https://medium.com/@tamcgath/you-wont-say-it-so-i-will-capitalism-is-the-underlying-cause-of-mass-shootings-in-the-us-8266508ccdfe
ReplyDelete'You won’t say it, so I will: capitalism is the underlying cause of mass shootings in the US'
Welp....
Devon-
ReplyDeleteNice read. Waferism is spreading slowly among a handful of intelligent people in the US. But I hafta say, in his last 2-3 paras he departs from reality.
mb
Fry -
ReplyDeleteAdding to Bill's list of recommended books (last thread), here are two more novels from the last century to add to your reading list:
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1935)
You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe (1940, published posthumously)
Both novels demonstrate that the roots of Merica's current decline lay in U.S. culture and mores that have been around for a long time but now have an expired shelf life.
Dr. MB and all fellow Wafers worldwide:
ReplyDeleteToday, I bring to your attention a book review article and discussion about depression, about how we view depression as an individual's brain chemistry problem instead of a " larger social, cultural and even political contexts that contribute to emotional suffering". In other words, depression has a cultural origination as well.
Quoting the review :
" Hari eloquently states this case in his last chapter, when he says: “You aren’t a machine with broken parts. You are an animal whose needs are not being met. You need to have a community. You need to have meaningful values, not the junk values you’ve been pumped full of all your life, telling you happiness comes through money and buying objects. You need to have meaningful work. You need the natural world. You need to feel you are respected. You need a secure future. You need connections to all these things. You need to release any shame you might feel for having been mistreated.”
The book is : Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions
by Johann Hari
Link: http://a.co/b8tkjl4
The review is found here: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/will-take-political-revolution-cure-epidemic-depression.html
Good article Dev, I liked the quote within the article I hadn't heard before:
ReplyDelete"The philosopher Byung-Chul Han states that under neoliberalism, “Every individual is master and slave in one. This also means that class struggle has become an internal struggle with oneself. Today, anyone who fails to succeed blames themselves and feels ashamed.”"
Good interview MB, glad you brought up the environmental/human cost of heavy metals in smart phones, etc.
Trout-
ReplyDeleteJesus, is fucking everyone turning into a Wafer? Where's my Nobel Peace Prize?
mb
Don't worry, MB. I'm working on that Peace Prize thing. But I need you to kill some more civilians with drones, especially those pesky foreign children who we all know will grow up to be terrorists. Then, if you can destroy a country like Libya by forcing its people to watch a botox-infused face on TV for 24 hours without bathroom or rest breaks, that should cinch it.
ReplyDeleteAll I want for my services is a first row seat at the award ceremonies so I can sing Lennon's "Imagine" during your acceptance speech. Carry on.
pole-
ReplyDeleteAhhh...I dunno. Sweden is surely aware of the existence of the Great Seer of the Western Hemisphere (GSWH), and yet they do nothing. Are my feelings hurt or what? But inasmuch as I am (as you all know) an extremely optimistic kinda guy, I have already prepared my Nobel acceptance speech, which is entitled "Turkeys out of Control."
mb
BARBER PUMMELING!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fox5ny.com/news/3-people-attack-barber
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170728-the-greatest-film-maker-who-ever-lived
ReplyDeleteon Ingmar Bergman
Here is A working hyperlink to the Psychowarfare.com interview.
ReplyDeleteWAFERS--sent Dr. Berman's interview link to an american 'friend' and she went bat shit.
ReplyDeleteVery predictable the american rage and anger. She stated enough already, and said what's his (Dr. Berman's) problem? Attitude determines altitude....The typical robotic american hopey/dopey/happy talk drivel.
She thought that the us is going through a temporary rough patche, but it always come out on top, stop being negative, and do something productive, focus on the positive yammer.
I told her, I realistically focus on the positive b/c I got the fuck out. Phone went click. One less american in my life. Hallejulah!
Mike-
ReplyDeleteThis is *good*! 1st of all, you hardly need a douche bag like her in yr life. 2nd, remember that the deeper/wider the ignorance and denial, the faster the collapse. W/o knowing it, she's actually on our side. 3rd, Gore Vidal once said: "Stupidity excites me." Well, it excites me as well; but what also excites me is when Americans go totally bat shit over the things I say. You may also find this exciting. I encourage you to keep sending the link out to any and all Americans you know.
mb
When can we have whole Amerika run on this 'community' model? I mean what's taking so long?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/553913/ice-immigration-detention/
This'll be your monastery for those seeking NMI here. You really think they'll leave you alone? Read history -you'll know.
[Moore speaking to Evan McCollum, Director of Communications at a Lockheed Martin plant near Columbine]
Michael Moore: "So you don't think our kids say to themselves, 'Dad goes off to the factory every day, he builds missiles of mass destruction.' What's the difference between that mass destruction and the mass destruction over at Columbine High School?"
McCollum: I don't see that specific connection because the missiles that you're talking about were built and designed to defend us.."
Michael Moore: [Interrupting] It doesn't say gun. It says "arms".
John Nichols: Arms. What is "arms"?
Michael Moore: Could be a nuclear weapon.
John Nichols: [Moves his arm about] It's not these - That's right. It could be a nuclear weapon.
Michael Moore: Do you think you should have the right to have weapons-grade plutonium here in the farm field?
John Nichols: We should be able to have anything...
https://www.clowncrack.com/2018/02/12/tongue-and-groove/
I'm reminded that the word "American" properly applies to all residents of the western hemisphere, as people from Canada to Argentina sometimes point out. This first happened in my experience when I was only eight years old, coming from the Canadian neighbor couple who were my Cub Scout den mother and dad. "We are Americans, too. You are United Statesans", they said.
ReplyDelete"United Statesans" is too ungainly a word, I think. But a distinctive term is indeed needed, and this need increases daily as the behavior of citizens of the United States pejorates the word "American" more and more. Who better than Wafers to find one? I propose a little contest to that end. Being more practical than imaginative, I suggest simply "USians"-- pronounced either "use-yans" or "ooze-yans". Either pronunciation seems apt.
Al-
ReplyDeleteEstadounidenses.
US Persons.
Shmucks.
mb
ZenCitizen - how excellent to know a fellow DishHead is on the board! I miss Sully's blog but I understand it almost (literally) killed him. He writes extensively on how technology most definitely is not neutral and US culture resembles the Sargasso Sea. In this way, he is also a Wafer. I also get that special Wafer feeling from Paul Krugman sometimes- you can tell he is (almost) ready to throw in the towel on the whole damn country.
ReplyDeleteFYI- Joe Rogan's podcast has an interview with Johann Hari:
https://youtu.be/DQUgd9GQtoQ
His podcasts in general are quite good. His interviews (and there are many) with Jordan Peterson are good as well.
Is everyone turning into a Wafer? Well, I certainly hope so inasmuch as it is the only rational way forward in a society run off the rails. It will be interesting to see how the corporate media and pundits 'handles' Waferism if it gains more acceptance. My guess is that it would simply be dismissive i.e. too negative without analyzing or critiquing the underlaying argument (which is undeniable).
BrotherMaynard
Bro-
ReplyDeleteI remember yrs ago, after I published the Reenchantment bk, a friend of mine said (ironically), "Now all you need is for Rolling Stone to do the Reenchantment issue."
Ugh. Marcuse said that capitalism is capable of absorbing anything. So imagine Wafer cups and dishtowels and ashtrays being sold at airports, and a rock group starting up called The Wafers, and billboards saying WAFERISM: BRINGING DOWN THE CORPORATE STRUCTURE, and a Coca-Wafer soft drink, and a new dance called The Wafer ("C'mon baby, let's do the Wafe..."), and of course major backing from the Catholic Church ("2-4-6-8, Time to transubstantiate!"). And then, of course, I kill myself, and the Mint puts my face on a new Forever stamp. Lordy, there is just no way to win.
mb
This looks gd:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Fortress-America-Embraced-Abandoned-Democracy/dp/0465055923/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519708445&sr=1-1&keywords=fortress+america
ps: Also check out Michael Ignatieff, "Who Killed Frank Olson?", NYRB, Feb. 22.
ReplyDeleteOpen question - does anybody notice how the WAF perspective gets gradually more obvious as you age into it? Maybe it's just weird bc I'm young, or maybe collapse is accelerating, idk. But I used to realize I had very different views, in say high school. I cared to show people why Glenn Beck or Rachel Maddow were wrong. By my late 20s, I just listen to 'In Our Time' whenever I have time for media, and just assume that any serious adult would realize everybody on TV is a troll.
ReplyDeleteMaybe older people with families and such haven't gotten there yet, but I think it's the perspective of many younger people. When the country becomes the Onion before you turn 30... I have nothing left to say anymore. No more troll traps. Just Melvyn Bragg discussing fungi and T.S. Elliot.
"If accepted, the extended mind thesis threatens widespread cultural assumptions about the inviolate nature of thought, which sits at the heart of most legal and social norms"
ReplyDeleteVery interesting extended mind theory. And I knew we were turning in2 our cell phones
https://aeon.co/ideas/are-you-just-inside-your-skin-or-is-your-smartphone-part-of-you
GBP-
ReplyDeleteAlso check this out:
https://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-Brain-Consciousness-Culture-Free-ebook/dp/B00J8LQVTQ/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519734534&sr=1-13&keywords=roger+bartra
Dio-
Once you know all that, it's time to leave, esp. if yr young. What do you think is waiting 4u, 40 yrs down the line? Pure misery, if you stay. You deserve a better life.
mb
MB - In relation to your reply to Bro, it seems to me you are like a modern Socrates. As I understand it, Socrates questioned nearly everything in the society around him and angered all of the established authorities for challenging them (charged with corrupting the youth). Nowadays they wouldn't give you the option of drinking hemlock, though. I think the modern method is character assassination and making someone irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteChildren struggle to hold pencils due to too much tech, doctors say in The Guardian.
ReplyDeleteTo Dr. MB and all fellow Wafers:
ReplyDeleteToday, I nominate Umair Haque as a fellow Wafer. Writing at the website Medium, found here : https://eand.co/ , Umair has authored such articles titled :
"Why America is the World’s Most Uniquely Cruel Society" https://eand.co/why-is-america-the-worlds-most-uniquely-cruel-society-f67afc5c6b9a
"Why American Collapse is Only Just Beginning (Not Ending)" https://eand.co/why-american-collapse-is-only-just-beginning-not-ending-21cac6b14533
"How America’s Quality of Life Imploded" https://eand.co/why-does-america-have-such-a-uniquely-low-quality-of-life-cda909d647d0
"Why is America the Rich World’s Most Extremely Violent Society?" https://eand.co/why-is-america-the-rich-worlds-most-ultraviolent-society-2d9f0fa084c6
These articles were written in February. Welcome aboard, Umair!
Kashe-
ReplyDeleteNo need for character assassination in my case, really: I'm already irrelevant. I'm not even on the radar screen; the established authorities don't know I exist and wdn't care if they did. What kind of threat do I pose? Beyond the fact that Americans don't read anymore, 99% of them wd reject outright what I hafta say if they did read. I can't get articles published; I rarely get invited to speak, in the US; and sales of my bks are comparatively low. I'm almost completely invisible, and I don't see that changing in my lifetime. Socrates, at least, had an audience (even if it was a hostile one).
But in terms of a fulfilled life, I'm not sure any of this matters, as I argue in SSIG. Erik Erikson wrote that in the final stage of life, the final evaluation, the opposing categories are integrity vs. despair. What this refers to is whether the individual lived his or her own life, i.e. from an inner source, or whether s/he followed society's rules and did what s/he was 'supposed' to do. On that score, I think the record is clear.
Thinking in terms more broadly than myself, however, I think that for Americans, Erikson's description of the final stage of life applies to all age groups. I have argued that one reason for the violence and craziness of the US today is that the American Dream has failed, and Americans are bitter about it. Which I think is true, but I also think there is a deeper, unconscious level. Because the A.D. falls into the category of doing what society tells you to do, and even success in this way of living is ultimately empty. (Think Obama, or Lloyd Blankfein) John Ruskin spoke of real success, which is to say integrity, when he wrote, "There is no wealth but life." Very few Americans--esp. young Americans, for whom I feel very sad--have this (true) wealth, this integrity. Instead, they clutch their smartphones and live in despair, in quiet desperation. This is the deeper level, that they have no spiritual compass to guide them. All they have is a broken A.D., technology, organized religion, or New Age bullshit (Oprah as guru).
In the Twilight bk, I argued that one factor in the decline of a civilization was spiritual death. Most political pundits have yet to realize that this is going on, largely because they themselves are hustlers, trying to be rich and famous. Yet 18 yrs after Twilight, what cd be more obvious? We have nothing to believe in, and spend a lot of time denying the fact that we are spiritually dead.
Many years ago, Fritz Perls told the story of a Mexican 'wetback' who swam across the Rio Grande (we call it the Rio Bravo, down here) in Sept. to find work in the US. He swam back for the Xmas holidays, and his family was curious as to what life was like in the US. "The gringos are very nice people," he told them; "there is only one thing that upsets them: they don't like to be reminded that they are corpses."
mb
Required rdg dept.:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/How-Break-Up-Your-Phone/dp/039958112X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519749045&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+break+up+with+your+phone
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Many thanks for the terrific interview. It's a nice distillation of yr ideas and research.
