President Donald Trump

Summary of Chapters 1-15, published in RAIS, August 2020; and ResearchLEAP, February 2021.

Summary of Chapters 16 - 30, published in RAIS, October, 2020, and ResearchLEAP, April 2021.

 

Synthisophy - Integrating the wisdoms of history into present culture

Roots – Synthesis/History/Sophy

Synthesis - the integration of separate material or abstract entities into a single  
or unified whole

History - what has happened in the past; a detailed description of past events as
relating to a particular people, country, period, etc…

Sophy - Greek root: wisdom, knowledge; an intellectual system embracing
knowledge and truth; study of the real world based on fact and truth, science

As you know, the USA today is a very polarized society. Technology in the Digital Age can be challenging. It can also be an avenue for us to interact despite differences in viewpoints and geography. That is the role of Synthisophy, integrating the wisdoms of history based on fact and truth into present culture. To foster an understanding of the real world, it’s important to learn about points of view which don’t match your own.

Citizens are the crux of democracy, an educated and well informed citizenry is vital for the survival of a democratic republic. As Benjamin Franklin said after exiting the Constitutional Convention and was asked what sort of government the delegates had created, his answer was, “We’ve given you a Republic, can you keep it?” With synthisophy in mind the answer to his question is “Yes, we can.”

Synthisophy
Synthisophy
Synthisophy

"We've given you a Republic, can
you keep it?" Ben Franklin after
the 
Constitutional Convention

"If we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed
ourselves." Abraham Linclon

"United we stand, divided
we fall." John F. Kennedy
Inaugural speech

"I believe, as I always have, 
that America's strength is in
'We the People.'" Ronald Reagan

Here are the latest discussions:

What do you think? Here’s a post prompted by a member who two days ago posted an explanation of a Chinese term. Here’s an introductory quote: The Chinese slur "Baizuo" (白左) sprung up in 2015, and literally means "White lefty", but there's some undertones in the characters that imply "privileged" or "stupid" with the first character, and "extreme" with the second.

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang  (陰陽 yīnyáng, literally "dark-bright", "negative-positive")  describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world.

Let’s consider masculinity and femininity in terms of Yin and Yang.

Masculinity: Traits traditionally viewed as masculine in Western society include courage, independence, assertiveness and aggression, as well as restricted emotions and pursuit of achievement and status.

Femininity: Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity, as well as caring, compassion, tolerance, nurturance, deference, and succorance.

Here’s a pertinent quote from Junger in his book Tribe, On Homecoming and Belonging, page 126:

The most alarming rhetoric comes out of the dispute between liberals and conservatives, it’s a dangerous waste of time because they’re both right. The perennial conservative concern about high taxes supporting a nonworking “underclass” has entirely legitimate roots in our evolutionary past and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Early hominids lived a precarious existence where freeloaders were a direct threat to survival, and so they developed an exceedingly acute sense of whether they were being taken advantage of by members of their own group. But by the same token, one of the hallmarks of early human society was the emergence of a culture of compassion that cared for the ill, the elderly, the wounded, and the unlucky. In today’s terms, that is a common liberal concern that also has to be taken into account. Those two driving forces have coexisted for hundreds of thousands of years in human society and have been duly codified in this country as a two-party political system. The eternal argument over so-called entitlement programs—and, more broadly, over liberal and conservative thought—will never be resolved because each side represents an ancient and absolutely essential component of our evolutionary past.

As Junger so succinctly implies, conservatives are the masculine Yin and the liberals are the feminine Yang. In the hundreds of thousands of years of Paleolithic human evolution, these two traits were working together in harmony and were invaluable to the survival of the species, otherwise our species could very well have gone extinct. Yin and Yang were evolutionarily selected and a product of human evolution. But now Yin and Yang seem to be isolated, hyping out of control and working against each other, and most likely causing our present hyperpolarization.

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What do you think?

Reuters
Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Syria on Monday April 1st in a strike that Iran said killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.

CNN
Iran has vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria on Monday, in a deadly escalation of regional tensions over the war in Gaza that once again appeared to raise the risk of a wider Middle Eastern conflict.

Israel has conflict now on three fronts: Hamas inside Israel, now directly with Iran, and a continuing simmering conflict with Hezbollah on the northern Lebanese border.

AP
Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early April 13th after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. An Israeli military spokesman said the launches numbered more than 300 but 99% of them were intercepted.

CNN

Iran has warned that it will respond with more force if Israel retaliates over this weekend's strikes. Should the Israeli regime commit any military aggression again, Iran's response will assuredly and decisively be stronger and more resolute,” Iranian Ambassador Iravani said.

Reuters

April 15 - Israel's military chief said on Monday his country would respond to Iran's weekend missile and drone attack amid calls for restraint by allies anxious to avoid an escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet for the second time in less than 24 hours to weigh how to react to Iran's first-ever direct attack on Israel, a government source said. Israel's military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the country would respond, but provided no details.

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What do you think?

Here’s a quote from Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, in response to this question from a reporter yesterday:

New York Post Reporter:
House Speaker Johnson, would you rather “do the right thing” even it means losing your job in supporting funding for Ukraine?

Johnson:
Listen, my philosophy is, you do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may. If I operated out of fear over a motion to vacate I would never be able to do my job. Look, history judges us for what we do, this is a critical time right now, critical time on the world stage. I could make a selfish decision and do something that’s different but I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing. I think providing lethal aide to Ukraine right now is critically important. I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten. I believe Xi and Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil, I believe they’re in coordination on this, Vladimir Putin would continue to march though Europe if he were allowed. He might go to the Balkans next, he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies. 

To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys. My son is gonna begin in the Naval Academy this Fall. This is a live fire exercise for me as it is for so many American families. This is not a game, this is not a joke, we can’t play politics with this, we have to do the right thing.  And I’m going to allow an opportunity for every single member of the House to vote their conscience and their will on this. And I think that’s how this institution is supposed to work, and I’m willing to take a personal risk for that because we have to do the right thing and history will judge us.

Here’s a quick summary of what’s going on in the House:
Speaker Mike Johnson said he will "take personal risk" by pushing ahead with his plans for a House vote on foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as fellow Republican representatives continue to call for him to vacate the chair.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on sending additional aid to Ukraine and Israel on Saturday as part of the $95 billion military funding. The package is divided into four bills, the first and second being aid to Ukraine and Israel, the third is issuing funding for Taiwan. The fourth includes sanctions on Russia, China and Iran as well as measures to allow the seizing of frozen Russian central bank assets to aid Ukraine. Seeking to appease the more right-leaning flank of the Republican Party, Johnson announced a fifth bill to provide further funding for security measures at the southern border with Mexico—a policy many in the GOP have made clear is a top priority. Each bill requires a separate vote.

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Source: Newsweek and C-SPAN video posted by the New York Post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cLLEBWxJS8

What do you think?

The Senate on Tuesday passed a long-delayed $95 billion package with wide bipartisan support after both sides of Capitol Hill have struggled for months to send aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The final vote was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with three Democrats against the bill. Forty-eight Democrats and 31 Republicans voted for the bill.

The package ties together four bills that the House voted on separately in a rare Saturday session, providing nearly $61 billion in aid for Ukraine, over $26 billion for Israel and more than $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific.

The fourth bill increases sanctions on Russian assets and contains language that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the US. It gives Chinese parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell TikTok, or the app will be banned from American app stores.

President Biden signed the $95 billion package on Wednesday.

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Source: CNN