January 14, 2022

The Post-Collapse Scenario (Maybe)

Pankaj Mishra has a very insightful discussion of that famous book by Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), in the 6 December 2021 issue of the New Yorker. The book is the classic statement of anti-colonialism, and has been an inspiration to millions of the “Global South.” Fanon argued that the (European) bourgeois ideology of “equality and dignity was merely a cover for capitalist-imperialist rapacity” (quoting Mishra). I take this to be obviously true, and in Why America Failed I argue that our so-called democracy has largely been a cover for hustling, for consumerism, and for economic and technological expansion. The theme comes up again in my forthcoming book, Eminent Post-Victorians, which includes a chapter on Sir Isaiah Berlin. Berlin was the poster boy for liberalism, or “negative liberty,” by which he meant the freedom to do as you wished so long as it didn’t interfere with others (which he admitted it would). But what really emerges from a study of Berlin is that he always came down on the side of the status quo, in particular the British capitalist, and hierarchical, way of life. During the 1960s, he was extremely skeptical of decolonial liberation movements, and I’m guessing he detested Fanon’s essay. Still, his doubts were not completely off-base, and can be found in Fanon’s book as well.

Pankaj refers briefly to experiments conducted by elites in Asia and Africa, who “saw it as their duty to devise non-exploitative economic and social systems for their people.” My own version of this is what I have called “Dual Process,” discussed in the final essay of Are We There Yet?. Fanon was concerned that the dispossessed might adopt a “psychology dominated by an exaggerated sensibility, sensitivity, and susceptibility” (quoting Fanon). He coined the phrase “curse of independence”: the possibility that the newly liberated states might become a “receptacle for ethnic and tribal antagonisms, ultranationalism, chauvinism, and racism…[that the] new ruling classes in post-colonial nations would fail to devise a viable system of their own” (quoting Mishra). And so Fanon’s conclusion regarding decolonialization was ambiguous, even bleak; open-ended at best.

I have often said that I don’t have a crystal ball, and cannot predict how the future is going to play out. But one thing I am sure of is that the United States is finished, and that its collapse will come as a relief to much, if not most, of the planet. But “finished” can take many forms, and one possible scenario, discussed often on this blog, is secession: the breakup of America into various different sociopolitical entities. The hope I have is that some of these new regions will earnestly engage in Dual Process, the devising of non-exploitative economic and social systems. Who can say? But Fanon’s warnings about the “curse of independence” are quite relevant here. If these new regions and new experiments are infected by wokism, they are sure to fail. What if they are, in fact, dominated by the ethnic and tribal antagonisms (etc.) referred to by Mishra, or the psychology of exaggerated sensibility and sensitivity referred to by Fanon? For this is precisely what wokism is all about.

“Don’t fall in love with yourselves,” Zlavoj Zizek warned the excited youth of the Occupy Wall Street movement in its heyday. Which is exactly what they proceeded to do. Why? Because it is very hard for human beings to resist the temptation of proclaiming, “Look how wonderful I am.” Wokism, virtue-signaling, is a religion, and thus acts as psychological glue, providing the mind with (pseudo-)integrity. Dialogue with a woke is about as fruitful as dialogue with a bubba: once you’ve got The Truth, you are no longer capable of dialogue. Doris Lessing pegged this syndrome for communists in the 1930s, in The Golden Notebook, where she wrote that communism literally served to create a psychological existence for its adherents. If new secessionist sections of America are going to avoid the pitfalls referred to by Fanon and Mishra, they need to divest themselves of wokism from Day One. Don’t fall in love with yourselves, for fuck’s sake; just do what’s needed to be done, and be grateful for the opportunities offered you in the wake of the American collapse. If you are unable to, all you will wind up with is old wine in new bottles.

What are the chances? We are a nation of extreme individualists, all trying to show we are better than the next person. To Americans, other people are rivals, not potential friends or comrades. To put it bluntly, we are jerks, and the process of de-jerkifying ourselves, even if undertaken, will not be a smooth ride. Do you want to find yourself? Then—Buddhism 101 here—forget yourself. Hey, it’s worth a shot.

-mb

192 Comments:

Anonymous Mormon Magic said...

I was just reading "American Religion" by Harold Bloom from the early 90s. Though his predictions of Mormon influence by 2020 were wrong (he assumed a higher growth rate than happened), he presented some interesting possibilities based on Joseph Smith's views on magic, kaballah, and gnosticism, much of which was shelved after his murder. I'm curious if you see Mormonism of some variety having a major influence on a post-collapse America.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20944.The_American_Religion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1179665.Early_Mormonism_and_the_Magic_World_View

3:43 PM  
Blogger Ajay Singh said...

Dear Dr. Berman: Many thanks for hitting the nail on our postcolonial heads, swollen with self-love. Your blog coincided with Robert Kaplan's oped in today's (print) Wall Street Journal, titled, "Russia, China and the Bid For Empire," echoing the well-worn establishment view that the drumbeat of imperialism today comes not from the West, whose "intellectuals can’t stop denouncing [it] for its legacy of imperialism," but from the East:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-china-bid-empire-colonialism-ukraine-taiwan-imperial-invasion-qing-dynasty-soviet-union-romanov-11642111334

A close read of the jingoistic piece reveals that the two Eastern powers, illustrated ominously as octopuses grabbing pawns on a chessboard while Uncle Sam watches warily, are indeed a serious "threat" to U.S. superpowerdom. The U.S., Kaplan argues, has "no choice but to be a status quo power—i.e., it need not defeat or even seriously undermine these two revisionist empires, but it must firmly hold the line against their advance." Clearly, offense may have been the best defense during the Vietnam era, but it is now a recipe for disaster.

I also wanted to say a few words about Isaiah Berlin's status-quoism, but my comment might violate your half-page rule. Tomorrow, then.

7:41 PM  
Anonymous James Watrous said...

Dr. Bermam,

After reading your books on America I do think there is a good chance you're right, that the United States will collapse. I hope you're wrong, but only time will tell. That being said if, or more likely, when the United States collapses what will happen? Will we break up into various smaller countries. I live in California. California is bigger than many countries. Could California survive on its own as a country? I don't know. The fact we've had a severe drought for the last several years makes me wonder. Thankfully we've had a wet autumn this past season and I hope we get a wet winter. So far, it's been mostly dry. We've also had major wildfires because of the droughts and global warming. Would various states or sections of what is now the United States form their own countries? I don't know.

8:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

James-

Jus' fer fun, check out "Ecotopia," by Ernest Callenbach.

mb

8:46 PM  
Blogger vsoguy said...

Good day Dr. Berman and Wafers,

Looks like there's not much hope for dual process in certain sections of Iowa. One has to marvel at this article about a rash of schoolkids that's popped up identifying as cats:

https://theiowastandard.com/more-people-are-discussing-students-identifying-as-cats-in-schools/

"We were at a tailgate and one of our friends that teaches said that they’re having a problem at our school because there are students that are identifying as cats,” she said. “And not only are they wearing ears, whiskers and meowing in class, they are demanding that there be litter boxes placed in the bathrooms. They’re demanding it so much that the parents are threatening to sue the school if they do not place litter boxes in the bathrooms."

It's hard to imagine, but probably true, that the worst of the dog days are still ahead..

9:02 PM  
Anonymous B. Louis said...

In my opinion, no album cover captured the essence of 'America' better than this:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7129DNZBIPL._AC_UY741_.jpg

A country irrevocably fucked from every possible angle.

9:11 PM  
Anonymous door said...

Dear Wafers;I read an essay by George Kennan in the 1990s that the U.S. was too big geography and should be broken up.His other points I don't remember.Thanks

9:36 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

door-

A link wd be nice...

Louis-

Time 4u 2 refresh yr post-it. May I suggest:

SHALLOW NARCISSISTIC BUFFOONS

vso-

As for yr post-it, try

DEGRADED AND DEBASED

mb

10:23 PM  
Anonymous Red Apples said...

James., MB.,

FYI there's a 40th anniversary edition of both Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging that is bound together in one volume that came out just last fall!

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Ecotopia-Ernest-Callenbach/dp/1597145521/

10:24 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Possibly relevant to my most recent post?:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57277777

"Last month the New York Post reported that Ms Cullors - a self-described Marxist - had bought a $1.4m luxury home in Topanga Canyon, near Malibu, and owned three other homes, including a custom ranch in Georgia."

(sigh)

mb

10:36 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jim-

Cd u provide some links or reliable references for yr argument? This is not a space for people to just broadcast their opinions, which we don't find terribly impressive. Rather, we are big on evidence. Thank you.

mb

3:07 AM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

(1)Browsing reddit & found a top post, picture of a train that's been looted by thieves in LA. In the comments saw a comment chain started by someone saying: "I have been wondering for a while now if I'm actually witnessing the fall of the United States". This triggered a discussion, some are in denial and presented defenses of their arguments. Here are 2 for your amusement: Comment 1, Comment 2.
================================================
(2) Reading My Discovery of Islam by Muhammad Asad (formerly Leopold Weiss). He describes his journey when he traveled to Arabia as a journalist early in the 20th century. It's astoundingly entertaining and illuminating reading this account by a European Jew who lived among the desert beduins (even fluently learning Arabic), befriended King Abdulaziz (founder of today's Saudi Arabia), wrote a series of reports for a German magazine, all while being a contemporary of world war I and the Zionist campaign to settle in Palestine and displace the natives (he had a conversation with Chaim Weizmann about this too!). Unique vantage point, I know of no other person with this cultural background who experienced these events. In his traditional brilliance, Asad analyzes a puzzling question: why was (is?) Europe, despite freeing itself from the shackles of the Church, still carrying a visceral fear and hatred of Islam? Here's a passage from the book analyzing this.

