard. You’re going to make a lot of new friends and you are joining a just cause for representative democracy. God bless you!

(That is essay one. This is the first of a set. I will write the next one very soon.)

Lies, Damned Lies and J.D. Vance

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jd-vance-appears-admit-tale-151656091.html

Let me lead with a quote from the article listed above:

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” said the senator.

Kind readers, perhaps I am misunderstanding the quote. My impression, perhaps foolish, is that he is saying that he can make up any story no matter how outlandish if it furthers his political narrative.

So, if a story of, oh say, a Bigfoot sighting, plays well in drawing attention to, say, interest rates,, no doubt an important issue — the Bigfoot story will be told with great passion. The fact that it is just a story is irrelevant if the story is effective.

Wow, generally speaking when we talk about the Big Lie, (not the 2020 election big lie, the one before that), the one in “Mein Kamp” that if you repeated a lie often enough many will believe it, this is a whole new take. If you have a “higher” purpose making up stories is okay.

That, of course, is nonsense. It is also a direct contradiction of morality and ethics.

Is it not written that lies are wrong? For instance: Proverbs 13, Verse 5: The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves.

When someone admits that they will make up stories to get media attention, we get what we have now, a series of cruelties and nonsense perpetrated on an American community, which apparently is okay with J.D. Vance. I suppose all that suffering, the bomb threats and the demonizing of Haitians is also useful in furthering the narrative. So, it’s a twofer, you get the benefits of a made up story and the havoc that the false story brought.

This may be considered a success by some in the political game but not by me. I can’t help but think that real stories of real people with a strong factual basis are superior and call attention to actual issues of importance to all Americans. I am sure to some this appears naïve. But no matter what people say and think I continue to believe that truth is better than lies. I also believe that knowingly using lies as a part of your narrative is a dramatic indication of a lack of a moral character.

There is still right and wrong even in divided America.

James Alan Pilant

Will Prince Andrew Leave his Official Residence?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/king-charles-reportedly-ultimatum-prince-165723091.html

Difficult people present themselves throughout our lives. A badly designed political system makes more difficult people than a functioning government like a republic or a democracy. One of the most, if not the most horrible forms of government is a hereditary monarchy. These are based on the idea that breeding is blessed by God to produce Heaven’s choice for a government. All of that, and in particular, the blessing of God, is complete and total nonsense.

History has demonstrated constantly and repetitively, over and over again, that giving people power, money and influence purely based on the circumstances of their birth is a formula for disaster.

For an example of a royal gone badly wrong, we only have to point to Prince Andrew. I believe that currently he is the worst of the Royal family. You may disagree and I freely admit in a world where royal descendants are common and their crimes and behavioral nonsense often well known, that maybe to you he doesn’t stand out. But I believe he is the worst.

Now the headline at the top of the page says that the King of England, (Scotland and Wales), wants him to move out of the official residence. Apparently because of all the bad press. And he does not want to go. Did I mention that besides being odious, that Andrew is also greedy and entitled? Please add that in.

There may be someone out that who does not know what Andrew is about. The “Prince” has labored all of his life to get more money in addition to the large sums from the British tax payer and he has had a laser like focus on young women, so much so that Jeffrey Epstein was a close personal friend.

There are books, magazine articles and pod casts about this person. I recommend you take my word for his awfulness not because I’m lacking in evidence but because it is so vile and disgusting. I’ve read about him at some length and as an American, I can’t help but think that with his position, all that money and power, that he could have made something of himself and been a bright and shining light with the example of his life. And that would have been a rebuke to me and my contempt for aristocratic government. But there was no danger of me being rebuked by a Royal’s good behavior. When presented with incredible opportunity, the prince chose the path of greed and sexual gratification.

And now, kind reader, you are probably wondering why I, who hold myself out as an expert on business ethics, am writing about an errant and foolish prince?

It is very simple. We still have the problem of those favored solely by birth, the boss’ son, so to speak. Nepotism and other forms of evil are still with us. Andrew is just an outstanding example of a problem that is never totally going away.

Okay, so what is the great truth here? In the United States, we should promote and reward based purely on merit. That should be our guide when choosing our leadership and much else. It is the right thing to do, the morally correct thing to do.

And every single time that Prince Andrew wiggles out of another predicament, gets forgiven for awful behavior and continues to act entitled and outside the conduct of a gentleman, he is an example to others of how goodness, mercy and kindness as well as all of morality and the law can be ignored in the race for money, sex and influence.