Pablum dept.:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/opinion/the-force-of-decency-awakens.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/opinion/millennials-college-hopeful.html
And, finally, Shameka Latrice opened fire in a crowded theater during dispute over assigned seats at a screening of "Black Panther":
http://www.reflector.com/Crime-and-Rescue/2018/02/26/Tarboro-woman-makes-first-appearance-in-AMC-Theater-shooting.html
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteShaneka, move over; here comes Shameka! I'm tellin' ya, the US is a regular brain trust.
mb
I enjoyed the interview, particularly the five factors of imperial decline and the discussion of negative identity.
ReplyDeleteI have sent it to a few friends up here in Canada who have not received it enthusiastically. So the resistence to reality is not confined to the USA.
I have been reading The Fate of Rome - Climate, Disease and The End of an Empire by Kyle Harper. He makes a compelling arguement that climate change and disease had a big hand in Romes decline and collapse. Quite interesting reading.
And I think climeate change and disease could be added as a possible wild card sixth factor in the decline of the USA and the modern world.For example there was an article on temperature spikes in the Arctic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/its-54-degrees-warmer-than-normal-in-the-arctic/554303/
I wonder what witches brew of pathogens are just waiting to come out of the ice.
I don't think my grandchildren are going to enjoy what is in store for them.
Dio- I used to want to correct people too, a part of me thought it could make a difference. If I correct one person, that person will correct another and then maybe I could make a difference, I thought, I call it the Chris Hedges syndrome. I finally gave that up.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to recommend a documentary, it's called hypernormalization, it's about how the elite have given up on the complex world and instead built a simple fake world to keep people happy. It talks about how during the 20 years before the Soviet Union collapsed, everyone knew it was over but since no one could imagine any alternative, they all just pretended everything was fine and kept up appearances. So the fakeness became the reality and no one questioned it. I think that's what's happening in the USA, everyone knows deep inside that the empire is done, but no one wants to believe it, so we keep up appearances, elect a liar who will pretend he can make America great again, etc. The documentary also talks about how the bankers forced politicians to "sell" them New York if they wanted to get bailed out and about the rise Donald Trump. Also a bit on Russia, Russia is a master on propaganda. They literally film Putin in some place a week in advance and then tell the Russian public Putin is there a week later for no reason other than to confuse the public, I think this is what Trump is doing, it's hard to believe that he is as stupid as he seems.
Anjin-
ReplyDeleteA pity. I was hoping for a more intelligent response from Canadians. Oh well.
mb
Douchebag Democrats on parade: Teen Confronts (Democratic) Congressional Candidate Over His 100 Percent NRA Rating.
ReplyDeleteMore legislative gun douchebaggery: Iowa Grants Gun Permits to the Blind.
The perils of trying to be a hero in modern America: Texas police shoot man who disarmed possible church shooter. No points for guessing that the hero was black.
The gun issue insanity is obviously one prime example of Shmuckistan's rapid descent into oblivion. My personal take is that four decades of relentless conservative pandering to NRA combined with liberal fecklessness (remember Clinton taking time out from his 1992 campaign to blow away some poor deer to show what "tough guy" he was) has created a real monster that even the wingnut politicians are now afraid to cross. They encouraged the gun nuts to arm themselves to the teeth (statistics show that 90% of all guns are owned by just 10% of households) and in the process took away many good paying working class jobs and destroyed their communities economically. So now you have a potential national militia possibly millions strong who would go absolutely batshit at any attempt to curb gun ownership, and at the next major economic downturn will likely go batshit anyway.
Great job, Schmucks. O&D
On Fortress America - Americans have embraced fear because they've been told for decades that the world is a fearful place, enemies are trying to destroy them, so they better hole up in their homes, watch TV and be ready to defend themselves. Daily/nightly TV news is filled with the worst of American society - shootings (mass and otherwise), robberies, tortures, car crashes (the bloodier the better), storms. Studies have shown that people who watch a lot of TV (99% of Americans)have a warped view of the world. Kids are told not to trust adults. TV stations give their local weather reports names like "StormTrack Weather" and advise their listeners to tune in at all times of the day and night because the weather can be dangerous to you and your family. And "We're here to keep you safe". Who benefits from all this crap? Gun manufacturers, TV networks, pharmaceutical companies, and all others who make money from Americans remaining in the safety of their homes. The result - a lack of trust and anxiety levels thru the roof. A scared public is also a more easily controlled public. Don't worry; we will protect you. All you have to do is relinquish a few freedoms and promise not to march in the streets, and we'll keep you safe. It's an old scam. Freedom for security. Good-bye American - we hardly knew thee.
ReplyDeleteWell..if Waferism does catch on I'll be the first one to purchase 'I was a Wafer before it was cool' bumper sticker...
ReplyDeleteAnjin- climate change will also release large quantities of trapped Methane along with pathogens. Methane is 10x more effective at trapping heat than CO2. I myself am pretty sure we (and by 'we' I mean humanity) are fucked...our greed destroyed us. No one can stop it (not that they would even want to).
I've long believed that our education system is so bad ON PURPOSE. Do you really think the owners of this country want a well read and informed citizenry? Folks who ask a lot of questions and can critique our media/society/culture? If we wanted smart people, we could have copied the education models of Finland, Singapore and South Korea a long time ago. I've read that Asian high school students are equivalent to our college grads. American high school math is done at roughly the 5th or 6th grade level in Singapore. This can't be an accident.
BrotherMaynard
Bro-
ReplyDeleteI doubt it's a conspiracy. Anti-intellectualism in American life (cf. Richard Hofstadter) runs very deep. There's no respect for learning in America, in fact just the opposite. Only certain ethnic groups value scholarship, such as Jews and Asians--it's in their tradition. The rest consider knowledge something for nerds and squares. Let on that you care abt things like chess or poetry in high schl, and you are ridiculed and/or ostracized.
You can see this, for example, in the series "Friends." Ross Geller is the only one with intellectual interests, wh/the other 5 typically make fun of. If he tries to talk abt evolution, for example, they all pretend to go to sleep. Why he wd be interested in Rachel, aside from her looks, is a mystery: she ridicules his claim to be a doctor (Ph.D.), and has no interest whatsoever in his work or more generally the world of ideas. Ross stands out as a very odd duck in that crowd, and in real life I doubt someone like him wd bond strongly with a group of folks who are pretty superficial, and who have no larger interests beyond themselves. A pretty gd portrait of Americans in general, it seems to me.
Turning to "Seinfeld," no one in that gang of four spends 5 mins. per day reading a book. This superficiality is made very clear in an episode called "The Bizarro Jerry," which includes a group of friends that are the inverted mirror image of Kramer, George, and Jerry, and who spend hrs at the library rdg. Elaine tries to switch groups, but the Bizarros finally reject her; she comes off as a bit of a jackass in their context.
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteYou want intelligence from Canadians? Fergit it. Have you heard of the antics of our jive turkey prime minister?
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/9kzgwy/justin-trudeaus-celebrity-schtick-has-finally-blown-up-in-his-face
http://angryarab.blogspot.ca/2018/02/the-canadian-clown.html
I dread the day that the Rolling Stones decide to return for a Canadian tour. This bozo has already shown that he's his mother's son.
Hi al-Qa'bong,
ReplyDeleteHere is a random sample from the media about recent Trudeau's India trip:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/22/trudeaus-india-trip-is-a-total-disaster-and-he-has-himself-to-blame/?utm_term=.98a85d074558
"I confess, from afar, I used to be a Trudeau fan-girl. But after this trip, I’ve changed my mind. Trudeau has come across as flighty and facetious. His orchestrated dance moves and multiple costume changes in heavily embroidered kurtas and sherwanis make him look more like an actor on a movie set or a guest at a wedding than a politician who is here to talk business."
Trudeau is ridiculous to be sure, but like Estadounidenses, we never have any real choices anyway. Voting just encourages them, give it up, it's liberating.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada I certainly think MB's ideas will find a more sympathetic audience, we aren't quite as consumer driven and our society is more egalitarian than America's.
Everyone I know who isn't stupid is depressed, that's got to mean something.
The USA is decadent and depraved...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/19/the-united-states-of-america-is-decadent-and-depraved/amp/
John Harris has an article on how Steven Pinker’s new book is being used to justify ignoring the problems that brought us Trump and Brexit. Here is a great quote from the article:
ReplyDelete“It may fly in the face of the boundless optimism proffered by Pinker, but in a lot of these places [that voted for Trump or Brexit], in terms of basic security and a collective belief in the future, life was probably better 40 or 50 years ago.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/26/have-nots-denigration-brexit-trump
Thomas Frank once pointed out that in some cases nostalgia makes sense and is not just a product of looking at the past with rose-colored glasses. Unfortunately if you say anything good about the past you are likely to be painted as a racist or a sexist or an idiot who cannot see all of the progress we are supposedly making.
When Alan Ehrenhalt wrote his book “The Lost City” praising some aspects of the 1950s he was accused of being soft on segregation and corruption. I believe that Eugene Genovese also received harsh treatment over his work on the American South. I find this lack of nuanced thinking about the past to be very widespread.
jj-
ReplyDeleteA remarkable article; hard to believe it was published by Foreign Policy. The guy is clearly a Wafer. He talks abt the American *people* being Trump; refers to Robt Musil (no mention of my own novel of the same name, altho I quickly admit that I am no Musil); and refers to "the hysterical overreaction that seems to govern almost everything in our lives." No kidding. The only error he makes--this is so typical of US critics--is that there is a 'way back', namely that we "reclaim the common ground." Sorry, Traub; that just ain't gonna happen. Our goose is thoroughly cooked. We are decadent and depraved, as he says, but we are also degraded and debased: 325 million douche bags marching toward oblivion.
mb
ps: Once again, I am amazed that so Waferish an essay wd be published by a very mainstream journal. Waferism may be starting to seep into the body politic. I feel like we are becoming famous anonymously.
ReplyDeleteTom-
ReplyDeletePinker is great evidence for the argument I have repeatedly made here, that most Americans who happen to have high IQ's are actually quite dumb. Re: Genovese: check out WAF, ch. 4. As for nuance: largely nonexistent, in the US. We aren't exactly a nation of sophisticated thinkers.
mb
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteUmair Haque's most recent essay on the American Collapse makes for chilling but not unexpected reading since he has been spot on with every essay of his I've read. Too bad something like this couldn't make the evening news - people may at some level be feeling this but they need to hear it even if consciously they deny it - and they need to hear it again and again.
https://eand.co/why-american-collapse-is-only-just-beginning-not-ending-21cac6b14533
Michael-
ReplyDeleteWhat we now have in the US is a handful of people who realize what is happening, and 325 million turkeys who do not. I doubt that ratio will change during my lifetime.
mb
Latest vignette of douche bags in action:
ReplyDeleteI have an Italian friend, let's call her Giordana Bruno, who lives in NY. She's abt 35 yrs old, w/a very engaging personality. Recently she was somewhere where there are stairs; perhaps the subway, I can't remember. An elderly lady at the bottom of the stairs was struggling to walk up. So Giordana, not being an American, helped her up the stairs. But all the while, the lady acted very nervous, and kept looking at Giordana suspiciously. ("What could be this girl's motive?"--to help you, you American imbecile.) Giordana wrote me, "I really hafta return to Italy; I can't take much more of this." All of which demonstrates that in the US, even the elderly are douche bags. Man, what a country.
mb
Mike, thanks for introducing Umair Haque's stuff, I really liked his work. This essay really hit home: https://eand.co/why-does-america-have-such-a-uniquely-low-quality-of-life-cda909d647d0
ReplyDeleteIt hit home, literally, because I am in the process of (trying to) buy a small house, but with my giant student loan debt and modest income (plus living in the Twin Cities) it is proving impossible.
Oh, and this one of his should be required reading for any of us stuck in the US trying to be an NMI and stay sane: https://eand.co/why-americans-should-admit-theyre-traumatized-by-collapse-c14a914b4cde. I've said it many time here before, becoming a WAFer is a very difficult and emotional thing!
Past-
ReplyDeleteHaque concludes by saying he hopes Americans can mature a little bit. Wha? How can shitheads mature? Turds don't mature; they get darker and harder. Smellier, too.
mb
Anyone doubting the theory of evolution should take a look @ pics of Steve Winn can there be any doubt this barely evolved ape's singular mission in life is to fleece and fuck everything/one in his path. And oh yeah, he only developed one of 'Merica's favorite destinations - Go Raiders!
ReplyDelete@Student - I sent Dr. Berman a few other Adam Curtis documentaries some years back. If you liked Hypernormalisation you should also check out The Trap and The Century of Self. Those are on YouTube I believe, but Curtis has an extensive library of films he's done with the BBC. If you search for him on a torrent site you should be able to pull down most of his work. It's quite good.
ReplyDelete@Dr. B - The experience your Italian friend had with the old woman is unfortunately the norm. I was raised to be nice and to help others, but I've noticed the same thing. Offering help, some people are just really put off by it. And I think you're right, it's the "What's his angle?" way of looking at someone extending a hand. A few are grateful, but most just want to shoo you away. Others think that if you're nice you must be weak and can be taken advantage of.
