Tom Wolfe had some interesting observations on the ethnic, cultural, and religious roots of America’s revolution in computer and aerospace technology - How the innovators had deep roots not in the Ivy League, or MIT, but the “boondocks” of the heartland.
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Wolfe finds roots for the tech revolution in Dissenting Protestant culture in the unlikely location of Grinnell, Iowa, where the of a son of a Congregational minister - Robert Noyce, inventor of the first practical microchip and co-founder of Intel - studied engineering.
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In contrast to the heartland, engineering was out-of-fashion with the east coast establishment. At MIT for his graduate work, Noyce discovered that no one at this renowned institution seemed interested in the transistor.
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Noyce was not atypical - Most of the major Silicon Valley figures “had grown up and gone to college in small towns in the Middle West and the West.” In the midst of 1960s anarchy, the real revolutionaries were squares from Iowa with Dissenting Protestant roots.
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Silicon Valley - like the Apollo program moon landing - was “the triumph of the squares” – Engineers from the boondocks provided the innovation and passion. The one expert from back east who was called-in at Apollo - Jerome Wiesner of MIT – was ready to throw in the towel.
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At the dawn of this California tech-boom with heartland roots, the tedious assembly line work was almost invariably being performed by women - *American women* – For the “Jobs Americans Won’t Do” lie had yet to enter the national discourse.
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Some current year observers may be astonished that early Silicon Valley was able to innovate and succeed without H1B visas or DEI departments. But diversity-enthusiasts can take comfort that at least the space program relied heavily on a handful of highly skilled immigrants.
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The other founding father of Silicon Valley profiled in Wolfe’s essay was William Shockley, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for research in semiconductors. Shockley, however would later make the “cancelled” lists because he held unauthorized views on intelligence and heritability.
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Bombing Germany – From Douhet to Dresden: How British and American air forces came to employ a strategy of massacring civilians.
> Instead of engaging enemy forces, peak American technology and some of its best, bravest men were put to work killing women and children.
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"Jus in Bello" traditions had endured for nearly two hundred years in the West. But after WW I, the new theories of air warfare and the new technology of the heavy four-engine bomber set the stage for the indiscriminate destruction of cities and the mass-killing of civilians.
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Pre-WW II air-power theorists like Douhet had argued that terror-bombing of civilians would actually *shorten* a war and save lives. Although bombing of military targets continued throughout the war, proponents of terror bombing were allowed to put their theory into practice.
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In 1974, in the second month of the disastrous court-ordered integration in Boston, violence spread and the crisis escalated, with national implications. President Ford weighed-in, and the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Brag was put on standby alert.
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In September of 1974, the often violent resistance in South Boston had grabbed national attention. Hopes that the turmoil could be contained to one neighborhood were soon shattered. In early October, Blacks rioted in neighborhoods across the city. 2/
On October 8, following news of a beating of a Haitian immigrant in South Boston, turmoil broke out at English High school. Blacks rioted and battled police around Mission Hill. "Some 1,500 black students began walking up Tremont Street "smashing windows and hurling rocks." 3/
> 1960: America seems to be entering an era of hope and prosperity.
> End of the 1960s: Complete break-down of law and order. Half the country afraid to go out at night. A crime wave of "epic proportions."
From 1960 to 1970, rates of violent crime (essentially, murder, rape, robbery, and serious assaults) in the U.S. more than doubled, from 161 per 100,000 to 364. Murder rates rose 55 percent, while robbery rates climbed over 91 percent. And it continued to rise into the 1990s.
There was some evidence of rising crime in other western countries. But crime was *falling* in Japan. And Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore did not see a significant crime increase.
Catholic Irish v. Italian culture clash in 1890s Boston:
"In the old country, regular church attendance was expected only of females; Italian men in Boston
discovered that no Catholic was exempt from this obligation."
"The Irish priest, whose devotions centered around the all-male Holy Trinity, encountered the matriarchal Italian family, which focused on the Madonna and Child."
"No Irishman, for instance, would enter a church wearing a hat and puffing on a cigar; nor would he profess his human frailties prostrating himself before a crucifix or Station of the Cross."
FDR and the "Back Road" to War with Japan:
After WW I, with the Lansing–Ishii Agreement, the U.S. had acknowledged that Japan has legitimate security interests in Manchuria – the Bolsheviks were on the march, the spread of communism threatened China and Korea.
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Lennin had shrewdly granted concessions to U.S. businesses in Manchuria, sowing the seeds for conflict – “In this way we incite American Imperialism against the Japanese bourgeoisie.”
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By the 1930s, Japan had seized control of Manchuria. But it was clear that that the Soviets were hard at work laying the foundation for Communist revolution in the Far East.
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Thread on Pat Buchanan’s “Where the Right Went Wrong.”
> Not one of his best books, but the discussion on Neocons is relevant as President Trump begins staffing his new administration:
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Buchanan had been staunch conservative, and a loyal lieutenant in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations. In his view, the Bush-era ascendency of the Neocons was a dramatic and disastrous break from American conservative tradition. The Neocons had their own agenda.
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Early Neocons like Irving Kristol were ex-Trotskyites. They admired FDR and LBJ. They were liberal internationalists - traditional foes of the America First movement. They later moved to the Republican party, believing it would be a useful tool to accomplish their agenda.
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