May 19, 2021

Temporary Blog Closing

Everyone Please Note: This blog will be closed during May 20-26. I know this will cause great grief, but it can't be helped, as I have to go to DC to meet with other Wafers for the fabulous 7th Annual Wafer Summit Meeting--the meeting to end all meetings. So feel free to post today, May 19, but after that, I ask you to hold off until May 27; after which, we can resume our lively discussion. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.--mb

194 Comments:

Blogger Kelvin said...

"Some parties who do not wish him well have put Maury in some quicklime." beginning of a short story by Damon Runyon as quoted by Quentin Crisp in An Evening with Quentin Crisp, a Los Angeles performance that is available online, introduced by John Hurt.

Ernest Hemingway mentions Aleister Crowley in A Moveable Feast:

"That's Hilaire Belloc," I said to my friend. "Ford [Madox Ford] was here this afternoon and cut him dead."
"Don't be a silly ass," my friend said. "That's Alestair Crowley, the diabolist. He's supposed to be the wickedest man in the world."
"Sorry," I said. [p.88 of the First Touchstone edition of 1996 of A Moveable Feast]

Avoid the quicklime! Maury, you're regarded as an heir to Crowley and, worse yet, Gore Vidal! (Not to mention that Woody Allen's next film is called "Maury and the Curse of the Jade Wafer). Be careful! Just say you're Hilair(ious) Belloc(ose).

4:22 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kel-

Jesus, man, that's a lot to take in. The # of trollfoons who wd like to put me in quicklime probably runs in the millions.

mb

7:11 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: this shd keep Americans focused on what's important:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/19/business/burger-king-chicken-sandwich/index.html

7:15 AM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

“If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one to make sure our interests were preserved,” Biden said back in 2013

https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/joe-biden-israel-097586/

And Liberals love him and Obama... phew...

10:27 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nam-

I guess he's afraid of alienating Jewish voters. Israel has the rt to defend itself my ass. What a coward.

mb

12:04 PM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Israel as a user of terror to colonize and control what used to be Palestine.

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/05/18/patrick-lawrence-1948-no-longer-shrouded-in-the-mists/

1:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

Impt sentence from this article: "the “Jewish state” has made itself the worst possible memorial to the 6 million killed in the Holocaust that anyone could possibly conceive of."

Meanwhile, check this out:

https://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Pappe-2006-11-01/dp/B01JXODQMC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VJQ2VD665I3R&dchild=1&keywords=ilan+pappe&qid=1621447888&s=books&sprefix=ilan+%2Cstripbooks%2C208&sr=1-1

mb

2:14 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Did we miss this one department?:

https://meaww.com/teacher-arrested-for-spraying-kids-with-disinfectant-after-they-refused-to-wear-masks-properly

Christina Reszetar, 51-year-old teacher, disinfects students for wearing their masks improperly. Why didn't she just pull out a baseball bat and beat these students to w/in an inch of their lives?

MB-

Have a great time in DC! The 7th Wafer Summit sounds like it will be beyond fab.

Miles

2:37 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Or simply gun them down like dogs?

mb

3:24 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Israel is most certainly similar to Nazi Germany. For example:

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-emerges-israeli-mob-shouting-death-arabs-attacked-palestinians-jerusalem

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-of-soccer-fans-riot-in-jaffa-shout-death-to-the-arabs/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/plurality-of-jewish-israelis-want-to-expel-arabs-study-shows/

All this stuff happened in Nazi Germany; the only difference is that Jews, and not Arabs, were targeted. (Virtually no Arabs lived in Germany back in those days.)

3:50 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

US-ians felt very strongly abt Chinese food, bacon cheeseburgers, chicken sandwich issues, goat/van fucking, now this...laundry.

Oregon man killed his sister-in-law following an argument with his brother about laundry.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/beef-between-brothers-over-laundry-led-to-sister-in-laws-slaying-court-docs/

4:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

I guess some people are v. touchy abt laundry. Poor girl; killed for nothing. Americans sure have v. short fuses these days...

Nadine-

Careful, por favor! The Israelis are hardly rounding Arabs up and murdering them en masse in gas chambers. And while expulsion is detestable, it certainly ain't murder.

mb

4:21 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Welcome back, Doctor. While away at the Wafer summit, you likely were unaware of what’s been going on here. Actually it’s been pretty much of the same. We’ve had our usual daily mass shootings here in our Dysfunctional States of America. Here are a few of them.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/24/us/us-mass-shootings-this-weekend/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-respond-shooting-san-jose-california/story?id=77916470
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-dead-12-injured-shooting-birthday-party-new-jersey-n1268272
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/16-year-old-dead-5-other-teens-injured-ohio-shooting-n1268269?icid=recommended
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/2-shot-as-gunman-opens-fire-on-car-with-1-year-old-inside/2824229/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/23/us/youngstown-ohio-shooting-sunday/index.html
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/one-person-shot-in-the-head-multiple-victims-with-injuries-in-apartment-shooting/
The mass shootings notwithstanding, this is a happy place—the only country where smiley ( “Have a nice day”) buttons are worn. Were you happy to be back here for a few days? Don’t you miss this place? LOL.

4:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Well, the Wafer Summit was very mellow...nice afternoon at a Vietnamese restaurant, new folks getting to know each other. As for DC: it felt a bit weird, being back after 15 yrs, but no, I don't miss it at all. Beyond the list of massacres, I was reminded of who Americans are; what they value, how they behave. Across the st. from where I stayed was a chic joint that served expensive coffee and pastry, filled w/the beautiful people w/their laptops and dogs, encased in a narcissistic bubble. The friend w/whom I stayed told me how, a few yrs back, she was walking along the street w/a friend of hers who tripped and fell. Washingtonians just kept walking past; not a single one of them stopped to help. This is indeed the US. Crossing back into Mexico yesterday, I thought: "I'm home."

mb

6:50 AM  
Anonymous Medford said...

Welcome back sir

Israel-Gaza: Pilots bombed Palestinian buildings to 'vent frustration', says report
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-gaza-attack-bombing-pilots-vent-frustration

U.S. considered nuclear strike on China in 1958 over Taiwan crisis, classified documents show - CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-china-nuclear-strike-taiwan-1958-documents-daniel-ellsberg/

Ellsberg still doin the good work @ 90!

7:15 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Med-

I too have a lot of frustration, but the Pentagon has yet to issue me the nuclear device I requested.

mb

8:37 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Sorry for posting on the 20th; I lost track of the date, and thought it was the 19th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac2Byx-j94M

Another day, another dollar, another mass shooting by a white supremacist in the Great Old US of A. I'd bet my life right-wing propaganda outlets like Fox News will find a way to blame minorities, liberals, immigrants, academics, environmentalists and/or Muslims. From what I've seen, this is what they always do when something bad happens. Or maybe they'll do what Marjorie Taylor Greene did and blame Jewish Space Lasers for this massacre, even though it was perpetrated on Earth by a gentile wielding a gun.

Also...

https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/huffpost-editor-says-new-years-resolution-is-to-kill-all-men.html

Prog outlets like the Huffington Post are staffed with such kind and well-intentioned people.

12:30 PM  
Anonymous Noura said...

Welcome back MB, here in the US, things seem to be getting more dysfunctional than ever.

At least nine dead after a shooting at a light rail yard in San Jose, California
https://twitter.com/i/events/1397563574222917637

The Real Reason Workers Aren’t Running Back to Restaurant Jobs | The Daily Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp0sEXWSMwk

Texas high schoolers had a mock 'slave auction' where they put prices on Black classmates
https://www.rawstory.com/aledo-school-slave-auction/

A Massachusetts school district called the police on a 6-year-old. Now, they're suspending school police programs https://twitter.com/i/events/1397264947667742727

Jim Cramer: Here's How We End the Crypto Madness - It's imperative that either Yellen or Gensler say they are uncomfortable with all of the leverage they are seeing in the crypto markets.
https://realmoney.thestreet.com/jim-cramer/jim-cramer-here-s-how-we-end-the-crypto-madness-15661956?puc=tst_sfi

12:54 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers!

MB-

Welcome back!

MB, Wafers-

The face of America dept.:

https://www.tampafp.com/florida-man-arrested-after-striking-daughter-with-a-slice-of-pizza/

Miles

2:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Quite a face, but as the pizza was pepperoni, I think they shd let him go.

Noura-

High class, obviously. The slave auction is a charming touch. But not clear why cops didn't gun down the kid like a dog.

Nadine-

"Die Juden sind unser Unglück."

mb

4:14 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Thank goodness you're back Dr. B, I thought I would run out of Valium and Chopped Liver but just made it!

4:31 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Glad y'all enjoyed the Wafer Summit. Vietnamese food is always a win. I bet the ca phe sua da (chilled STRONG coffee with sweet condensed milk) kept you talking all night!