3:50 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

If it’s not chicken sandwiches, it’s Wendy’s barbecue sauce:

An angry customer, irate at the unavailability of barbecue sauce at a Phoenix, AZ Wendy’s, walked up to the drive-through window and fired into the restaurant. Now in critical condition in a Phoenix hospital, Brian Durham Jr. had had nothing to do with the heated exchange that had arisen between a co-worker and the shooter; Durham was merely holding the customer’s change from the transaction.

In America, everybody has the potential to be an innocent bystander.

https://www.rawstory.com/wendys-shooting/

11:08 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Well hell what good is a chicken sandwich w/o barbecue sauce? Fortunately the kid survived.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/teen-employee-at-phoenix-wendys-shot-in-the-head-amid-dispute-over-barbeque-sauce/ar-AASOv1q?ocid=sapphireappshare

MB - cld a Russian invasion of Ukraine followed by an impotent response by an unpopular president be a Suez Moment for USA? I say a Suez confrontation b/c might not the same be said for Taiwan and/or Hong Kong?

11:33 AM  
Anonymous K-Dog said...

It seems wishful thinking to me. A mechanism to diffuse toxic individualism does not exist in America. A particular blend of resources and attitudes is needed to de-jerkify ourselves and that blend will not be found in collapse. Smooth ride no, more like a canoe in a hurricane.

Cooperation will come when squirrels evolve to be the new technical species. That should happen just before the sun goes red giant. Humanity is toast.

1:04 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Here’s a new and creative way for USAins to take out their anger after getting “unhinged”. Hijack and use a backhoe.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/us/new-jersey-fatal-shooting-video-released/index.html

1:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gunnar-

In the great tradition of Shaneka Torres. No BBQ sauce? I'd blow up the store! As for yr questions: everyone's playing brinkmanship at this pt. Outcome unclear. Who will blink?

Cherith-

I think I discuss Asad at some length in DAA.

mb

1:25 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Ajay-

Cdn't run it (length rule).

mb

3:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

3 questions facing America:

1. Is Kamala Harris in fact a douche baguette?
https://www.bollyinside.com/news/harriss-staff-hopes-a-change-in-strategy-will-help-her-reset-her-political-prospects
2. Do chicken sandwich suppositories increase intelligence? How crucial a factor is BBQ sauce?
3. What in the world is Tulsi doing at this critical juncture? Is it true that she will give the keynote address at the World Tulsi Convention to be held at Evergreen College?

mb

5:39 PM  
Blogger Ajay Singh said...

Dr. Berman: On Isaiah Berlin’s status-quoism, a little-known example is his exchange with T.S. Eliot about a touchy sentence in TSE’s 1934 book, “After Strange Gods,” where he advocates a common religion as a key factor in maintaining social traditions than a homogenous population: “What is still more important is unity of religious background; and reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of freethinking Jews undesirable.”

An endnote (#12) to Strange Gods in Volume 5 of “The Complete Prose of T.S. Eliot” says TSE clarified in 1940 that ‘By free-thinking Jews I mean Jews who have given up the practice and belief of their own religion ... . The Jewish religion … shorn of its traditional practices, observances and Messianism … tends to become a mild and colourless form of Unitarianism.’”

Further: “When Isaiah Berlin came across this sentence in 1951 and accosted him about it, TSE replied [in 1952] that ‘the sentence of which you complain (with justice) would never have appeared at all at that time, if I had been aware of
what was going to happen, indeed had already begun, in Germany . . . I still do not understand why the word ‘race’ occurs in the sentence, because my emphasis was on the adjective ‘freethinking.’”

Berlin didn’t demand an apology, even though TSE admitted his complaint was justified. In fact TSE never apologized for that sole fragment in his prose (his poems had a few) to stain his reputation as an antiSemite.

6:05 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Ajay-

My new book contains a chapter on each, Berlin and Eliot, so I did run across that whole flap. Eliot was a fierce antisemite, to be sure; but man, he wrote some great poetry. However, I don't see that any of this has anything to do w/Berlin's political conservatism. Off-topic.

mb

7:02 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Apparently the new thing is to equate Schmiden with Carter:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/01/14/jimmy-carter-biden-comparisons/

Sorry, might be behind a paywall ... doesn't matter because the article isn't that great. It's more that it brought the comparison to our attention.

"The two men won the White House under similar circumstances. Carter beat incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976 as the un-Nixon, a moderate post-Watergate candidate of integrity and healing; Biden — though 25 years older than Carter was in 1976 — won against Donald Trump in 2020 with a campaign that struck the same themes. (A huge difference is that Ford immediately conceded after a closer election than 2020′s, and soon befriended Carter.) Both Carter and Biden inherited sour national moods: Carter faced a widespread sense of ennui and decline laced with fear; at least for now, Biden has it worse, with an angry and divided country exhausted by the pandemic and witnessing the Trump-dominated Republican Party’s assault on democracy. Under Carter, more than two-thirds of the nation thought we were on the wrong track; ditto for Biden today."

8:17 PM  
Anonymous Chuck Steak said...

One has to consider whether global warming will be the largest threat
to the continuation of US as we know it. It is hard to imagine that it
will prosper while the rest of the world's population perishes from all
its mistreatment of the planet.

A curious development is China, which was once a playground for many
imperialist countries, like US, England, Japan, Russia. Now they
employ the methods of their previous financial rulers:

https://www.ey.com/en_cn/china-overseas-investment-network/overview-of-china-outbound-investment-of-h1-2021

11:46 PM  
Anonymous willy robinson said...

Great essay Dr. Berman, many thanks.

Disappointed in Berlin (a hero otherwise) that he got this question so very wrong (Self rule might tend to be awful for all the reasons he mentions, but imperialism is always always klepto. My opinion - no links to back it up), but doesn't it so often happen that questions of nationalism and identity seem to somehow bypass even the sharpest minds?

Happy new year to all Wafers.

7:20 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

This. is. US. propaganda.

https://abc11.com/target-employee-speech-pep-talk-shopping/422251/

Such passion and indoctrination, maybe this lackey can help lead that farcical "rising up," "resisting," "revolution" against their masters/overlords.

12:04 PM  
Anonymous Emory said...

‘Travelers who were lost forever’: why tourists experience ‘India syndrome’ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/13/india-syndrome-lost-in-the-valley-of-death-harley-rustad

India is so mysterious!

12:13 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

Stumbled on a comedian Wafers will love:

Rich People Can’t Preach ‘Togetherness’ – Drew Michael

12:27 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Every day the CBC posts anti-Russian propaganda like this:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ukraine-russia-nato-stoltenberg-1.6316037

A few weeks ago they were posting similar stories about the Chinese threat. Orwell would be confused. We aren't at war with Eurasia, we aren't at war with Eastasia. We're at war with both Eurasia and Eastasia.

Caitlin Johnstone is in good form this weekend:

"The US government has substantiated these incendiary claims with the usual amount of evidence, by which I of course mean jack dick nothingballs."

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/01/16/false-flags-suddenly-no-longer-a-crazy-conspiracy-theory/

12:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

What the heck *is* Chris Hedges up to these days? Haven't heard a word from him in ages. Fomenting revolution? I think he may have given that up. Perhaps, shopping at Target (more likely Saks).

Emory-

Check out E.M. Forster.

al-

Whatever the gov't or the MSM puts out, the public will believe.

Cherith-

Rich people are trash. Period.

mb

1:19 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

And in our wacky Dysfunctional States of America, let’s end the week with some funny Karens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr1opP8WOEw


p.s. Doctor, I finally saw “Unhinged”. I have to say the movie had a lot of errors in it; and in some parts it was downright unrealistic. But the first five minutes of it were right on the mark. The news clippings and commentaries about how so very angry and violent USAins are made me immediately think of what you have been saying all along. Perhaps the movie’s script writers attended one of your lectures or have read DAA.
And here is another violent road rage that happened in East Tulsa the other day. It was filmed by a mother and her 9 year old son. The kid’s comment probably is an accurate description/portent for literally anyone who lives in this miserable f*cked up country.
“Mom, call 911 before they shoot us too.” Yep. This kid certainly knows the score here.

https://www.fox23.com/news/video-captures-road-rage-shooting-east-tulsa/7DMFMES7HNEM3ECYQA7XJ3H7JE/

1:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Some random musings:

1. Schmiden is probably washed up. The Dems will do zip between now and the Nov. election, at wh/pt they will get creamed. Check out various articles on CNN and elsewhere abt how this admin is tanking.

2. Things are on schedule for the World Tulsi Convention, to be held at Evergreen College on April 1st. Jack L. will give the opening speech, "Embracing Our Inner Tulsi: The Road to American Recovery." This will be followed by Tulsi's keynote address, "Basic Principles of Tulsism." She will then repair to the Evergreen gym and perform her workout sequence. Finally, in the concluding portion of her presentation, she will ram her head up her ass and roll around like a doughnut, urging Americans to follow her lead.

3. I need a vote here regarding Prince Andrew. Should he (a) be vigorously slapped; (b) have his shoes peed on by 174 Wafers; (c) be baked in a casserole dish; (d) all of the above?

mb

1:44 PM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

"Where's That Chris Hedges", composed to the Monkey House tune "Where's Mantis Evar":

Here I'm standing on the corner
Tragedy and Vine
A disgusted lone Wafer
Stumping for a sign
My phone just died
I haven't laughed til now
Hopin' for secession by tomorrow
Shoulda found an exit
But tried to prolong it
Now there's only one guy I know claims an answer

Where's that Chris Hedges?
He'd know what to say
He'd be strumming his repertoire
Living for revolt
Where's that Chris Hedges?
He'd know what to do
He'd be passing the petition
That's a joke now too

Where's that Chris Hedges?

