October 05, 2018

Blog Holidays

Notice to Wafers and all fellow travelers: I realize that temporary shutdown of the blog is a source of great frustration and unhappiness for all of you. Last time it happened, we had several psychotic episodes, tho many of you managed to avoid these through heavy use of Prozac. So I felt it was my duty to inform you, right now, of some blog holidays coming up due to an erratic schedule on my part, and the proverbial circumstances beyond my control. Please make a note of this schedule, so that you won’t be posting to the ether during the upcoming holidays.

-Between now and Oct. 14: no problem, I’m here.

-Oct. 15-Nov. 7: Visiting friends in England and Ireland; the blog will be on holiday. Please do not post during this time.

-Nov. 9-11: Short window of availability, so that we all can have a temporary respite from these awful blogouts.

-Nov. 12-25: Blog holiday. The years of tennis have caught up w/me, my friends; I have to have surgery for a torn rotator cuff (right shoulder) on Nov. 13, after which my right arm will be in a sling for 6 weeks. I’m not sure how long my typing ability will be impaired, but I’m guessing about 2 weeks, which means we can return to blog heaven on

-Nov. 26: Blog re-opens for business.

As I said, I’m sorry to do this to you all (y’all). I know that for at least 169 registered Wafers, this is your only contact with the real world (which is as it should be). So please, make sure to arrange for the appropriate medications. Anyway, we still have 10 days until the blog holiday schedule kicks in.

I’ll miss you-

mb

183 Comments:

Blogger henry said...

No problem,

I actually like it how you're being frank about your need to take time off of managing the blog (it feels "authentic").

Anyways,
Kavanaugh™ looks like he's on his way to getting nominated; it feels like bad things are happening in the US these days just because they're bad. It seems like the country is diving head first into "evil". I don't know why, maybe it's a similar phenomenon to what you feel when you look down a cliff face or a stair well... even if you're not suicidal, you just feel that slight urge to "dive in".

5:44 PM  
Blogger meangenekaz said...

GSWH y los Waferes,

Thanks for the heads up. I may schedule a small surgery myself during the same time frame... . "a little off the top" as Woody Allen would have it. A bit of recovery time from the hilarity of TMWQ might be just what the doctor ordered. I, too, am mystified as to why TMWQ has not been certified as an international best seller...

@ MB and the Custer fight discussion. No d-bag photos in my studio. But the iconic portrait
of Sitting Bull has been on display there for many years...I just happened to have a short hot springs conversation with a Navajo woman about my age yesterday morning. A Waferette no doubt, I thought, when she commented that "all the people are walking around with their noses up in the air stuck, in a smart phone. The place has changed.For the worse." Referring to a small city in rural Colorado.

When I was young, dad took us, not far from his birth place, north to the "Greasy Grass", The Little Big Horn. A high, lonesome place to die. Yellow Long Hair, got what he deserved there. A great Wafer film classic, BTW: "Little Big Man." The hypocrisies are all laid out in that one, with a lot to consider and laugh about. Doesn't Like Horses! A great slut shaming ending! O&D!

6:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Eric-

It's really a 2-fer-1: the progs get crushed, and the 'sacred' institution of the Supreme Court gets further degraded. Red letter day for declinists, my friends, as we plunge deeper into the cloaca maxima that the US has become. I think the next step is for the gov't to appt only hardened criminals to positions of power: thugs, basically, to run the Dept. of Transporation, Interior, whatever. New Wafer T-shirt:

THUGS NOT HUGS

Catchy, eh?

mb

6:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

mean-

You may remember, as Woody was abt to get his head chopped off, he said to the king, "Remember you told me that if I was ever in town, to look up your wife."

mb

6:23 PM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Thanks for the information, Dr. Berman. I hope your surgery goes well. This blog is a real source of sanity for me given that I am stuck in the crazy United States. It is good to know that I am not the only person thinking Waferish thoughts.

On the subject of America going down the tubes, this article made me feel really good. The world economy is at risk of another financial crash, says IMF.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/03/world-economy-at-risk-of-another-financial-crash-says-imf

Granted, I definitely don’t take everything the IMF says as gospel and I don’t know if anyone can really predict when the economy will tank but I suspect that we are probably going to see another crash in the near future. Imagine a major economic downturn under Trump. If America is a circus now just wait until the economy is really in the toilet.

6:41 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

A great writer:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/05/ariel-dorfman-how-we-roasted-donald-duck-disney-agent-of-imperialism-chile-coup

7:43 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

I wonder, when things go to real shit how many Americans will choose suicide (opioids aside)? It's gonna be a brutal awakening, reminds me of the unsuspecting WTC office workers rudely interrupted by flame and fire - 'do I stay and burn or leap out the window?' bitch of a way to start the week. I'm thinking a higher suicide rate can b expected in the not too distant future.

8:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Days of (in)glory: it's a done deal:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/05/politics/kavanaugh-nomination-vote-friday/index.html

The Court has been degraded by inclusion of a rt-wing jackass, and the progs have been crushed like roaches. Will they learn from this? No, of course not. On to the next 'cause'. Clowns in a circus that the US has become.

Wafers are encouraged to predict what the next public uproar will consist of.

mb

10:25 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: It is noteworthy that the NYT views this event as further degradation of the US, and increased spreading of the 'Trump virus'. So far so good; that is certainly correct. But being progs, what then do they do? They say we can counteract all this by voting. Yeah, that'll stop the virus all right. Like voting to restrict the force of gravity. People w/high IQs, who are in fact chumps.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Of course, what they can't imagine (being progs) is that the virus is in effect impartial; it just 'is'. And that 'is' includes what is historically inevitable, namely the disintegration of American civilization. Progs wd attempt to slow down that decline; gd luck w/that, I say. And it's certainly OK w/me if Trumpi and Mitch McConnell want to think that they are saving the country; let 'em! The Reality is that Trumpism will continue unabated, because unless u.r. as stupid as the NYT editorial staff, it is obvious where this is all heading. The fix is in, you dumb bunnies; the train of civilizational decline is called History, and there is no stopping it. We will not escape our fate, Chalmers Johnson wrote many yrs ago, and believing in American exceptionalism is the type of Disney-thinking that characterizes 99% of the population. As for the progs, there will be no wake-up moment for them; they'll just keep doing what they're doing, in the face of a gigantic mudslide that will leave nothing standing, of what the US was originally (theoretically) supposed to be about. Here's how Kurt Vonnegut put it, also many yrs ago: "There's a shit storm coming." Jesus, who can doubt it?

mb

11:22 PM  
Anonymous FerQ said...

Hector- About the cultural inferiority complex that many Latinos in the US are prone to have, I believe that one of the causes is ignorance but I don´t know if that type of ignorance is by choice or because of circumstances. Many if not most of the Latin American immigrants that are in the NY-NJ area come from rural areas where there is alot of poverty and many have a limited level of formal education. The only places many of them have lived or ever known in their home countries is their villages or towns where they or their families come from. When they migrate to the US, it is usually the first time they see life in cities. Many of them get very dazzled or impressed with the relatively easy access to material possessions they find in the US such as cars, designer clothes, electronic gadgets, etc. These types of circumstances make many of them to have a concept of Latin America = backwardness and poverty, USA = prosperous and advanced.
Then there are Latinos, just like in every other race/ethnicity, who are only interested in making money and buying material items. Anybody who is only interested in that will see the US as paradise. There are other reasons which I will mention in my next posts.

1:08 AM  
Blogger Mark Szlazak said...

Thought I would post this talk on the character gap:
https://youtu.be/Y_NuFd4BPZA

2:22 AM  
Anonymous Noni said...

Orwell knew: we willingly buy the screens that are used against us

https://aeon.co/amp/ideas/orwell-knew-we-willingly-buy-the-screens-that-are-used-against-us

9:25 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

What's a prog to do? I just read that every democrat voted for the 674 billion defense budget. Oh, well, there's always the socialist Ms. Occasio in NYC who will save the country.My concern now is for the health of Stephen Sondheim. Please, try to keep him away from the news that Kent State decided to cancel West Side Story because cast members weren't the nationality portrayed in the story. Imagine, depriving people of the most beautiful music ever to grace the Broadway stage because the student playing Bernardo might be Asian. Does that mean Ken Watanabe should not play the king in the King and I again because he's Japanese?

10:12 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Noni-

Gd essay. More evidence that coercion is mostly not top-down, but something we elect to have in our lives.

mb

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Wafers,

Apart from the declinist position Kavanaugh's confirmation is pathetic and worse. His vote will tip the balance to the right and dramatically change the direction away from social justice and freedom (what little we still posses) None is good for our citizens in my opinion. None of the nut heads that abound in the US and for those who voted for Trump will be helped. What ignorance when votes are casted against our own best interests. A extra sad day in our history.

12:14 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

In answer to yr 1st question, I wd say: Commit suicide! I tell ya, I go to prog web sites, and they're all about how we need to move into action, impeach Kavacrap, do this and do that. Progs, I got news 4u: you ain' gonna do shit. The Trump machine rolls on, and there is fuck all you can do to stop it. Your posturing is theater, nothing more. Your problem is that you don't understand that this is a *good* thing--another nail in the coffin of the American empire. The rot, the degradation, extends to every institution, including the Supreme Court--once respected, now a locus of political bias. My happiest day in recent years was 9 November 2016, when I woke up to find that Trumpi had won. Today, Kavashmuck's victory, is my 2nd happiest. (Altho I was v. happy when Bolti was made National Security Advisor; surely another red-letter day.) We need more jackasses, more violent, dishonest people in the highest offices of the land. And progs, I hate to tell ya: we're gonna get them. You all cd wake up, but you won't.

mb

2:23 PM  
Anonymous George Carlin said...

"If Voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it" -- progs have never heard of this probably and since their heads are so far up their ass, its hard to hammer this point into their brains now. And can someone please make Chris Hedges shut up and disappear ..we get it Chris.. there will be a mother of all revolutions and you will be the hero to start it ffs ... The best chance for progs is to focus on secession..

Meanwhile Republicans doing what they do best.. Rich white towns get more hurricane Harvey funds than minority areas .. what a fucking surprise !!

The report pointed out the very affluent and very white community of Taylor Landing, a small town of just 228 residents, which received $1.3 million in funds to help its 22 hurricane affected residents. That comes to about $60,000 per affected resident. Meanwhile, just 15 miles east, Port Arthur received just $84 in federal funding per person.

3:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

George-

I just got off a letter to Kavanass, told him: "If you need an assistant helping you to crush the progs, I'm your man." Will let you know when I hear back (wh/I imagine will be quite soon), but I can tell you, I'm really excited.

mb

3:51 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@MB: good luck with your surgery and best wishes for a speedy recovery. As for the NYT's "virus" description, I seem to remember that back in the 1930s the Nazis used to describe the presence of Jews in Germany using similar terminology. I used to laugh when that dim bulb Ann Coulter coined the term "liberal fascism," yet here's a good example of it. Referring to certain people or their beliefs as a "disease" is the first step towards deciding you need to "cure" society of them.

@Marianne: the problem lies right there in what you said--a person can't eat "social justice and freedom." Liberals gleefully helped wreck the manufacturing and farming economies that traditionally supported the middle and working classes, and yet are now sitting around scratching their heads trying to figure out why so many people who will be "hurt" by Trump/Kavanugh's politics don't seem to care. Moreover, the court will still consist of nine attendees of either Harvard or Yale law school. None of these assholes ever spent a day working as a public defender or union attorney, where they might have learned something about how the average citizen lives, and how oftentimes even liberal legal initiatives have adverse economic effects for working people. Instead, they all graduated from ideologically bankrupt Ivy League shitholes and have spent their whole professional careers arguing arcane points of law with other Ivy League assholes. The whole court should be tied down and anyone who wants should be allowed to pee on on their shoes.