The VTA shooting hits close to home, literally. I took the VTA light rail last Saturday. They were running 3-car trains with hardly any riders (normally it'd be 1-car trains) and I thought it's a good thing to keep the system going and everyone employed. The murderer is your standard white "disgruntled" guy right out of Central Casting. He was even nasty and cold to his Hispanic neighbors.

Most Americans have 1 to 0 close friends. As churches have become about political power and making money, there's little succor there. Meanwhile on right-wing radio and TV, very popular among whites, there's the continual message that non-whites and those who are "liberal" or who "disrespect" you are the enemy and ought to be killed.

5:12 PM  
Anonymous Rockwell N. Role said...

His truly American lyric was "Reality is bad enough, why should I
tell the truth?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aU-0wXAc88

His obit for today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sky

7:03 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

More chicken sandwich fiascos--this time, a sign posted in a fast "food" chain drive-thru stated: “restaurant is under new management and will reserve the right to refuse service to white people."

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article251730048.html

8:05 PM  
Blogger Lonny Williams said...

I remember being at in a classroom talking about what was going on in America and one of the other students said to me”America’s got chosen people.” I had no idea what to say to him.

8:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Lonny-

How abt, "Yr a horse's ass"?

Dr. Shit-

Just evening the score, I guess.

mb

10:05 PM  
Blogger ccg said...

MB,

Well, according to this opinion piece in the New York Times,

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/opinion/individualism-united-states-altruism.html

Americans are actually very nice people after all. The author even claims, in so many words, that American individualism actually makes us better people. Can you believe it? Me neither. But this is what passes for thought among the supposed intelligentsia, I guess. It's pure drivel to me.

11:25 PM  
Anonymous Erroneous Bosch said...

Wafers! Future historians will surely wonder how you managed to have such a fine and mellow summit right in the eye of the hurricane.

Meanwhile, in the Newtrich department, Newt continues to play the role the World Spirit has assigned him by working to return Trump and the Republicans to power.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/trump-is-starting-to-put-together-his-own-contract-with-america-and-hes-teaming-up-with-newt-490829

5:51 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Erron-

They won't be wondering if they realize what a resilient, creative bunch Wafers are. :-)

mb

6:58 AM  
Anonymous Thorton said...

Yikes.

Syria’s Assad wins 4th term with 95% of vote, in election the West calls fraudulent

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrias-president-bashar-al-assad-wins-fourth-term-office-with-951-votes-live-2021-05-27/

7:12 AM  
Anonymous Virgil said...

I read Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear recently and it is great. It was a rec from an anthropologist friend, about Chief Plenty Coups leading the Sioux people through losing their land and being moved to a reservation in the 19th century. An American paradox: How can we hope when our grounds for hope are destroyed?

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Hope-Ethics-Cultural-Devastation/dp/0674027469

8:11 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Welcome (back) to our nightmare, GSWH.

You never know when your number’s up in the Demented States of America. A woman—I use the term reluctantly—knocked out two of a Southwest flight attendant’s teeth during an altercation on a flight from Sacramento to San Diego on Sunday, 23 May. The miscreant, who was arrested for battery upon arrival in San Diego, objected to an instruction (or instructions) from the attendant with respect to her seat belt or mask or both. (Who knows exactly what sets these animals off?). Video embedded.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/28/southwest-video-punch-flight-attendant/

An argument, it seems to me, for flying first class if you can afford it. Probably reduces your odds for being caught in the crossfire at any rate.

1:22 PM  
Anonymous The Flabster said...

I am glad the Wafer summit was a success. However I am tired, I feel I just want to get out of the way of events:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22432229/democracy-america-democratic-party-reform

The people who run this sad joint are starting to catch on to the state of things, to some degree Waferism is growing.

2:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jas-

I love these stories; can't get enuf of them. As for my flight home, my flight attendant was Japanese. 1st I surprised her w/"konichiwa", then knocked her eyeballs (not teeth) out with "nihongo ga skoshi wakarimas" (I understand a little Japanese). Then I recommended "Neurotic Beauty" to her, plus this fabulous Waferish novel:

https://www.amazon.com/Nakano-Thrift-Shop-Novel/dp/1609453999/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3S43OLXBEIQ0G&dchild=1&keywords=the+nakano+thrift+shop&qid=1622225711&s=books&sprefix=the+nakano+thrift+shop%2Caps%2C299&sr=1-1

However, I forgot to ask her out. I'm such a dummy. :-(

mb

2:18 PM  
Anonymous Jazzman said...

https://www.defensepriorities.org/explainers/the-inevitable-rise-of-china

Interesting geopolitical forecasting on China from Richard Hanania here.

8:40 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153933181861555&set=pb.718256554.-2207520000..&type=3

Americans have a certain look to them, one that exudes ignorance, stupidity, sleaziness and artificiality all at once. If I saw a picture of people that looked like this, I would immediately know they were American. Could you imagine, say, a French couple looking like this? I can't; it's impossible.

9:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

"Vapid" is how I wd characterize it. I made precisely this pt in a lecture I gave a few yrs ago, also published as Essay #22 of AWTY.

mb

9:41 PM  
Blogger Jamie said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

9:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jamie-

Thanks, but we've got some problems here. I don't understand "My good from who is English". Wafer, not Water. Pls supply link to Vanity Fair. Thank you.

mb

10:58 PM  
Anonymous Swinney said...

https://theconversation.com/prince-harry-saga-what-advice-would-carl-jung-give-161617

"Prince Harry saga: what advice would Carl Jung give?"

I have a feeling the shadow is asked to do too much work these days. My guess is CJ would say we now live in a time that has little or no sense of [upper case] Self, and also treats the psyche as if split dualistically, rather than relating to its complex, mixed states.

7:16 AM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

There's that old saying in Hollywood, "You're only as good as your last
picture." With Trump, "You're only as good as your last presidency."
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-newsmax-interview-tuesday-got-173825621.html

8:02 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

Can there be a way to match Islamic crazies against Christian ones
for pay-for-view equivalent of the Super Bowl shootout?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/armed-ar-15s-unification-movement-162748235.html

3:27 AM  
Blogger flanagle said...

From the '60's "Nashville Cats" (The Lovin' Spoonful) to the '20's Nashville Hats: https://www.nytimes.com>world>covid "Nashville Hat Shop Sold Yellow Star Anti-Vaccine Patches"

4:22 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

flan-

Americans are so charming, really.

Rollo-

Honestly, as a declinist, I can't get enuf of this.

mb

5:25 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Denial and deliberate deceit permeates everything these days in the midst of collapse. Just as I find it difficult to have honest discussions of what the end of the American Empire means, I find it difficult to have honest discussions of what it means to age and to consider death.

As a little antidote, I know many people here appreciate Lionel Shriver and her 'brutal' honesty. She discusses her newest book-

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/30/lionel-shriver-should-we-stay-or-should-we-go-death-dying

6:48 AM  
Anonymous Snyder said...

What Ancient Rome Tells Us About Today’s Senate

https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2021/05/what-ancient-rome-tells-us-about-todays-senate/619025/

7:08 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Doctor, I’m not sure whether you saw any of them doing their things while in D.C. But if you didn’t, be rest assured our Karens haven’t gone anywhere. LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbuw6jMNCn8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAJXH9WaPCY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tFi03Y6X-s

11:16 AM  
Anonymous Yarrow said...

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/can-rilke-change-your-life


"Can Rilke Change Your Life?" - The New Yorker

12:52 PM  
Anonymous Noura said...

This is the kind of video that makes me wonder if we’re still living in reality.
What The F**k Are NFTs? How Can Dogecoin Take Us To The Moon? | The Daily Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlHVCZPlGjQ

This reminds me of the 2006 movie “Idiocracy” which I heard of, but haven’t seen yet. I probably don’t need to watch the movie because I suspect we’re there already!
New Rule: The Fault in Our Stars | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7ODeW4qaDg

IDIOCRACY Opening Scene (2006) Mike Judge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA

We Have Become an Idiocracy
https://time.com/4327424/idiocracy/

Krystal Ball: How Wall St Is DESTROYING Housing Like It Destroyed The World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mThWJFGy9-I

San Jose Mass Shooter Samuel Cassidy Was Facing Disciplinary Meeting on Day of Massacre
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/05/28/san-jose-vta-shooter-samuel-cassidy-detained-us-customs-terrorist-writing/

1:41 PM  
Anonymous Adam Koechner said...

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bill-maher-israel-gaza-bella-hadid

Bill Maher defends Israel, rips 'liberal media' and 'Bella Hadids of the world'

BM thinks Palestinians can just up and move to Israel apparently? Like most Americans, he doesn't even understand the basics of the conflict. Stick to the jokes, Bill.

More on the topic:

https://blog.ap.org/announcements/ap-statement-on-comments-about-gaza-journalists

Israeli military says Hamas was dining in the AP's cafeteria. Problem is, the AP didn't even have a cafeteria (that is, before Israel blew up the entire building).

2:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Adam-

The ugly side of our friend Bill.

Noura-

It is, however, a very funny film.

mb

3:22 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYJUk6S9LsM

A good analysis of the depravity of the Republican Party.

6:48 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Declinists applaud political depravity, actually, because they think it leads to implosion. But the GOP has yet to implode. Hmm.

mb

7:13 PM  
Anonymous Seneca’s Cliff said...

With his latest screed on the Palestinians I will double down on my theory that Bill M is just a hustler who owes his livelihood to his masters at HBO. I think while he was on hiatus for a Covid infection his paymasters took the opportunity to straighten him out as to which side of the narrative he should be on ( just speculation on my part). I think he knows better and it peaks through from time to time. My son worked as a video editor for Vice News Tonight when it was under contract to produce a nightly news show for HBO. He said it was made clear to all the staff that while Vice had an image of nonconformity there were certain U.S. policy narratives they had to adhere to. They could report from the front lines with anti-ISIS rebels but they could never confuse who were the official “good guys” and “bad guys”.

9:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

When will the Pentagon take my advice and issue a nuclear weapon to every American citizen? Surely Americans have the rt to defend themselves:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/31/us/miami-dade-florida-shooting-what-we-know/index.html

1:06 AM  
Blogger flanagle said...

No more pussyfooting around, let's just get it on:
https://www.businessinsider.com "Michael Flynn Said the US Should Have a Coup Like Myanmar" From the article: "I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can't happen here". After the cheers from the crowd* died down, Flynn responded: "No reason. I mean it should happen here".

(*In Dallas at a QAnon conference)

3:51 AM  
Anonymous Sybok said...

US Atrocities in Korean War - Chem and Bio Weapons, Mass Civilian Bombing and Execution.

It seems the US learned a thing or two from the Nazis after WW2 & were even able to innovate a few novel war crimes. The Nazis, as fiendeshly inventive as they were, never unleashed plague infected vermin on their enemies.

4:05 AM  
Anonymous yeah no said...

https://unz.com/freed/the-view-from-abroad-2/

7:45 AM  
Anonymous Yoyo said...

Review: How a California acid trip made Michel Foucault a neoliberal
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-05-24/review-how-a-california-acid-trip-made-michel-foucault-a-neoliberal

Now that's a bad trip!

7:47 AM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Thanks for your post, Adam Koechner. I was considering writing in before, but couldn't think of how to say anything about Maher and maintain the decorum necessary for this site.

I have to admit, I didn't watch all of what the dreck-filled comedy whiz said on Friday, as I shut off the TV after hearing him say, "Gaza fired 4,000 rockets at Israel." Who is this "Gaza" of which he speaks? In his defence (although ignorance, as they say, is no defence) Western media propaganda has been framing this massacre as a war between Israel and Gaza. This was no more a war between Gaza and Israel than the 1971 prison riots were a war between Attica and the USA.

As for his sticking to jokes, the funniest thing he said all night was that he wasn't a racist (this was in the context of three white guys pontificating about the lives of black people in the USA).

Yesterday, as I was reading Caitlin Johnston's blog, I saw a description of Maher's liberal, common-sense racist point of view:
"Some want to dismantle the imperial slaughter machine and create a harmonious world; others just want the imperial slaughter machine to give them healthcare."
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/05/30/the-screams-of-a-dying-empire-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

11:26 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Seneca, Americans like their narratives simple and dualistic. To confuse the good guys with the bad guys (or, God forbid, reverse the two) would be to call the narrative of American exceptionalism, purity and democracy into question. Americans would be unable to survive the shock.

Today is Memorial Day in the States - the day we are supposed to remember and honor those who died (gave the "ultimate sacrifice") to preserve "our freedoms". The freedom to intervene in the governing of and overthrow tens of foreign nations; the freedom to demand that American corporations be allowed to do business in other nations: the freedom to invade other nations that might, at some point in the future, threaten us, according to our estimate of what threaten means. And if you try to suggest that American soldiers who fought in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq died in vain, prepare to be branded a traitor.

11:47 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman & Wafers,
This Memorial Day weekend also kicks off another annual thing Americans enjoy doing. And that of course is traveling. It’s true we have to put up with the possibility of being in the crossfire and being rubbed out in one of our daily mass shootings; or, if not that, having to deal with our lovely belligerent Karens if our lives aren’t in danger. But don’t forget flying somewhere. An airplane might be one place on which we shouldn’t be. Over 2500 unruly passenger incidents have happened so far this year. So much for that “cordiality” among passengers that we have seen portrayed ad nauseam over the years in the media.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/28/unruly-behavior-from-passengers-has-never-been-this-bad-union-chief.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/29/southwest-pauses-plan-to-resume-alcohol-sales-after-flight-attendant-assault.html

p.s. To Wafer Down We Go about your paragraph on our “freedoms”: I couldn’t have said it better myself!

4:27 PM  
Anonymous Kevin said...

Meanwhile in Mexico:

https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-mexico-police-f6ea7798ca3cc171ac13b3a5a6a6c266

4:30 PM  
Anonymous Marcelo said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/opinion/mother-teresa.html

Was Mother Teresa a Cult Leader?/The New York Times

4:58 PM  
Anonymous Poseidon said...

White isn't an identity - Europeans are though.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2VHxmuVcAABaE6?format=png&name=900x900

5:08 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

MB,

Well, we all know depraved political entities can last for a very long time...like the North Korean government, which has existed for 70 years and isn't showing any signs it'll implode any time soon. The Republican Party has tremendous financial backing from corporations, and most Americans believe in the values it espouses; as such, I would guess it'll only implode when America implodes.

6:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Pos-

This clown has 0 evidence for his views. W/o proof, it's just blather.

mb

8:54 PM  
Anonymous Philie said...

Cambridge research finding that the more connected a society is to the global economy the more at risk it is in virtually everything from water shortages to pandemics. Small is beautiful. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/globalised-economy-making-water-energy-and-land-insecurity-worse-study

7:06 AM  
Anonymous JARRETT LOBELL said...

“Rolling back overbroad interpretations of the Civil Rights Act and previous Executive Orders won’t change the culture overnight for a movement that has let things get this far. But that is the obvious place to start.”

Woke Institutions is Just Civil Rights Law

https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights

8:50 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers,
Recently, stated to an american "friend" what the US empire was really about, its' history, terror campaigns, us-style 'friendship,' one cannot say what needs to be said to americans because 98.7% are adult children.etc. etc.and they flipped out--it's stunning how they go from 1 to 100 in 5sec. Vitriolic rage, screaming, ad hominem attacks, calling me "negative," my information was/is my opinion, and that you cannot write off an entire people, etc. Their family and friends are "different"--meaning exempt from americaness.

Respectfully, how do Wafers deal (or likely not deal) with americans who become uncorked-rage-filled when confronted w/ reality, and call history "opinions?" Is there any succinct "come back" or just walk away, be silent?

Thank you.

10:35 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Glans-

The correct comeback is to leave the country.

mb

10:40 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Advice for those of us who can't leave:

"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
Mark Twain

1:20 PM  
Anonymous Mede said...

Mexico's government coalition close to keeping its super-majority in congress, according to a Parametria poll https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/mexico-government-close-to-keeping-congress-super-majority-poll

A good thing, Professor?

4:30 PM  
Anonymous Tom Speeders said...

Dangerous minds in dangerous times
Ronald Beiner
First Published March 30, 2021
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07255136211005989

I'm no Nietzschean expert but this is very good on the anti-democratic and genocidal implications behind Nietzsche's philosophy. While I can admire him as a writer and thinker, I'm still always amazed at how insouciant readers can be about those implications of his philosophy.

5:25 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/one-firefighter-killed-and-another-injured-in-shooting-at-agua-dulce-fire-station-deputies-surround-burning-home/ar-AAKBxi9

https://signalscv.com/2021/06/gunshot-victim-reported-in-agua-dulce/

Must be another "crazy, lone gunman".....usa, usa!

5:51 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mede-

Sad to say, substantive social chg is not in the cards for my beloved country. :-(

mb

5:56 PM  
Anonymous K Orton said...

Shit- In a country filled with crazy, lone idiots!


Tom S- "For the English," Nietzsche once said, "morality is not yet a problem." He might have said the same of Americans!

6:21 PM  
Anonymous Kevin said...

Loved Gunnar's 'Twain quote' but, unfortunately, not Twain: https://checkyourfact.com/2019/08/30/fact-check-mark-twain-never-argue-fool-onlookers-difference/

Also, re Michelle Goldberg's excellent take on Mother Teresa (amazing that she's still a 'revered figure' - says a lot about our society), I've met Mary Johnson and she is wonderful - truly heroic that a person can escape from that trap, largely by herself. I highly recommend her memoir of the experience - "An Unquenchable Thirst."

