from paul craig roberts 8.27.18:
ReplyDelete"The security that insouciant Americans find in the belief that only the US is a superpower is ignorant beyond all belief. A new book by Andrei Martyanov published by Clarity Press proves that, at best, the US is a second rate military power that can be utterly destroyed at will by Russia along with the entirety of the stupid NATO countries, every one of which is militarily impotent. In the present correlation of forces, nothing whatsoever can be done to save a square inch of the Western world if Russia ever has enough of the absurd accusations, absurd threats, absurd postering of a totally inferior military power drunk on its own ignorant hubris.
Americans are too insouciant to know it, but they are living day by day only at the mercy of Russia."
Had to turn off my radio this weekend to avoid the constant McCain hagiography, but before I did I heard one of those Yippie quiz shows from NYC. One of the questions was; founded by Pissaro in 1535, this city is also the capitol of Peru. Total silence. I could hear crickets. The next question was; what is the name of Amazon's smart speaker. Instant answer.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good stuff from the past few days. Keep it up Wafers!
FerQ,
ReplyDeleteRe: MGTOW from the previous post:
As far as I can see, from having encountered some of its followers, it's the intellectual end of the spectrum that includes MRAs & incels at the other end. But it doesn't take long for the intellectual gloss to wear thin & reveal outright misogyny beneath. It so often comes down to a mass of immaturity & insecurity.
MeToo is experiencing the same shadow side that every necessary social movement unfortunately manifests along the way: a demand for zero tolerance & 100% ideological purity, no exceptions. And innocent people get hurt by it, and I won't dismiss them as inevitable collateral damage, either. Decent men are rebuffed & unjustly accused, and there's no excuse for it.
Even so, what do the majority of women want from grown men? To act & behave like grown men -- like gentlemen in the best sense of that word -- rather than like little boys with an overblown sense of entitlement. I think a lot of men simply don't like women. Oh, they like having sex, arm candy, trophy wives, cooks, homemakers, etc.; but they really don't like women. Not as people. Just as possessions, status objects. In a culture based on "Screw you, I got mine!" & endless competition & consumerism & the commodification of every human quality, what else can be expected?
Again, just my anecdotal experience here, nothing more.
MB -- "When Pigs Fly" should be replaced with "When Turkeys Listen". The sad part is that even the smart people know America is done, but because they are infected by the great disease known as the "American Hustle", they will continue the denial. In fact their hustling genes will kick in and inspire them to make $$$ on the way down. Write a book with plenty of chapters dedicated to the decline and then end it with a chapter titled "The Resistance" / "The Revolution" / "Hope and Change" / "Liberty will Prevail" ...blah blah blah. That is why only America could have created the Ponzi scheme known as "short selling", make $$$ while shit blows up. And as the great George Carlin would say "and how do people feel about living in America, well they think its just fucking dandy".
ReplyDeleteMeet hypocrisy and delusion, aka dumb Trump supporters. Listen to them explain why they love him. These Turkeys make me rethink about moving back to Amrika and selling them some nice stuff. Some insightful comments on why they adore him so much:
"He says what he says and he gets it done, he might get a Nobel Prize"-- Odrama got one for droning civilians, so lets give one to Trumpi
"He has gotten rid of corruption in Washington" -- the swamp has been drained
"He is pro life and pro military" -- the irony is very strong here.. the military is apparently being used to save lives..
"I have been unemployed for 9 years under the previous administration" -- lazy black folks don't work and don't allow others to work.
"We should talk to dictators and avoid tensions" -- says the guy who probably wanted to bomb Iraq
The masses are lying down, not rising up. They're inured with cell-phone-itis, forever lost in cyberville.
ReplyDeleteIn this world, decline and collapse is a desirable path to the future. Yes, many will suffer and die, as they do now. It's Nature's Way.
Dark News is the only news there is.
Wafers, apparently John McCain's last words were believe in the greatness of America.
ReplyDeletePresented without comment.
Professor Berman and Wafers'
ReplyDeleteDual process is ongoing. I got to the library this am (I must have my Monday am DAA blog visit, after coffee - hey, these are my only addictions!) and my little Flipper phone sounds those ukuleles. So, I go in a quiet, darkened private space to talk. It's my buddy from Oregon. He says: "The wheels are coming off this country! The only sane people you meet all tell me that they want to leave amerika!" "Correct my friend" I reply. "You need to check out the only blog necessary - that would be Dark Ages Amerika! Be there or be square."
The point being that I feel there are quite a few amerikans "out there" whom agree with our documentation of the decline. After all, sworn testimony is evidentiary, and I heard the evidence this morning from a long time friend. His other comment was in regard to the upcoming mid-term elections. "Soon the Masses Will Rise Up" ? The link to the Guardian piece on the Mueller investigation in the previous blog discussion touched on the descent into madness, AKA the trumpi organization white house wash. I got a great phone call "scoop" from my buddy in Manhattan yesterday. Will detail that for y'all in my next post.
O&D!
Wafers-
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm excited abt the prospect of an uprising of the masses, the unavoidable overthrow of our corporate masters, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In my experience, Americans are intelligent, courageous, and unwilling to tolerate any abuse. Hence, the victory of the masses is a foregone conclusion. All of this is probably a mere 2 mos. away. Rise, O Masses!
mb
I am enjoying the John McCain hagiography because it is more proof that Americans don't care about anything substantive when it comes to politics. McCain never saw a country he didn't want to bomb and only came to the conclusion that the Iraq War was a mistake in his 2018 memoir, so basically on his deathbed. The fact that Barack Obama and George W. Bush will be delivering eulogies at his funeral is just icing on the cake.
ReplyDeleteWatching the media and politicians rush to praise McCain for being a "reasonable Republican" unlike the evil Trump is even funnier. I guess deporting people is now worse than killing them in a pointless, stupid war sold on lies.
This just in from CNN:
ReplyDeleteRadical historian, Morris Berman, has called for a general strike and an October Revolution to take place w/in the United States. Armed w/an AK-47, flash grenades, and bags of McDonald's bacon cheeseburgers, Berman arrived at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It's unclear at this point what his demands specifically are, but Berman repeatedly stated that "bacon-less burgers are an affront to all true Americans." Berman also requested the immediate release of inmate Shaneka Monique Torres. Upon her release, Torres took center stage. "I hereby declare a provisional government," Torres said, "which places me as dictator of the proleteriat! See, dictatorship does not necessarily mean the abolition of democracy for the class that exercises dictatorship over other classes; but it does mean the abolition of democracy for the class over which, or against which, the dictatorship is thereby exercised."
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
@Tim Lukeman:
ReplyDelete"Even so, what do the majority of women want from grown men? To act & behave like grown men -- like gentlemen in the best sense of that word -- rather than like little boys with an overblown sense of entitlement."
I think that is basically true of Latin American women as well as women from Latin and Eastern Europe. I do not think this is true of Anglo-American women at all. I speak from having interacted with Latina women as well as Eastern European women, so I think I have a point of comparison.
In my experience, Anglo-American women feel threatened by mature men. As mothers, they do everything they can to psychologically castrate their boys, and also to marginalize and belittle Dad. As soon as any husband or father tries to exercise responsible, protective authority, off to the Family Courts he goes as an "abuser."
Anglo-American women may SAY that they want mature, responsible men, but their consistent behavior demonstrates the opposite. I am sure that there are serious misogynists in movements like MGTOW, as you say. However, I think most of this is a negative reaction to the hypocrisy of the women in their lives.
As MB might say, the cure is for such men to get out in the big, wide world and experience women who are psychologically healthy. A lot of these "losers" might grow into the role of responsible manhood, if they are actually allowed to.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI have been going back and forth abt releasing the following info, because certain people cd get in trouble as a result; altho I might be over-worrying it, I dunno (after all, who gives a crap abt this blog). I have known this info for several yrs, but chose to keep it to myself. In any case, I will not mention my source, except to say:
1. He is an acquaintance of mine, not a close friend; but he is a friend of gd friends of mine who vouch for his integrity. I spent an entire day talking w/him; his vibe is definitely one of dedication and honesty, and of repairing the damage we did to VN.
2. He personally knew John McCain.
3. He is a VN vet.
The hoopla over McCain is painful for me to watch, knowing the following info, and (I'm quite sure) painful for "Bob." This ridiculous mythologizing is possibly even worse than that which followed upon the death of Reagan, who suddenly became a saint.
Here's the deal:
a) McCain was never tortured by the Vietnamese; in fact, they treated him quite well. He invented the torture story to launch his political career; which worked, obviously.
b) When he fell into the lake in Hanoi, his arms got broken. Several people wanted to beat the shit out of him, even kill him, but a man named On (I can't remember his 1st names) refused to let them do it, and in effect saved McCain's life.
c) After McCain's release from the Viet Cong jail, On tried to contact him, in particular thru Bob. McCain avoided his savior like the plague, because this cd potentially blow his cover abt being 'tortured'.
d) McCain continued to refer to the Vietnamese as 'gooks', long after the war was over:
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/McCain-Criticized-for-Slur-He-says-he-ll-keep-3304741.php
e) After hounding McCain abt it for yrs, Bob finally managed to shame McCain into agreeing to a meeting with On. For On, it was an honor, a big deal--wow, a US senator! In advance of the mtg, McCain purchased a paperwt or ashtray from the Senate gift shop ($5, or thereabouts), and spent a total of 5 mins. w/him.
In a word, John McCain was a phony, and a real shit. This is the guy the nation is now adulating.
mb
ps: try to hang onto yr lunch:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfM_BSpoqJM
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteAlmost ashamed to admit I sent McCain $24 in 2000 because I thought he had a chance to derail "Bush The Lesser." But, that's when I was into "lesser-evilism." Thanks to this blog and your books, I realized how foolish I was...
MB, is that legit? Why don't you tell a news organization? I guess at this point it's waaaaayyy too late for that, but I don't get it? Why let it go on for this long?
ReplyDeleteI guess it's been said before, and nobody cared.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/14/uselections2008-johnmccain
I have far more respect for Jim Morrison, also the son of a Navy Admiral whom he didn't even want to acknowledge as his father, than I'd ever have for McFlame. Wdnt doubt for a minute his VN story is a fabrication.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Am women I have never been married, don't 'date,' or have really ever been in a serious relationship. Twisted as it may be I've been a Morrissey type celibate, in my defense having a mental illness is a serious hindrance. I really don't blame Am women for being all fucked up. They face a lot of pressure and shitty programming. Can't really get too upset if they select brutish men like their fathers - they dream of poets but marry barbarians. Maybe we'd all b better off in a matriarchal society and might b surprised what kind of men they'd choose.
Here's a question for the blog - does anyone choose to be Wafer? Is it something you study to become or is it just a state of being? For me it is the latter, can't say I've really ever had to reason my way into Waferdom.
Gunnar-
ReplyDeleteState of being.