4:02 PM  
Anonymous Zarathustra said...

Mentioning Kurt Vonnegut reminds of another thing he said (well, his alter ego in "Breakfast of Champions"), which could be useful to describe the whole of the US in a very few words: "Up your ass with Mobil gas!"

PS Good luck with the operation, Dr Berman.

5:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bill, Zar-

Thanks for yr good wishes. I'm only slightly nervous. :-\

Meanwhile, Wafers are encouraged to come up with slogans for Kavanaugh T-shirts. Some possibilities:

I'M A KAVANAUGH MAN

KAVANAUGH: CRUSHING PROGS FOR CHRIST

BET ON BRETT

I'm tellin' ya, these are heady days.

mb

5:40 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Best of luck with your surgery Morris! You’ll be fine....last year at age 54 I had a full hip replacement, and my hip feels better than new!

In the meantime....


Here’s anotjer nail in the coffin of the Liberal Arts & Humanities....enduring the deeper descent into the New Dark Age.

https://www.newsweek.com/ben-shapiro-genius-academic-hoax-exposed-liberal-arts-colleges-dont-care-1155013?amp=1



This google boss gets it....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6245847/Former-Google-boss-urges-tech-giants-end-delusion-making-world-better-place.html


KAVANAUGH, KAVANAUGH, HE’S OUR MAN, IF HE CAN’T DO IT, NO ONE CAN!!

5:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

jj-

Thanks for yr support. I'll cross my fingers and meditate.

As for social constructivism, these guys did a great job of hoaxing, but the Sokal hoax of 1996 beat them to it, in a way. I did talk a bit abt this a while back, how in the late 80s I was invited to participate in a seminar run by Ivan Illich at Penn State, in which his acolytes were all excited abt the concept, wh/I thought was crap. I made little headway, of course; they ridiculed my notion that life might have a biological baseline. Meanwhile, I had the group do a yogic meditation exercise, and they were confused and/or threatened by it--too out of touch w/their own bodies, all in their heads. No stopping them, however, even when I tripped Ivan up, got him to say, "Well, as a matter of fact..." Fact, Ivan? So there *is* such a thing, then? He had a cancer growing out of his face, at the time; I wondered (to myself) if he really thought it was socially constructed. Vey iz mir. All of this stuff is further examples of how people w/high IQs can be morons; it is also part of our national collapse, imo.

Google is another example of making a religion out of technology, which runs deep in the American psyche (see WAF, ch. 3).

A DAY WITHOUT KAVANAUGH IS A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE

mb

6:44 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Lots of « progressives » are very very upset with prep school court jester.

They are all gonna vote, March, resist, revolt, sign that petition, and chant. Don’t forget the vagina hat! That will show-em!

Hedges is off the deep end; it like a mental derangement with him. Keeps talking rising up and getting rid of our corporate masters. WTF.

The predictable usa-er denials and delusions are very exciting!

Usa, usa!

6:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mike-

Pls carry the following sign w/u at all times:

KAV YOU DA MAN

mb

7:45 PM  
Blogger henry said...

Ivan Illich really believed in radical "social constructionism"? I find that hard to believe; But You're serious?

I'm asking because Illich is a thinker I've been very fascinated by for years; Although, I do like his earlier (pre-mid 80s and beyond) works a lot better.


So, if you had to generalize, what would you say are his valuable insights and his non-valuable ones...or do you think the strange man was total Bullshit? Ha, I actually first discovered your books from an interview he gave... when he was referencing your idea of a "cybernetic dream".

Thank you in advance!




8:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Eric-

Totally into it, as was his little group of acolytes, who were mesmerized by him and the concept. Not a university dept, but a cult. They were all writing bks or essays on how gender was 100% invented, that sorta thing. He wasn't total bullshit, but he came close. A friend of mine went down to his 'liberated school' in Cuernavaca; you had to have a pass to leave the classrm. Check out Jenny Diski's chapter on Illich in "The Sixties." He not only wanted to abolish schools; he also wanted to abolish hospitals. A science writer for a major paper--I can't recall which, now (altho it might have been the Wash Post, since this was at a party in DC)--said to me (he was reviewing Illich's bk on the American health system)--"Where is someone who is seriously ill supposed to go, on Illich's scheme?" He was also arrogant in the extreme. I attended a lecture he gave, and when I or anyone, after the lecture, raised an issue that might be problematic for his theories, he just shook his head and waved us away. At a distance, he seemed brilliant, intriguing. Up close, a very different story.

mb

8:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: I did enjoy a bk he wrote called "ABC," however. Another anecdote: in the 80s he gave a lecture to a feminist group on a new bk he wrote on gender, and basically told them that a woman's place was in the kitchen. This was not well received. Ivan was basically a Jesuit, and a kind of medieval throwback. But he has a cult following, to this day. I wd say he was valuable in challenging accepted 'truths' of the modern era, stirring up discussion and so forth. But he had no real solutions to contemporary dilemmas that I know of. I never felt he walked his talk, and--this is just my take--found him to be erudite, but also terribly closed-minded, ultimately as rigid as the systems he criticized.

8:35 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

@Bill Yes, thank you for pointing out the Ivy League court. I can always tell a fake prog by the subservience to Ivy League institutions- "you can't call Obama a turkey. He went to Harvard!"

At this stage in our history, when the success of people like Trumpi has exposed the real American attitude towards the education, an Ivy League credential is just a relic, a bludgeon used to enforce a caste system. You can't argue with it. It's just a Big Lie the average prole will never question.

Wafers are encouraged to revalue these values and talk about Harvard, Yale, et al as "bad" schools in Manichean turkey speak. Good schools include my local school of cosmetology, and McDonalds Hamburger University.

Next turkey gobble gobble outrage will involve the lack of bearded women on TV. There will be acronyms and internet flame wars, with movements born and fortunes made.

7:31 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Love the progs response to the Kav confirmation-"Get out and vote in November!" which is just another Democratic fundraising ploy. In fact the entire Kav episode could have been just that. Hell, that extra week during which the FIB (misspelling intended) conducted their lame investigation could have been entirely staged to excite the Repubs and Dems respective bases. The dems never came close to questioning the institution of the Supreme Court because it ratifies what the dems have come to represent-corporate power. Then even if the entire country suddenly turned blue-so what? To paraphrase Mayer Amschel Rothschild, "GIve me control of the Supreme Court and I don't care which party controls Congress."
Needless to say, I hope you emerge healthwise better than ever. Looking forward to the NYC Wafer summit in April.

8:03 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

That's all the NYT had to say, really: vote. It cdn't be more lame. Meanwhile, I'm redecorating my house with Kavanaugh wallpaper: posters of his face pasted over every available square inch. Never has the Supreme Court been so degraded! Wafers can all look forward to two developments now:

1. The damage Kav is gonna do to the nation, beyond degrading the Court by his presence
2. The next public media circus, now that this one is over. It's impt that everyone be worked up, in a frenzy, all the time, so that what is really going on remains hidden. Dio's suggestion abt the outrageous lack of bearded women on TV might be a possibility.

I look forward to seeing you at the Sixth Annual NY Wafer Summit Conference (SANYWSC--pronounced "sanny wisk"). I just wish people who have no relationship to the blog would stop offering me houses, cars, boats, planes, property in Northern Italy, and numbered Swiss accts, not to mention bulging suitcases of Ben Franklins, in exchange for the right to attend. I'm just getting tired of saying No.

Dio-

With regard to the quality of education currently provided at Harvard and elsewhere: I think the time has come to abolish all of these separate institutions and bring them under the aegis of one huge one, which will contain thousands of branches (formerly Harvard, Yale, Podunk, etc.): the Sam Houston Institute of Technology (SHIT). Wafers are encouraged to come up with T-shirt slogans for this exciting new development. E.g.,

THE EDUCATION I GOT WAS SHIT

I'M IN DEEP SHIT,

etc.

mb

9:00 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Eric-

Impt blog rule: post no more frequently than once every 24 hrs. Thanks.

mb

9:23 AM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

I was pondering ways to block cell phone signals in buildings and I came across this article from last year:

"Got $10,000? KFC will sell you a creepy internet escape pod"

https://www.cnet.com/news/got-10000-kfc-will-sell-you-a-creepy-internet-escape-pod/

I'm waiting for the day when libraries, theaters, churches, and other places of quiet and silence give up on being polite and start installing faraday cages to block radio waves into the building. I'm sure this would never happen, the uproar would be spectacular, and people would immediately claim cell phones are needed for safety and education. The safety argument has always been the biggest lie, as if people in cities aren't always within 10 seconds of a landline in a nearby room if there is a real emergency!

I would love to see buildings of quiet receive RF shielding similar to MRI rooms. Last week I was at a church and someone allowed their cell phone to ding intermittently throughout the ENTIRE service without a thought of trying to turn it off. It would have been rude to tell her in the complete quiet to turn it off, so we all had to tolerate the regular disruption, and contemplation and focus were lost. Can these people not leave phones in their car or at home for even an hour? Just one hour!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=151&v=wqH8MrAodZE

While it may seem expensive to take such an extreme technical measure, the loss of silence in the world has a great cost that cannot be calculated.

10:38 AM  
Anonymous Puss Killian said...

Laughing out loud. All of you are a treasure, and this little island of sanity will be missed when closed down for remodeling.

Dr. B, it's just a little remodeling, I don't think you have anything to worry about (except a future without pain). Enjoy all your trips, we will keep the light on for your welcome return.

And thanks for the heads up ... it helped last time and will again. Like others, I'll be accumulating links like crazy, just waiting for your return. I'll make it through the downtime, as will we all.

(It will be a short reminder of what a dark age will look like ...)

Puss

10:42 AM  
Anonymous FerQ said...

Hector- I will conclude with this. I am NO fan of the Catholic Church but that will be a subject for another day. I think that the Evangelical movements have only reinforced and worsened the inferiority complex in the Latino communities. The reasons are because many of them preach a right-wing, conservative ideology which we know is belligerent and racist in its core and a prosperity gospel which promotes the American dream. Some of them also preach a pro-Israel ideology and with that there are some Latinos and other non-Jews who become Jewish/Israeli wannabees. This is especially true in the Brazilian community.

Now that I mention Brazilians here is some disturbing news. It seems that Brazil might have their own version of a Donald Trump as president. Ultra right wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro has been known to praise the military dictatorship that committed atrocities in that country. He is known for his anti-homosexual, misogynistic and racist statements. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3eyRSClnhU

Guess who supports him? THE EVANGELICALS! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddyf2iIYIVs

1:06 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Buena suerte MB looking forward to ur speedy return. If you care to watch a comedy during your convalescence check out Game Night (2018) w/ Jason Bateman/Rachel McAdams, every once in awhile Hollywood makes a good comedy.

Nothing pithy to say today but this roadside murder execution style of a 13 yr old following a road rage incident caught my eye. I can nearly hear the psychiatrist saying take these pills and come back in 3 wks.

Don't even think of cutting me off asshole

1:09 PM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

[T-shirt suggestion]

Join the Movement
We’re going places
SHIT

A portion of the profits will go to the DeVos Educational Foundation

2:11 PM  
Anonymous John Paul said...

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/amp23512780/trump-administration-fuel-standards-climate-change/

^Government as death cult^

"What we ultimately need most is human beings who love the world" Gary Snyder

3:46 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Aaron: there are plans out there for cell phone blockers, but they are extremely illegal cuz they also prevent 911 calls and the like.

Still in the hospital now 2 weeks later... I have some sort of autoimmune issue in my lungs necessitating oxygen. Plenty of time to read and watch random lectures online. I've never actually owned a computer before, but I bought a cheep laptop while I'm stuck here, lucky I did. There's only so much news I can read without an occasional break watching Iron Chef Japan or re-runs of This Old House.

