Wafers-
I think it's all over but the shouting: Trump is toast. Botox Face now leads him by 10%, thanks to his lack of political savvy. Instead of doing the things that win elections, he's now bogged down in minor personality conflicts that he's blown out of proportion: Ryan, McCain, the Khans, crying baby, etc. A jackass does this, and he's clearly a jackass. Talk about lost opportunities.
Trump's advisers have been trying to get him to change course, stop the jackass behavior, and engage in winning strategies. But it's very hard for a jackass to stop braying, and so Trumpo is throwing away his one chance to defeat Botoxia, get into the White House, and do this country some serious damage. What a waste.
He could have been the End of the End. My
Twilight book was about the beginning of the end; DAA was about the middle of the end. Trumpo could have rung the curtain down on the whole farce. But no, instead we are going to have 8 more years of ad hoc crisis management, during which time, I predict, we shall see the emergence of a new, more virulent Trump-type or Trump movement, as Hillary's Weimar admin crashes down and the country becomes increasingly dysfunctional. I wouldn't even rule out the possibility of a coup d'état. She's a douche bag; she has no vision at all, beyond being president (much like Obama); and virtually everyone hates her. Not exactly the best credentials for governing.
So, amigos, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but then I predicted B-Face's victory months ago. Now, it seems like a sure thing, and by mid-November, Trump will retreat into obscurity. Instead of a fast and furious ending, we shall continue to writhe in our death throes. The clowns at the NYT will continue to pen their impotent analyses, social inequality will deepen, Hillary will pick out the targets in the Middle East so drones can murder innocent civilians, the Bernie leftovers will pretend they have some sort of clout, and so on. What more can I say?
-mb
mb -
ReplyDeleteYes, it's very bad that The Donald is losing it... literally. Wonder if he'll be taken to Bellevue Hospital before all this is over?
pg, mb -
On plaigiarists being insecure (relates to pg's observations about John Michael Greer):
Yes, I've noticed something peculiar about Mr. Greer this past week. Even after I mentioned in a post that most Americans are incapable of putting two and two together, or as Christian reminded me here, recoil when they do and come up with four. His reply to me was basically the various weaknesses of climate change activists was still more important. I referred him to your trilogy DoAC / DAA / WAF and... silence. Oh well.
I've also noticed that he has his own version of NMI or Dual Process: "Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush!" At first I thought you and he both came up with each independently; since DOaC came out in 2000 now I'm not so sure. (:^P
I'm not giving up on The Donald yet. This all has a "Dewey Defeats Truman" feel to it. His supporters don't care that the New York Times and Mainstream Media have it out for him. And Dr B is right...the anger and disappointment that made Trump attractive in the first place wont go away. Furthermore, Madam Botox is quite likely to continue with policies that led to the anger and disappointment in the first place. The next "Trump," whoever he is, will be much worse, and he'll probably win.
ReplyDeleteEd-
ReplyDeleteAnd I understand his latest bk is called "Dark Age America"--! Gee, where did that come from?
mb
MB-
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe Trumpo is *toast*, MB; still too many believers in the American Dream and the possibility of the US being morally defibrillated, I suppose. WTF? Anyway, Trumpo did represent a kind of "end of history" moment for the nation, and I'm sad that you/we won't get to see it all unfold. One wonders if Donald could be taught the power of silence from here on out, yes? After all, he really did capture the driving force of American douchebaggery, but just didn't know when to shut up! In any event, I'm optimistic that Hillary will deepen the crisis; deepen the decay; and eventually affix the blast wires for a most violent American self-destruction. There's just no way around this reality.
Miles
ps: favorite Woody film quote:
You took an oath when you entered sperm-training school: to fertilize an ovum, or die trying!
Jesus, that's genius...
Saw Woody at Carlyle Hotel on the clarinet. Played with Nigel Kennedy's niece from Melbourne. Marvellous artist and humanist.
DeleteChristian-
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a vicious Trump in our future; I'm as sure of that as I am of anything. Meanwhile, this will get the establishment quaking in their boots:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/04/beyond-clinton-vs-trump-green-party-convention-kicks
mb
Neil-
ReplyDeletePls note rule here: only 1 post every 24 hrs. Thank you.
mb
Yeah, it pretty much looks like a major market crash ala September 2008 is about the only hope Trumpo has left. I commented here a couple of weeks back that if he could just partially uninsert his head from his rectum and stay focused on the staggering amount of Clinton family corruption, he could win. I added, however, that when you've spent your whole life with your head and colon intersected you get to like it that way--and that's what is playing out right now.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I don't think the Botox Queen is going to get eight years. The anger that fueled Trump's nomination is only going to greatly increase with four more years of neoliberal bullshit, and sooner or later our teetering economy is going to take another bad tumble. When that happens, Hillary is going to make Herbert Hoover, he of the infamous Anacostia bonus army raid, look like the greatest statesman to ever hold the presidency. That's also when the risk of a major war will substantially increase, as Wall Street's darling has that rare combination of arrogance and incompetence needed to blunder us into a potential nuclear exchange while trying to distract the great hordes of American douchebags from realizing just how fucked they are. By 2020, assuming we're all still here, she's going to get obliterated by whatever follows Trump on the right wing populist end of the political spectrum.
Way back when I was an undergrad PolySci major, one of my professors pointed out how when there is a truly transitional election (1860, 1932, 1980), you can look back to the cycle that immediately preceded it to see the signs of the impending sea change. Only this time, the sea change being portended for 2020 by 2016 will likely be of tsunami-like destructiveness.
Bill-
ReplyDeleteWell, another economic crash, or a significant jihadist attack. But it's a pity that he's such a shmuck, shooting himself in the foot like he's doing. I do agree w/u that Botoxia won't serve out 8 yrs; there's a Super-Trump in our future, and boy is he going to be a nasty bit of work.
I'm reminded of Ed Koch's race for the governership of NY, many yrs ago. He thought he cd win the election based on NYC. So what does he do? He refers to the Upstate area, where I was born and raised, as characterized by "Sears catalogues and calico dresses." That sank him; he lost the election. "What a shmuck," my father commented.
mb
There is a conspiracy theory going around among some Bernie stalwarts and even some Trump supporters who are baffled by his latest gaffes that Trump may have been a Clinton agent this whole time. The theory is that the Clintons paid the Donald to sabotage the GOP and assure Hillary the White House.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe it but it is interesting. I think the more likely scenario is that Trump thinks what worked for him in the Republican primary will work in the general election. But it looks like that may not be the case.
I guess we have to wait and see.
"Fresh off of throwing the Democratic National Convention into turmoil after proving that party officials had conspired to sabotage Bernie Sanders' campaign, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced that he has some even more damaging material in his trove of hacked emails — this time involving Hillary Clinton pushing to arm jihadists in Syria, including ISIS.
ReplyDeleteAs Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft notes, in her testimony in January 2013 during the congressional Benghazi hearings, Clinton denied under oath having any knowledge of the weapons trade program with Syrian rebels that took place a year before the Benghazi attack. Now Assange says that in the collection of hacked emails his group has procured, 17,000 are "about Libya alone," and among them is proof that Clinton "pushed" for weapons to be sent to "jihadists within Syria, including ISIS.""
http://www.dailywire.com/news/7960/wikileaks-hacked-emails-include-hillary-arming-james-barrett
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/25/assange_why_i_created_wikileaks_searchable
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteCheck this out (from last post):
http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/184982063-story
Here's my question: Do you feel that Freddie Wadsworth is a member of the revolutionary masses that are going to rise up against corporate fascism, in favor of a new, socialist America? Or, do you think that Freddie, altho not an active revolutionary himself, is fed up with the capitalist system and is waiting to be liberated from it? What are his politics? After all, you can't shtupp goats 24/7, right? Pls let me know yr feelings abt this.
BTW, I don't think there's anything wrong with shtupping a goat IF the sex was consensual. I'd also like to have a vote on this as well. For example, do we need to set up a Goat Liberation Front (GLF)?
mb
Why struggling w/trollfoons is useless:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-facts-dont-matter-to-trumps-supporters/2016/08/04/924ece4a-5a78-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
JMG doesn't footnote every sentence he makes (thank GOD), but he's very generous in citing other writers. Do we have to footnote every sentence on blog-posts now? It's not as though he's pawning off Spengler, Toynbee or Duhem's work as his own.
ReplyDeleteHis mentions of you are here:
http://tinyurl.com/jfsxcva * http://tinyurl.com/hmczeez * http://tinyurl.com/zcnmklv
MB: you made the comment that you haven't read his blog. Well I have, for 10 years; certain commenters here are doing you no favours in making it seem as though he's pilfering your work. I've read 4 of your books (2 more of the shelf) and several of his; it's no shock that occasionally you both cover the same ground or kick up the same ideas. It would be weird if you didn't. The late Joe Bageant and you share a much stronger overlap, for example, and nobody imagines plagiarism there.
If there is a specific instance of plagiarism a la Chris Hedges, let's have it out and post the example here; accusing a man of such used to be a dueling matter.
Really interesting analysis on Japan's latest massacre:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/japan-mass-stabbing-expert-stabbing-knife-homicide-disabled
I am also reading "We Need to Talk about Kevin" right now and few books have shaken me to the core like this one. Lionel Shriver is an Honorary Wafer. Much recommended.
Kanye
I'm curious why you guys think a Trump-like figure would have any chance in 2020. With amnesty, family reunification, and a very liberal immigration policy in general, Hillary is going to have millions more Democrats in her corner by that time. The White portion of the electorate will remain stable at most and likely shrink. Sure Ted Cruz or someone like him could (will) give it a shot, but I don't see how he could do anything. Maybe with a march on Washington, but not an election.
ReplyDeleteWhat Bill said about transitional elections gave me a lot of food for thought. I had some familiarity with the 1856/60 and 1976/80 cycles, but I never thought of Al Smith as being a proto-FDR. Very interesting.
Dermot-
ReplyDeleteThe phrase 'dark ages America' *is* original to me, contrary to what Greer says; at least, as far as I know. And if it were me using someone else's title, I'd at least mention it; although from a legal pt of view, titles are not copyright. However, yr rt: I never read his blog, and my info on his 'borrowing' from me was from a # of folks who wrote me abt it. Which is obviously not the same thing as my reading/seeing it for myself, agreed; but when you get multiple input abt it, independently, from people who don't know one another, it does make you wonder (I trust you can appreciate that). Furthermore, I did read Bageant, and in fact corresponded with him at one pt; and I can tell you that overlap or not, he was not taking any phrases or examples from my work. I never found any 'pilfering', and neither did anyone else (or at least, no one told me abt it). 'Overlap' or 'covering the same ground' is not equal to plagiarism, and I certainly never said it was. So I think you need to make your definitions a bit more precise; right now, they are kind of blurry. Nor is anyone suggesting that every sentence on a blog post be footnoted; that's a red herring.
However, I respect your concern, and appreciate your input, inasmuch as yr a regular reader of Greer's blog. Hopefully, yr rt, and my other correspondents on the subject are not. Myself, I have no way of judging, but again, that's on me.
More generally, I think there is a distinction between soft and hard plagiarism, as I call it. Both involve absence of attribution, but soft is when another writer reproduces your ideas or examples; hard is when someone lifts texts verbatim from you, or uses identical phraseology. I've been the victim of both types, but the fact is that people are often dishonest, usually for reasons of self-aggrandizement, and I'm not into wasting my time w/litigation. I've just shrugged it off. For the most part, that's what I did when folks began to write me abt Greer; I wasn't abt to start searching his blog for evidence, so to speak, altho I *was* a bit curious as to what he was up to. Thus, I think that what I had to say about the subject (scroll back) was more in the way of questioning rather than accusation; or at least, that was my frame of mind.
Speaking for myself, I've been burned quite a few times in this dept., and my response, for the most part, has been to be pretty rigorous abt giving credit where credit is due. Personally, I never felt diminished by citing my sources, or saying "I got this idea from X."
Anyway, thanks again for your input, and for tweaking my nose a bit regarding not having first-hand knowledge of the thing myself.
mb
ps: This is all I said abt the subject, above:
ReplyDelete"As for Greer: I've read very little of his stuff, but when I cited it (once, I think), I footnoted it. A # of folks have written me that he has drawn on my stuff a # of times w/o attribution, but I've never bothered to check it out (I've never read his blog). Doesn't inspire warm fuzzy feelings, however."
That probably doesn't qualify for 'pistols at dawn', I'm thinking.
mb
Hi Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this witty post…Paul and I had such a good laugh!
In the previous post you said regarding psychopaths:
“Online definition is: "a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior." This doesn't describe Hillary. Absence of conscience = sociopath; in wh/case, she might qualify.”
Does one have to be up close and personal doing the violence to qualify as a psychopath, or can one qualify by planning and directing the violence behind the scenes? I am not equating Hillary with Hitler, but he was clearly a psychopath (or else the word has no meaning), but I don’t think he did his killing up close and personal. And yet both are responsible for millions of deaths. I’ll never forget Hillary cackling over the brutal murder of Qaddafi.
According to all I’ve read, psychopaths are not always violent. The other thing is that they are excellent at mimicking “normal” behavior (like pretending empathy) so that they can slip under the radar. In other words, it can be very difficult to identify a psychopath. Is there anyone here on this blog who have a good handle on this phenomenon?
I hope I’m not flogging a dead horse here, simply very curious. The bottom line is that we have two presidential candidates with severe personality disorders…U.S.A.!!!
Sar-
ReplyDeleteI imagine there is such a thing as a long-distance psychopath; why not? But other than that, I don't know the fine pts of these diseases. It does bother me that the DSM-5 doesn't have a category called Douche Bag. That is long overdue.
But there is a syndrome in American society that afflicts presidents and ordinary people alike, the sinking feeling that one doesn't really amount to anything; that one is empty, a kind of impostor. The result is the endless, relentless push to fill that emptiness w/substitute satisfactions--cell phones, food, alcohol, drugs, sex, TV, hustling, trying to be one of the Beautiful People, etc. Power is esp. attractive in this regard, and when you are hollow--which is the case w/Obama, for example--the impulse toward things such as wealth and genocide is very strong. The US is by now little more than a genocidal plutocracy, and Obama quickly fell in step with the program. Hillary will as well--have no doubt abt it. Whether this is psychopathic or sociopathic or whatever may not matter all that much.
mb
ReplyDeleteWhen the whole world was all ga-ga and la-la over the first negro hustler-in-chief in the White House it was only Chomsky and this goof'ball Rev.Manning who rang the alarm bell on O'bummer way back in early 08'. Nobody listened, instead they gave this shyster a Nobel prize in "peace"' thereby putting him in league with Mother Teresa and Dalai Lama. Many of goofy's rants are pre-election; wonder what set him off?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lomUE6MoxvA
The prime example how gullible the amerikn voter, aka consumer, are when they elected the "Long Legged Mac Daddy" based on his slick advertisement. And who said LLMD is black? What about his apple-pie midwestern white half? 50-50, yet we never hear of his whiteness. And the other half is African-Arab, not amerikn. He was conveniently peddled as though he was pure evangelical christian MLK black from the southern ghettos.