People like him make life harder for the people who follow the rules, work hard and depend on others realizing their merit.

It is with deep regret that I must confess that even Andrew is thrown out of his official resident, I am sure he will continue to misbehave and I may reluctantly, regretfully and painfully have to return to this topic. He and his ilk are just generally not fixable.

James Alan Pilant

Avoid False Workplace Positivity

On By southwerkIn business ethics
I am not opposed to a good work environment. I am opposed to nonsensical happy talk workplaces.

How to Navigate the Pitfalls of Toxic Positivity in the Workplace (msn.com)

New Study Finds Wishful Thinking Can Have Catastrophic Consequences (msn.com)

I had bosses who insisted on positivity in all circumstances, fortunately not very many. My personality does not lend itself to lies. I am a truth teller often to great personal cost.

But it wasn’t my unhappy experiences with workplace optimism that soured me on it. It was my historical knowledge. The former nations of the U.S.S.R. and the Empire of Japan both practiced forced optimism on a grand scale. Of the two, the Japanese were by far the worst example, promotion and even participation in decision making could be stalled for not sharing a rabidly happy attitude. And the Japanese in the course of the Second World War had a lot to be pessimistic about.

The Japanese believed in their variation of the “decisive battle doctrine.” The Japanese, the Americans, the Germans and the Italians were all followers of the teachings of Mahan, the master of modern naval strategy. Mahan believed that certain battles, for example, Trafalgar, determined the outcome of naval conflict between nations for as much as a hundred years. The Japanese assumed many, many battles were that kind of decisive when they were just another battle. A dramatic form of a truly incredible optimism.

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese newspapers editorialized that just like Trafalgar, Pearl Harbor had transformed the balance of power in the world and henceforward they would be the dominant naval power on earth. Since Pearl Harbor reduced the margin of American superiority in numbers of warship but did not overcome it, this is quite the claim. Nor does it take into consideration the enormous American building program already underway which would eventually give the Americans complete dominance in the Pacific.

But this is what optimism untempered by reality gets you, foolish decisions and ridiculous opinions. And it got worse. As the Japanese began losing the war, each loss was simply a precursor to the “decisive battle.” So, no loss is that big a deal since the Japanese will eventually win the big one. Even in the final days before surrender, the Japanese military claimed that if they drew the Americans into one final battle over the home islands they would yet prevail. It was all nonsense. If not for the loss of so many lives, it might have risen to level of comedy.

And that brings us back to the subject of American business’ relentless focus on happy talk, meritless optimism and a thoroughly false workplace unanimity. Achievement depends on accurate information. You can’t fool people into doing well. You can rip them off and that happens. But real achievement depends on real cooperation, the use of people’s talents and a willingness to recognize and honor authenticity in the workplace.

It is hard to create a successful achievement model in business. It is easy to do the authoritarian model where “fearless leader” is always right and strides the land like a giant. Workplaces that are cooperative and intelligent are annoying and useless to the power oriented among us and many managers have little talent and less motivation toward high achievement. The simply coast along doing the same old things over and over again.

I remember some years ago reading squadron leader’s evaluation from the Royal Air Force in the midst of World War Two. They concluded that he had reached as high a leadership position as was possible, that he had no natural leadership ability and that they had trained him to the basics of combat leadership as was possible. I remember thinking that in the American college and university systems we seem to actively believe that we can educate leaders when we really don’t know how.

When leadership doesn’t know how to lead, corporate happy talk makes sense. Reality is an enemy to the untalented and foolish. Just deny, deny, deny. Everyone’s happy. Everyone’s successful. Everything’s fine. So, I ask you, my fine reader, wouldn’t actual leadership, actual performance and a strong connection with reality better serve us all both the business community and the larger society surrounding it?

I am told that I will have to publish an article every day for some years to attract a considerable readership and at this early stage, very few if any people will read these words. This saddens me. But I will struggle on. I am speaking to the world and whether or not anyone hears me is irrelevant.

James Alan Pilant

Faithful Slaves?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The American Civil War was fought over the evil that was slavery. The assassination of Lincoln prevented the necessary prosecution of the Confederate leadership and the old guard, the former slave owners, rose up in power to continue the oppression and pain inflicted on the poor Whites and Blacks. They tried to rewrite history with “The Lost Cause” nonsense and during the Jim Crow era put up statues as signposts that clearly indicating that minority rights did not exist in the South. More crudely put, these monuments were a direct threat of murder and pain to those who stepped across the color line.

