I make time to read/listen to your work, HCR, Hubbell, Rosenburg, Craven's and more whenever I can. I appreciate all of you -- your thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and insights. Thank you!
This is another excellent piece -- and I encourage you to write a book based on this piece or any of your others. I believe you are writing a novel, but you have many nonfiction possibilities. Thanks for your time and efforts! Outstanding work~
What a beautiful allegory Xavier and so thoroughly American. We are learning, once more, the limits of power.
The reality of those limits is dawning on us all. Our precision bombing strategy has metastasized into other Gulf states. Skilled diplomats who could negotiate an end to the war are absent on the US side and assonated on the Iranian side. An essential global supply chain has been choked off. Vital energy infrastructure is being destroyed. Thousands of human beings are dying. Alliances vital to world peace are fracturing in front of our eyes.
Two criminal madmen, who lack any sense of decency, have orchestrated this great tragedy. And we have allowed them to continue to take us down this road, even as the wheels fall off. Our acquiescence damns us.
Diane, thank you. “The limits of power” is exactly the nerve I was trying to touch with this, and you said it beautifully. We keep dressing power up as precision, discipline, strategy, even safety, and then act shocked when it spills past the boundaries we promised ourselves it would respect.
That metastasis is the part too many people still do not want to face. Once a nation gets seduced by the feeling of control, the radius rarely stays contained for long. Again thank you for your support and your warm wisdom infused guidance.
This is why I go to you first when your Substack shows up! Fantastic essay, so well thought out and presented. Thank you . Having lived through those times, it's all here in my mind...my brothers working on their cars in the driveway. Then Vietnam and the draft.
The men and women going to war! All that followed, and here we are...in Iran!. We have learned Nothing! But you are able to pull it all together.
This is astoundingly insightful, and it helps me understand why I am averse to all forms of power, including “bigger and better”…from the bully (child or adult) in the neighborhood to power-hungry politicians and celebrities, people who rely on and corrupt themselves with extreme amounts of money, uncaring doctors, self-promoting ordained folks, people who use the bible as a weapon, those who think more ways to kill or dominate will bring peace, those who oppress others so that they can have control of the narrative and everyone’s personal choices only (whether they realize it or not) to feel superior, AI that is very quickly and frighteningly getting out of control, etc. etc., etc.
This last section sums it up well for me:
We keep building better machines. We keep getting better at using them. We keep telling ourselves that this time the power is cleaner, smarter, more precise.
Maybe it is.
But the feeling is the same.
And if we do not watch that feeling, if we do not question the quiet confidence it produces, then the president will be seduced, his advisers will be seduced, and the rest of us will be seduced right along with them.
You can hear it in an engine. You can feel it in a cockpit. You can see it on a screen.
Susan, now this really right here really moved me. You put your finger on something I was reaching for the whole time, which is that the problem is not just machines or politicians or any one institution by itself. It is the human craving underneath them, the way power keeps dressing itself up as protection, righteousness, order, even peace.
I’m also especially grateful that you pulled out that last passage. That was the quiet nerve center of the whole piece for me. Thank you for reading it so deeply, and for naming the wider pattern so clearly.
Well, that's what I thought you were getting at and why it resonated with me. It's the thread I've always looked for in life and that you often mention. There's always something beneath or behind the story. It's also why I appreciate that you name "Why It Matters" and "Who's Affected." It's never, ever just the story. It's the ripples that come when the story or the event drops like a rock in the water.
There is absolutely human craving in every problem, and power dresses itself up in the most deceptive and dangerous ways.
Social media platforms should also be added to the things we thought would be good or better for society. While obviously I use a computer/smartphone, I've never been on FB, Instagram, TikTok, X, and whatever else is out there. That doesn't make me better or smarter than anyone else. It was an instinctive knowledge from the very beginning that those things (FB was the initial "thing") would not be safe or healthy for me. Over time, that has proved to be correct -- for me. I'm not sure it's been good for most of the world, either, but all I can say is I made a personal choice to stay away from what I considered dangerous, even when we were told it was going to make the world better. I'm not so sure it did...
I was asked to start a Twitter acct by the company I worked for; Like Us on Twitter! Regrets- I never really believed it would be used for more than teenagers to gossip so didn't take it or any other social media seriously. So sad the corporate greed can ruin any and everything.
I grew up in Detroit- during this era of muscle cars and Motown - your essay immediately brought me back to my long ago youth - those days of fast cars and fabulous music and Vietnam …..where I, as a new bride, awaited the return of my husband who flew on, not the powerful helicopters, but A3 reconnaissance aircraft - so scary. I have not thought about those times for many years -
I have been an unpaid subscriber for a while now but this essay moved me to become a paid subscriber and fully support your writing - you are gifted in your ability to put ideas into words that move one to think deeply about the world and times we live in. Thank you.