MacDaddy's report card: David Bromwich, Michael Moore and Cornell West's Assessment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRlfyR4v0rE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMuuaO-YLKE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA6MCjGEsTg
MacDaddy is a good example of a Psychopath; pretending empathy like the caring priest who takes the kid to the basement to console him, then "services his account". There were people on the streets of Pakistan celebrating Daddy's election victory only to get their asses serviced immediately, starting January 23, 2009.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/obama-victory-sparks-celebration-praise-around-globe-1.756680
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/23/drone-strike-victim-barack-obama
Heard of "double tap" in drone strike? We already have Section 1021(b)(2) of the NDAA; One day we'll have double-taps on amerikn soil. And that will be LLMD's legacy.
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI believe Freddie Wadsworth will lead us into the future. He and his people, and farm animals, will lead a revolutionary cadre. Their battle cry will be a strange mixture of sheep bleating and fast food ordering: "baaah, extra cheese with my Whopper". However, when they speak of Whoppers, they're not referring to the burger.
I agree with you that consensual sex with farm animals is okay, as long as it is protected sex. It would be inhumane to spread human STDs to one's animals. Besides, the evangelicals have warned us about this for decades. They railed against same sex marriage and predicted that if it were to come to pass, that people would soon be practicing bestiality and making love to inanimate objects. It has all come to pass, just as the evangelical prophets predicted. First it was goats, now it has come to this:
http://zap2it.com/2012/02/my-strange-addiction-nathaniel-is-in-love-with-and-has-sex-with-his-car/
MB, Ed, Dermot--
ReplyDeletemaybe I should've added: In his _The Druid Magic Handbook_ (2007) Greer quotes from _The Reenchantment of The World_ "For more than 99 percent .... The only hope, or so it seems to me, lies in the reenchantment of the world."
Then Greer:
"Yet neither Berman nor the handful of other writers who have pursued these themes have considered the possibility that the best way to reenchant the world is to use the same magical methods that enchanted it in the first place. Berman himself claims that 'we cannot go back to alchemy or animism" (ibid.). Behind this argument stands the immense emotional force of the modern faith in progress, with its conviction that 'going back' is the one unforgivable sin." (pp.5-6)
That last part, about the belief in Progress (a big target in JMG's blog, etc) limiting MB's powers of perception struck me as bizzare, and sloppy. All one has to do is read further in _Reenchantment_, or perhaps better _Twilight_, etc. , to grasp that Progress doesn't have much of a future. But if I misunderstood MB's writing, please do enlighten me.
Hello WAFers:
ReplyDeleteHad Donald Trump at least the brainpower of Foghorn Leghorn (I believe they are cousins), he could have taken advantage of the Captain Khan incident by condemning Clinton for approving the war that sent Khan and thousands of others to their deaths.
On another note, is there a way for WAFers to email each other without cluttering up the message board?
Dr. Berman and other WAFers discuss the severely mentally deranged american population. The US has a unique psychiatric derangement that needs its' own DSM-V code. The emptiness must be filled--work addictions, porno, palm starring, loud talking (overt self importance), updating and chronicling their lives, hurried child syndrome-keeping busy to avoid truth--otherwise reality sets in. Perhaps, they are running away from reality.
ReplyDeletePhilip K. Dick — 'Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.' reality never goes away regardless of therapy, drugs, sex, govt propaganda, and happy talk (american brightside syndrome).
The term, 'mental disorder' may be too weak. It is a severe derangement. Again, most american folks are indeed social and functional, yet profoundly mentally ill. Perhaps, the American mental derangement is a combo of Cluster B personality disorders--anti-social, histrionic, borderline, and narcissism.
Loud talking, pictures of themselves, mantras/mission statements, dramatic expressions, over detailed narratives of their mundane lives, embellishments, cannot accept criticism, inability to look inwardly, bizarre self promotions, requires the lime light/center of attention, requires constant reassurance/'attaboys,' talks over/interrupts frequently to appear relevant-important in the eyes of an authority figure. All insecurities, profound sadness, and inferiority with angry circular thoughts racing in their heads as they scoot to their employee at whim hamster wheeling 'job.'
As stated before, the country represents a good case study for a PhD post doc or MD resident to study psycho-pathology and perhaps, give a novel DSM-V code--maybe, DBS-douche bag syndrome can be along side PBS--parent's basement syndrome for all those debt ridden us millenials with no jobs.
What? You're saying Trump is shooting himself in foot? I'm wasn't aware. Small talking with the local idiots, I am hearing much abject consternation about Trump. I am 100x more revolted by Hillary and was thinking the locals were heavily propagandized. Is this not MSM induced collective hallucinations? I get my Trump news strictly from Alex Jones--nothing there about this. In all seriousness, the media bias against Trump is as heavy-handed and blatant as I've ever seen.
ReplyDeletebtw, Dr. Berman, I am doing a dual process experiment in the vein of Masanobu Fukuoka(mentioned in Neurotic Beauty). I am having some great success but not getting much traction with others.
Greetings Dr. Berman:
ReplyDeleteThe legend goes that Harold Macmillan when he was prime minister, was asked by a reporter: “what changes governments?” To which he answered: “Events, my dear boy, events.” If ever there was a good breeding season for black swans, it is this year. What we presently see in the body politic is not a new disease but the final progression of an old disease with an etiology going back at least fifty years and now in the end stage of it as a result of all of America’s institutions such as media, academia, business and government suffering from major corruption resulting in both major parties nominating a couple if despicable psychopaths. Since Hillary Clinton has been a part of the current government, I would say she is more at the mercy of events than Donald Trump. As that mystic and wise man the Yogi Barra once said: "Predictions are difficult, especially about the future.” One thing to look for next week is how Paul Ryan does in the Wisconsin primary. If he meets the same fate as Eric Cantor, this will mean that the political cantor is singing El Maleh Rachamim for the political establishment and the wind will blow Donald Trump’s way again. If Ryan wins his primary then it is “you’re fired” for the Donald. Then again, no one has polled the black swans.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteOnce again, a shitload of comments. Thank you. B4 I 4get, be sure to check out the article on Trump as sociopath in the July 25 New Yorker. A pretty sick and dangerous man. We cdn't have a more appropriate president, really.
dale-
Let us know how yr expt works out. Good on yer, myte!
al-
You cd post yr address and say you welcome emails; or you can send it to me, telling me whom you want to correspond with; and if that person also writes in, I'll send each of you the other person's address. Whatever works 4u.
pg-
Wow! Talk abt getting an author wrong. Greer is so far off base re: my alleged faith in progress, it takes my breath away. And I certainly never saw 'going back' as a sin(!!)--just unlikely. But let me concede this much: 1st, I don't have a crystal ball (any more than Greer), and it's certainly possible that with a major civilizational collapse, we could wind up practicing astrology and witchcraft once again (which numerous subcultures are already doing). 2nd, I do think there is some sort of progress, but in a spiral fashion, rather than a linear way one. We know too much now, it seems to me, to simply revert to the ancient magical arts on a culture-wide basis; and my own belief is that history moves in a spiral rather than in a circle. I've talked abt this b4: e.g., repeating certain structural features of the Middle Ages, such as homeostasis. For an interesting take on rebuilding from scratch, check out "The Knowledge," by Lewis Dartnell.
Mike K.-
Speaking personally, I am polymorphously perverse, and wdn't rule out sex with plants (I once had a horrible experience w/a Venus Fly-Trap). Or fruit: cantaloupe is pretty neat. But I want Freddie in the White House, w/Shaneka by his side. And goats frolicking on the W.H. lawn.
Esca-
Actually, I also said the guy wasn't gonna do shit, way back in '08; altho I didn't imagine he'd turn into a war criminal. As for the Nobel: don't forget another war criminal, Henry Kissinger.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteSeptuagenarian Sunday Punch Dept.:
78-year-old Trumpite, Lawrence Littman, arrested for for abusing Clinton-supporting wife during heated election argument:
http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/185191133-story
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteLast I heard, Mrs. Littman was thinking abt going on a date w/Freddie Wadsworth.
mb
Handwriting on the wall dept.:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/05/donald-trump-campaign-terrible-week-paul-ryan-khan
pg-
ReplyDeleteA further thought. It seems to me that the vision of returning to the magical arts is a failure of imagination. It cd happen, of course, but I wdn't regard it as any great intellectual or cultural breakthrough. What I find a lot more challenging is to speculate on post-contemporary (not 'postmodern'--ugh) thought patterns, which might well incorporate the magical tradition but not be a simple reversion to it (reculer pour mieux sauter--which is what happened during the Renaissance). I think that's where the fascinating possibilities lie, and I'm guessing that they'll get incorporated into Dual Process.
But beyond that, as I discuss in the Reenchantment bk, is the problem that any paradigm, any mode of consciousness, can be 'gamed', filtered thru the paradigm of power. A couple of yrs back I was asked to give some talks at a univ. in Costa Rica, that (to my surprise) was gung-ho on folks like Fritjof Capra and very flabby holistic New Age thinking. I related my own experience w/this from 1999, to my audience, when I gave two workshops on writing and critical thinking to the CIA, in Langley. I discovered that the CIA was not a monolith; it had a number of 'subcultures', often distinguished by dress. Well, one of these was the 'alternate reality' group, who dressed like hippies. New Age, Caprism, holism, ESP, psychokinesis, remote viewing--they were very big on all that stuff, the purpose being to get a psychic leg up, military speaking, on future enemies. There was no inherent liberation in this New Age paradigm; just the opposite. Which left my Costa Rica audience nonplussed, since they had simplistically divided the world into an Evil Modern Science Paradigm and a Good Future Holistic Paradigm. NOW what were they gonna do? But I did see it coming, and in the late 70s was writing the chapter in the Reenchantment bk on "The Politics of Consciousness." As for the magical tradition of medieval Europe, I'm sure Greer is well acquainted w/the existence of black magic. As I also pt out in the Reenchantment bk, magic, like modern science, is not value-neutral; it has a strong manipulative aspect to it (which science inherited as a legacy). Guess what: there is no utopia.
"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made."--Kant
mb
Film rec: "A Bigger Splash" (Tilda Swinton). Absorbing!
ReplyDeleteI've read that Gary Johnson is polling much better than Trump in the under 35 crowd. That seems significant to me. Eventually people are going to turn to a 3rd party candidate.
ReplyDeleteEsca - You forget that a drone strike happened recently on American soil. It was used to execute the mass shooter in Dallas, Texas.
ReplyDeleteMatt - why a Trump like figure in 2020? Because whomever follows in his footsteps will do a much better job at hiding the outright bigotry so as to appeal to the many non-white hustling douchebags in America. Plus there will be four more years of increasing anger on the right and an ever worsening economy, exacerbated by the "commie-muslim" being followed in office by the "feminazi" that brilliant conservative "leaders" have been demonizing for 25 years despite she and her husband being the best thing that ever happened to American big business interests and the military-industrial complex. Notice how the number of mass shootings has exploded under Obama? What do you think is going to happen under Queen Botox after Trump has already planted in his followers' minds that the election is being stolen? As for 1928-1932, as I recall concerns about rising inequality late in the Roaring 20s were already beginning to realign the parties in the 1928 election (sound familiar?), and then the Democrats scored huge gains in the 1930 midterms before the 1932 FDR blowout.
ReplyDeleteOn a related topic, linked below is a very foreboding example of America's near term future--a drunken white cop who, emotionally distraught over the Dallas police shootings, strips half naked, drives to a black church and then sits out in the parking lot shooting at the building indiscriminately. What do you think he and his millions of fellow travelers are going to do after Hillary wins? Take a good look at the picture and video of this guy--this is a representative face (and body) of modern America if there ever was one:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/texas-deputy-drunk-half-naked-fires-shots-church-article-1.2738001?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
Bill-
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised that the jackass was fired. And yr rt: it's impt to look at this guy, and realize that he *is* America. For every Wafer, there are probably 100,000 William Coxes. Does it get any dumber than this?
mb
Waferinos-
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting article from 1999 (that changed nothing, unfortunately) regarding serious vs. frivolous feminism; altho it seems to me applicable to any form of political correctness:
http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Nussbaum-Butler-Critique-NR-2-99.pdf
mb
"...workshops on writing and critical thinking..."
ReplyDeleteHow were you selected to give these lectures? Your abilities and WAFertude aside, were you surprised at the offer/request? What was your opinion of the agency before you went? Afterward? Did you interact with the students enough to form an opinion of them as analysts/researchers? This is a fascinating bit of Berman bio. Any WAFers to be seen/sensed among them?
Thanks.
Jas-
ReplyDeleteYes, gd questions, clearly. At the time I was free-lancing for a company that sponsored workshops on various things, including writing and editing, and the CIA applied to them for someone to come out to Langley for 2 weekends. I was curious: how else was I going to get inside that facility? I learned a # of things:
1. As I said, the CIA is not monolithic; it has a # of 'cultures' within it, including this hippie/New Paradigm shit.
2. Each weekend involved abt 20 people. They were sharp as tacks.
3. I made a big point abt the imptc of providing evidence in the process of critical thinking, the diff between argument and opinion, and the need to substantiate claims in any report they were to submit to their bosses.
Did I make an impact? Hmm. After 9/11, Cheney and George Tenet were pressuring these folks (or their colleagues) to come up with the 'right' result, so that they cd justify destroying Iraq. Problem: the evidence wasn't there, and when Cheney came back to Langley a 2nd time, he told them: "Wrong answer." He didn't give a damn abt evidence--but they did. So the report that was finally published was schizophrenic: the text gave Cheney the argument he wanted, and the (extensive) ftnotes 'modified' the argument away, noting that it was only one possible scenario. All megalomania aside, was I responsible for that?
Anyway, that was my attempted contribution to the American intelligence community.
mb
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/29/georgias-rio-2016-opening-ceremony-outfits-prompt-mockery
ReplyDeleteI watched the opening ceremony yesterday. What a disgusting world-leveling, culture neutralizing spectacle. Millenia of history and depth of human experience reduced to a marching menagerie of easily digested neo-liberal caricature. Every nation is now supposed to run, compete, wear trainers, and take selfies.