Aaron-
Yr kidding, rt? I mean, who is going to believe me (or my source)? We are nobodies. Plus, when fact meets myth, myth always wins. In this case, if they say, "Who is yr source?", I can't name him w/o his permission, and I don't have it. *He* hasta say it, and he has chosen not to say anything since the VN war ended. Which I understand: he can get a lot more done for VN if he doesn't stir up a hornet's nest. And then, if he had said it while McCain was alive, all McCain wd hafta do is deny it. BTW, Bob says that On has the paperwt on his bureau, like a shrine.
mb
Wafer Gunnar--Knew at a 8yo that I did not belong. Remember being denied recess because I told the teacher that Lincoln was an asshole and a total phony.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up --Was called arrogant b/c I preferred books to tv, playing an instrument versus playing with balls, taking walks in the park and listening to quiet, all folks said black, I said white, and was curious why everyone became so angry and filled with rage when they encountered a different viewpt ?!
Finally found Dr. Berman's works and read the blog's prior posts (awesome set of knowledge), and like a hand to a well-worn glove--it fit, was natural-like old buddies, didn't have to keep a guard up, or tip toe through PC us bullshit. It is, however, VERY difficult being around family and a few us friends as they guard has to go up, live in a fantasy world of hu$tle lust, and can't be myself because they're usa-ers. Other than characteristic us love bombing, I severely limit contact with usa-ers.
T-2 yrs till we're gone.
MB wrote: In a word, John McCain was a phony, and a real shit. This is the guy the nation is now adulating." Not certain what to make of anecdotes with anonymous sources, the old back porch and a bottle of whiskey confession thing, but I certainly don't even need your story to agree with you.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine how sickening it will be when Henry Kissinger dies?
If anyone needs a reminder of what the Vietnam War says about the US, partly a reaction to the most recent film by the court hagiographer of American Exceptionalism Ken Burns-
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/07/what-we-did
MB/Wafers:
ReplyDeleteI have one for the MGTOW crowd among us and for the rest of us Wafers. Apparently this bride demanded that all her guests pay $1500 apiece for her wedding, and when they didn't her and her fiance broke up, and she let loose in an epic Facebook tantrum:
https://www.mamamia.com.au/wedding-horror-story-bride-rant/
I feel bad for the kid her and the fiance have together though. I mean the kid doesn't just have her for a mom, he/she has her genes too. Scary stuff!
Mike-
ReplyDeleteI guess Wafers are born, not made; tho I'm sure some are made. How many friends do you think I had?
At age 3, I was rdg Robinson Crusoe. 1st time I used a dictionary, to look up the word 'eddy'.
At age 7, I was playing chess, rdg poetry, and studying Hebrew. My father's father was chess champion of his city, in the Ukraine (b4 I was born).
At age 8, I realized I had nothing in common w/the kids around me, and that I wd hafta fake it to survive. I was not gd at it.
When I was 10, my maternal grandfather was teaching me to read Babylonian (cuneiform).
Yes, I fit into America very well.
mb
Morris, thanks for the info from your friend. Kinda surprising but at the same time completely believable...if that makes sense. I'm willing to wager that there have been times in the past when your friend tried to share this story, and was told he was a traitor.
ReplyDeleteTom took the words outta my mouth, the guy never saw a country he didn't want to bomb. Which, as a person who supposedly suffered the most serious consequences of war when held as a prisoner, seems kinda strange. I do respect the few times he was willing to speak out against party leadership or right wing nuts but his overall voting record doesn't leave a good impression. But it doesn't matter - he'll be placed into the stars of republican heaven, next to the gipper.
Ugh, I just a horrible thought. When Bill Clinton dies this same kind of hollow bluster is going to be all over the news. How he "revitalized" and "reshaped" the new democratic party. So he destroyed the old left and sold the party to corporate donors - who cares! he played the sax! I think I'll need a barf bag.
Wudu-
ReplyDeleteWe all need barf bags. Truth is, McCain was the ultimate hustler, and not only politically: he owned 13 homes. In that sense, he really does represent most Americans, for whom integrity is 0 and hustling is everything. How did he sleep at nite, knowing his life was based on a lie? Probably very well.
Jimmy Carter owns one home, worth abt $167K. Just wait and see what the media will do to him, when he dies. The best guide to contemporary US is to realize that everything is upside down. And this is what I understood intuitively (not intellectually, of course), when I was 8 yrs old.
mb
@Birney--in my case I donated $50 to McLame in 2000, which was the first political donation I ever made. The only other was to Wes Clark in 2004. I used to be stupid enough to believe it would take a "sensible" military person to turn America around (though Clark has far more integrity than McCain ever did).
ReplyDelete@Gunnar--for me, it took about a dozen years to transition to being a true Wafer from being the idiot who gave McLame $50. I was an outsider as a youth who was always torn with wanting to get on board with the program. Eventually, I served in the military, graduated college and did a 25-year career in the government trying to hold the assholes in Washington accountable (which is why I'm so cynical about the Cohen-Manafort prosecutions. All of the shit they pulled is just K-Street business as usual, far as I can tell).
Along the way, I kept having an increasing feeling that something was deeply wrong with it all. Once the horrors of the Iraq War happened and no one was held accountable I slowly came to understand that there was no turning things around--that they are EXACTLY the way psychopathic "leaders" like McCain as well as a vast majority of Americans want them.
10 Signs that Western Society is Collapsing....
ReplyDeletehttp://listverse.com/2018/04/13/10-indications-that-western-society-is-collapsing/
Young Americans don’t read books...old ones too for that matter....
https://www.studyfinds.org/study-third-teens-havent-read-book-past-year/
When they do read something, it’s only SKIMMING....which is having a profound negative effect.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf
I recently picked up some extra cash tutoring US history, and it's quite miserable stuff. Even the crazed shooters are not new. I can't think of any history outside of late Rome so shaped by moronic assassinations. For instance, think about Charles Guiteau, the dude that popped James Garfield.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Guiteau
He just decided to kill Garfield because he didn't get his job. Today he would be right at home attacking a McDonalds cashier for forgetting to add ketchup to his fries.
Funny how American elite make such a huge deal about their "legacy" but the best part of the population has a memory of 2-3 decades back at most. Gilded age presidents anybody? Role Henry Clay played in forming the Whig party? Harry Truman's Fair Deal? All a lot of noise signifying nothing. Peel back the layers just a bit and there's nothing original about any of it. Just a few more dramatic moments (wars, crises, etc). No real advances in the human spirit.
20 years from now *maybe* McCain is an answer choice in the multiple choice test question bank?
Dr. B —
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your friend Bob is aware of the demolition of the McCain myth written by Tim Dickerson and published in the 10/26/2008 issue of Rolling Stone. It still may be the most thorough takedown of a politician that I've ever read. Bob and another other interested parties may be able retrieve the article via their public library, provided it offers the Ebscohost service. Search for the article "Make-Believe Maverick," by Tim Dickerson, Rolling Stone, issue 1063. The article concludes as follows:
"[McCain's] own writing gives us the standard by which he should be judged. 'Always telling the truth in a political campaign,' he writes in Worth the Fighting For, 'is a great test of character.' He adds: 'Patriotism that only serves and never risks one's self-interest isn't patriotism at all. It's selfishness. That's a lesson worth relearning from time to time.' It's a lesson, it would appear, that the candidate himself could stand to relearn.
" 'I'm sure John McCain loves his country,' says Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar under Bush. 'But loving your country and lying to the American people are apparently not inconsistent in his view.'"
Dickerson also wrote the less-than-glowing obit currently posted on rollingstone.com, but unfortunately the article appears to lack a link to Dickerson's 2008 piece, and the website lacks a search tool for accessing its archive. An obit sidebar does prominently display a link to a 2000 article by David Foster Wallace entitled, "The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub: Seven days in the life of the late, great John McCain." I am agnostic regarding the Wallace piece because I didn't read it back in the day and haven't read it now. I may not. A little McCain goes a long way. He's going a very long way now. Buh-bye!
Zen-
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ref. I dunno if Bob has read it, but I wd guess he has. I just find it kinda wonderful that McCain is now eulogized as an exemplary American, and that that is true--just not in the sense that most eulogizers mean it. The whole nation lives in a fog.
Dio, Jeff-
I guess we need to construct a Declinist version of the US, esp. in its final phase. I have a scenario in which Laquisha Jones runs for president, flanked by Shaneka Torres, Lorenzo Riggins, Brittany Carulli, and Freddie Wadsworth, all of them throwing McDonald's cheeseburgers (w/bacon, of course) to the crowds. BTW, Jeff, now may be the time to read "3 Christs of Ypsilanti," by Milton Rokeach. In the imagined update, Shaneka wd be #4.
mb
ps: You Wafers still living in the US: do you ever get the feeling yr watching some sort of surreal theater? Following T.S. Eliot, some declinists debate whether we are ending w/a bang or a whimper. But the 3rd possibility is one I (and they) never imagined, namely, as a bad joke. Why not Oprah, or Kim K., as presidential candidates, really? We now have David Brooks toilet paper; why not have the all of the NYT printed on same on a daily basis? (Wafers are encouraged to submit the lyrics to a song, "Ink on My Anus," which will follow the music of "Tears on My Pillow.") And w/McCain lying in state, when will we hear from Sarah Palin, fer fuck's sake?
ReplyDeletemb
MB & Wafers,
ReplyDeleteOn John McCain - I've read and heard a lot about his wartime experiences that are almost exactly what MB's friend told him. (Additionally about his father's role in burying the real story of the USS Liberty, which was fired upon by Israel with multiple fatalities.) I've seen some of it at Unz.com and various other websites that specialize in telling the truth. I think Paul Craig Roberts has had a few other columns on the same subject. But these stories will never be spoken of in the mainstream media - the myth is what sells, and the mainstream media's job is to sell the myth of the USA, not the reality. Anything like this will be ignored completely, and probably deleted as "fake news" from google, youtube or facebook.
Everything really is upside down - those that should be celebrated, the courageous, are ignored, and the hustlers and con artists are celebrated. Is it any wonder that America is going down the tubes?
Sure, living in the US is like living among the love children of Ionesco and Fellini who are strung out on quaaludes and mescaline. What else is new? It's been this way for as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteWell, these is something new. For twenty years or more one of my little mumbled phrases whenever there was a discussion of the rampant idiocy in the US was, 'Well, the end of Empire is never pretty.' People would sputter and protest and walk away in disgust. Until the last three years or so, that is. People who used to protest strongly now laugh or nod their head in agreement; some even have the decency to hang their head in shame. More and more people are facing the reality.
And I know that positive things have little place here, but I will say that I meet more and more people in their 20s who are looking deeply into what has gone wrong and what can be done to make the future better. In a way that might give DrB a little smile, many of them recognize the futility of 'changing (this) society' and are focused on making their little corner a good place. This doesn't mean doing yoga or buying local organic or other surface gestures. It doesn't mean adopting New Age or such systems. It means making sacrifices and working hard on themselves and their place in the world. I have a lot of respect for many of these kids and do what I can to encourage them and to share what I can and learn what I can from them. Cynical old farts aren't the only NMIs out there; there's a new generation coming up, and they already know how easily they can be crushed and killed off so they keep their heads low and plow ahead. Those of us left behind should keep our eyes open for fellow travelers of all ages.
And to return to our regular snark, in the spirit of Shelley -Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!- I offer this tweet for contemplation, from a Washington Post writer:
https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1034171659790569472
Doctor,
ReplyDeleteI had a feeling you were somewhat ambivalent about your McCain info. I remember you telling us it at a Wafer summit a few years ago. Thanks for sharing it. Yes, I think we all need to go to the far reaches of the Canadian interior when Hank Kissinger dies. I'd love to ask him if he fears death. He must have visions of millions waiting to tear him apart in the afterlife.