7:27 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Glans, there are ways to engage people who lose it at the mere hint that the US may be a doomed nation, but it's a lot of work. And sometimes the switch is flipped unexpectedly. I had been in low level back and forth on a social network for a couple of years with someone when I made the point that things are not going to get better. I was immediately blocked. Live and learn and move on. This of course is the best of possible outcomes- no screaming fits, etc.

All in all I try to remember the pressures so many people are under these days. Willingly having your soul sucked out of you for the sake of a bigger TV and larger pickup truck is a pathetic bargain many middle management corporate eunuchs are willing to make. And even more, so many more people end up with the soul sucked out AND no big TV. They think they are doing the right thing, and they get screwed by those in positions of power.

So, my answer- attack and degrade those in power as often as possible, recognizing that my real 'audience' are the victims, as the power sluts don't care what I think. Sympathy and compassion for the multitude of victims- from a position of detachment if only for my own sanity and safety. And most importantly, spend time on things that give me depth and pleasure and comfort as much as possible.

8:20 PM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

Maybe your readers could send him some e-mails to revive his
self-confidence? Do NOT mention his sanity.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/despite-his-predictions-trump-wont-simply-be-reinstated-as-president-184136755.html

8:23 PM  
Anonymous Noura said...

For those of us who are thinking of leaving the country, I think this quote is funny and very relevant!

"If I waited until I had all my ducks in a row, I’d never get across the street. Sometimes you just have to gather up what you’ve got and make a run for it." ~Judge Lynn Toler⠀

Everything that’s going on these days seem to indicate that it’s time to make a run for it. Maybe the longer we wait, the more difficult it will be, especially if there is some kind of Trump 2.0 after Biden.

It never ceases to amaze me how the focus in America is always on what’s wrong, such as gun violence, but never why it’s happening. Maybe we don’t ask these types of questions because it would bring the American Dream into question. It’s almost as if Americans have unconsciously agreed to never question America.

“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.” – George Carlin

8:50 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Art-

Maybe we cd send him emails telling him that he's a poopy-head.

mb

9:37 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG5SPFXhiZ4&t=516s

Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying seem to have lost their minds. They no longer trust the scientific consensus regarding global warming. In this video, they literally state that there's probably some kind of authoritarian, far-left, "woke" conspiracy in academia to suppress evidence that strongly suggests global warming isn't as serious as almost all scientists claim it is. They offer no evidence of this conspiracy; they only mention that the most pessimistic global warming projections haven't played out as predicted. They also claim that the people in power, including *elementary school administrators*, know COVID doesn't spread on surfaces and isn't contagious outdoors, and are forcing children to wear masks for purposes of Orwellian mind control.

Nowadays, these two formerly intelligent people seem to think *everything* liberals believe is the product of some authoritarian far-left conspiracy pushed by academics. This is 21st-century McCarthyism is too insane to be the product of simple greed, IMO. I take back what I said about them being hustlers; they probably believe the lunatic gibberish they espouse.

11:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Apparently the breakdown in reality-assessment that we have been witnessing for several yrs now is not limited to Trumpites or bubbas or Karens. Nor (along w/this) is the emergence of alternative 'realities'. This is out of my area of competence to comment on, but it may be out of everyone's area of competence. It seems to be a completely new kind of cultural or political phenomenon. Certainly, when I wrote the Twilight bk over 20 yrs ago, comparing the US to ancient Rome, I never imagined that such a thing might become a factor in civilizational collapse. And none of the scholars of the subject, including Spengler, Toynbee, and Tainter, identify it as such (but see my essay on Sorokin in AWTY; he comes close, but doesn't actually say *that*). So in terms of collapse diagnosis, we're kind of shooting in the dark. From that pt of view, it makes no difference if Trump wins in 2024, because win or lose, what persists is this kind of bizarre epistemological situation (partly traceable to Derrida, I suppose), and no one can predict its relevance to the collapse process wh/we are currently in the midst of. (We may know in hindsight, but that wd be post-game quarterbacking.) I believe it *is* relevant, but that's just speculation on my part.

It all makes me think of that line from Sartre, "If there is no God, everything is permitted." Wh/cd be postmodernly updated to read, "If there is no God, everything is equivalent." Wh/cd then translate into, "We are adrift on a sea of meaninglessness"; and if that is the case, I don't see how a culture can endure for very long.

mb

12:08 AM  
Blogger flanagle said...

Noura: Good comment & quotes. Those 'ducks' rarely, if ever, line up 100%. Get out while the gettin' out's good. (Next week marks ten years since I got on a ship and joined the ever-growing American diaspora). Outside of the 'Anglosphere', there are still countries that are beautiful, inexpensive, low-crime, and full of good friendly people. I live in one of them. Best of luck!

8:15 AM  
Anonymous Coleman said...

https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-mexico-business-science-0b4cfb8a8759d5cc3333c82f714baba7

Update: 250 National Guard troops and 60 Police have moved in to secure the ruins.

In Mexico even a UNESCO certification can't make the government stop locals from bulldozing ancient ruins. What is the point of the UN again?

9:42 AM  
Anonymous On-ree said...

Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texas child-care regulators to yank licenses of facilities housing immigrant kids

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/06/01/gov-greg-abbott-orders-texas-child-care-regulators-to-yank-licenses-of-facilities-housing-immigrant-kids/

If there is a Hell, I imagine qualifying actions for admission include stuff like this

11:07 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

On-ree-

I'm puzzled by his leniency. Why not have the regulators take the kids out into the street and shoot them like dogs? (Millions of Americans wd applaud.)

mb

11:23 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Thank you kindly Dr. Berman and Wafers (Dan Daniel, Noura flanagle, et al) for your comments regarding dealing with "people" in the US empire who have an allergy to reality.

We're making real plans to emigrate/relocate--it's just very difficult to deal with this level of american stupidity daily with american "friends."

Will simply focus on things that progress us forward substantively, and with purpose.

11:48 AM  
Anonymous Wyatt Kizer said...

The Aimless Empire

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/01/patrick-lawrence-the-aimless-empire/

2:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wyatt-

A true Wafer.

Glans-

Keep in mind that yr surrounded by douche bags. This shd provide a lot of motivation to leave.

mb

3:51 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Speaking of douche bags and lack of foreign policy:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/02/politics/us-troops-bulgaria-olive-oil-factory/index.html

Clowns!

3:54 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

MB - While "If there is no God, everything is permitted" in reality even animals have a sense of right and wrong, of injustice, of what is equitable, etc.

We've all seen that famous scene where the chimpanzee scientist gives out a lot of bananas and it becomes a free-for-all with chimps grabbing as many as they can (ineptly) carry and grabbing them from each other. That's a very unusual case, like a Brinks truck tipping over on a highway on a hot summer afternoon. Get the chimps all hyped up, toss out a surfeit of bananas, then film it, showing that indeed Social Darwinism rules and we live in a world red in tooth and claw. However, many studies have shown since that chimps and especially bonobos share and share alike.

I believe the belief in a "God" is a fundamental flaw. It's merely disappointing when the M'Buti dance and sing for their forest gods and the rains still don't come, but in the West the idea of God has led to Holocausts. Best to just scrap it. https://theconversation.com/where-does-altruism-come-from-discovery-of-greenbeard-genes-could-hold-the-answer-123208

5:08 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman & Wafers,
For your information, we now can keep track of the mass shootings which occur each day here in our wasteland, the one and only Dysfunctional States of America. This website below is pretty good. It adds the statistics pretty quickly when the mass shootings occur. We can keep a score. Perhaps Las Vegas can publish daily odds and money can be bet on how many persons will die and what state will have the most deaths. As that great conservative hustling patriot Don King would say: “Only in America.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2021

6:52 PM  
Anonymous Rockwell N. Role said...

Not enough sex and violence!!
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-already-shut-down-blog-144310175.html

7:45 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

MB,

The Bulgarian blunder is one of the funniest things I've ever read. It's exactly like something from The Onion; the only difference is that it really happened.

Also, your analysis of the Bret Weinstein/Heather Heying fiasco is brilliant. America is the first post-truth culture in human history, but I can tell you that problem is spreading to other countries. I just watched a video of an Italian Karen physically assaulting people on an airplane because she was asked to wear a mask. I suspect the rise of the internet is behind the post-truth insanity. On the internet, people aren't connected to physical reality. Spending most of your time on the internet, especially when you're a child, conditions you to ignore physical reality. And as you pointed out, once you ignore physical reality, you end up living in a world of fantasy. After they lost their jobs at Evergreen, Bret and Heather started spending most of their time on the internet, because that's how they were able to make money. Four years later, we see them spouting lunatic gibberish they actually believe. I don't think this is a coincidence.