Three cheers for Georgia, though. So uncool.
You better look happy when you go to political rallies!
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft Pitches Technology That Can Read Facial Expressions at Political Rallies
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/04/microsoft-pitches-technology-that-can-read-facial-expressions-at-political-rallies/
I wonder what it will take for people to start to really worry about where technology is leading us. Oh well, I guess it is all worth it if I can watch comic book movies anywhere I want and play Pokémon Go. Most Americans would gladly give up whatever meager freedoms they have left for cooler toys and more entertainment.
ReplyDeleteForget the spineless media like NYT, when will art have the balls to lionize Mohamed Atta and slap 'murikan arrogance right across the face?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/us/khan-soldier-convention-iraq.html
An extraterrestrial or maybe the New-Guinea-Times would have written a similar story of Mohamed Atta romanticizing violence to the point of titillating the reader. Didn't Atta have a mother or father? Didn't he have cousins, siblings, friends n lovers? What about his Khan-like grandiose dreams? This nation has become economically and morally bankrupt fighting Atta's ghost for the last fifteen years; 4 trillion dollars spent and there's no end in sight. From Abu Gharib scandal to Snowden revelations, and now the rise of a tyrant and racial fractures, the country is still reeling with the after-shock. Maybe "our" God surreptitiously is on their side; maybe we should nuke this f'kn God first?!?
Check this article and the seriousness of the narrator's voice. It starts off with "Terrorist.Mohamed Atta" as though like Captain.Humayun Khan it was Atta's troop rank. No need for the "consumer" to think, it could hurt their microcephalic heads. All we need to know is that he was genetically predisposed to hate "'murikan freedom" and we are Miss Snow White.
http://www.biography.com/people/mohamed-atta-241184#synopsis
Empire's concubine: Oprah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Djj-AECPxA
'And I understand his latest bk is called "Dark Age America"--! Gee, where did that come from?'
ReplyDeletemb,
Your guess is as good as mine; even though his book is about N. America might be like 500 years from now, and not about this present evil age.
http://www.newsociety.com/Books/D/Dark-Age-America
db, mb, Dermot -
And yet, he did a seven-month long series of blog posts (June 2013 through January 2014), which I slogged through, based on the theme "The Religion of Progress" and when I read the chapter titled The Illusion of Progress in When America Failed, it seemed to me I was reading the exact same material!
As for 'go[ing] back to alchemy or animism,' I certainly would not jump to conclusions that you, mb, hold to a belief that doing so would be a cardinal sin, let alone the sole unforgivable one.
"...What I find ... challenging is to speculate on post-contemporary (not 'postmodern'--ugh) thought patterns, which might well incorporate the magical tradition but not be a simple reversion to it (reculer pour mieux sauter--which is what happened during the Renaissance). I think that's where the fascinating possibilities lie..."
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that might prove a very fruitful line of endeavor, that I might maybe even be able to apply in the pursuit of my creative work. If you have any further thoughts on the matter MB I'd be very interested in learning of them.
Kev-
ReplyDeleteThe further thought I have is whether a new thought pattern can be embodied. When I wrote Reenchantment, I was after something that had the same structural properties as the magical tradition, but was not just simply the magical tradn all over again. I thought I found it in Bateson's cybernetic/holistic model, which is why those chs. are called "Tomorrow's Metaphysics." But over time, I began to see that the model is also machine-based, even if it's a more sophisticated machine (computer rather than a clock). In that sense, I understand where Greer is coming from, because the magical tradition is full-blooded, embodied. In addition, I wound up teaching at an institute based on systems theory ("Alt U," in the Twilight bk), and it was almost scary: a large collection of ignoramuses mindlessly parroting systems ideas, and addicted to them like religion--completely unembodied. The institute's systems guru came off as psychotic, in fact. A bk like CTOS was totally incomprehensible to these clowns, and the two yrs I spent w/these brain-damaged bozos assured me that disembodied holism was no better than the mechanical philosophy of modern science, and probably much worse.
So CTOS explored the history of embodiment (and disembodiment), but I don't really think I solved the problem. Personally, I don't think it can be solved by Greer's attempt to return to the Middle Ages: very unimaginative, in my bk, and not very likely. Thus in WG I explored the nature of 'horizontal' reality, and whether hunter-gatherer elements cd be incorporated into a future mode of consciousness. I still didn't solve the problem, but there are hints, tow'd the end of the bk; I think I was getting closer. Wittgenstein hovered around it in "Philosophical Investigations," but it's really a collection of questions, not answers. What I labeled 'archaic modernism' in my Japan bk might be a possible path toward a post-contemp. embodied thought pattern, but I'm not sure. A Cdn anthropologist took up this idea at the conference I was at at U of Waterloo in May, a conf. that also discussed the historical tradn of craft, and possibly the future of it. It seems to me that a few people are circling around it...
Authenticity probably has a role to play as well (see SSIG and TMWQ), in that I don't think you can be embodied if yr inauthentic. But how all these pieces fit together--well, that still eludes me. But I'm convinced that it can't be abstract, and can't be just talk.
mb
Trump is indeed a total jackass, but there is time and the nature of the beastly hordes is fickle with the huge amount of 'independent' voters, as well as disaffected voters who may or may not vote. I keep seeing 'Dewey wins' flit across my visual field and flinch each time. Trump is not quite toast yet, but he is still a bad joke with pockets filled with bad pennies, uh, pences.
ReplyDeleteBut I flinch every time I see or hear anything from any of the current choices.
Interesting and cool look at the covert intelligence agency.
MB -
ReplyDeleteThis is kinda fun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqbDBRWb63s
In addition to botox injections she may soon be slamming phenobarbital to keep seizures at bay. We had Obama sneaking off to the Rose Garden for a quick smoke... hillary ducking into public toilets would certainly top that!
Comrade-
ReplyDeleteFor months now I have found her laugh kind of creepy, so who knows what's going on there?
mb
Then there's this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/upshot/were-in-a-low-growth-world-how-did-we-get-here.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
With all respect, doctor, Oshitforbrains became a war criminal 4 days after taking office. On that day he ordered a drone strike that killed 23 people, which included 4 children. Anyway, as someone who believes in almost all conspiracy theories, I still think Trump will win. The elites actually, according to my vast you-tube watching, prefer Trump as they feel they can still get more out of him. Also, there are plans (yes, get my tin foil hat ready)for martial law and they would prefer that Trump be the face of it. Yes, Macmillan was a superb prime minister. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he reportedly said he didn't understand what the fuss was all about. Talk about a reasonable response.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, still safely ensconced in Thailand, my favourite country. Spent 2 weeks up north where you can have an authentic Thai experience. Unfortunately, the area is flooded with western expats whose idea of a good time is drink beer from morning to night. This does not go unnoticed by the Thais who regard westerners are little more than barbaric. People are so well dressed, few tattoos except of the Buddha, and I didn't see any piercings. Also, as I wrote earlier, few joggers wear ear buds which I especially found refreshing. Off to Cambodia next week which is equally pleasant. Hope you make it out here someday, doctor.
Dan-
ReplyDeleteWell, I doubt Trump can win at this pt; you don't insult the military and become president. But as for martial law: I don't doubt for a minute that it's in the pipeline, and I don't own an aluminum foil hat. Altho I do wish the Martians wd stop trying to contact me; really, it's so annoying. Meanwhile, glad yr having such a gd time in the Far East, and wish I cd fly out there on my magic carpet. (I never did recover from the Arabian Nights, wh/I read at age 13.)
Of course, when I say 'in the pipeline', I don't mean that in the sense of being part of a definite plan. I mean it's the court of last resort. In other words, the Pentagon has all sorts of contingency plans, including bombing Moscow, but this doesn't mean they are actually going to do it. The MLP (Martial Law Plan) is there in the event that shd things get completely out of hand--another economic crash, or jihadist attack, or poverty finally leading to food riots and mass migrations--then the MLP will swing into action. Similarly, I don't believe 9/11 was an inside job; but I do believe that since that day, we have been living in the framework of a slow-motion coup d'état. MLP wd be the logical climax to that, but I think it won't be invoked until there's no other choice.
Of course, this is just guesswork on my part, as an historian; what's actually going on, or going to happen, is anybody's guess at this pt. But I'm sure of at least one thing: it ain't going to be good. With Hillary we shall enter our Weimar period, and this cd mean endless shootings and street riots, race riots, food riots, Trumpites vs. 'liberal' riots, the emergence of a much slicker Super-Trump, possible secessionist riots, and eventually, a military coup d'état, complete with the MLP. (I predicted fascism for the US in 1989, in CTOS.) In the US, the center will not hold (Yeats), because the truth is that it doesn't consist of anything substantial. We laugh at articles abt men fucking goats or shooting up McDonald's because there was no bacon on a cheeseburger; or shake our heads at Wal-Mart shoppers literally killing one another over a pair of sneakers; but these are not aberrations and they are not 'outside of politics': people do these things because they have 0 else in their lives. That's politics.
Check out the work of Lionel Shriver. Over and over again, her novels pt to the same conclusion: this is a way of life that is utterly depraved. It's not an accident that dystopian literature is multiplying these days, or that I write a bk in 2011 saying that America is abt little more than hustling, and then 5 yrs later the nation's ultimate hustler is a presidential candidate. If you have half a brain, none of this is rocket science.
mb
mb
Wafer alert!!!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Seinfeldia-About-Nothing-Changed-Everything/dp/1476756104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470563732&sr=1-1&keywords=seinfeldia+how+a+show+about+nothing+changed+everything
ReplyDeleteA book written in 2008 by John Michael Greer :
"The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age" ---
https://www.amazon.com/Long-Descent-Users-Guide-Industrial/dp/0865716099
Several years ago I noticed this book. I didn't read it but the title seemed rather similar to the title of a 2006 book that I did read, by James Howard Kunstler, called
"The Long Emergency : Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century" ---
https://www.amazon.com/Long-Emergency-Converging-Catastrophes-Twenty-First/dp/0802142494
At the time I wondered if Greer was "piggybacking", deliberately choosing a name for one of his books that was similar to the name for another book that he admired. After following his blog for a few years I found Greer to be intelligent and original and I simply forgot about my original suspicion. Greer also has been on James Howard Kunstler's podcast more than once and their conversation was always friendly and characterized by mutual respect and admiration.
Richard Heinberg is also respectful of Greer and his work. In 2009 Greer wrote a book about UFOs and their history as a media phenomenon --- "The UFO Phenomenon: Fact, Fantasy and Disinformation". That book was much admired by physical chemist and author Ugo Bardi.
Anyway, bright and creative people sometimes come up with very similar ideas independently. Let's not forget that Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz each came up with the calculus without being aware of the other's work.
re: Seinfeld
ReplyDeletehttp://splitsider.com/2016/08/this-seinfeld-911-spec-script-is-insane-and-incredible/
Seinfeld episode script taking place days after 9/11
I can't tell, is the new Seinfeld book social criticism or coffee table history trivia?
The Biscuit, The Football, and the President's Brain
ReplyDeletetwo pretty terrifying pieces on Trump and the nuke codes
Marc-
ReplyDeleteThat's reassuring, but see above, Ed-M's comment abt 3rd chapter of WAF.
mb
MB, Marc B.--
ReplyDeleteYes, Greer does much extraordinarily well; have been reading him since 2006 (via the Peak Oil writers, Matt Savinar, Ruppert, etc, and one underrated Stan Goff) & have bought several of his books, incl. "The Druidry Handbook" (DH) from which I quoted.
He's great on practical aspects of adapting & problem solving, on inspiring others to write fiction (and finds them publishers). He's very kind & supportive to people who've found themselves in dire straits. No question.
Marc--
The problem lies in misrepresenting a source. Honest intellectual practise demands presenting the quote (or paraphrase) correctly both in form (words, punctuation) AND content (i.e., the context). After that you can argue with it all you want.
Real damage can result from this misrepresentation (plagiarism's economic aspects include precisely this): those hundreds of new AODA Druids who will read the DH will conclude that MB is enthralled by the Idea of Progress, and will likely not pick up another Berman book. They will "write him off" because their beloved teacher, Greer, "wrote him off."
My shelves are full of books mentioned by Greer; but I've learned to be wary and see for myself.
Dr. MB and all fellow Wafers worldwide:
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to Dr. MB , I'd like to nominate Ms. Lionel Shriver's book, "The Mandibles" as The Wafer novel of the Year. It's about a truly Wafer like future ( 2029 - 2047 ) where much of what is discussed on this blog is reality. Shriver has captured the essence of daily life in the ongoing collapse and I find it a convincingly fun romp. I urge you to borrow it from your local socialist book depository ( public library ).
trout-
ReplyDeleteYes, in fact we've been discussing it here, a bit.
mb
trout-
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more about "The Mandibles." It's interesting to note that some of the more negative reviews of the book have to do w/Shriver's political incorrectness and her perceived conservative economic positions. Indeed, it's successive *Democratic* governments who destroy the remains of the economy. And didn't you just love the fact that the Fed chair is a guy named Krugman? Also, the kind of liberal *confidence* in the American people to turn things around is consistently undermined by the reality of just how terrible Americans are as a people. Many progressives will not appreciate such candor.
Miles
The Cluster B us mental derangements are here! The "reviews" of Striver's latest book by the propaganda us "news" papers are predictable and eloquently stated by Dr. Berman. The key of us "news" is to sell hope and bullshit to the professional classes--Horatio Alger myths and blind allegiance. Keep them fat and happy with some minor criticisms/critiques then white wash it with feel good american BS.
ReplyDeleteE.g., A "reviewer," a young kid from an Ivy league school, eager beaver, narcopath with thick rimmed glasses to appear smart, gives the "review"--the "reviewer" claims they are a social critic at the sage age of 20-something. Weaves an overly eloquent, look at me tale (to impress her masters) of Shriver's book's naughty portrayal of us doom, gloom, and pessimism. Then the overly predictable, of we're still great, wonderful, patriotic, everything is just fine, tow the line us bullshit. The author really loves america, and she says, this, that, and and blah, blah. Basically, keep smiling and shining, that book as just fiction. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Another "review" is by a boomer Cluster B mentally deranged, narcopathic american, published in a lamestream propaganda rag, again, the same "review" equation-doom, gloom, pessimistic, what's her problem, it's not that bad, keep the faith, the dollar still holds value. Keep smiling, keep shining. Rinse, lather, repeat.
