Passing the Buck 2 - on - 1 01/03/2020

Passing the buck - aka - the blame game is Ramana's choice for our first 2 - on - 1 blog in 2020. Be sure to see what he has to say by checking Ramana's Musings.

It is interesting to me how this seemingly innocuous phrase from poker playing has evolved to the level it has. Wikipedia says "
Passing the buck in international relations theory involves the tendency of nation-states to refuse to confront a growing threat in the hopes that another state will. The most notable example was the refusal of the United Kingdom, United States, France, or the Soviet Union to confront Nazi Germany effectively in the 1930s. With the Munich Agreement, France and the United Kingdom successfully avoided armed confrontation with Germany, passing the buck to the Soviet Union, which then passed the buck back to the western powers by signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.^" 

Russia has made passing the buck a generic catch all for drumming up "legitimate" reasons for nearly any action they choose to take in the international scene. Russia has been a master at buck passing ad lying about nearly everything and have had no serious rival until perhaps 2016.

Speaking of 2016 - there was some initial buck passing related to our choice of Presidents. For a while there was a cry of "don't blame me - I didn't vote for him. Alas that changed to a groundswell of those who truly love and support 45. Of course there are still a fair number of members of the GOP that pass the buck by saying they do not appreciate what he says but after all - he is a counter puncher and they support what he does regardless of what he says.

Seems to me that as the popular election was lost by 45 by around 3 million votes, the fault of our choice was the framers - they created this silly Republic wherein smaller states cannot be dictated to by the few very large states and their substantially larger populations. Nope - that is bad, good is allowing population centers and large states be dictated to by the smaller states. Apparently a family farmer's vote is worth much more than a business executive's vote. And, as a very close friend of mine said recently, with the deep division in our society these days she is happy to be on the side with the most guns.

So what happens when there are essentially only 2 sides to every discussion - at least publicly? The buck is constantly passed back and forth and nothing gets done.  The spin gets faster and faster and the lies come in waves. From both sides. Which makes me think of some lyrics in a popular song from a while back -

Now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life
At all

These are, quite frankly, dire times we inhabit these days. At a time when our politicians cannot agree on simple facts and pass the buck on literally everything, our culture and society are in danger of becoming laughing stocks. Fairness and truth have seemingly left the building and gone on a vision quest with civility. As a member of the Baby Boomers generation, our pledge - or rather duty - to leave the world in better shape than it was when we inherited the leadership mantle is in serious jeopardy. There are times I fear for the future we are condemning our grand children to. Have we messed up the world so badly as to leave nothing but a bleak future for future generations? Or is it the fault of the generations we have raised to inherit leadership?If indeed those generations are not prepared to inherit the mantle what the hell is wrong with them? Or did we simply beat them into submission with our nonsense and blame the deplorables or the so - called progressive left for their inability to see clearly what is standing before them? Are those generations simply waiting fr we boomers to cross the River Styx and get out of the way so they can take over?

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life
At all

It is time to wake up folks.

That is my quick shack-take on today's topic. Hopefully the sarcasm  won't be lost on everyone. I'll see ya next week, same bat time and same bat channel for the next installment of 2 - on - 1.