2:58 PM  
Blogger Ajay Singh said...

Dear Dr. Berman: Since this blow started with Pankaj Mishra, Franz Fannon & the evil effects of (colonization &) decolonization, we all might want to sit up & take seriously a warning recently issued by Professor Gregory Stanton, founder-president of GenocideWatch, who evidently forewarned about the 1994 Rwandan genocide 5 years before it happened. Stanton is now holding up for India what appears to be a mirror from 28 years ago—he is predicting a genocide against Muslims in India, millions of whom have been living in tepid waters whose heat has been rising since a political nobody (like Hitler) presided over the massacre of a couple of thousand Muslims in 2002 & then went on to become the country's premier:


https://scroll.in/video/1015126/watch-president-of-genocide-watch-speaks-about-haridwar-hate-assembly-warns-of-genocide-in-india

As for Prince Andrew, I think he should be vigorously peed on & exiled in India.

3:47 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

Sorry, cdn't post it. This is not a place for people to broadcast their opinions. Opinions are like assholes; everyone's got one. So what? What we are interested in is evidence--proof, in the form of links or refs to reliable sources. If this is not what you care to do, we can only suggest that you find a blog where things like that don't matter. To stay on this blog, however, let me suggest the following format for your future posts:

1. You present an argument you have regarding the collapse of the American empire;
2. You provide evidence for your pt of view in the form of links or refs to reliable sources.

Thank you.

Ajay-

blow?

Jack-

Where indeed. Something to be sung at the April 1st World Tulsi Conference.

mb

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Where's Mr. Hedges with all that rising up and resisting yammer? It's been crickets and tumbleweeds lately.

Chris, Chris you're our man, if you can't do it, no one can!

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/dbffcb85-b552-408c-a5c3-b54fd863f5b8

6:47 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

War criminal/piece of shit/dregs of humanity dept.:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/16/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-plea-bargain-trial

7:13 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Seeing Netanyahu's name in the news reminds me that we live in a world where Henry Kissinger is still alive and not in jail.

You can mock Hedges, but he is a midget among monsters compared to Kissinger. For some reason, this is never mentioned on his web site-

https://www.henryakissinger.com/

Then again... "The Fact That Henry Kissinger Is Still Alive Convinces Me That There Is No God"

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a35925514/argentina-military-coup-henry-kissinger/

7:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

O, we have talked abt Kissinger on this blog, more than once (along w/Obama, another war criminal who was awarded the Peace Prize). You just came late to the party, and are rather clueless. Here's the diff: Kissinger is scary and vomit-provoking, while Hedges is funny, and a tad pathetic. At this pt, however, there is very little to add abt either of them, really, if for different reasons.

mb

8:34 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

Well, in effect, you called the blog clueless, so what did u expect? Gd luck, amigo!

mb

10:13 PM  
Anonymous B. Louis said...

https://eand.co/fascist-america-stole-my-childhood-and-now-its-about-to-steal-your-future-eed68341569e

Umair can be a bit 'one note' for me but he's written a really good one here.

I had the same experience as a child in America. Brutalized.

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Pete Christen said...

MB and Wafers:
Here's a hustle that might even surpass those of Pope Leo X:
https://godblesstheusabible.com/product/pre-order-god-bless-the-usa-bible/

Buyers are encouraged to act fast because "the rise in material cost alone has the potential to double the price of each bible in the future" and dark forces are trying "to stop this Bible from reaching the massive demand."

2:24 PM  
Blogger Ajay Singh said...

Dear Dr. Berman: My apologies for the "blow" typo. It was a first for me—never before has my left index finger intended to type "g", only to be countermanded by the ring finger landing on "w." I mean, that far left?!

2:51 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

(corrected link)

Hedges, Shmedges, this is what USians care abt!

https://news.yahoo.com/ordered-chicken-tenders-5-fast-171600325.html

3:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mike-

Hedges is a rather slow learner, but it's possible that by now he too recognizes the core of American life: chicken sandwiches. Will he join Wafers in the suppository revolution, however?

Ajay-

I was jus' haven' fun...

mb

5:13 PM  
Anonymous Luc said...

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SPENT THE LAST YEAR OF HIS LIFE DETESTED BY THE LIBERAL ESTABLISHMENTMartin Luther King Jr. was much more radical than he is often portrayed.

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/15/martin-luther-king-jr-mlk-day-2018/

6:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Luc-

Indeed. We've discussed that here several times in the past, but thanks. Meanwhile, in future: s'il vous plait, no block capitals. Merci.

mb

8:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Here's a big surprise:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/why-isnt-justice-department-investigating-trump-over-2020.html

8:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cosmo-

Cdn't run it. You failed to provide any links or references.

mb

4:59 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Note to meta-

Pls do not send messages to old posts. No one will read them.

mb

1:51 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Wafers,
Here is an another example of “American Exceptionalism”: the healthcare system. Although it’s ranked #37 in the world, the clueless USAins think it’s No. 1.
Yes. Give this guy a bunch of mind altering drugs, as is typical in this country. Charge close to $2000 a day for a room. Have a third party entity hustle ( oops, I meant to say “charge”) $24,000 to get his medical records. And have the court come to the hospital’s aid to milk every last penny it possibly can.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/the-price-of-protection/local-hospital-uses-court-to-keep-patient-for-a-year-charges-1-2-million-in-medical-bills?fbclid=IwAR3FVsS8EIIwlTD5aIBqW3QnI6FmTytjEmTiCnGIIHSA4mFGWdnMxN6tRDQ


p.s. Doctor, I’m anxious to read your new book, Eminent Post-Victorians. When do you expect it to come out? And what is the thesis?

4:23 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

I doubt that even a Mass Slapping Program (MSP) wd wake Americans up. As for EPV, it's all ready to go except for 2 perms: one for quoting from TS Eliot's "Four Quartets," and the other for cover art. The illustration I had in mind is owned by the NYT; they generously offered me permission for use if I paid them their minimum, $1000. This is just more evidence for what I think of the NYT. So am now scouting around for a different illustration. Anyway, I'm guessing it will roll off the press in March, tho I wish it cd be much sooner.

mb

4:52 PM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers...

I found something that should provide backup to 'door's paraphrase of a statement by George Kennan. Found what Kennan wrote on secession and more in an article in vermontrepublic.org which cites George Kennan on secession for the United States extensively. These quotes come from "Around a Cragged Hill" by George Kennan published in 1993. "Around a Cragged Hill" should be interesting reading.

https://vermontrepublic.org/george-f-kennan-godfather-of-the-vermont-independence-movement/

5:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Michael-

That's great, thanks. I somehow knew this, and forgot it.

mb

6:19 PM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Hola Wafers,

It’s been a while. This was another excellent entry. Sadly, any secession of the left leaning states will most likely be worse than the right due to wokism, as you pointed out. Sorry, but it’s the most likely outcome. The left’s complete subservience to the corporate state is on full display in places like NY and CA, where race politics is used to further corporate interests. Big tech is dominated by woke politics, yet the working class reaps none of the benefits - just wear a mask and serve me my dinner for the privilege of minimum wage.

Great article about the left’s failings during Covid: https://unherd.com/2021/11/the-lefts-covid-failure/

6:33 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

anders-

Maybe Wafers cd set up Woke Therapy Centers (WTC) designed to get wokes to stop being wokes (slapping wd be part of the treatment, of course). It's either that or Tulsi, I'm thinking.

mb

9:09 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Anders,

Judging by their rhetoric, right-wing states that secede will probably take women's rights away, make social services illegal, brainwash everyone, torture thousands and put Jews and Muslims in camps. I know wokes have no regard for truth, and seek to brainwash people and impose radical inequality through brutal means, but most woke rhetoric doesn't suggest woke governments would commit genocide. More importantly, most American leftists are progs, not wokes, so it's highly unlikely that left-wing states that secede would turn woke. In all likelihood, they'd have prog governments.

What would prog governments look like? Progs stand for nothing, and only know how to beat off, so I imagine their governments would beat off for all eternity. They'd probably be like the Biden Administration: diversity appointments, political correctness and little else. This is pathetic to be sure, but not nearly as destructive as what the bubbas want to do.

10:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

If post-America is a mosaic of political entities, one cd always choose to avoid the bubba ones. However, I think yr hair-splitting re: progs vs. wokes. Progs will likely fall into the trap of virtue-signaling, wanting to shine as 'wonderful people'. If they ignored Zizek, they will certainly ignore me.

mb

11:02 PM  
Anonymous Sybok said...

Teacher alleges she was fired for not 'meowing' back at student who identifies as a cat

Maybe she should have played along & brought him some kibble & scratched him behind his ears. I just hope they have a litter box.

More people are discussing students identifying as cats in schools

"And not only are they wearing ears, whiskers and meowing in class, they are demanding that there be litter boxes placed in the bathrooms. They’re demanding it so much that the parents are threatening to sue the school if they do not place litter boxes in the bathrooms."

Don't worry, it's all just a bad dream...

12:24 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Sy-

If only. Do you realize how much slapping wd be needed, to get Americans to become half-normal? A joke population in a joke country. Why cats? Why don't these students identify as bowel movements, wh/wd be closer to the mark.

mb

12:36 AM  
Blogger Kelvin said...

From Maury's January 1st, 2021 blog:
"Historically speaking, however, change does occur: we are not hunter-gatherers anymore, or living in the Middle Ages. And we are certainly better off in some ways as a result of that cultural evolution."