The us populous is severely stunted, emotionally fragile, and mentally retarded (not Down's syndrome), yet, mentally and emotionally at a level whereby growth is NOT an option. There's a bizarre cognitive dissonance at play, whereby to achieve status in the corporate us shithouse one must play the game--thick glasses, kiss tuchas, and bland smiles with lots and lots of self pictures. Do you want to play that american game? Apparently, many wish to. Cluster B "news."
I've been thinking a lot about "The Mandibles" since I finished the book a couple of weeks ago. One thing interesting aspect of the novel that should not be overlooked is Shriver's intimate depiction of the family's dynamics. When we first meet the Mandibles, they seem like a typical American family, with plenty of petty jealousies and resentments exacerbated by the two younger generations' fears that they may inadvertently do something to offend the family patriarch and get cut off from inheriting the immense family fortune. Of course, that fortune goes "poof" in the early days of the 2029 financial crash, after which if the Mandibles were a typical American family most of them would likely cut off contact with each other out of spite. Instead, they improbably manage to draw closer together and even support one another despite their obvious loathings, and as a result they fare better at surviving the collapse than most of the other Americans around them.
ReplyDeleteIt's a direct contrast to Jack Womack's "Random Acts of Senseless Violence," in which the family at the center of the tale splits further apart as the financial collapse worsens, and as a result their personal fates are far more grim. I strongly suspect that when the day finally does come that things start to get as bad as depicted in these novels, most Americans to their detriment will find their experiences more closely resembling Womack than Shriver. It's also interesting because one of the key plot points of Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is how the mother, whose life has been completely destroyed after her teenage son's murderous school rampage that also claimed the lives of her husband and daughter, sticks by her son and learns to actually love him for the first time in her life.
For all the BS about "family values" that gets jammed down our throats, the modern devaluation of family and its contribution to the feelings of isolation experienced by so many is one of the biggest reasons for America's rapid decline.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteRe: Shriver: scroll back to my reply to Dan, last para. Shriver's work is collectively a wakeup call to Americans who simply cannot be woken up. It makes you wonder what, indeed, cd break thru the cognitive dissonance of our fellow countrymen. I mean, I don't expect to do it, and never did; sales of my work are trivial. But Shriver's sales are dramatically high, and yet this fictional variation on my own declinist argument *also* can't penetrate the thickness of the American skull. I keep thinking back to the K-Y Project I once proposed, to go door to door w/a bucket of K-Y jelly and a crowbar and try to wedge American heads out of American asses. Nothing short of this will work, I fear.
mb
ps: an example of what I'm talking abt. Yesterday I was sitting at an outdoor café, next to an American tourist. We started talking. She was from the Midwest, in town for a couple of weeks, waiting for her boyfriend to join her. He works for Exxon, is thinking abt retiring here and building a bowling alley on the edge of town. He told her there is money to be made here, esp. from the Mexican youth. I suggest to her that it is precisely this type of Americanization that is destroying the culture of Mexico. She is startled; it may be the 1st time she has heard the word 'Americanization'. She doesn't know exactly what to say. I figure she'll mention it to her boyfriend, and that it will deter him not a whit. There isn't enough K-Y jelly in the world to stop folks like these from ruining the world.
ReplyDeleteCan techno-douchebaggery be stopped?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/05/can-you-survive-a-device-free-dinner/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-technology%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
The dolphin says yes!
Deletewww.upi.com/Odd_News/2016/08/09/Dolphin-grabs-iPad-from-womans-hands-at-Sea-World/2631470747464
I think that Americans would instantly turn homicidal/suicidal if deprived of the comforting illusion of American greatness. That is why nearly all of them become emotionally or even physically violent if their notion of American supremacy is challenged in any way. The narcissistic fantasies nurtured by nearly all Americans are the only tenuous restraint that keeps their rage and sadism somewhat in check. Abandoning these fantasies on a massive scale would therefore trigger a national bloodbath the likes of which has never been seen. Therefore, for their own sanity and safety (such as they are), Americans will never wake up.
ReplyDeleteThis is why Trump supporters are so eager to kill billions. Agonizing circumstances have forced them to realize that America is no longer great (Make America Great Again is Trump's motto, which means it's not great at present), and although they fail to realize that America never really was great in a deeper sense, even this little bit of awakening is more than enough to stir them into a homicidal, genocidal frenzy. What a beautiful nation.
Well I'll be blowed dept.:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tehrantimes.com/news/404060/Why-America-Failed-appears-in-Iranian-bookstores
Awesome! If I had the money I would distribute ur book in my home country Ethiopia . Developing countries can learn from Americas mistakes
DeleteCongrats MB! I hope they deliver your royalties properly. I wouldn't be surprised if WAF proved quite popular there.
Deleteoh I'm sorry guys I didn't give the links w/ what I sent in yesterday.
ReplyDelete---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Biscuit, The Football, and the President's Brain
two pretty terrifying pieces on Trump and the nuke codes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=371ppiYpk1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-rwC8aREdoFsc
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/dont-know-much-about-history/492746/
ReplyDeleteon how our political representatives don't know their history
~ W Tanner
Kev-
ReplyDeleteNo royalties, I fear; they just went ahead and translated it w/o contacting me or my agent. Story of my life. But truth to tell, I don't really care; I'd rather stir up a bunch o' shit in Tehran, see how it plays out.
mb
@W Tanner,
ReplyDeleteMost American politicians, like other Americans, think that history is a boring, useless waste of time. Instead they are techno-utopians who think technology will save us and fix every conceivable problem, including those new problems that arise from technology!
Speaking of techno-buffoonery, I recently had dinner with a group of 20-somethings. A mutual friend asked me to have dinner with them at an Italian restaurant. They were on their smartphones almost the entire time. When I did manage to get them to look away from their phones and talk, the only things they seemed capable of discussing were the latest comic book movies and TV shows. Not that I expected some highbrow discussion about serious subjects, but I was amazed by how limited their interests were, and these were well-educated professionals!
Tom-
ReplyDeleteCheck out a movie called "Anesthesia."
mb
Ole! another MB movie recommendation!
ReplyDeleteHaving WAF go worldwide could possibly be the thing that causes the rest of the world to seriously begin to protect themselves from american headupasshianry. The world will be a better place. Take comfort!
pg, MB, Marc-
ReplyDeleteWell I have to admit that as my memory comes back to me, that Mr Greer did include additional material in his Religion of Progress series such as a piece of fiction, "Man, Conqueror of Nature, Dead at 400"; but even so, everything I read in WAF ch 3 (or at least nearly everything) I recalled reading in Greer's series. talk about deja-vu! Nevertheless, I do concur with what db has to say about the guy's strengths.
Thank you.
MB,
I think you'll have to find spiritual K-Y jelly and a spiritual crowbar. Physical stuff for prying won't work when Americans' heads are in their arseholes, spiritually.
@Tom
ReplyDeleteI am such a 20 something, and I find that I can only talk to old friends who long left the state and/or country. There is no more "public at large" for a young person to engage.
I wrote an undergraduate thesis a few years back that referenced Roman cultural mythology and 19th century German existensialism. I spent months sitting in a computer lab with Nietzsche and Spengler while my infantilized fellow students sat around playing video games and watching anime. One blue-haired one was a 6th year student in Gender Studies.
I came in with my books every day and left without exchanging a word.
And what do you do if you wake up in a Kafka novel...?
Dio-
ReplyDeleteEasy: you write a novel abt douche bags.
Ed-
But what if it's literal? What if someone comes to the door rolling like a donut, with head up ass and arms flailing? What then?
Comrade-
Well, I've apparently penetrated Iran (see above), and a few yrs ago WAF went into a Mandarin edn. But I think those countries already know we are fucked in the head.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteNutville, USA dept.:
1. Savage metro beat down:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-woman-beats-man-metro-long-beach-20160805-snap-htmlstory.html
2. Different Strokes:
http://koin.com/2016/07/19/man-arrested-for-breaking-into-car-masturbating/
3. 3 kids left alone in desert w/out shoes or water. Mother said she did it as a form of "discipline":
http://www.kesq.com/news/children-left-in-desert-as-punishment/40698046
As Elaine usta say: "You know, sometimes when I think Americans are the shallowest people on the marble, they manage to drain a little more outta the pool."
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteCheck out Morgan's eyes, in #2: you are looking at the future of America.
mb
As Dr. Berman has stated--for the youngin's, oldin's, and in between, what do you think is waiting for you 10,20,30+ years from now? The best thing to do is to leave this dilapitated farce of a country. Reinvent yourself, learn to play the contra-bassoon-whatever, work at a coffee shop, stop chasing pennies and nickels and people pleasing, learn a language-become fluent, or at least conversational, get outta dodge. Press the reset button of your life, b/c nothing is going to change.
ReplyDeleteBerman's, "Project KY" would probably be flop; most americans are too busy watching sports, who got voted most sexy, parroting us "news," and how to please a us corporate shithead. All the while barely treading water to pay all those us bills, fees, and taxes for more empty us BS promises, lies, and fraud.
Is this your life, or a f-ing joke? What goes through the average american (shit) head commuting to and fro with no real place to go? What exactly? Critical thinking? -LOL! Best bet, leave. Unless, perhaps, you're into us S and M.
What fills Americans' heads?
ReplyDeletehttp://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/07/autos/cnnphotos-car-details-steven-edson/index.html
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteIf Evan McMullin can run, why can't Lorenzo Riggins run? I'm sorry, but I just don't get it.
mb
Kev-
ReplyDeleteCdn't post it (24-hr rule).
mb
My cousin just moved to America. I gave her the link to ur book on Amazon. I been telling her to go back. She is an educated woman she can do so many things back home. But her husband wants to chase the American Dream. Which is causing a fight in their marriage. I'm hoping they move back before they end up getting a divorce like most Americans .
ReplyDeleteJust another good American we should all emulate:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/sports/2016/08/09/trash-talking-finger-wagging-lilly-king-is-perfect-olympian.html
Forgot to include my favorite quote from the article:
ReplyDeleteThe American's open disdain for Russian rival Yulia Efimova might have come across as un-Olympic, but her finger wag, stare down and relentless antagonizing couldn't be more in line with the spirit of the games.
(forgive 24 hr rule violation)
Mo-
ReplyDeleteBk: you mean TMWQ? I hope she enjoys it!
mb
Wile-
ReplyDeleteNo question as to where this young lady comes from!
mb
pg-
ReplyDeleteMy kinda mammal.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteWill someone explain to me how the progs can ram their heads up their rumps this deeply?:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/09/sanders-movement-only-just-beginning
mb
ps: Another example: Michael Moore has an article out on how we can't count on Trump to self-destruct, but hafta work to defeat him. Huh?
ReplyDelete1. Why? Michael, are you trying to save the US? Whatever for?
2. 8 years of Hillary looks gd 2u? Seriously?
3. Didju ever consider the possibility that regardless of who's in office, it's game over?
mb-
ReplyDeleteThe typical Murkin, at least on the "conservative" side, has a very thick skull when it comes to being open to climate change.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2016/06/boomerangs-versus-javelins-the-impact-of-polarization-on-climate-change-communication/
Of course the liberals are very open to global warming and how to solve it. They just want the other guy (i.e., working classes, businesses, conservatives) to do the sacrificing, if any, since they also believe technology will save us all and about a bright and shiny carbon emissions-free future with peace and prosperity to boot. Trying to get the libs to realize otherwise is like getting the cons to believe any anthropogenic climate change is happening in the first place.
Ed-
ReplyDeleteIs K-Y and crowbars the answer? Or shd we just take pairs of conservatives and progs and bang their heads together for 15 continuous minutes? The time for action is nigh!
mb
In between the non-stop us bread and circus shows (opiates) for the masses--curious if indeed Mr. Lorenzo Riggins would run for president and since we are into loving vaginas as a job qualification, why not Ms. Tasha Shontelle Hatcher for vp respectively?
ReplyDeleteThat way we can have something other than american war mongoring to talk about. We can vacillate between the correct amount of MCdoubles and the best way to stuff infants into kitchen ovens. How American! Make ya wanna wave a flag, take a self picture, and eat a hotdog.
As they say, the pollys, and "leaders" are a reflection of the people. Enjoy the shit show.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited abt Tasha and the contribution she is making to America. Here's the full story:
http://klaq.com/texas-mom-arrested-for-putting-toddler-in-the-oven-and-burning-her/
mb
ps: This is even more heartbreaking. Jesus, what a country!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/09/parents-were-accused-of-abusing-their-infant-but-jailers-took-them-to-see-her-final-moments/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_mm-babyabused-0555pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
ps2: There's also something extremely gracious abt the way Americans carry themselves:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jack-box-20160809-snap-story.html
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteShareafa Watkins, 27, booked for stealing from a church that helped her out financially:
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/07/shareafa_watkins_church_theft.html
Pastor David Utt, 37, arrested for burglarizing a rival church:
http://kwqc.com/2016/07/20/illinois-pastor-charged-with-burglarizing-church/
Miles
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteA professor at a university in the Southeast just sent me the following e-mail:
Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at 50 top Republican national security officials for criticizing his presidential campaign.
“The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in this country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place,” he said in a statement.
“They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it’s time they are held accountable for their actions.”
Trump said the coalition dismissing his national security positions are many of the same voices guiding Hillary Clinton’s poor foreign policies.
“These insiders — along with Hillary Clinton — are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria],” the GOP’s presidential nominee said.
“Yet despite these failures, they think they are entitled to use their favor-trading to land taxpayer-funded government contracts and speaking fees,” Trump added.
PS: Let's not forget that Donald is against globalization (NO to TPP, TTIP), and for detente / realism with Russia.
Jeff-
Check out the faces of these folks. I tell ya, there ain't enuf K-Y jelly in the world to do the work required.
Onward, into the pit!
mb
Dr. B:
ReplyDeleteI was going to link the article by Ms. vanden Heuvel ("The Sanders Movement Is Only Just Beginning") but you beat me to it! I almost burst out laughing when I clicked on it earlier today.
Birn-
ReplyDeleteThese progs need 10 yrs of round-the-clock therapy. Really. This is not cognitive dissonance; it's full-out dementia.
"Into The Pit" (my new slogan)-
mb
And this too is gd:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3731409/She-ear-College-student-19-bites-large-section-rookie-police-officer-s-ear-s-arrested-outside-bar.html
Once again, check out this girl's face.