One other note. Someone said here earlier that everyone they know who can think is depressed. I would add that a lot of people have escaped into alcohol. I'm 44, and a lot of people I know, while not quite alcoholics, are still dependent on alcohol and can't get through a day without having a drink.
WAFERS--the friend whom I sent Dr. Berman's interview (and hung up on me in a rage) emailed me with with how america is great and how we can make it better if we do this and that etc...and that I'm too negative and need to relax, get therapy, and return to the states.
ReplyDeleteI told her --1. Respectfully, What planet are you on? 2. I am realistically happy in my adoptive country (hold citizenship, renouncing us shortly) and be my genuine self, 3. We cannot be 'friends' because I cannot be my authentic self. Moreover, every discussion would be pressured with having to be on the defensive, over explanations etc... 4. It's exhausting having to answer questions all the time about basic us history, philosophy,. 5. If one returns to in the us, they certainly need therapy--as well as opioids, prescription drugs, alcohol, screen addictions, etc...--great suggestion!
Wished her the best, and adios.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteJust one more:
6. It makes me sad to realize that your head is filled with goat droppings.
mb
Dual Process in action in Germany:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/28/small-town-wolfhagen-community-revolution-german-europe-energy-contract
Long live Wafers and do not worry about Pinker, Hedges and Progs. Let them slowly disintegrate. On their deathbeds they'll realise their struggle was all for nothing: "I wish I had been a Wafer but I didn't have the courage. I have wasted my life. Fuck."
Kanye
Another one for the "emerging Wafers" pile: When Empires Die. "Though it can’t be known when our last Imperial Clown will douse the last lights of The Exceptional Empire and drop the keys in the mailbox for the last failed bank–America is showing clear signs of approaching meltdown." My only quibble is that the author is not nearly extensive enough in his condemnation and sticks mostly to criticizing our already brain dead political system.
ReplyDelete@polecat -- you are spot on with your "Fortress America" critique. The deliberate use of fear by our national "leadership," which really got going under Nixon with his covertly racist "Southern strategy" and the simultaneous launching of the war on drugs to detract the country's attention from the fact that (like Obama) he promised to end a war in the 1968 campaign and then promptly reneged.
I think I mentioned this before, but when I was a kid in the 1970s we left our doors unlocked at all times unless we were going out of town. My friends and I spent the whole summer playing outside all day completely unsupervised. By contrast, just the other day while out walking I saw a classic helicopter mother teaching her two kids, who were about 8 & 6, to skate--except that the poor kids were swaddled in heavy clothing, with knee pads, elbow pads and even bike helmets. Poor kids, I thought, doomed to miserable lives in a soul-deadening hellhole that is severely warping their young minds. But at least they are physically "safe" from getting so much as a skinned knee.
seti-
ReplyDelete1st of all, you need to send messages to most recent post; no one reads the older stuff. 2nd, I have no idea who Orange Cringus is, and I don't recall calling him an anti-Semite. 3rd, Your message reads like the Protocol of the Elders of Zion. 4th, you say that this is not anti-Semitic, yet you refer to Jews as 'parasites'. Nice work.
We discussed the issue of Jewish influence on, say, the Iraq war of 2003 in some detail here, and I personally have no problem in noting that the Likudniks had a lot to do with it. I don't doubt that groups like AIPAC have undue influence on US-Israeli policy. But I'm not interested in blanket Jewish conspiracy theories, for reasons previously discussed, and I don't believe that the Jews are out to rule the world. Most American Jews are hustlers, like black Americans, white Americans, yellow Americans, and purple Americans. That they rise to the almost-top of the pile (there cd never be a Jewish president, for example) is no surprise: they are smart, and historically rise to the almost-top of nearly every society they have inhabited, unless there is a quota system (Germany, Russia, US university systems in yrs gone by, etc.). In any case, there is no need for this blog to rehash all of that all over again; and as for yourself, you need to go somewhere else. Believe me, there are many, many blogs that regard the Jews as parasites, and I'm guessing you'll find a more congenial reception there. (How do farmers deal w/parasites? Gas.)
Kanye-
Terrific example of Dual Process. Cd never happen in the US, fa shur. As for Pinker et al.: I don't know abt progs in general, but we won't have Tolstoy/Ivan Ilyich deathbed scenes for Pinker and Hedges; of that, I am certain. They won't realize shit on their deathbeds. Over and over again Reality (aka History) has knocked Hedges on the head, trying to wake him up, and w/the exception of a rare declinist essay or two, he refuses to admit the truth abt the US and his own ridiculous calls for revolution. (He'll be yelling: "I showed them! I fought the good fight!") And as the US goes down the toilet, Pinker will be praising it and 'progress'. And part of the decline is the ability of the US to produce ontological morons like these guys, and have millions of Americans adoring them.
mb
To Crow and others who mentioned the American animosity - I believe it is the result of social anxiety, since we built out cities for cars, people aren't really used to talking to other humans. Being in your head is ok, in other societies this is completely unacceptable, you are supposed to be social in the presence of other people.
ReplyDeleteBro - I think Chomsky shares your point of view on the educational system being so bad on purpose, I used to believe he was right but when I look at my own experience, I realize that my education was as good as I could have asked for. I would have liked to take logic courses but that's it. There is so many classes for retarded people but there is also classes for advanced students, AP, dual enrollment, AVID, tutoring, GED, community college, financial aid, scholarships, etc. Americans just don't value education, on the other hand, asians go over board, I think some asian parents are forcing middle schoolers to do research and the worst part of all is that they are exporting their tiger parenting to America. All American universities are filled with asians but I know a good amount of them, they seem to lack internality, they are good at mechanical work but that's it. Regardless even my Jewish friends are struggling to compete against them, but even then, they rarely raise to management positions and rarely make any original startups, most of the important discoveries were done by jews and europeans, I think it will continue being that way. Not Americans of European descent though, this country doesn't produce geniuses, we can only import them.
@MB, @Lobo, Good read: BENGAL NIGHTS, By Mircea Eliade & IT DOES NOT DIE, By Maitreyi Devi. Eloquent prose, both authentic in their integrity. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-27/books/bk-38810_1_mircea-eliade-chicago-press-love
ReplyDeleteSame life's encounter, but two very different experiences. Mircea, being from the reductive culture, it was detailed (salacious) analysis of the procedure. Maitreyi, raised in mythic tradition, it was holistic "touchy-feely" (@Michael, Umair's essay) sentiments of the non-Euclidean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rP9BkWOpA0
Why do humans toil in such "useless" unproductive endeavors? Who'll then contribute towards the GDP?
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/ellora/attractions/kailasa-temple/a/poi-sig/1292851/356389
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-43079345/ethiopian-cliff-church-gives-priest-daily-test-of-faith
Belman's 'owl in the attic': FIREHAWKS. Would you believe it?
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-02-28/it-s-taken-thousands-years-western-science-finally-catching-indigenous-knowledge
"...when traditional knowledge is seen to challenge scientific “truths” — then its utility is questioned or dismissed as myth. Science is promoted as objective, quantifiable and the foundation for “real” knowledge creation or evaluation while traditional knowledge may be seen as anecdotal, imprecise..."
"The devil may lie hidden in the details (for the reductives to discover), but the angel IS the gist." -Esca
Student-
ReplyDeleteCars just one factor, but yes, a big one (see DAA ch. 7). As for American geniuses: Thos Edison, Thos Wolfe, Lewis Mumford, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Stella, Richard Feynman, Robt Oppenheimer, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, Edgar Allan Poe, Theodore Roethke, Edward Hopper, Frederick Olmstead......(just getting started)
mb
Esca-
ReplyDeleteDid I really write abt Max Marwick? I can't remember.
mb
Re: Education in the US,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in college, I usually ended up becoming friendly with at least one of my professors each semester, speaking with them after class or catching them in their office. Over the span of my attendance I started to notice a pattern in the conversations I had with them. First we would make jokes, but eventually, a kind of confession would emerge.
They would tell me they were shocked over how little knowledge their students retained based on final exam results, how they didn't read assigned material (or didn't read at all), their inability to complete assignments or act respectfully, etc. One wizened old philosophy professor I had told me he felt the university viewed students as "Consumers with dollar signs on their backs"
I don't think the U.S. has deliberately bad education, its been made this way from neglect, political hostility towards academia, and the onslaught of US infotainment culture. And I'm sure some other things I'm leaving out. We have good teachers in this country but they are not allowed to enforce standards because that would make the student-consumers unhappy.
Wudu-
ReplyDeleteA good prof. challenges his students' (usually naïve) beliefs. This then sets up cognitive dissonance, w/wh/they hafta struggle. At the end of the process, they have grown emotionally and intellectually.
This is no longer allowed. If a prof. wants to keep his job, he needs favorable evaluations. If he has fostered cognitive dissonance, he will get negative ones, and eventually be outta work. Who are these students? Silly little turkeys.
mb
Good X-ray of the American psyche: "Molly's Game" (Jessica Chastain).
ReplyDeleteGood discussion about colleges. One small point for student-consumers tho: the university pretty much forces you into that role. You are there to get your union card, and you really can't step outside of whatever box you have created for yourself. It leads to absurd scenarios like having to take another semester to get a gym credit required to graduate.
ReplyDeleteThere's also the fact that American academics are hateful towards any kind of autodidactic practice. I have read a good amount of philosophy, and I remember once seeing an open ad for the date some senior comprehensive exam in philosophy was scheduled. As a little challenge and out of curiosity, I wanted to take it even though I wasn't in the philosophy program. I showed up, and even though there was a small handful of people taking the exam, I was told I could not take it because I was not in the program (the essay questions were preposted publicly, so there couldn't be any confidentiality issue). After some argument, I asked if I could just take the exam for my own pleasure without expecting them to grade or review it. No, absolutely not. I could not possibly even sit in the same room without taking their classes.
"Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity." - Shaw
Btw, it really pains me to read about how older generations of US academics would get advanced degrees in their teens. (Maybe only some foreigners do that in STEM now). Everything is now designed to slow you down and get as much money from you as possible.
I went to What-A-Burger tonight to get something to eat. They gave me an apple pie instead of a lemon pie.
ReplyDeleteWhat should I do??????
Re; college. Law school always appeared to be the biggest ripoff: a stand alone 3 year degree on top of a bachelors. Even the least expensive state supported law school is $20K+/year (Yale is $90K). In other countries, law is an undergraduate degree and combined with some type of apprenticeship. That makes more sense to me. Moreover, many law schools seems to exist solely for the benefit of the law school: they admit unqualified students, charge outrageous tuition, and hook their students on student loans. Of course, their students don't get jobs. One even sued her 4th tier law school for fraud:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lawschooltransparency.com/blog/2011/05/breaking-class-action-suit-filed-against-thomas-jefferson-school-of-law/
For those considering the New Monastic Option, you may want to check out RV'ing full time. Very active blog communities and companies to help you do this. http://www.loveyourrv.com
Many of the blogs contain Wafer thought: folks were living to work, owned by their possessions, no vacation, no community, bland and dull US suburbia, etc.
BrotherMaynard
Brother
On American universities: In the 1990s, I taught a communications course as an adjunct instructor at a state college in western NC. I was well organized and presented the material in what I thought was an engaging way. Nevertheless, the most common critique in the standard evaluation forms was that the class had not been as "entertaining and fun" as it could have been. It was as if learning the material was a secondary consideration and not worth doing if not presented in an entertaining way - whatever that means.
ReplyDeleteOn a related matter, an excellent article in The Baffler, No. 36, Fall, 2017 discusses the funding of libertarian centers on college campuses to indoctrinate students in free-enterprise and unregulated capitalism. Many of the centers are funded by the Koch brothers (notorious libertarians). "As state funding for public universaties has plunged ... the pursuit of higher learning is returning to its pre-university roots: the patron-client model of the Renaissance. To the extent that they thrive, the very foundation of higher education in the United States will wither away." (if it hasn't already)
BH-
ReplyDeleteYou know the answer. Shaneka Torres is our hero, and if we ever develop a Wafer Shield, an emblem of our greatness, Shaneka's face will be on it, large as life.
Go, Shaneka!
Go, Trumpi!
Go, destruction of higher education!
mb
Dr. B:
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting-
http://lancasteronline.com/news/national/worshippers-clutching-ar--rifles-hold-commitment-ceremony-at-pennsylvania/article_c22f1166-98c5-5787-b7e0-4a353bc801fc.html
Birn-
ReplyDeleteFrom a declinist pt of view, this is abs. wonderful. I support and encourage gatherings of this sort, and any declaration that Guns Are Love. I am particularly worried abt Trumpi's recent statement abt how America needs a 'comprehensive' plan for gun control. The only comprehensive plan we need, from a declinist pt of view, is that every single resident in the US be armed to the teeth.
