Author Topic: The Amazing Dissolving Nation (Read 3719 times)

gladius_veritatis · « **on:** July 18, 2011, 12:04:55 PM »

http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/07/the-amazing-dissolving-nation.html

The Amazing Dissolving Nation

By James Howard Kunstler
on July 18, 2011 10:07 AM

Going broke fast is a very compelling problem. For ordinary people it tends to induce chicken-with-no-head syndrome - a mad burst of pointless locomotion ending in sudden collapse. If the US debt ceiling is raised - which I think is a 90 percent bet - there will be a sigh of relief that resounds from the lobster pounds of Penobscot Bay to the parking lots of Silicon Valley... and poor dissolving America will still be stuck in its essential predicament of being broke. So a lot of pointless locomotion will continue in the form of positioning among a troop of clown candidates for the dumbshow of the 2012 election. I wonder lately whether that election will actually happen.
Europe is arguably worse off money-wise, more broke, flimsier, crapped out, crippled, and paralyzed. Sad, because in outward appearance Europe is - how shall I put this? - better turned out than America. Europe is a fit, silver-haired gentleman in a sleek Italian suit and a pair of Michael Toschi swing lace wingtips, holding a serious-looking Chiarugi leather briefcase. America is pear-shaped blob of semi-formed male flesh, in ankle-length cargo shorts, a black T-shirt featuring skull motifs, tattoos randomly assigned (as if by lottery) to visible flesh, a Sluggo buzz-cut, and a low-rider sports cap designed to make your head look flat. In other words, he lacks a certain savoir-faire compared to his European cousin. But both are broke. Neither has any idea what he will do next - though, for the American, it will probably involve the ingestion of melted cheese or drugs (or both). When the European collapses, a certain air of delicacy will attend his demise; the expired American will go up in flames in a trailer and they'll have to sort out his remains from the melted goop of his dwelling-place with a front-end loader.
This is the way the world ends for the OECD, the nations that affected to be developed and civilized. This phase of globalism is certainly not the end of history, but it is looking like the end of accounting tricks, and possibly democracy, which has discredited itself with accounting tricks. At a certain point in time, the sickening recognition sets in that appearances are not the same as reality - and then, all of a sudden, you're in a political maelstrom. Citizens of the various lands will discover that the money being argued over, shifted around from column A to column B, assigned to this or that actuarial table or budget line or account or obligation or vault or "structured vehicle"- that money is just... not... there. There's no money. It was pretend money. From now on, none of you will get paid. Imagine a world where nobody gets paid.
Europe has run the money string to its bitter end and now it just remains to be seen how each country blows up and where the dust settles. Greece and Portugal may just shrug and retire on an economy based on goat-cheese and olives. Ireland will get drunk and pass out for at least a century. Spain sinks back into an age-old catatonic daze, having gone broke spectacularly once before. Italy strings up Mr. Berlusconi on a lamp-post and breaks up into 112 warring city-states. France elects DSK, whose first act is to declare war on the City of New York. Religious wars leave England in embers. And Germany becomes the world's first "green" police state.
It's conceivable to me that Barack Obama may be the last president - for a while. He was a decent fellow but, in the end, ineffectual, and of course he got no help from the legislative branch, including especially colleagues in his own party, a most remarkable class of maundering chickensh*ts and grifters. Our money problems will not go away and after a while this land will not be governable by familiar means. In case you haven't noticed, the rule of law is already AWOL in many sectors of our national life, most particularly money matters, but before long on every street-corner, every highway strip, plus every GMO cornfield, and brownfield. The two parties are unreformable and the Tea Party is the stooge of one of the two parties, and there is no other party of earnest, decisive, and sane individuals anywhere near the horizon. So some kind of convulsion is in the cards and it will be the unfortunate duty of some dutiful officer to step in and set an agenda based on something other than bluster, fakery, and pocket pool.
While there's a good chance the US debt ceiling will be extended, it seems to me that meanwhile we have crossed an invisible line into a place where untoward things happen.

Raoul76 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 18, 2011, 02:06:14 PM »

Quote

America is pear-shaped blob of semi-formed male flesh, in ankle-length cargo shorts, a black T-shirt featuring skull motifs, tattoos randomly assigned (as if by lottery) to visible flesh, a Sluggo buzz-cut, and a low-rider sports cap designed to make your head look flat.