Counterpunch reposted a 1999 article they did on John McCain.
ReplyDelete"Here is a piece that Cockburn and I wrote in 1999 about a psychiatric evaluation of McCain underwent while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. The psychological portrait drawn by Spanish psychiatrist Fernando Barral is that of a deeply narcissistic personality, cold, hardened and largely devoid of human empathy, a man who seemed to view the bombing of civilian populations as a kind of sport. These aggressive personality traits have also characterized his nasty political career."
Given his later love of war it seems that the psychiatrist nailed it.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/27/the-horrors-of-john-mccain-war-hero-or-war-criminal-2/
Also Jimmy Dore has a few good videos on him..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTpV4NFqd_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO4wXQesThA
The most interesting part is in the first one with footage of the video NBC cut back to after their bulletin... America at its finest!
@ Zen, The article on McCain you cite appears to be online here: http://www.prosebeforehos.com/article-of-the-day/10/06/the-make-believe-maverick/
ReplyDeleteMore on McCain:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.truthdig.com/articles/investigating-john-mccains-tragedy-at-sea/
Dr. Berman --
ReplyDeleteI read this yesterday and can't vouch for its authenticity but wanted to share it with the blog. From the article:
"John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books."
Here's the entire article:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/08/no_author/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/
Derick Jensen recently interviewed Chris Hedges on his Resistance Radio program. Here's the link: https://resistanceradioprn.podbean.com/e/resistance-radio-guest-chris-hedges-082418/
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard Chris interviewed in some time and to me his voice is sounding like he has lost any hope for this country. Maybe he's reach depression, the 4th stage of grief. Only acceptance is left. I like Chris and hope he becomes a Wafer before it's too late. Derrick, on the other hand, has been a fully realized Wafer for some time.
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteHere is an article that suggests that Europe, at least for financial reasons and in a financial way, is acting to distance itself from the US. And maybe clearing away US obstacles for getting that Iranian oil!
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/68025/europe-is-working-on-alternative-to-swift-for-financial-independence-from-the.html
I have "liberal" relatives that are solely focused on removing Trump, but they seem to have amnesia over what lead to his "rise." They are of course deeply saddened by McCain's loss (ugh!). I'm only 28 and came of age (voting-wise) during the 2008 Elections (Obama vs. McCain). My Uncle recently claimed that McCain lost because of Sarah Palin. I'm sure she somewhat contributed to his loss, but that was such a simplistic answer. I remember vividly then (at 18) the horror of another Bush -- the fear of more war and the possible reinstatement of the draft. My late grandfather, who served in WW2, warned me about these war hawks. Ironically, Obama proved to be just as disastrous.
ReplyDeleteScientists Warn the UN of Capitalism's Imminent Demise
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43pek3/scientists-warn-the-un-of-capitalisms-imminent-demise
^^ I encourage all to read this article. A lot of what we've been discussing in terms of a post-Oil/no-growth future are mentioned in this article. They weigh in on the cons of relying solely on the advancement of AI, robotics, etc. (AKA they also take up way too much energy).
You Wafers still living in the US: do you ever get the feeling yr watching some sort of surreal theater?
ReplyDeleteI like to describe it as a comic book dystopia. The Thought Police, the Identity Politics, the Fake News, the clownishly foolish politicians, the Incels, the Open Borders idiots. etc etc
A nice post from Dan Daniel, even if I did have to Goggle Ionesco. The comments below the Rubin post are worth noting. Mccain, like America, all part of the big lie.
ReplyDelete"when will we hear from Sarah Palin, fer fuck's sake?"
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/sarah-palin-says-john-mccain-had-some-strange-people-around-him/
Re: my previous post (less than 24-hours ago — my apologies) —
ReplyDeleteErratum: The name of the author of "Make-Believe Maverick" and the McCain obituary in Rolling Stone is Tim Dickinson, not Tim Dickerson.
@Kashe Varnishke: Thank you — my quick skim (shout-out to @jjarden) of the article returned by your prosebeforehos hyperlink confirms that it is the same as the Rolling Stone one that I cited. Oddly, prosebeforehos makes the same attribution typo that I did. Their article also displays a link that purports to return the original rollingstone.com article but now returns a "Page Not Found" error.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the story on McCain was already out:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-542277/How-war-hero-John-McCain-betrayed-Vietnamese-peasant-saved-life.html
My source, "Bob," was Chuck Searcy, head of Vietnam Vets in Hanoi, working to heal relations, defuse landmines, etc.--unlike the turd McCain, a great human being.
Artemus-
Hedges will never become a Wafer; it's not in his DNA. Just for starters, he has no sense of humor (a major Wafer characteristic). Latest article called for Revolt! Jesus, what a dummy. He shd probably interview Shaneka Torres.
mb
This is unusual, an article in the New York Times which is actually interesting to read (IMHO): Centrists Are the Most Hostile to Democracy, Not Extremists.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the United States, fewer than half of people in the political center view elections as essential.
I hadn't thought about it but somehow it feels like it could very well be right. Cynicism? Resistance to change? Anybody else finds these statistics intriguing?
Zar-
ReplyDeleteWas it Mark Twain who said that if elections could change anything, they wd be declared illegal?
mb
Hola Professor Mauricio Belman y todos Wafer,
ReplyDeleteThe discussion going on in this current topic post by MB is simply, outstanding.
Gunnar - indeed, re: Jim Morrison; Kreiger, Manzarek and Densmore were equal voices in the music and lyrics of the best assemblage of all time, documenting, at the :summer of love", a profound vision of "the descent into madness".
MB - I second that emotion -a state of being. But one can come to the self realization. As Bill Hicks testifies to.
MB - perhaps the paperweight could be traced , through a posted photo from On, back to when/where it was sold from?
Dan Daniel - I noted in my last post a friend's similar observation, i.e. "the wheels are coming off".
Mike R - your testimony is a mirror image of "mi journado solo". Thanks for that post.
CTD !
mean-
ReplyDeleteThank you. Note that it's "todos los Waferes," or if you prefer, "todos los Waferinos."
mb
I support Jeremy Corbyn & his social justice policies. But his collusion with anti-Semites & Islamist fascists is disturbing. I hope he will reassure us by apologising for his collusion & not just for the hurt he caused. READ: https://leftfootforward.org/2015/06/an-open-letter-to-jeremy-corbyn/
ReplyDeletehttps://amp.fastcompany.com/90222618/what-the-future-of-food-will-look-like-in-2038
ReplyDeleteIt’s the year 2038–here’s how we’ll eat 20 years in the future
A science-fiction look at the next two decades of food developments, from robot farmers to 3D-printed meals to government monitoring of your daily calorie intake
SCARY
Gunnar,
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your posts. You are a young man who became a Wafer long before most of us old codgers. I knew I was different when in high school American History class we had to do an oral report and I chose Eugene V. Debs and the Wobblies. I delivered the report, but it went over like a lead balloon. I knew I was a Wafer forty years later when old Hopey-Changey boy bullshitted us one too many times and my progressive friends became just a bit too delusional. I may be slow, but I ain't stupid. My fondest wish now is that Sheneeka will rise up and lead us all into the Bacon and Fast Food Customer Service Revolution. It's all that we have left. Bacon and Customer Service - power to the porkers!
Mike-
ReplyDeletePitchforks in one hand, cheeseburgers in the other. Shaneka will lead the assault on our corporate masters, flanked by Lorenzo Riggins and other avant-garde individuals. Can't quite describe my level of excitement.
Leir-
Little known fact: bowel movements will also be monitored.
Roger-
Cdn't run it; we have a half-page-max rule on this blog. Pls compress and re-send. Thank you.
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteEver get the feeling you're being targetted? How many of these drive-by attack posts against Corbyn are we going to see on this site? Maybe Wafers ought to feel flattered that we're considered important enough to be the object of attention.
The knives are out for Jeremy Corbyn, the first leader of the British Labour Party not to subscribe to the imperious, hegemonic values that underpin the British state.
Corbyn has a long record of support for the Palestinian people and other justice causes. His landslide victory in the Labour Party’s leadership election in September 2015 was a humiliating defeat for the Zionist lobby, in the shape of the Labour Friends of Israel group, which up to that moment had been in complete control of Labour’s leadership.
The pro-Israeli Lobby’s War on Jeremy Corbyn
https://www.mondialisation.ca/the-pro-israeli-lobbys-war-on-jeremy-corbyn/5523638
Has Israel been covertly fuelling claims of an "anti-Semitism crisis" purportedly plaguing Britain's Labour Party since it elected a new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, three years ago?
That question is raised by a new freedom of information request submitted this week by a group of Israeli lawyers, academics and human rights activists.
Is Israel's hand behind the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-s-hidden-hand-behind-attacks-jeremy-corbyn-139423040
Wafers/Dr. B:
ReplyDeleteEvidence of decline from the news:
After decades of beating up on the third world, the US Army has decided that they need to beef up their artillery so they can fight the Chinese and the Russians:
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/08/27/return-of-fires-how-the-army-is-getting-back-to-its-big-guns-as-it-prepares-for-the-near-peer-fight/
The US Airforce is now playing the "homeland is in danger!!!" card to get money for new radars for their F-16 fleet, because they're allegedly worried about the Chinese and the Russians nuking North America, a move which would provoke a massive counter attack from the US and result in the end of life on earth that will result in zero benefit for China nor Russia.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/27/the-homeland-is-no-longer-a-sanctuary-amid-rising-near-peer-threats-northcom-commander-says/
Meanwhile, as the DoD continues to invent new reasons to spend the treasury on questionable weapons systems combined deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide now outpace diabetes.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/deaths-drugs-alcohol-suicide-now-outpace-diabetes-study/story?id=57438591
And yes, Dr. B I do feel as if I am watching a surreal theater and have felt that way for the past decade or so when I woke up from the American Dream and started questioning the myths we are taught to believe.
The book that really did it for me was "The Pentagon Wars" by Richard Burton, believe it or not.
Happy-
ReplyDeleteGd post, but just a bit too long. In future, pls be sure to stick to half-page-max rule. Thank you.
mb
Tim Lukeman, Michael,
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago I discovered one of the MGTOW blogs. I'm an INTJ female, and I saw somewhere that many of the MGTOW posters were also INTJ, so it kind of pulled me in. From what I've seen MGTOW has degenerated over the past couple of years into a riot of misogyny and general creepiness (advocating sex dolls, etc.). That said, I have to say that in the early days (i.e., before it was taken over by the women-haters) I was impressed by the generally high level of thought and insight, and as a fellow INTJ, a lot of what they had to say resonated with me.
Their basic point seemed to be that the old paradigm of being a "hardworking good guy" wasn't paying dividends anymore, like it did, say, in the 1950s. That droves of wives and girlfriends were reading books like "Eat Pray Love" and "Fifty Shades of Gray", etc. and leaving their boring "beta" husbands for more exciting prospects. Well, what Tim said about "women wanting someone who will treat them like a gentleman" is certainly still true for some of us! But I have to say, from my own experience of women, the old school MGTOWs were not entirely wrong. America really has returned to the "law of the jungle" in pretty much every sphere from economics to work to dating. So while I abhor their crass misogyny, I can't deny that they have a certain point!