In other news: check this out:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/01/how-americas-identity-politics-went-from-inclusion-to-division
mb
What changed about education where you have to have so many years of schooling to get certain positions? My great grandfather was an attorney and he read the law on his own and worked for an attorney for a couple of years before taking the bar exam and passing it. I understand we have computers now and we may have had more court cases b ut we have had more court cases year after year increase the size of the books and their number yet law school hasn't added more years of study because of it. And people can take a class to learn how to use a computer or just ask a young kid how to figure out how to work one.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot, often times up to 100 books on a subject matter. I also have training in checking sources, using author reviews and book reviews, beware of slant and hidden agendas by authors, ect. When I was in grad scholl at most I read ten books in a class. Why can't a test be developed where I can take it and get credit for the grad class. They will let you clep out of undergraduate but will not allow it on graduate level. Is it because the graduate level is not considered the professional level?
I don't want to offend anyone or say that those who earned their degrees don't deserve their rights the law says they may have in earning their degree. I have just always been curious about the above though. And if you know why things are the way they are and think I'm an idiot go ahead and tell me but tell me nevertheless.
Bro, I agree with you about our public education system, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller: “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” I also agree with Morris that America is extremely anti-intellectual, but how did that happen? It seems to me that speeches not all that long ago were more challenging and nuanced then the third-grade ramblings of Donald J. Trump.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings are incredibly easy to manipulate, and concerted brainwashing is almost always successful. We could be producing great music, art, literature, film, etc., yet junk is opted for almost every time. I guess the question is, are they simply giving Americans what they want because Americans are just naturally degraded douche bags, or have Americans been manipulated into liking crap and thinking it’s great?
After years of observing what's going on, I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn't all happening by accident, that there's a driving force, some kind of an agenda, behind a lot of it. After all, the attendees at Davos, the Bilderbergers, etc., are not meeting to figure out ways of improving the lot of mankind. But is there a grand conspiracy? I don’t know.
I recently came across an article that some Wafers may find interesting. Personally, I've long thought that the Neocons were the key political group in accellerating the spiritual/moral destruction of American society over the past nearly two decades (material destruction that they have wrought on the Middle East and other areas around the globe aside). I've also brought up a few times here on this blog that the Dems and many Progs seem to have fully embraced them in the Trump era.
ReplyDeleteSeeing "liberal" talk show hosts, celebs, and pundits hug GWB live on TV and praise ghouls like Kristol and Max Boot is one of the few things that can still get me upset where politics are concerned.
Anyways, I thought others may want to read this piece from Greenwald: https://theintercept.com/2017/07/17/with-new-d-c-policy-group-dems-continue-to-rehabilitate-and-unify-with-bush-era-neocons/. His brief points on why the Neocons loath DT are also something I've thought for quite a while, though I disagree that Trumpi has been brought to heel in that regard.
Dr. Berman/WAFERS--apologies if violating the 24h rule--travelling, crossing time zones.
ReplyDeleteamerican academic greatness!
A Georgia teacher was arrested after he barricaded himself in a classroom and fired his handgun http://cnn.it/2F8ERR1
Grettings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteHere's a little ditty about early identity politics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCdfYkUPvTs
Meanwhile, I'm sad to see Hope Hicks resign. I've read that Trumpi is now feeling quite Hope-less.
Miles
Packed at last. Possessions and house sold. I feel good. I came to U.S, basically to improve my economic situation. I did but lost so much time. In the abstract I knew what I was getting into but over time the emptiness of life oriented toward acquisition, work, sleep, eating bit of sex and back to work, and lather rinse and repeat. While the americans are indeed corpses and I have to add my fellow immigrants are no great shakes either. Most everyone is here to make a buck or to escape some unimagineable life situation and happy to drive a cab and have some food and hustle. There is (or has been) great inventive capacity and energy in americans and immigrants but it seems most of that energy has been turned to hustling or devising technological fripperies. Life is indeed hard and I have no illusions that life will be Xanadu back in Mexico but my day to day life will be far better in terms of dignity, friendship and more laughter. Life in the u.s. seems to me to be a sort of electronic media Potemkin village with outrage (which supposes some value system) ideal selves, myth, fantasy and distraction going full blast. If you strip away the fantasy narrative of what is presented in myriad screens what else is there? The straw that broke my back--coworkers finding tidbits on Mexico (all negative) on their smart phone and then barraging me like inquisitors-it was weird they were acting as if human extensions of the contents of their phone.
ReplyDeleteTicia here;
ReplyDeletehttps://luwianstudies.org/james-mellaart-forged-documents-throughout-life/
Which leads me to ponder "is the exploding volcano supposedly found at Çatal höyük also faked?"
http://artdaily.com/news/102827/Prehistoric--Venus--statue-too-hot-for-Facebook#.Wpg9Iejwa01
ReplyDeleteHAHAH ...Facebook really is shit. Cannot wait for Zuckerfuck to run in 2020
@MB
ReplyDeleteThe only contention I have with the article is the statement that White America is becoming a minority. In the 2016 US census, Whites now make up 76.9% of the population. Whites as a demographic has increased and the newest tactic by liberals has been to convince elements of the white populous that they aren't really White. So, for example, Arab whiteness is the subject of attack nowadays with many Social Justice clowns arguing that Arabs are "MENA". Forget that Caucasians are all considered White lets cut and carve this group! America is less diverse than Iran which is only 62% Persian. White views of a minority statement seem to be a liberal canard that is not based on reality but based on people's views that multi-ethnic cities are what all of America looks like.
Oh and for people talking about Jewish influence and Israel. The greatest support of Israel comes from Evangelical Christians. The Religious Right and conservatives tend to be the biggest pro-Israel bunch, while at the same time most anti-semetic group.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-10-24/why-american-evangelicals-are-huge-base-support-israel
Thank you @Esca for the comment, book suggestions and video link on the Mircea Eliade and Maitreya story. I enjoyed the gentle handling of the topic in the video.
ReplyDeleteZero Anthropology has an interesting article (https://zeroanthropology.net/2018/02/28/progress-progressivism-and-progressives/) about progress, progressives, etc. and compares current USA to 19th C elites in Latin America. Not having been to or read much about LatAm I can’t say if this is a valid reflection but it certainly reminds me enough of what occurrred in colonial Africa and my own experiences as an inheritor of that context.
This LatAm reflection lead me to remember a book by a South American journalist: Eduardo Galeano’s Mirrors (https://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Stories-Everyone-Eduardo-Galeano/dp/1568586124). It’s a somewhat lyrical retelling of myth and history from the perspective of history’s losers. Something about the meandering way this book shares its stories is deeply immersive, almost hypnotic. One of my favorite books.
Cheers
Lobo
What do Wafers think of Karl Popper? He influenced George Soros a lot so I'm guessing his open society ideas weren't very bad. I know there is a lot of conspiracy theories on Soros but I think conservatives just hate him because he's an anti-israel liberal.
ReplyDeletepolecat - White supremacist are also on the rise and I suspect, feminism, libertarianism and sexual frustration are all related. Link on the the alt-right, feminism, manosphere, and pick up artists.
Conservatives were very smart to infiltrate and radicalize young white men, now we're stuck with an army of trolls and every year the army gets bigger. Link for an article on Steve Bannon and World of Warcraft. Democrats will not be able to match this, their only hope is for women to vote.
Excellent doc film on the life of Philip Larkin. Like so many of our great poets, Larkin did not write for a living but worked a normal job so he was free to write what he wanted, when he wanted. He stopped writing poetry at 55, but despite the more philosophical interpretation of this, I think it was primarily due to his advancing alcoholism.
ReplyDeletePhilip Larkin: Love and Death in Hull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqa6L22m0rY
MB,
ReplyDeleteI think Hedges and Pinker are two different turkeys. Actually, whereas the word turkey strongly applies to Pinker, it's a bit harsh regarding Hedges. I agree that Pinker won't realise shit. He'll probably fight until the end for some kind of tech invention to allow him to replicate his genes and live forever on Mars. Way to go Pinky! Hedges on the other hand, might very well have an Ivan Ilyich moment in the end. Hedges *knows* it's over deep down, but he's not a douchebag. He just misses that ontological moment that makes him realise his "Revolution" is a sham and the final au revoir might very well be it. There's a certain sadness in Hedges that Pinker will never have.
Kanye
It seems the the Nobel Peace Price committee is investigating to determine whether the nomination of Trump-a-Dump for his "ideology of peace by force" is fake somehow had no such concerns when giving the award to Obarfa, who pursued the exact same ideology. Cue liberal douchebags freaking out in 5...4...3...2...1.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the latest batch of American Idiot headlines:
Woman shoots fiancé's dog during argument about cracking back.
Couples lug AR-15 assault rifles to Pennsylvania church blessing.
Woman tried to kill look-alike with poisoned cheesecake, prosecutors say. When cheesecakes are banned, only criminals will possess cheesecakes.
Unlicensed day care worker accused of breaking baby’s legs. Check out the classic "Face of America" mugshot on this one. Interestingly, she appears to be an Hispanic immigrant, which just proves how fast America's corrosive culture can infect someone.
Bonjour de la tombe, Wafeurs et Wafeuses,
ReplyDeleteAcademia was never really about the life of the mind, which is why there is such disdain for autodidacts and freethinkers, as DioGenes points out. Even the top universities are little more than indoctrination factories, with oppressive hierarchies and an insistence upon received orthodoxy lest one be marginalized into irrelevance. There are plenty of geniuses in this world, but they aren’t likely to be found in such settings or to really ever have any sort of recognition during their lifetimes, if ever. Many are too wayward to be able to function at the level required for professional success and end up either reclusive (e.g., Dickinson) or destitute/insane (e.g., Van Gogh).
As for Asians being intellectually superior to other groups, this is hogwash. Most of the ‘successful’ ones are simply bourgeois philistines riding the coattails of the ‘model minority’ stereotype. The school I went to was filled with Asians, and while they were certainly good at jumping through the hoops put in front of them (memorize, regurgitate, supplicate, repeat), most were all about appearances and securing their careers. To be fair, the whites weren’t much better. And these were supposed to be the ‘best and the brightest.’ A joke, really. I had more interesting conversations with the homeless guys shambling around the outskirts of the school than I did with any of these drones.
Farm the syllabi for reading material and hit the library if you’re in it for the love of ideas.
Another shooting at an American school, this time at Central Michigan University. Reports are saying two people are dead and the gunman is at large at the time I write this.
ReplyDeletehttp://fox17online.com/2018/03/02/report-shots-fired-at-central-michigan-university/
Kanye-
ReplyDeleteWell, Hedges certainly comes across as depressed in his interviews. I think this is due to containing a contradiction he can't resolve, and denying what is obviously true. Poor guy.
Ticia-
Thanks for the ref. For a real piece of shit based on Mellaart's work, check out Riane Eisler, "The Chalice and the Blade." See also my discussion of supposed matriarchies in WG, ch. 4.
BH-
24-hr rule. Pls observe it.
mb
@Esca @MB
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of felt very nice seeing a discussion on Mircea Eliade & Maitreyi Devi here. 'It does not die' (or its Sanskrit equivalent) is the name of the book in Bengali (Bangla) written by Maitreyi Devi that was a household read when we were growing up in Bengal. And its contrast with Mircea Eliade's view of the affair was also a topic of discussion.
Abt the podcast. Really enjoyed it, like all other interviews of MB. One point MB has repeatedly emphasized in this, and in WAF, is that America was always a hustling society. But how do you explain when a traditional society with all its human relations turn into a hustling one? It is particularly painful for someone who has grown up learning all the positive values of the traditional way of life, but now finds himself in an alien place. I noted some of my experiences in an old blogpost some years ago. In case anyone cares to read (requires some corrections, but ... ): http://indiansmusings.blogspot.in/2014/02/death-of-city.html
Dr B, after reading the first link posted, you wrote this:
ReplyDelete"But I hafta say, in his last 2-3 paras he departs from reality."
Can you explain with quotes from the article?
Not a fan of Pat Buchanan, but here’s an interesting piece by him...
ReplyDeletehttp://mobile.wnd.com/2018/03/fatal-delusions-of-western-man/
WAFER El Regio--have similar experience. Personal observation only.
ReplyDeleteHave sevl European acquaintances who emigrated to the us for "opportunity." Articles written about them in the fluff times reinforce Horatio Alger stories, coming over with only a backpack, couch surfing, now making bank, etc...
They loose their culture (or bring on the Euro "charm" for a financial sussing up w/ a potential american client), they appear to loose their ontologic essence and take on the american hustle.
For example, Everything and anything is monetized inc-- aspiring for a large home/major home renovations, multiple cars, having various side hustles to bring in money, love of technoshit, going charred coffee chains, and their american born children addicted to screens, etc...
They might as well be native born usa-ians.
Oregon Youth Softball Program to Raffle AR-15 for fundraiser:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/Oregon-Youth-Softball-Program-to-Raffle-AR-15-for-Fundraiser-475664873.html
“Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel,” James Baldwin reminded us. “The wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10xEw59q6_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weYoWHGH3u8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdV1LhNLE0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eENVZm73wC0
Satisfied customers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDOo3v2ntHI
Getting creative with sick days these days is getting competitive:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Car-Explodes-When-Cigarette-Lit-After-Body-Spray-475644053.html?_osource=AMP
Saras - Its my understanding that all humans are born with more or less the same brain wiring. So whatever we come to believe about ourselves, others or the world is, as you say, programmed into us as we grow up. Another word for the process is enculturation, which is a mild form of brainwashing that happens over years in small and large drips. By the time the average American reaches 12 he's seen hundreds of thousands of "messages" about the what it means to be a good American - buy, consume, repeat. TV, parents, movies, peers, mentors all send the same messages of redemptive violence, American exceptionalism, hyper-individuality, hustling as the core of existence. Its the rare American who fights his way through this morass to the truth of who we (Americans) really are and what we really value. That you've made it to this blog means you might be one of them.
