Part Two
A Kinder Gentler Interview With Won Hung Lo
A LITTLE OVERVIEW
Won is a retired teacher and Social Scientist. He taught for many years at a small college in the U.S. He came to this country from his native Taiwan, about 30 years ago. I have always found his well thought out but somewhat unorthodox views to be very interesting and useful to consider.
PT: Well Won, I am glad we have this opportunity to sit down and talk about our favorite subject, Politics.
WL: Yes, I know we both love the subject. I think that without the things that are going on in the world of Politics, both of us would be bored out of our skulls – safer, but bored.
PT: The first thing that I would like to ask you is: How did you come to hold the views that you do? Can you explain what forces, ideas, and so on, led you to the conclusions you have, and the way you see events?
WL: Well, I know that you and your friends come from a sub-culture that did not have the usual indoctrination into the morays and paradigms that most of your fellow citizens start out with. For me, it was about the same. I came to this country, from Taiwan, in order to continue my education. I basically came here for the money. I applied for and got a scholarship for graduate work. I had applied to several other programs , in several other countries. Any one of those other programs would have suited me fine, and I am sure that my career and life would have been quite bright in any other of those places. The U.S. was the first and most well-endowed program that I encountered, so I came here. It’s as simple as that, I came here for the money, not out of some great love or desire for some “Dream”.
I had never given this country much thought, other than what benefit I might get for continuing my education. Like you and your friends, I was never indoctrinated with any particular great emotional investment in the country or its people. I think that this is why I saw things differently, and, more objectively than others who have more of an emotional investment.
Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for the opportunities that coming here has provided me, but I just don’t feel the need to automatically approve of everything that this government and its people do, just because I got a scholarship.
For me, it’s business. If I receive some goods or services from someone, I owe them some compensation in return. I don’t owe them a lick on the hand, and eternal love. In my case, I owe this country obedience of its moral laws, and support of its morally appropriate obligations, nothing more or less. If this was 1940, and I was accepted into a similar program in Nazi Germany, I would have owed that government and culture the same things. The difference, of course, would be that I would have probably had to have left that situation.
Sometimes, I think that maybe I should leave this country also, but I choose to remain here, because it still suits my purpose, and I feel that there is still hope for improvement here. Also, I am still doing O.K., even if it’s not “fantastic”. Also, I believe what Teddy Roosevelt said: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have”.
PT: So, how do you see this country and its people now? What are some of the issues that you see as needing to be addressed?
WL: Well, let me tell you a little story about a mythical land that heard of. It might explain a few of the issues that are found in this country now.
There is this nation, let’s call it the Ultimate Screwing of Amerika, U.S.A. for short. You have this leader of the in party, a Mr. Osama. You have this leader of the out party, a Mr. Boner. Both of these gentlemen are absolutely beloved by the rank and file members of their respective parties. The out party is the Republicrats and the Democans is the in party.
Now the Republicrats, love the rich. They want them to have all of the advantages, and the poor to provide all the funding for the welfare state for the rich. The rank and file, who are mostly just struggling to make ends meet, thinks this idea is just ducky. They believe that if the rich can just have a little more that they, the rank and file, will be able to benefit from the crumbs falling out of the mouths of the super-rich. They also believe that they too will someday be the super-rich, if they can just keep the poor from hogging all the wealth.
The Democans are a little different. The rank and file doesn’t so much hate the rich, as they just want what they feel is their basic human right. The leaders of the party, however, do love the rich. I guess this is because the leaders are themselves rich. The leaders also depend on other rich individuals and corporations for help in getting themselves elected and re-elected.
Now these two parties have enjoyed their success for many generations. They make money and gain power and prestige by making sure that their corporate masters make plenty of money, and also have plenty of power. To do this, the leaders make sure that there are plenty of wars, and that these wars keep going for as long as possible, and that new wars come along when an old war ends. They keep the rank and file running, by keeping them scared that things will get worse if the other party gets into power, and things will get better if their party gets into power. They also keep the rank and file scared of one imaginary menace after another. Today it is Arabs, yesterday it was Commies, and tomorrow it will be something else.
There is also another group of people in this mix. They are the people that suspect that there is something going on that isn’t quite as the leaders tell the rank and file. They are not bright enough to see exactly what it is, but they know that the standard fears that everyone else believes in are not true. These people still love their country, but think that the system needs to be tweaked a little to make it perfect. They still feel the vague hate and fear of the manufactured boogiemen that they are told about, even though they don’t believe in them. I guess the indoctrination of all the years have still had an effect on them. Everyone else seems to distrust, fear, and hate these malcontents.
Getting back to your question as to what I feel is the problem, I think it is this: The problem is belief in the system. If the rank and file could ever get to the point where they lose faith in the system, or the malcontents could ever bring themselves to think outside of the box, things might change. The problem is the system. The whole thing is rotten beyond reform. Someone has to take that next step, and figure this out. Then things can really change. Tweaking the system will not work. It’s like putting a bandage on a cancer. The cancer has to be cut out. Gently if possibly, but cut out. But, that’s the problem with that mythical country. I don’t have any idea what is wrong with this country, if anything.
PT: Well, thank you for that insight.
WL: I will say something about the situation in this country. I have not been able to figure out exactly what game it is that the elites are playing on the poor dumb rubes. Is it good cop/bad cop, or something more akin to professional wrestling? Also, how is it possible that the people don’t seem to get it that they are seeing the same old dog and pony show over and over again?
PT: What do you mean by that?
WL: Let me give you an example from the recent past. Take Obama. He is by no means a liberal Democrat. He is more like a middle of the road Republican. His policies have been the same or worse that George Bush, he has every bit as much support from the rich corporations as any Republican ever had, and it looks like he is going to be able to do, or at least he is going to attempt to do, what the Republicans could never do – make cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, and deliver the cash savings into the coffers of the Republican corporate military contractors.. All this, and the good liberal Democrats, especially of color, love him. Further, the good Republicans look at him and see the Liberal, Commie Devil. Is all this just theater, and if so, how is it that it is not noticed?
You know, it is really hard for me to keep the spittle within my mouth when talking about politics in this country, or when talking about the absolute criminal blindness and stupidity of the people. The only thing that keeps it in there, is that I see the
rest of the nations of the world and their citizens, behaving in exactly the same way as the Americans. I guess that I have been concentrating my criticism on this country for so long now, that I must have failed to notice what has been going on in the others.
PT: So, how would you describe the state of things in the U.S. today? Can you give us an overview of what general trend you see?
WL: Well, It is somewhat hard to read exactly what is happening now, other than to say that it appears to be a case of us against them. I think that what has happened is that the “leaders”, elites, corporate raiders, and the like, have become so out of touch with the reality of the average person, that they are now incapable of running the show any more. If they are allowed to continue, they are going to start ruining things even for themselves.
It’s as if they no longer are able to see any connection between their ruining the economy, environment, resources, killing millions of brown people in foreign lands, in order to get a few more zeros on a ledger sheet in “short term profit”; and the quality of the life and world that their children will inherit. The whole system is not just wrong, or harmful, or any other word that can describe things, it is insane. The money junkies have no concern