With the state of the U.S. Budget, U.S.$, and the coming U.S. oil import disaster... We have some political upheavals to look forward to. But which way will the wind blow?
FDR Liberalism is DEAD. There is a dead body walking around, but it is DEAD just the same.
GWB's version of Conservatism (His group, founded by Strauss, hijacked the moniker) is DEAD. The body has already begun to stink.
The minor movements of Feminism and Race Based Preferences are going to wink out of existence without anybody even noticing them. Sorry, Gloria Steinem, fish may not need bicycles, but women will need their families - desperately. Biology is destiny, and thankfully so because Social Security will cease to exist in the lifetime's of most reading this. The new "Social Security" will be the same one we have had for time immemorial - your children. This will be so irrespective of the political sensibilities of aging, childless feminists.
In the permanent energy crisis, their will be no "Retirement" for the masses. The issue will more likely be what will you do when you are too old to care for your self? (Not that "Retirement", in the late 20th century/early 21st century American definition appears to be such a happy time. I live in South Florida, home to the mother of all retirement populations. I can only share with you my interpretation of of my personal observations... these retired folks do not look terribly happy to me. To my eyes, they appear miserable. Of course these individuals might have been miserable when they were young, so this is hardly empirical.)
So many people are looking to our GOVERNMENT for answers to the oil crisis, the budget crisis, the mortgage crisis, etc... "We should do this. They should do that." I wonder when it will occur to the very folks that think government is/has the answer.... Exactly WHO got us into this fine mess in the first place? And exactly what resources do they suggest the government use to get us out? The U.S. is in DEBT up to its eyeballs. Our citizens actually believe that they are ENTITLED, regardless of how poorly they have led their own lives, to a retirement, of at LEAST 20 years of nonproductive consumption, fully funded for their healthcare and their material needs.
Go ahead! Gain as much weight as you want! Diabetes? Bad back? Erectile dysfunction? Not to worry, the government (our new Lord) will provide. You don't have to wear a condom! Drink and drive, its fun! Smoke! We'll take care of your healthcare bills. Can't work (or just don't feel like it)? No problem, we will send you a disability check. Can't save money? Bad credit? Poor work history? No problem! We'll give you a mortgage with NO MONEY DOWN! And if you can't pay? NO PROBLEM! It wasn't your fault ANYWAY! It was those scum bag speculators... Congress will fund a NEW program to keep you in your home with money they don't have, borrowed from people they have no intention of paying back, and if those pesky lenders want the money back we will simply bomb them into the stone age or devalue the currency and STEAL it from them.
All to fund programs supported politically by people who claim they HATE war!!! Give peace a chance!!! But fund our social programs or "we will g-d damn bomb ya" (George Carlin), or steal the food right out of your mouth. To make ourselves FEEL better about all of this, we will send a couple of young people over to your neck of the woods in Peace Corps garb. (I received an email today from a reader with this quote:)
"Sometimes we are so caught up in
who's right and who's wrong
that we forget
what's right and wrong." - Unknown, but Thanks, Lane!
who's right and who's wrong
that we forget
what's right and wrong." - Unknown, but Thanks, Lane!
Folks, we are going to have to get over this, one way or another. Phil Graham is correct. We HAVE become a nation of WHINERS. Where the F$#@@! is John Wayne? The end of the Oil Age is the beginning of the Age of Personal Responsibility.
(Here comes the email railing me about "Corporate Welfare". Brother, I am going to cover the disgusting way that corporations have evolved in another post... but to accuse them of being the BENEFICIARY of the government's largess "is what is known as being STUNNINGLY full of shit" (again George Carlin. I seem to be channeling George today.) Government has steered corporations to what they are today precisely because they are just SO PERFECT a machine for extracting income taxes from the masses, which is then used to create these silly programs and "American Interests" that need to be defended in the first place. Corporations are the funding source for EVERYTHING good and bad in the system. Think about it, the money AIN'T coming from single mothers, hitchhiking hippies, college students, or the Rev. Al Sharpton.)