ReplyDeletePasc-
ReplyDeleteSee last 3 paras. It ain't rocket science. He talks as tho getting together to reverse the downward trajectory we are on is feasible, a realistic project. It ain't, and anyone who believes such a ridiculous thing is certifiably insane. He needs to be beaten severely and thrown on a dung heap.
mb
Here's on for you MB 'Bout time
ReplyDeleteNesim - I agree with you, America's demographics are certainly changing but white Americans will never be a discriminated minority, probably not even a minority at all. Every time the demographics change they do this, italian, spaniards, jews, they were not considered white at some point. Like Sarte wrote, if the Jew didn’t exist, they would make him up, hateful people are gonna hate.
ReplyDeleteSara - The council of foreign relations is very real, it’s inevitable for a group of people to raise to the top in any system with a power structure. Some are psychopaths who think they’re gods’ gift to the world while others are just trying to keep order. They aren’t gods who know everything. There used to be royalty and, that too, failed. So it’s not like a man or a group of men, hasn’t tried to rule over the masses, it has been tried over and over again and it works for a little bit but always fails at some point.
Dear MB,
ReplyDeleteMy life is falling apart. As you know, I returned from Pyeongchang and, like a whirlwind, everything is a complete mess: my clothing and beauty line is in shambles; my friend, Hope Hicks, is Audi 5000; and my marriage to Jared is totally on the rocks. Turns out, he's nothing more than a mute grifter. And to tell you the truth...I haven't had a gd shtupping in months.
Jesus, how did I fuck up my life so badly? I need u now more than ever! And like the Carole King song says, it would be nice to see nice to see yr face at my door, and it doesn't help to know yr so far away... I might've been shorted in the brains department, but I was extraordinarily blessed in the legs dept. Hope to see u soon.
xoxo,
Ivanka
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeletePaul Craig Roberts on a CNN expert's response to Putin's State of Russia speech where he revealed new drones and other weapons that might make the US's ABMs obsolete. I like his take on the seemingly abysmal level of Washington's capacity to formulate foreign policy towards Russia (or perhaps any other country) - Boy! That America is in decline is a gross understatement!
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/03/01/washington-sufficiently-intelligent-trusted-independent-foreign-policy/
Ivanka my love-
ReplyDeleteWhy not team up with Kim? Her buttocks are world famous. I think she might be able to restart your entire life. As for Jared, keep in mind he's an American, i.e. an utter turkey.
mb
Well another thing about Hedges you need to remember is that he's an ordained minister. He's not only trying to save the US from the political right, he's trying to save Christianity from the Christian right. I think it's equally futile. We all have our favourite theories about what the real message of Jesus was, but all these Christians that believe that the real message of Jesus was love and helping the poor fail to realize that it is impossible to know what Jesus's real intentions were or if he even wanted to establish a new religion to begin with. What is fact is that, from the very beginning, Christianity has been another "standard" monotheistic religion and, actually, the Christian right yelling about Sodom and Gomorrah and so on are indeed more representative of Christianity than they are.
ReplyDeleteAs if we need more proof of a failed, dying and finished country, here is a compilation of Tweets railing against celebrities perpetrated by none other than the BUFFOON PRESIDENT of the country!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2018/03/03/politics/donald-trump-celebrity-twitter/index.html
Polecat/Nesim: Yes, we are sort of benignly enculturated, but we are also massively brainwashed. I read “1984” in the 60’s and didn’t see how it could be done. Well, kings, etc., may have failed in the past, but the technology we have today makes it all possible. Smart technology spies on us.
ReplyDeleteWe were given an Amazon Echo (Alexa) for Christmas and set it up in the family room where I was talking with my physical therapist about getting Biofreeze for pain. Guess what? Links for Biofreeze started appearing on my computer. While we might view this as just another way to push consumerism, what do you think our Kakistocracy is ultimately going to do with this capability? BTW, political correctness, which has taken hold throughout much of the world (funny how that happens), is all about censorship and control.
Nesim: the evangelicals support Israel because they want to bring on Armageddon, one of the bonuses of which will be the death of any Jews who don’t convert to Christianity. A great book to read is Matt Taibbi’s hilarious “The Great Derangement” where he infiltrates John Hagee's lunatic Texas megachurch.
ReplyDeleteMan fatally shoots himself near White House, today Mar. 3, 2018
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/03/politics/white-house-shots-fired/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/person-suffers-self-inflicted-gunshot-wound-near-white-house-secret-service-says/2018/03/03/b0876810-1f05-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html?utm_term=.4c0a247cdbb4
Interesting criticism of Pinker in this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2018/02/20/4806696.htm
BERMANESQUE IRONY? LOL ''Indeed they are prophets of our times'' http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/current/america/governor_ronald_reagan.htm
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5458143/Shots-fired-White-House.html Man shoots himself outside of the white house! Self selecting for the betterment of the rest of the world. This, I hope, catches on in a big way
ReplyDeleteHi Trout (& others),
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to Umair. The few of his essays that I read, were all spot on, at least in their broader assessment of the global picture even if not in every detail (question of opinion/argument). Just read this one on the ideological collapse of the Anglo world. Is a serious warning for some folks outside of the Anglo world.
Happened to be reading this essay by Tagore recently. He hit it spot on abt soullessness of the techno-commercial civilization ~100 years ago. This particular one is, I think, one of his lectures in England. (One of the `$70 a scold' lectures that Yates called them after they fell apart. I cd be completely off with the #, but doesn't matter.) Except for a few paragraphs talking about the specifics of India (a colony then)-Britain (the colonial master) relations, the rest could easily be put in today's context. Feels like an oriental guru preaching with complete moral authority. Unfortunately, in order to get on board the train of `development', the orient has readily given up that moral position. Look at present-day China and India. India is essentially following the US model at great social and ecological costs.
El Regio - best wishes and bon voyage back in Mexico. Indeed a life filled with friends, family, and laughter cannot be had in the US which is simply all about money 24/7 year in - year out. Be sure and tell folks there that not all gringos are corpses as there are 174 Wafers...I have a feeling once Trumpi is finished with the US, the Mexicans will want to build a wall to keep out all the gringos fleeing south (and Mexico will gladly pay for it; indeed Trumpi may get his wish all along).
ReplyDeleteAt this point, Trumpi has been in office just over a year. After the last week (too many disasters to count), you seriously need to ask yourself if the country can take 3 more (or maybe 7 more) years of this without breaking. Odds are the Dems won't take the senate or the house due to gerrymandering and voter suppression and the Koch brothers pumping $400 million into midterms. Trumpi will continue his reign of destruction unabated.
BrotherMaynard
This is relevant to those of us documenting our decline:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/will-take-political-revolution-cure-epidemic-depression/
Btw, I doubt the author chose that title. What political revolution is it referring to? Must be another pseudo-event coming to a theater near you, sometime in the undisclosed future, but soon to-be-announced. Also, the final two sentences must’ve been tacked on. Gratuitous and empty-handed, don’t you think? My guess is more editorial “reconfiguring” to attract readers. “Clickbait” they call it. Finally, anyone know anything about that book mentioned within the article, by Johann Hari? Looks interesting
https://www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/
ReplyDeleteIt has begun! Prehistory: everything you know is wrong.
FASCINATING read, in your Wandering God area of research, MB
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteHere is another fine essay by Umair Haque - will Americans ask the question: free trade or a decent life - NOPE!
https://eand.co/why-the-global-economy-is-shattering-defef054d80f
Seriously, is everyone turning into a Wafer nowadays?!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/04/will-2018-be-the-year-of-the-neo-luddite?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
Kanye-
ReplyDeleteGd essay. Waferism will eventually rule the world.
Michael-
You can't ask significant questions if you have poop in your head.
mb
Dr. B, excellent interview. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteYour comment along the lines of (I paraphrase): in the US, people are instrumental to other people, just a means to an end ... this struck a chord with me, after a very trying week at work. I'm going NMI at work. I think I can actually get away with it. I'm beginning to believe that if I end up living in my car it might actually be a good thing.
A quote from one of the many amazing articles posted here:
"In order to remake those connections between technologies of the self and a broader political project, we first need to recover those techniques from the totalizing spheres of work and productivity. How can we know what we truly think, what gives our lives purpose, if the entirety of our lived experience is filtered through the prism of work? How can we truly become citizens if we do not understand what we consent to? The first step is one of radical remembering, and of radical imagination; an effort to reclaim the technologies of the self from capital, and return them to our own hands."
Zarathustra - I completely agree with you on Christianity. However, I do think we can get a historical portrayal of Christianity. The gospels that made it to the bible themselves contradict each other on who Jesus was, religious Christians just twist the bible to come to terms with the contradictions. This is my favorite course in the bible, if you're interested. It's on Yale opencoursweare
ReplyDeleteSara - That was the old Christian right, the new Christian right will take the bible symbolically and will twist/use whatever science they can find to justify their belief system. Check out Jordan Peterson talk about the Palestine/Israel conflict. Here. The guys is clearly insane, I believe he hates postmodernism but uses it to justify his belief system. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths men will go to justify their religious beliefs. Jordan Peterson in that sense is quite the character, could easily start a sect, IMO.
On other news, Lead developer of google earth believes world is flat. Like Dr Berman says, even the smart people are stupid in this country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/middleeast/07photo.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323277/WikiLeaks-Irag-war-logs-Did-British-troops-kill-8-year-old-Iraqi-girl.html
What the Wafers see, and others don't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yAW1daYXD4
Wafer anthem. A prayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOGUCkc6Ozw
Dedicated to Don Belman, the GSWH. Voice of a honorable elder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDkKA4hnmJ4
"Heading for the highway Rolling like a river
Soaring like an eagle Skippin' like a stone
Comin' from the heartbeat Nothin' but the truth now"
SENIOR PUMMELING!
ReplyDeleteElderly Minnesota man suffers facial fractures in beating after road rage incident...
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/04/elderly-minnesota-man-suffers-facial-fractures-in-beating-after-road-rage-incident.html
Greetings Wafers, here is your news roundup from Cascadia -
ReplyDeleteThe police beat report from the past week in the Tacoma, WA News Tribune sounds like profiles from “this American life”: Police arrests included a guy violating a no-contract order with his brother by calling 911 while impersonating his brother because he was cold and had no place to go, another guy in response to a disturbance call after the individual told them he was “detoxing” with a half-gallon of vodka and some side drinks to “get happy”, and a few days later a Tacoma man who had pulled a gun on his ex-girlfriend over an argument about money he was supposed to have used to buy children’s shoes:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article203366259.html
Meanwhile, Evergreen College, responding to a 23 percent drop in out-of-state enrollment, is hiring an “inclusion associate” to its staff even as it lays off full-time and part-time academic staff:
http://mynorthwest.com/915188/documents-evergreen-finances-dire-but-will-hire-85k-inclusion-associate/
Finally, the Seattle Times on Sunday reported that Trumph foresees a time when the U.S. may have a president-for-life, just like China and some banana republics:
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/trump-says-maybe-us-will-have-a-president-for-life-someday/
I'm a bit disappointed with the Italians: the Five Star Movement has been the most voted party in the elections. I don't know a lot about this party, but the fact that it "does not support mandatory vaccinations" would seem to indicate that it deals in cheap demagoguery. To be honest, the rest of the parties may not be much better, and Berlusconi has won before.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.israellycool.com/2018/03/05/hypocrisy-of-human-rights-organizations-exposed-for-all-to-see/
ReplyDeleteGuess what all but two such organisations that operate in Israel consider more important than helping Palestinian torture victims.
Zara - In my humble opinion (humble because, as you say, no one, short of taking a trip in Peabody's Way Back Machine, can ever REALLY know) - but based on decades of research and writing on the topic - the man known to us as Jesus was an apocalyptic Jewish prophet in the tradition of Micah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Amos, etc who challenged the religious and political authorities of his day (as his forebear did) in defense of the "poor, orphan, widow" (the standard phrase for all victims of religious, political, social and economic injustice). His disputes were with his fellow Jews and about the meaning and focus of traditional Judaism. I think he would have been amazed that his followers eventually left the Jewish faith to start a religion of their own (following the leadership of Paul, who began as a persecutor of the Jesus Movement within Judaism).
ReplyDelete"In the beginning", the movement was small and focused on building small communities across traditional Roman socio-economic boundaries and inclusive of the poor. How and why it eventually became the favored faith of Empire is recounted in a new book by the scholar Bart Ehrman, whom I recommend, because he is an agnostic and historian and more concerned with facts than myths.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.counterpunch.org/author/npemberton0991/
“Donald Trump is often called a fascist. This seems to be a generous statement for someone who acts almost entirely on impulse. Being the coward that he is, Trump will side with the powers that be just about every time. The actions that he has taken against the poor in this country have been ruthless. But Trump lacks a polished fascism. He is a bully and a hustler. He believes in nothing but himself.”
