Put Out to Pasture...Our Changing World

Put Out to Pasture

 In 2020 author Kurt Anderson released his book, Evil Genuis, The Unmaking of America: A Recent History.  Four years after reading it for the first time, I took the book off the shelf for a second review.  I found myself amazed by how much more of what he had predicted had happened.

The book points out how technology has always changed labor, but the distinction for today is the extent that human labor is being replaced by machines and AI.  Jobs simply disappear.  As machines and AI replace skilled labor, without new jobs of the same skilled level replacing them, workers are left with unskilled jobs at lower wages, if they can find jobs at all.

He uses this analogy:  When automobiles replaced the horses used to pull carriages, the horses were put out to pasture.  Labor adjustments of the past created new jobs for skilled labor, but today's displacement of skilled labor with machines and AI often reduce the need for skilled labor. Executives and those few needed to oversee the machines and AI continue to be needed, but many jobs simply disappear. In effect, many skilled laborers are simply put out to pasture or forced to take jobs that require fewer skills with less pay.

Fantasy writers of the past anticipated the risks of making workers obsolete.  Kirk Vonnegut's book Player Piano, published in 1952 was about the negative impact of machines, but even earlier Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World in 1932 and George Orwell's book 1984 in1949 also sounded the alert, as well as other books.

All of this might sound like an urban problem, but we should look around.  Farmers in our own communities have monster equipment which allows one operator to do in a few hours what took my father days, not hours, to do.  Small farms have been sold or leased to large farming operations, who must own or rent more land to justify the expensive massive equipment they use.

I have blogged about the screen writers who felt endangered by AI and went on strike to gain some security about their livelihood, threatened by generations of writers having had their work fed into AI to allow a machine to use the unpaid for work of generations of authors to create their stolen manuscripts.  Perhaps it isn't as easily understood as equipment displacing skilled laborers, but the real and potential impact is the same--lost jobs.  

Four years ago, when I first read Evil Genius, I had not fully recognized the threat.  Now I better understand.  This is not a problem for our children and grandchildren to confront.  The problems have already arrived!

Kurt Anderson saw the impact before most of us did, as is evident in the title of his book, The Unmaking of America.  Maybe we don't pay attention until it impacts us.  I saw the machines that were changing factory workers' jobs, but if I gave it any thought it was probably that those people doing heavy or boring repetitive work, day after day, were probably glad to be free of such jobs.  I did not consider whether the replacement job, if any, might be worse.  Like many of us, I didn't pay much attention until it impacted things relevant to me, like AI displacing artists and authors. 

Kurt Anderson is not entirely disheartened.  He writes, "I think we could prevent America from turning into a permanent dystopian horror show.  We might even manage to make it better than it was before..."  There is much food for thought in his book about ways we might adapt to changes, but for many of us, first we must see the impact of these changes before we can consider adjustments.  If you can buy or borrow or find a copy of his book at your local library, I recommend it.  We humans are not ready to be Put Out To Pasture! 

 

What is Populism?

Isaac Werner's Journal

 Many of you who follow my blog know that the discovery of Isaac Werner's Journal was what inspired my decade long research and writing of Prairie Bachelor, The story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement.  Because Kansas played such an important role in that movement, and because the community in which I grew up was among those active in the movement, I have a deep sense of what populism meant at the time Isaac Werner and many in his community were part of that movement.  

Therefore, I am often perplexed by what is being called Populism today.  While I was doing research for my book, I found present day politicians described as populists who were unlike the people I came to know in my research for Prairie Bachelor.  It did not seem to make sense that very different politicians today are being called Populists.

Watching news during the recent 2024 primary election in New Hampshire, I heard someone say, "You know there is both  Negative Populism and Positive Populism." I decided it was time for me to do some research to explore how the term Populism had evolved since Isaac Werner's time.  In the era of my book, during the late 1800s, Populism began with the common people, such as farmers, ranchers, miners, and small business owners.  They believed the two major political parties, Republican and Democrat, had become overly influenced by wealthy men, to the extent that they were ignoring the intensions of the founding fathers.  Although the wealthy had more money with which to influence government, the common people had greater numbers of voters.  They formed a party of their own--The People's Party, and although their party was short-lived, it remains the most successful third party in our nation's history.  Many of their ideas were implemented by the two old parties.

My current research found that the term Populism had practically disappeared in common use by the 1950s; however, historians began to apply the word to those who were Anti-Elites.  With the rejuvenation of the word Populism, it's original meaning expanded, becoming so broad that the meaning from the late 1800s, as well as the achievements of the people of the Populist movement, were nearly forgotten.