Listen, the fact that it took you back there…not just to the music and the cars, but to waiting…that tells me the piece hit where it was supposed to hit. I was writing about power and machinery, but underneath it all, it’s really about what those moments felt like to the people living inside them.
And the detail about your husband flying reconnaissance, I’m not gonna lie that landed with me as a veteran. That’s exactly the kind of lived reality that sits behind all the big narratives we tell about wars and eras.
I appreciate you saying this, and even more, I appreciate you choosing to support the work. That’s not something I take lightly. Thank you for trusting me with your time and your memory.🙏
That was brilliant! I was born in the 60's and remember so much of the feeling you describe. Car culture, flight culture, the feeling of control.
I wanted to be a professional race car driver. The guys down the street were like you Xavier. They had a Dodge Dart geared up for drag racing and were definitely down with car culture. I used to hang around their garage. Mr. Ware had been in the US Navy so he had tattoos and such. I have NEVER seen anyone with tattoos. He was the living image of a Herb Kent Cool Gent!
Then we had another car oriented family a few blocks away. Man! I hung around there almost all of the time. Matter of fact, my friend from back then is my mechanic now. He has an awesome shop with 5 car lifts and he has worked on all of my vehicles.
Right now I drive a 2009 Pontiac G8. Talk about performance and driving excitement? Stomp on that pedal and feel her squat down and LAUNCH! Yeah, you will feel the back end swing out. And you'll feel that power. That speed. That illusion of control (cause this is the kind of car that'll kill you if you don't watch out). The engine note is freaking awesome too!
I had another friend whose dad owned 1/2 interest in a Beechcraft Baron. That is a twin-engine private plane. He and I had been attached at the hip for years due to our mutual love of rock music and yes, I was there every damn time he was taking lessons and earning his pilot's license. I flew many times and love it. That feeling of swooping in air with everything under control (until it's not).His instructor was a former Tuskeegee airman named Handy.
When I joined the Marine Corps, I wanted to pilot Apache UH-60's but I ended up in the Air Wing as a multichannel radio operator instead. Still, I was working with all of the those beautiful machines. Even the ugly ones like the A-10 Warthog are beautiful to me! I flew on everything I could. Drove every vehicle I could. Risked my life over and over because my good fortune, my luck, my unacknowledged blessings felt just like control.
This piece deeply resonated with me. I have lived it so much of it. The seductive illusion of control. And that soundtrack is playing in the theatre of my mind all the time.
The American evolution of hubris.
I make time to read/listen to your work, HCR, Hubbell, Rosenburg, Craven's and more whenever I can. I appreciate all of you -- your thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and insights. Thank you!
This is another excellent piece -- and I encourage you to write a book based on this piece or any of your others. I believe you are writing a novel, but you have many nonfiction possibilities. Thanks for your time and efforts! Outstanding work~
What a beautiful allegory Xavier and so thoroughly American. We are learning, once more, the limits of power.
The reality of those limits is dawning on us all. Our precision bombing strategy has metastasized into other Gulf states. Skilled diplomats who could negotiate an end to the war are absent on the US side and assonated on the Iranian side. An essential global supply chain has been choked off. Vital energy infrastructure is being destroyed. Thousands of human beings are dying. Alliances vital to world peace are fracturing in front of our eyes.
Two criminal madmen, who lack any sense of decency, have orchestrated this great tragedy. And we have allowed them to continue to take us down this road, even as the wheels fall off. Our acquiescence damns us.
Diane, thank you. “The limits of power” is exactly the nerve I was trying to touch with this, and you said it beautifully. We keep dressing power up as precision, discipline, strategy, even safety, and then act shocked when it spills past the boundaries we promised ourselves it would respect.
That metastasis is the part too many people still do not want to face. Once a nation gets seduced by the feeling of control, the radius rarely stays contained for long. Again thank you for your support and your warm wisdom infused guidance.
This is why I go to you first when your Substack shows up! Fantastic essay, so well thought out and presented. Thank you . Having lived through those times, it's all here in my mind...my brothers working on their cars in the driveway. Then Vietnam and the draft.
The men and women going to war! All that followed, and here we are...in Iran!. We have learned Nothing! But you are able to pull it all together.
I appreciate your work so much.
🙏
This is astoundingly insightful, and it helps me understand why I am averse to all forms of power, including “bigger and better”…from the bully (child or adult) in the neighborhood to power-hungry politicians and celebrities, people who rely on and corrupt themselves with extreme amounts of money, uncaring doctors, self-promoting ordained folks, people who use the bible as a weapon, those who think more ways to kill or dominate will bring peace, those who oppress others so that they can have control of the narrative and everyone’s personal choices only (whether they realize it or not) to feel superior, AI that is very quickly and frighteningly getting out of control, etc. etc., etc.
This last section sums it up well for me:
We keep building better machines. We keep getting better at using them. We keep telling ourselves that this time the power is cleaner, smarter, more precise.
Maybe it is.
But the feeling is the same.