ITP
mb
ReplyDeleteWould the "Gold Star" parents of the fallen "hero" care to know that brown people like him were being persecuted and killed by the white militia and the US military only 150 years ago? It is once again the same nation, the same people and the same military that is terrorizing the "inconvenient" races at home and abroad of which the Khans are so proud. There are a million killed in Iraq alone in this genocide, far more than Saddam could have ever killed in a thousand year. Hate-n-kill-RUs. The interview in this link is NOT for non-Wafers...
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/robert_scheer_benjamin_madley_california_genocide_native_americans_20160805
Empires's whores pontificating over the empire's concubine...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-hannity-launches-smear-campaign-on-khizr-khan_us_57a9ff03e4b06e52746dc0ac?section=&
Why Amerika Failed? It is karma stupid!!!
"In 1851, California governor Peter Burnett declared -his actual words- “a war of extermination will continue to be waged until the Indian race becomes extinct.” And this was not a private statement or a hidden statement; this was in his annual speech to the joint houses of California’s legislature. U.S. Senator John Weller, who became California’s governor, went further: he told his colleagues in the United States Senate that California Indians, “will be exterminated before the onward march of the white man, arguing that the interest of the white man demands their extermination.”
"Newspapers reported babies skewered on bayonets by regular U.S. army soldiers. They reported on people throwing children into bonfires. They reported on the extermination of entire Indian communities, wholesale."
USA! USA! USA!
Perhaps the best phrase to summarize America is this: arrogance eventually destroys you from the inside out. Stupidity, addiction, mental illness, existential crisis, poverty, crime, alienation - all these horrors are the inevitable consequences of habitual arrogance. And this holds true, not only for individuals, but for entire nations as well - habitual arrogance over the course of many generations always destroys a nation from the inside out. Ironically, nations in the thrall of arrogance believe all their problems come from without, when they usually only arise from within.
ReplyDeleteEsca,
Indeed, America really never was anything other than sadistic and narcissistic. Its goal was always the acquisition of more, and it didn't matter how many people needed to be slaughtered to obtain it. All kinds of religious and ideological justifications were used, but the underlying sadistic and narcissistic mindset remained the same. Americans are so stupid that they'll never realize that shouting "GOD WANTS ALL _______ DEAD!!!!" at the top of one's lungs isn't any sort of justification for anything. That's what people say when they have no justification at all: nothing within the context of the situation supports your assertion, so you just decide that it's God's will, thereby elevating your own selfish egotisms to the level of the divine. Case closed, a few million brain cells/innocent civilians dead.
GOD DAMN BOOK DESERTS
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/where-books-are-nonexistent/491282/
Trump's reaction to the critical letter from the Republican national security officials is entirely predictable. He could hardly say that they raise valid comcerns. And even if he were to concede their criticisms are justified, it wouldn't matter. His supporters--and they are many--just don't seem to care. Whenever Trump appears before the camera or a microphone, he almost invariably makes a statement that leaves the punditocracy amd political reporters breathless--and delighted. No problem filling column inches or airtime with Trump loose among the citizens.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I enjoy reading that this prominent person--Republicans especially--or that "watchdog" group has protested "in the strongest terms"** this utterance or that opinion from the GOP candidate. The pleasure made all the greater because it reveals a country in the throes of collapse: how could we have come to this, they say. Where did things go wrong, they ask? A confusion reflective of a leadership class totally out of touch with those they purport to lead. And a populace who put them there but now wonders where these schlimazels came from.
As George has taught us to say, "When you're born into this world, you're given a ticket to the freak show. And when you're born in America, you're given a front row seat."
**The citizens of the world's strongest nation know no other way to protest. It's our burden.
To Ed-M on climate change........
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for "Liberals" but I'm involved with a number of local organizations and people and none of them have any illusions about the implications of Climate Change. We're focused on local renewable energy and local food and we assume we'll get no help from our state and federal Govt. Nor do we think that some magical Tech fix will appear. Today, we think that renewable electric energy combined with storage ( batteries ) and electric "tools" form our current path into the future. The world will get very small and local. Yes, we would agree with you that almost all Americans have no idea what lies ahead in the next few decades. Conceptually, for us, it's all about local resilience.
Talk about ignoring reality:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2016/08/10/ready-for-a-twitter-and-selfie-enabled-lunar-base-in-10-to-15-years-moon-expresss-co-founder-on-why-the-first-private-moon-shot-is-only-the-beginning/
Key quote from this interview:
To rephrase John F Kennedy, “We chose to go to the moon not because it’s easy but because it’s a good business.”
Just another hustler, in other words ... in other worlds.
This is another aspect of "progress" that astonishes me: the notion that we're just so damn smart that we can survive, overcome, and control anything & everything -- and make big bucks from it, too!
Where are actual human beings in this shiny future? Well, I don't think there'll be many, if any. There may be plenty of biological work & consumption units, but that's not quite the same thing, is it?
As the Bible said, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." If the only visible "vision" is high-tech megabucks, any nothing of genuine "people" certainly does perish.
The 1970s film Silent Running was scoffed at for proposing that humanity would gladly dispose of Nature altogether & live happily ever after in a technological paradise. No doubt run by a handful of corporations that delivers all the digital soma anyone could ever want.
I know people who assure me that Science will solve everything, there's nothing to worry about, and we're all going to be fabulously wealthy to boot. And it's clear that they actually believe it.
We need a "TUFDiC" metric for the average American citizen.
ReplyDelete"Time Until Finances are Discussed in Conversation"
If you actually manage to talk to somebody for some length of time here, they are probably selling and/or buying something, so their "TUFDiC" is under five minutes at most.
Generally, the number lowers with somebody's financial and professional stature. In inverse to old Europe, where the aristocracy was not suppposed to be eager to discuss money.
I have used this to my advantage when explaing my impending move to Canada to loose aquaintances. "The tution is so much cheaper! And the exchange rate!"
They actually start to respect the decision if it is purely financial and I make it sound scammy!
Dear MB,
ReplyDeleteYou have argued that Jimmy Carter was the last liberal president. However, the extreme left describes him as a war criminal responsible for propping up dictatorships and aiding them with weapons; and the also blame him among others for the genicide in East Timor by Indonesia. Not having made a single war didn't make him any less of a criminal- they argue.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/18/jimmy-carters-blood-drenched-legacy/
If that is the case, can it be said that the USA doesn't have a single instance in which it can look at himself from a moral standpoint? In other words, the lesser of two evils have always been our choice? The third party leftist choice- Stein's Green Party- has morality as their reason to vote for her. Like any savior she will right all of the wrongs America has done since its Inception. Couldn't that type of thinking miss the nuance of a world geopolitical stage in which none of the players are totally honest? The pipe dream of a moral unicorn landing in the White House could be a Trojan Horse all to itself? Trump has a similar argument: he is an outsider, clean from politics. He alone is what it takes to get rid of all crooks and liars. Aren't we deluded into thinking that nations can be ruled Democratically with a savior that will perform an Inquisition to purge the evil from politics? Could it be that we have lost our nuance to accept that democracies are about compromise more than they are about honesty? And sometimes compromise includes falling back on promises done to constituents in the name of averting gridlock.
Juliet Cash
mb,
ReplyDeleteYou said-
"But what if it's literal? What if someone comes to the door rolling like a donut, with head up ass and arms flailing? What then?"
Haven't seen a human been physically been turned into a doughnut, and I don't expect to, ever. But I can tell the spiritual "doughnuts"... they are the ones who are walking into walls.
"Is K-Y and crowbars the answer? Or shd we just take pairs of conservatives and progs and bang their heads together for 15 continuous minutes? The time for action is nigh!"
It's awfully late in the game for "action." And I don't think either or any other method will work, either.
Of possible interest to WAF-ers, 4 daughters of comedians including Kelly Carlin:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/2MIzDQwWkf4
but, I'll haveta watch it tomorrow.
Ed-
ReplyDeleteOne can always hope.
Juliet-
Jimmy wasn't a liberal; he cut across the usual left-rt categories. E.g., liberals of his time were not partic. interested in solar panels or "small is beautiful"; that was a different constituency. And yes, he did a lot of bad things in office, altho a lot of it was on shitty advice from Zbieg, who was very much a cold warrior, and misled Jimmy. I cover that ground in DAA. But the real problem was the American people, who simply weren't having his brand of restraint, or self-reflection. Jimmy failed to understand how greedy and narcissistic Americans were. Reagan understood it perfectly. (Also discussed in WAF.)
Tim, Dio-
If you keep in mind at all times that Americans are morons, and that this is not an exaggeration, you can't go wrong.
Trout-
See Lewis Dartnell, "The Knowledge."
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteBarf city:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RT5YwvcbNo
MB-
Re: Trump's total rejection of Washington's neocon foreign policy
Well, this is where Trump makes complete sense. Trump correctly points out what is patently obvious to Wafers and those w/out chopped liver in their heads: Hillary, the GOP establishment, and the neocons have put the entire marble inside an uncontrollable Pentagon straitjacket to the tune of 20 trillion, and created a massive amount of death and instability in the world in the process. And for what? What? 2 say we R #1? Did it ever occur to these geniuses that a more restrained foreign policy abroad might possibly result in less retaliatory attacks? Jesus, we've been fucking around in the Middle East since WW II! Enuf, already!
*Vote Trump!
*Lorenzo Riggins for director of the CIA!
*Rachel Butterbaugh for head of FEMA!
Or nuke the cosmos! I don't give a shit anymore...
Miles
ReplyDelete@DioGenes,
Good point about aristocracy. Americans never really had a proper aristocratic tradition outside of the South. I think this is unfortunate because we really missed out on a better type of conservatism. In Great Britain you had the "One Nation Conservatives"/ "One Nation Tories" who supported a kind of noblesse oblige that was different from the intense, greedy, individualistic conservatism of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
One Nation Conservatives espoused ideas like organic community and the concept that the wealthy had a duty to the less-fortunate. Of course, I am sure Conservative Party politicians often did not live up to these ideals but at least in principle One Nation Conservatism seems less obsessed with hustling than many other ideologies.
In Canada they had a version of Toryism called "Red Toryism" that was concerned with community and was very critical of American-style hustling and techno-worship. George Grant was probably the main Red Tory figure although he never called himself a Red Tory as far as I know.
@Miles, regarding Trump being anti-neo con ...
ReplyDeleteMy secret theory is that he would actually be somewhat benign as POTUS. If you look at his political history, he has been all over the map. Is he a hustling, crude blowhard? Yes.
But in terms of the dangers we face on account of our disasterous foreign policy in the ME, S. America, and elsewhere, as well as globalization and the economic hardship that has befallen many due to NAFTA, he actually looks far less dangerous to me.
I also think this is why the MM is in overdrive trying to paint him as Hitler 2.0. Just think about that. The man has been compared to Hitler, even by Botox herself.
Also happy I can watch this all from overseas, not sure how I'd cope if I were still in the US.
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing up George Grant, Tom. I've mentioned him here before; Wafers would probably like what he has to say about technology and the belief in progress. Another guy, Gad Horowitz, writes about the common British roots of Canadian socialism and conservatism that make a lot of sense to me. Just yesterday I was thinking of a way to explain this to those who think that Stephen Harper or Ronald Reagan are "conservative." I suppose "collective individualism" would be a way of putting it: individuals have the right to do what they want without state interference, except where their actions cross the line to harm the common weal. The problem is determining where that line is, of course.
Last night I left the TV on after watching "Whose Line is it Anyway" on KTLA, which I surmised is from Los Angeles (we have stations on cable from all over, but I rarely get a sense of locality from them). The local news came on. It wasn't like our local news, which seems to be about floods, fires, the price of gas, and whatever some alderman is up to. Nope, KTLA told about a couple who tried smuggling a dead baby into Mexico, and a motorist who shot at another driver because her windshield cleaner got his car wet.
I think I understand gringo Wafers a little better this morning.
On one talent of the Puzzle Palace:
ReplyDeletewww.mintpressnews.com/audit-pentagon-cannot-account-6-5-trillion-dollars-taxpayer-money/219246/
$$$ disappear--like magic!
Miles,
ReplyDeleteWestern meddling in the Middle East goes way back before WWII, we just picked up where the British Empire, France, etc., left off. As a matter fact, the British Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised Palestine to the Zionists long before Hitler and the holocaust.
(Does anyone here know why the Zionists were so anxious to take over Palestine? Why did they want a desert? It’s crazy, even if you accept the idea that it was given to them by God. As I understand it, Sephardic Jews, which are from the Middle East, Spain and Portugal make up about 20 to 25% of the Jewish population, and Ashkenazi Jews, which originated in Eastern Europe, make up 75% to 80% of the Jewish population - I’m using just two categories here for the sake of brevity. So the bulk of the Jewish population isn’t even from the Middle East. This is not to dispute the fact that Israel is now a fact, but big adjustments should be made. Everyone, please correct any mistakes I’ve made here as I’m always willing to change my mind and/or expand my knowledge.)
“Hillary, the GOP establishment, and the neocons have put the entire marble inside an uncontrollable Pentagon straitjacket to the tune of 20 trillion, and created a massive amount of death and instability in the world in the process. And for what? What?”
The truth is no mystery to these people, so I assume at this point that it’s being done on purpose. War is extremely profitable, so the real question to ask is “cui bono?” Once you figure this out, all the death, destruction and poverty in the world makes a perverted and horrific sort of sense.
ReplyDeleteThe amerikn proletariat makes the world "suck on this" as instructed by their beloved "mustache of understanding" while their heads grow thicker in their shrinking as'oles.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16967
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman
Imagine an alternate-reality world where Belman is the columnist of NAT (New America Times) instead of the empire's escort, Mademoiselle.Friedman of the NYT?! Suddenly one day -altho remote, it could happen- 'murikn heads might come unhinged from their as'oles. Their would be love riots on our streets. People pouring out in hordes off their GHF (Greed,Hate n Fear) hovels running shouting hallelujah n hugging each other in prolonged embraces, having smelled the "rose" for the first time. Imagine!
Sorry! That day ain't coming folks. Because 'murikns are ...?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32iCWzpDpKs
Esca-
ReplyDeleteNot much of a chance, but see TMWQ for the alternative reality.
mb
With the political conventions in the recent past and our rejection of the idea of any citizen uprising, I thought the following might be of interest.
ReplyDeleteFrom Hunter Thompson's Kingdom of Fear, this excerpt. Thompson was hired in 1968 by Random House to write about "The Death of the American Dream." Armed with press credentials issued by the Democratic National Committee, he went to Chicago for the convention (26-29 August 1968). He wrote afterward:
"So in the end the very act of public protest, even violent protest, was essentially optimistic and actually a demonstration of faith (mainly subconscious I think) in the father figures who had the power to change things--once they could be made to see the light of reason, or even political reality.
