Choosing Wrong

You know one of the things that I am thoroughly sick of is my neighbor's strongly held belief the "goodness of mainstreet America".

I cannot think of a shred of evidence to support this claim.

What brought this all up is a conversation held in my carpool yesterday morning.  My moron carpooler asked what I thought about Reiki, when I responded that there may well be something to it that it appears to have some positive benefits and no seeming harm, she became indignant.

You see according to her, Reiki is a form of Satanism.  She then went through and vented for a while on the ungodliness of America to allow such things to be taught.

In a way she is my touchstone of what it takes to be an American.  Our way is the best, we only need to become the fine folks that our forefathers were.  Proof of your goodness lies in your wealth.  You know, an American.  Her houses are underwater and she struggles with paying the bills.  Her husband hasn't had a job for two+ years.  She complains because the folks who manage her four timeshares are indignant because she hasn't paid them.  

Look here folks all of us are surrounded by folks who just can't seem to manage to think things through.  These folks make up the bulk of the US population.  So, if a majority of the population is a bunch of fools who cannot take the time to pay attention to the world around them and who lash out blindly at anything that doesn't fit their mass-produced, self-aggrandizing self images, can we call such a population good?

We are an odd culture, with our behaviors and our actions wildly divergent from our pronounced ideals. But the blogs that we read and the beliefs that we espouse all seem to come back to the belief that "The American People", if they are just allowed to make the choice, would set things to right and drive out the evil cabal who is doing bad things.

More and more, I am coming to the conclusion that the leadership in Washington is a true and accurate representation of the beliefs and views of the populace.  The fiscal bankruptcy we are seeing is a true reflection of the crazed and needy desires of "The American People".   The increasingly draconian and intrusive machinations of a security apparatus the earnest manifestation of the desires of the majority of the populace to repress anything different than their self-image.

I am not at all certain that a mature culture can be built out of such material.  I don't have any idea of what to try next, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that democracy is a poor substitute for a republic.

Moving the Boulder

I am just beavering away, trying to live my life.  I watch the news to see what is coming and attempt to predict which way the train is going in order to dodge.  That is all.

I have a running bet with Locutius.  I am saying that the US will not exist as we knew it in 1997 (when the bet was made) by 2015.  In my mind the bet has already been won.  He still hasn't ponied up the beer.

But that is the extent of my prediction.  I don't really see any apocalypse coming.  Just a readjustment of lifestyles to something sustainable (read here: Poor).  What we were striving for was never really possible.  A nation of people living like ancient kings never had the requisite underpinnings to keep such a thing going.  What happened in the US was a systematic looting of the future to fund current excesses.  All of the theories of the ever-expanding middle class and the eradication of poverty were pipe dreams that were unsupported by reality.

Our political dialog consists of little more than shifting blame and concentration of wealth.  The general population, led by the oligarchs, appears to enjoy nothing better than blaming the poor and the meek for accepting alms.  The self-made of the tea party bully the poor and tell them that they must take less that they are undeserving of the small pittance received.  The trillions poured into the coffers of the wealthy are not mentioned.

The worship of wealth and the material has found its temple here in the US.  We loathe the bankers that rape us, but the great bulk of the population would give away their children to the the rapist to be allowed a minuscule share of the crumbs. We have made the blindness of market capitalism a shibboleth, the ramifications of the system, with its inexorable march toward plutocracy a tenet of faith rather than an awkward symbol of original sin that the system truly represents.

Maybe on this day we ought to take time to know our place in the universe.  Not as perfect children made by God to take what we wish, but rather sinners redeemed by a savior.

Just for Laughs

The Daily Show - An Energy-Independent Future
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Just Checking In

I can't say that I miss the self-imposed pressure of writing every day, but I do miss the occasional rant.

Most of my hiatus has been from the gloomy fact that my lack of a cheery take on the endgame seems to be in the process of occurring. What surprises me more and more is that the folks out there just don't seem to care one little bit.

But then I got started thinking, and, as this is a rare occurance, I thought that I would write down the results of such madness.

The reason that folks aren't talking about this much is that they are trying to figure out what the hell to do when the game that they are going to lose is over.

There you have it. You see, the real problem is not that we are going down. Folks know that and can figure out how to deal. What they can't deal with is the psychological beating they will give themselves finding out that they a a loser schmuck like the rest of the world.

The educational system and the parents of the last forty or so years have jammed into all the little heads that they are winners and wonderful people. They believe strongly that their opinion matters and that they deserve all the goodies that they have dreamed for themselves. Politicians and bosses have promised delivery of said goodies in order to shut them up and keep them going to the same boring job and voting in the same rigged elections.

Now the hard part for the little winners. Finding out that they are the schmucks. Their middle class bourgeois fantasies of golf, crafts, and pederasty are wilting in front of their eyes, and they are going through the painful moment in the game where they realize that their game plan has not worked and they are going to be handed their asses.

So, give them a little time. They have some catching up to do.