What are some of the ways? In addition to the grammatical disjunctive "or" that is being treated here as an agglomerative there is that other disjunctive, the elephant in the room: civilization. Hunter-gatherers being pre- and the Middle Ages a manifestation of one form of it. So, how are we better off living in civilization as opposed to living as hunter-gatherers? I guess one answer would be Van Gogh! But some anarcho-primitivist might retort, "but you also get war and hierarchy to name a couple of bummers." My question is tendentious but I'm open to surprise. I've read Wandering God once through some years ago, but it certainly bears re-reading. Its bibliography may provide literature enough for me, but if you have ready suggestions of books to read to explore this question, please list them in your response.

2:11 AM  
Anonymous Chuck Steak said...

All this nonsense about JFK, Jr!! The simple fact is that the true
double is Richard NIXON.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/instantly-felt-not-him-qanon-145632581.html

3:15 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kel-

2022. Well, medicine, for one.

mb

7:17 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Andrea-

This isn't a bulletin board; it's a discussion forum. In future, try this format, if you wish to participate:
1. State your argument regarding the collapse of the American empire;
2. Defend it in the form of links or reliable references.
Thank you.
mb

8:22 AM  
Anonymous ephemera said...

1/4 of Americans are invested in crypto. Something tells me real wealth will totally disappear for the bulk of people (as it largely has already) and will be replaced with ephemera. Most people seem unconcerned that their wealth is zero and that they're wage slaves with no control over their own lives beyond consumer goods & weekend hobbies.

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cryptocurrency/over-a-quarter-of-americans-invest-in-crypto-for-quick-profits-survey

11:16 AM  
Blogger Ordinary Indian said...

Dear MB, Thanks for sharing Mishra's article. An exhilarating read.

Came across this piece by Walden Bello in The Citizen on American decline. Interesting read: https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/4/21358/America-Wilts-Under-the--Impact-of-Bin-Laden-and-Trump

Ajay, the daily dose of routine islamopbhopbia is now turning into more virulent forms. Genocide or not, this cannot end well. It did not end well in 1930's India (two nation theory and associated hatred fanned by the Empire), not in 1930's Germany. This time too, it won't end well in India. Requires a fuller analysis, in Fanon's light?

11:38 AM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Dr Berman, sign me up to dish out the slaps. Pimp slap is my preferred technique.

Nadine - I respectfully disagree. Progs/wokes are one and the same at this juncture. They want to force you to inject a novel medicine into your body by law, regardless of age, health status, previous infection, and despite rapidly evolving data concerning the effectiveness of the shot. They all think it’s bubba’s that won’t take the jabs, when in my experience, it’s a large segment of the black community who doesn’t want it, and with good reason - the Tuskegee Experiment is still fresh in the memories of many African Americans and that story gets passed down generations. So the progs end up hurting the employment opportunities and general mobility (by way of mandates) of the groups they pretend to care for while they get paid to sit behind laptops at home.

I live in SF, one of the most progressive cities in the US. I’ve witnessed the outcomes of progressive policies with my own eyes and it’s a nightmare. When I leave the house to walk my dog, I now have to be on high alert - people will rob you of your PET by gunpoint. I often have to carry my dog over broken glass due to all the vandalism and car break-ins. And prog idiots like Matt Haney and others want to pretend it ain’t happening and quote misleading crime stats. It’s like living in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

12:47 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

anders-

When I think of the amt of slapping that's nec, I hafta lie down for an hr or two. Meanwhile, a link to Tuskegee wd have been helpful. Links, refs, always.

mb

1:40 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

US empire "hero" "warrior" "strong"-US military "proud"! You tell-em Mr. Soldier about those A-rabs. Now go to one of 800+ overseas US warmonger/imperialist bases and decide where to invade next...

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/s56771/drunk_us_soldier_goes_on_a_racist_tirade_to_an/

5:46 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

One of my favorite songs:

"Let me tell you about Ay-hab the Ay-rab
The sheik of the burning sands
He had emeralds and rubies just drippin' off 'a him
And a ring on every finger of his hand
He wore a big ol' turban wrapped around his head
And a scimitar by his side
And, every evenin', about midnight
He'd jump on his camel named Clyde, and ride."

Song dated 1962; I don't think our perception of Islam has changed that much in 60 yrs. Question: Why in the world was his camel named Clyde?

Meanwhile, I think it's time for all you Waferinos to do a reality check, remember who yr neighbors are. Here's yr homework assignment: Go out into the street and stop the first person you meet. This regardless of race, color, religion, gender, age, whatever. Ask them: "Where is Belgium?" Or, perhaps, "Who was Adlai Stevenson?" Now watch them choke up, turn red in the face, and wave their arms in the air.

Alternative question: but in this case, carry a weapon w/u: "Excuse me sir/madam: Are you aware that there is no concrete evidence that someone named Jesus Christ ever existed?"

Meanwhile, I've been watching some clips of Sadhguru. He has some interesting things to say; the problem for me is that I've already said most of them. So I've got bupkis in the bank, and he's worth $25 million. He has millions of followers; I've got diddly squat. I'm asking myself why.

1. I'm not an Indian.
2. I don't have a big white beard or a turban.
3. Routinely telling Americans that their heads are filled w/dogshit probably is not the best way to become popular.
4. I don't have any promotional gimmicks, like lectures on YouTube or whatever.

So I can't do much abt 1-3, but let's talk abt #4. I see gurim and gurot (female gurus), and even ordinary jackoffs w/podcasts, attracting a following thru promotional gimmicks, so I need Wafer help in how to self-promote. For example:

-A small statue of myself in solid gold, selling for $2000.
-Mugs, T-shirts, toilet paper, etc. w/my face on them.
-Badges proclaiming, I AM A WAFER, selling at $7.50 a pop.

The pt is, I want to be worshipped like all of these other clowns, who have people drooling on their Guccis, and altho I don't own any Guccis, I want them to drool on *my* shoes (of whatever low-cost brand). Is that so much to ask?

WHEN, O LORD, WILL MY SPECIAL DIVINE TALENTS BE RECOGNIZED?

Wafers are invited to contribute their ideas to what shd be the Greatest Cause on Earth, i.e., me.

mb

6:15 PM  
Anonymous Mann said...

New book from Gabor Maté coming down the pipe:

https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Normal-Illness-Healing-Culture/dp/0593083881

"Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Co-written with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet."

560pp.! I'd say!

9:50 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

anders,

I have no doubt that San Francisco is just as awful as you say it is, but what makes you think a right-wing secessionist state would be better? As I said before, there's plenty of evidence that bubbas intend to ban social services, commit genocide and deny basic human rights to huge swathes of the population. This evidence has been presented on this blog more times than I can count. I haven't seen any evidence that non-woke progs intend to do anything that awful, but if you have evidence that they do, I'd love to look at it.

MB,

You're right that many progs have fallen in love with themselves, but there are real differences between progs and wokes. Although both are self-loving hustlers, wokes often embrace violence and hate, as they did during the Antifa riots and the Evergreen meltdown. Progs, on the other hand, tend to shun violence, and many have condemned the woke movement. This article is a good example:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/year-protests-portland-residents-waning-patience-antifa/story?id=77511470

10:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

A small political entity cannot commit genocide; that's for nations and empires to do. And you don't hafta live in a bubba-state, after all; I'm guessing people will gravitate toward what they feel most in sync with. As for 'non-woke progs': in the crunch, as things get lived out, I doubt such a thing will exist. These differences you refer to, if they even exist, will very likely evaporate. Portland today is not Portland 10 yrs from now.

Mann-

Mate is a sharp guy, but the thesis is hardly new. The holistic crowd in the 70s was talking abt these things all the time.

mb

10:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Nadine: I don't have the impression that wokes are violent, in any case; you may be mixing apples and oranges. While bubbas accumulate guns, wokes spend their time taking down Confederate statues and editing Mark Twain.

11:53 PM  
Anonymous Clem Kadiddlehopper said...

I recently re-read one of the best ever relatively concise descriptions of the origins and cultural consequences of our normal dreadful sanity. It is The Politics Of Experience And The Bird Of Paradise by R.D.Laing (1967)

3:12 AM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

Here's a glimpse of America for ya:

Local reporter hit by car live on air

1) Woman hit by a car and her colleague doesn't give a hoot. In fact he's almost visibly exhausted at feigning concern.

2) She must immediately assure everyone she's ok repeatedly even though she clearly isn't, in fact she clearly is on the brink of crying but exerts effort not to. In our society we are not allowed to feel any negative emotions and must always put on a fake facade of smiles and happiness. It's "rude" to feel pain and sorrow and even PHYSICAL PAIN; you must assure everyone that everything is ok at all times and shrug off even getting hit by a car or depression or whatever it is.

3:58 AM  
Anonymous Quoyina said...

https://www.ft.com/content/609d5d0d-b666-4af8-af39-82ddaf5f28de

Ulysses at 100: the birth of the modern
Colm Tóibín examines how James Joyce’s groundbreaking novel overturned traditions of narrative storytelling — and of Irish nationhood

Some love for Joyce! I was reading "The Dead" as it snowed over the holiday, a tradition of mine, I'd suggest for Wafers.

Q

9:56 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Amitav Ghosh has written a book on the 500-year European capitalist running of the world simply referring to this as "The System". The book is entitled "The Nutmeg's Curse: The System that Runs Our World". Ghosh states the basic values of the System are racism, genocide, war and trade and a rejection of what he calls vitalism (df. that life is produced by some force other than physical and chemical forces). Looks like an interesting summing up, sounds like the US gets thrashed by the author - definitely deserved. The author of the Tyee article simply summarizes the book.

https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2022/01/19/System-That-Drives-Our-World/

12:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Michael-

He's a v. gd. writer, and the bk sounds spot-on. Are we coming to the end of a 500-yr-old nightmare?

mb

12:14 PM  
Blogger MSCL said...