Good luck to all WAFers and may the pastrami flow like wine.

3:48 PM  
Blogger Thomas said...

Dear Dr. Berman: I have read The Re-Enchantment of the World, Dark Ages America, and Why America Failed. I regard you as the most trenchant social critic currently writing. Possibly the greatest of the 20th century. I aspire to be a wafer.

I'm no spring chicken. I am 61 years old, a psychotherapist and adjunct college instructor by profession and have been on the losing side in American politics since I was a college undergraduate.

There is no question in my mind whatsoever that America is in an inexorable decline. How or on what timetable this will occur from here on out is anybody's guess. You are one of the very few who have the insight, understanding and courage to speak forthrightly and write cogently on this phenomenon.

In the fall of 1980, somewhat intuitive as I am (and which Jung might say), I felt a dark shadow come into the American body politic with the election of Reagan. No doubt it had already been there to a significant degree, the paranoid style,as Hofstadter wrote all those years ago, having been a central feature of American politics since at least the interwar years. But Reagan darkened that shadow considerably.

So I am here on your blog in order to share with other people who see the truth as I do. There is a sense of belonging that comes from this. And belonging, as many a psychologist has claimed, is a key human need and a necessary ingredient to well being (the rare social loner, who seems to do fine without it, notwithstanding).

So thank you to you Dr. Berman and everyone who contributes to this blog. I hope to participate on this forum regularly, sharing my thoughts, impressions and feelings.

Tom Galten, Milwaukee

4:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dear Tom,

Many thanks for writing, and joining the discussion. A couple of small pts:
1. Always capitalize Wafer
2. Limit yr posts to half page max.
Thank you, and keep posting.

Reagan: certainly one of the darkest, simplistic, most fucked-up human beings in the history of the world. More significant is that he regularly shows up in polls as Americans' favorite president. This shd tell you something abt who we are, as a people.

As for the blog, I suppose it serves a # of functions. One is community; we are an oasis of like-minded individuals. Not that there is any problem w/disagreement or dissent, as I've stated repeatedly; it just hasta be done in a courteous manner, so that dialogue can proceed. Anyway, this is a refuge for that tiny % of the nation that really does understand what is coming down, and that has no interest in the Disney Version.

A second function is contribution. The blog is there for those who want to listen, learn, and contribute in turn. We can't stop the collapse of America, but we can fish a few open-minded souls out of the drink.

3rd, which shd probably be 1st, is humor. We think it's important to be as funny as possible, and we encourage jokes (including politically incorrect ones), irony, and anything that generates hilarity. For us, fun is a metaphysic.

"That's all folks" (Bugs Bunny)

mb

5:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Pastrami-

Recover, Return, and Continue the Fight!

mb

5:28 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

BREAKING NEWS ALERT....

Did you guys see this latest HEADLINE NEWS?


Kim Kardashian West, Kelly Clarkson, JLo and more confess their kids' grossest moments....


https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/allthemoms/2018/10/07/kim-kardashian-kelly-clarkson-celebs-grossest-things-children-have-done/1560012002/

11:35 PM  
Anonymous Megan C. said...

What stood out most to me with regard to the Kavanaugh confirmation was the way that the so-called "moderate voices" ended up selling out. I don't know much about Jeff Flake, but I did read the transcript of his Harvard Graduation address (I think it was Harvard?), and it was intelligent and perceptive. He tore into Trump and all of his mindless Republican followers, and basically seemed to "get it". Likewise, Susan Collins is at least a slightly better than the hopeless troglodytes like Ted Cruz. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, Flake and Collins sold out just like all the rest of the awful Republicans and voted with them to confirm the egregious Kavanaugh. Good for us declinists, but still, disheartening to anyone with any hope of fixing this country. Really, they just completely sold out. Collins might as well have been any drooling MAGA cultist for how she sounded defending her decision to vote Kavanaugh in.

It just seems significant to me when the most sensible and "enlightened" voices in the entire party are, in the end, completely off their rockers!

2:31 AM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Dio--a great counter to any douchebag who still worships Obarfa because he went to Harvard is to point out that Bush did too.

@Gunnar--that story you posted about the road rage incident struck me because on an almost daily basis I see people on the roads acting in ways so outrageous that I often think how thankful I am not to be dumb enough to carry a firearm around. Not that I think I'd ever lose my cool enough to use it, but why even be tempted? Of course, the shooter in that story took things to a whole new level by exiting his car and shooting the kid point blank in the head. And how about the idiot mother? Not that her actions mitigate what the shooter did, but how dumb do you have to be to escalate a road rage incident when you have your three kids in the car? Pull aside, let the asshole "win," and get on with your day. But of course, Americans are hardwired never to let ANYBODY ever get the better of them, even over something as trivial as one car length on a friggin' highway.

@Aaron/Pastrami--I remember reading a couple of years ago that in London, installing WiFi blockers become a new trend started by a few select pubs and bookstores. Apparently, the establishments in question saw a big rise in their business as a result. Maybe I'll open a cafe that will be half and half, and I can say to customers waiting to be seated (paraphrasing the old days when restaurants still had smoking sections): "will that be technodouchebag or non-technodouchebag?"

2:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enjoy your time off MB and I very much hope you will be visiting France one day! We've got better food than in the UK that's for sure ;-)

Speaking of Prog websites, I've decided to stop reading the Guardian altogether. It had good content before, but it's now 90% horseshit - #MeToo, Putin, Prog Revolution etc... It's just not worth plowing through all the junk to find the rare interesting article anymore.

Kanye

6:11 AM  
Anonymous Italiana said...

MB & Wafers, Again, sorry to be so silent! MB - I wish you well on your surgery, that all goes well and you're back soon! How will we all survive??

Meanwhile, I'm almost done reading a book recommended by Paul Craig Roberts, by Mike Lofgren, "The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution". He's a former Congressional staffer for many years, beginning in the Reagan years. His documentation of some of the details of the speeding up of our descent is nothing less than chilling. While I worked in multiple administrations, I only saw the small bit of my Navy world. It is SOOOO much worse than it looks. AND - this guy isn't a Wafer at all - he doesn't understand that the situation we're in is the end result of America's 'original sin' - hustling, etc. But he documents the rot well.

7:50 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Italiana-

Thanks for yr gd wishes. As for survival: I won't sugarcoat it: it will be rough. I guess we all need to stock up on Zoloft etc.

Kanye-

Pretty gd Indian restaurants, however.

I guess the time has come for Wafers to launch their own newspaper. 1st, we'll need a title, something more creative than WAFER TIMES. And then, typical headlines:

MILLIONS HAVE HEADS WEDGED IN RUMPS
AMERICANS CLUELESS AS COUNTRY GOES DOWN DRAIN
GSWH STILL NOT APPOINTED TO TOP ADMIN POST
KAVANAUGH ROCKS

Wafers are encouraged to come up with titles and headlines, before our 1st issue goes to press.

mb

8:32 AM  
Anonymous Tom said...

There is something of Caesar’s first consulship about Trump’s presidency... It’s the kind of things that went on all the time in the late Roman Republic, mutatis mutandis.

9:00 AM  
Anonymous Mike Kelly said...

Dr. Berman,

I wish you a happy and healthy outcome to your surgery. We Wafers will eagerly await your return.

We have the Kavs, the Kav-Nots, and now we have the Kav-anaughs. Can we ever Kav-enough? I think not. How many Kavs does it take to ruin a nation? We're about to find out.

Sorry to be so flippant about such grave matters. I don't read the national news, so I really don't care much about our newest Supreme Court appointee. I compare him to some of the rich, entitled douchebags I attended high school with, and not a one of those sons of bitches had the brains of a dogcatcher. How did this idiot get appointed to the highest court in the land? Because we're all a nation of douchebags, that's why.

My t-shirt contribution: TO KAV OR NOT TO KAV, THAT IS THE QUESTION?

Make it through your surgery and enjoy your travels abroad, Dr. B!

PS: Looking forward to April in NYC!

9:45 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mike-

Thanks for yr gd wishes. As for the newest douchebag:

THE NATION NEEDS TO KAV IN!

As for April: things slowly shaping up. People are flying in from all corners of the globe to attend. Stay tuned.

mb

10:51 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Pls note that she uses the word 'douchebag'--a sign of advanced intelligence, when referring to Americans:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/08/rose-mcgowan-an-original-weinstein-accuser-calls-hollywoods-metoo-support-a-band-aid-lie/?utm_term=.13e340676d02

mb


10:59 AM  
Anonymous George Carlin said...

THE WAFER ORACLES ... it will contain a "WAFEROLOGY" section wherein Wafer's will predict the future of famous Turkeys.

Waferology of Chris Hedges : He will be calling for a revolution from his grave or asking the dead to help him start a revolution cause the Turkeys ain't going to do so.

Kavanaugh : In the future, we see a KAVANUT LAW on sexual assault. The best deal the victims will get is a can of beer and two special nuts the size of KAVANUTS. Additionally, if victims behave well in the court, they will be given a photo frame of Trumpi and MAGAfools laughing at you.

11:22 AM  
Anonymous Julie said...

Hi Dr. Berman,

I wish you all the best with your surgery and a quick recovery. I will miss this awesome blog while you're out. So hurry back! It's the only sane place to go to while living in the United States of Absurdistan.

Julie

11:40 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Julie-

Thanks for yr good wishes. There is no other blog, really.

George-

Maybe it'll be a zombie revolt...

mb

12:26 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

@Bill, no doubt the shooter shlda killed the mom, no sane person pokes a rabid dog in the ribcage with stick and stands around thinking she'll prevail. I don't tempt myself with weapons either, I don't even want to go down on an assault charge. The mom learned a hard lesson Wafers already understand, one must always assume the other person is packing and a high % of people are one trip wire away from a rampage. There's plethora things wrong with this story, my focus fell on the recent diagnosis/visit to doc to get drugs. Psychotropics are powerful and reactions to them are probably as varied as the person ingesting them. W/o hospitalization to gauge response Dr.'s are taking a big risk prescribing. MH care is so fucked up even a perfectly sane person has difficulty navigating it and most insurance companies won't pay. Not excusing the shooter who shld never have been in possession of a gun merely pointing out the fact that what most professionals condescendingly call 'falling through cracks' of the system can have deadly consequences.

UN report tells us we're all basically fucked regarding climate change. I read Requiem for a Species a few yrs back, the author Clive Hamilton concluded our best chances are with a benign dictator(s). Looking more and more like it's true.

1:07 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

T-shirt ideas:

INSTANT KAVA KARMA

FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KAVANAUGH

A HARD DAY'S KAVANAUGH

BABY YOU'RE A KAVA MAN

Miles

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Come on Wafers! We can turn the usa around. I just bought a t-shirt--that says, A woman's place is in the resistance" online for only 39.99$! It's in pink too, I'm not ashamed.

All the MSM and "social" media postings are urging us to 'vote' to turn the tide, and get those democrats in there to help make the us even better!

There's lots of positive attitudes, replete with hoping and dreaming, lotsa smiley faces too! Yes. we. can. I am feeling really happy abt all these ways we can take back our 'country.'

Getting really sick of these Debby and Danny Downer attitudes.....

1:55 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

@Gunnar I'm not from the USA, and only read about what it's like to live there, but your comments about how that woman ought to have behaved strike me as seriously weird. I can't imagine going about my day thinking that I ought to adjust the way I treat people based on the assumption that they could be armed. How do people live like that? It's like trying to get one's head around knowing that you have citizens who oppose universal health care - it seems simply bananas.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving, Wafers.

3:53 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Actually, the issue of people being armed is not very far-fetched, in the US. A large % are. In addition, I am always careful myself abt interactions when I'm in the US because the bare fact is that many Americans, possibly most, have very short fuses, and w/or w/o guns, an interaction can unexpectedly turn very nasty. These people are often on edge, such that it takes very little to trigger a violent response. Too many are walking around with inner dynamite just waiting to get detonated. As a result, I tend to err on the side of caution.

mb

4:14 PM  
Blogger henry said...

