RETURN TO P.P.E.

I have been struggling with coming to terms with Mr Trump’s forthcoming presidency of the United States. The news reports about his choices for members of his cabinet do not in any way alleviate one’s fears. Indeed there is even greater concern that his less than even amateur approach to constitutional government will cause greater conflict and lead to policies even more detrimental to civilisation than his election already has. The rule of law has been replaced by a ‘concept’ of governance. He seeks to immunise criminality on a colossal scale by deploying cruel and vicious sycophants throughout his administration. The fact that his republican party acolytes are in the majority in congress gives him the freedom to run roughshod over the constitution unless those senators and representatives remember their sworn oath to uphold the checks and balances of the constitution. Their devotion to Trump seems to override their actual oath of allegiance to the United States of America.   It seems clear therefore that the current leadership of the country is without character, ethics, integrity or indeed any civilised philosophy whatsoever. The rule of the gangster and the mob is all.

 

As well as the above mentioned cogitations, I have been contemplating the mater of a degree in PPE at the Open University. According to Wikipedia, a Politics, Philosophy and Economics degree was first offered by the University of Oxford in 1920 as an interdisciplinary degree combining study of the three disciplines. In theory one would assume such an endeavour would provide one with a very strong platform from which to put oneself forward as a public servant. A thorough grounding in the activities of government and members of law-making bodies who can influence the way a country is governed, and the way in which it is governed, would seem to be a prerequisite for any elected or appointed representative.  As a compliment to this, knowledge of the various types of economy and how different approaches to commerce, industry and public services can affect the nation would also seem of some significance to maintaining a country’s ability to function. To cap it off, some grip of logical and ethical thinking might be appropriate if one is going to present oneself to the public as someone who understands humanity or at least has developed some knowledge of what can be called the human condition. Does one know anything? How can one know what is right or wrong? What is freedom? What is the best form of government for my particular country?  What are human rights? What’s it all about?

 

There are institutions around the world that recognise the necessity for combined study of these subjects with a view to improving the quality of its government and, as a result the better wellbeing of its society. The École Normale Supérieur in Paris is an instance in point.

 

“The school is very small in student numbers. Its core of students…are selected via competitive exam…Two hundred are…recruited every year…and receive a. monthly salary…and in exchange sign a ten year contract to work for the state…”

 

This clause is not necessarily applied although a number of alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate forms in France. Good, bad or indifferent as the case may be, these are people with some dedication to public service who have undertaken a very specific course of study to understand what their function, as hired civil servants or elected officials, ought to be.

 

In the United States there are a number of universities who offer a form of PPE although some merely call it Political Economy or Ethics, History and Public Policy. At Yale it is Ethics, Politics and Economics. Some only offer the course as a postgraduate degree.. Whatever its designation it seems to have had little effect in the United States. 

 

What we now have in place in America is the populist amateur insanity. He has already indicated he wishes to rule by executive order and will seek to pass legislation allowing him to make appointments bypassing legislative scrutiny and consent. This is exactly what Hitler did within two months of taking office with the Enabling Act of 1933 or Ermächtigungsgesetz, officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (Law to Remedy the distress of People and State).  If that parallel is not a warning of things to come, I don’t know what is.

 

But I digress yet again. I spoke of a return to university education.  At this late stage, and with some worry about my immediate short term memory, it is perhaps a frivolous expense, and I can hardly see myself seeking public office in Lambeth at whatever level. I would be hovering towards 90 at graduation, assuming I even make it to putting on the Mortar Board. So perhaps a more autodidactic approach would be best. My inspiration would be Abraham Lincoln, the man Mr Trump likes so much to compare his alleged achievements.

 

Unfortunately I do not read as much as Lincoln did, but then in the early 19^th Century in Illinois and Indiana there were no smart phones or Netflix or 100 TV channels to choose from, quite apart from movie theatres. There was little displacement activity to distract Lincoln from books, apart from his father hiding them or throwing them away.  This went on from Lincoln’s birth in 1809 to 1831 when Lincoln left the parental home. Twenty nine years later he was elected President of the United States. He was first elected to office in the Illinois House of Representatives where he served four terms from 1834 to 1842 during which time he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1836. He was elected to US House of Representatives as representative of Illinois’s 7^th district in 1847 until 1849. He was elected President in 1860. So he was not without some political education as well as commercial and legal experience in between civic duties, all the while continuously educating himself in all manner of ways. He was only 56 when he died. He achieved extraordinary things even though he, himself, claimed to be slow to catch on to concepts and ideas. Would that we were all so slow.

 

So, in looking at the Yale University list of core requirement for the study of Ethics, Politics and Economics, we have, inter alia:

Tradition and Modernity

Persuasion and Discontents

Recent Work on Justice

Normative Ethics

The Problem of Evil

Propaganda, Ideology and Democracy

Strategic Models of Politics

America from Scratch

Digital War

The European Union

Politics of the Environment

Debating Globalisation

Topics in Cooperative Game Theory

Platforms and Cultural Production

 

This is only a sample of what’s on offer.