And if we do not watch that feeling, if we do not question the quiet confidence it produces, then the president will be seduced, his advisers will be seduced, and the rest of us will be seduced right along with them.
You can hear it in an engine. You can feel it in a cockpit. You can see it on a screen.
It sounds like control.
Until it doesn’t.
Susan, now this really right here really moved me. You put your finger on something I was reaching for the whole time, which is that the problem is not just machines or politicians or any one institution by itself. It is the human craving underneath them, the way power keeps dressing itself up as protection, righteousness, order, even peace.
I’m also especially grateful that you pulled out that last passage. That was the quiet nerve center of the whole piece for me. Thank you for reading it so deeply, and for naming the wider pattern so clearly.
Well, that's what I thought you were getting at and why it resonated with me. It's the thread I've always looked for in life and that you often mention. There's always something beneath or behind the story. It's also why I appreciate that you name "Why It Matters" and "Who's Affected." It's never, ever just the story. It's the ripples that come when the story or the event drops like a rock in the water.
There is absolutely human craving in every problem, and power dresses itself up in the most deceptive and dangerous ways.
Social media platforms should also be added to the things we thought would be good or better for society. While obviously I use a computer/smartphone, I've never been on FB, Instagram, TikTok, X, and whatever else is out there. That doesn't make me better or smarter than anyone else. It was an instinctive knowledge from the very beginning that those things (FB was the initial "thing") would not be safe or healthy for me. Over time, that has proved to be correct -- for me. I'm not sure it's been good for most of the world, either, but all I can say is I made a personal choice to stay away from what I considered dangerous, even when we were told it was going to make the world better. I'm not so sure it did...
I was asked to start a Twitter acct by the company I worked for; Like Us on Twitter! Regrets- I never really believed it would be used for more than teenagers to gossip so didn't take it or any other social media seriously. So sad the corporate greed can ruin any and everything.
I grew up in Detroit- during this era of muscle cars and Motown - your essay immediately brought me back to my long ago youth - those days of fast cars and fabulous music and Vietnam …..where I, as a new bride, awaited the return of my husband who flew on, not the powerful helicopters, but A3 reconnaissance aircraft - so scary. I have not thought about those times for many years -
I have been an unpaid subscriber for a while now but this essay moved me to become a paid subscriber and fully support your writing - you are gifted in your ability to put ideas into words that move one to think deeply about the world and times we live in. Thank you.
That means a lot to me Kathleen.
Listen, the fact that it took you back there…not just to the music and the cars, but to waiting…that tells me the piece hit where it was supposed to hit. I was writing about power and machinery, but underneath it all, it’s really about what those moments felt like to the people living inside them.
And the detail about your husband flying reconnaissance, I’m not gonna lie that landed with me as a veteran. That’s exactly the kind of lived reality that sits behind all the big narratives we tell about wars and eras.
I appreciate you saying this, and even more, I appreciate you choosing to support the work. That’s not something I take lightly. Thank you for trusting me with your time and your memory.🙏
I thank you, Xavier, for your writing and for taking me back to a special place in my life and just for you being you.
That was brilliant! I was born in the 60's and remember so much of the feeling you describe. Car culture, flight culture, the feeling of control.
I wanted to be a professional race car driver. The guys down the street were like you Xavier. They had a Dodge Dart geared up for drag racing and were definitely down with car culture. I used to hang around their garage. Mr. Ware had been in the US Navy so he had tattoos and such. I have NEVER seen anyone with tattoos. He was the living image of a Herb Kent Cool Gent!
Then we had another car oriented family a few blocks away. Man! I hung around there almost all of the time. Matter of fact, my friend from back then is my mechanic now. He has an awesome shop with 5 car lifts and he has worked on all of my vehicles.
Right now I drive a 2009 Pontiac G8. Talk about performance and driving excitement? Stomp on that pedal and feel her squat down and LAUNCH! Yeah, you will feel the back end swing out. And you'll feel that power. That speed. That illusion of control (cause this is the kind of car that'll kill you if you don't watch out). The engine note is freaking awesome too!
I had another friend whose dad owned 1/2 interest in a Beechcraft Baron. That is a twin-engine private plane. He and I had been attached at the hip for years due to our mutual love of rock music and yes, I was there every damn time he was taking lessons and earning his pilot's license. I flew many times and love it. That feeling of swooping in air with everything under control (until it's not).His instructor was a former Tuskeegee airman named Handy.
When I joined the Marine Corps, I wanted to pilot Apache UH-60's but I ended up in the Air Wing as a multichannel radio operator instead. Still, I was working with all of the those beautiful machines. Even the ugly ones like the A-10 Warthog are beautiful to me! I flew on everything I could. Drove every vehicle I could. Risked my life over and over because my good fortune, my luck, my unacknowledged blessings felt just like control.
This piece deeply resonated with me. I have lived it so much of it. The seductive illusion of control. And that soundtrack is playing in the theatre of my mind all the time.