Civil War kindlings:

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/590504-fury-over-voting-rights-fight-turns-personal-on-capitol-hill

12:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

MSCL-

Do you have any commentary to make? We really aren't a bulletin board.

mb

12:51 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

An old joke, from the 70s or 80s: What do you get when you cross a deconstructionist w/a mafioso? Answer: Someone who makes you an offer you can't understand.

I was musing on what you get when you cross a bubba with a woke. It's not necessarily an oxymoron. What you get is the Soviet Union: guns plus political correctness. Lately I've been reading up on the Russian avant-garde of the early 20C: Chagall, Malevich, Rodchenko, et al. Heady stuff; beautiful. All of this brilliant creativity was snuffed out (culturally and sometimes physically) by the Bolsheviks, the ultimate bubbawokes. I told Nadine that American wokes were clueless as to what real power consisted of. They think it's abt taking down CSA statues, editing Mark Twain, making diversity appointments, and enforcing a stilted kind of language. But this is not power, it's merely decoration, and typically a nuisance. Mao was rt when he said that power grows out of the barrel of a gun. This, the Russian wokes understood, wh/is why they were also bubbas.

After secession, future states (or geopolitical entities) may be divided into bubba states, such as Texas, or woke states, such as Vermont. Neither will be very appetizing, imo, and frankly, anyone w/half a brain will have already emigrated. One wonders if we shall see Soviet-style regions, bubbawoke. Equally unlikely, I'm guessing, will be regions that are neither bubba nor woke; just human, real, nonideological. Hey, a man can dream.

mb

1:33 PM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Apologies for lack of references. Let me correct that.

Tuskegee Experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study

Nadine - Blue states have lost more residents to Florida and Texas then the opposite. If those red states were so awful, why would this be the case? https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2021-population-estimates.html After almost two years of pandemic response, it’s very clear that Florida had a much more reasoned approach, so I’m sure that has something to do with it, on top of the cost of living. AOC sure likes to party there while her constituents are trying to make ends meet up in NY.

https://nypost.com/2022/01/03/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-caught-maskless-again-in-miami-drag-bar/

https://youtu.be/PVtf1KD6rT8

I think Trump has broke everyone’s brains and the reaction to him has thrown everything so out of wack, that people are completely blinded to the absurdities of the left, and the potential dangers that come with some of the new/woke/prog left’s ideology. Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei’s comment on this should be a wake up call. https://youtu.be/VFUJz7askZs

In summary, Dr Berman’s theory holds true - we’re doomed one way or another. Pick your poison. And now we’re on the verge of conflict over the Ukraine. Great.

Anders





1:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anders-

Thank you. In future, pls watch length.

ps: Discussion topic: Is Tulsism a kind of bubbawokism? I have frequently argued that she is our future, insofar as we have one. What if Tulsi were the ultimate bubbawoke?

As for AOC: clearly, one of the great douche baguettes of our time.

mb

1:50 PM  
Blogger Arthur V. said...

Dr. Berman and Wafers:

I used to read John Michael Greer with some regularity. He then, for some IMO undefined reason, took a turn to Trumpism and I took a turn for the door. However, I sometimes return and this week was rewarded with an interesting read.

www.ecosophia.net The article that should come up is 'The Unmanageable Future.' This gist is that all the bright futures, be they from the right or left, have failed miserably and will continue to fail in the future for any one of a variety of reasons. So we are left, as the explorers of old, sailing into uncharted territory with no idea of what we might find.

IMO, that sums up our situations quite well. Stay safe all.

2:56 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman & Wafers,
Check this out! And listen to what a few of these fine, “highly intelligent” USAins have to say.

"O my gosh. We need a Christian back in the House.”
“He represents God and country.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/video-trump-voters-explain-why-163927091.html


2024 can’t come soon enough!
TRUMP!, TRUMP!, TRUMP!

“These are your neighbors. They borrow sugar from you.” -GSWH at The Twilight of American Culture book lecture, circa 2000.

4:21 PM  
Anonymous Perlswin said...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna12813

Controversial Teddy Roosevelt statue removed from outside New York City museum

The United States of Amnesia!

(And to be honest I find that to be a terrible statue, but it should still be used to remind us that even the men that for instance established the national parks could be racist animal-killing assholes. That's too nuanced for Americans though...)

4:42 PM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

My personal opinion of Sadguru is that he is full of shit. There is a very well educated spiritual speaker, Acharya Prashant, who has a talk titled “Indian Gurus and American Dollars”. It’s in Hindi so wont post it but he says that in the last century a lot of Indian Gurus have tried to cater to American audience for the sake of dollars. He says that these Gurus have removed two main concepts of Hinduism from their teachings, “Renunciation and Surrender”, and have instead said that consumption/capitalism is a path to enlightenment, lol. Basically what the AmeriCONS want to hear, Yoga is just added to give them a feeling of spiritual learning.

Acharya seems to be a Wafer, at least for the time being and hope he remains that way. He even dislikes the idea of having a presence on YouTube but concedes that there’s no choice. Here is one of his lectures in English.
https://youtu.be/_Cc25ix6e6Y

Mr. Berman, if interested watch this video about the teachings of Ramana Maharshi
https://youtu.be/jevWr3IIIfc

4:53 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nam-

They are all full of shit, imo; they all have feet of clay. Sadhguru is worth $25 million; Rajneesh had a fleet of Rolls Royces. They are all like this. But once in a while, they might say something useful. Not that I haven't heard it b4, but they might say it in a new way, and this can be helpful. The real problem is the millions of devotees who drool on their Guccis. Dostoyevsky: "The great goal of all mankind is to find something or someone to worship." There is simply no stopping this pathology.

mb

5:55 PM  
Anonymous B. Louis said...

The Eastern gurus (Sadhguru's a cult leader, IMO) who clean up in this country are no different from Tony Robbins. You can usually figure out these creeps within 5 minutes of listening to them speak since there's a distinct lack of humility in their tones.

Another dead giveaway is that they won't admit the degree to which life just IS suffering. Their grift is making one think that Buddhahood is one credit card transaction away. Nope.

https://www.patheos.com/library/jainism/beliefs/suffering-and-the-problem-of-evil

Western culture is very good at grinding even the noblest of ideas into a fine powder of capitalism , ready to be snorted for the right price.

7:21 PM  
Anonymous Polly said...

Perls:

There's literally another statue of Roosevelt in the lobby!

AND the statue is being relocated to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, where you can visit it without having to set foot in one of those awwwwful cities where the elites live ;-)

7:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Polly-

Do you have a link or reference for this?

mb

8:04 PM  
Anonymous Moises said...

New Book Series to Feature Cross-Cultural Philosophy

By Justin Weinberg. January 19, 2022 at 6:49 am

The editors of a new book series from Oxford University Press (OUP) that will publish works that “exhibit conversation between traditions or cultural sources not often engaged together” are seeking submissions of proposals.

https://dailynous.com/2022/01/19/new-book-series-to-feature-cross-cultural-philosophy/

Looks like an interesting project!

8:50 PM  
Anonymous mr. nibley said...

Have you commented on the 1619 Project essay regarding capitalism & slavery from 2019?

https://nature.berkeley.edu/agroecologylab/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/American-Capitalism-Is-Brutal.-You-Can-Trace-That-to-the-Plantation.-The-New-York-Times.pdf

What are your thoughts on Kuhn v Popper? What should we be reading today to keep up on the latest academic debates on science?

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/kuhn-vs-popper/9780231134286

9:03 PM  
Anonymous Kurt said...

After a Year of Biden, Why Do We Still Have Trump's Foreign Policy???

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/01/19/after-year-biden-why-do-we-still-have-trumps-foreign-policy

Gee, I wonder!

9:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kurt-

Maybe give us some thoughts on the subject? (we really aren't a bulletin board)

nibs-

1. No
2. Was up to my eyeballs in it in the sixties; 0, after that (got bored)
3. No idea (not really interested)

mb

9:48 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

In what should be so obviously deduced by everyone, instead it takes a psychopath to cut through all the crap. THIS is how you get health care in USA!

https://youtu.be/o9guyPNZglE

9:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Polly-

Impt to state yr source (wh/you didn't do, originally); and note an impt blog rule: post only once every 24 hrs, max. Thank you.

Gunnar-

I got "video unavailable." Only in Mexico? Unclear.

mb

10:59 PM  
Blogger Xair said...

Wafers,
Another example of how stupid American students are. What a total lack of intellectual curiosity these kids have. What an embarrassment higher Education has become. In sum, what a shit show this country has become.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/professor-said-her-students-think-193739478.html

1:43 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Xair-

In general, I think today's youth are BS, i.e., Beyond Slapping. No amount of slapping can bring them back to any semblance of reality, or normality. Jay Leno stops them on the street, asks them From whom did we separate in 1776? Answers include 'China'.

mb

3:19 AM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Although I always just assumed that he was some variety of con man or charlatan, I was actually pretty surprised how sensible and even idealistic Steve Bannon sounds in this Oxford talk. After hearing him for an hour, I was trying to find a single thing he said that I disagreed with, but without much luck. Not sure what to make of that. But he almost sounds like a Wafer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtOw-xyMo8

Oh, and if you are growing tired of "white privilege", hysterical shrieking, and statue toppling, here is an excellent book, "Black Rednecks and White Liberals". It presents an eminently sensible perspective on race that you will never hear in the mainstream media. Well worth 11 hours of your time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgJeRuq6ET4

3:54 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

MB, try this one

https://youtu.be/bvXJ4lL1dnQ

9:18 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Namaste: I'm thinking of setting myself up as Swami Babagoogoo. My message will be: The answers are w/in you.