Wow, that's probably the best description of a modern-day American male that I've ever read! When I walk my dog and look at these neo-pagan couples I often wonder how the girls can be attracted to these guys. Every guy looks exactly the same -- goatee, baseball cap, beady eyes, like a heavy-metaller cro-Magnon. ( I think Leonardo DiCaprio popularized this look, but considering his elegant features he can pull it off without looking like a caveman -- very few others can ).

They say Chinese all look alike, but Americans are starting to surpass them in that feat. Young American males all look exactly the same to me. It may be the same for females, but considering they all tend to wear tight little shorts that tends to be what you notice most, they might as well not have faces. Lately -- and I know what is responsible for this, the show True Blood, truly the media is the devil -- it seems as if over 80% of California women, young and old, wear these "daisy dukes," and that is not an exaggeration. One day when I'm sitting at the Great Monarch's round table and looking back at my younger years wasted in this circus of a nation, I will remember it as an indistinguishable blur of baseball caps and butts.

Something that I have picked up on is that there is a feeling of total inhumanity out there. People who are dating don't even expect to stay together. They see each other more as stages on life's journey -- a romantic partner is "someone who fits into my life at the time." A sɛҳuąƖ accessory that is a proper balance between convenience and pleasure. It's like these people have been reduced to primal, atavistic urges which they undertake joylessly, just because there's nothing else to do. There is none of the "romance" that neo-pagans used to delude themselves with, the girls are not even searching for romance or to be swept off their feet. That was an illusion, but it was slightly more positive than today, where it is all totally physical.

I used to feel a bit sorry for my generation, blaming the baby boomers for leading us astray, but more and more, I think this generation is WORSE and can no longer make any excuses for itself. The baby boomers were greedy, but at least they had some kind of spiritual aspirations, however hollow. I feel that the younger generations of today are literally civilized brutes, reduced to bodies only, almost soulless if such a thing were possible -- zombies. Their inner brutishness is even reflected in their repugnant caveman-like outward appearance. The joke is that there probably never were "cavemen" in real life, but that the devil has turned modern man into the image of these invented "cavemen." The story of the Great Apostasy is the story of the grotesque triumph of matter over spirit.

the smart sheep · « **Reply #2 on:** July 18, 2011, 03:34:01 PM »

Quote from: gladius_veritatis

Ireland will get drunk and pass out for at least a century. .

I thought they were already drunk and passed out. :cheers:

sheep

PartyIsOver221 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 18, 2011, 03:36:58 PM »

Quote from: Raoul76

One day when I'm sitting at the Great Monarch's round table and looking back at my younger years wasted in this circus of a nation, I will remember it as an indistinguishable blur of baseball caps and butts.

Nice.

gladius_veritatis · « **Reply #4 on:** July 18, 2011, 04:20:08 PM »

Quote from: Raoul76

Wow, that's probably the best description of a modern-day American male that I've ever read!

Kunstler, who is far from perfect, does have a way with words.

Exilenomore · « **Reply #5 on:** July 18, 2011, 06:04:55 PM »

The delusion will have to end at some point. It is inevitable.

the smart sheep · « **Reply #6 on:** July 18, 2011, 06:26:29 PM »

Quote from: Exilenomore

The delusion will have to end at some point. It is inevitable.

Its like the child who hides all the F math papers with the forged parental signatures. His misdeed will inevitably be revealed and he will have to pay.

Not that I ever did this :smile:

sheep

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #7 on:** July 18, 2011, 10:06:15 PM »

Quote from: Raoul76

I used to feel a bit sorry for my generation, blaming the baby boomers for leading us astray, but more and more, I think this generation is WORSE and can no longer make any excuses for itself. The baby boomers were greedy, but at least they had some kind of spiritual aspirations, however hollow. I feel that the younger generations of today are literally civilized brutes, reduced to bodies only, almost soulless if such a thing were possible -- zombies. Their inner brutishness is even reflected in their repugnant caveman-like outward appearance. The joke is that there probably never were "cavemen" in real life, but that the devil has turned modern man into the image of these invented "cavemen." The story of the Great Apostasy is the story of the grotesque triumph of matter over spirit.