9:41 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

The 'Bulgarian blunder', as you call it, reminds me of that old Peter Sellers film, "The Mouse that Roared." Both are parodies of military action, but as you say, the Bulgarian fuckup actually did occur.

mb

4:03 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

State of the Union:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/02/us/florida-deputies-shooting-teen/index.html

Says it all, in a way.

mb

4:17 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: This too says it all:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-death-row-executions-gas-nazis/

4:26 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps2: And yet another (horrible, depressing) indicator:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jun/03/the-jobs-went-the-drugs-moved-in-americas-addiction-nightmare-in-pictures

8:22 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

@Nadine, It takes a kind of mental strength to not fall into the old paradigm of “left-wing vs right-wing”; since that pseudo dialectic is fucking hammered away at 24/7 by the news media and fellow Americans— it just takes endurance not to succumb to it. A similar thing happened with the Russia-Gate; that story was so ridiculously, ludicrously, and obviously concocted bullshit, but nevertheless, most “centrist” and “left-leaning” people succumbed to it just as Weinstein and Heather have in regards to falling into the Jordan Peterson YouTube right-wing dreck bucket.

The lack of the ability to resist mental bullshit in the US is so mind-blowingly astounding.

“In America, even the smart people are stupid”.

8:37 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Brian-

Oppositional (Manichaean) thinking is essential to Americans, because it gives them a frame of reference, a way of orienting and organizing their lives. It hardens the ego defenses, enables them to feel righteous and secure. This is why we were adrift from 1989 to 2001: the Cold War had literally defined American life, prior to the Soviet collapse. Looking back, the Clinton yrs were meaningless and stupid, the Void now being filled with Monica Lewinsky and O.J. Simpson and, of course, hustling. The attack of 9/11 actually saved us, psychologically speaking, as we switched from Communism to Islamic Terrorism as Enemy No. 1. (War is integral to the American character and way of life, whether hot or cold. We've been in oppositional mode since Day 1.) The core problem, as I've said a # of times, is that there is a problem w/the core: we have no real spiritual content (hustling can hardly work as a spiritual path). Wh/is why Americans are so desperate, needing to shout USA!, and to angrily block any fundamental criticism of this (very sad) way of life. The strategy is one of denial, and of doubling down; never one of serious self-analysis.

Wh/is true on the individual level as well. For most people, rejection and doubling down are all they know, wh/is why they karmically repeat what they've been doing from abt age 7 (as does America, lurching from war to war). Breaking the karmic trap, analyzing our own behavior and coming to terms w/it--it's a rare person who can do that, let alone a nation. This is why, as Toynbee pointed out, when a civilization goes under it tends to exacerbate the very factors that led to its demise. And in the case of the individual, Buddhists wd argue that he or she slept-walk thru his/her entire life, going to their graves literally having no idea what it was all about. (This is why I frequently cite Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich," a man who woke up 3 days b4 he died. Most people don't even get 3 days.)

But imagine if individuals, and nations, cd choose the other path, the hard work of genuine soul-searching, instead of predictably stonewalling and doubling down. Slipping off the karmic treadmill, as it were. Wow. Something to think abt, obviously.

"History is a nightmare from wh/I am trying to awaken." (James Joyce)

mb

9:35 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Curious if any US-ians would ask what the fuck were US troops doing in Bulgaria? This is what they pay taxes for in addition to the 800+ US war monger bases around the globe.

Naaah, let's focus on "left v. right," Kim's tushy, how to make good brownies, porno, and sports...and let's chant about vaginas, careerism, and someday yammer abt "health" "care."

More American propaganda:
https://www.stripes.com/Branches/Army/2021-06-02/Germany-based-soldiers-display-deftness-in-rocket-mobility-with-day-trip-to-Bulgaria-1623396.html

9:45 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Caitlin Johnstone has some interesting takes on the MSM's and government's sudden seeming acceptance of UFOs. Just another potential threat to America (even if the UFOs offered by the government and media have been faked) and another way for the military/industrial/intelligence establishment to justify even more spending for the militarization of space which if America does it, the Chinese and Russians will have to respond to if they aren't already. I know American collapse is proceeding as this blog documents but it can't happen quickly enough for me.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/06/03/eight-thoughts-on-the-ufo-narrative/

11:36 AM  
Anonymous Jira said...

The Space Force is unsure of who the good guys are in ‘Star Wars’
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/space-force-star-wars-empire/


Forget foreign policy, apparently we even lack a galactic policy!

11:50 AM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...



https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Former-Make-A-Wish-Iowa-CEO-pleads-guilty-to-16219197.php

The amount was relatively small ($41K, NOT ~$740,000,000+ for the American military each year). Who knows if there were mitigating factors-as this was predictably absent from the US "news" story--perhaps, she needed the money for health, rent, life necessities versus 'luxury' goods.

These US empire stories appear important as a press release/"public relations" to warn the plebs of their servile status--You better be good/obedient/servile or else we'll ruin you.
Where's the US outrage "news" reporting about the Olympic sized swimming pool at the $750,000,000 US embassy in Iran. Crickets.

11:59 AM  
Anonymous Hans Castorp said...

Douche baguettes out of control:

https://boingboing.net/2021/06/02/attempting-to-gun-down-a-puppy-a-woman-gut-shots-her-own-5-year-old-son.html

12:58 PM  
Anonymous ghosttown said...

W the leak of the 1000s of Dr. Anthony Fauci emails here's a piece which examines his role in fueling HIV/AIDS hysteria by authoring an editorial on supposed household transmission https://realalexrubi.substack.com/p/saint-anthony-fauci-the-hidden-history

1:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ghost-

Didn't he also have an investment in some of the vaccines? I seem to remember someone writing that in.

Hans-

Call me crazy; I love these people. I just love them.

Dr. Shit-

Protecting the olive trade, apparently.

mb

1:46 PM  
Anonymous turnover said...

Paul Jay interviews Matt Taibbi on Reality Asserts Itself. Part 1. Taibbi talks about his career.

https://theanalysis.news/interviews/matt-taibbi-on-reality-asserts-itself-pt1/

Both Taibbi and Jay have done lots of interesting work.

4:25 PM  
Anonymous Bublitchki said...

Ghost: Meh, with that many emails on that many subjects you can find just about anything to support 'Murican Manichaean style values. If you're a supporter of Trumpi, Fauci was wrong on masks in Feb 2020 so I don't trust the gov'mint to tell me what to do. For the Progs all that matters is he stood up to Trump, and their value system can't handle any nuance except Trump = bad.

Could be worse, being attacked by a flying sex toy and all: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/03/kerfuffle-after-drone-carrying-sex-toy-disrupts-albuquerque-mayoral-event

MB: Interestingly, I've met multiple US dual citizens (1 from Italy, 2 from Germany, several from the UK) who came back for 6 weeks to get vaccinated.

4:30 PM  
Anonymous Kevin said...

Per the Guardian photo essay "jobs moved out, drugs moved in" (per the hustle of the 'pharmaceutical industry'), I can't recommend the first 15 chapters of "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism" by Anne Case & Angus Deaton enough. (https://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Despair-Future-Capitalism-Anne/dp/0691217076/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=deaths+of+despair&qid=1622755242&sr=8-1)

Unfortunately, the final 16th chapter - after the well-documented descent into despair - is the obligatory "but it can be fixed with some tweaks" idiocy....

5:23 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

I wonder who is going to unite the "four broad segments of the Green Resistance Movement"

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/06/02/too-much-power

6:58 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Mike R- You wrote-

"https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Former-Make-A-Wish-Iowa-CEO-pleads-guilty-to-16219197.php

The amount was relatively small ($41K, NOT ~$740,000,000+ for the American military each year). Who knows if there were mitigating factors-as this was predictably absent from the US "news" story--perhaps, she needed the money for health, rent, life necessities versus 'luxury' goods. "

Correction: ~740,000,000,000+ as in billions, not millions

I know, it gets silly. I do wish that they always wrote the true number with all the zeros so that there was some sense of the true scale. As Everett Dirksen may have put it, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
('may have' because- https://www.dirksencenter.org/research-collections/everett-m-dirksen/dirksen-record/billion-here-billion-there )

7:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Birn-

On the problem of excess (of power or anything else), check this out:

http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/2020/11/of-size-and-scale.html

The idea of the golden mean appeared in Greek thought at least as early as the Delphic maxim "nothing to excess," and was subsequently emphasized by Aristotle. But it actually has Paleolithic roots: check out WG, discussion of how hunter-gatherers had certain social mechanisms so as to keep power, greed, pride and so on in check. Interesting how our ancestors were so smart, and we are so dumb.

mb

7:45 PM  
Anonymous Feldman said...

Was there once a film recommended here (it's a lovely b&w foreign feature) about a township fighting over a camel? A metaphor for community goodwill/selfishness

Odd question, but trying to find it.

10:01 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/03/naftali-bennett-israel-far-right-palestinians

12:49 AM  
Anonymous Herbie said...

