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There's only one of them running for president though, and that's a problem.

Most Americans aren't idiots, but I've come to the conclusion that a strong plurality of the talking heads and people who congregate on Daily Kos are.

They don't seem to understand that there are huge chunks of the US that are undergoing almost unspeakable economic hardship at this point.  

Nothing irritates me more than being back at the University, and having friends who've never been anything but a student delude themselves into thinking that because they have a college degree they will be able to go out and find a job making
$100,000 a year.  

Imagine a whole country of people who are convinced that someday they will all be rich.  Americans are on the whole not class consciousness, but in the lat few years that's changed dramatically as places that used to have well paying union jobs have seen them go away.  And now everybody's trying to live on $7.00 hour, working 52 weeks a year with no health insurance.

Americans on the whole may be for the most part Christians, but our elites are far more into Mammon than Jesus.

And until people realize that they will never be wealth, but that they can live comfortably if they unite to defend their rights, there will be no change.

America needs to introduce the cultural concept  that the Swedes call logom and that my Amish ancestors call being plain to the national dialoge.  

At some point you have enough money to live comfortably, and the further acquisition of wealth is driven by the desire for increased social standing than any actual need.  

Europeans know this, but it's anathema in the United States.  And it's killing this country.  Max Weber must be turning in his grave.  Formal rationality has overcome substantive rationality, and society cannabilized so that some may gain.  But formal rationality and the money logic can't exist without society.  

What use is money and property if society descends into a war of all upon all?

What does a fancy car mean when you have to live in a gated community, and carry a concealed handgun to keep it?

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:35:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
America needs to introduce the cultural concept  that the Swedes call logom

Lagom. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:42:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks.

This explains why I have such a hard time find information on it.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:43:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Is that related to the danish work "lokum"?

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill
by r------ on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:49:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I have no idea what lokum means.

Lagom is "tilpas" in Danish.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:33:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
synonym of udhus, that's probably the same in swedish.

my danish is rusty as all hell and never was all that good, but when i was learning it, my friends got me to think the polite way to ask directions to it was to say jeg skal på lokum, (the equivalent of which would be to say: où sont vos chiottes ...)

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:57:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
For those who haven't been in contact with the word, here is the Wikipedia entry with the relevant passage bolded.

Lagom is a Swedish word with no direct English equivalent.

The Lexin Swedish-English dictionary defines lagom as "enough, sufficient, adequate, just right." Lagom is also widely translated as "in moderation," "in balance," "optimal," "suitable," and "average." But whereas words like "sufficient" and "average" suggest some degree of abstinence, scarcity, or failure, lagom carries the connotation of perfection or appropriateness. The archetypical Swedish proverb "Lagom är bäst," literally "Lagom is best," is translated as "Enough is as good as a feast" in the Lexin dictionary. That same proverb is translated as "There is virtue in moderation" in Prismas Stora Engelska Ordbok (1995).



Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:36:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Try this as a close equivalent:
sufficiency
1.    the state or fact of being sufficient; adequacy.
2.    a sufficient number or amount; enough.
3.    adequate provision or supply, esp. of wealth.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape
by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 05:27:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The most interesting thing is that it means both "optimal", "sufficient" and "average"...

Books have been writen about this subject, and debates have raged. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 08:21:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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