This is what the bastards never understood--that the "Movement" was essentially an expression of deep faith in the American Dream: that the people they were "fighting" were not the cruel and cynical beasts they seemed to be, and that in fact they were just a bunch of men like everybody's crusty middle-class fathers who only needed to be shaken a bit, jolted out of their bad habits and away from their lazy, short-term, profit-oriented life stances...and that once they understood, they would surely do the right thing."
Hunter Thompson committed suicide at his Owl Creek farm near Aspen, CO on 20 February 2005. His suicide note, entitled "Football Season is Over," was published by Rolling Stone and read:
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun--for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax--This won't hurt."
RE: Pentagon cannot account for missing $6,500,000,000-could not care less. The professors have grants to chase, the hamster wheelers have shit to sell, and the CEOs' have fraud to commit. I'm too busy obsessing over working really hard because the boss might notice, watching millionaires swing their arms and hit balls, reading about who's tushy is getting bigger, and blankly staring at the idiot box mesmorised by "news" stories re: which car features are sexy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/11/silicon-valley-housing-official-resigns-california-home-prices
ReplyDeleteI am reserving my greatest schadenfreude for tech clowns.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteRe: Syria
Jesus, u can't make this shit up fast enuf! Isn't Al-Nusra...Al-Qaeda? The Americans are defending Al-Nusra (essentially the oddments of Al-Qaeda, the group who attacked the US on 911), and telling Putin and the Russians who are killing them to cut it out! WTF? Meanwhile, neo-McCarthyite pro-Clinton "liberals" are slurring Trump as Putin's "agent." I tell ya, I need pastrami w/cole slaw and Russian dressing w/a side of potato salad. A creme soda to wash it all down wouldn't hurt either.
Miles
Another article about the damage to children's minds from too much digital immersion:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2016/08/11/the-dangers-of-pokemon-go-why-kids-brains-are-more-vulnerable-to-virtual-and-augmented-realitys-risks/
Of course, the steady advance of digital diversions is God's bountiful blessing to The Powers That Be, a few more steps down the road of John Lennon's lyric, "Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV / And you think you're so clever and classless and free / But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see."
Interesting to read all the comments scoffing at the possibility that the article might be right.
I still get shocked & even sneering reactions from people when I mention that I'm not on Facebook, that I don't use Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat, that I don't have a smartphone, that I in fact still have a landline & even write letters by hand to my friends. "But you're missing everything!"
H. L. Mencken had it right so many decades ago: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteLet me recommend a Cel-Ray Tonic instead.
mb
Note to Dan-
ReplyDeleteBombings in Thailand. r.u.o.k.?
mb
Well, The Jackass just won't stop. He is steadily behind Hillary, and probably losing in swing states. Every time he opens his mouth, it gets worse. He has now conceded, for the first time, that he might not win the election. Gee, Don, do ya think?
ReplyDeletemb
I wonder if Trump ever really wanted to win. I don't think he would like being President. I don't think he would like the job at all. Still, it is amazing he's made it as far as he has given the media blitz against him and his own party hating his guts.
ReplyDeleteLike Miles I actually find his foreign policy ideas to be much saner than Hillary's, who is just going to follow the same failed neocon playbook.
Trump's racist, misogynistic rants initially gained him popularity, because they reflected the mindless prejudices of most Americans. However, because Trump (like practically all Americans) has a negative identity, he eventually grew bored of insulting people hated by his constituency, and felt compelled to attack literally everyone. Trump, being the braindead moron that he is, assumed that his popularity would be in proportion to the viciousness of his behavior; he doesn't understand that people don't like it when you attack literally everyone, because they themselves will inevitably come under fire.
ReplyDeleteAs a result, the most hated American politician ever - Hillary Clinton - will be sitting in the White House in a few months. This whole scenario reads like something out of a terrible play from the 1970s, but it's America's shameful reality.
Hi mb,
ReplyDeleteJust found this at my local public library. Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam's Grand New Party / How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. Another book filled with political self-help rhetoric for the GOP, which came out in 2008. Well they gained the working class, thanks to Donald Trump, who's now throwing it all away.
So now the 'Pubbies are hoping they can hold on to the House and Senate.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/will-republicans-abandon-trump-and-focus-on-congress/article/2599086
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Re: The Jackass
Yes, I do think The Jackass has essentially given up, and is now engaged in animating a kind of Jackass Gotterdammerung, so to speak. Trump is now preparing the groundwork for a mob insurrection or an armed uprising of some kind; building on the grievances that drove Trump's early success. The beauty is, of course, that those grievances will *not* go away once the election is over, and will be the vehicle that will pull down the system. Nevertheless, Im sad because we were w/in inches of cracking the American *bad is good* nut wide-open w/The Jackass at the helm :-(.
MB, Wafers-
This is intriguing:
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/06/trumps-suicide-mission-he-is-not-trying-to-destroy-his-own-campaign-the-destructive-urge-he-represents-is-much-bigger-than-that/?scrlybrkr
It reminds me of an argument that Jardi promulgated aways back: Trump is America's subconscious death wish.
Here's an excerpt:
Maybe we should be grateful to Trump for what he has shown us. He is no more (or less) than the demonic personification of the central conflict in America, a nation torn by endless self-glorification, an insatiable hunger for Baconator Fries and the urge to put a bullet in its own head.
And, finally,
My kinda gal, Kadie Naumann, arrested for swimming nude and kicking a cop in the balls:
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/crime/article94841862.html
Miles
Cluster B american mental derangements--they're everywhere in the failed corporation. Two profoundly mentally ill "presidential" candidates to be chief puppet in the grand farce of a country. The former puppet may go back to the mean streets of Hawaii (Berman).
ReplyDeleteLove the rants, chants, mantras, yankee doodle propaganda, robotic/mechanized speeches/movements, and boot strapping chit chatter will be spewed to the us dipshits who vote. It is charade, a scam, a rouse for the sheep who still believe and smile a lot--must be all the Zoloft.
If we had an IQ >40, we would elect Joshua James as a candidate for grand puppet--he could throw alligators from all those war machines into Iraq, Iran, North Korean, and fast food shit houses. He could knock on the door of the boogie man of the month club, and throw an alligator into their home--then state robotically from a hustling 'self help' book- I am love, I am peace, I exude happiness, I embody us bullshit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0PjPUAdULY
ReplyDeleteThe only raison d'etre left for the miserable American project - get revenge on a reality that has refused to bend to our whims and submit to our unquestioned hegemony by entirely replacing it with a society in which the digital and real are seamlessly interconnected.
In essence, take the world down with us by turning it into a massive video game. Turn it into something merely coordinate and arithmetic, plastered over by the sleekest new graphics.
This is what the internet of things would ultimately look like - a social order in which everybody is driven by decontextualized, bastardized, one-dimensional games and hell-bent on accumulating points that don't really mean anything.
It's coming. Our benevolent social engineers will have everybody hooked up to a single point account, and you are automatically fined for jaywalking, or visiting unapproved blogs, and rewarded for drone kills of the latest "bad guys".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification
Images for every American's Xmas card.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-12/meet-real-lords-war-how-world-goes-shopping-war
Mike-
ReplyDeleteObama will get a professorship at Harvard or Yale. Mark my words.
Meanwhile, aren't progs adorable?:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/08/not-alone-together-sanders-campaign-declares-creation-our-revolution
Jeff-
Gd salon article, spot-on. The American Project, as it were, is caught in too many contradictions, and is driving Americans nuts. The death instinct permeates the entire country; you can feel it in the air: the pain, the rage, the hatred. I think this is probably the end-game scenario for any empire, really, and we are not going to escape our fate. Trump wd have been the perfect capstone to this trajectory, but he too is caught up in self-destruction, quite obviously. So we will be stuck with Hillary's creepy, ridiculous laugh for 8 yrs, during which time, I predict the emergence of a more virulent Trumpo, one not so stupid as to kill off his own chances. As for Kadie Naumann: "Kadie! Marry me! Have my babies!"
mb
Thanks for that Salon article Miles.
ReplyDeleteIn what-else-is-new department, this week was the deadliest week for US mass shootings since Orlando:
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/16-people-deadliest-week-since-orlando-us-mass-shootings
I think that once hillary gets elected, we'll see an unprecedented rise in shootings in the US. All those white trump supporters from the salon article, will let our their rage and frustration like never before.
Kanye
Dear MB, Wafers,
ReplyDeleteThanks for replying on Carter. I do agree, he failed to asses how greedy and self serving Americans are- and probably forgot about American Exceptionality when he gave the "Crisis of Confidence" speech. Yes, DAA has it covered - I need to refresh myself for it's been a while since I read it- and the illness at the heart of this culture as well, you diagnosed it perfectly. I just think that the lesser of two evils has been the underlying story line for this nation. The worsening is the natural consequence of that type of continuous lack of choice. Also the worsening of the white folk economic and status panorama has given them a reason to be angry. It wasn't supposed to be this way for the silent majority. They felt entitled for a long time. Trump is channeling their collective sense of entitlement. Another point, Americans are not humble people given that they don't see any other culture or state as worthy of emulation. I have seen that arrogance in so many conversations. You can't self reflect when you have nothing to compare yourself against. Trump is the ultimate representative of that attitude. He is the best at what he does, he always wins- even when he loses.!
The article from salon- that Miles was so kind to share- mentions the overt optimism at the DNC that I can describe as a case of arrogant optimism. It was clear as I watched the DNC, that Clinton's strategy was to paint Trump as her complete opposite, especially as unpatriotic for his dark pessimism, which in the USA is a profoundly unpatriotic state of mind. I see that false optimism as anotjer expression of our exceptionalism. We can't point out what's wrong with our culture, because like Trump, we assume we are the best! We are the cultural default mode. As such the Democratic Party's falls back into tweaking or propping up the economy which will make everyone as happy and mentally stable as before- I assume she meant the Clinton years? The economy heals everything folks!. Interesting, on that same article - blacks and Latinos, despite being so much poorer, have much lower suicide rates than whites. The author can't explain it. Could it be that whites are far more alienated from reality and from each other than other ethnicities? Or have even greater expectations for themselves? Or they feel more entitled to success? Or can't self reflect and go ballistic?
Trump is channeling all that suicidal rage. I read that his demographic is building up an arsenal- arming themselves to the teeth since July. After the loss of Nov. 8 the disappointment might be too hard for his "silent majority" to take in. You can bet we won't be safer come Nov 9. I envy you.
Juliet Cash
Greetings wafers!
ReplyDeleteSo I hardly know what is going on in pop culture today but I stumbled on this article about some of the most popular TV shows. I haven't watched them so I had no idea they were so incredibly violent.
http://www.vulture.com/2015/07/orange-is-the-new-black-is-the-only-tv-show-that-understands-rape.
Millions of people watch this stuff and for the most part think of nothing of it. It's scary, but it explains a lot.
Submitted for discussion.
"Well you where you should be all the time"
ReplyDelete-You're So Vain by Carlie Simon
Don't worry but thanks for your concern. Now safely ensconced in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. By the way, techno-douchbaggery has hit this tiny kingdom. I'm sure you know about Toul Sleng the infamous torture center where an estimated 18,000 people died during the Khmer Rouge period. Well authorities have recently had to put up a sign there: No Pokemon Go playing at Toul Sleng. I kid you not. I'm sure it's only a matter of time it's played at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.
ReplyDeletecare of Sean Kerrigan of the Morris Berman Appreciation Society facebook page :
"Morris Berman interviewed on the 'Equal Time for Freethought' podcast, episode 567, July 2, 2016. Here, he discusses some of his older books on human consciousness."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuZY4t2BjmA
A small sign of the regenerative portion of Dual Process? :
"Colorado Voters May Replace Obamacare with Single-Payer" :
http://usuncut.com/politics/colorado-vote-single-payer-healthcare/
What will signs of the regenerative portion of Dual Process look like? Some of them might be:
(1) States going their own way in opposition to the feds --- early precursors to state secession movements
(2) common sense socialism replacing unwieldy insurance company based systems
(3) small and local food cooperatives, small Kibbutz-style community farms
(4) alternative currencies and credit unions
(5) city councils supportive of economic re-localization, transition initiatives, off-grid housing, Lewis Mumford style small communities, etc.
(6) (suggestions from WAFers)
Marc-
ReplyDeleteI like yr list. We need to get beyond the "here comes socialist revolution" school and start expanding #6. *This* is our future--assuming we have one.
Dan-
Some yrs ago a concentration camp video game appeared; idea was to herd people (ie Jews) into gas chambers and kill them. I think it was subsequently taken off the market.
Juliet-
I think it was Dick Gregory who once said, "If we're always choosing the lesser of two evils, how come things keep getting worse?"
Kanye-
If a massacre is defined as 4 people maimed or killed, then the record for the past yr has been more than one massacre a day, in the US. This # will surely increase, over time.
Meanwhile, I have an idea for dealing with Hillary's laugh, which some sources claim is evidence of mental illness or poor sensorimotor control: Wafers, armed with scoops of chopped liver, go to her rallies, and when she laughs they jump up on stage and shove a scoop of c.l. into her mouth. God, that wd be fun! I disagree with Trumpo's hint that she shd be killed. The c.l. option seems much more attractive.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteJus' look at these faces, will ya? BTW, I agree with Trumpo on the NYT; a real pile of warm horse dung.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/13/media/donald-trump-new-york-times/index.html
mb
ps: My defn of progress:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/travel/london-bookstores.html?contentCollection=weekendreads&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=c-column-middle-span-region®ion=c-column-middle-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-middle-span-region&_r=0
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteYou'll love this, Dan:
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Arlington National Cemetery requested Tuesday that smartphone users refrain from "catching" Pokemon when they visit.
http://www.france24.com/en/20160713-us-holocaust-museum-urges-pokemon-go-players-stay-away
Pokemon booted out of French World War I memorial
http://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/pokemon-booted-out-of-french-world-war-i-memorial
Here's a suggestion: someone should set up a website for firearms enthusiasts where deranged loners can meet. Participants could shoot these Pokemon assholes, then compare notes on the site and tally up their scores. It's a win-win!
I don't know if this fits your list, Marc, but "Cabbage." Along with their normal zucchini overproduction, my gardens are producing a glut of cucumbers, basil and cabbage. I'm going to OD on coleslaw soon if this keeps up. Does anyone want to swap recipes?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-millennial-voters-the-clinton-vs-trump-choice-feels-like-a-joke/2016/08/13/306d85a2-609c-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html
ReplyDeleteI think that younger people today are too dysfunctional and disoriented to qualify for true WAFER consciousness, however it is also clear that we will not continue the same American exceptionalist viewpoint as we mature. That narrative has died before our very eyes.