Dang, Mike. This is a hell of a great post. (Pun intended!) You're up there in Kunstler's league sometimes--a lot of times. I bet you could crank out a column every day if you had to. Polish up the rough edges, really lean into it. There's that career you were looking for. Columnist, on the editorial page. Of what newspaper, only God knows, but there's gotta be at least one of 'em out there somewhere that would give you a shot.

ServusSpiritusSancti · « **Reply #8 on:** July 18, 2011, 10:07:27 PM »

Agreed. And nice to see you again, St. Jude Thaddeus! :cool:

gladius_veritatis · « **Reply #9 on:** July 19, 2011, 08:39:10 AM »

Quote from: Raoul76

I used to feel a bit sorry for my generation, blaming the baby boomers for leading us astray, but more and more, I think this generation is WORSE and can no longer make any excuses for itself.

I realize you may understand this, Mike, but it is actually a given that the children raised by the selfish, materialistic baby boomers would be worse. Yes, all men reach a stage where they must accept complete responsibility for their own actions, but that does not excuse those who raised them. This is the main thrust of the nonsense behind "The Greatest Generation," which, by the way, gave away the entire store and bought into the great lie more completely than perhaps any generation in history. Most of them STILL buy into it even as the entire dreamworld is crumbling all around them and they are being prepared for the slaughter.

IMO, those born during this post-V2 era of devastation are like the Israelites born during the time spent wandering in the desert. Yes, we have our baggage, but what do you expect when those who raised us constitute what was one of the most selfish generations up to that time?

While I do not wish any of the baby booms harm, I personally believe our time in the desert will end soon and very, very few (if any) of them will live through the storm -- just as God waited until ALL the grumbling ingrates dropped dead before He brought those born in the desert (who, btw, probably had baggage galore) into the Promised Land.

s2srea · « **Reply #10 on:** July 19, 2011, 09:36:57 AM »

I know that Raoul and I both live in Southern California. Here is a picture of our freindly.... "Bro's"- the young gentlemen Mike spoke of! Look familiar mike?! lol

the smart sheep · « **Reply #11 on:** July 19, 2011, 10:03:54 AM »

Quote from: gladius_veritatis

. Most of them STILL buy into it even as the entire dreamworld is crumbling all around them and they are being prepared for the slaughter.

They vote for the very people who will slaughter them. Have they lost their minds?

sheep

sedetrad · « **Reply #12 on:** July 19, 2011, 10:29:02 AM »

This is a great thread all around. "Bump"

PartyIsOver221 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 19, 2011, 03:14:48 PM »

Quote from: St Jude Thaddeus

Quote from: Raoul76

I used to feel a bit sorry for my generation, blaming the baby boomers for leading us astray, but more and more, I think this generation is WORSE and can no longer make any excuses for itself. The baby boomers were greedy, but at least they had some kind of spiritual aspirations, however hollow. I feel that the younger generations of today are literally civilized brutes, reduced to bodies only, almost soulless if such a thing were possible -- zombies. Their inner brutishness is even reflected in their repugnant caveman-like outward appearance. The joke is that there probably never were "cavemen" in real life, but that the devil has turned modern man into the image of these invented "cavemen." The story of the Great Apostasy is the story of the grotesque triumph of matter over spirit.

Dang, Mike. This is a hell of a great post. (Pun intended!) You're up there in Kunstler's league sometimes--a lot of times. I bet you could crank out a column every day if you had to. Polish up the rough edges, really lean into it. There's that career you were looking for. Columnist, on the editorial page. Of what newspaper, only God knows, but there's gotta be at least one of 'em out there somewhere that would give you a shot.

YEAH!! ST JUDES BACK!! WB buddy, we've been missing you around here thats for sure.

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #14 on:** July 21, 2011, 12:35:12 PM »

Thank you, Party and Spiritus Sanctus! I don't have regular Internet access since my laptop crashed last November but I do read the posts here when I get the opportunity to borrow somebody else's computer for a few minutes.

I also question if I have the necessary temperament for discussing on forums. I think I do better on a face-to-face basis. I've never liked talking on the telephone, either.

Anyway, :cheers: to everybody!