FYI: I think I forgot to link that previous quote; it was from Nick Pemberton’s recent article:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/02/daca-good-americans-and-obamas-grim-legacy/
I’m sorry about that, and for excessive postings.
Woman dumps popcorn on toddler, hits her with container at theater.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ibtimes.com/woman-dumps-popcorn-toddler-hits-her-container-theater-2659852
Chuck E. Cheese restaurant brawl ends with 2 hurt, 2 arrests.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chuck-cheese-restaurant-brawl-ends-hurt-arrests-53529436
A man with the vanity license plate “DIRTBAG” was arrested after pointing a gun at another driver, punching a police officer and making death threats.
https://nypost.com/2018/02/13/man-with-dirtbag-license-plate-lives-up-to-the-title/
Waferism going mainstream here:
ReplyDeletehttp://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/americas-opioid-epidemic.html
A sample:
"One way of thinking of postindustrial America is to imagine it as a former rat park, slowly converting into a rat cage. Market capitalism and revolutionary technology in the past couple of decades have transformed our economic and cultural reality, most intensely for those without college degrees. The dignity that many working-class men retained by providing for their families through physical labor has been greatly reduced by automation. Stable family life has collapsed, and the number of children without two parents in the home has risen among the white working and middle classes. The internet has ravaged local retail stores, flattening the uniqueness of many communities. Smartphones have eviscerated those moments of oxytocin-friendly actual human interaction. Meaning — once effortlessly provided by a more unified and often religious culture shared, at least nominally, by others — is harder to find, and the proportion of Americans who identify as “nones,” with no religious affiliation, has risen to record levels. Even as we near peak employment and record-high median household income, a sense of permanent economic insecurity and spiritual emptiness has become widespread. Some of that emptiness was once assuaged by a constantly rising standard of living, generation to generation. But that has now evaporated for most Americans."
Dog shit for brains? I was talking to my retired (psychiatric!) nurse neighbor the other day (something I rarely do. I live in a building of 10 residents and we don't speak to each other much beyond exchanging greetings on the elevator - I guess I should be thankful for even these brief pleasantries, it really is like living in a graveyard with each apt a crypt.) Anyway the topic of end times came up and I said yes I think this is the end. She was overjoyed b/c no one agrees with her these are the end times. Then she told me she was trying to figure out how everyone will see Jesus when he descends from the heavens, 'but now I know,' she says, 'when he comes back we'll all see him on our smartphones.' Instead of an Amber alert I suppose it'll be a Jesus alert. Not quite the end times I was thinking of. On the topic of Jesus - he'd never be an American. I think if most Americans, maybe even me, were introduced to him the reaction would b one of revulsion - perhaps on the scale of meeting a pedophile. He was, after all, an executed criminal. We can't even tolerate the mild rebuke of the pope. I'm fairly convinced he'd b somewhere in the "3rd" world railing against empire and loving the poor and forgotten.
ReplyDelete10 people 3 hours, that's what it takes to get a movie star ready for the annual tits, thigh, and ass red carpet parade in Hollywood - but dammit don't objectify me! #METOO
Zombies-
ReplyDeleteCdn't run it (half-page rule).
pole et al.-
On early Christianity, check out chapter on the subject in CTOS.
mb
O&D,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.10news.com/news/national/ashland-county-deputies-say-8-year-old-boy-shot-little-sister-multiple-times
I haven't seen Christopher Nolan's recent movie, Dunkirk, mainly because I've found his films (save for the fantastic Memento) to be overly slick and superficial, but also because I couldn't figure out why he was so interested in choosing that particular historical event to make $150 million tent pole movie about. Imagine my surprise then at realizing from talking to people I know--mostly college educated people in their 50s--that they had no idea what the battle of Dunkirk was before they saw the movie. In one case, the person is a long time DC-based reporter who has covered the Pentagon for more than a decade. As you can imagine, I was absolutely flabberagasted. These are the kind of people who have serious conversations about whether Trump is or is not a Nazi. First of all, I would submit that no one who has so little historical understanding of one of the key moments of real life "resistance" to fascism in the 20th century has any business drawing such comparisons and secondly, how could all of this been news to someone who spends their life covering military issues?
ReplyDeleteBy that token, Umair Haque is spot on with his comparison of the US and Anglo world today and the late period USSR, but he left out one important point. By and large, the average Soviet citizen in the 1970s and 80s KNEW why their society was in deep trouble, hence the old Soviet joke about how "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." The average American, on the other hand, regardless of ideology or education level, still has no fucking clue.
Would someone please explain this to me and others...
ReplyDeleteJames Kunstler, Richard Heinberg, and others have been beating a drum sounding a warning that we are beyond “Peak Oil” and it’s all downhill from here...yet here is an article in today’s news saying the US is going to be the worlds largest Oil Producer by 2023.
I don’t get it...
Are those guys Wrong?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-will-be-the-worlds-largest-oil-producer-by-2023-says-iea-1520236810
"I don't know a lot about this party, but the fact that it 'does not support mandatory vaccinations' would seem to indicate that it deals in cheap demagoguery"
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why should vaccination be mandatory?
Vaccinations are quite "umstritten" here in my adopted country of Germany. When we had our kid here, both the hospital staff and our pediatrician gave us a warning prior to vaccinating and discussed the pros and cons of vaccinating with us.
MB - thanks for reminding me about Chapter 5. I think humans have been trying to bury themselves "in an Absolute, other reality" for millennia in the attempt to, as you say, bridge the gap between Self and Other. (The anxiety is just too great to bear) Jesus and the Church represent one way to do that - Jesus as the ultimate salvific intermediary who ascended to heaven after the resurrection and returned to be with his disciples, and the Church as sole medium for ordinary religious persons to make that journey (but only after death - no other Jesuses need apply). Members thus become dependent on the hierarchy and institution (of which the hierarchy and the rituals remind them continuously) instead of relying on their own spiritual experiences. (Somewhat modified by Luther and Reformation? - but only to be replaced by Protestant hierarchies and institutions)
ReplyDeleteGiven all that, the major Christian doctrine, it seems to me, is salvation. But what does that mean? Salvation to or from what? I've always believed it's from death to eternal life (as Jesus and Paul often said and wrote). And the Church is believed by the faithful to be
the only institution that can magically provide immortality. As such, it is vested in protecting the doctrines and rituals by which salvation thus understood is made possible -
to the point of torturing and killing to preserve them.
The power of Jesus and the early and modern Church is the embracing of such Salvation as the primary doctrine of the Church - one of the main reasons it experienced such rapid growth in the first few decades. Somehow it was able to make its case more convincingly than the other mystery religions of the time and surpass them in membership. Maybe, as you say, by the exercise of visions and ecstasy as ways to relieve the anxiety of the Split. Which makes me think that maybe all religion is little more than an attempt to relieve the anxiety of agricultural/industrial life. (Opiate of the masses) Attempt to rejoin the Split or to provide salvation from death ... ? Or are the 2 the same? Or do they operate simultaneously to provide a path through ecstatic experience to immortality? Time for the Wayback Machine.
For the day when a historian who is chronicling the collapse begins to collect photos illustrative of the time, here is one that he might consider:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.startribune.com/elderly-man-assaulted-in-east-bethel-in-road-rage-incident/475772193/
An elderly man, confronted with a traffic condition demanding his immediate braking, so upsets a motorist behind him that the aggrieved person follows the man home and delivers a beatdown that puts the senior in the hospital.
This photo will of course be in competition for inclusion along with Shaneka Torres and the many others who have merited mention in these pages. So much evidence, so difficult the choosing.
Jas-
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I love Shaneka and I am in sympathy with her outrage over getting stiffed a slice of bacon.
jj-
It's called fracking. We are currently exporting oil.
mb
WAFER James Allen--excellent idea re: compiling examples of photojournalism to document 'just another day' in america.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, the beaten elderly gentleman's picture can be on the front cover for historians to fully "appreciate" american values and "narratives." Maybe entitle the work: "They ate each other."
"The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything." -Nietzsche
ReplyDeleteAnother one bites the dust. The famous doomsday clock [now infamous] physicist, Lawrence Krauss.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/lawrence-krauss-sexual-harassment-allegations
Who next? Chomsky? Seems like we are much closer to midnight than we thought.
All 60 accusers of Bill decided to beeline together like they do to take bathroom break.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/lifestyle/cosby-women-accusers/
Harvey waiting queue stands at 84 and counting.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2017/10/27/weinstein-scandal-complete-list-accusers/804663001/
What a sick joke man-woman relationship has become!!
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180302-work-and-life-lessons-from-a-former-dominatrix
"Women are all skillful in exaggerating their weaknesses, indeed they are inventive in weaknesses, so as to seem quite fragile ornaments to which even a grain of dust does harm ; their existence is meant to bring home to man's mind his coarseness, and to appeal to his conscience. They thus defend themselves against the strong and the "law of the jungle"." -Nietzsche
Hi Wafers Worldwide (WW),
ReplyDeleteDr B,
I finished Are We There Yet? and posted a short review on Amazon. It's the first time I've written a book review since college, so please forgive me if it is shaky. I really did enjoy the book and found it great to read an essay or two when I had a few minutes to spare.
JJ, you wrote: "US is going to be the worlds largest Oil Producer by 2023." Kunstler et al talk about Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI). The Peak Oil guys are saying that it costs more to extract fracked oil than it is worth. A fracked well dug horizontally into shale is very, very expensive and produces a fraction of the oil of a traditionally drilled well in Saudi Arabia. Fracking is a scam (surprise!) designed to enrich banksters and bankrupt everybody else. But hey, until the gig is up we can wave that Drill, Baby, Drill flag night and day. Go Sarah Palin! At the rate we're going, I doubt there will be much of an oil industry in the US by 2023.
@ Bill Hicks - It's not just that Americans are historically ignorant. They don't care to learn in the first place. Someone on this blog mentioned it in a previous post about how they got tired of explaining basic history to Americans when a subject of debate came up. This has been my experience as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised about your Dunkirk revelation. I bet if you had asked the same person who the Axis powers were you'd probably had gotten a blank stare.
Submitted for entertainment value:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEcbagW4O-s
Mike K.-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks; I really appreciate it.
mb
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteJust my 2 cents on Jesus and the historical person behind him. Several years ago Simcha Jacobovici (the Naked(ly hustling) Archaeologist), Charles pellegrini and James Tabor came out with two books, The Jesus Discovery and The Jesus Family Tomb. These two works tie in the ossuaries (bone boxes) and discoveries from two related first-century tombs - Talipot garden tomb and Talipot patio tomb - in the Talipot condominium complex in Jerusalem with the "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" ossuary that was owned by a collector of ancient artifacts.
Of course, the conclusions of the three was roundly criticized. Still, the findings show that there was an historical Jesus who had a brother named James, much like the Jesus of Christian tradition. The problem is, is that there is no indication that the Talipot Jesus ever considered himself or was considered by others to be the Messiah, or even an apocalyptic prophet. In fact, the inscriptions of "Mara" (equivalent to the British aristocratic title Lady) seem to indicate that the family line this Jesus was perhaps of royal stock, i.e., line of David. Plus, there doesn't seem to be any conclusive reference to any unique religion discovered anywhere in these two tombs.
Dill
Vaccinations should be mandatory at least as long as sending your kids to school is mandatory, otherwise you're putting other children at risk. I'm a bit of a luddite, but science and technology do have provided us with some good things, like preventing children from dying due to measles. And by the way, the medical care in Germany is in general quite bad, compared to countries like Spain, for example.
ReplyDeleteDill-
ReplyDeleteActually, there isn't much evidence that he even existed. Very little, anyway, and certainly nothing contemporary. Most convincing arg. to my mind remains Leben Jesu, by David Strauss, 1835. It rendered him a tad unpopular.
That being said, a recent archaeological dig in Nazareth generated artifacts that strongly suggest that Jesus ran a deli there. Big on the menu was "The Nazarene," which closely approximates a reuben sandwich.
mb
ps: This is kinda nice:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/06/health/opioid-overdose-emergency-departments-cdc-study/index.html
Greetings MB, Dill, and Wafers of the World,
ReplyDeleteMy research into early Christianity turned up an interesting quote:
"I'm coming down to help you all out just as soon as I start existing."
~Jesus, (c. A.D. 34)
Miles
Mike Kelly - I believe they're doing some type of financial engineering to be able to do fracking. The question is how long can they keep doing it for? According to Stephanie Kelton, Bernie Sanders' economic adviser, and other economists who believe in modern monetary theory, governments can print as much money as they want, the only thing they have to look out for is inflation. Idk though, seems too dumb to believe the economic grads of all the elite universities could be tricked into not knowing that so it's probably more complicated than that but then again, they also don't have a say on policy so who cares what they know. The question is then, how long can they continue the financial engineering that is sustaining fracking?
ReplyDeleteT
here is a Mexican geopolitic analysts named Alfredo Jalife who claims they're planning to take whatever oil is left in Mexico and if that isn't enough they'll invade Venezuela. I think there is a high possibility this is the plan considering the amount of propaganda geared towards Venezuela and the opening up and privatization of the Mexican energy sector, just like American corporations want it. To be clear though, I don't know if Alfredo Jalife is sane in the head, he also says that the Rothschild own the banking systems and believes in many other conspiracy theories which I highly doubt.