What do you think?

mb

10:31 AM  
Blogger MSCL said...

Dostoyevsky: "The great goal of all mankind is to find something or someone to worship." There is simply no stopping this pathology.

Is this pathology how we created gods? I think the cure is explicitly ask to be worship and most will rightfully ignore you. Religions gurus and experts have too much implicit knowledge that requires translation only they can provide.

1:52 PM  
Anonymous Pope Michael said...

How much do you think the Roman Catholic confessional (since 13th cent) & the concept of sin vs not sin impacted America? I'm wondering why America has been one of the two centers (France being the other) of traditional Catholicism since the 60s. Pope Francis recently issued a document against the movement, written in English (not Latin or Italian). Why would America be so hooked on the ideas of the years 1910-1960 to such an extent, when the rest of the planet basically dropped it? If you haven't seen it, I recommend the Pope Michael movie.

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Box-Secret-History-Confession/dp/0465039952
https://popemichaelfilm.com

3:34 PM  
Anonymous Haskell said...

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/thich-nhat-hanh-dies/

Thich Nhat Hanh has died, 95 yrs experienced.

3:46 PM  
Anonymous Cel-Ray (not Man Ray) Tonic said...

Interesting defense of teaching the "great books"

https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-great-books-still-speak-for-themselves-and-for-us

5:09 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Haskell-

One of my heroes, for sure.

MSCL-

Post only once every 24 hrs, max. As for religions etc., maybe these folks are full of warm baby diarrhea.

mb

5:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cel-

What American will read them? I mean, really. Keep in mind that these bks contain words w/more than 1 syllable in them.

mb

5:57 PM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Dr B-

Bubbawoke: I hear stories about wokes that get turned on by rough sex with magas, so yeah, I think you’re on to something.

In the name of fair and balanced reporting of dumb Americans, I shall post more evidence of the prog side of our Idiocracy. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.

Exhibit A: https://youtu.be/soxsgfVmrMk

6:31 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

anders-

More and more, I'm convinced that Tulsi is our only hope.

mb

6:38 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

I propose a new slogan for the gun nuts at the NRA: "Guns don't kill
people; people don't kill people; tequila kills people." The guy is
a felon who somehow got a gun.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-father-shoots-kills-8-125025419.html

7:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I know some of you are seeking to refresh your post-its, for your bathrm mirror. Let me make two suggestions, and you guys can add to the list:

THERE ISN'T ENOUGH SLAPPING!
THERE ISN'T ENOUGH URINE!

Catchy, eh wot?

mb

9:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Such great people, Americans:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/21/us/new-york-antisemitic-incident-arrest/index.html

11:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

OTC-

We are a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. Do you have any commentary to offer?

mb

10:00 AM  
Blogger Dan Hanrahan said...

Hi Dr. Berman, The stark reality of the primacy of the (non)ethic of the hustle and how it has doomed the country to failure that you explore throughout your work is something I reflect upon in this poem dedicated to you and Derrick Jensen, on whose radio program I first encountered you and your work. Gracias por su trabajo y por compartir sus ideas y observaciones tan importantes. DH

https://danhanrahan.blogspot.com/2022/01/bullshit-and-hustle-poem.html

12:04 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

From Muhammad Asad's My Discovery of Islam, this passage analyzes the Westerner's loss and hollowness despite advanced science and progress at the time of Asad's writing many decades ago, but it's still perfectly accurate today. His perception is sublime. Also I noticed a similarity in what he says and what Dr. Berman said in his books about Americans worshiping the religion of technology to fill that void in their lives.

(The Dajjal is a concept in Islam similar to the anti-christ, someone or something that is a great deceiver, carrying what appear to be awesome signs and amazing wonders but in reality they are doom and despair and sorrow)

12:16 PM  
Anonymous Orca said...

I've found this recording of guy calling the Howard Stern radio show claiming he is a serial killer. I don't know if this is true or not but it is a window to the soul of America. The killer claims that he wasn't abused as a child and that he does what he does because he was "bored" and "it was in a comic book".

https://youtu.be/HBRAY3N3FXw

12:30 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

Thanks for the compliment. I shd add, however, that in general I don't post other blogs on this one. I'm sure you can contribute here in future w/o any blog refs.

mb

1:27 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

North, south, east, and west. Every day is just another ho hum day where, no matter where one travels, one may not make it back home alive here in our great U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!

North:
https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/road-rage-shooting-spokane-county/293-7b7d27ca-3dd0-4a1b-99f4-950bb099bb29

South:
https://abc13.com/road-rage-shooting-life-flight-car-accident/11498920/
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/william-cannon-road-rage-incident/269-16c10196-6a8d-43cf-bc09-9b626b00d4f3

East:
https://www.wlwt.com/article/i-275-west-colerain-township-police-investigation/38850253

West:
https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/road-rage-in-colorado-springs-leads-to-shooting
https://www.12news.com/article/news/crime/teen-dead-man-injured-laveen-road-rage-shooting/75-4a71a75d-234a-4e16-80ca-1206de661a6e

1:42 PM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Haha Mr. Berman, Or you can be Swami Babapeepee as well.. and the solution to all problems would be Wafer Urine Treatment...
Wafers will help with the treatment of shit for brains Americans...

This is a first of its kind attack, even in the case of Florida where shit happens daily...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10392787/Two-Florida-women-hit-felony-charges-pelting-man-glitter-argument.html

4:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nam-

The formula for American recovery is WUT + Tulsi.

As for the glitter incident:

1st, check out the faces of these girls. Scary. Also very common. This is America.
2nd: glitter?! Why in the world are attackers, of any gender, using crap like glitter? WHERE WERE THEIR GUNS?! Wdn't it have been a lot simpler, not to pull their punches, and have just blown the poor shmuck to Kingdom Come? This is what True Americans do.

mb

6:02 PM  
Anonymous B. Louis said...

Sorry, Dr. Berman. The 'Wah-Tulsi' dance already exists:

https://youtu.be/JOkQJm_UGM4

Just look at the excitement!

6:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Louis-

The ultimate degradation of the American people. But keep in mind that Tulsi is bubbawoke, and hence, the American future.

mb

7:15 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

We need to take a poll. Is Kamala:
a) A douche baguette
b) One big 0
c) A terribly misunderstood lady
You decide!

mb

11:31 PM  
Anonymous The Flabster said...

Being half-bubba (and all Wafer) I am starting to agree with the Bubbawoke hypothesis. After spending a bit of time reading this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Tulsi_Gabbard

I personally doubt Tulsi (as much as I love her) will lead it, but hey: https://www.lajolla.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-bikini-photos-cause-quite-a-stir/

Notice the astute appeal to bubba’s patriotism in the instagram post further down the article. I suspect she is sincere about this.


From my long term, accidental, participatory, and forced anthropological study of bubba they are all perfectly fine with social programs that don’t benefit people who are not white. I find this disturbing, yet I assure you it’s the case. Someone (probably has to be from the south or lower Midwest) who can marry appeals to militaristic patriotism (minus foreign wars) to social programs in some sort of nationalist way will be very, very successful.

Like all presidents since Carter, Trump was/is a douche bag. However, I have to hand it to him. When push came to shove, he sent out checks which kept people from starving. Mainstream republicans would have let people become homeless and hungry with glee. and The democratic leadership would have stymied any attempt by socialist members of there party from responding with anything less than a bandaid solution.



9:14 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Flab-

I think we can all line up behind Tulsi. Her endorsement of Kyle Rittenhouse was certainly a feather in her cap.

mb

10:22 AM  
Anonymous Nigel said...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04fz6ky

On this day we celebrate the 128th birthday of Antonio Gramsci, an honorary Wafer

10:37 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

USian finance lackey gets really angry over a smoothie...

https://www.wfsb.com/news/fairfield-man-charged-after-incident-at-robeks/article_edd7060e-7c5c-11ec-acf6-eb64f62c81df.html

https://youtu.be/FBZ3x47yA5s

Why can't US empire "puppets" / "allies" see the US empire for what it really is - a debased and degenerate shithole?

Instead of WWII reenactments etc. maybe Europeans can reenact the Tulsi work-out video or this smoothie incident?



10:53 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

Look at this guy's face, and tell me it isn't America.

Nigel-

Check out chapter on Gramsci in "Genio".

mb

11:22 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Here’s a new one, Doctor and Wafers. You have to admit something. USAin anger creativity comes in many new forms. Here’s the latest one.
Disobey a “No Smoking” rule somewhere and subsequently get fined for it? Shoot the place up! LOL!

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/01/upset-man-shoots-up-rexburg-motel-over-smoking-fee-workers-say/

1:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

A real American favors guns over talk.

mb

3:03 PM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

It’s been a slow news week in Cascadia, but two news items that captured the Merican angst over fast food condiments and sides caught my Wafer eye this weekend:

In Phoenix, AZ, a 16-year old employee of Wendy’s working the drive-thru caught a bullet in the head from a customer dissatisfied that the restaurant was out of bbq sauce:

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/nation-world/argument-over-bbq-sauce-leads-to-teenage-wendys-employee-being-shot-in-head-restaurant-shooting-investigation-police-phoenix-suspect

And in St. Louis, MS, Terika Clay was miffed when she didn’t get the discount she thought she was due on her French fries, so she pistol-whipped and shot a McDonald’s employee when the worker went outside for a smoke break:

https://krcgtv.com/news/local/police-mcdonalds-employee-shot-in-argument-over-discount

3:16 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Englishman visits girlfriend in Georgia. Get's killed by stray bullet.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10428999/British-scientist-Matthew-Willson-pictured-bed-die-hours-later.html

usa, usa!