William James on living life as if it mattered

https://julesevans.medium.com/william-james-on-living-life-as-if-it-mattered-52db7f18471b

Also, "new" Proust stories:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Mysterious-Correspondent/Marcel-Proust/9781786079244

8:25 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Herb-

Great essay on James, thanks.

mb

10:01 AM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Wafer Dan Daniel,

Thank you-my apologies on leaving out the extra 000's regarding the US empire's annual military/war mongering imperialistic budget.

I knew it was in the billions, just not used to writing such a gigantic number. It's unreal how much is spent annually on slaughters, massacres, psy ops etc... for US imperialism. Likely that $740,000,000,000 p.a. is just the tip of the (rotten) iceberg.

1:42 PM  
Anonymous Noura said...

Flanagle: Thanks for the encouragement. I am so glad you made it out! There is a sense of grimness and unreality that seems to permeate everything in America these days. Some of my friends try to escape this toxicity by changing jobs. I think the toxicity is a national issue at this point.

Dan Daniel: loved the article by Lionel Shriver. Thanks for sharing. I haven’t read any of her books yet but definitely interested.

Glans, MB: the level of stupidity in the US is so overwhelming that I can hardly believe it at times. It’s a great motivator to leave. Associating with stupidity can on only land us in impossible situations. “Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.” Jean de La Fontaine.

In addition to the list Joe McIlnen provided, here is another list of mass shooting in the US with links to articles: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

I very much enjoyed this documentary on Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia - a Film by Nicholas Wrathall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zli2VHO4p1I&t=4277s
1:07:41 “I am pessimistic for the time being because whenever I want to know what the US is up to, I look into my own black heart.” Can you imagine what he would have thought of our current situation? I wonder if we exceeded his expectations.

2:24 PM  
Anonymous Sadie said...

https://www.newstatesman.com/ed-miliband-go-big-review

John Gray reviews Go Big: How to Fix Our World by Ed Miliband

3:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Sadie-

Gd article. Gray is always on target. As for Ed, he needs to be slapped silly.

mb

3:31 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDcC4ZaT5tA

Michael Flynn, who worked for the Trump Administration, has just called for a Myanmar-style coup in America to install Trump as a dictator...and his MAGA audience cheered when he said that. Trump supporters are *fascists*. They don't believe in due process, democracy, human rights or the rule of law. They hate these things with a passion, and hate anyone who values them. That said, I think this is the true face of America. I'm not sure why America *hasn't* had a Myanmar-style coup yet. I suspect it's because the business elites know this wouldn't be good for foreign sales, but that's just a suspicion.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Turns out I was wrong; COVID is vanishing from America. But as someone already mentioned, this comes at the cost of poor countries having no access to vaccines, as America has cornered the global market and purchased enough vaccines to vaccinate every American multiple times. Biden might have saved America from COVID, but he's also effectively sentenced countless foreign people to death. Recently, hundreds of thousands of Indians have died from COVID because very few vaccine doses were available for purchase. How very American of Biden to do this to a country that has never harmed us.

3:50 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

Will he next try selling Jesus on TV? Will he soon offer two-for-one
legal fees?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/rudy-giuliani-mypillow-ad-105219814.html

7:56 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Internet is VERY VERY slow here in Silicon Valley. May be finally winking out. But for some reason I can come here. Email doesn't even work any more.

This might be my farewell. My job depends on the internet working and if it's not, well, eventually I'll be out of work and homeless.

I have some decisions to make. I'll be "no fly" after October due to RealID requirements. I live in ever-greater despair of ever seeing my old beloved places in Hawaii again, so I may want to greatly accelerate my schedule to get back there to die. Of course if I escape here to go back home, I'll likely not be on the internet or anywhere but the real world. I'll be homeless but I'll be home.

Perhaps goodbye all. I hope this actually posts.

8:30 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Rollo-

Elite = Trash. Never forget it.

mb

8:31 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Guide for douchebags and douchebag wannabes:

https://www.amazon.com/Hook-Point-Stand-3-Second-World/dp/1949001008/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VEXH7J5NWSVU&dchild=1&keywords=hook+point+how+to+stand+out+in+a+3-second+world&qid=1622856699&s=books&sprefix=hook+point%2Cstripbooks%2C203&sr=1-1

9:33 PM  
Blogger Politically Incorrect Russian Spy said...

The excellent Jonathan Cook (for some reason being temporarily allowed to publish some truth at the utterly dismal Democratic Party-shilling CommonDreams)has written a great piece on why Biden is suddenly making noises about looking into the former "conspiracy theory" that a coronavirus originating in Wuhan China just may have come from a virology research lab in Wuhan China that was working on making more lethal (gain of function, they call it) coronaviruses.

It's not merely that Trump is gone, it's that several cats have slipped form several bags and the emergency solution is to now bury the truth in a dull and drawn-out official investigation after the last official investigation was exposed as being led by what appear to be the perpetrators.

Anyway, a great piece on propaganda, corporate criminality, international skullduggery, and dirty politics in the United States:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/06/02/was-there-wuhan-lab-leak-inquiry-wont-dig-out-truth-it-will-deepen-deception

9:36 PM  
Anonymous Seneca’s Cliff said...

Alex, Chin up!

My advise is to go back to the Islands and get yourself to Kauai and sneak on to Zuckerbergs estate he stole from the natives. Film yourself urinating on his shoes and you will become a Kamaaina* hero and live like a king from there on. Or you can do what I did and marry a local girl from the Hawaiian ruling class ( 4th generation Japanese American) as you say. I am still stuck on the mainland but also hope to retire to the islands.

10:05 PM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

I can just see Trump watching this and asking himself what Hitler
had that he doesn't. Young Wafers should view this to see what
fear can do to lead to total devotion and faith in a leader.
https://archive.org/details/TriumphOfTheWillHQ

2:07 AM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

Thanks for the link to your article- "Of Size and Scale." It was good to review.

With a population of 332 million, the USA definitely has its share of narcissists, competitive individualists, and "true believers." I doubt that a pill can be invented to treat the religion of America itself...

10:35 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Good news for those hoping for a reversal of the Callfornia assault weapons ban, in existence in the Golden State since 1989.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California, in a 94-page ruling, has determined that the ban is unconstitutional. His Honor compared the weapon to another versatile tool, the Swiss Army knife, noting that weapons like the AR-15 can serve both a home defense and a national security/defense purpose. No comment thus far from the Verband Schweizerischer Taschenmesserhersteller.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/05/california-assault-weapons-ban-overturned/

12:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Cdn't run it. We have a half-pg-max limit on this blog.

mb

8:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Birn-

No pill, but what might work is if Wafers fan out across the country, scalpels in hand, and go door-to-door performing on the spot lobotomies. This really is the only solution.

Jas-

More evidence that we've gone completely bonkers: a US District Judge declares that the AR-15 is in the same category as a Swiss army knife. Help Me Rhonda! If Trump said it, OK, but a judge...?!

mb

8:59 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Well, Dr. B, your referral to the book 'Hook Point' contains its own short study in US decline.

Publisher's spiel starts:"Brendan Kane is an out of the box thinker for Fortune 500 corporations, brands, and celebrities. He thrives on helping his clients systematically engage new audiences that reward relevant content, products, and services with their attention and spend..."

Can't even handle the basic grammar. "reward... with their attention and spend" ???? An adult wrote that?

And the first review shown from "other countries"

"2.0 out of 5 stars Another:me, me, me, me, ohh look at me business book

I gave it a good shot but it is so generic, so boring and so: me, me, me, look at me, am I now awesome book that quickly Inhad to take a brake and go and throw up.

So fed up with this business / self help c@@p they churn out these day.

Follow a typical template of any 5 star amazon book. I neee to get some 1 star only books from now on as amazon reviews clearly can’t be trusted."

9:23 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

……...And away we go! LOL!
The weather is getting warmer. And our Karens are nice and “hot”.
No. No. Not in a sexy way. Hot like in hot tempered. Enjoy some of our civilized American ladies at their best. LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY15csd8i7c

10:14 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

Has anyone seen fit to calculate what % of the American public consists of douche bags?

mb

10:15 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...



Us-ian tries to hijack plane.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15171503/passenger-attempts-to-bust-down-cockpit-delta-airlines-tennessee/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRgwpSlxUW8

11:51 AM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

Would she qualify under Karen’s or a new category of Kindred’s ?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9655177/Naked-Florida-woman-tasered-police-trashing-restaurant.html

Rampaging naked Florida woman, 53, destroys an Outback Steakhouse and hurls bottles at cops before being tasered.

At the health center, it was discovered that she may have had a fentanyl patch in her pubic area, according to a law enforcement report.

Kindred claimed to target Mojo Grill because she felt the owner was dishonest, the sheriff's office said. She was also denied service after entering the establishment. 