Here is some self verifiable evidence that most Americans are crypto-fascist-dynamite sticks:


1) The radically vitriolic internet comments posted online from ordinary day to day Americans.

2) The unreasonable and out of proportion road rage you deal with when you drive day to day in America.

3) The looks on ORDINARY and even WEALTHY peoples faces when they don't know anyone is watching (faces filled with misery, confusion and bitter hate).

4) The enormous popularity of ultra violent gore in entertainment media.


It's frightening. I believe the only thing keeping Americans from each others throats is that the economy is still somewhat together for the majority; If that changes and there are many indications it will in the next few years, then holy &^%! it's gonna be one orgy of revenge, sadism and "getting even" with people whom you never met. I almost want to buy a gun myself.

Personally, I never "honk back" on the high streets of the USA, but I have to recognize that most others in my corner of the US don't exhibit that same principled self restraint...and I feel like I got to have some scant means of protecting myself If they do come to my door step. Not that I even like guns.


4:46 PM  
Blogger k_pgh said...

Dr. Berman,

Good luck with your surgery. Hope you feel better soon.


al-Qa'bong,

A gun was pointed at me recently. My uncle tapped me on the sternum with the tip of a gun. If the gun would have gone off, the bullet would have ripped through my chest. This was shortly before his monologue on needing bigger weapons to kill Moors in the Philippines.

He teaches gun safety. So, he knows better, and I am left unsure if this happened by accident or accidentally-on-purpose. Regardless, yes, I’m modifying my behavior and will be minimizing future contact with him.

(The Philippine monologue concluded with a tie-in with current events, where he said the United States was repeating it’s stupidity in Afghanistan today by not using big enough guns...)

5:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

k-

Many thanks. Meanwhile, you need to avoid future actions w/this gentleman.

Eric-

You might wanna equip yrself w/an arsenal, keep it w/u at all times. It shd include the following:
1. An AK-47.
2. An Abrams tank.
3. A nuclear device.

Now go get 'em, cowboy!

mb

5:40 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

@Al-Q

When I'm in Canada I notice more low stakes fistfights than in the US on weekends out in the town. Friends would break it up and maybe the cops would come in and cite them for a misdemeanor. You rarely see this in the US bc of the presence of firearms and the draconian penal system. So instead of young men blowing off steam, you get far worse eruptions. I think it's similar in Europe with soccer hooligan culture.

I used to do a bit of old fashioned leisure driving, but traffic has gotten so bad it's not really possible anymore. The suburbs used to be slightly genteel; now everybody motors around them in their dash to drive three suburbs over to their job. Ofc somebody in that suburb likely motors over to work in yoursuburb... Absurd outcome of American development mentality.

6:31 PM  
Blogger meangenekaz said...

Hola los Waferes

@ MB- slogans:1 "I'M BURNT!" 2 "BURNT OUTTA HERE!" 3 "I'LL TAKE MINE BURNT"

@ MB- Yeah, "look up my wife!" Ha, ha. Of course my previous post "a little off the top" was informed by Woody's appearance in TMWQ, a great read. An AUTHENTIC, dry sense of humor, Mauricio, is what caught my attention back in CE 2000. That's all she wrote. (though NOT all that he wrote)

Heartfelt wishes to our friend, poet, social critic, mentor, essayist, practical joker, novelist and all around Good Guy, the GSWH, for a successful surgical encuentro and speedy recovery. We need you here with us for a good many years yet, amigo.

@ Megan- me,too. @ Julie- "Dumbfuckistan" is also good. Usually gets a laugh.
@ George C.- too funny, man!

I promise not to "jones out" during the upcoming blog sabbatical.Forewarned is forearmed.(I won't take THAT analogy any further...)

CTD!

6:57 PM  
Anonymous Jameson (Jamie) said...

Planning to Vote in the November Election? Why Most Americans Probably Won’t

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/us/non-voters-midterm-elections.html

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

Also reminds me of this cute cartoon, which actually encapsulates my own way to proceed

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/to-vote-or-not-to-vote

7:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dio-

Have I already recommended DAA ch. 7?

mb

8:27 PM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

I would say the assault on quiet and silence far outweighs the very rare instance when someone needs a cell phone in a library to call for an emergency. First off, any public building is going to have landlines. Secondly, 99.999% of the time cell phones will be used as a distraction to the whole room, whereas it's extremely rare to have someone in cardiac arrest or something like that needing immediate attention. Not to mention, you can still run outside of the building and call for help. I really don't want to play these games where people come up with all matter of possible scenarios in order to justify having access to facebook 24/7 and having text messages interrupt people in contemplation.

I like to tell the story when I was hit by a car when on a motorcycle. I called police from a nearby gas station. Having a cell phone was not necessary. I absolute reject this idea that cell phones are a necessity and I will always believe they cause more harm than good, and there are alternatives for dealing with emergencies, directions, etc. but people don't want practical things, they want facebook/twitter/texting/games, etc. Anyone who talks about emergencies is being extremely disingenuous. We've got things like OnStar, landlines, and dedicated GPS navigation devices - I don't buy the safety argument for a second.

12:17 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Italiana-

24-hr rule.

mb

2:58 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jesus, willya look at that face?

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/08/politics/the-clintons-go-on-tour/index.html

7:27 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

@DioGenes,

I think fistfights used to more common in the United States. The stories from my older relatives are filled with fights. Most of these would have occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. I am sure they are somewhat exaggerated but I think most of the stories are true. You are exactly right about the ubiquity of guns and the draconian penal system being the reasons why fights are rare in the United States. I would also add that employers are now much less forgiving of signs of misbehavior even if it happened in the distant past.

I really do think that humans need some outlet to blow off steam. To a certain extent a bit of misbehavior can be a good thing especially if you are young. Modern Americans, however, are living in a very unforgiving environment where any slip up can ruin your life. The stress this causes likely drives some of the bizarre behavior we discuss here. If young American men were allowed to let their hair down more maybe they wouldn't be so prone to explode in violent outbursts like mass shootings.

9:43 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Hope your operation and convalescence goes well, Dr. Berman. I have relied on this blog for information, good books and movies and sanity - I thank you for that. I will miss it during the next month and a half. The attached article from The Guardian about Barbara Kingsolver and her concerns and work makes her sound like she would empathize the Wafer point of view.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/08/barbara-kingsolver-fells-living-through-end-of-world

10:38 AM  
Anonymous Meredith said...

There is not a single mention of "capitalism" anywhere in this new IPCC SR15 report. This despite high confidence in ecological economics that capitalism - and its need for perpetual growth - is the key driver of climatatic breakdown. This is a failure of scientific responsibility. There is mention of "economic growth", but only in the context of the costs to growth of inaction. There is no mention of the contribution that growth makes climatatic breakdown. Indeed, the imperative of continuedq GDP growth is held constant. It is sacrosanct.

We need more convo on postgrowth & degrowth.

11:40 AM  
Anonymous George Carlin said...

Short History of US meddling in foreign elections so what should these countries do, sanctions on US or bomb the shit out of them :)

11:44 AM  
Anonymous Puss Killian said...

Hi Wafers,

The GSWH and Umair Haque are mentioned together in the weekly roundup (really, round-down, as in downward death spiral):

http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2018/10/07/this-week-in-doom-october-7-its-ovah/

Scroll down to Great Leaps in American Collapse if you wish to skip the Kavanut kuckoo klatch section.

"Umair Hague is quickly becoming one of the more dependable writers documenting American collapse, joining emigre Morris Berman in his assessment that we Americans are on the collapse clock. He traces the escalating sense of unease, lack of faith in institutions, and the falling dominoes of ruinous decisions that have led us to the current era of "smash-and-grab" looting beloved of fascists and their apologists."

More kudos to the GSWH follow my quotation, including a link to the recent podcast!

Puss

12:08 PM  
Anonymous Italiana said...

MB - mi dispiace for violating the 24 hour rule - the time change kills me sometimes. Sigh. I'll pay more attention.

Wafers - in today's NY Times there is an article about a new Facebook gadget that is a video chat screen that follows you around while you talk, with Amazon's Alexa built in. Yikes! This is Orwell's "1984" telescreen, finally here. As in "1984", this technology will be actively sought out by the populace, allowing 24 hours of connectivity, everywhere you go. Privacy? Who wants privacy?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/technology/facebook-portal-video-calling.html?action=click&contentCollection=technology&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

@Gunnar - thanks so much for the rec for the Clive Hamilton book - I will get that. Was just commenting the other day to my husband that this looks like an extinction event, or at least a dramatic reset, as the world will not come together to fix the climate change problem - no profit in it!! NMI is the way to go.

1:12 PM  
Blogger meangenekaz said...

Hola los Waferes

@ George Carlin- I like the Wafer Chronicles suggestion. We could Waferize that further by bowing to Ray Bradbury, a Wafer Hall of Famer, and calling it The Waferian Chronicles. Just a thought.

@ Miles Deli- Those KAVA NUTS are good ones. I'm also a big fan of los Beatles. "BABY YOU'RE A KAVA MAN" really pegs it!

Here is a local anecdote I received this morning: A 61-year old man has become the main caregiver to the 2-year old and 4-year old children of one of his adult sons(whom he terrorized as a child, according to my sober informant, the library manager). The adult son is in a downward spiral. A common story in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Wafers have seen many a link on DAA blog to that sort of social item. Nothing new here - usa!usa! we're #1!

As for the Indonesian archipelago, you have got to wonder: how smart is MOST of the worlds's dominant predatory species? Perhaps the cumulative evidence of climate change does mark the end of "the age of reason." Reading "Moby Dick" this morning has informed me. Check out chapter 49 "The Hyena".

Onward thru the fog!

2:31 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Aaron--adding to your argument is that in 2015 & 2016, traffic fatalities were up by 10% (roughly 3,000) per year despite the overall number of miles driven being flat. The additional accidents and deaths have mostly been attributed to distracted driving from using electronic devices while driving. Cell phones are more dangerous in a car than alcohol ever was, yet there is no M.A.C.P.W.D. organization advocating that there be an aggressive crackdown on such use.

@Meagan C--I wouldn't say Collins, Flake, et al, "sold out." I would say they gave the base of their party what it wanted, something the Democrats NEVER do. That's why the Dems/progs keep losing. While Trump listens to his base and gives them the "red meat," the likes of Pelosi & Schumer, to say nothing of Obarfa & Botoxface, continually mock and deride their own base, saying they should "grow up," and recognize that such demands as full national heathcare are "too expensive," or that ending all of America's wars would leave us vulnerable to a terrorist attack, or that they should stop the silly notion of unionizing and be content with their shitty, low paying jobs (assuming they have one). If anyone has "sold out" it's the Democrats and liberals who have sold out to Wall Street, the war contractors and Silicon Valley. That supreme douchebaguette Rachel Maddow, for example, makes $7 million a year to deceive progs into going along with the program. THAT'S selling out.

3:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Meredith-

Check out essay in QOV entitled "The Parable of the Frogs."

mb

4:28 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Trump says Ivanka would be "dynamite" as U.N. ambassador, but fears "nepotism" accusations...

Why not go all the way and just make her Secretary of State!! Then she could run for President.

We are literally living in the Twilight Zone.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-ivanka-would-be-dynamite-as-u-n-ambassador-but-fears-nepotism-accusations/



“We do not have to like one another, so long as we continue to make money off one another. That is what will keep us together.”


https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/country-not-on-brink-of-civil-war-alexander-hamilton/amp/

5:00 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Are sim cards the mark of the beast?

Correction : I said benign dictator (?) I meant benevolent dictator, bothered me all day...