Tyrell County has one of these “monuments.” Erected in 1902, its connection to the Civil War is barely arguable but its public demonstration of the power of the white aristocracy and their willingness to murder and punish is plain for all to see. It is dedicated to faithful slaves, a calculated insult.

History is important. But history shorn of its truth is an abomination. These monuments to Jim Crow are an attempt which for many years was successful to intimidate Blacks and rewrite history. It has failed. And these nonsensical pieces of stone should be consigned to the scrap heap. It doesn’t take a deep grasp of morality or ethics to see that preserving the Southern way of life, an idea the included the practice of slavery and many other discriminations, was not a worthy goal but in fact an abomination. Societies based on slavery had long passed in large part into the failed systems of history.

At the end of the Civil War, there were more Black soldiers in the Union Army than the entire strength of the Confederates. I don’t see any monuments to the fact that freed Black men were willing to risk their lives to end the barbarous practice of slavery. That would be real history.

Why don’t we build some real monuments to celebrate the heroism and sacrifice of Americans who fought for the right?

James Alan Pilant

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/23/us/nc-confederate-slaves-monument-lawsuit-reaj/index.html

This needs to go.

Robert Reich Has Some Observations about Ethics

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/16/trump-hush-money-trial-morality

United States Department of Labor – http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich.htm (This picture was borrowed with humble gratitude from Wikipedia – I have followed their instructions for attribution.)

I don’t generally feature an opinion piece as the center of my approach on writing about business ethics or the larger questions of morality and ethics in American society. But this one caught my attention as it focuses on some issues that have been bothering me.

Robert Reich has written an opinion piece which appeared in the Guardian. It’s called “The Trump hush-money trial reveals a seedy world shot through with moral rot.” (The link is at top.)

Let me quote a little piece so you can get a flavor of it. Referring to Trump and his associates he writes:

It’s a sell-or-tell society, a catch-and-kill society, a just-take-care-of-it society. A society where money and power are the only considerations. Where honor and integrity count for nothing.

I strongly agree. The trial has not surprised me. I knew about Donald Trump long before his Presidential aspirations. I don’t mind telling you how I became interested. It was Trump University. People paid large sums of money for a product advertised with the Trump name and got virtually nothing in return. That conduct has been consistent throughout Trump’s career.

But he has millions of followers who seem to believe that his moral and criminal failings amount to nothing or are made up charges, a product of the deep state — or one of their other many fantasies.

Reich’s clear eyed and direct condemnation is important because so few people especially Republicans seem to have any moral qualms these days. Sometimes I thing that a complete lack of moral or ethical qualities is necessary for participation in the inner workings of the Republican party.

Robert Reich speaks while so many are silent. Here is some more of what he had to say:

I sometimes worry that the daily dismal drone of Trump world – the continuous lies and vindictiveness that issue from Trump and his campaign, the dismissive and derogatory ways he deals with and talks about others, the people who testify at his criminal trial about what they have done for him and what he has done for or to them – has a subtly corrosive effect on our own world. I think it is important to remind ourselves that most of the people we know are not like this. That honor and integrity do count. That standards of decency guide most behavior. That relationships matter.

I am sure that Donald Trump has damaged the moral fiber of the United States. I believe that the unleashed anger of the Internet trolls will continue and that we will be dealing with Trump pretenders for decades to come. He and his demented followers have made politics and discourse distasteful and crude. They have made conducting the governing of this nation difficult and often demeaning.

It is a tragic time for the United States and the nation may yet not survive it. The dramatic attacks on our justice system are just one part of a hideous proto-fascist approach to governance that we may see more of in the coming years.

God bless America. We all need it right now.

James Alan Pilant

Not By Bread Alone

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Sometimes reading and watching our various media, you get the impression that economic success is the ultimate determination of a nation’s success. This is the popular view in many circles. But if true at all, it is only partially true. The fact of the matter is – nations have value based not just on economic value but on art, culture and their civic life. It is better to live with a vibrant culture, movies, plays and books, – and better still to live in a society where the citizens can participate in the decisions that effect their lives.

Many participate in art. Some draw, some play an instrument, some participate in little theatre. But once in a while a person rises to the level of director, a professional artist. Successful societies run by the wise, experienced and based on a civilized tradition honor the great artists among us. But primitive and repressive societies do not.