2:49 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Namaste-

As a confirmed declinist, I wish I cd multiply this woman by several million. She's doing what (historically spkg) needs to be done.

mb

3:47 PM  
Blogger Krakhed said...

Glad the Wafer Summit was a success, I'm bummed I wasn't able to attend.

Thanks Wyatt for that piece on Biden's foreign policy. That progs think he's their guy, and the world sees the US under Biden as blundering and incoherent tells us where most progs have their heads (up their rumps).

Was reading this article and they failed to mention the percentage of douchebags driving our political trends: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/03/bidens-gravest-challenge-white-resentment/

5:05 PM  
Anonymous Mariam said...

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” (Gandhi).

6:12 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

Do you have room to let him broadcast his speech about getting
free money from China? No doubt he could find a way to get some
of it into his campaign fund.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-news-live-ex-president-212430799.html

8:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cosmo-

I'll see if I can arrange it. In the meantime, pls write him a letter, in wh/you call him a poopy-head.

mb

8:11 PM  
Blogger David said...

"But I can see in a time of national panic the emergence of the first dictatorship in our history. It will come not from the Left but from the Right, and a cynical, indifferent electorate, already contemptuous of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, will take to it eagerly. When that happens, the American Revolution will at an end, and lost." Gore Vidal "Rocking the Boat" Little Brown 1962

10:22 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

And the beat goes on:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/06/us/chicago-shootings-injured-dead/index.html

But I'm a fan of tang ping:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57348406

mb

3:44 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Well, Dr. B, you always wanted everyone to have their own nuclear weapon to either keep the peace, or lead to faster complete annihilation of the US, not quite clear.

Bet you didn't see this coming- space lasers! Identity politics space lasers!!! First we have the Jewish space lasers burning down the west coast. And now it looks as if the LGBTQ community is joining the fun with their own space laser blowing up boats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8wB8W85NfQ

Can't wait for PETA to get their space lasers.

And the PGA. Never understood the spectators at golf tournaments, or watching it on TV, but maybe if there was a chance people would spontaneously burst into flame for coughing at the wrong time I could get into it.

9:05 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

On Jewish Space Lasers, you come to the party rather late. This was discussed in extenso a while back, and I even mentioned that I purchased a T-shirt that has a picture of a JSL, w/the caption JEWISH SPACE LASERS in block capitals. I am justly proud of it, and wear it frequently.

While I'm on the subject, I shd add that attacks by antisemitic trollfoons has dropped off as of late; I dunno why. This makes me sad, because I love those guys. I bait them, and they are so stupid, they don't even know they are being baited (like, rt now). So let me try to get them riled up once again by saying that Jews rule the world, Jews will replace them, and JSL's did indeed cause all the forest fires in California. Antisemites are dumb, Jews are smart, etc. etc. (That shd do it; stay tuned, wait for results.)

mb

9:53 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
If you want to listen to a description of just how cruel the citizens of our Dysfunctional States of America are, start at about the 46:40 mark of this video. Listen for about 3 minutes.
Yes. You shall hear it. Like Anthony Fauci, this doctor has received death threats. Many of his colleagues, which obviously includes doctors and scientists, have resigned from their positions.
What a downright disgusting country this really is.
Oh but p.s. Since I for one was raised a Roman Catholic, I’m commanded to love these hate filled cretins who send these death threats. Because after all, they’re “my neighbors”.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SorhVZpb0MM

10:53 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

How many times have I characterized Americans as degraded buffoons?

mb

11:21 AM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wfrs:


Bill Maher doubleplusungood, badspeak untruth

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/former-israeli-war-minister-confuses-pakistan-palestine

1:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Clearly, Naftali is a dangerous and colossal douchebag who cd use a vigorous beating. However, altho I agree w/u on Maher re: Palestinians, it wd be nice to see some evidence.

mb

2:39 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Is it me, or is there something decidedly Waferish about this activity?:

https://hollywoodunlocked.com/trump-supporter-arrested-for-pooping-on-neighbors-lawn-for-being-a-democrat/

Miles

4:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Well, I think we can definitely say that the guy was making a statement. I mean, all progs need poop, but then so do all bubbas.

mb

4:24 PM  
Anonymous Harrisburg said...

“People live by narrative. Human beings are creatures of the imagination.”

Indepth portrait of the man who is, quite possibly, the world's most interesting politician (not that that's a good thing. )

"The world is messy, and Johnson likes mess."

Interesting that he sees himself as a sort of British Reagan....

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/boris-johnson-minister-of-chaos/619010/

4:58 PM  
Anonymous John S said...

Dr Berman, Wafers,

I wanted to alert you to a great new book that will solve all of our problems.

The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch.

https://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Knowledge-Jonathan-Rauch-ebook/dp/B08CNN94G8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+constitution+of+knowledge&qid=1623105455&sr=8-1

It's being praised by all of the academic and political "sensible middle" know-it-alls like Jon Meacham, George F. Will, Johnathan Haight, and my favorite Steve "the great one" Pinker.

The thesis - we need to fight the war on truth, by defending the facts! Of course, and the sky is blue! The asinine idea that something like "reporting the facts" will save America. It is ludicrous! Of course, Dr. Berman's DAA, and Wafer "facts" or actual facts like Humphrey Bogart said, "don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Honestly, academics sad to say are among the most delusional of Americans these days!

6:47 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

John-

Americans of any stripe, any IQ, are lvg in Disneyland. It's amazing how powerful the brainwashing in this country is. Instead of simply acknowledging the obvious, that the jig is up, folks like Rauch et al. are desperately hanging onto the notion that somewhere, out there, is something that's gonna save us at the 11th hr. As for facts, we've said this b4: when facts meet myth, myth always wins. Facts: not a hill of beans. Jesus, do these people need therapy or what?

mb

7:47 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

This is what americans really cared abt:

https://www.moms.com/disney-quantum-sized-sandwich-100-dollars/

Who needs health care, employment rights, FATCA/CBT discrimination-human rights violations, war mongering, slaughters, 800 overseas military bases, etc. when you can get 100$ sandwiches from an amusement (escape from reality) park.

8:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Glans-

I understand there's a lot of excitement as well over some new chicken sandwich.

mb

8:36 PM  
Anonymous Gretchen said...

'Currently the export of minerals for mobile phones, timber, and palm oil are major drivers of great ape population falls.'

Great apes predicted to lose 90% of homelands in Africa, study finds

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/07/great-apes-predicted-to-lose-90-of-homelands-in-africa-study-finds


...How awful.

9:38 PM  
Anonymous Franz Kishka said...

Millions around the world dying of COVID, America toppling headfirst into despotism, CO2 levels rising to unprecedented and possibly catastrophic levels - but it's all worth it, my friends, because our glorious civilization, the pinnacle of all Man's striving for millennia upon millennia, has finally granted our supremely knowledgeable and divinely inspired species the ability to conjure forth and facilitate indisputable miracles such as this:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/07/mcdonalds-chicken-nugget-among-us-ebay-sale

The mind reels at the incomparable future such a truly remarkable species has in store for it...

10:37 PM  
Anonymous Madam Ruby said...

Long time reader, first time poster.

Osho—The great, most photogenic sage, has this comment about USians

https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/nujlpr/wise_words/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

11:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Franz-

That's really a kick in the kishkas, eh? Sometimes it's extremely hard to realize that America is exactly what it is.

mb

12:01 AM  
Anonymous Hans Castorp said...

Timothy Snyder - America has experienced its last free election -
"The scenario then goes like this. The Republicans win back the House and Senate in 2022, in part thanks to voter suppression. The Republican candidate in 2024 loses the popular vote by several million and the electoral vote by the margin of a few states. State legislatures, claiming fraud, alter the electoral count vote. The House and Senate accept that altered count. The losing candidate becomes the president. We no longer have 'democratically elected government.'"

https://snyder.substack.com/p/911-and-16

7:38 AM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

Hahahaha.. the United States of Hypocrisy... when will these USians just fuck off from other countries and let them find hope and freedom on their own... Mr. Berman, I wish the USA collapse is just instantaneous and not gradual.

Kamala Harris in Guatemala :
“The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders,” Harris said. “If you come to our border you will be turned back.”
“Do not come, do not come,” she said. “I want to emphasize that the goal of our work is to help Guatemalans find hope at home,”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/7/harris-meets-guatemalan-president-tackles-immigration

9:46 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Here is a quick educational tip for our dumbed-down culture:

“Thirty days has September
April, not June, and November”

Georgia’s very “intelligent” far right, conservative congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has informed us all that there are thirty one days in the month of June.
Yes. It indeed is morning in America. The best is ahead. That’s because our future is in safe hands with elected leaders like her.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/06/06/rep-taylor-greene-demands-covid-19-answers-from-biden-by-june-31-2021/

11:27 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

@Joe McIlnen- Just to show that Republicans have no monopoly on not being able to use a calendar, the Democratic Party of Burlington, Vermont, scheduled a meeting for June 22 to nominate a candidate for an upcoming special election. One day after candidates' need to be submitted to the town clerk for inclusion on the ballot.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2021/06/06/burlington-democrats-change-caucus-date-to-meet-deadline

Dumb transcends party and class in today's America (but yes, MTG is a special one without a doubt).

