Reader's Digest Time Machine

[Surly1]

A little trip down memory lane now on the DD Blog. The point of it all being how one old coot was gobsmacked by how far we've home, and how faast, in the space of 30 years.

Feel free to discuss here, if so moved.

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[RE]

A little trip down memory lane now on the DD Blog. The point of it all being how one old coot was gobsmacked by how far we've home, and how faast, in the space of 30 years.

Feel free to discuss here, if so moved.

30 years ago it all seemed so simple, Now we know different.  Maybe if we had the WAYBAC Machine we could fix it.

RE

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[ThoreauFan]

Thanks for the article, Surly. 

When I read anything about Reader's Digest, I immediately think back to Dewey-Truman and the famous (infamous) newspaper headline "Dewey Wins!".  In those early days of polling, the idea occurred to someone to poll readers or subscribers of Reader's Digest to see who they planned to vote for.  Not surprisingly for a conservative publication, its readers backed Dewey, the Republican, by a comfortable enough margin that some journalists were willing to assume the election of Dewey to be a done deal. 

As a professor of statistics, it gives me an excellent example to teach my students to always be alert when interpreting statistics.

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[Surly1]

Thanks for the article, Surly. 

When I read anything about Reader's Digest, I immediately think back to Dewey-Truman and the famous (infamous) newspaper headline "Dewey Wins!".  In those early days of polling, the idea occurred to someone to poll readers or subscribers of Reader's Digest to see who they planned to vote for.  Not surprisingly for a conservative publication, its readers backed Dewey, the Republican, by a comfortable enough margin that some journalists were willing to assume the election of Dewey to be a done deal. 

As a professor of statistics, it gives me an excellent example to teach my students to always be alert when interpreting statistics.

TF, thanks for the feedback. "Lies, damned lies, and statistics..."

Numbers form a narrative Many years of being a manager have left me with an awareness that a budget tells a compelling story in and of itself, especially as to priorities (obvious) and to what is omitted (less so).

What I found so completely arresting about poring through these old RDs is how even a center-right publication of 30 years ago was so much further left than the prevailing narrative today. Plenty have observed that Richard Nixon governed far to the left of Obama. And when Nixon was President, I thought he was the antichrist...

Tempus fugit.

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[agelbert]

Surly1,
Thanks for the time travel. I always found Readers Digest to be like those very comfortable easy chairs that are worn just right to one's exact shape. Always predictibly relaxing and never too grim or negative about anything while, at the same time, avoiding the bubbly Jetsons' view of that "fantastic future just around the corner" from magazines like popular science or popular mechanics. Reagan and friends destroyed so much hope that sometimes I see Reagan's face and think, what a perfect image of Big Brother! And he was president in 1984! It's amazing how that actor/politician can look like such benign, nice guy while authorizing the butchering of peasants and destruction of the environment. I think that's the REAL reason Obama admires Reagan so much; it's his working con model. Of course back then I was busier than a cat covering up shit since the FAA was in strike recovery from August 1981 to December 1984 (the time it took to train about 14,000 replacements for the strikers that were fired up to journeyman radar controller). It was all a blurr back then.

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[Surly1]

It is just striking to see how radically far to the right this country has been shoved since that seemingly simpler time. Also noteworthy to see how the seeds of deregulation and "government-as-the-problem" have no grown into mighty poison trees.

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[dcoyote]

It is just striking to see how radically far to the right this country has been shoved since that seemingly simpler time. Also noteworthy to see how the seeds of deregulation and "government-as-the-problem" have no grown into mighty poison trees.

ah the ironies we believe in... (i am no exception).. i admire your writing, sir surly, yet i must comment: as an OWS stalwart, did you not see the "far right" members of the "99%" among the first demonstrators..? yea, verily, some of us crazy "ranchers" identified with those brave young occupiers pointing at our true enemies..... whose brilliant and machiavellian schemes have divided and conquered this brave nation, just as Jefferson predicted would happen.  cowboys and federal lands were created together as we shunted the natives off to their sad reservations. it is so sad to see enviros co-opted by corporate moneychangers to point fingers at a new group of western "evil-doers"... while their e-toys create toxic nightmares and slavery across the planet, out of sight and mind. believe it or dont- modern rangeland management is recreating the prairie and grassland environment which existed with the buffalo... but without active participation, it cannot happen...  the facts of how our federal lands rangeland environment can be restored with cattle are being ignored and worse for political and bureaucratic gain-- shocking i know  if anyone cares, i will try to post some links (if i can learn some more new tricks - this old dog isn't dead yet...)

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[Surly1]

ah the ironies we believe in... (i am no exception).. i admire your writing, sir surly, yet i must comment: as an OWS stalwart, did you not see the "far right" members of the "99%" among the first demonstrators..? yea, verily, some of us crazy "ranchers" identified with those brave young occupiers pointing at our true enemies..... whose brilliant and machiavellian schemes have divided and conquered this brave nation, just as Jefferson predicted would happen. 

Thanks for the kind words. We saw plenty of the libertarian "right," lured by the premise that Occupy would be non-partisan and not be co-opted by the forces of Faction, a la the Tea Party. Those people wandered off in the fullness of time. We also had plenty of those whom, while I could not swear to it, I truly believe had other agendas and were on the payroll of DHS or military intelligence.

cowboys and federal lands were created together as we shunted the natives off to their sad reservations. it is so sad to see enviros co-opted by corporate moneychangers to point fingers at a new group of western "evil-doers"... while their e-toys create toxic nightmares and slavery across the planet, out of sight and mind. believe it or dont- modern rangeland management is recreating the prairie and grassland environment which existed with the buffalo... but without active participation, it cannot happen...  the facts of how our federal lands rangeland environment can be restored with cattle are being ignored and worse for political and bureaucratic gain-- shocking i know  if anyone cares, i will try to post some links (if i can learn some more new tricks - this old dog isn't dead yet...)

Well, a couple of thoughts there. 1) Before the enviros v. ranchers "sagebrush rebellion," there was the rangers v. the sheepherders and, of course, as you note, settlers/cowboys v. native Americans.  Am not at all conversant with these issues or with modern rangeland management techniques, except to note the origins of the assault on the EPA, and in a larger sense, on the entire premise of legitimacy for federal government itself, encoded in a 1983 Reader's Digest article.

While I do try to check facts, any conclusions or sweeping generalizations in the article are my own . . . I still remain amazed at how far to the left of our current political nightmare was the editorial stance of a family-centric, pro-business, center-right conservative publication.

Would love to see your links. We all learn a lot form one another here.

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