@Mike Kelly ty for your kind wrds- not too sure of the young part tho.
ReplyDeleteDitto on being a misfit, I'm pretty much a mute in public, learned along time ago to keep my fucking mouth shut, obviously the only option when ur swimming in a cesspool. In college I used to look around me in lecture hall and wonder how many had similar life/inner experience I knew it wasn't many and a therapist confirmed by calling me a statistical scant.
I re-watched Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Haven't laughed out loud during a movie in a very long time. My experience living in USA! is similar to the scene when Raul Duke is tripping in the bar and sees gluttonous lizard like creatures laughing and cajoling with each other and can't figure out who is feeding the monsters alcohol. Not literally but I find these people to b very alien. On the other hand I'm kind of like the Steve Carell character in the Big Short who railed against everyone/thing until he discovered the magnitude of the problem and then became magnanimous. I've known all along it was bad but didn't realize the extent of it and so feel some empathy/pity esp the young people who've done nothing to deserve this.
“But he did have one unshakeable conviction: Wherever America had a foreign policy problem, the solution was always to bomb the fuck out of someone.” - brilliant as ever from Matt Taibbi https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/mccain-support-war-716416/
ReplyDeleteIf you can stand one more post about McLame, this is good: Bye bye, shithead.
ReplyDelete@Zara--I came to that conclusion several years ago with what happened to the Sanders campaign. However cynical we may be about Sanders, the fact is that he WAS denied the Dumbocratic nomination by the anti-democratic machinations of the party's centrists. You can also see it in how most centrists would love to see Trump dumped out of office by an "intelligence" community coup d'etat even though he won the election fairly under the rules established by the Constitution.
@jjarden--that Listverse listicle is yet another tired conservative rant about how "libruls" are destroying the country rather than a genuine declinist's analysis. Space limitations prohibit me from taking it on point by point so I'll just select one. The author states that "America’s borders are not recognized or enforced," and uses one example in which an illegal immigrant was acquitted murder as an example of how they are not held accountable under U.S. law. That is not only a laughable assertion given the mass private detention centers that are holding tens of thousands with no due process, but completely ignores the fact that if anyone is virtually immune from the law it is the rich--the Wall Street bankers who crashed the economy, for example. There are a few good points in the article, but overall it is highly dubious.
Thinking Allowed: Marx and Marxism
ReplyDeleteAfter about a year of exposure to BBC Four I have developed a nice gag reflex to any and all American programming. It's a kind of sublime feeling knowing you can hang out with Melvyn Bragg, Laurie Taylor, and Morris Berman while the turkeys continue to gobble gobble about their empty power struggles, imagining the world starts and ends with them.
"Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive from what ills you are free yourself is pleasant."- Lucretius
PS- Wafer summit in Chicago was great. Ty for organizing. We are becoming a real political force and will lobby for a WAF wing in the future Obama Bookless Library of President Stuff.
Illicit drug use in America could be higher than previously thought.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/acs-idu071118.php
“Life expectancy is declining in high-income countries worldwide, driven in part by the effects of the opioid epidemic on younger adults in the U.S. and the impact of a severe flu season on older adults in other nations, two new studies suggest.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-lifeexpectancy/life-expectancy-declines-seen-in-u-s-and-other-high-income-countries-idUSKCN1L723R
Hello Dr B and Wafers
ReplyDeleteDr B I think the Mark Twain quote went something like "If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it."
On that note there's this.
https.//youtu.be/dFRe8CmMv5g
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteWhile I hate to be the bearer of gd news...
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/29/teens-desert-social-media
a new study on the pitfalls of philanthrocapitalism
ReplyDeleteWinners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World __ Deckle Edge Books
An insider's groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve.
Not exactly good news, but a nice story in these gloomy times;
ReplyDeletehttps://nyti.ms/2NsIkL5
Let it be said, if positive change ever does indeed come to the USA (close to impossible), it will be from the efforts of the poor and the working class; not the professionals of the upper middle class or the rich (who will fight to the end to keep their privilege).
Wasn't it John Steinbeck who said if you needed help to ask a poor person as the rich will never give anybody anything?
BrotherMaynard
I appreciate the varied responses re: MGTOW; it's good to hear different takes & experiences. It also makes me think in larger scope about the state of love & relationships these days. I've noticed that when younger friends & acquaintances talk about the subject, I almost never hear words & concepts like romance, passion, mystery. If I inquire about them, I often get puzzled or dismissive responses, as if such things don't & can't exist.
ReplyDeleteIn conjunction with this, I'm reading Maryanne Wolf's new book Reader, Come Home. She delves into the effects of digital reading vs. "deep reading" of actual, tangible books, both as a literary scholar & as a neuroscientist. Apparently there's considerable evidence that deep reading has a lot to do with developing empathy, complexity, critical thinking; digital reading tends to skitter over the surface. And this doesn't just apply to reading, to learning; it also affects the entire range of emotional response, the capacity to slow down, feel deeply & richly, contemplate, savor experiences in an ever-growing web of feeling & thought.
So this affects every aspect of life, from politics to intimate relationships. Perhaps one reason for the various relationship issues & problems of the day is that people lack the capacity to really address anything in depth, in the long term? That they just don't know how, because they've essentially been trained by the culture to lack such capacity? I can see this all around me, but it's difficult for me to wrap my head around it; like many of the posters here, my experience growing up was not the current American norm. (And I'm grateful for that.)
@Connor- a quick commentary on the book you cite which looks to be very solid (author is Anand Giridharadas, by the way)-
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/the-philanthropy-racket
I see this as a deeper form of greenwashing and the use of social issues for marketing.
On the knowledge end of collapse, why does anyone listen to an actor about anything?? Here is Cate Blanchett reading something about some tragedy somewhere-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/aug/29/cate-blachett-tells-of-atrocities-against-rohingya-children-video
Next an actor will tell you what illness X, Y, or Z is about, rather than get someone with the actual illness or actual experience helping people with the illness to tell you about the illness. And after that we will have an actor who played an historic figure explain the historical significance of the figure they play-acted being for a good 70 minutes of screen time!
Who wants to start a pool on how many days before the first biopic of John McCain is announced?
And who needs George Carlin? This stuff writes itself these days.
The inimitable Tim ONeill, demonstrating yet again that atheists are no less capable of twisting history to fit a belief system than religious believers:
ReplyDeletehttps://historyforatheists.com/2018/08/sam-harris-horrible-histories/
JESUS Sam Harris's historical bit here is badly specious
Scherz-
ReplyDeleteMan, you are really hurting, aren't you? Poor sad shmuck.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB, Wafers-
Many thanks for all the great info regarding fake Maverick McCain. By my lights, McCain was a loathsome human being for most of his eight decades on planet earth. Despite what the American press says, McCain has a well-documented record of horribleness. Remember when he compared the president of Iran to a monkey? Also, according to journalist Cliff Schecter author of the book "The Real McCain," McCain was joined by his wife Cindy on the campaign trail for Senate in 1992. At one point, Cindy was playfully twirling McCain's thinning hair and remarked that he was getting a bit thin up there. McCain exploded and yelled, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." Well, so long bomber McCain, it's been gd to know ye.
Additionally, Trumpola's extreme rhetoric hits new heights as he calls calls for Holy War if Republicans lose the Congress:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/us/politics/trump-evangelical-pastors-election.html
Trumpicus darkly predicts that "Democrats will overturn everything we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently." Apparently, he is the only person who can save the nation from Left-wing shock troops seizing control of the Capital grounds. I tell ya, I'm absolutely giddy just thinking about all of this...
Miles
I am happy and amazed to see all the responses to my question about MGTOW. I appreciate and agree with the responses from every one of you.
ReplyDeleteTim- the reason why ppl there lack any depth or understanding about relationships is because in American culture, ppl are expected to be super positive happy-happy joy-joy 24/7. No one wants to be seen as "negative"
Prof. Berman- from the previous post about denial, when I was in the US I tried to convince ppl that the US is collapsing and I would give examples like the mass shootings, mental illness, sick lifestyle, the poli. climate, etc. and the response was either "oh it`s like that everywhere" or they would just change the subject.
In another post I will give more of my responses about MGTOW. I don`t want anyone to think that I hate women b/c I don`t. I just want to share my observations. There are horrible women just like there are horrible men.
Fer-
ReplyDeleteIf yr a declinist, American denial is positive, historically speaking: it can only hasten the downward trajectory. Can you imagine Americans listening to yr stats, and engaging in an intelligent conversation w/u? That wd be a sci-fi movie.
Jeff-
Gosh, that was a tad rude. But when yr entire life is a lie, you wind up being a walking volcano. As for left-wing shock troops: Trumpi ain't so stupid, as it turns out. I've lately been in touch with the left-wing vanguard, and they have assured me that a full-blown revolution, an uprising of the masses against their corporate masters, is at most a week or 2 away. At long last!
mb
I may be late to the party, but I did get to see Michael Moore's "Where to Invade Next" last night. It's amazing how many of the successful ideas implemented in the countries he "invaded" originated from the U.S., yet never could be embraced here. Michael Moore seemed bewildered by it and still thinks we could adopt all of those changes. He is beyond clueless. Has he spent any time talking to the average American? Has he actually considered the cultural differences between the U.S. and these other developed, European countries? The one lady from Iceland said it best -- "they {Iceland} value WE, while the U.S. values ME." How are you going to adopt these humane values when your entire cultural DNA is about "every man for himself?"
ReplyDeleteAt the end, he walked in front of the remaining remnants of the Berlin Wall and reflected on how quick that all came down back in 1989 after being up for nearly 30 years. It was assumed to be permanent, but out of nowhere, came down. He compared that to the sweeping change back in 2015 when same sex marriage was legalized and truly believes that the U.S. will one day suddenly adopt the European system. This is where he completely misses the symbolism of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The correct analogy would be the U.S. as the Berlin Wall, which will one day suddenly collapse. It's unfortunate he couldn't grasp it -- the U.S. is the Berlin Wall!
Wafer Millennial-your observations are congruent w/my experiences. 98.7% of usa-ers (recent immigrant included) cannot or will not understand that there is huge difference b/w usa-ers and the rest of world. Me versus WE. B/c most don't travel (sans the 7 day cruise or the taste o Europe 9 day 10 city tour don't see or connect w/ jack shit except other anglos.
ReplyDeleteHave a few usa-er friends who all claim, that what we need to do, should do (the usual somedaze talk) is to 'vote' Trumpo out office so we can get someone in their to "clean up" the corruption and get back to helping america become more awesome.
These are folks formally "educated," e.g., MDs, PhD, Masters etc...Yet, all have stories of corporate woe, or know family/friends who lost jobs, can't get jobs, huge student loans, underwater mortgages, barely can afford "health" "care" drug use, depression, etc....It's a cognitive dissonance fest.
Crowd goes bananas .. brawl of the week Nasty brawl at children's fun centre. The restaurant is called "Go Bananas" ffs... Yes Amrika please go bananas but with guns and bazookas the next time. Primary weapons used were mop, trash bin, chair while a child close by escaped unharmed. This is not the American way. Where are the guns ? I will start a petition to get guns at Go Bananas.