@Crow T
ReplyDeleteRecently I was discussing whether or not America was an Empire with some Marxists. It was rather interesting that these American Marxists believed in American Exceptionalism in its Totality. In their argument, America is hegemony, a superpower, but not an Empire because the US never does anything that isn't in mutual interests of the states it is dealing with. That the real issue is just Global Capitalism and that is it.
After they declared that America can't be an Empire, I noted that by their own criteria, direct rule over others, was already accomplished and its ironic that two people who had lived in Guam did not realize what Guam is. Americans are such turkeys that they can live in a territory and rationalize how this okay because "we are America". The Turkeys really do deserve every ill that will come for them.
@jjarden--about a decade ago, I became seriously immersed into the peak oil community to the point where I used to write a regular blog about it. The problem I have with Kunstler & Heinberg these days is their refusal to admit that they were wrong about fracking and other sources of "tight" or unconventional oil. What they've failed to acknowledge is how the financialization of the economy and permanent near-zero interest rates have changed the game to the point where it no longer matters that unconventional oil has a low EROI. When you can borrow money for practically nothing and write off the eventual losses when, say, your fracked well runs dry (plus not have to worry about any meddlesome environmental regulations), every barrel you pump out of the ground is pure profit. Judged strictly by how domestic oil production has increased in the past decade, fracking is NOT a scam. Of course, what the average dumbass American who shouts "drill, baby, drill!" doesn't realize is that because oil is a worldwide market, much of that extra U.S. production gets sold overseas--thus it helps America's "energy security" not one iota even as the environmental destruction that results remains right here at home.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I've recognized my own errors in thinking and am now of the opinion that given the vast stores of unconventional oil that remain, we will continue to DBD until we are forcibly stopped either by a worldwide economic collapse that virtually destroys the international oil market, or when we've pumped and burned enough of the stuff (and other fossil fuels) to turn the planet's ecosystem into a cinder. One thing we will never do is ever admit that our very modern American way of life was a grievous error. We'd rather die first.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-bids-aipac-farewell-with-his-terminator-speech-1.5883618
ReplyDeleteGood article, but Bibi's style is almost dynamic compared with American political theater.
Obama was peak teleprompter, but now Trump has managed to make an act of 'authenticity'. Like Bibi and Bush, he plays the regular guy, albeit in a more chaotic kind of way.
As singular as certain events seem, you could pretty much understand US politics today as just another rewind of the 90s. Right-wing militias, prog academic lunacy, laughable leadership.
The only real difference now is more fear, desperation, and disbelief in the system. Yet you could have spent the better part of a lifetime pointing out these obvious fracture points only to be called an alarmist. And in a sense you *would* just be an alarmist, because even as things noticably decay around you, the culture keeps supporting the same Bibi-Trump-Obama character (take your pick) to go up there and play this jester role without getting laughed off stage.
If a crisis erupts in a forest and nobody acknowledges it...
Hey MB, the GSWH I am confused about several issues in this crazy times that we are going thru. Here they are as logically I could put them. These are thoughts I get up with most mornings after the previous night's nightmares (no jokes here).
ReplyDelete1. Neo-liberalism has wrecked havoc with the lives of ordinary folks.
2. Stagnant incomes, diminishing safety nets etc.
3. Technology, of the digital variety in particular, cutting social bonds. Each one of us is living in our own `electronic cocoon' as you called it, I think.
4. Hence ppl are rushing to the demagogues, to have a better life, to make America great again or whatever.
5. The demagogues are ripping them further apart: tax cuts, Koch brothers in the US, Adani & Ambani in India and so on and so forth.
6. Cuts in education, healthcare accelerating, environmental safeguards dismantled putting marginal ppl to more risks.
I am not even getting into the insane behavior ordinary ppl are resorting to in their troubled, anxiety-filled lives. Enough noted already.
Now how long can this go on? If neo-liberalism needed ~four decades to get exposed, this shud get exposed in 1/10th the time, any sane person wud think. But will it? Shall we (not just the Americans, this is a global phenomenon by now ) see it? What does your crystal-ball say?
Once ppl see it, what next? Or are we too deep into this to get out anytime soon?
Please help.
Apparently there are legions of men who compulsively masturbate in front of other passengers on the subways of NYC:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/city-dealing-serial-subway-perverts-article-1.3853377
I don't know how this stacks up to the Mickey-Dee's-eff'd-up-my-order 911 dialers but it's definitely a sign that Dr. B and we 200-odd Wafers are on to something.
Kurt Cobb addresses the "fake news" that the US is an oil exporter:
ReplyDeletehttp://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2018/03/united-states-as-energy-exporter-is-it.html
He states that the US is still a net oil importer by taking into account the type of oil.
"This curious state of affairs in American crude oil imports and exports results from not having enough refining capacity for the kind of oil coming out of the country's shale oil deposits, more properly called tight oil. That oil is too "light" for many American refineries that already have ample supply of light oil feedstocks (which are typically blended with heavier oil to achieve optimum refining results). Therefore, much of this light tight oil is shipped abroad to refineries with the capacity to refine it more profitably. The United States tends to import heavier crudes that match its overall refinery capabilities and needs (as explained in this discussion of crude oil swaps with Mexico starting in 2015 which resulted in swaps of light U.S. crude for heavy Mexican crude)."
Dill - In the last 50 years more books have been written about the historical Jesus than delis in NYC. If you are interested in learning from the best seek out works by John Dominic Crossan, Richard Horsely, Marcus Borg, Amy Jill Levine (from a Jewish point of view), and William Herzog. Based in sound scholarship but accessible to the lay person.
ReplyDelete"Angry sisterhood". You can't make this stuff up.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/07/mad-women-angry-sisterhood-taking-over-tv
Kanye
Drug deaths up 20% in American women aged 15 to 44. Other findings include increases in the teen suicide rate and the maternal mortality rate.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.beckershospitalreview.com/population-health/drug-deaths-up-20-in-women-aged-15-to-44-6-findings.html
Smartphones, drug use linked to rising pedestrian fatalities.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/01/smartphones-drug-use-blamed-for-rise-in-pedestrian-deaths/
Porn star Stormy Daniels is suing Donald Trump.
https://www.usnews.com/news/ken-walshs-washington/articles/2018-03-07/stormy-daniels-sues-president-donald-trump
I haven’t been following the whole Stormy Daniels situation but I find it hilarious that a sitting American president is being sued by a porn star! Trump is truly a Wafer’s dream come true.
"And by the way, the medical care in Germany is in general quite bad, compared to countries like Spain, for example."
ReplyDelete--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the EHCI report for 2016, Germany ranks 7 overall and Spain 18. Countries ranked 3-6 were separated by 10 pts or less.
They also say that healthcare quality varies heavily by region in Spain and that good care is largely dependent one's ability to pay for private health insurance. This is not the case in Germany, where the "gesetzliche Krankenkassen" are quite good.
I appreciated the fact that the docs talked to us about the pros and cons neutrally and from a professional perspective.
Pras-
ReplyDeleteNot to worry; people won't see it. Guaranteed, 100%.
mb
https://thedailybeast.com/trump-plans-to-blame-video-games-for-gun-violence
ReplyDeleteWHAT A BLOWHARD
Research Shows Violent Video Games May Reduce Real Life Violent Crime Rate
https://amp.hothardware.com/news/research-shows-violent-video-games-may-reduce-real-life-violent-crime-rate
MB--I'm slightly new to this forum but wanted to ask you a related sociological concern. I'm a junior high teacher in WA, so I've been a bit sensitive to these headlones as of late. If this country had even a quanta of a chance at turning it's violent self around, what could resolve this gun concern? I just don't see any of the reformational ideas being worth their salt. Like, i doubt taking away AR's will quell many of the attacks, as many involve handguns. Is the president's focus on mental health really the right way? Or maybe smaller, more nurturing schools & other prosocial programs...
I'm sure you'll reply with some of your typical humor and irony, but I truly respect your national POV
Student of Waferism - I don't think anyone knows exactly when the fracking hustle will end. A quick Google search turned up this interesting article:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/arthurberman/2017/03/01/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-bakken-shale-play/#6ea868aa1487
"Investors should be worried. As analysts cheered the resilience of shale plays after the 2014 price collapse, nearly a billion barrels of Bakken oil were produced at a loss--about 40% of total production since the 1960s. Vast volumes of oil were squandered at low prices for the sake of cash flow to support unmanageable debt loads and to satisfy investors about production growth. The clear message is that investors do not understand the uncertainties of tight oil and shale gas plays.
And all major Bakken producers continue to lose money at current wellhead prices. If observations presented here hold up, there may be nowhere for the Bakken to go but down. Higher oil prices may not help much because the best days for the play are behind us. Future profits were sacrificed for short-term objectives that lost the companies and their shareholders money.
The early demise of the Bakken should serve as a warning about the future of other tight oil plays."
Fore! (Me, Myself, and I)
ReplyDeleteNews that the Trump Organization (no connection to the sitting president, All Rights Reserved) has ordered the Eagle Sign and Design metalworking company to manufacture dozens of round replicas of the presidential seal to be placed next to the tee boxes—used to designate the place where golfers should stand when teeing off—at Trump golf courses.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-extra-the-trump-organization-ordered-golf-course-markers-with-the-presidential-seal-that-may-be-illegal
And Guardian columnist George Monbiot says Stephen Pinker is a big poopyhead, especially as regards his views on the environmental movement, resource depletion, species extinction, and much else.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/07/environmental-calamity-facts-steven-pinker?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Jas-
ReplyDeletePinker is a colossal turkey. He needs to be beaten to within an inch of his life, and then thrown on a dungheap. Then Goldman Sachs shd pay Hillary to pee on his shoes.
Davis-
Trump is probably rt, but his focus is too narrow. America is essentially a culture of war and violence, and has been for a very long time. It's literally soaking in this as a type of ideology. Things are just coming to a climax now. Many yrs ago, 24% of Americans said they thought it was perfectly OK to use violence in pursuit of yr goals. I'm sure the % is much higher now.
Which is why the NRA is probably rt as well. Guns, shmuns. If they were outlawed completely, Americans wd start killing each other with knives, clubs, poison, etc. Guns are just a bit more efficient, is all.
mb
The sitting President of the country is being sued by a Pornstar he had sex with, and paid her off to keep her quiet about, and now she wants to tell the whole sordid story.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/stormy-daniels-didn-t-sue-trump-money-right-speak-out-n854386
Just let that sink in for a minute.
Zara: “Vaccinations should be mandatory at least as long as sending your kids to school is mandatory, otherwise you're putting other children at risk.”
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things wrong with this statement that I’ll just focus on one: vaccine safety. If someone gave you an apple that was injected with formaldehyde, aluminum, and mercury, would you eat it? That’s what’s in vaccines, only those neurotoxins are injected into an infant/toddler/child’s body instead. In the U.S. at least 30 vaccine doses are required before the age of six, so the cumulative amount of these toxins is insane.
In spite of what the government tells you, vaccine safety is not a given. Like everything else in this country, our medical system is completely corrupted. I've done quite a bit of research on the subject, and would suggest that anybody who accepts the government’s word on vaccine safety do the same. This way you can weigh the benefits and risks and come to an educated decision, because unlike in Germany your doctor won’t give you that consideration. Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance.
Davis: Re violent video games - Who funded the research?
If the EHCI says that in Spain "good care is largely dependent one's ability to pay for private health insurance" they're lying. As simple as that. The nurse that got infected with Ebola in Spain during the Ebola scare survived, free of charge. In the US the guy that got infected died, and his family got a huge medical bill. I don't know if medical care in Germany varies by region, but I know it does vary depending on whether you're an ethnic German or not.
ReplyDeleteDavis - It would be interesting to check if there is a correlation between the internet and mass shootings. I don't think 20 years ago there was as many mass shootings as today and I think the internet has smth to do with it. AI turns racists when given data from the internet, for instance, there is no way it doesn't affect the average person too. So I think if America was serious about lowering violence, it would ban teens from using the internet and educate them properly, while also teaching them how to socialize. Teaching them how to socialize would only be possible if the entire cultured changed though. Personally, I've seen too many Americans stutter when they talk, that would be unacceptable in a place like Italy, Mexico, Argentina, the entire culture teaches you how to socialize since a young age. Another thing we should do is start considering sex as a human right. From my understanding, porn lowered a lot of sex related crime, my guess is that legalizing sex work would do the same. Lots of European countries already legalized it and it's working fine. Obviously none of this stuff will happen.
ReplyDeleteMike Kelly- Interesting article but energy is too important, some type of financial engineering will be done. Sometimes companies going bankrupt is actually a good for consumers because they get to bought out but without debt. Plus, if we add the price of war in the Middle East to the price of oil then it's probably already unprofitable. So long as the US government has the ability to subsidize oil production and invade countries for oil, we're not gonna run out of oil, IMHO.
Pinker's dinker > Dennis Prager. God sent them to save Amerikns for the rapture.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ96grETTXc
"You have a obligation to Me (God)," to listen to Pager.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XIpTqbLR5Y
Who is potholer54?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2010/mar/29/youtube-climate-change-scepticism
You may enjoy his 'Our Origins Made Easy' series. Concise n informative discourse on evolution, big bang, etc.