How is it that the NeoJerks stole the 'Conservative" mantle, and nobody noticed? How is it that the South was controlled by the Racist Democrats during the 1950's and '60s, but now they call themselves Conservative Republicans? How is it that the Northeast, you know, the political descendants of the Authors of the Bill of Rights, went from "Patrician Republican" to "Liberal Democrat"? Are the Republicans the Party of Lincoln or the party of G.W. Bush? Are the Democrats the party of Ralph Nader or George Wallace?
Folks, these are just labels, and the little meaning that they had just got SQUASHED by the new political realities of what is likely to be the Mother of All Recessions perpetrated against a people that have become dependent on government to guide them through their average day.
So what will it be?
San Francisco confiscatory liberalism is DEAD. Bush and Cheney's silly foray into outrageous spending has bankrupted the nation - whatever political movement they represented, call it what you will, is DEAD. Both movements lay bled out at the hands of the Oil Depression.
Will we devolve into a fascist state in which the masses gladly give up what civil rights they have left in order to make a run at the status quo? Or will we accept our responsibilities and keep our individual liberties and fight for the liberties we lost?
Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com
6 comments:
Fascist state. The sheeple have no will or desire to fend for themselves. Hence the need for those of us that do to bug out of "society". The only way to do that is to be absolutely debt free, by whatever means necessary and possible. Self sufficiency is the new "freedom". Everyone else will just get what they deserve.
Wow another great post! You are an angry man dude. You have a right to be. US is in trouble and now most people there know it. Before it was all great, now its panic time.
Just came back from the US. N. California is on fire and in a recession. I was talking to my multimillionaire friends and they are way past denial that all is just fine. All are working on a plan B. What I heard is "what do you suggest we do now!". There is an undercurrent of panic.
Minnesota is a lot better off but the storm is not ignorable now. Everyone is digging hurricane shelters. Many have no shovel or the patch of land to dig into - metaphorically. The party is over for them. Unfortunately only very few people can solve their problems right now. Options have run out for most of the people who are so indebted that no matter how they look from the outside, they are insolvent. Period. Put a fork in them, turn them over - they are done.
Best,
Chuck H.
Heavens -- quite the rant. When are people going to realize that pure capitalism without government regulation is bad. Socialism without capitalism can't exist. The most successful governments around the world are healthy mixes of both. We've never had pure socialism. We've never had pure free market capitalism. When we sway toward one or the other, it's normally not pretty. WE ARE GOVERNMENT. And, as most of you are probably foreseeing, that statement is going to be more true in 10 years. People WILL start paying attention again and we won't have the pure-fascism that was just predicted. Yes, peak oil is and will be a shit storm, but we have to hope that together we can help one another... or, no, wait, maybe I should take the stance preached above, or the one that they hold in South Africa or Zimbabwe, which is more of a fuck-you-and-the-grandparents-you-can't-afford-to-take-care-of approach. It's a wonder why their crime rates are so high.
We are already living in a fascist police state in the USA. People are arrested at the mall for wearing T-shirts with political messages. Civil rights? we have no civil rights. The constitution is just a god damned piece of paper. The bill of rights is DEAD.
With any luck the US Govt. will implode quickly, leaving local communities to fend for themselves. Without any luck, the US Govt. will use nuke-u-ler weapons before it implodes.
Dear "Heavens":
"When are people going to realize that pure capitalism without government regulation is bad"??!!!
I am going to TRY and be nice:
Clearly, you have never met fucking payroll in your life! Clearly you have not dealt with some fucking NAZI, egomaniac regulator looking for approval from his/her superiors, and the only way they can get it is if they come back to the office with YOUR scalp in their briefcase.
"Successful governments around the world"? What planet are you from?? The U.S., and to a lesser extent France, BEGAN this whole liberal Democracy idea (though not of pure heart), not these "successful governments" you speak of.
Who votes for these f*&&^^&NG!! regulators? Not I. And not you. Yet you think they are a good idea. That was the F$%^$@! point of the post! Too many Americans are willing to let the government micro manage every aspect of our lives, and in the new environment it seems many more will join these lame brained jag offs.
G:
Absolutely brilliant.
LD
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