Ike's ognons
Pondering constants and variables as usual. It's clear that FDR and Ike were the sanest presidents in recent memory. Both focused on infrastructure, both avoided foreign adventures. (Until FDR was forced by an actual foreign attack, which is exactly as it should be.)

Trying to peel the ognon a bit more, why are those two points important? The deeper question, I think, is "What makes a country defensible?" It's the same as "What makes a house defensible?" Or any object.

Three things:

1. Tools for defense. For all objects, it's WALLS and FENCES and BORDERS. For a country, you want to back up the WALLS with a strong army. For a house you want mousetraps, insect poison, or a gun under your pillow, depending on the dominant threat.

2. Tools for withstanding a siege. A well-connected infrastructure with lots of storage. For a country, banks, dams, grain silos, food warehouses. Same for house, on a different scale. Batteries, freeze-dried food, patient things.

3. Tools to rebuild damage. Army Corps of Engineers; hammers, drills, shovels.

4. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: People who feel like defending the object.

The last is the real heart of the ognon. If the people don't want the object to survive, no point having tools.

FDR started office with a population that was HAIRTRIGGER revolutionary. Steps 1,2,3 had been neglected for decades. Mass movements were building. FDR had to restore trust and faith. He did it by implementing steps 1,2,3. Dams, windbreaks, trustworthy banks.

Ike had a less powerful problem, and he solved it less successfully. Yoonyuns (not to be confused with unyons) were striking all over the place, blocking 1,2,3. Soviet agents were taking over the courts and media. (ie Brown vs Board and Army vs McCarthy.) Ike got the yoonyuns under control, but completely failed on the Soviets. We're still dying from his failure. Nevertheless, he mobilized a major improvement of dams and highways, which provided jobs and electricity, stopped floods, and helped industry run better. He didn't allow Free Trade or Open Borders. He STOPPED the counterproductive Korean War and DIDN'T START any new wars. Result: Prosperity that ACTUALLY LIFTED ALL BOATS. People felt like defending the country. Despite the Commie failure, still a better record than any other president except FDR.

Labels: defensible spaces, Patient things

  ¶ 5:12 PM