7:22 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

@Tom

The extremes in norms in the environments for American young people are beyond Kafkaesque. There's school, where horseplay is mercilessly punished and the students wear electronic IDs and are managed like so much cattle. Playful remarks that would have been ignored in the 70s now may find you suspended, kicked out of school with little options in life beyond becoming a career criminal.

And in spite of this enforcement, kids are now more caustic to each other than even before. It has just migrated to the wild wild west of digital interaction.

At the other extreme, there's college frats, where you are expected to basically become an animal. It's hyper-regulation or extreme brutality- a middle ground never crossed their mind. I can't imagine how a thoroughly Americanized young person is supposed to have any sensible standard of norms for behavior.

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Ciao Italiana,

Your comment today on the NY Times article about "a new FB gadget that is a video chat screen that follows you around while you talk, with Amazon's Alexa built in", made me want to write about my daughter Elizabeth's experience today at Waldorf School (WS). She went for an orientation in hopes of getting her son in next year.

The principal said that today's culture assaults children. And went on to say that WS teaches kids how to think and evaluate for themselves. They spend time outdoors rain or shine, have a large veggie and flower garden, along with no technology for 9 years! A cute story was related how a WS 10 yr old has a neighborhood friend, 11 yrs old who just got a cell phone. The 10 rd old said he's not fun anymore. Says it all, I think. Enrollment is by lottery so I"m keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

Sounds to me like NMI individuals in training.

7:55 PM  
Blogger henry said...

I got some great advice for anyone that has to bear with the pain of driving on "the war of all against all" streets of the USA.

The advice being:
Carry a stress ball in your car with you whenever you drive; it actually makes things almost tolerable. When you get honked at just squeeze that damn ball and all you're homicidal outrage will be gone!



Mr. Berman,

As for the advice on armament, I'd probably just stick to "the basics", the things with an impressive 17 year track record; Them being:

-Ak47s

-RPGs made in china

-Top quality mountain grown Heroin pushing



Call me a minimalist

8:25 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Eric-

If you cd compress yr messages, and not have large spaces in them, that wd be most appreciated. Thank you.

Dio-

Very high suicide rates today among young people, and steadily increasing.

mb

9:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Socialist Chic:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/nyregion/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-outfit-designer-criticism.html?fallback=0&recId=1BMoogwvKWzSHa9N6ZiTDufYVIk&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=CMX&recAlloc=random&geoCountry=MX&blockId=midterm-elections&imp_id=769898007&action=click&module=Election%202018&pgtype=Homepage

11:41 PM  
Anonymous Onward to Dystopia said...

A bit late to the party on this, I think aside from the penal costs of a fistfight, also consider the cost of a medical bill! In Europe and Canada you're unlikely to see a bill for $39,000, which is the bill my partner would have paid after falling off a ladder, if he hadn't had health insurance. He was in the hospital for...maybe three hours? And "THE BEST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD!" after endless X-rays sent him home with broken ribs, saying he had NO broken bones.

I also believe society is becoming increasingly domesticated. You can see this in a number of areas; the control employers have over workers, being on call 24/7, I would argue even the length of men's hair shows this. It seemed like during the Bush years every guy wanted to look like he was in the military.

I live in Atlanta and traffic is just as awful as everyone says. I have almost stopped driving, there's nothing in this town worth seeing or doing that justifies dealing with the traffic. It's no wonder most people are miserable. I can't imagine how someone feels who lives outside the city and sits in it an hour both ways, probably while listening to some right wing millionaire on the radio bitch about how bad THEIR life is.

1:43 AM  
Anonymous Guv said...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-09/al-gore-s-generation-caisse-are-said-to-near-fnz-fintech-deal

Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management LLP and Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec teamed up to acquire control of wealth-management services provider FNZ in one of the year’s largest fintech deals.

wooooo funny Gore unlike Trumpo is an actual billionaire. it's all a racket

7:43 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Puss-

24-hr rule.

Guv-

Gore, like Thos Friedman, is into Green Capitalism, commonly known as 'greenwashing'. Coupla wealthy guys.

mb

9:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@Dio/Tom,

I can't imagine what it feels like being a teenager or a young person today. I saw a documentary the other day on TV about the effects of cyber-bullying on teenage girls at school. It was chilling. Bullying and kids being mean to each other were always there of course, but I feel like its effects are tenfold today. All those yuppie parents having kids right now and swimming in the bliss of "early parenthood" are in for a treat when their kids grow up I am telling ya.

Kanye

11:12 AM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Paging Bill Hicks:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/10/worshipping-the-death-machines/

11:41 AM  
Anonymous Troy said...

https://www.newstatesman.com/john-gray-identity-politics-contemporary-francis-fukuyama-lies-bind-kwame-anthony-appiah-review

John Gray reviews Fukuyama's new book on nationalism and identity politic

1:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Johnny-

Too long. We have a half page max here. Pls compress, re-send. Thank you.

Troy-

Fukuyama is one of the great turkeys of our day. Millions (of turkeys) worship him as the last word, of course.

mb

1:40 PM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

@Kanye Cyrus

The effects of bullying on both teenage boys and girls are more pronounced today than in earlier times because the bullying doesn’t occur in Third Period math or Homeroom or the gym. It occurs in social media where every fool in the whole school can—and likely will—see it. When I was in school in the fifties and sixties, bullying generally took a physical form. Once the blow had been struck or the epithet had been hurled it was pretty much over. The only witnesses were those who were immediately present. Bullying in cyberspace never goes away, is always there to provide a constant torment to the tormented. And people whom you’ve never spoken to, associated with, or known can now see that someone—maybe multiple someones—thinks you’re a tool or a homo or whatever the characterization is. It’s a beating that never goes away, an insult that is immortalized in Internet annals.




3:13 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Johnny-

Once I delete, it's lost. Sorry.

mb

3:31 PM  
Anonymous Piero said...

WOW Some great content for the Professor

https://www.denizcemonduygu.com/philo/browse/

A lovely interactive timemap of philosophical ideas. Not only to you get the ideas, but linkages showing who agreed/disagreed with whom.

5:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers living in or near NY:

The 6th Annual NY Wafer Summit Conference is now set for April 13 (Sat) at 1 pm. Venue TBA. Pls make a note of it. Keep in mind this event is only for active participants on the blog. You know who you are.

This may be the greatest meeting in the history of the world.

Feel free to bring pictures of Trumpi, Bolti, Kavaflush, Gina Haspel, and other grotesque persons from the current admin. Or key chains, also gd.

I have totaled up the cash value of offers made by non-participants to crash the party, in terms of boats, planes, houses, landed estates, gold bullion, and so on: it's now over $1 billion. Don' worry, folks: I stayed pure. Told 'em all: sorry, no go. You had yr chance, and ya blew it. Suggest y'all meet at 2nd St. Deli, cry into yr matzoh ball soup.

mb

5:13 PM  
Anonymous C Horton said...

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amazon-scheme-supports-extremists-vdzsfvsls

Amazon donates to Muslim extremist charity whose founder advocates FGM & stoning adulterers to death.

Shame!

6:51 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

YES.....it has....


https://m.france24.com/en/20181010-has-world-gone-mad-mental-health-disorders-rise-every-country-globally

6:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Horton-

Not clear why Amazon wd do this. Makes no sense to me. I'd also like to add that stoning people to death is a tad over the top.

mb

7:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nikki Haley was a toady and a turkey (or turkette). Hopefully Trumpo will appt another worthless piece of shit to the post.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-haley-resign-20181010-story.html

Maybe Elon Musk. Now *there's* a turkey 4u!

So many turkeys; so little time!

mb

8:03 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Pastrami--great essay on the Puke Angels. I must be a bad person, because every time one of our hundred million dollar death machines drops out of the sky like a brick and splats into the Earth it warms my heart. Hurricane Michael sure showed what global warming thinks of the USAF, as it apparently wreaked much havoc on Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

@Wafers--by the time MB gets back to the blog we will know just how much of a FAIL the much-hyped "blue wave" was, especially after the way Dumbocrats handed Trump a fresh wedge issue to unify the Rethugs by focusing of decades old @MeToo allegations instead of Kavanfuck's actual legal record. Hopefully, every one of those former military and "intelligence" officers running as Dumb challengers will get thoroughly trounced. Just what we need, to have America's "liberal" party taken over by war criminals and torture-lovers to replace all the Wall Street whores who currently dominate the party.

Of course, the sudden market instability COULD throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings. Might this finally be the moment that America's fake economy comes crashing back to Earth like an F-35 on a test run? We should also know that for sure by the time MB gets back.

9:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Note to Suzanne-

Pls send messages to most recent post. No one reads the old stuff. Thank you.

mb

9:23 PM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Morris,

The point you made around alexandria-ocasio-cortez is well made!!

Have an enjoyable trip and a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

Will miss our exchanges here on the blog.

10:50 PM  
Anonymous Gordon said...

Well there goes Florida.
Tragic, but entirely predictable.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/03/the-trump-prophecy-film-god-election-mark-taylor

The future is bright.

12:22 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gordon-

I like the part abt Obama being charged w/treason. Hopefully, he'll be tried at the World Court in The Hague as a war criminal.

mb

1:36 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Reprise:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-do-the-kavanaugh-confirmation-and-the-sokal-squared-hoax-have-in-common/2018/10/10/f7efabf8-ccc6-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html?utm_term=.1cfc0b75b675

1:52 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

@Bill Hicks,

Ted Rall makes a similar point, that using #MeToo to try to defeat Kavanaugh has backfired and seems to have energized Republican voters.

“Polls show that Republicans are so energized by their win on Kavanaugh that the Dems’ chance of recapturing the Senate are dropping in part because they’re buying the argument that the #MeToo movement is dangerous.”

http://rall.com/2018/10/08/how-brett-kavanaugh-framed-himself-as-a-martyr-to-the-metoo-movement

5:49 AM  
Anonymous George Carlin said...

MB -- Happy Holidays.. have fun and recover fast !! Please take care of your hands.. they are as precious as those of Mozart or Picasso.
Your absence for the coming few weeks has made me wish that I was a Billionaire, so that I could set up a Dr. Berman School of Waferology.
There would also be a SLUT LAB and a TURKEY HALL OF SHAME on the campus.

Once again, sincerely thank you for all the effort you have put into this blog and your other work. You will be missed by Wafers in the coming weeks.

9:38 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Poor Ms. Brianhna Joy Gray, current affairs editor of the Intercept interviewed on www.therealnews.com. She is dismayed the dems didn't interview and secure affidavits from the 20 people the FIB didn't interview who were witness to Kavenutcase's behavior. One would think in her position she would have gained some insight how the system operates. The dems had no interest in denying Kavenutcase's Supreme seat. As has been reported both Dems and Repubs have brought in millions in contributions since last week. My guess is that Flake's one week postponement was agreed upon by all concerned to generate more public interest. I see the dems role now-gently guide the country to fascism. Please progs tell me- where is the Resistance? All Senate dems voted for Trump's defense bill even the "socialist" Bernie Sanders.
Needless to say, looking forward to the April summit. Looks like war with Iran by then. I'm sure Trump is more than aware of the fact that no president has ever lost re-election during war. And if war is not imposed on you then start one like W did.

11:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

I don't post Anons.

George-

Many thanks. Just a reminder to all: blog shuts down as of Oct. 15, re-opens on Nov. 7-11, then shuts down again until ca. Nov. 26.

mb

2:49 PM  
Blogger meangenekaz said...

Hola los Waferes,

@GSWH - body language is always a tell tale sign. The link to the LA Times review of Nikki and Donnie sitting together says it all. The photo of drumpf sitting there, posed with the classic male hand signal, indicative of a thing which men think about often. You might call it what Leon Russell referred to as his "Delta Lady". And there sits Nikki, the perfect turkette, clueless.