There is no clearer indication of a society in decline than its attempt to destroy a human being for making art.

And here we have just such an example.

James Alan Pilant

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/acclaimed-iranian-filmmaker-flees-europe-210242828.html

Taken directly from the article above:

Rasoulof condemned the Iranian government in an Instagram post on Monday, calling it a tyrannical and oppressive regime, and posting a video that showed him crossing the country’s mountainous border. “If geographical Iran suffers beneath the boots of your religious tyranny, cultural Iran is alive in the common minds of millions of Iranians who were forced to leave Iran due to your brutality and no power can impose its will on it. From today, I am a resident of cultural Iran,” he said.

Royal Nonsense.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

By Jr JL – This file was derived from: Duchy of Lancaster-coa.png:, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39911069 —- This was found on wikipedia and I gratefully acknowledge their kindness in letting me borrow the image. As you can see I have quoted in full the attribution they wished attached. JP

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68882308

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/royals-william-kate-camilla-honours-monarchy-archaic

Recently, the King of England has decided in his infinite wisdom to hand out honors. Awarding honors to the deserving is an important function of all mature and intelligent societies. We wish to encourage and recognize acts of bravery, benevolence and sacrifice.

In the course of human events, many are called to heroic deeds. An examination of the news over a period of a few days will disclose people who selflessly risked their lives. For instance, just last week a teacher, Darrell Campbell, at Amman Valley School in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, responded to a stabbing in which three people were injured and wrestled the knife away from the attacker and then subdued the attacker. That is courage worthy of recognition and honor. (The news story is linked to below.)

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/12540784/major-incident-ammanford-school-police

But the King’s ceremony and the award of honors wasn’t for him. You see, the King realized that he knew very well who was deserving of honor and recognition in the name of all that is royal in the realm of Great Britain. The honors were awarded to his wife, Camilla; his son, William; and his son’s wife, Kate.

(From the article:)

Prince William becomes Great Master of the Order of the Bath. Catherine is now a Companion of Honour, which recognises achievement in arts, medicine, sciences and public service. And the Queen becomes the Grand Master of the Order of the British Empire, once held by the King’s father, Prince Philip, and grandfather George VI.

So, the King decided that while there were undoubtedly thousands of people who deserved honors for the great deeds, it was his wife, son and daughter in law, who merited these attentions. As Mel Brooks announced with great joy in “History of the World, Part One,” — “It is good to be the King.”

Apparently it is also very good to be married to or be an offspring of the King, because the money, the property and honors never stop flowing like an endless stream of benefits paid for by someone else.

Great Britain is similar to the United States in some ways, a semi-common language and some customs. However, the founding fathers directly placed in the Constitution a prohibition against this kind of thing. To quote from the United States Constitution:

Clause 8 Titles of Nobility and Foreign Emoluments No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

And so we don’t in general have this kind of nonsense. And God be praised that we don’t.

We now live in the 21st Century and the idea that there are Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses is a relic of an illiterate, ignorant and moronic age, an age where people actually believed that God had ordained some people to be rulers, not on the basis of any moral or mental quality but simply by accident of birth.

Darrell Campbell, an actual hero, is far more representative of the greatness embodied in the British people than any of these bejeweled fops lauded daily in the press and possessed of incredible wealth and influence taken from the people of the empire. In any society with a shred of dignity or intelligence or judgment, it is he who should stand before the nation and be given honors for his deeds.

It is time for us, all of us, to stop paying attention to these silly royals who have stuff just because of who their parents were.

We should be valued by our own merits as demonstrated in our own lives because that is what is just, and true — and, indeed, worthy of honor.

TV Goes Downhill

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Picture taken at Georgia Aquarium, pictured is...
Picture taken at Georgia Aquarium, pictured is one of the two resident male whale sharks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

TV Goes Downhill

The lowest common denominator. That apparently is the demographic television programming is looking for if these reinventions are to make any sense. Of course, maybe doing real programming is hard. After all, how much brains does it take to do “Shark Week?”

I have some old VHS tapes with programming from the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, powerful learned television shows with meaning. Now, my college students complain about the low quality of the programming and how little science or history is being covered.

Is there a business ethics issue here? Well, there is something wrong about advertising yourself as dealing with serious scientific, cultural or historical matters, and then producing junk designed for the inquisitive mind of, “Well, nobody.” Inquisitive minds aren’t wanted there.