ReplyDeleteAnd the police Chief made two statements which explemplifies the denialists accurately :
Stmt 1: "What you see on those videos is not indicative of how Norridge operates.” -- These incidents are rare. Go back to sleep.
Stmt 2: "We’ve been there several times, multiple times" -- Fuck off there is no connection here. Amrika is great.
Another brawl at Memphis Waffle House over who the fuck is going to do the dishes. Waffle House Brawl
MB -- You forgot to add the "Heroine of the Resistance" to the 2020 Presidential list, Horny Daniels. Her resistance the past few months has been doing a "Make America Horny Again" nationwide strip-club tour. Stormy, the unlikely, embattled symbol of our tempestuous times
Hi Wafers! I was going to do a post on "a day in the life of Puss" to illustrate the madness here in the US, but I can't let pass the opportunity to chime in on the MGTOW.
ReplyDeleteWithout having dived much below the surface, MGTOW just seems like more Amerikan exceptionalism (I'm TOO special for HER) and selfishness (I can't have what I want so I'm taking my toys home!) Seriously, can there be anything less mature? Indeed there can, when an Incel decides to a) kill all the pretty sorority girls or b) mow down people on the sidewalk in rage. First step to maturity is realizing that you are part of the problem. But now, in the US, it's always "blame her" or "blame him" ( or "blame it", possibly). I'm not a bit surprised to hear Megan say that the "club" has diminished into women haters. Devolving into rage is the American way. Doing something about it? Not so much.
Gawd, if I had a nickel for every male friend from high school who has said "oh, I always wanted to ask you out, Puss" and my thought is "Why the fuck didn't you?" (My male friends were and are great guys.). I think that's when I first realized I was different: watching high school girls literally throwing themselves at boys (which NEVER worked out.). I, having little else to choose from, married the QB, which didn't turn out well at all.
And dating is nothing more than a numbers game. I saw a stupid movie years ago (something about a bridesmaid) but there was a clever bit. One (single) bridesmaid wanted a relationship. At every opportunity, she walked up to all likely men, anywhere and everywhere, and asked three questions: are you straight? Are you employed or have an income? Are you single? She worked every room she entered. By the end of the movie, (after asking TONS of men these three questions), she had her match.
Puss, keeping it real
Puss-
ReplyDeleteQB = Queen's Barrister? Quarterback? Quantum Binoculars?
mb
Emma Goldman: If voting changed anything they’d make it illegal.
ReplyDeleteA New Dark Age...
ReplyDeletehttps://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6867118
Thanks, Puss. My response to MGTOW is the Russian saying: "If you want the eggs, you have to put up with the sound of the chickens" (Kruschev said this to Kennedy at the Vienna summit, by the way). MGTOW wants women to submit after the first hello, expect the woman to pay for at least half of every meal, trip, etc., and never voice an opinion and especially of a feminist nature. What is the MGTOW lifestyle? Hang out with your male friends, and develop hobbies that enhance YOU sans women. In other words, every man should never leave middle school emotionally speaking.
ReplyDeletejj-
ReplyDeleteVery provocative essay, in particular the conclusion, regarding 2 possible futures for the planet. The 1st (polyvalent) model is obviously more desirable than merely sinking into a new dark age, and as the author says, we may already be there; altho we may continue down this path for the rest of the century, deepening the trends. If so, my own guess is that the US wd exist, but basically be sidelined as a stupid and provincial way of life. But sidelined, at least, wd mean not bothering (read: fucking over) other nations, militarily or economically. This might include anti-imperial, secessionist movements; but the important thing is that America no longer have clout, or even respect. Many other nations already regard it as a childish place, even a kind of international joke.
If, on the other hand, the US retains its military dominance (economically, it grows weaker all the time), then the 2nd scenario, of an outright dark age, is likely. This is the Roman Empire model, discussed in my Twilight bk.
The interesting thing is that the author's 2 scenarios may not actually be that different, because after the fall of Rome there was an Eastern empire. All the West had was monastic enclaves (again, discussed in Twilight), while the East went on to centuries of Byzantine bureaucracy--a better alternative, surely. If the US can be contained in its violence, stupidity, and provinciality, then the 2 scenarios may not be very different.
Just thinking aloud here, really...a few yrs ago, some ambassador from a European country speculated that what was emerging was the US following the Roman path of collapse, and Europe following the Eastern Byzantine model. He commented that the latter was hardly utopia, but at least it was viable: under the aegis of the European Union, large swaths of the population wd be able to lead reasonable lives.
Having impersonal, detached discussions on the fate of the US and of empire in general is literally impossible in the US, because Americans 'think' emotionally, get all worked up. As many of us know, their idea of dialogue is to shout slogans, or just simply turn off. For a tiny percentage, however--perhaps even restricted to the Wafer population--nonemotional, analytical distance is not that great a challenge; it's the way historians, sociologists, and anthropologists are trained to think, for example, as well as many non-Americans who are usually more intelligent and not invested in making America great again. We aren't the 1st empire to collapse, obviously, and for us on this blog it's interesting to consider future directions and possibilities. 'Perspective' means you don't think of yourself, or your country, as the center of the universe.
mb
MB, I really started to notice that vehement slogan-shouting around the time Reagan took office. Not that it didn't exist before; but when I was a boy in the late 50s-early 60s, there wasn't so much of that, as I recall, because people seemed to feel that American supremacy in all things was so obviously self-evident that one didn't have to proclaim it.
ReplyDeleteBut following Vietnam & Watergate, there was that brief period of sobering reflection among more Americans than usual, when it actually seemed possible that the country might be able to pull back from mindlessly obedient exceptionalism. Though as we know, "Morning in America" became the drug of choice & Reagan used it to stop any sober reflection dead, replacing it with the desperate jingoism that's only grown worse since then. When the majority of Americans began screaming "USA! USA! We're number one!" as often & as loudly as possible, that's when I knew that they really didn't believe it any longer, that they were screaming in denial. That's why it's become so vicious & violent now; those screaming it at every opportunity clearly understand, on some visceral level that they dare not face, that everything is screwed beyond redemption. And so are they.
My last word on MGTOW: the He-Man Woman-Haters Club, less the innocent comic charm of being proclaimed by the Little Rascals, all somewhere between 5 & 9 years old.
Tim-
ReplyDeleteSomebody said that the more accurate slogan upon Reagan's victory shd have been "Mourning in America." Altho the beginning of the end can probably be dated to Nixon, if not even to Harry Truman, with Ronnie it really began to accelerate. If Americans had half a brain, they'd know that "mourning" is what we need to be doing. USA, RIP.
mb
I avoid acronyms as a matter of policy (I think Orwell had something to say about their stultifying effect?), but there's not that much to say about Men Going Their Own Way.
ReplyDeleteIt follows this pattern in the US of making a hashtag out of something quite mundane and pretending like it is something totally revolutionary.
Even #metoo drops so much vital context- like what do these revelations really say about the entertainment industry most Americans *still* adore?
But its kind of funny to see so much rhetoric become invested in the rather common life choice of remaining a bachelor. Members of the "community" may be shocked to learn that they are not the first bachelors, and complaining about women is *not new*. Shocking, I know.
I think it just speaks to how strong conformism is in the US that you need to come up with such an elaborate defense mechanism for any deviation from the norm. You can't just have a personal lifestyle choice, it needs to be a part of an internet movement!
80% (tele)evangelical support for Trump and his prediction of a holy war shld dems succeed in Nov; random thoughts: Any religion that states unequivocally their savior was risen from the dead based on a book (bad), whose author(s) is unknown (worse), without possessing the original text (uh-oh), passed down through a series of male monks (goes w/o saying), and has to be taken on 'faith' (?) alone, forfeits their argument with me knowing as I do a reasoned argument is impossible. Further if you disagree ur banished to eternal torture in hell, and you better believe Jesus is coming back but this time he gonna b REALLY PISSED off. These people really are of the Handmaid's Tale variety. Nevertheless what I find interesting is the fact the Jesus story coincided with the emerging Roman Empire - maybe in the beginning it was Jewish cult meant to diffuse Imperial rule. Didn't really succeed though once Constantine got his hands on it.
ReplyDeleteOxymoron of the day - American Hero
Beware Wafers, a serial cat killer is on the loose
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone wants to spend half an hour watching a pretty intelligent discussion on Incels, MGTOWS, and other parts of this community, including a foray into her personal story that actually has some good points (suggest you skip over the first 60 seconds)-
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD2briZ6fB0&t=783s
Not sure how much exposure people have had to the Youtube style of videos but if you relax and let some of the silly moments pass...
@George Carlin- I've been noticing a repeated phrase whenever there is a new shooting, killing, lynching, rape, whatever it may be- This IS Not Who We Are. [X} Has No Place In Our Society.
And I barely watch any news, so it must be much more common than I even know.
What can I say? It will make life easier for future historians. They will simply need to search for the phrase "This Is Not Who We Are" in audio or transcripts, view the instigating event, and check that item off as a central aspect of life in our time.
Gunnar-
ReplyDeleteCheck out CTOS, the ch. on Christianity.
Dio-
I'm waiting for an Internet Bowel Movement (IBM).
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteFor the last month or so I've come across a term that I hadn't heard before: "virtue signalling." The people who use it are fairly lowbrow, so I'm guessing FOX News or somewhere similar is a source.
I need the history of this term and I need it now!
al-
ReplyDeleteCd it be related to slut shaming?
mb
Professor Berman,
ReplyDeleteThank you. I stand corrected. I am always appreciative of help from those more fluent than I in la lengua bonita.
Four Spaniards helped me in that way on Monday afternoon, overnight, into Tuesday morning. From the Basque region of northern Spain,two men,two women,and four bicycles. A lot of fun ensued over two meals together. And I learned a bit more Spanish. Interesting, the differences in pronunciation and usage between the type spoken in Spain and that which we know from the americas, norte y sur. And humorful - I hope to meet up with Hugo again! They were easily the most appreciative, most attentive audience I have had (since the Brazilians left) for un concierto poquito de la guitarra in my small living room...
It is 100% satisfaction, hosting intelligent guests, getting a fresh perspective, and discussing the decline of amerika. That is one good thing about where I happen to live. I see them pedal by on their cycles, I offer "warm showers" and they accept.The next morning they saddle up and are gone with the wind. Like modern day Don Quixotes, Wafer-oxtes or Waferinos? Sin religion!
Another pleasant day in NMI land. Just my anecdotes del desierto y las montanas.
Rejoice ever more!
al-Qa'bong,
ReplyDeleteWhile not the history that you seek, you might be interested in this video where a leftist takes the virtue signaling critique seriously.
As one of the comments says, a lot of virtue signaling accusations are done in bad faith. Nonetheless, it may be worthwhile to not completely dismiss the concept.
How can you NOT have movements like MGTOW when you read stuff like this?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/30/sexy-selfies-women-patriarchy-instagram-men
Orlov wrote a very good article on the topic a few months ago (at the height of #Metoo):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/16601677
Kanye
Kanye-
ReplyDeleteI have it on gd authority that in addition to an imminent uprising of the masses against their corporate masters, the patriarchy is abt to be overthrown as well. Exciting times, obviously.