And the beat goes on.

Contrary to other urges this morning, I pulled TMWQ off the bookshelf and began reading chapters 22 and 23, and laughing out loud about Woody Allen's hapless court jester.

@Bill Hicks Agreed. I admit that it bothers me not what be their lot when I see an iron war bird bite the dust. @Pastrami and Coleslaw- the link to Counterpunch was right on the money for Bill y los otros Waferes.

As It Is Above So It Is Below Dept: Mike continues the flushing-and-draining-of-the-swamp-job that Flo started.

CTD! See ya next week.

4:25 PM  
Anonymous Savantesimal said...

More from Esquire on the state of the nation:
This Vicious Buffoon Is a Vessel for All the Worst Elements of the American Condition by Charles P. Pierce
quote:
This video captures perfectly where we are as a nation at this moment in history. It shows with startling clarity the end result of civic disengagement and democratic apathy. It shows without question that we have allowed our republic to fall into the hands of a sociopath whose feeling for his fellow human beings can be measured against a poker chip. It shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the better angels of our nation have been sold out to anger, and greed, and stone hatred. It shows precisely the depths to which our fellow citizens will follow this bag of old and rancid sins. Some of those citizens know better. Some of them don't. All of them are dangerous blockheads.

4:30 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Another for the americans were douche bags chapter:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6261561/Woman-stabs-friend-Tennessee-haunted-house-given-real-knife-thought-toy.html

4:31 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Trumpo has had many sycophants over his long life, I bet none as satisfying as his new Sambo Kayne.

The chick needs cheering up

7:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gunnar-

Whew! That's the face of America for the next 40 yrs.

Kanye is a douche bag.

mb

7:50 PM  
Blogger NeilW said...

South Park sums up Kanye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vn2xrSG24w

10:31 PM  
Anonymous FerQ said...

Prof. Berman- I want to wish you well on your surgery and I hope your recovery comes quickly.

Prof. Berman and all fellow Wafers- I would like to know, who do you think will be the most likely nominee for the Democratic party in 2020? Not that I plan on voting but just out of curiosity. Do any of you think that Hillary will try again in 2020 or 2024?

10:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Fer-

Many thanks. Hillary's toast. Maybe Kim K?

mb

10:59 PM  
Blogger Patrick D. Fitzgerald said...

Just wanted to chime in and provide a few early 21st century collapse-soundtrack recommendations before el Profe goes on holiday and then gives the literal cold shoulder (packed in post-op ice): "Tables and chairs" by Andrew Bird, "Giant Spiders" by Devin Davis, "Collapse" by Clem Snide. The albums these tracks come from are all top notch btw, give them a listen.

Here's hoping the Dow will be sub 20,000 by Thanksgiving, and I am taking wagers on the over/under for Black Friday related deaths at 8, place your bets ladies and gentlemen...

Cheers and sláinte Mauricio

11:18 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@meangenekaz--I was delighted to hear just today that America's entire F-35 force has been grounded after the latest ker-flop in South Carolina. It seems they just don't build $300 million fighter planes like they used to.

@Savantesimal--"It shows without question that we have allowed our republic to fall into the hands of a sociopath whose feeling for his fellow human beings can be measured against a poker chip." Just curious how Trump differs in this regard from Obama both Bushes & both Clintons, all of whom massacred countless civilians without any semblance of human feeling overseas while unconcernedly destroying the economy for lower 80% here at home. I find such MSM handwringing over Trump tiresome--all he's done is drop the mask and let the world see America for what it truly is.

Speaking of ol' Botoxface, she gave another interview to MSM poodle Christine Amanpour in which she claimed she lost the election because of white women even though 47% of them voted for her. Oh, and Bill's sexual assaults were "thoroughly investigated." Indeed, and there was actual evidence against him, which included a certain blue dress that conclusively demonstrated that he is a sexual predator. With those two douchebags front and center along with Pelosi and putzhead Schumer, how can the Dumbs POSSIBLY lose?

11:21 PM  
Blogger henry said...

I bet the Democrats will go with the most boring, generic and vanilla candidate possible. Probably someone like Martin O'Malley or Biden as a last effort to deny reality and attempt to reassert the golden age (1990s) of the Democratic party.

My personal opinion, The official Democratic party politicians as a distinct group within the US disgust me the most, even more than republicans despite the fact that republicans are little more objectively cruel. The hypocrisy and simultaneous arrogance of the Democrats like Obama is more than my sanity can take. At least the republican party is more filled with cynical sociopaths who harbor few illusions about their motives.

IDK, If there is an economic crash or a large terrorist attack and the democrats lose 2018 there might not be another election...The republicans managed to ram the supreme court with the judge they could find, so they're ready to go. They have the judge who will sign off on the use of all the hammers of the state against the citizenry, and the citizenry will probably be preoccupied by committing envious violence against each other.

11:43 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B- They weren't knocking down the doors to see "First Man" tonight at the mall at 7:00. Maybe 10 people in the theater. (Same director that did "La La Land.")

Had to endure 20 minutes of previews of movies you couldn't pay me to attend. The movie itself was over by about 9:40, so maybe 2 hours and 15 minutes, with the credits.

I liked it because I'm a "space junkie." You won't feel happy afterward. But, I would recommend it, especially if you lived at the time that the film portrays. It's been said that the Saturn V rockets on display in Houston and Cape Canaveral will be the USA's "pyramids." Apollo was a kind of ultimate expression of manifest destiny...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-first-man-review-20181009-story.html

11:46 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bill-

But does the world see it? I worry that other nations see a big discontinuity between Trumpi and his predecessors because of the huge difference in styles (Obama smooth, Trumpi a boor, e.g.). I certainly want the rest of the world to realize that in substantive terms, what we have is continuity; but I fear that that hasn't quite sunk in yet. Wafers can connect the dots, because we don' give a shit abt style; but it's possible our allies are deluded on this score.

Just one example: Trumpola's refusal to endorse the Paris Accords on the environment. He was abs. rt: the Accords were a pile of crap, because they had no teeth in them. Hence, what's the diff if America signs on or not? Trumpi saw that the whole thing was theater, purely symbolic. And yet our allies were up in arms, and behaved as tho the Accords *did* have teeth and hence that the US was refusing to protect the environment. I cd be wrong, but I don't think that any major European newspaper pointed this out.

Patrick-

Thanks. I'm trying to get the doctors to use chopped liver instead of ice, but they seem reluctant, for some reason. Speaking of chopped, that's what happens to turkeys on Thanksgiving.

mb

11:49 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Birn-

I discuss the Frontier Thesis (Frederick Jackson Turner) in QOV. The moon ain't enuf; I'm sure we'll be attempting Mars b4 too long. America is empty inside--it has no spiritual center--so it has to keep going farther, owning more, and of course making war, to cover that emptiness up. Either you confront the Void, or you crash. Which do you think we'll do?

mb

4:30 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Liberal chic:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bill-hillary-clinton-to-embark-on-speaking-tour-amid-metoo-backlash-with-tickets-topping-745

4:55 AM  
Blogger Frederick Froth said...

The Counterpunch essay titled The Molestation of the Earth by Kenn Orphan gives a very succinct description of our situation.

5:16 AM  
Anonymous George Carlin said...

Michelle Obama says Bush is her "partner in crime" and she "loves him to death" ... aaah so much love .. i am unable to stop my tears of joy.. why cant these people just fuck off ... she would have said the truth if she had said "My stupid husband and Bush were partners in crime" .. So what next now ? Trumpi in love with Botoxface ? Maybe he will drop out of 2020 and endorse Botoxface.. that should fuck everybody up and maybe then the Turkeys would just go into a state of permanent depression ...

5:24 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

Re: future Dem candidates

Here in IL we have a race for governor. The Dem candidate, JB Pritzker, is almost a carbon copy of the Republican oligarch currently in office, with the small exception that he supports legalizing marijuana. Given this trend, I see somebody like Michael Bloomberg stepping in to run, or maybe the CEO of Starbucks.

I think pols and corps are about to make a hard U-turn on pot. Its normalization helps to pacify the people. I personally know people who have been totally screwed over by the debt trap college to corporation system who get by day to day by being constantly stoned. You need something to dull thought and feeling to live in turkeyland.

Bukowski on marijuana: https://youtu.be/uy3y5588cko

8:33 AM  
Blogger Alogon said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCbgrdqgxRw

Just when I was thinking that nothing could disgust or shock me anymore, comes this analysis of what people will submit to in the name of ambition... careerism... "networking". Lord, am I thankful to be retired!

9:46 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

I’m beginning to think it’s time to bring back public STONING!



https://www.foxnews.com/us/two-men-charged-with-raping-9-month-old-baby-and-filming-attack

10:29 AM  
Blogger Thomas said...

Why isn’t Jill Stein and the Green Party being more criticized these days for putting Trump in the White House? Can there be a bigger irony? The “environmental” party putting the most anti environmental president in history in office. Had Stein urged a few thousand voters in WI PA and MI to vote for Hillary rather than for her, Hillary would have won. And recall that Hillary vowed to “fight pollution and protect wildlife”. What a tragedy based on one woman’s ego and the foolishness of thousands who voted Green. This could mean the end of civilization. At the very least public lands are now forever lost to mining, oil and gas exploration and logging. And thousands of miles of our rivers will soon be polluted once more while endangered mammals are hunted to extinction. Thankyou Jill Stein and the Greens. You didn’t learn from 2000 when Nader spoiled Gore’s victory and gave us Bush and his disastrous tax cuts and wars. You have ruined the dream
of a sustainable natural environment. And that dream is probabaly lost for good.

11:14 AM  
Anonymous kHANNA said...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-five-year-old-who-was-detained-at-the-border-and-convinced-to-sign-away-her-rights

JESUS CHRIST

1:33 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

k-

How cruel America is. And Trumpi never rescinded the order on separation, apparently--i.e., not in reality. We are so sick, so violent.

Thos-

You cd be rt, but provide no evidence that Nader tipped the scales in 2000, or that Stein did in 2016. Do you have any links or articles on the subject? I'm curious.

Wafers-

Gd essay on the sixties by Jackson Lears in the Sept. 27 NYRB.

mb

4:17 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

Have a wonderful holiday in England and Ireland, MB. May you find a nice quiet coffee house, meet a wild Irish beauty to read poetry to, and, well, you know...

I also wish you well on yr surgery and recovery. We're gonna miss u something awful.

Wafers of the World-

Happy Halloween, kids! I be catching u all on the flip side.

Miles

ps: Keep on Waferin' in the free world.

4:37 PM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Wafers,

A must read:

Bill Moyers
The Bold Bravery of 'Beautiful Country Burn Again'

4:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

a glimpse on the future of technodouchebaggery:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/alexa-how-will-you-change-us/570844/

ps. Kanye is NOT a douchebag. Long live Kanye

5:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kanye-

Sure he is. Also a moron and a turkey. Perhaps in addn a buffoon, shmuck, clown, and meathead. Or even all of the above.

Jeff-

Many thanks. Where are all these wild Irish beauties, anyway? Where do they congregate, at night, naked, around a fire, reading Yeats aloud, in rasping voices dripping with sexual hunger?

Wafers are also wayfarers...

mb

5:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Tech: It ain't neutral, amigos:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/12/phone-misery-children-congo-cobalt-mines-drc

6:03 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

A professional horse's ass:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/11/opinions/kanye-west-oval-office-meeting-clay-cane/index.html

7:43 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Treated myself to the rare occasion of dining out. I picked a booth directly behind the hostess lectern so I could watch the faces as they entered. It's Friday 5pm and this place mostly attracts low to mid level office workers. This blog has reinforced and changed my perspective, I see things very differently now - At a time when every American should be shitting their pants I detected no keen interest in the lines of their face. "65 million refugees displaced because of our idiocy in the middle east? wait, 'huh, what?" Many look beaten down by a hard work's week, they're kind of meek even, like lambs led to the slaughter came to mind. I wouldn't have noticed this BTB (before the blog) So thanks, MB.