And there is the lost opportunity of appealing to what is best in humanity, thrown away endlessly seeking higher ratings or a younger demographic. Whether that is a business ethics problem depends on your interpretation.

I don’t watch those programs anymore. I don’t think anybody should.

James Pilant

TV’s 10 most bizarre reinventions – Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/25/tvs_10_most_bizarre_reinventions/

All across the dial, cable networks have shed their identities in order to become things far stranger — and, often, a bit less highbrow — than they’d been initially. The network formerly known as History Channel (now it’s just History) has defined the academic subject as including ancient aliens and truckers; TV Land’s reruns have gone from old-school classics to stuff from 10 years ago; just about every fine-arts channel broadcasts reality TV now.

It makes sense — in a crowded market, no one’s going to subsidize a network that does something unpopular. All these networks once did slightly different things, but now many have shifted toward the same model: broadcasting unscripted shows depicting a particular corner of the American experience (trucking, pawnbroking, being a pampered wife of one variety or another). Still, there’s something a bit wistful about imagining each of these cable networks’ original iterations frozen in amber — rather than a dial full of similar-looking broadcasts, we could have a gleefully out-of-step Bravo and A&E doing British costume drama, and medical oddities all over TLC. Oh well–there’s always reading!

via TV’s 10 most bizarre reinventions – Salon.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Blogs, Discover Magazine.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/08/05/shark-week-jumps-the-shark-an-open-letter-to-discovery-communications/

While there may be a debate about what “sightings” may be, there is one thing that scientists are sure of: Megalodon is extinct.

Part of me is furious with you, Discovery, for doing this. But mostly, I’m just deeply saddened. It’s inexplicably depressing that you’ve gone from “the world’s #1 nonfiction media company” to peddling lies and faking stories for ratings. You’ve compromised your integrity so completely with this special, and that breaks my heart. I loved you, Discovery, ever since I was a child. I grew up watching you. It was partly because of you that I became transfixed by the natural world and pursued a career in science. I once dreamed of having my own Discovery Channel special, following in the footsteps of people like Jeff Corwin. Not anymore. This is inexcusable. You have an obligation to your viewers to hold to your non-fiction claims. You used to expose the beautiful, magical, wonderful sides of the world around us. Now, you just make shit up for profit. It’s depressing. It’s disgusting. It’s wrong.

I won’t be watching the rest of Shark Week. I simply can’t.

From the web site, From New York to San Francisco.

http://gcaggiano.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/history-channels-chasing-tail-are-you-kidding-me/

I’m not even going to bother sliding into my regular shtick about how far the network has fallen, or how I would take the 24/7 Hitler and Nazi Germany program broadcasting of the 90′s any day over this garbage, because it is a fruitless effort. Apparently, I am in the minority when it comes to opinion on programming. I guess I should feel silly for wanting the History Channel to stop putting on shows where toothless red-necks blast alligator brains out with shotguns and then jump up and down in their little boats hootin’ n’ hollerin’ with unintelligible grunts like they just won the lottery. I am amazed, after seeing shows like that, at how surprised people from the Deep South are when they are looked at as being backwards hicks. Do not blame northern ignorance, my friends, blame the media and popular culture that has turned your society into a hole of filth and slime. At least Chasing Tail is going to do something to repair the damage done: it will show that northerners can be hicks too!

I do not know what is even left anymore. H2 used to always be the safe haven when the History Channel started going to hell, but even that is being corrupted with asinine, pseudo-historical shows like America Unearthed, where the host, Scott Wolter, can make an entire episode centered around a microscopic carving on a rock and lead the viewer on a baseless quest around the country to misrepresent far-reaching theories as fact, and then find absolutely no concrete evidence to back anything up. This show, in format and principle, is identical to Ancient Aliens. The latter attempts to say that everything the ancients built on earth was really built by aliens, while the former attempts to say that everything ancient Americans built on this continent was really built by foreigners. Is there a difference? I acknowledge that the history books are wrong and there is more than meets the eye, but without actual evidence, the shows are absolutely useless. Maybe if I carved a cross onto the tree in my backyard I could get the crew to come down to try to prove that the Knights Templar hid the Holy Grail in Hazlet, New Jersey. Maybe if I find a really big squirrel climbing that same tree I can get Monsterquest to come out of retirement and have a double whammy!

 

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