We were raised on trolling, satire, and farce. Now it is absolutely real. I tell my friends I live in a giant Simpsons episode.
Kanye,
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. When Hillary inevitably wins the presidency, Trump's supporters will go on shooting sprees that may kill tens of thousands. It will be a bloody prelude to the fascist revolution that may kill off a significant portion of America's population. I had been predicting fascism even before I read any nonfiction that would lead be to that conclusion, but I never thought it would happen so quickly, and with such viciousness. Suddenly, we have half the country clamoring for the worldwide extermination of entire races, and the other half claiming that the status quo - genocide, puppet dictatorships, ever-increasing economic equality - is full-blown socialism.
Marc,
All the items on your list are excellent, and share two commonalities: reduction of scale and the replacement of technocratic policy with naturalism. By naturalism, I do not mean becoming hunter-gatherers; I mean basing decisions on human feeling, common sense and compassion instead of gigantic, impersonal, technocratic institutions. It amazes me that anyone ever thought that technocratic structures could provide stability and happiness. Such systems not only lack human feeling; they see emotion as something to be destroyed for the sake of human progress. These systems are therefore inherently incapable of compassion, and of acting compassionately.
Hope Solo has proven herself to be the quintessential American poster child athlete. Not only was she arrested on two counts of domestic violence with charges having been dropped because of her star status despite overwhelming evidence of her guilt, but now after losing in the Olympics she called the Swedish team that beat the American team, "a bunch of cowards."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/13/sports/olympics/soccer-usa-women-sweden.html
That's a true American attitude--we don't lose because others are better but because they cheated or didn't play fair. Just like the North Vietnamese/Vietcong and the Iraqi insurgents who successfully purged American invasions despite America having all the technological advantages--they only won because they used a "cowardly" guerrilla war strategy and refused stand up and allow themselves to be slaughtered en masse.
Hope Solo is a disgusting douchebag who should be in prison, yet there are plenty of morons who look up to her as an example of female empowerment. Hooray for the Swedes.
National Guard activated after Milwaukee riot over suspect's death.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/us-wisconsin-police-idUSKCN10P06W
I expect race relations to keep getting worse no matter who is in office after Obama leaves the White House.
But I am sure the media will write more articles about how Pokémon Go will unite us all and usher in a utopia.
@Tim Lukeman,
I too notice that Americans will not tolerate any criticism of technology. Criticizing technology is a modern heresy and abstaining from hip new tech makes one a heretic. I too receive shocked responses when I tell people that I don't use Facebook or other social media. They look at me as if I had just committed blasphemy.
Really enjoyed your recent interview on Equal Time For Free Thought!! You covered things from both your trilogies that I haven't thought about in years. Excellent review. The horizontal view of the world and the Mexican beetle say more than a mouthful. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMarianne
Yes, Dr. Berman--the former us puppet ruler will get (not earn) a University Professorship at an Ivy league, whereby lemmings can listen in awe to yankee doodle bullshit from a really cool mulatto who tries really hard to be down with the homies. Wishes to be perceived as the cool, hip us puppet ruler and boy is he handsome (us girls knees buckle). The stupe dents will smile, clap, and nod. Kiss the "professor's" tuchas. Shut up and Obey.
ReplyDeleteWhen one is awakened to truth and reality, it's very difficult to "live" in the failed corporation. As Berman states, the cheap/artificial patina/veneer of "we're "1," "greatness" of coats everything and anything which is the PR-marketing for the hustling-hamstering. Your "friends" most likely enjoy playing ostrich, working hard, and cannot wake from their brainwashed slumber. Would not waste one breath, or over explanations with them as most americans are not only stupid they enjoy being and remaining willfully ignorant. It is simply exhausting to have to explain everything, and do their research. F that. To most, as long as the foot long hot dogs, $5 dollar subs, and charred coffee are available--ain't life grand!
Also, the failed corporation 'loves' certain immigrants--Hofstede's PDI -power distance index -gives much deference to Filipinos, Indians, South Koreans, Middle Easterners as their respective PDIs are quite high. Meaning they're dutiful, never question the boss, obedient, --basically, good american slaves (planes go down b/c of this as most South Koreans rather die than question the Captain--numerous studies/CVR forensic reports). These populations use mitigated speech—the us embraces this with PC BS—pussy foot around issues-white washed—rarely blunt, honest, commentary.
Studies by RAND Corp ('para' us govt org) regarding the us military have shown that Filipinos love america more than americans; they make excellent employees in us war mongoring industries and for corporations in general as their English is generally excellent and the skip in their step for us work. They generally work cheaply (RAND research titrated the lowest they would accept for remuneration), do not question, obedient, and are very patriotic--hence, why they're well represented in the us war mongoring industries.
Dear MB, Wafers,
ReplyDeleteElections don't alter systems profoundly- but they do have consequences, don't you think? What would have happened had FDR not been elected to office? Maybe communism would have taken root quicker or the Gilded Age would have persisted? What would have Carter been able to accomplish in a second term? Gore, would he had chosen to fabricate a war against Iraq after 9-11? Granted, FDR had a crisis- the Great Depression that he used to save the system from itself. The New Deal has been the proletariat's raft in subsequent crises - and probably one of the many reasons Americans have abandoned labor movements- they are satisfied with the unemployment benefits, the food stamps and other New Deal safety net's tools that keep them afloat from crisis to crisis. OWS was a movement of college debtors who lived in mom and pop's basements. But the labor movement was a movement of a starving, homeless, 12 to 16 hour a day shift enslaved and sickened proletariat- don't you think? The level of oppression and urgency for aide can arrest or precipitate a movement. The 2008 crisis had buffers, the Great Depression didn't. Where I also see our proletariat different from other times and other places is in their acceptance of wars abroad and their desire to pursue material gain as their only goal in life. However, Consumer, information, car culture is a different reality from the one previous to the Great Depression. Our wars after WW2 have been more covert - proxy wars- than overt- boots on the ground;. most people here are clueless of our participation in Central America, middle eastern, South American and Asian proxy war exploits- and when you add that to fact that army service is voluntary there's a total detachment of what we do abroad. But the average American idiot is born into that American exceptionality acculturation- however, academia should have known better- why did they choose to accept it? Why did it not reach the average American idiot? Mercedes Benz academics?If blame must be assigned in proportion to the of amount of awareness and contribution to the present state of affairs the academic who chose to profit from the system without illuminating its faults holds more blame than the average American idiot who thinks a billionaire who poses as a populist is his own personal savior. Trumpism like Brexit are reactionary movements and the working classes' revenge against the professional class who is enjoying the benefits.
Juliet Cash
I was reading in Twilight and stopped to ponder the opening quote of Doris Lessing in chapter 4
ReplyDelete"There are people in the world all the time who know... but they keep quiet. They just move about quietly, saving the people who know they are in the trap.
...And they become the ones to live quietly in the world just as human beings might if there were only a few human beings on a planet that had monkeys on it for inhabitants, but the monkeys had the possibility of learning to think like human beings..."
How well she describes the way I feel when I'm in Walmart. Btw, how many Wafers are we up to? The Wafer to monkey ratio is still over a million to one I suppose.
Hello Wafers everywhere and Dr. B,
ReplyDeleteMarc B, I liked your list also. I am an elected official in a small town in New York, and I see some small steps all around me that support your list. Some of the things our little town has going for it are municipal electricity, water and sewer departments. These "socialist" utilities work much better than their private counterparts. Leftover revenues go toward improving infrastructure, not to distant shareholders who could care less about our welfare. Our water and sewer are gravity-fed, which means when the fossil fuels dry up we will still be able to supply water and sewer services. Our electricity comes from clean, renewable hydro power, giving us some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. More and more of our food and drink are being produced locally.
I think our biggest challenge will be to keep these valuable, public-owned resources out of the hands of late-stage capitalist vultures. Potable water will become a precious commodity like oil is today. Water supplies all over the nation are being privatized. After that happens, water rates soar and local water gets re-directed to commercial bottlers.
Dr. Berman is indeed the GSWH, and I think dual process is a great model to help us prepare for an uncertain future. In my role as an elected official, I think all the time now about how to make our community grow smaller, not bigger. It's happening anyway regardless of what we do, so we'd do just as well to go with it.
Comrade-
ReplyDeleteAlso check out Forster's essay, "What I Believe." Currently 170 registered Wafers, and not growing.
al-
Suggest you plant pastrami as well.
mb
This American Life:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/inside-the-administrations-1-billion-deal-to-detain-central-american-asylum-seekers/2016/08/14/e47f1960-5819-11e6-9aee-8075993d73a2_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_asylumprofit-920pm-1%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/15/parents-arrested-after-7-year-old-who-hadnt-eaten-for-days-tried-selling-teddy-bear-for-food-police-say/?hpid=hp_hp-morning-mix_mm-story-i%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/15/houston-woman-charged-with-capital-murder-after-allegedly-drowning-her-two-children-hiding-bodies-under-neighbors-house/?hpid=hp_hp-morning-mix_mm-story-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
I'm not even gonna click on these links. Just reading the links makes me depressed
DeleteThe likelihood that any given WAFer needs a book recommendation at any time doubtless approaches zero. Still, may I suggest the following:
ReplyDeleteConscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble about Language, Technology, and Education by Neil Postman (8 March 1931-5 October 2003). (Note that GSWH is himself a receipient of an award bearing the Postman name (cf. bio).
From the preface to Conscientious Objections;
"Together, [these essays] have formed the core of my academic interests for thirty years....First, some of the essays are about the triumphs of one-eyed technology and, in particular, how these triumphs have laid waste some of our most creative, not to mention charming, habits of thought. I call technology one-eyed because, like Cyclops, it sees only what is directly in front of it. I am not, let it be said, some latter-day Luddite. I raise no complaint against a machine doing what it was designed to do. After all, who expects a machine to notice its own side effects? To care about the social and psychic consequences of its own presence? Machines ask no questions, have no peripheral vision or depth perception. They see the future through the fixed eye of their technical possibilities. But it is well said that in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In America, and increasingly in Europe, technology is a one-eyed king ruling unopposed amidst idiot cheering. I object to this state of affairs, and I would like some of my essays to lend support to lively discussions of where we are being taken, and in whose interests, by the unfettered development of technology. It is clear enough that our engineers, not our poets, are the unacknowledged legislators of our time, and perhaps that is as it should be. But unless there is a vigorous opposition party, technological tyranny is inevitable. Man cannot live by electric wiring along, and this obvious fact must be part of any plans we make for the future."
Jas-
ReplyDeleteI cited Neil in the epigraph to one of my bks; can't remember which. I don't think he was prepared for the tsunami of douchebaggery and technobuffoonery that was abt to engulf the nation.
mb
ReplyDeleteFleecing the poor, the sick and the unfortunate. That's what this hustler nation is Greaaat about.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/john_oliver_we_should_be_really_worried_subprime_car_loan_bubble_20160815
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john-oliver-medical-debt-forgiveness-last-week-tonight
USA! USA! USA!
A friend gave me a compilation of his books, so I thought I should finally get around to reading this guy Vidal. I thought this passage from the beginning of Julian would be especially appreciated on this blog:
ReplyDelete"So let us together fashion one last wreath of Apollonian laurel to place upon the brow of philosophy, as a brave sign against the winter that threatens this stormy late season of the world. I want those who come after us to realize what hopes we had for life, and I want them to see how close our Julian came to arresting the disease of Galilee. Such a work, properly done, would be like a seed planted in the autumn to await the sun's awakening, and a new flowering."
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteGhastly jerk-off artist dept.:
Willis Burdette, 72, arrested for breaking into a woman's home and ejaculating inside a bottle of orange juice. Willis then placed the juice back inside the refrigerator:
http://www.cantonrep.com/news/20160811/man-72-charged-with-tainting-jackson-womans-orange-juice
Miles
Not sure if I missed something, but how do we register as a Wafer? Does it come from posting a message here? I did not see any place to register. Just wondering.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a thoughtful essay that Wafers may enjoy: http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2016/08/10/forbidden-thoughts-and-sacred-obligations/#comment-3804
Thought I might turn here for a response to a question...I would like to read critiques of the ideology of measurement. I am reading Alfred Crosby's The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600, and I would like to supplement this. I am mostly interested in humanistic critique of all of the counting that we do in the West - perhaps I am just a lonely humanist swimming in empiricist waters? Any help is much appreciated; I know I am among friends here.
ReplyDeleteAnd please, PLEASE keep up the great comments and work on this blog. It is an oasis of clarity in the bone-sucking aridity of the USA.
I recently learned about a Socialist Economist long dead named Scott Nearing. Have you heard of him? He seems to have been a brilliant man of integrity who was blackballed from the teaching profession so he dropped out of mainstream society and went back to the land with his wife Helen. They spent decades as subsistence farmers first in Vernont, then in Maine while Scott kept writing economics books and lecturing to groups whenever he could. They wrote a book called "Living the Good Life" that became a classic, and a documentary film was made about them.
ReplyDeleteI read some of his work and he seemed to be spot on as to who and what rules this country...The Plutocract and Money...and everyone is delusional if they think this is a Democracy of, for, and by the people.
It saddens me...really saddens me that a guys of integrity and wisdom like this are ostracized and their message gets buried.
Here is a short video of him, and a PDF of one of his books about the Plutocracy actually wanting WWI.
https://youtu.be/evBpwQPn8QI
http://debs.indstate.edu/n354g7_1917.pdf
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I posted Neil Postman's "Those who resist the Technopoly are people who..." on the bulletin board outside my office door. I work at a technical college, where technofetishism abounds. So far I haven't been burned at the stake. One thing Postman did in that passage quoted by James Allen, which bothers me a bit, is go out of his way to say that he wasn't a Luddite. I see this sort of thing quite often. What's wrong with being a Luddite?
I don't know where to find pastrami seeds, Oh Belmish One, but I made borscht for lunch today. I was mildly shocked when I went to pee afterwards, even though I oughtta be used to this by now. Forget about loading up on Bud Light for urine development, beets are the answer. They do lovely things to the colour of urine!