As for me? Yea I'm headed to the self same slaughterhouse, the only difference between us is I am eating every bite of this meal, and drinking my margarita, as though I'll never taste it again b/c I can seriously fucking imagine surviving on rations - wasn't being "mindful" or some other esoteric crapola just looking at what may lie down the road for all of us, and maybe sooner than we think.

8:33 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gunnar-

A sad nation indeed, if you stop to look--as you did. It explains, at least in part, the ferocious reaction Americans have to any criticism of the country or its way of life. For in a spiritual sense, these folks don't really have anything, and thus there is a dependency on 'America' as a religion, to provide meaning in their lives (see Will Herberg, Robt Bellah, and of course moi, on the subject). And underneath it all, a haunting feeling that their lives are worthless. So no wonder they look meek and beaten down.

But I do like yr idea of BTB, to which we might add, ATB (After The Blog). Most Wafers can probably remember the approximate date that they stumbled across the Greatest Blog on Earth (GBOE) and had their lives changed as a result. This includes me. Around the time that DAA was published, my then editor (at Norton) and then agent put enormous pressure on me to start a blog. I had 0 interest in such a project; I didn't want to be spending time online. But they were both so insistent abt it that I felt, Oh all right, WTF. The blog made its debut in April 2006, and thus my life was cleft in two, between BTB and ATB. ATB also roughly coincided w/my move to Mexico, so the transformation of my life proved to be monumental.

mb

9:40 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@MB--the craven and corrupt poodles in charge of America's allies don't see that the mask has slipped because they desperately don't want to--nor do the countless millions who still want to emigrate here for purely economic reasons. But the cracks are definitely beginning to show in the facade. Personally, I think the global financial instability we are now seeing is partly a recognition by at least some of the big money boys that Trump and his administration utterly lack the competence to deal with the next financial crisis (which will likely be FAR worse), and that even if they did America is now $12 trillion in national debt closer to being unable to backstop such massive losses. I'm still not ready to say "this is it!" but the day of reckoning appears to be drawing closer.

@Thomas--The whole reason Nader challenged Gore so vigorously in 2000 was because the latter sat around for 8 years doing nothing while the Clintons' did squat to help the environment and even coddled the oil companies at a time when gasoline was cheaper (adjusted for inflation) than it had been since the 1960s. In 2016 Hillary (whose record as Bill's "co-president" proves she was lying about her supposed environmental promises) would have lost even if Stein hadn't run. That 0.6% of the vote Stein received likely would have done what I did--stayed home in disgust. As a neoliberal (like Obama) Hillary's whole political philosophy is that government will do NOTHING to impede Wall Street or big business. Her job as president would have been to continue to pull the wool over the eyes of progs with bullshit like the Paris Accords so they could keep enjoying their consumerist, carbon-intensive suburban lifestyles without feeling guilty about it.

11:20 PM  
Blogger Cranston V. Butterworth, III said...

Don't know if anyone has seen it, but I found this recently. Notice in particular the conversation starting at 6:58.

1:06 AM  
Anonymous Teri Schooley said...

Dr. Berman,

On the murdered Saudi Arabian journalist, who was a legal resident of the US - What hypocrisy on display by the US! Unfuckingbelievable.


There is currently a case working its way through the US court system brought by two journalists, one of them an American, one Syrian, where they are pleading to have their names removed from the US "kill list". They say their inclusion on the list is erroneous, and ask that they be given a chance to show that they are not, in fact, terrorists before a drone blows them into pieces. They are represented by Reprieve lawyers, and they joined their two suits together as co-plainiffs, although it now appears that the foreign-born journalist was basically told by the judge he was shit out of luck, having "no standing", since he didn't sufficiently prove that he was on the list. Both these men were originally targeted under the Obama administration, but their names remain on the list under Trump. Trump has increased the use of these targeted drone killings by 4 to 5 times the number of Obama's and has also loosened the "rules" about where these drone killings can take place, and who can be targeted. US drone warfare has taken the lives of some 10,858 individuals since 2004, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

The Washington Post and the Middle East Monitor both have good stories about the case, but the best article by far is Matt Taibbi's article in Rolling Stone published on 19 July.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/how-to-survive-americas-kill-list-699334/

9:10 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Teri-

You hafta realize that 99% of the American public is unaware that we are doing this, and 99% of those wdn't care, if they found out. But in any case, this murder of the Saudi journalist is obviously very high-profile, and Trumpi doesn't know quite what to do. As a declinist, I can only hope he does the wrong thing, of course.

mb

9:14 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Sar-

Great card, thank you! Love the Irish theme.

mb

9:40 AM  
Anonymous Murphy said...

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/125019668X/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_125019668x

Reading this new Wafer text

9:48 AM  
Blogger Ordinary Indian said...

Hi MB,

Wish you a quick recovery after the surgery. Blog holiday will surely be a depressing period. Thank god we have the festival season here. So will be looking fwd to you coming back in late Nov.

Prasen

10:02 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Honest evaluation of a true scumbag:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/09/nikki-haley-resigns-critics-forced-clarify-pro-war-pro-imperialist-sycophant-trump?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=As%20Nikki%20Haley%20Resigns%2C%20Critics%20Forced%20to%20Clarify%20That%20%22Pro-War%2C%20Pro-Imperialist%22%20Sycophant%20for%20Trump%20Is%20No%20%22Moderate%22&utm_campaign=All%20Life%20on%20Earth%20and%20the%20Rigging%20of%20Systems%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-All%20Life%20on%20Earth%20and%20the%20Rigging%20of%20Systems%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review-_-As%20Nikki%20Haley%20Resigns%2C%20Critics%20Forced%20to%20Clarify%20That%20%22Pro-War%2C%20Pro-Imperialist%22%20Sycophant%20for%20Trump%20Is%20No%20%22Moderate%22

10:25 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Nikki Fiske, a 72-year-old teacher in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, has been suspended and placed on “home assignment” by district officials.

Fiske, who was Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller’s third grade teacher, gave the Hollywood Reporter (THR) an interesting picture of young Stephen. She told THR that the eight-year-old Stephen was a loner who reminded her of the Peanuts character Pigpen. And he had an unusual habit: he poured glue—in my day we called it mucilage—from the container onto his arm, allowed it to dry, then peeled it off and ate it.

Stephen, who has been an influential proponent of anti-immigration policies, has an interesting family background. His mother’s family fled Jewish pogroms in Belarus in the early 20th century. Miller’s political career has included a stint as press secretary to Michele Bachmann and later as communications director for Senator Jeff Sessions. While a student at Duke University, he became friends with alt-right/white-supremacist guru Michael Spencer.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teacher-suspended-stephen-miller-20181011-story.html

10:37 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jas-

Hmm. My mother's family did the same thing in the same place at the same time, but none of them became a right-wing, anti-immigration thug. They did, however, have to eat the plaster off of door jambs in the house, occasionally, because they were dirt-poor.

mb

10:42 AM  
Anonymous Puss Killian said...

Re: the story about 5yo Helen and US immigration stupidity, and the children working cobalt mines, ...

Suffer the little children? How have other dying civilizations treated their young and defenseless?

More evidence of decline IMHO is the growing number of reality tv shows featuring children ... Dizzyknee has no problem exploiting children, now in "ballroom" dancing competition for the prepubescent crowd. (Wonder what that viewer demographic will look like?)

This aligns with the endless cooking reality tv shows featuring 11year olds. What's next for the future citizens of an increasingly insane and dysfunctional country? We've left them a burning planet, addiction to an unsustainable lifestyle, and now massive mental instability from the stress of performing (or just coping) at very young ages. Dystopia indeed. Time to leave Omelas!

GSWH, safe travels, bonny lasses, perhaps even a black Irish lass for ya! Me grandmudder was an O'Brian who sang of Danny Boy. We'll keep the light on for you, but please hurry back!

Best to all, Puss

3:23 PM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Thomas, I voted third-party in the past two elections, my reason being that I wanted the PTB to know that I went through the effort but rejected them. Not that I’m stupid enough to think that any third party would be better than what we have now.

Morris, I spent two weeks in Ireland in the 90's, and have to say it was fantastic. Enjoy! Maybe in New York City you can teach us the Irish Jig. If I’m still alive, or even minimally functional in any way, I’ll do my best to join the festivities.

4:01 PM  
Anonymous Millennial Realist said...

Dr B - I wish you the best time with your friends in England and Ireland, as well as a fast and speedy recovery from your surgery.

The fascist police state continues to grow, violating even the most basic rights: Freedom of Speech. “Police told me to remove the sign or they would take it and would arrest me,” Stanford said. “So I let them take the sign.”
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2018-elections/2018/10/04/texas-womans-political-yard-sign-go-far-sid-miller-calls-others-call-cops

Voter suppression in Georgia. But does it really matter at this point? From a declinist perspective, Brian Kemp is a dream come true.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/12/outrageous-voter-suppression-cowardly-republicans-georgia-part-nationwide-gop-attack

Of course Jeff Bozo's WaPo would support a candidate offering billions to Amazon. What a shock!
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/10/12/wapo-picks-side-maryland-race-side-thats-offering-billions-amazon

PA's Governor race is getting ugly. Turkeys are classy, aren't they?
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/pennsylvania-governor-candidate-scott-wagner-tells-gov-tom-wolf-he-s-going-to-stomp-on-his-face-with-golf-spikes-1343094339760?v=raila&

5:10 PM  
Anonymous George Carlin said...

Elon Musk Teslaquila Trademark so the douchebag is following in footsteps of Trumpi .. would be a good candidate for 2020 .. from douchebag to failed business to now selling liquor ... well done Hellon Musk ..

5:21 PM  
Blogger Thomas said...

I notice that Democratic-leaning groups are trying now to get millennials to vote. This is understandable as millennials have more progressive and left views than us baby boomers.

But the idea that this dead democracy can be revived is as delusional as the belief that a corpse can be resuscitated. The system has gone so far out of balance that it has lost its capacity for self-adjustment and correction. In other words, there is no solution at the level that the problem was created.

The entirely new, therefore, must rise. But it will not do so until the old has collapsed. The next 50-100 years will thus be filled with much agony and suffering for humans and other living creatures.

The Democratic party has only itself to blame for this (with a little help from misguided Greens who prefer to be spoilers than to accept that persons such as Gore and Hillary are not perfect). If Democrats had had their heads out of their asses in 1981 they could have stopped Reagan and his fascist, militaristic,unjust social policies in their tracks (as us "oldies" will recall that Democrats had solid control of Congress when Reagan was elected). Instead they allowed Reagan to roll over them, thus touching off the right wing march that continues to this day.

Thanks therefore to weakling Democrats and foolish Greens we are looking at the very real possibility that the earth will soon become incapable of supporting human life.

The new will rise. But that doesn't mean that the human species will be a part of that new earth.

6:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Thos-

Pls watch length; yr a bit over the limit. Not true that capitalism hasta collapse b4 alternatives arise; process can and will be concomitant. Already happening in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Japan. See last essay in AWTY, also last ch. in my Japan bk, for elaboration.

Sar-

Hope you make it to NY. We can meet in an Irish restaurant and do the "riverdance."

Puss-

I was talking to a major TV exec the other day, and he said that what his group had in the pipeline was a cooking reality show in which live children wd be baked in casserole dishes. Title of show: "The Lobster Connection." Sounds like a winner, eh wot? Can you imagine what the Nielsen ratings will be?