My take on male-female relations in the US: for every douche bag, there is out there, somewhere, a douche baguette.
mb
The only real us "movement," was a bowel movement.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/mc-nws-nj-school-superintendent-defecating-resigns-20180727-story.html
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/11/21/Book-defecation-baffles-investigators/5078880088400/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/pa-cops-id-suspect-defecated-library-article-1.2510163
usa, usa!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteYale professor Jason Stanley sees fascism on the rise in the US and other parts of the world. Stanley says Trump is exploiting racism, normalizing extremism, and creating nostalgia for a history that never was:
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/Jason_Stanley/
Not to be missed documentary:
"Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz"
Here's a trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meDbZemxuK4
More on Benjamin Ferencz:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/feb/07/nazi-death-squads-nuremberg-trials-benjamin-ferencz
Miles
Prof. Berman- I know Americans are unable to engage in intelligent conversations. My statements only get them angry or they just can´t understand them and to them intelectual topics are boring. To most Americans the most important subjects are the Kardashians, NFL, gossip, material possessions and other bullshit. I am a declinist and I know the US has no hope.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Carlin and everyone here- Look at this article about what a sick and degenerate piece of shit did to a kitten.
https://myfox28columbus.com/news/local/butler-county-man-charged-with-animal-cruelty-after-allegedly-hanging-beating-kitten
To everyone on this blog- My opinion of MGTOW is that it's the result of dysfunctional relations between males and females. A sick culture will destroy human and love relationships just like it destroys everything else. If anyone is interested just let me know and I will share more of my observations about MGTOW.
Here's an example of virtue-signalling run amok: Louis CK, whose television show was cancelled after stories about him masturbating in front of his female colleagues became widely known in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein dam breaking, is now edging his way back into doing stand-up comedy again. I supported the move at the time (Student of Waferism and I had an exchange about it here), but since then Louis has not been charged with any crime, so I also don't have a problem with him going back to work (he's an incredibly smart and funny guy, whose transgressions likely arose from having the same highly neurotic personality that makes him so funny). Apparently, however, there are virtue-signalling #MeToo feminists like Roxanne Gay who believe that Louis should be permanently banned from any sort of employment. Scott Greenfield of the Simply Justice blog sums it up quite well:
ReplyDelete"Gay’s problem isn’t with Louis CK. Gay’s problem is with people not doing as she and her sister scolds command, to hate him, to punish him, to force him to perform acts of contrition that they would impose. How dare people sit there and laugh at this man whom Gay commands be shunned and hated?" This whole story sums up #MeToo in a nutshell--their demand that all transgressors get the professional death penalty regardless of the seriousness or provability of their actions has made a mockery of the pain and suffering of the real victims.
Fer-
ReplyDeleteScroll back to the huffpost link posted by jj, and my discussion of it. This is the larger picture: it's an X-ray of a civilization in collapse. Do you know the pic you get when you do a Google map? The pic comes with + and -. Click on -, and you get the large overview, as discussed in the huffpost essay. But when you click on +, you get the nitty-gritty details of the collapse, and what you and other Wafers are reporting--#MeToo, mgtow, Americans killing kittens/their own children, daily massacres, Americans not being able to hold an intelligent conversation, etc. ad infinitum--is what shows up on a daily basis in our personal lives. You know the prog chant, "This is what democracy looks like!"? Well, these awful details are what collapse looks like. I've said it many times: The endgame is not pretty, and you don't get history for free. Try to imagine what these details will look like 10 yrs from now. Wow! Blade Runner times 10, I'm guessing.
mb
How to prepare for ex-President Trump...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/opinions/how-to-prepare-for-ex-president-trump-opinion-geltzer/index.html
I've a mind to read the works during the fin de siècle Europe. What the masses felt then may be close to what we're feeling now.
ReplyDeleteAs a micro-example of our collapse, I've worked with a man around my age for close to 13 years. He's about the only person here I like--just a genuine, self-effacing and kind sort of guy. He comes in at 4AM and works up to 14 hours a day. He hardly ever takes his vacation days, as that is discouraged in corporate life. Anyhow, he's the kind of man who has "done all the right things", like living entirely for his wife and 2 kids, making sure they are provided for, etc.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, it seems that his wife got the whole "Eat, Pray, Love" (or "Eat, Pray, Fuck", as the MGTOWs call it) fever, and started a Facebook affair with some douchebag--which soon turned into a real affair. She says my friend is "boring", and hates how he is "always tired", and "neglects" her, etc. (working 14 hour days will do that to you!) Anyhow, she ran off with the D.B., and now the guy is being "divorce raped" and forced to pay alimony and child support for her and her new boyfriend. If the MGTOWs are right, then this scenario is pretty widespread. And while I deplore their misogyny, I do understand the rage of the ones who have had this kind of experience.
I've been reading Michael Hudson's book entitled Superimperialism, a sordid tale of how the U.S. hustled the nations of the world and conned them all into financing its imperial wars. The following quote that starts chapter 13 stood out to me as very Wafer and I just wanted to share it with you all.
ReplyDelete. . . the state incurs [national] debts for politics, wars, and other higher causes and “progress” . . . The assumption is that the future will honor this relationship in perpetuity. The state has learned from the merchants and industrialists how to exploit credit; it defies the nation ever to let it go into bankruptcy.
Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.
— Jacob Burckhardt, Judgments on History and Historians (tr. Boston: 1958), p. 171.
Megan:
I've been pondering my response to my wife pulling an E/P/F on me in the future, and the best I can come up with is simply to go out on strike. You know, sell my stuff on craigslist, and just disapear into thin air. Homeless in San Diego is preferable to 14 hour days paying for the ex to divorce rape you in my humble (and extremely spiteful) opinion.
Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in America, setting a record in 2017 according to the CDC.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/health/sexual-health/stds-continue-rapid-rise-u-s-setting-new-record-cdc-n904311
Mental distress such as depression and anxiety may significantly increase the risk of heart disease among older adults.
https://www.upi.com/Mental-distress-may-boost-risk-for-heart-disease-in-older-adults/9671535470794/
This is probably especially bad news for Americans given the prevalence of depression, anxiety and other forms of mental distress in the United States.
The other day the Phillies manager said that a certain player made "a valiant effort" during some play. The sports radio hosts thought this was a strange word and asked listeners to call in and suggest words starting with the letter V.
ReplyDeleteDan-
ReplyDeleteVoluminous effort, maybe?
mb
Puss-
ReplyDeleteCdn't run it (half-page-max rule). Pls compress and re-send, thank you.
mb
MB -- I knew that I would regret it, but sadly I sent that "A new dark age" article (posted by jj) to one of my Amrikan friends and got to learn a lot of about myself. Apparently I am reading dystopian/negative stuff and becoming a pathetic pessimist. Amrika, according to him is fine and dandy; has contributed to tremendous progress (esp Tech) and democracy across the world. So I am told to read more optimist news( which I have trouble finding) and also lookout for "The Resistance" to reverse the course and continue the progress unabated. One of my other friends had told me once that Amrika is in all the wars because it wants to achieve "World Peace". Holy fuck, my head hurts talking to these morons. After returning from Amrika, I had gradually reduced my interaction with them. Now I might need to abruptly end whatever remaining relationships for my sanity and health. When it comes to becoming a Wafer I might have taken some time, but one thing I learned quickly is that its useless having discussions with Amrikans, thanks in large part to my "Turkey" colleagues.
ReplyDeleteDan Daniel -- Amrikans are so brainwashed that even if someone is shot and about to die, he will say "This is not who we are. This has no place in our society". And if he believed in the afterlife, he will pray that he is born among the top 1%. "In hustling we trust" ....
Dan Daniels,
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question ["Who wants to start a pool on how many days before the first biopic of John McCain is announced?"], someone already released the first one. Thing is, it was written, produced and aired before he actually died. I assume this was done so he could approve the script before he kicked the bucket and less flattering pieces started coming out. It is a movie entitled, "John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls." Came out in May of this year. I find the title a real shabby use of Donne's sermon, but maybe that's just me.
McCain's hagiography started months ago. I thought it was weird the way the media carried on like the guy was already dead, but I guess this is the backwards way we are supposed to do things now. Gives the subject the heart-warming feeling that he is valuable and will be missed; also he can help write and then attend his own eulogy, without the downside of having to die first. Might be part of that special American exceptionalism I keep hearing about. I noticed he made sure to pen another autobiography just before he died, too, which also came out in May.
But we must always remember that McCain introduced us to the grand twit, Sarah the Stupid Palin, thus paving the way for our national language to officially become Gibberish instead of English and opening up job opportunities for translators across the nation. Trump missed an opportunity by not selecting her as his running mate. Trump and Palin together - wouldn't *that* have been fun?
- Teri
Dan D-
ReplyDeleteA bit too long. Pls compress and re-send. Thanks.
George-
A big mistake, unless yr getting off on opposition. There are better ways to spend yr time. If these people were literally retarded, or literally had excrement in their heads, wd u bother?
mb
DrB- Already compressed, won't hold up, so c'est la vie. I suck on twitter, also, believe it or not.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to draw on the knowledge here to ask about 'soft collapses' of empires. Not the Roman Empire, British, Spanish, Aztec, or American, for example. If people could recommend an empire that slowly pulled back, handled its historic decline with anything approaching grace? I need to look into Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal, for example, as empires that I have no concept of how they collapsed.
Simple references. I can do the research. Country name and time period would get me going. Scale isn't critical, either- small countries, etc. Thank you much.
Dan D-
ReplyDeletePls don't suck here. We don't have many rules, but if you can't observe the few that exist, you will hafta emigrate to another blog. Hopefully that won't happen. On empire decline survey: check out Jos Tainter.
Wafers-
I've been rdg Antonio Gramsci as of late. He says that it's a symptom of fascism that issues of politics get displaced onto culture. Thus in Italy in the 1920s, fascism was still unable to resolve existing social contradictions. When this happens, he says, "political language becomes jargon...political questions are disguised as cultural ones, and as such become insoluble." Here we have an early explanation of identity politics. Words such as 'jargon', 'disguised', and 'insoluble' wd seem to describe our own situation today.
mb
@ Dr. B: Loved your Google Maps metaphor about "This is what democracy looks like."
ReplyDelete@Bill Hicks: Hallelujah — actual push-back on the Roxanne Gay piece. To their credit, some comments on the article — too few of them, sadly — express similar resistance to Gay's harangue. In any case, it's becoming hard to dismiss the possibility that the Times employs Gay not for her analytical skills but as a source of clickbait and its subsequent flame wars. Ka-ching!
As if the Gay piece weren't 'nuff said, late yesterday the Times published one by the "critic" Amanda Hess, entitled "Louis C.K Slithers Back, Whether We're Ready or Not." Hess gives the game away with that word "slithers": so much for even-tempered criticism, or "fair and balanced." Furthermore, with that "we," Hess presumes to speak for all her readers, as if there were no possible stance re: CK other than hers and Gay's — and (is it to far a stretch to suggest this?) those of new editorial board member Sarah Jeong, of the infamous "White men are bullshit" and "It's sick how much joy I get from being cruel to old white men" tweets. Interestingly, the Times has not enabled the Hess article's readers to comment. One shall not dissent! I take some consolation in the fact that I can do so here. Call me crazy.