3:53 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

MB,

You're right that Tulsi is America's future. On the other hand, Tulsi's endorsement of Rittenhouse, her regular appearance on Fox News and her right-wing political stances on various issues suggest she's a bubba who pretends to be a bubbawoke, not a genuine bubbawoke. She's exactly what Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool have become over the last few years: an empty, grifting, amoral piece of trash. She really *is* the perfect candidate for a perfectly awful nation! :)

In my experience, most bubbawokes are people who are transitioning from wokism to bubbism or vice versa. This is due to something you mentioned a few months ago: nearly all Americans are morons who cling to one of two political extremes. In their minds, there is no middle ground, just black-and-white, binary opposition. This is why America has exactly *two* influential political parties, and why both parties are so hateful and warlike.

Flab,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT-2oKXg8cY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB9hLJ-HIag&t=6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BItwdV2uevE&t=3s

Pretty solid evidence that Tulsi has moved to the far-right, and is a bubba, not a bubbawoke.

4:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

I guess her woke credentials are wearing a bit thin. But as far as the political map goes, she's been everywhere on it during the past few yrs.

Glans-

What a horror. But then, America is a horror.

Jack-

I guess the silver lining here is that we can say that Americans are armed at all times, shd crises like these arise.

I suppose I can be excused for not including, in my list of factors causing our decline in the Twilight bk, citizens gunning each other down like dogs. I was writing that 25 yrs ago, after all.

mb

6:14 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

My kinda guy (I'm still a unicorn, myself):

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/23/how-my-husband-finally-cracked-and-got-a-mobile-phone

7:10 PM  
Anonymous obit popper said...

Karl Potter died. He was the editor of the Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, 25 volumes. This is an overwhelming library of information. In the midst of stupidity, you have people working on projects like this. The bibliography is available on his website. 5 volumes are on Buddhism.

https://phil.washington.edu/news/2022/01/21/remembering-emeritus-professor-karl-potter
https://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/encyclo.html

9:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

obit popper? Karl Popper died in 1994.

10:23 AM  
Anonymous Hans Castorp said...

Here's an intelligent young woman - she's getting rid of her fone & using the time gained to "read and sleep more."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60067032

11:33 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Hans-

Problem is, she still has a cell fone, wh/means she's killing children in the Congo (literally). We've discussed this on the blog a few times in the past.

mb

12:37 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

Newt is threatening the January 6th committee with jail.

And they haven't even gotten full power yet! Just imagine what they'll do when they do.

12:59 PM  
Anonymous Megan said...

I recently came across a real gem of a book called "Chance or the Dance", by Thomas Howard. Has anyone here heard of Howard or this title? Until last week I had no idea who this person was. Anyway, this is simply a magnificent work of art. It is positively brimming with wisdom and the celebration of existence. The book itself is a critique of " disenchanted" modern secularism. The entire book is written in the style of a prose poem. In the same way that "Dr Rerun Natura" of Lucretius is a poetic rendering of Democritus and the Epicurean philosophy, it is almost as if "Chance or the Dance" is a poetic transmutation of Dr. Berman and "Why Liberalism Failed".

I just finished the book, and now I'm going to read the whole thing again. Probably several times. How did I go my whole life without ever hearing of this wonderful book?!

5:03 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Megan-

His work sounds intriguing, altho I'm not a big fan of Christianity. (Not an enemy of it, just not a fan.) On its drawbacks, you might find this worthwhile:

https://www.amazon.com/Being-Different-Challenge-Western-Universalism/dp/9351160505/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3FNTE62T13VAO&keywords=being+different&qid=1643063875&s=books&sprefix=being+different%2Cstripbooks%2C290&sr=1-1

But nuts! It turns out that Howard wrote a bk on Eliot's "Four Quartets". I spend a few pages on the latter in my forthcoming bk, "Eminent Post-Victorians" (assuming that Faber will give me permission to quote). Wish I had known abt Howard's treatment a yr ago.

mb

5:42 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

This is a frightening moment.

A big macro picture concern of mine has long been that the US will not collapse on its own peacefuly, but will take the rest of the world down with it; the current tensions over Ukraine may be the USA doing just that.

Colonel Wilkerson says quote ‘You cannot find any major strain of US foreign policy, for the last 20 years, and see anything that is sane’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfs2yaOr2Ao

Perhaps the world will end in an explosive shower of chicken sandwiches. Perhaps Kanye West or a BK chicken sandwich should be named as chief negotiator to Russia to broker a peace deal?

8:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Property of American scumbags:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/24/for-sale-cia-black-site-terror-suspects-tortured-lithuania

And of American douche bags:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/24/inglewood-shooting-house-party-los-angeles

And of an American douche baguette:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/24/sarah-palin-new-york-times-trial

mb

8:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Plus:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/serial-murders-beatings-and-beheadings-violence-against-the-homeless-is-increasing-advocates-say/ar-AAT5xhd

8:24 PM  
Anonymous Satchmo said...

A tale from the declinist archives

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/29/amazons-alexa-told-a-child-to-do-a-potentially-lethal-challenge.html

It's amusing to me how folks will readily give up their privacy for so-called "convenience". Modern folk have become somewhat lazy

10:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nov. 2022: Heads on a platter:

https://fortune.com/2022/01/19/democrats-party-preference-falls-gallup-poll-history-republicans/

After the progs, wokes, and Dems get thoroughly creamed, will they have learnt anything? Whadda you think?

mb

4:19 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZpJ8n6z798

Wisconsin is now allowing high school students to carry guns on campus. We used to joke about the possibility of all Americans carrying machine guns with them at all times, but now it doesn't seem so farfetched.

4:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Perhaps only a matter of time. Not clear why Wisconsin didn't encourage students to gun each other down, like dogs, in the halls.

mb

5:37 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman & Wafers,
Here’s further proof of the utter pathetic cruelty of USAins. From space lasers to Covid. SMH.


https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/01/25/anti-semitic-flyers-florida/4791643136410/

6:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

This is just a recycling of the medieval blood libel against the Jews, really. Same idea. But the Jewish Space Lasers is new.

I suppose declinists can rejoice: anti-Semitism, guns, rage, hatred, stupidity, possible Boogaloo: Jesus, what's not to like? What an attractive country!

mb

8:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Check it out:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/25/panic-invasion-ukraine-buildup-troops-moscow

8:42 PM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Dr Berman,

Thanks for the India book recommendation. It looks really good.

On another subject, I guess I'm a latecomer to the Tulsi phenomenon. Until two hours ago, I just had a general idea of who she is. But then I saw this video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jvSwjsSOw0 Oh my God, does she always talk this way? I had a giant smile frozen on my face the whole time. But in no way was it a smile of judgment, anger or contempt. No, I simply felt...astonishment that such a person exists! I was going to say, "Only America could create such a person". But that is wrong. Tulsi must have been created directly, the way that angels, pixies, fairies and elves are created directly. And in the copious reaches of the Great Chain of Being they live in some strange otherworld, close to ours, perhaps, but "beyond the fields we know." Though on rare occasions, the worlds intersect. I felt like a five year old child might have felt, looking out across the English heathland at dusk. When, suddenly, the great god Pan scampers across his line of vision. And then Pan hesitates, turns and smiles at him--a smile of infinite beauty, benevolence and ecstasy that will change the boy's life forever. His eyes mist over, and every hair stands on edge. The adults will never believe this, but no matter--he KNOWS.

2:05 AM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

"After the progs, wokes, and Dems get thoroughly creamed, will they have learnt anything? Whadda you think?"

They'll blame the Electoral College; gerrymandering; voter suppression; the Senate filibuster; FOX News; right-wing talk radio; "evangelicals"; the NRA; big donors; anti-intellectualism; etc.

They'll especially blame racism / white supremacism.

They won't see their product as the problem--they'll see the structure of the market as the problem. According to the following (final paragraphs), their '20 and '21 victories in GA were due to black people moving there. More reason that they'll look at demographics and maps, not in the mirror.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/01/21/census-estimates-show-population-decline-in-16-states

2:15 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Tim-

It's all gd, really. They'll continue on their blind, self-destructive path, paving the way for a Trump victory in 2024. Go, douchebags!

Megan-

It is indeed amazing that such a person exists, and has no self-awareness whatsoever. Be on the lookout for my forthcoming 5-vol. study, "Cornerstones of Tulsism." A few of the pages actually have printed text on them.

mb

3:59 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Here's an unlikely scenario: one day, Tulsi wakes up, looks in the mirror, and says to the image: "My God, I'm a complete buffoon! I'm actually a clown, a joke; even a nut case. It's time for me to quit making public pronouncements of any kind, wh/are vapid and incoherent, and turn myself in to a therapy camp in Northern California for 10 years. What I need is a Haldol IV drip and round-the-clock 'correction' sessions, the tougher the better."

ps2: Be sure to check out her workout tape. Apparently in her 'mind', it was promotional material for her presidential 'campaign'.

5:24 AM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/navy-s-13-billion-carrier-sows-doubt-that-it-can-defend-itself

America's "don't-know-how" ineptitude is scaling new heights.

8:06 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anjin-

Even on a military level, we're pretty much washed up. If Tulsi were made into a Navy carrier, this is what she would look like.

mb

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

Only in Amerikkka can the cops be this stupid and racist... why didnt they just gun him down...
maybe because he was supposed to be white, lol....