FINAL REMINDER TO ALL WAFERINOS:

Tomorrow is last day blog is open until Nov. 7. On Nov. 7, it will open just for a few days. I go under the knife on Nov. 13; then will try my hand at typing on a computer around Nov. 26. Will miss you all. To fill the gap, I suggest meditating on the paintings of Thos Cole:

https://www.google.com/search?q=thomas+cole+empire&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGsvnYwoTeAhXK5IMKHfM6Cu0QsAR6BAgAEAE&biw=933&bih=531

mb

7:03 PM  
Anonymous Neil said...

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/melania-trump-says-she-was-blindsided-by-family-separations-told-president-it-was-unacceptable

More reason to love Melania - She wore “I don’t care jacket” to drive the left crazy - and it worked!

7:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Reporter Thos Edsall has an interesting review of Hedges in the NYTBR: He is "a bundle of contradictions"; his tone is marked by condescension; what he calls moral reflection seems more like "moralistic preening"; and he is "both righteous and self-righteous." Gee, do ya think?

mb

8:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Thos-

Sorry, only one post every 24 hrs. Thank you. (Another rule we have, in addn to length.)

I also need to add that you are not listening to what people are saying to you. I asked you for evidence for your argument; you just repeated the argument, also ignoring the stats provided by Bill Hicks. This is a blog for people interested in learning things, in the give-and-take of dialogue. You don't seem to fall into that category; in which case you probably need to migrate to a different blog. If you do want to stay with us, however, I have to ask that in future, you attach brain to fingers b4 you start typing.

mb

9:12 PM  
Blogger k_pgh said...

A musician friend tells me they’ve signed Jeterson and The Swedish Chef to perform The Lobster Connection theme music and provided a copy of test lyrics.

Why are there so few songs about Lobsters and how they battle and strive. Lobsters are visions, but only illusions, and Lobsters have nothing to hide. So we’ve been told, and some choose to believe it, but I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, The Lobster Connection,
The Lobsters, the archetypes, and me. All of us under their spell. We know that Lobsters are magic.
Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices. I’ve heard Lobsters calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that calls the young patrons?
The voice might be one and the same. I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it.
It’s something that I’m supposed to be.
Someday we’ll find it, The Lobster Connection,
The Lobsters, their ganglia, and me.
La tada lee dadalee daadaa dadadee ah-loo-eee

9:45 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Somebody needs to re-cast Edward Hopper's famous Nighthawk painting, have them entranced by their phone.

I'll double down on tranquilizers, see ya on the flip MB.

11:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Eric-

Some problems here. You can't tell someone else "that makes me retch." It's OK to insult trollfoons--be my guest--but not Wafers or legitimate blog participants. 2nd, your own personal experience of voting doesn't really prove very much. If you want to show that a 3rd party's participation made no diff for Trump's victory, provide statistical evidence to that effect. Do you have it?

k-

Good, but we need specific references to baking children in casserole dishes as part of the new vogue in Reality TV. All of this will take the country farther along on its present path. (Cf. Goya, "Saturno")

mb

11:53 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@MB--don't worry about the surgery--I'm sure you'll be fine. When I had my pancreatic tumor removed, I was on the table for 8 and 1/2 hours (my wife later joked that the surgeon looked worse than I did when it was finally over). I then had to spend 35 days in the hospital, which was absolutely awful. If I can make through all that and come out okay, you'll be up and dancing in a week!

@Thomas--I actually DO agree with you that the Greens are "foolish," but that's because they still don't take electoral politics seriously. The way they themselves encourage people to vote for them only if they live in "safe," non-contested states is idiotic.

@Patrick F--I love that Clem Snide song and also that album. Great recommendation! Don't know the other two, but will give them a listen. I'd also recommend Son Volt's "When the Wheels Don't Move," Camper Van Beethoven's "Might Makes Right," Cracker's "March of the Billionaires" and the Drive By Truckers's "Once they Banned 'Imagine'." Good stuff to get you through the blog outage. Take care, Wafers--see you in November!

12:01 AM  
Anonymous Italiana said...

MB & Wafers, Just a short note to say Ciao to all before we're all cast into the wilderness without the GSWH and the only blog that counts! By the time it is back online, we'll unfortunately be back in the US for a couple months - but it will be OK as we're preparing our house there for sale - will move to Europe/Italy as soon as we can sell it.

Escape!!

Meanwhile, the US Gov't/ICE continue their heartless operations. Unbelievable.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ice-separated-children-central-america_us_5bc0b8bae4b0bd9ed559a75c

MB - enjoy your time in the UK and Ireland. Looking forward to the small blog window on Nov 7th!

3:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@MB, I can't believe you didn't get the irony and sarcasm of my last comment!

Anyway, little did I know when choosing this handle 10 years ago that Douchebag-in-Chief (DIC) would be hugging Trumpi in the Oval Office. Hopefully Miley will make her way there one day and hug Melania!

Kanye

4:39 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kanye-

It was too subtle for me, but then I am getting increasingly senile.

mb

4:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Good cartoons here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-jim-carrey-political-cartoons-hbo-kidding-20181012-story.html

Also check out last SNL skit of Kanye Douchebag and Trumpola.

mb

6:22 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

What's left for (educated, 'successful') young people:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/28/this-van-living-couple-is-trying-to-share-their-financial-lessons.html

Isn't history funny? These people would seem to have every material advantage over their ancestors, yet they live, proudly, like rats. Forget any kind of social rights or investment in your community- you impose austerity on yourself so that you can hoard cash until the $70,000 medical bills start arivving.

Really, how much better to be reinarnated as a hearty medieval peasant who drops dead without a penny at 40. If there's one thing Americans really hate, it's the idea of actually enjoying (instead of expanding/optimizing) your life.

Auf Wiedersehen, Waferinos! Life is sweet! (I've had a crush on Natalie for years)

https://youtu.be/UbnOdEA2XPg

7:56 AM  
Anonymous Gary Wentz said...

Morris Berman,

Funny skit on SNL. But I couldn't help but reflect on how SNL used both Kanye and Trump for ratings but loves to act like they’re somehow better than them? I suppose that is the progressive liberal writ large. Still a funny skit, though.

1:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gary-

Actually, they use everything for ratings, so I don't think we can blame them for any particular skit. And of course, they are certainly better than Kanye and Trump; of that, there can be little doubt. Unless one looks at it from a declinist pt of view. Kanye and Trump are colossal assholes, which is what we need to help along our collapse. SNL is enlightened; this cd conceivably retard our decline (look what Tina did to Sarah, e.g.). Not gd.

mb

1:45 PM  
Anonymous Learning said...

On education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmeMUUGZ9WA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCoOv_DwaAk

2:27 PM  
Anonymous Puss Killian said...

Wafers and the GSWH:

Wafers know that the elites will never fix the problems, but here's an interesting article with specific arguments about why that is:

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/09/why-real-change-wont-come-billionaire-philanthropists/571354/

"We would be much better off with a J.P. Morgan that didn’t help cause a financial crisis and then need to revitalize what they helped to kill. Don’t kill things and then revitalize them. Just avoid killing them. It’s so much more efficient."

Link to NYTRB review of the book: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/books/review/winners-take-all-anand-giridharadas.html

While I don't think there is anything any one person can do, there's a bit of NMI in here: making your corner of the world a little brighter by solving (local) problems in a systemic way. We aren't changing the world here at the GBOE, but we are making it a little brighter while we watch the decline and fall.

Be safe, and catch you all on the flip-side!
Puss

3:05 PM  
Anonymous Pete Christen said...

MB: Enjoy your holiday in England and Ireland. I've been in the UK for the past two weeks. The people here are more clear-eyed about the US than I expected. They know a shit storm is coming.

5:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Let me re-recommend the essay by Jackson Lears on the sixties in the Sept. 27 NYRB. Here's a quote:

"What made radicals mad, what drove their deepest animus against the war, was their sense that it was the product of the same corporate technostructure...that reduced everyday life to a hamster cage of earning and spending. The tribunes of the technostructure were men like Robert McNamara, who shuttled from the Ford Motor Company to the Defense Department to the World Bank, and who seemed to know everything about managerial techniques but nothing about their ultimate purpose, if indeed there was one. Elite managers were the high priests of an orthodoxy with a blankness, a vacancy, at its center."

He also has some gd things to say abt MLK's insight into the total workings of the system, the interconnectedness of it all, which he came to b4 his death.

The only annoying thing I found was Lears' repeated statement that we lack any serious critique of technocratic rationality, and how "the countercultural search for alternatives to [it] remains more necessary than ever." Of course, I can't imagine Lears knows of my trilogy on human consciousness, but that was exactly what I was providing in those bks. What can ya do.

mb

7:14 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Final post from me until we start back up....

Good Luck Morris!


Is America in Decline?...


https://raywilliams.ca/is-america-in-decline/

7:46 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

jj-

Thank you.

It's all over but the shouting.

mb

8:42 PM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Morris,

Your last comment from the writer in New York Review of Books has me thinking of Hedges again. I realize that I admire him as he has the courage of his convictions in teaching in prisons, studying the poor in city ghettos, and putting his body on the line for his convictions....even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't think any of his activities will ultimately change the system.

Is there a similarity to your situation in that your writing is extremely necessary and your books informative on the progressive cultural decline of the US Empire, all the while knowing they most likely wouldn't make a bit of difference in the long run. After all how many Wafers are on this blog? You both do what you believe in regardless of the outcome. Am interested in the difference here if any?

Thanks.

9:09 PM  
Anonymous Millennial Realist said...

I finally watched Kanye's meeting with Trump, but viewed SNL's version first. It's surreal how much "saner" Kanye was in SNL's skit than in the original meeting. I could totally see Trump having the same internal dialogue as in the skit, but mixed in with fantasies of Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Palin mud wrestling. If I were a writer for the National Enquirer or the Onion, I'd be looking for another job ASAP.

9:13 PM  
Blogger Ordinary Indian said...

John Ralston Saul has extensively discussed how McNamara and his techno-rational solutions have been disastrous for a large part of the world in 'Viltaire's Bastards'. I am sure you are aware of that. May have been discussed on this blog earlier.

9:50 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Midterm elections take place Nov. 6, the day I fly back from England to Mexico. The usual pattern, historically, is that midterm elections 'backslide', i.e. reject the policies of the admin in power. It cd happen this time as well, of course, but I am praying that this will not be the case, and that these elections will reaffirm the presidency and policies of Trumpola. We'll know soon enuf.

Still, the Big One is 2020. Latest poll shows nearly half of Americans believe Trumpi will win. In this case, my prayers will rise to fever pitch. We don't need another razor-edge victory; we need a massive landslide. Trumpo must be allowed to finish what he started.

Anyway, just some late-nite thoughts. See you all back here on Nov. 7.

mb

12:32 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Indian: Sure, but if memory serves, Saul was all critique. The Reenchantment bk, on the other hand, posed a definite alternative to the McNamara world in terms of paradigm shift, and the next two bks moved in the direction of alternatives in terms of human psychology and anthropology (recovery of the body, reexamination of our species history). Nothing definitive, but certainly not a simple critique of the technocratic world.

I'm happy with CTOS and WG; less so with Reenchantment. For a lot of reasons, but a big one is that I really didn't address issues of power or context in that bk, and when I gave writing workshops to the CIA in 1999, I discovered that there was a New Age subculture there that was heavily into paradigm shift. That was a wake-up call. As they say, even the devil can quote scripture.

There is some irony in the fact that Reenchantment is not only in print after 37 yrs, but is still selling fairly well. WG sales are practically 0; too much nuance for an American audience, I'm guessing. And as of late, CTOS has experienced something of a revival, ever since it got reprinted by the folks at Echo Pt Bks. Not that I'm going to be purchasing a villa in Tuscany any time soon, but I'm happy that people are thinking abt the issues raised therein, because I believe that if we don't, we are fucked as a species. (Wh/may be true in any case, but I hope not.)

Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded; you know what history profs are like. :-)

mb

1:01 AM  

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