One political scientist noted the modern ambiguity of the term by describing the range of meanings for the word.  It was used for farmers' radicalism, peasant movements, and intellectual agrarian socialism, as well as populist dictatorships, populist democracy, reactionary populist, and politicisms' populism.  If you followed all of those adaptations of the meaning of Populism, your head must be spinning.  Some have observed the contradictory meanings of these uses and have suggested that the word should be abandoned entirely.  (Wikipedia, Populism)

What would Isaac Werner and other Populists of the late 1800s think of the use of the word they created as it is being used today.  If there is the word Populism in today's politics, who defines what is Negative Populism and what is Positive Populism?  I am inclined to agree that the journalists, news commentators, and politicians of today return the word to the Populists of the late 1800s and come up with new words for the political turmoil of today! 

 

 

The Importance of a Free Press

 

Find journalists you trust--they are still out there!

Recently, I have been reading books about World Wars I and II.  Those of you who have followed my blog for over a decade know my interest in history and my admiration for the Constitution, and while I had an interest in America's involvement in wars, I have sought to learn more in the past year. This blog was motivated by a quote from Leon Uris's book Mila 18,--a conversation between a disillusioned news journalist who feels as though his reporting is being ignored and his editor, who encourages him to keep reporting, even when too many are not paying attention.   

    Journalist:  "Can I go on being a journalist under these conditions?  I have learned now that truth is not truth.  Truth is only what people want to believe and nothing more."  

    Editor:  "But you will continue to seek it as a journalist... You have lost sight of the fact that there is a world of decent human beings and a lot of them are listening.  They depend on the Christopher de Monts to be their eyes.  You are not a man to abandon the human race because you have lost a battle."  

The book from which this quote is taken is about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, in which nearly everyone was killed or removed to the extermination prisons.   Christopher de Monts, the disillusioned journalist, was protected by the fighters in the Ghetto and led to safety so that he could live to tell what had happened.  Although Mila 18 is a novel, based on an actual event, it caused me to think about the real journalists that are risking their lives to report the news in violent places.

As of January 1, 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists, have documented deaths in the Gaza-Israel war as 82 journalists and media workers confirmed dead.  The Committee to Protect Journalists have sought since 1992 to document deaths of those who risk their lives to gather news--killed by murder, crossfire, and on dangerous assignments-- and the total since they began is 2,284. 

The 1st Amendment of the American Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law ...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ..."  Our Founding Fathers recognized the importance of citizens having access to accurate information in order for the nation to survive.  Although there has always been concern during wars that disclosing information might reveal secrets to the enemy, records from W.W. II report that 67 journalists died over 7 years.  In Vietnam 63 died over 20 years.

Some countries do not allow the same freedom of the press.  According to the World Freedom Index, information from North Korea, Iran, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq, and Syria are among those difficult to access information.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Not all deaths of journalists happen on the battlefield.  In October of 2018 Saudi journalist Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.  When telling the truth made it too dangerous for him to remain in his home country, he had left, coming to America to continue reporting as a columnist for the Washington Post newspaper.  Knowing the danger of returning to his own country, but needing some personal documents, he went to the Saudi consulate in Turkey to acquire the documents he needed.  Although he avoided returning to Saudi Arabia, he was killed.  His death is evidence of how important a free press is and a reminder of the courage of men and women who sometimes risk their lives to provide accurate information.   

Our Founding Fathers knew the importance of a free press.  We have had Yellow Journalism perhaps as long as there were printing presses, but people seemed to know that their exaggerations were just that--sensationalism rather than facts.  There were scandal sheets and romanticized magazines that may have been offensive but did little harm.  People found radio, television broadcasters, and newspapers that they trusted for keeping informed.  There were also commentators who expressed opinions, and often there were dueling commentators to offer different points of view, but there was a distinction between news and opinion.   

Find Original Sources that have been documented (Anne Frank's Journal),
.

The world has changed, and sometimes it is hard to find the truth, but a Free Press is still essential for Americans.  We do not want the government dictating our news, but as more unsourced information enters the internet, we have a greater responsibility to make sure we are not allowing ourselves to be duped. Just because someone tells us what we want to hear doesn't make it true.  We must be more vigilant to seek the truth today.  Even evening news today seems to have included more soft news and human-interest stories than in the past, seeming to believe we are more likely to watch if we are entertained. 

The professionalism of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite is difficult to find but important to seek.  Thank goodness for the internet which brings amazing information into our homes, but watch out for the misinformation that it also brings.  Those who choose to distort reality have no moral code.  They have even attempted to challenge the truth of Anne Frank's Journal.  

If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, don't let someone convince you that it is a swan.          

A Not So Sweet Tale

Ideas do not always succeed, not even when 'experts' believe they will succeed.  This blog is about one of those times when education, experience, and determination did not succeed, a historic failure most of you may never have heard about.  A respected, successful businessman from Larned, John Bennyworth, was a strong advocate for the effort, and he acted on advice from professionals whose early efforts led them to believe their research would bear fruit.  They sincerely thought that producing refined white sugar from sorghum cane was 'just around the corner.'