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/25/1075552126/black-man-jailed-white-male-felon-similar-name-suing-shane-brown

11:47 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nam-

The more stupidity, the faster the decline. Not clear why they didn't shoot the poor shmuck, however. He was black, what's the problem?

mb

11:53 AM  
Blogger Politically Incorrect Russian Spy said...

John Gray and Ross Douthat on the collapse of liberalism and the decline of the West (the US in particular):

The light that failed: Why liberalism is in crisis

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/01/the-light-that-failed-why-liberalism-is-in-crisis

1:30 PM  
Anonymous Julian said...

The light that failed: Why liberalism is in crisis By John Gray and Ross Douthat
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/01/the-light-that-failed-why-liberalism-is-in-crisis

4:22 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Julian-

Already posted (see above). In future, pls read the blog. Thank you.

mb

6:09 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

Appears that he picked the wrong neighborhood to deliver his message
of salvation. For some locales, religion is not the opiate of the
masses.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ex-miss-america-contestant-husband-230018531.html

2:41 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

They're so smart, down there in Tennessee:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/27/tennessee-school-board-bans-pulitzer-prize-winning-holocaust-novel-maus

3:54 AM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Politically Incorrect Russian,

Yes, Douthat has written some half-decent books, in spite of the fact that he is a New York Times writer. His "The Decadent Society" is a solid B+, and I also enjoyed "Bad Religion. How We became a Nation of Heretics". Here is an interview discussing "The Decadent Society".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brynYSCI2u8

One thing I liked about "The Decadent Society" is that Douthat focuses on the decadence of the entire Western world. I'm rather influenced by Spengler, so this approach appeals to me. America is definitely leading the charge, and we are by far the worst. But read, say, the novels of Houellebecq, and five or six volumes of Theodore Dalrymple (Such as "Life at the Bottom", or "Our Culture, or What's Left of It"), and it becomes very difficult to believe that we are the only ones who are going to go down. No, we are just the most openly and vociferously barbaric and philistine, and hence will be the first to go off the cliff. But the rest of the Western societies will follow, albeit perhaps fifty or a hundred years after us.

Douthat also has a perceptive chapter on climate change and the migrant crisis, and how the former is likely to lead to such an increase in the latter (Especially from counties in places like central Africa, who will be most affected by rising temperatures.), that it will place an intolerable strain on the already teetering societies of the West.

4:04 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OzNn9pWzOU

If you ask me, the vast majority of Republicans deserve to be shot in the face because of things like this.

9:06 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

It's just one district in Alabama, not the 'vast majority'. Careful.

mb

9:36 AM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

Nadine,

An idea that I've had for many years is to amend the U.S. Constitution so that it requires every legislative district (local, state and Congressional) to have at least one right angle on the map. The way that I imagine it, legislative districts would end up having to be in the form of a grid--or close to it.

It might not end gerrymandering, but it'd most likely make the practice more difficult and less effective.

I don't know why I think of solutions to problems that probably few Americans really want solved. It's a defense mechanism developed in response to living in a severely dysfunctional society, I guess.

Wait! Look at one of the solutions that the following lists: algorithms!

https://www.policymap.com/2017/08/solutions-to-gerrymandering/

10:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I think this is something I mentioned b4. I saw a clip of some guy, abt 28 yrs old, standing in front of a Popeye's Chicken store, holding a chicken sandwich. He looks at it, then says to the viewer (very seriously), "Thank you Jesus for my chicken sandwich."

I can't get over the fact that the few critics and commentators who acknowledge that the US is on the way out point to everything in their analysis except the most obvious thing: that in terms of intellectual and emotional development, Americans are a disaster. This young man was not crazy; he was calm and sober. He was, in effect, a 'normal' person. And yet by any rational standard, he was a complete idiot. With this being a kind of norm, how cd America have any future except a dark one? And yet these critics are oblivious to the character of the American people as a significant factor in our decline. I guess it's just not politically correct to label the citizenry 'morons', or turkeys, or douche bags, or buffoons, or complete and utter clowns. But isn't that exactly what they are?

mb

5:18 AM  
Blogger vsoguy said...

To Nadine Bupkis,

I object to your promoting of violence on the blog. Urine and slapping are fine, but guns should be left to the Republicans you seem to despise so much.

The left is even more deranged than the right at this point, and that's coming from a former lifelong registered Democrat.

That's one of the things Dr. Berman has taught me. That the failure of this culture isn't a partisan issue.

Please tone it down. You're causing some of us to lose interest in the greatest blog ever conceived.

Good day

7:32 AM  
Anonymous Athena said...

A silly show (actually it is very funny) but my bf recommended I watch Bojack Horseman over break & it is surprisingly deep philosophically. Might be refreshingly entertaining for this community:

https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800?preventIntent=true

9:12 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

As my grandfather usta say, "The tone makes the music."

mb

9:28 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

This is and was the US empire's future...

https://www.facebook.com/abc13Houston/videos/thank-you-jesus-was-this-your-reaction-to-the-return-of-the-popeyes-louisiana-ki/450542538924215/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo7m8d8M9Jw

10:26 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

The clip I saw had a younger guy in it, but w/the same worship of the Chicken Religion. Bottom line: we're a nation of children.

mb

10:46 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

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

Things are not looking up for American Jews. Most Americans don't know that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, and most American Jews have faced discrimination over the last five years. The hatred and ignorance that define American life never cease to amaze me.

12:12 PM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

Some more brave cops.. how is this crazy country called exceptional...

https://youtu.be/a0G_X17nRXM

1:13 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nam-

Exceptional in violence; in incarceration; in failure of health care; in poor education; in adoration of chicken sandwiches--yes, No. 1 in all of those things!

Nadine-

Heck, a poll of some yrs back revealed that 50% of Americans believe Germany was our ally in WW2, and Russia our enemy. "Hitler" is abt as meaningful a name to most Americans as "Genghis Khan."

mb

2:21 PM  
Anonymous Cel-Ray Tonic said...

I had a few good chuckles reading this:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/28/the-bdsm-passion-play-of-the-capitalocracy/

3:37 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cel-

Kinda says it all, doesn't it? At this pt, only a combo of Tulsi and chicken suppositories can save us. Bill Maher had a recent show in wh/he practically begged Dems to do something serious, instead of beating off. Their response? More beating off!

mb

5:00 PM  
Blogger Rosegarden said...

Today in Pittsburgh, Pennyslvania, just in time for Biden’s local visit to promote his infrastructure bill, this bridge collapsed. A symbol of the general USA collapse? How long before the conspiracy theorists say it was staged?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pittsburghs-forbes-avenue-bridge-collapses-01643376902

5:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Check it out:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/27/opinions/maus-ban-holocaust-teaching-spiegelman-perry/index.html

5:10 PM  
Blogger Politically Incorrect Russian Spy said...

One Erik Rittenberry sums up the whole shitshow, including quotes from Morris Berman, Lewis Mumford, Carl Jung, Robinson Jeffers, and more.

This is somewhere beyond declinism. I'd call this going full Kingsnorth:

https://medium.com/@erikrittenberry/civilization-is-flinging-itself-to-pieces-stand-back-7fcbde22584e

6:04 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Pol-

It's a terrific article, thanks. Only problem I had is: Whom is he speaking to, really? He wants Americans to explore their souls, but what if they no longer have any? Consider this (spot-on) advice:

"Disconnect regularly from the digital madness that has so many of us spiritually benumbed. Unplug and get outside, get healthy, get out of debt, learn a craft or a skill, romp like a madman in nature, find solace in the silence of the infinite, slow down, experiment with plant medicine, read old books, deeply, and learn to grow stronger with less."

I doubt that in a nation of 332 million people, 1000 will take him up on this. In any case, as a companion text to Erik's post, let me suggest this:

https://www.amazon.com/Then-We-Came-End-Novel/dp/031601639X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1KPJNKW1HM1QL&keywords=joshua+ferris&qid=1643413253&s=books&sprefix=joshua+ferris%2Cstripbooks%2C470&sr=1-3

mb

6:43 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: I may have deleted someone's post by accident. If this is you, pls re-send. Thank you.

6:47 PM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

I'm not throwing feminism under the bus. Like any human creation, it has its good points as well as bad.

However, feminism, it seems, has gotten a free pass when it comes to being held accountable. BLM has probably been scrutinized as much in 1 yr. as feminism has in 50.

Therefore, this is a rare damning indictment of feminism:

https://criticaltherapyantidote.org/2021/03/16/how-woke-feminism-kept-me-sick-for-decades-and-how-i-am-rebelling/

11:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Tim-

Very honest essay, thanks. One problem feminism had from the beginning was promising women that they cd "have it all." Wd be great for any of us, male or female, if it were true, but the fact is that life doesn't work that way. Alternatives exclude, and no one can have it all. (Put this under Reality 101.)

mb

5:17 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

“Two chicken sandwiches in every mouth and bbq sauce that flows like the Nile river!” Tulsi 2024 - u go girl!

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/187095

All we have to do is whittle away the hours Biden our time till it happens.

9:59 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

It's rather amusing when 'experts' talk in terms of 'should':

https://www.noemamag.com/the-next-global-order-will-challenge-western-values/

Responsible historians talk in terms of 'likely to happen', instead.

mb

10:42 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: This is what's likely to happen (for example), as opposed to extracting head from buttocks:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/29/politics/pentagon-hypersonic-weapon-meeting/index.html

10:47 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...


USian driver becomes frustrated with another driver as he headed southbound on I-95-Florida; feeling threatened, a shoot out ensues.

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/caught-on-camera-driver-fires-at-another-during-road-rage-incident-on-i-95/26741

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/road-rage-shooting-captured-by-in-car-camera-viewed-more-than-450k-times/ar-AAThhLJ

These folks are your neighbors.


12:47 PM  

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