O&D
al-
ReplyDeleteReleasing red urine on Hillary's shoes wd be a wonderful sight indeed. As for Luddism, you can't be a Luddite today, only a neo-Luddite. Which is gd enuf.
jj-
The Nearings were fabulous people, no doubt abt it. And yes, as I argue in WAF, if you don't get with the hustling program, you get marginalized...which is why America failed. The mainstream can't tolerate the slightest deviation, not even ones that are purely symbolic. Here's an example of the inability to recognize this (I keep saying that in the US even smart people are dumb):
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/15/why-president-hillary-clinton-will-need-bernies-political-revolution-get-anything
Elder-
Try this:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=reign+of+quantity&sprefix=reign+of+quan%2Caps%2C194
Other possibilities are my Reenchantment bk, passim, and critiques of F.W. Taylor. There's actually a lot around on the subject, but I'm mostly a blank at the moment. Jimmy Carter said, "We need to pay attention to the invisible rather than the visible." Ted Roszak may have also written abt it.
Seeking-
I'm hoping registered Wafers can help you, since I don't know. When I check in, it indicates that there are 170 registered, but doesn't say how to do it.
Jeff-
I tell ya, I love Americans. Willis Burdette is my new hero. Why can't *he* be running for pres?
mb
ps: Why not Willis Burdette? Freddie Wadsworth? Lorenzo Riggins? Shaneka Torres? Tracey McCloud? Latreasa Goodman? There are a whole host of heroes out there, waiting to be recognized.
ReplyDeleteDear MB and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteWafers will appreciate this:
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/viral-pokemon-go-illustration-dark-political-cartoons?utm_source=dmfb
Miles,
Willis Burdette has taken sexual perversion and the enhancement of orange juice to new highs. . If it hadn't been for the pesky home surveillance system he would've gotten away with it.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'd rather have Willis in the W.H. than Hillary. Not kidding.
Meanwhile, has anyone been able to download Hedges' latest, on Truthdig? I tried, came up blank; but it sounds like he's decided revolution ain't the likely road, and that we have to change things thru a revised electoral system. Wha???
mb
For next puppet ruler applicant of the farcical corporation--How about Mr. Tom Mourning, the shooter in Missouri a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteHe shot 5 random people in addition to shooting 2 comfort animals-dogs. So proud of the american people--again, makes ya wanna grab a flag, get eat a hot dog, and work really hard for the company. I am getting a little verklempt just thinking about all the greatness and exceptionalism.
Seaking: now that blogger is owned by Google, I think you just have to use a google account to leave comments. Before this you had to register.
ReplyDeleteDio: Since we've been talking about him, there is a section in Neil Postman's book "Building a Bridge to the 18th Century" about quantifying education via grading and tests you might like.
JJ: I am a back to the land type (or wish to) but Scott Nearing was a fierce defender of Stalin way into the 1950s, which turned me off. They weren't really self-sufficient farmers either, they had a cadre of students, interns and visitors to do much of the work. See this book: "Back to the Land: The Enduring Dream of Self-Sufficiency in Modern America"
By Dona Brown.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit less than ferklempt, I fear. Where was Tom's AK-47, his drone, his nuclear device? Talk abt lame...
Meanwhile, the Hedges column I referred to is from June 19. He seems to be opting for both: alternative political parties, plus action in the streets (revolution? not clear). I have a sneaking suspicion neither of those options are gonna work.
mb
The following video may piss off a lot of WAFers, but it is a very interesting video on Globalization and some of the ramifications we are likely to see.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOCpo10zQlM
Greetings all--
ReplyDeletemay I butt in & say SSiG is a deceptively wonderful read; and I congratulate MB on getting at least two colors of ink (away from the perennial black ink face) into print. I love the ochre for the big titles & the darker brown for the text.
MB, you did better than Faulkner: he wanted Sound&Fury to be printed in four ink colors, to indicate who was talkng. No go, as you know.
On Hedges--I put his War Is A Force... on my sillybus for a capstone rhetoric course at usafa. Confused the heck out of the students. Rightly so. We also taught Operation Homecoming. Also disconcerting. I can go on, but want to add a bit to what C. Hedges has been doing. He more than walks his talk.
Teaching Melville in prison:
http://truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/melville_on_the_fruits_of_enlightenment_20130702 .
And, on one of the gutsiest moves ever, to me anyway,
http://truthdig.com/report/item/the_plays_the_thing_20131215
I'm not convinced that CLH thinks a "revolution" is what he's aiming for. It's a lot darker than that. Hedges, like Varoufakis, get up in the morning, in the face of utter disaster, determined to make this as good a day as possible. Hedges is an ordained minister now like his Dad. You should check out what his Dad nudged him to do (it's a hoot). Varoufakis is an atheist. Both, courageous, insist on as much cheerfulness as can be mustered in the face if this mess.
MB - oh, there will be "action on the streets" all right, mostly enraged, heavily armed Trump supporters convinced that Killary stole the election. Somehow, I don't think Hedges will approve.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, after a middle aged couple was stabbed to death at their residence, the killer started to gnaw off the husband's face. I don't know what's more shocking, the incident itself or the fact that these types of horrors have become so common that it was merely a local story:
http://www.wftv.com/news/trending-now/stabbing-suspect-found-biting-off-pieces-of-mans-face-possibly-high-on-flakka-police-say/424028988?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
Meanwhile, technodouchebaggery meets American incivility, creating "a honeypot for assholes:"
https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-honeypot-for-assholes-inside-twitters-10-year-failure-to-s?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark&utm_term=.vd3L904Q8#.krgl1WvBO
Even more technodouchebaggery--when Roomba meets dog shit, chaos ensues:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/15/roomba-robot-vacuum-poopocalypse-facebook-post?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
pg-
ReplyDeleteThanks for comments on SSIG. As many of you know, the publisher (now defunct) of my Japan bk, SSIG, and my vol. of poetry started stealing my royalties, and I had to sue them. My atty got Amazon to pull the 3 bks offline, so she cdn't steal any more than she already had; and getting these bks back into print has been a major struggle. Water Street Press republished the Japan bk, and the publisher of TMWQ is soon to republish the poetry bk (stay tuned). But the republication of SSIG has gotten bogged down, for reasons I'm not quite clear abt, and I'm not sure when it will reappear online. Meanwhile, I'm doing my best.
As for Hedges: he has certainly said, quite explicitly, that revolution is the only cure for what ails us, altho lately he's switched from 'soon' to '10 yrs away', plus mixed it in with electoral politics (which ultimately means working from within the system). I myself see no cheerfulness in this guy. What I see is confusion, contradiction, and depression. His head and his heart are going in opposite directions, and frankly, I can't imagine him ever telling a joke.
What Hedges refuses to see--altho I wd extend this to all radicals and progs, including Michael Moore, Chomsky, The Nation crowd, et al.--is that the game is over. These folks are hardly declinists, like myself; rather, they think the US can and shd be saved. They are genuine patriots, in other words. Well, gd for them. One thing they aren't is historians. Historians know that all empires, all civs, inevitably come to an end, and it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the fix is in for the US--this is our end game, and no 'revolution' or electoral politics can reverse our downward trajectory.
2nd, their social criticism is rather superficial. Unlike H.L. Mencken, Gore Vidal, George Carlin, and yours truly, they don't look at the people they think are going to revolt, or the people they think will be saved by revolution (or whatever). Reagan understood who the American people were; so does Trumpo. They are people who will, out of bitterness or rage or delusion,always move to the rt, and never to the left. They are people who call 911 if they can't get their chicken mcnuggets. They are people who loathe folks like Hedges, Chomsky, and Moore, and indeed all intellectuals; who can't find Iraq, or even Germany, on a world map. (And when they show up at protest marches, their signs are often misspelled--I saw this myself at the marches I went to in DC in 2003, against the invasion of Iraq. Americans are dumb!) And rather than wanting to overthrow the elite, they are people who just want to join the elite, inasmuch as their ideology is the same: hustling. Consider the reaction of the American public to Jimmy Carter's "spiritual malaise" speech: they threw him out of office, in favor of a jackass from Disneyland.
Noam has written what?--40 bks on US foreign policy, its horror, its genocide; for which I applaud him. Meanwhile, during that time, our foreign policy has gotten even more vicious. I don't think one can (like Noam) be a patriot of the US and a patriot of humanity at the same time; you really hafta choose one or the other. The only way the US can be stopped is not thru any rebellion or whatever that Hedges et al. are proposing. The only way is that it fall apart--which is clearly what's happening. Both Trump and Hillary are proof of that process, a process that deepens by the day. We are a sick society, and getting sicker by the day. There is no 'saving' the United States.
I read somewhere that 94% of the Vietnamese people write poetry. What % of Americans do? I doubt even 5,000 Americans know who Robt Frost is. You see my pt: what is it that the progs think they are saving? What's to save? Our values are wrong, we have infected much of the world with them, and this is a cancer that needs to be arrested.
mb
Hedges may be trying to move his head in the direction of his heart... via rectum.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit overwhelmed by the volume of links to extreme american antics. It's almost clockwork orange-like... strapped to a chair being force fed beavis and butthead. Just when you think of the stupidest thing they could possibly say, they come up with something stupider than that.
...But keep 'em coming! Channeling Spock - "Fascinating, Captain".
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks as if Trumpo wants to recreate a 21st century version of HUAC. Instead of excluding immigrants w/decidedly communist views, something HUAC actually did, Trump wants to go even further: baring those who have "hostile attitudes" toward the principles of the US. Trump gave no indication at all as to how he would identify and test such attitudes; torture, I suppose.
Meanwhile, speaking of sick, have you guys seen Hillary of late? Jesus, she looks terribly unwell: a bit peaked, blanch, and long in the tooth. Perhaps Trumpo is getting to her, God knows. I wouldn't be surprised to see in the coming weeks that there's something seriously wrong w/her (no pun intended).
BTW, I'm reading a remarkable memoir, "The Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History, and the Slave Trade" by Charles Dew, professor of American History at Williams College. It's the story of how Dew, a self-described "Confederate youth" in post WW II Florida, rejects his segregationist upbringing to become a scholar of the American South.
Miles
ReplyDeleteThanks my GSWH! Thank you for laying it down as is. I know it hurts to hear the ugly truth. To let go of hope ain't easy.
But that baby called "hope" is nothing but a demon. Throw the f'kn baby with the bath water and feel the utter relief.
For Wafer wannabes, just set aside the Koolaid glass for once and walk the streets. Ass'oles galore you encounter!
If you still don't see them, its because you are a part of "the system".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAYL5H46QnQ
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160809-why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered
The number of Wafers will always remain around 150. There is a reason for that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
A interview with Jimmy Carter in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 15,2015 had some interesting things about his life.He had read War and Peace when he was twelve.Also all hundred books in his school library.Also he worked on his family farm and has written 29 books in all.He writes poetry.He gave an interesting statistic when he left office we had a 100 people per 100,000 in prison.We now have 750 people per 100,000 in prison.So now you know why Carter never had a chance the American people smelled a rat.
ReplyDeleteHedges does actually criticize the American people as narcissistic, warlike, duplicitous, greedy, etc. The problem is that he thinks that they can somehow be changed by protests and acts of social justice (that might allegedly lead to a revolution). He never stops and wonders how a collection of narcissistic, warlike, duplicitous, greedy people could ever be changed in a positive manner. Obviously, they can't. However, they can and will be changed by a fascist revolution that is most certainly in the cards.
ReplyDeleteHedges would do better if he set his sights on goals that are attainable and worthwhile: attempting to educate and liberate those few individuals that are intelligent and human enough for him to reach. He can and should do this by being in the public eye, writing for truthdig, etc., but being honest with himself is a necessary precondition to this sort of success. Telling people to attempt a socialist revolution in America will only lead to them being imprisoned, tortured and/or killed. And this attempted revolt won't change anything either, except to slightly increase the profits of the corporate prison system when these hapless individuals are jailed and forced to slave away for 15 hours a day.
Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with the thesis of WAF about the deep historical roots of the American malaise, it does seem as if the wheels are really coming off now. I found a little book by Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain called Reflections on America (1958) in which he discussed his impressions and experiences of America. Maritain saw many problems, yet he emphasizes a native good-heartedness, openness, and kindness as one of our virtues as a nation. How might he have responded to this story (one of so many similar)?
"The supreme value in the American scale of values is goodness; human reliability, good will, devotion, helpfulness. Hence, that American kindness which is so striking a feature to foreign visitors. Americans are ready to help, and happy to help. They are on equal terms of comradeship with everybody."
Reflections on America by Jacques Maritain http://www3.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/reflect0.html
"North Charleston, South Carolina: 2 Teens Charged With Killing Man That Helped Pull Their Car From Ditch
Deon Antonio Frasier, 17, and Michael Odell Anthony Dupree-Tyler, 19, have been charged with robbing and shooting Chadwick Garrett after he helped free their SUV from a ditch on Monday night."
As Dylan says, "It's not dark yet, but its getting there."
door-
ReplyDeleteAnyone who writes poetry shd be clubbed to death. Poetry, fer chrissakes.
mb
ps: will someone tell me why I get ignored when I say America is the land of degraded buffoons?:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-kinderprep-20160811-snap-story.html
.... with so many masterful word caricatures you spin out you'd like us to stop and ponder a fairly pedestrian one, "degraded buffoons"?
ReplyDeleteMB,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the Guenon reference. I will start with Crisis and then on to Reign of Quantity. I could not recall which of your books dealt with similar territory, and I will head back to ROTW as well. Thanks to Pastrami for the Postman reference as well - I've read other works by Postman but never Bridge to the 18th. Cheers to all.
DTE
Elder-
ReplyDeleteIt was ROW, passim. Be sure to send messages to latest post; no one reads the older stuff.
dave-
Pls post only once every 24 hrs, thank you.
mb
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTo Esca Dreg . . .
ReplyDeleteThat's why the indian tribes all over the continental USA needed to band together under the leadership of "Tecumseh". Had the indians realized the importance of working together and pushing the white europeans back to europe, and perhaps allowing the good whites who were willing to live on lets say 5 to 10 acres of land to stay in the continent. My uncle is a perfect example of what was happening, he has one farm house on 300 acres of indian land - land he was not even able to make profitable growing food crops. I think the effort by Tecumseh to limit or force the return of the white man to europe was a watershed moment in american history and the indians lost and so we have the mess we have today. The indians needed to take control and regulate the influx of whites into the land: Not allow the whites to establish a military or police force. Limit the size of land that a good white man could use (5 to 10 acres) and prohibit the whites from forming towns or cities. Tecumseh in my opinion had a good plan set-up for organizing the continent, but he lost the war and you probably know the rest of the story.
patrick, mess-
ReplyDeletePls send messages to most recent post; no one reads older stuff. Thanks.
mb