My research for Prairie Bachelor first made me aware of the effort to produce refined white sugar from sorghum cane, having learned about it from entries in Isaac Werner's journal and further research in local newspapers.  Later, after my book was published, I discovered a wonderful paper by Homer E. Socolofsky titled 'The Bittersweet Tale of Sorghum Sugar' published several years ago in "Kansas History."  For those readers of "Prairie Bachelor" who would like more information about the failed Sorghum Sugar effort, I recommend Socolofsky's article, and you may want to look up "sugar mills" in the index of Prairie Bachelor to read more about local efforts.

There were many reasons why the idea of sorghum sugar had momentum.  First, Kansas farmers were getting disappointing prices for the crops they were raising in the late 1800s, and the idea of a different crop was appealing.  Second, white sugar was expensive enough that a cheaper, sorghum sugar would be competitive.  Third, it was believed that the sorghum sugar might be sweeter.  And fourth, white sugar production in the south had been disrupted by the Civil War, which resulted in higher prices, opening the door for a competing means of producing white sugar, especially until the Southern sugar cane fields recovered.

Although the process of refining sorghum sugar had not been perfected, scientists were reporting the optimism of advancing technology, and the U.S. government Laboratory was predicting advancement, which led to government funds becoming available.

In 1880-1881 there were three sorghum sugar mills in Kansas:  The Marion County Pioneer Sorgo Sugar Factory, The Central Arkansas Valley Sorghum Sugar Association at Larned, and the Ellsworth Sugar Works.  Between 1884 and 1894 the U.S. government poured $509,000 into Sugar Manufacturing experiments, as well as private investors.  Thirteen of the twenty-three locations in which the federal government research was invested were located in Kansas, with 75% invested in materials and machinery.  

Kansas communities that invested in sugar factories included Hutchinson, Sterling (2 Mills), Dundee, Kinsley (a relocation from Larned), El Dorado, Conway Springs, Pratt, Medicine Lodge, Topeka, Ness City, Fort Scott, Bavaria, Douglass, Attica, Meade, Liberal, Arkalon, Minneola, and Garden City.

There were several reasons why the production of Sorghum Sugar failed, including the success of beet sugar.  Farmers discovered that they could profit more from feeding sorghum to cattle than trying to profit from sales to a potential sugar market.  The Sorghum Sugar boom for white sugar-making failed, and some of those who had promoted Sorghum Sugar suddenly suffered a loss of memory about their previous promotions.  

In "Prairie Bachelor," I quote from a letter to the editor:  "Let me ask in the name of common sense what right the press of Kansas has for denouncing the people for doing the very thing that they have been recommending."  This disappointment is only one example of the struggles farmers on the Kansas Prairie faced in the late 1800s as they explored crops and methods suitable for the prairie.

Some New Words for the New Year

Always more new words for us to learn!

        As a writer, I take words very seriously, trying hard to select the right word for what I mean to say.  However, I am finding it more and more difficult to keep up with new words that seem to pop up regularly.  In case some of you are experiencing the same confusion, here are some guides to new words than can be found in modern dictionaries!

    Hellscape  -  a place or time that is hopeless, unbearable or irredeemable.  I am not sure that I have found a use for this word yet, but perhaps that day might come! 

    Cakeism - the false belief that one can enjoy the benefits of two choices that are in fact mutually exclusive, the name taken from the notion of having your cake and eating it too.

    Decision fatigue - mental and emotional exhaustion resulting from excessive or relentless decision making, especially the cumulative effect of small decisions throughout each day.  I confess that my fatigue may be less about too many things I want to do than too few that seem worth doing!

    Bloatware - unwanted software that is preinstalled on a newly bought device, especially when it negatively impacts the device's performance.  This is definitely a word that I will find the need to remember as a result of changes I struggle to learn on my new lap top and the changed search link!

    Self-coup - a coup d'etat performed by the current, legitimate government or a duly elected head of state to retain or extend control over government, through an additional term, an extension of term, an expansion of executive power, the dismantling of other government branches, or the declaration that an election won by an opponent is illegitimate.  This word is new to me, and it sounds very scarry indeed!

    Digital nomad - a person who works remotely while traveling.  Once upon a time, that might have sounded like fun to me.  Lately, I am fairly content to stay close to home.

    GPT - abbreviation of Computers Digital Technology--a type of machine learning algorithm that uses deep learning and a large database of training text in order to generate new text in response to a user's prompt.  My definition of GPT is a little different:  Theft by downloading huge amounts of information created by others without compensation to use to 'create' content that can be used for advancing knowledge and eliminating the need from the people whose work was downloaded, as well as being used by people today and in the future because they do not want to take the effort to create things on their own or who have lost the skill to do it for themselves.  I know that my definition is rather narrow minded and harsh, but there is truth in it that deserves considering.

    Information pollution - the introduction of falsehood, irrelevance, bias, and sensationalism into a source of information, resulting in a dilution or outright suppression of essential facts.  

    In doing the research for this blog, I was amazed by the number of new words being added to dictionaries, and I was a bit reminded of my age, finding so many of them as unfamiliar and irrelevant to my life.  If you are curious for more new words, there are many more out there for you to find!  The research gave me "decision fatigue"!!!