It's sad to the Times acting as the instrument of its own degradation.
Fer-
ReplyDeleteCdn't run it (24-hr-rule).
Zen-
NYT: collection of cowards. Refused to let me respond to their hatchet job review of DAA (archived on this blog, ca. 16 June 2006). The Times is just b.s.
mb
Megan- 'It's a Wonderful Life,' the ubiquitous x-mas movie always makes me think I should have placed greater emphasis on finding a mate, you know somewhere out there is a poor loving mate who horror of horrors hasta be an spinster librarian w/o me. I'd never heard of MGTOW b4 but sounds like I made a similar judgement limiting (I hope) the misogyny, I don't wear anyone's uniform so ain't looking to sign up. Anyway my 'Wonderful Life' scenario wld prob been similar to the one you describe.
ReplyDeleteWhoever made Jesus a CACIII (certified addiction counselor level 3), our local paper keeps running these ridiculous stories on Christian treatment homes.
https://www.chieftain.com/life/religion/volunteer-street-ministry-aims-to-aide-on-pueblo-s-homeless/article_c014cf38-27c7-5271-965d-86d274086de5.html
Treatment home conveniently place out of State
https://www.teenchallengeusa.com/
The best way to describe American culture is that of a "throw-away society." This exists to varying degrees elsewhere, but the U.S. is arguably the epicenter of it. The term tends to focus on how we treat our environment via mass consumerism, but I think it can also be applied to how we treat other people -- the poor, the elderly, minority groups, etc. and also structures (e.g. historical buildings & homes). I'll focus on the latter (buildings) and why it seems to leave a void inside.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, I was always fascinated by older homes and buildings. There's something remarkable about a building or home standing the test of time. They have that "lived in" feeling to them. A few years ago, a local billionaire decided to demolish a row of historic buildings in downtown, which included the city's 1st skyscraper built in the early 1900's. It was replaced with a giant eyeball, so that visitors could take selfies in front of it. Some of the other buildings were destroyed for a circular driveway (so the rich can have their Bentleys valeted) and another was replaced by this outrageously expensive clothing store. This billionaire had the money to restore these buildings, maybe turn one into a museum, a local coffee shop, or housing for the homeless. Or at the very least, put up a plaque with some history about it. Nope. Everything in America is disposable and it's incredibly sad. Erasing history with no story to tell. What's life really about then? "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtJPs8IDgU
Hola todos los Waferinos y las Waferinas,
ReplyDeleteAnother anecdote from el desierto alta:
I was at the hot springs two weeks ago. Denying the sage counsel of Professor Berman and my own counsel, I entered into conversation with a local trumpista. Revealed was an amurikano with no working knowledge of the US constitution's bill of rights. He proudly stated that "the right to arm bears is the first amendment." I then learned that "god has told us el presidente trumpi is going to appoint five supreme court judges." I withdrew from the dialogue. Wafers draw a simple conclusion from nuggets like this one: amerika is finished.
For your enjoyment I offer uno verso pequeno -
Sail on, sail on sailor, on the sinking ship of state.
Ahab was a whaler - for his Pequod, it's too late.
O&D!
mean-
ReplyDeleteThis is just a thought expt; I don't recommend you do it for real. Imagine you had a very sharp axe, and went out into the street, seized the 1st American you saw, and split their head open like a coconut. Imagine that dog turds fell out. Then imagine you repeated this 10,000 more times, irrespective of age, gender, religion, race, whatever, and that in every case, dog turds fell out. Science is based on inductive reasoning. What wd you then induce?
mb
ps: did he really say, 'arm bears'?
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/28/17789510/bike-cycling-netherlands-dutch-infrastructure
ReplyDeleteMoving away for business and this article triggered some heavy dutch nostalgia
Wafers George and Mean—-tried to engage usa-ers too.
ReplyDeleteE.g., provided Dr. Berman's works, references, evidence/ researched case studies, historical examples. Delusionally thought that they would ‘see the light,’ convert a little bit Wafer (bit pregnant-I know), or at the very least, thk a bit critically. Oftentimes resulting in screaming matches abt american “greatness.” HUGE MISTAKE.
Not only did the usa-ers do the eye roll, they become hostile and expressed vitriolic rage w/psychomotor agitations + bizarre voice articulations. It was like a robotic fixed-action pattern. Many “friends”/”family” have limited speaking to me, stink eye, ‘ghosted,’ ‘negative nelly’ stigma, etc…It’s a blessing actually.
The best thing to do is go no contact-- like dealing with Cluster B mental illness. Usa-ers loved eating shit and appeared to derive great pleasure from the taste as long as there was a buck to be potentially had. I still battle to keep my mouth shut; but in the long run, it helps as all efforts are concentrated on getting the fuck outta dodge.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteYou need these folks like a hole in the head. But I'm encouraged: the more turkeys, the faster comes Thanksgiving. Chop!
mb
Megan: Your friend chose the lifestyle he did. If he wanted to be a workaholic and throw his life away in corporate America in order to “provide” for his wife, he should have found someone equally as repressed as he was. Can you really blame a woman for wanting to enjoy life rather than be a mere vessel for childbearing and pleasing her drudge of a husband? There is an incompatibility problem here. Insecure men with no sense of adventure or sensuality, men who bought into the Protestant work ethic and became robots, are usually the ones who become MGTOW. They fell for the myth that work leads to salvation, and when it’s eventually revealed to be a farce, it’s too late for them to wake up and become humans, so they lash out at the women, when they should really be taking a good look in the mirror to see what they’ve become. There is no certainty in this life. A relationship formed on the basis of “provider” and “providee” is not a relationship at all but a commercial transaction. No surprise that it ends badly more often than not.
ReplyDeleteHi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteUmair Haque on cruelty in America - ah! the consequences of extreme individualism! I am glad he doesn't try to suggest measures that would reverse what is obviously (to me at least) one factor causing American societal disintegration. Is cruelty, an (eventual) outcome of societal hierarchy? Am I wrong to think that society implies hierarchy?
https://eand.co/the-terrible-and-catastrophic-price-of-american-cruelty-5bbbac260b00
This Thursday's evening I attended an informal performance of a play by Richard Foreman from his cathartic Ontological-Hysteric Theater studies.
ReplyDeleteHave WAFers experienced his work? Have you, Professor? It reminded me of you all, regardless.
Spellbinding material.
Gunnar, every once in a while I listen to the local Christian radio stations here in the south, and usually what I hear just reinforces how hollow modern American Christianity really is. I heard a story a while back about a mission group in Africa, doing work like installing water purifiers or building fish farms. They sounded pretty sincere, and the work undoubtedly helped the Africans there. Eventually though, the host talked about how doing this work allowed the missionaries to carve out a space for talking about Jesus and the path to salvation. It was part aid-work and part manipulation. The truth is that if this group wasn't allowed to make their pitch to "save" these people, they wouldn't bother going there in the first place. Not all mission groups are like this of course, but many of them are.
ReplyDeleteSo many of the religious people I have met practice their religion like someone at a ticket arcade. You do different activities - like going to church or saving people, and you get tickets. At the end, when you die, you take all your tickets to the counter, and the more tickets you have, the bigger the prize that you receive in heaven. Certain activities, like saving people, get you more tickets, which is why Americans are so aggressive about it. Turning the other cheek isn't a popular game.
Basil-
ReplyDeleteVery happy you joined us, but we have a half-page-max rule here, and you ran a bit over that. Pls compress and re-send. Thank you.
mb
Greetings, Dr. B. & Co. -
ReplyDeleteI've been lurking around the perimeter long enough and I think it's high time I came in from the cold. As with so many contributors, I've probably been a Wafer since childhood, maybe even since birth. I began to sense something was different about myself in the years immediately following high school with my reading of Theodore Roszak's 'Where the Wasteland Ends'. I realized that in Roszak I had found, perhaps, a mentor who could account for for my increasing alienation from this empty, soulless place we used to call 'home'.
Recently I've been wondering whether anyone here is familiar with the essays of European anarchist, Paul Cudenec? Along with European writers more commonly associated with anarchism, Cudenec's sources include such thinkers as Guenon, Marcuse, Nietzsche and Jung. I think Cudenec's approach to cultural criticism would go down well with the residents of the 'Declinist Hotel Centrale': http://network23.org/paulcudenec.
Someone else whose books have meant a lot to me is the American Jungian analyst, James Hollis. I especially enjoy his tacit criticisms of American cultural attitudes and assumptions and their poisonous effect on psych-spiritual health from the perspective of depth psychology. For what it's worth, Tim Lukeman's also a fan!
With a more detailed examination of the noxious psychological effects of neoliberalism's commitment to an economics of limitless expansion and so-called 'productivity' is the book 'What About Me' by Belgian psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe. Pub-lished here in 2014 it may already have been discussed on this site, but I can still recommend it wholeheartedly.
Cheers to all!
Abs. remarkable film: "First Reformed."
ReplyDeletemb
The ultimate Wafer - Tom Hodgkinson, creator of The Idler, writer of the book How To Be Idle.
ReplyDeleteWorth checking out his books.
MB-
ReplyDeleteWeird, I watched "First Reformed" last night. Indeed, it's a real stunner; one that richly deserves our full, serious attention. I don't wanna give anything away, but what about the scene when Toller sits down w/Michael? Or the teenager at the Abundant Life Youth Group who rails against political correctness, seemingly out of nowhere? Or the ending? Jesus, I was blown away by this this film. It's an absolute masterpiece.
Miles
@Millenial Realist
ReplyDeleteI actually made a point at the Chicago Wafer summit that was similar. I think America has moved beyond hustling into a culture more centered around straight destruction, especially of anything of historical value.
I love how you can go to Rome and see just the right amount and type of buildings preserved from every century. It's a sign of self-awareness. You can also judge people by what they keep/don't keep.
James Garfield: An American Tragedy
"It is one thing to be arrogant, imperious, and full of hubris; this much we certainly share with the Romans. But there is something worse in the American experience (the modern experience), something epitomized in the Garfield story."
@Millennial--here in Washington DC, regentrification mania has leveled huge swaths of the city and replaced them with soulless 10-15 story apt/condo towers, all with chain stores like Amazon foods at their base for the convenience of the douchebags who live within. Granted a lot of "old DC" was pretty ugly, but it's like they won't be happy until they've driven all of the poor out of the District and turned it into an exclusive enclave of the rich and professional classes. What's really amazing is that most of these towers are half occupied or less, yet it doesn't seem to slow down the building mania. A decade of near zero interest rates and bailouts for any major financial institution that does manage to overextend itself has almost completely removed the downside risk that used to hold such activity in check.
ReplyDeleteAnd we must not forget the two politicians who were most responsible for setting all of this in motion: Obama and McCain. A decade ago, they helped ram the hideous TARP law down the country's throat in CONgress over the objection of an overwhelming majority when Bush had become too politically wounded to do it. Obama is the number 1 culprit--he of the presidential library boondoogle that is now displacing many poor black Chicagoans. A real man of the people, he is. Fuck him and that evil old troll he'll be eulogizing. They were/are two peas in a very rotten pod.