Demythologize enlightenment,...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_2eT3v4D6Q
Saludos, Dr.B!
ReplyDeleteJust a quick note re: vaccines.
Both pro and anti vaxxers are, generally speaking, idiots. Vaccines should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and the pros and cons explicitly detailed. Mandatory vaccination is a monumental stupidity (albeit, very profitable). Sadly, it is the veterinarians who are fighting back against over-vaccination, not the human doctors. I'm now in the second year of med school and the amount of ignorance of immunology, molecular biology and statistics by supposed 'professionals' is staggering (I also have a BSc in Biotech Engineering, so I know when they don't know)... provaxxers operate on faith much the same as antivaxxers. We're living in the Dark Ages.
Back to lurking. Un fuerte abrazo, Dr.B!
James, great Monbiot essay.
ReplyDeleteDavis, Berman-- this essay on other countries and how they utilize schizophrenia, w/o prejudice
http://m.nautil.us/issue/58/self/a-mental-disease-by-any-other-name-rp
Like I said, a fascinating look at schizophrenia: "In some countries, schizophrenics hold down jobs at 5 times the rates of American schizophrenics."
Split-
ReplyDeleteDon't call me Berman. Either one of the following is fine: Mr. Berman, or GSWH. Thank you.
Pedro-
Don't lurk; live!
Student-
Mexicans don't have a problem with people stuttering.
mb
ps:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-is-about-to-be-the-worlds-top-crude-oil-producer-guess-who-didnt-see-it-coming/2018/03/07/6a812b62-222a-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html?utm_term=.9fee6302ea2a
ps2:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/07/crisis-touch-hugging-mental-health-strokes-cuddles
Can we stop with the vaccine crap already?! We had lengthy comments on it months ago... please, I beg of you new WAFers, read some of the older posts and comments so we can progress onward and downward rather than rehash this stuff over and over.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteZath, you've gone from baseless claims that German healthcare is poor to insinuating that the docs are racist.
I can't follow your reasoning and I don't think there is any way to salvage a sensible discussion. Let's agree to call it quits.
The 0 is still at it.
ReplyDeleteObama Screws South Side Chicago Residents Over Library – The Jimmy Dore Show
Sarasvati, you said "There are so many things wrong with this statement" but you only talk about one; of course vaccine safety is not a given, but people have been getting vaccinated for longer than a century now, since Pasteur, and with proper procedures and testing, I think you can achieve a reasonable level of safety. Maybe the system in the US is corrupted and unreliable beyond redemption, but that doesn't mean it has to be the same in all countries.
ReplyDeletePedroC, did you just call me an "idiot"? I could have gone emotional and say that anti-vaxxer parents are selfish, ignorant people that have read one too many conspiracy theories off the Internet, but I didn't. I would please ask you to be mindful of the feelings even of those without a BSc in Biotech Engineering.
Transatlantic, it all started because my suspicions about the Five Stars Movement. You cannot forget the context: it's not the same arguing against speed limits in Germany as in Italy. If M5S wanted to abolish speed limits in Italy, personally, that would still sound like cheap demagoguery to me, if for no other reason, because there are many more urgent problems in the country to deal with.
@Student--I think you're confusing correlation and causation. Technology has almost certainly not helped in the way it has rapidly increased the social isolation of the individual, but the Internet is just as prevalent in other countries and their citizens are not out slaughtering one another. I also take issue with the idea that porn lowers the number of sex crimes, which are crimes of violence, not sex. Porn has become far more violent and degrading compared to the pretty tame stuff being made back during the heyday of Ron Jeremy in the 1970s and 80s, and obviously that is what the "consumer" wants or it would no be so. I don't place the blame on porn, which is also readily available in most other countries, instead I think its descent into wanton cruelty merely mirrors the rest of American society.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I favor legalizing prostitution, it's a huge leap to say that by doing so and implementing your other measures, "Obviously none of this stuff will happen." America is a fundamentally sick society that is addicted to wanton violence as the preferred solution for every problem. Changing that fact would mean changing who we fundamentally are as a nation. It means ending the wars, stopping the predator drones, stopping foreign meddling, closing the foreign military bases, restraining the cops, ending the drug war, reversing wealth inequality, reviving the labor movement, recreating healthy communities and respect for the commons, ending suburbanization and car-first transportation, tightly regulating the financial sector, electing leaders dedicated to the common good rather than lining their own pockets, heavily taxing the rich, busting huge monopolies like Amazon and Google, the list is endless.
Cel-Ray et al.-
ReplyDeleteI too am getting tired of this vaccine discussion, and wish I cd get vaccinated against it. Also abt health care in The Fatherland etc. We did in fact argue it out mos. ago, so basta, already. Time for a new subject, b4 I slit my wrists.
Bill-
You mean all those things aren't gonna happen? Damn!
Notice to all hispanohablantes-
A few days ago I did interviews with Reforma, Milenio, Jornada, and Universal on my Japan bk, recently released in Spanish trans. Reforma and Universal published these, and also circulated them to Cronica de Hoy and others. As for Milenio and Jornada, possibly this weekend. You can hunt these down online using google.com.mx, if interested. I'm also doing lanzamientos for the bk in Merida on March 12 and the DF on March 15. If you want exact times and places, write me at mauricio@morrisberman.com.
Hasta la revolucion permanente!
mb
ps: Let's talk abt bagged greens instead; a pressing topic:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/02/health/salad-nutrients-food-drayer/index.html
Bill Hicks - You're completely right. Btw, I think you are much wiser and knowledgeable than me. I have to watch what I post more. Personally though, I've developed an internet addiction and delve around the manosphere from time to time and can see the very negative effect it's having. The alt-right came out of there, for instance. American men, and men in general, try to fill the void they have inside through women. They use them as a validation and if they don't succeed with women, they are dangerous. This is why I don't generally hate on feminists, although they are crazy, they are harmless. The manosphere on the other hand, is smth to look out for. I personally visit it from time to time to check what those maniacs are plotting. But you're right, my answer was too simplistic.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, whether Americans know it or not, they believe in super heroes(super hustlers?) and real life iron man, Elon Musk wants tariffs for Chinese cars. Could it be because he's running a car company? Regardless, a trade war is a honorable last try to contain them, they already own 10% of the European ports. Lately I've been noticing a lot of anti-Chinese coverage, maybe it's the initial stages war.
PedroC - How far are we with genetic engineering? Do you know if we've discovered the intelligence genes yet? I'm hoping it lies outside the scope of human understanding tbh.
Why they just didn't just shoot this shitlife dead like a dog immediately instead of going through all the trouble of explaining/ taking the 5th and grand jury acquittal theater later? The poor 'white man's burden' is blooding his hand and tarnishing his soul cleansing the earth of all the shit so we the righteous can live in peace. I mean if the president can shoot a shithole dead on the 5th Avenue and get applauded, why can't the men and women in uniform who are risking their lives to "protect & serve" us?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/02/28/video-shows-apd-officer-beating-man-suspected-jaywalking-trespassing/382646002/
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see "both sides" roundly condemning Trump's proposed tariffs. I'm sure that the unemployed/underemployed ex-steelworkers in PA, Ohio, and Michigan are probably enjoying the consternation among our elite pundits and "lawmakers." I've often wondered why Nixon suspended Bretton Woods and "opened the door" to "Red" China, which greatly accelerated the decline of the US working class; what motivated him?
Another damning review of Pinker and Enlightenment Now ‘a dogmatic book that offers an oversimplified, excessively optimistic vision of human history and a starkly technocratic prescription for the human future’ @The Nation
ReplyDeleteWhile we're on this topic: I actually like Pinker's writing, it's like having a fresh and clearly worded Hobbesian scholar available in our time to react against.
I agree w/ all the reservations, or most, but he is also a very smart and well intentioned centrist-type guy, who just so happens to have ideological/philosophical dedications that are antithetical to ours. I'm not sure why most of us on the blog seem so threatened or nauseated by his views. He's very institutional, obv, and that can nauseate me too, but... that's his life, not WAFers.
MB, there is a trend that's been going on for years: many city liberals are skeptical of science out of ignorance. This blog has gone through phases about GMOs and now it looks like now it's vaccines. I have co-workers who think flu shots are worthless and that canned tomatoes cause cancer. I'm not sure when liberal America decided to stop believing science, but the trend is bad in my opinion. The trend seems to be, no matter what, anything that doesn't seem old world MUST be causing cancer and harm. This line of thinking seems like complete bullshit to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to disagree with business practices or what technology does to us, but to say canned tomatoes cause cancer despite all evidence? That's what blows my mind. I'm one of the only people are work who "believe" in flu shots, whatever that means. I put that in quotes because a number of my co-workers "don't believe in flu shots." I asked them if they thought all the people at the CDC were just wrong, but people don't want evidence, they'd rather believe what feels good to them.
I feel like it's ok to both understand the science, but to be critical about the actual downsides, I don't see the need to fabricate criticism like this. The actual obsession with technology is bad enough.
I've always suspected that those packaged greens loss their nutritional value on purpose - to revenge the mistreatment of being chopped and stuffed into plastic bags against their wishes. I would be pissed as well. Enough, already! Grow your own damn greens. Quit depending on me for Vitamin D.
ReplyDeleteOn American violence - what's new? Add violence to greed and you get AMERICA. Erstwhile Jamestown colonists were sent over by an English corporation hoping for profits. Indians got in the way. Puritans were intent on saving the savages from themselves by "Christianizing" them at the point of a rifle. Better dead than pagan. And, of course, there was the land which the Indians were willing to share but capitalists don't share well. They want it all. And too bad for whoever gets in their way. After subjecting East Coast natives to annihilation, the nation moved West, vanquishing every tribe that tried to resist its advance to the other sea. Once we had conquered them, we started looking beyond our borders for land to exploit and people to kill. And we've been doing it ever since. We are the most prolific and effective killers in human history. Eventually, of course, we turned in on ourselves - with state-sponsored and individual murders and suicides. 400+ years of domestic and foreign slaughter. Welcome to America - and good luck.
"With no collective bargaining rights, no contract, and no legal right to strike, the teachers had managed to mount a statewide work stoppage anyway, and make their demands heard, marshal public support, and stick together until they won. And the rank and file, not union leaders, came to call the shots. . ."
ReplyDeleteKEEP FIGHTIN FOR THE KIDS GUYS
https://nytimes.com/2018/03/08/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html?referer=http://m.facebook.com/
https://areomagazine.com/2018/02/28/check-your-progressive-privilege-john-rawls-vs-moral-relativism/
ReplyDeleteCheck your Progressive Privilege: John Rawls vs Moral Relativism
Excellent coverage
@Aaron
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting points, and I agree that this discussion is long overdue.
America has a very strange relationship with science. Considering that science has to contend with a Biblical fundamentalism unknown in the wider Western world, scientists can be overly defensive here.
To give you an example- I remember expressing skepticism about the Darwinian model of evolution to some friends. I was not arguing for creationism, but suggesting that "survival of the fittest" is a poor metaphor for how species behave in nature. The basic contest is not species vs. species, but all species vs. environment. This was Kropotkin's argument in "Mutual Aid as a Factor in Evolution".
The response was horror from your typical liberal college types, who immediately equated anti-Darwinism with some kind of Biblical worldview. After I explained further, they seemed to regard this objection as irrelevant, saying something to the effect of "we need to support evolutionary science because it's the only alternative to fundamentalism".
So I think a lot of people feel constrained between false alternatives and are unable to come to an authentic personal worldview. It's senseless to "believe" or "disbelieve" in vaccines as such, but I know I personally have gotten quite sick after taking a flu shot, a cost to be weighed against the benefit of later immunity.
The point is that we don't have an educated populace capable of actually exploring these issues. The scientific world (not science itself) can be a bit of a bully, but it only gets critiqued by incoherent laymen and women.
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2327-ingmar-bergman-interviews-himself
ReplyDeleteIngmar Bergman Interviews Himself. Bergman 100th Anniversary
The Biggest Douchebag of ALL Douchebags got 7 years today...but I think they gave him a break and they shouldn’t have...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/03/09/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison.html
He cried like the little Bitch that he is...No more Mr. Arrogant
https://www.google.com/amp/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-tearfully-begs-honors-mercy/story%3Fid%3D53639528
The SCHADENFREUDE is VERY HIGH Today.
JJ- re: pharma bro- his net worth is estimated at $27 million. After $7 million and change in restitution and 7 years in jail, he will be 41 years old and worth roughly $20 million- not bad. White collar crimes does pay in this country; not one executive was charged in the 2008 financial crisis even though there were clearly massive amounts of fraud going on including robo-signing by banks. Instead, they got bailed out.
ReplyDeleteIf he were black and robbed a liquor store of $20, he would have gotten 20 years, or even life in Cali if that was his 3rd strike.
Check out the videos of William Black on youtube a former bank regulator. Money quote: the best way to rob a bank is to own one...
BrotherMaynard
Hi Morris - any chance that you'd come back to the University of New Mexico to teach, at least for a semester? My wife is on the faculty here and we'd both like to get you back up here...but of course, this state doesn't have a proverbial pot to piss in...I'd be willing to twist some arms, though.
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