 

As to the PPE course at the LSE, the 1^st year required courses are listed as:

PH103 – The Big Question: An introduction to Philosophy (Dr Paola Romero)

GV101- Introduction to Political Science (Dr Ryan Jablonski)

EC1A3 – Microeconomics I (Prof Ronny Razin)

EC1B3 – Macroeconomics (Dr Antonio Mele)

LSE100 – The LSE Course – flagship interdisciplinary course for all undergraduate students, designed to bring you into the heart of LSE tradition of engaging with big questions.

 

There are also options in the first year:

ST107 Quantitative Methods (Statistics), MA107 Quantitative Methods (Mathematics), MA108 Methods in calculus and linear algebra, MA100 Mathematical Methods.

 

In the circumstances, as much as I would love to get to grips with ‘America from Scratch’ and the ‘Problem of Evil’ at Yale, I thought I might get in touch with Doctors Romero, Jablonski and Mele, as well as Professor Razin, explain my situation and ask them for their reading lists and titles of essay assignments. I could then post the essays on the blog for comment.

 

Would anyone else living in London care to join in? We could meet up once a fortnight or month, or even week, for an hour or two, to discuss our progress. It could be a fun exercise and might keep the brain cells ticking over.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ADAM SMITH'S CONCERNED PERSON

I went into Guys Hospital on Tuesday the 5^th November 2024 at about 7:50 AM London UK time. After various administrative sessions and chat with a wonderful Attending Clinician Miss Pareeta Patel, the team did their stuff and I woke up in the recovery room and was wheeled into Aston Key Ward at around midday. I was to be kept overnight, just in case, and was administered antibiotics and hooked up to a drip feed of some clear liquid for eight hours through the night.

 

The following morning Wednesday 6^th November 2024 I got hold of the mobile and gleefully logged into the BBC online to see the United States election results. To my surprise, consternation and despair I saw a substantial lead for Donald Trump. It was deeply depressing and I could not bear to look at it anymore, nor could I bring myself to listen to or read any further reporting on the matter.   A brief glance at the numbers voting was even more disturbing.

Clearly a great many people had not bothered to vote, and it was reported that over 50% of women who had bothered to vote, voted for Mr Trump. If that is right, then the United States has definitely entered into a new dark age. The level of ignorance has reached catastrophic proportions.

 

I asked myself how any American women, who must surely be aware that independent juries, chosen in part by Mr Trump himself, found him guilty of sexual assault and possible rape as well as libel and ordered him to pay millions of dollars in compensation (which, as far as I know, he has yet to do), and convicted him of felonies trying to hide a sexual peccadillo, could bring herself to vote for Donald Trump as President of the United States.

 

That aside, I questioned how it was that so many allegedly college educated citizens could do the same. What is being taught in American Universities? The number of such institutions rated in the top 100 world university rankings is 33. Seven of the top ten are in the United States, including Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Cal Tech, UC at Berkeley and Yale. The University of Chicago is at number 13 on the list. The University of Pennsylvania is number 16, followed by Columbia at 17 and UCLA at 18. What are students coming away with? Are they completely incapable of rational thought? Are they completely unable to discern fact from fiction, lies from a semblance of truth? Do they have no concept whatsoever of mendacity? Are they just as devoid of character as Mr Trump? Is psychotic narcissism the new icon?  I ask again, what is being taught at American Universities?

 

Clearly very little of value. As a result we have entered into a new dark age and we will all suffer for it. So far as the UK is concerned, the Editor of the Telegraph Allister Heath heads his editorial with “Trump’s triumph is a disaster for Starmer and the self-regarding, virtue signalling elites – This resounding triumph is total repudiation of the Left’s brand of politics – and cataclysmic for Labour.” What else can one expect from the Telegraph. Nigel Farage has offered to help the Government as intermediary with Donald Trump. Can you believe that?

 

In other papers, notably the Guardian, one finds “Today is a day of despair for America. We are plunged into an anticipatory grief”, “People around the world are appalled by Trump win. But women have been gripped by a visceral horror”, “The shocking US election result will create a new world order – and launch a fresh wave of Trump wannabes”, “Why Donald Trump’s return is a disaster for Europe”, “Trump’s win is so much worse this time. Americans knew what they were voting for”, did they really? Clearly I am not alone in this despair.

This cartoon from The Times:

 

What can one expect now that gangster and fraudsters will now occupy the white house? The United States has lost any character it might have had. It started with the complete betrayal of constitutional rule of law, by granting the President of the United States immunity from prosecution. An outrageous action that has now made him invulnerable. This crass stupidity is completely contrary to the intentions of the founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States.  