2:06 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

I'm back at least for now. My boss fixed up an older laptop for me ("I've always got several around here") so I can at least do my work.

Economically things look terrible and our Ebay sales are in the toilet. My work requires that I be enthusiastic about this electronic junk but in reality I'm just marking time until I can get out of here - present plan to go back home to Hawaii once I can get Social Security in 3 years but who knows.

7:47 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

Welcome back. All of us are cheering 4u, amigo.

mb

8:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Check it out:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/princeton-classics-major-latin-greek/619110/

mb

10:18 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

@Hans, Well that is the end goal of both parties. The contests between Democrats and Republicans are like a phony game of tennis. They hit the ball back and forth, while having the principal motive of hitting that ball back in forth in a way that results in the tennis court itself lurching further to the political right. “Political right” in America of course, meaning total devotion to the further entrenchment of a corporate kleptocracy.
Problemo is, the healthy majority of Americans are too imbecilic to really grasp the above. It’s much more comforting to believe that Uncle Joe is negotiating in good faith, or that Manchin has mere ideological differences; surely it’s not that, but really greed and the pleasure of cruelty that drives those in power. As for the majority of voters, even if a perfect candidate was on the ballot that would pledge cultural and economic renewal, and the other candidate was pledging “let's launch the nukes”… the voters would choose “let's launch the nukes” since any kind of change in the mind of most Americans is experienced as frightening and evil. Well, introspection is for weak people after all.

9:34 AM  
Anonymous Anderson said...

"Biden is even more tedious than Voltaire."

Houellebecq's yawn of boredom when contemplating the self-annihilation of modernity...
https://unherd.com/2021/06/the-narcissistic-fall-of-france/

10:02 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anderson-

Actually, Voltaire was quite entertaining.

mb

10:18 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Question for all Wafers: How wd u describe a country in which the population, in the context of a society in obvious collapse and self-destruction, is mainly focused on finding the best chicken sandwich?

mb

10:51 AM  
Anonymous Lyons said...

John Gray on Covid for The NewStatesman: https://www.newstatesman.com/2021/06/china-s-covid-cover-wuhan-lab-leak

10:59 AM  
Anonymous BH said...

A cluster cluck?

11:59 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

MB,

It's hard to describe how stupid, deluded and out to lunch that population is. After all, bubbas and progs both insist America is a magnificent nation with a glorious future despite the mass shootings, the ballooning national debt, the endless wars, the opioid crisis, the SJW cult, the Qanon cult and the many fascists calling for a coup. (All of these things have been extensively documented by you, me and other Wafers, so I don't feel the need to offer more evidence of these problems.)

Whenever I tell a bubba the nation is finished, they fly into a rage and call me something like a Communist socialist fascist antichrist far-left terrorist Muslim Jewish liberal traitor. Whenever I tell a prog the nation is finished, they fly into a rage and tell me to stop being negative because a progressive revolution is imminent. They believe America can recover from *all* problems, no matter how severe. Reality is irrelevant.

12:43 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

"How wd u describe a country in which the population, in the context of a society in obvious collapse and self-destruction, is mainly focused on finding the best chicken sandwich?"

One word: ENTERTAINING. Not just for us but also for the people of the future. Just imagine how stunned they'll be when they learn that while the empire was collapsing, the president appointed a man dressed like a woman to be the secretary of health as some revolutionary move while the people obsessed over chicken sandwiches. Of course that's after a mob tried to overthrow the government and the populace chose to spread a global pandemic in the name of freedom.

Everyone @ the future: "Man I'd kill to go back in time to watch that freak show". Just wait till they know about the Trump years, most fun history lesson ever!

12:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Lyons-

Wd love 2 read it, but I cdn't get in.

mb

1:01 PM  
Blogger Xair said...

Mb,

Reading your question about chicken sandwiches and collapse I couldn't help but be reminded of this Neil Postman quote:

"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility".

Boy did he see things clearly. We should add him to the list of original Wafers.

1:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Xair-

I cited Neil a # of times in my work, in fact.

mb

1:53 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

I’d call them another junkie amongst a nation of junkies.

Is it a stretch to suggest Trump and friends found a way to release the virus in China? What better way to take down a country (esp USA)
than through its health care system? I wldnt put it passed them - check out the many YouTube videos of Bannon trashing the Chinese by insisting we are at war with them or trump’s endless “China Virus” bullshit.

https://youtu.be/OwfTb3Em1B8

An episode of Frontline examines how the opioid crisis got its start - naked greed for sure but telling the DEA to back off as well as congressional support for mass distribution suggests to me something more sinister. A perfect corporate crime, flood the market, permanently damage a population then declare bankruptcy when it all goes to shit.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/opioids-inc/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-healthcare-divide/



2:27 PM  
Anonymous Hans Castorp said...

2 authors agree to change lines in their books after being trolled on Twitter:

https://slate.com/culture/2021/06/elin-hilderbrand-casey-mcquiston-antisemitism-israel-social-media.html

2:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Hans-

The Buffoon Levels have never been higher.

mb

3:44 PM  
Anonymous J Nix said...

Lyons + MB:

It worked for me. Another great John Gray essay!

5:23 PM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

For anyone who needs a pick-me-up today, here’s the link to a transcript of George Carlin’s 2006 discourse on “dumb Americans” – it could have been written yesterday (a tip of the Cascadian Wafer cap to Canadian pal Jim Kline for this one):

https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2019/09/12/george-carlin-dumb-americans-transcript/

In the same spirit, here’s a Cascadian news tidbit from May 28:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/troopers-arrest-man-carrying-rifle-onto-ferry-in-mukilteo

5:31 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Wafer Nadine Bupkis et al.,

Preaching to the choir, the rage is a hallmark amongst USians. It appears specially and decisively characteristic with them. When confronted with reality, truth, facts, irrefutable history, the USian goes into a predictable rage, uncorked anger, body shifting/agitations, 'fighting for their psychological lives (Berman).'

It's entertaining, yet dangerous bc most USians are fucking crazy as they have access to guns and are stupid. Not a good combo. Dunning-Krueger with a AK-47.

5:48 PM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Here is an upcoming book (June 15th) that might be of interest to those reading this blog.

https://www.amazon.com/Outlier-Unfinished-Presidency-Jimmy-Carter/dp/0451495233/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=kai+bird&qid=1623277446&sr=8-2

6:27 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

To correct ignorance, education can be tried. To correct stupidity,
a brain transplant can be tried. It seems that there're shortages
for both education and donated brains in the US.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/almost-third-gop-voters-believe-144130271.html

8:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Michael-

Thanks for the ref; Kai Bird is a terrific writer. As you know, I deal w/these issues surrounding Carter in both DAA and WAF.

Dr. Shit-

MLK once said that the most dangerous combination was that of anger + stupidity. He was referring to "Bull" Connor, of course--an absolutely horrible human being--but I think it fair to say that this description applies to a very large % of Americans in general. Think of Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example she is different in degree, but not in kind, from millions of our fellow-citizens.

Jack-

Regarding the guy w/the rifle on the ferry: not clear why he wasn't given some sort of award.

mb

8:10 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

I am quite late to the party, but I am glad that a couple of posts back, somebody called out John Mearsheimer for his recent Bush-ian "with us or against us" speech to the Australians. Some people seem to think that because he criticized the Israel Lobby, he is somehow different from and/or better than the rest of the so-called "Defense Intellectuals" that have plagued us since the heady days of Kissinger.

However, I saw him speak in public about a decade ago, and was astonished by what a numbskull he was. With all the nuance and understanding of a third grader, he practically upbraided the audience for a dozen minutes on end about the big fish eating the little one, as if that was a profound insight. He even described the US as a "country that Hitler admired" because it "knew how to create Lebensraum". Aside from the questionable nature of this characterization, Mearsheimer didn't even feel the need to point out that this was perhaps, not a great reflection on this great country of ours.

I suppose it might be a stretch to include him in the "elite", but he represents the trash view of our elite quite perfectly.

8:35 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

El Alamein-

Cd u provide a link to Mearsheimer's speech, or a ref to the 'calling out' of him on this blog? I don't remember any 'calling out', to be honest.

Rollo-

I have already proposed my door to door lobotomy program. We need Wafer volunteers to get the process started. Gentlemen (and ladies), start your scalpels!

mb

9:13 PM  
Blogger Sanguillen39 said...

Dr. Berman,


With all due respect to El Alamein, here is the link to the Mearsheimer speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRlt1vbnXhQ.

3:31 PM  

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