 

Now of course begins the posturing and behind the door’s meetings in every Capital around the globe on how to deal with Trump. As reported Farage has offered the UK Government help. The UK Government is rewording the various comments some of its Ministers have previously made about Mr Trump, including the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. Putin and his mob will or course be delighted and will be ramping up the flattery and probably will be annexing the Ukraine any time soon. Netanyahu will possibly be a fly in the ointment as he will feel able to go crazy with his aggression. After all he has the ear of Mr Trump.

 

So much is uncertain. The counting houses are weighing up his tariff proposals and general economic manoeuvrings. The general American public, and mostly the lower income poorly educated he so loves, will probably suffer the most before they realise what they have done. As to the rich, they will love it. According to some investment merchants “Trump’s policies can be summarised as lower taxes, higher tariffs, and more domestic energy production with potentially less support for the energy transition.” There won’t be much help for the MAGA crowd despite what they think.

 

What is apparent from all this stuff is that despite Mr Trump’s previous advisors, both military and civilian as well as some members of his cabinet and executive team working with him in his first term as President, clearly stating that he was not fit to be President again, they have been ignored. Why? Was no one listening? I say again, his own people think him unfit to hold the office. Why is that ignored? 

 

In addition, he reiterated Ronald Reagan’s question, at a late stage, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” A difficult question given the difficulties around the world with increases in prices and the general need to fund climate disasters across a number of southern states. So of course a lot of people feel let down because of increases in general living expenses for food and energy. Nonetheless the economic situation in the United States was improving and showing more growth potential than any other country around the world. Being insular, Americans failed to take that in.

 

But, regardless of all that, what is glaringly apparent is Mr Trump’s total lack of character and his infantile psychotic narcissism, as well as his offensive divisive language, sexist, deviant and blatantly criminal behaviour. None of that seems to matter one jot. One can only draw the conclusion that the American public have lost all sense of civility or ethics. They no longer have any regard for integrity and have lost any sense of social consciousness. Let the gangsters’ rule and to hell with the rule of law so long as it makes me feel I am better off that I was four years ago. It has become a completely selfish society. Americans are as arrogant and narcicistic as their leader. Make Me First is what it’s all about. What other conclusion can one draw.

 

With that in mind, what difference education? Fuck the rest as long as I’m all right and don’t really have to think about much. Keep the foreigners out, just get rid of them. Why should my taxes be used to look after those losers?

 

Looking at the figures, some 20 million plus people did not vote. Excuses given are numerous. The Democratic Candidate was a woman, black, shaky on Gaza, flaky on immigration, too much aligned to social consciousness and we can’t vote for Trump either. What difference does it make anyway? 

 

Americans care nothing about character.

 

I post here another comment from Bob in California. Make of it what you will.

Well Ed,

 Looks like “the People” have spoken!

Trump and the right have so corrupted the way “the People” get their news that most voters remain uninformed as to the true state of affairs and are as likely to be influenced by the false statements proliferated on the right, the Russian firehose of propaganda poured upon us, and “X”, run by a South African born into an apartheid society, all who spread lies and false stories about the Democratic candidate.

So, the strategy was to kill the bipartisan immigration bill in Congress and voted against by more than 140 Republicans, who had previously supported it, but opposed by Trump, so that he could run on “immigration”.

The next step was to scare people about immigrants as he did in 2016, and smear Harris, calling her every name he could think of such as fascist, socialist, communist and calling her dumb and low IQ.  The two things that seem to work in politics are scare and smear, and that was his message, over and over. This was all accomplished in a fact-free environment, as they attacked the “main stream media” as being untrustworthy and dishonest. It would appear that many folks just turned off and did no fact-finding whatsoever.

But the Democrats helped out here as they discarded Biden and went for a “Black Woman”.  It would seem that the lessons of the past were not learned, when Trump defeated a white woman, but four years later lost to a white man. Many demographic groups really didn’t want a (black) woman as President, such as Hispanic men and Black men. Although this was not universal in these groups, the numbers were high enough to swing the election. Democrats though they could beat this by turnout on election day, which ignores this bias entirely. Instead of seeing the problem with a large racist portion of the population, they went for it, instead of choosing someone like the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who could actually have a chance of winning He has been relentlessly attacked by the right since he Governor of California in an effort to negate him as a candidate for President.

Additionally, the timid US Attorney General did nothing about the Jan 6^th riot at the Capital for several years, destroying any chance to conclude the prosecutions of Trump before the election. Apparently, he felt threatened by the Trump followers, who continued to threaten government officials and employees. The Jan 6^th Congressional Committee dropped all the necessary evidence into the Attorney General’s lap several years before the appointment of the Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith. Nothing happened! Truly tragic.

So, the United States of America will be led by a twice impeached, felon, who is a sexual predator and proven fraudster in New York. He apparently has an IQ in the 70’s, has trouble learning and incorporating new facts into his “thinking”, lies constantly, and admires dictators. What could possibly go wrong??