Chris Hedges has a new book it seems, "America: The Farewell Tour." I'll include a link below to a recent speech/Q&A. His vision continues to get darker, but he prescribes more head-butting into walls. Preferably brick ones, without a lotta give.
ReplyDeleteI've been ignoring politics entirely for about two months, I'm happier for it. Instead I've been reading books on geology, evolution and the origin of life. I've never had a special interest in these things, but I have the very un-American trait of curiosity about things despite having no intention of making money with the knowledge. The downward spiral has become rather banal to me of late.
Because of some luck and a minimalist lifestyle I work one week a month and have a lot of free time. The biggest benefit which few would anticipate is that I can mostly ignore my fellow 'Muricans. I don't know if I could call myself a NMI, but I certainly feel I've come very close to it at times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeE5WnTUsF8
Megan-
ReplyDeleteRe: Yr reply to Happy Hour: I'm a little uncomfortable abt anyone on this blog recommending bks on poisons.
Jeff-
Yeah, that ending was completely unexpected. Apparently Paul Schrader himself wasn't sure what he meant by it.
mb
https://books.substack.com/p/review-joy-williams-on-meister-eckhart
ReplyDeletePicking up this new book on Meister Johannes Eckhart, a 13th century Wafer
Eckhart’s way "was holistic, assuming the possibility of a journey in which the lost feelings of wonder, interconnectedness, and compassion could be found.”
They say death comes in 3's. Latest: Neil Simon, who gave us Felix and Oscar; two of my favorite characters. Aretha, a native of Detroit myself, I have all the "Respect" for. And who gets all the attention? McCain, who, though he did have to suffer Palin forced on him, should have "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran" played at his funeral. Think anyone would dare?
ReplyDeleteDulouz Jr
Millenial Realist, I see this happening where I live. Older buildings with charm, style, a distinctive look, get torn down & replaced by shoddy boxes or ghastly McMansions. Not too far from where I live, someone bought three small houses standing side by side, tore them down, and for the past 3-4 years has been building a monstrosity in fits & starts. Presumably he runs out of money at times, has to get more, then returns to this soulless structure - a house to live in, or more likely exist in - that's so massive & ugly that it makes a WWII bunker look like an elegant French chateau.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, it reflects the inner being (if any) of the builder, whose only message to the world seems to be, "I've got money (or the illusion of it) but absolutely no taste!" Which is the prevailing aesthetic credo of our culture, yes?
I'm immersing myself in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, which I'd long wanted to read. It is wonderful.
MB -- reposting cause the link got deleted....
ReplyDeleteFor those who don't like to look at themselves in a regular mirror here comes the naked mirror to make you feel better by telling you which part of your ass needs toning. It costs a mere 1395/- and all it requires of you is to stand naked in front of an internet connected mirror. This sentient being is equipped with state of the art tech that can accurately measure your fat ass. Not only that it will send your 3D- image (we are promised that no photo will be sent) to cloud which could then be hacked by the Russians or whoever and very likely we can see the 3D images of Botoxface or Trumpi. Another great debate point to decide who to vote for. naked body scanning mirror
From Fresh Hell TheBaffler
"The long arc of history has bent further toward gender equality, nudged by the “Human Capital Development division” at Goldman Sachs, which recently announced they will happily ship a new mom’s breast milk back home from anywhere in the world so that mommy can continue to inflict the violence of financial capitalism knowing her wee tot isn’t missing out on essential nutrients."
The Village Voice is officially dead:
ReplyDeletehttp://gothamist.com/2018/08/31/village_voice_is_officially_dead.php
A fitting epitaph for John McCain, "A Bloodstained, Lying, Venal Servant of Capitalist Empire":
https://blackagendareport.com/manufactured-mccain-lifting-bloodstained-lying-venal-servant-capitalist-empire
'Today is one of those days - what with pointed funeral orations, dynastic gatherings, & optimate contempt for a domineering popularis who returns their contempt in bucket-loads - when the American Republic really does seem not un-Roman.' 2day's quote from the great Historian Tom Holland
ReplyDelete‘The world will be lonelier without John McCain.’ 2day's quote from the great War Criminal Henry Kissinger
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/henry-kissinger-the-world-will-be-lonelier-without-john-mccain
Geoff-
ReplyDeleteJust one error in that otherwise fine essay: McCain was never tortured, and in fact was treated quite well by the Viet Cong. As I mentioned earlier, Chuck Searcy told me that when I visited Hanoi a few yrs ago, and he himself served in VN and knew McCain quite well. (I only recently found out that that info was already released in an article published in 2007, I think it was, mentioning Chuck by name, but that's neither here nor there.) It was also Chuck who told me how despicably McCain subsequently treated Mr. On, the guy who rescued and protected him.
McCain was an awful human being, a complete phony and a real shit. All of this current adulation, of course, is for his manufactured persona; but to me, he just represents the extreme end of the hustling spectrum that virtually all Americans inhabit. In addn, most Americans probably don't have any interest in learning who the real McCain was, and if they found out, I doubt they'd care. Hey, he was rich and 'successful', which is what life is all abt, rt?
mb
Prof. Berman- Responding to yr reply to me about how life in the US will be in 10 yrs., I wonder if in 10 yrs. the US will still exist in its current form.
ReplyDeleteMegan, Happy Hour- you both mentioned something that MGTOWs point out frequently, that the legal/court system is extremely biased towards men even if the woman is at fault. Asia Argento and #metoo are examples of this.
Bill- I have seen a # of videos where ppl in the US say that urban gentrification is the work of Agenda 21. What do you think about that? The only thing I read about Ag. 21 is that it is a UN project for sustainability.
Do you or any other Wafers know anything about it?
As an American (cough) I couldn't help but be moved by McCain's funeral, stupid me I even teared up a few times. There isn't much wrong with the IDEA of democracy but from the beginning Jefferson was a deeply conflicted human being. I was in a class once can't remember but something about American west came up and losing land to development and I made the off handed comment it was all a delusion all of the ideals a phony fantasy. While the professor agreed with me I had to drop the class b/c of stink eye from fellow students. In this time of national 'mourning' (really I doubt many understand or care that McCain prob was as close as we can get to a statesman in these (end) times and buried with him is much hope of ever having one) I find this quote to be particularly relevant -
ReplyDelete"I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
A. Lincoln
Wafers vs. Turkeys:
ReplyDelete"Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through."--Karl Marx
I'm new here, so I don't know how well you get along with Dmitry Orlov. But he's written a "eulogy" to McCain that I found hilarious.
ReplyDeletealex-
ReplyDeleteGive us the link, por favor.
mb
Link to McShame eulogy by Mr. Orlov
ReplyDeletehttps://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-senator-masquerading-as-gas-station.html
Morris and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteI've had a couple of encounters recently with people who adore McCain and just ignore me or go ballistic when they hear another version of his life. My sense is all this passion and adulation around McCain is very much like a religion. Along with the help of the Mass Media's 24/7 obsession with him people have that look on their faces that is so familiar to me around so many religious people. Definitely cut off from reality.
Marianne
Mike R-
ReplyDeleteGood defecation on McCain, but Orlov doesn't mention the phony torture issue. I'm beginning to think that most critics of McCain don't know abt this.
mb
@FerQ- I wonder if in 10 yrs. the US will still exist in its current form.
ReplyDeleteNope. Not a chance. Bunch of articles in the New Yorker and Foreign Policy on how USA looking like a failed state and civil conflict is inevitable. This is probably the best reason to get out now i.e. while you still can. Best analogy probably not breakup of USSR but of Yugoslavia. In reading about Bosnia and Herzegovina and the war, citizens commented along the lines of one day everything was OK, they next day neighbours were killing each other. In the USA, we have a very thin veneer of civilisation. Given the chance, a lot of Americans would love to kill other Americans especially Other aka Blacks, Mexicans, gays, Jews, Muslims. We're really not that far away. Psychologically, I'd argue, we are already there.
Good quote: "The Love of possessions is a disease with them. They take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the earth for their own and fence their neighbour away. If America has been twice the size it is, there would still not have been enough, the Indian still would have been dispossessed." Sitting Bull. The original sin of this country, the sin that is destroying it and its people, is greed. Why not tear down the national cathedral and put in its place a large golden calf? Then Trumpi & Co can suck its balls in the hopes of attaining more money and fame? You know he would.
BrotherMaynard
@FerQ--I don't know anything about Agenda 21, but it strikes me that the greedheads in America don't need (and would never want) any form of government bureaucracy being involved in the schemes. There is so much excess money sloshing around in the global financial system looking for any sort of return that borrowing billions without even having a path to profitability is no problem for all the various hustlers out there--Tesla and Elon Musk for example. All that cash is going everywhere but to people who really need it or for programs that might actually help build a better world.
ReplyDelete@Dio--just by coincidence, I was born and raised in Charles Guiteau's hometown, and the dilapidated old brick house where he lived as a child was only a few blocks from mine. It was all boarded up, and I used to joke that they should make a museum out of it and the town should embrace its unique status as the home of a presidential assassin. Never happened, of course--I doubt most there even knew who Guiteau was even though he's easily one of the town's five most "influential" native sons.
An interesting factoid about Guiteau's life is that before shooting Garfield he spent several years living at the Oneida free-love commune in upstate New York, but apparently left when even the women there wouldn't have sex with him. In that sense, he might have been the original MGTOW.
40% of Americans struggle to pay for at least one basic need like food or rent.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/40-of-americans-struggle-to-pay-for-one-basic-need-like-food-housing-or-health-care-2018-08-28
Smartphone use undermines the enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions.
https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-even-more-research-confirming-how-distracting-our-phones-are
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteHeh, no problem. I just meant that as tongue-in-cheek black humor for Happy Hour. Like arming schoolchildren with AK 47s to shoot each other, etc. I don't want him to be divorce-raped, but I certainly wouldn't want to see to see Mrs. Happy Hour poisoned. (For the record, that was just a general book on the history of poisoning, not an actual "how to" manual! I just chose it for the funny title.)
Pan's Flute,
I have no problem with my friend's childish and nasty wife going on an "Eat, Pray, Love" adventure with another man. If someone isn't happy in a marriage, by all means, get out. What I object to is that the courts are forcing HIM to pay for it!
Megan-
ReplyDeleteOK...it seemed just a little too specific for me, but maybe I didn't understand. When I talk abt arming schoolkids, I don't list stores where you can buy guns, or discuss exactly what kind of firepower to buy (save an occasional reference to a .357 Magnum).
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteCheck this out:
https://m.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2016/03/22/Black-Swan-The-Spectre-of-war.pdf
This guy predicts econ. crash sometime during 2019-21, and then complete unraveling of the system from 2026 on. Lots of detailed research here.
If he's rt, I suggest we stop worrying about decline of empire, and concentrate on the only two things that matter now:
1. The crucial scourge of slut-shaming
2. Meghan Markle's hats.
mb
@BrotherMaynard wrote In reading about Bosnia and Herzegovina and the war, citizens commented along the lines of one day everything was OK, they next day neighbours were killing each other. In the USA, we have a very thin veneer of civilisation.
ReplyDelete"The Fourth Turning" - a great book about cycles in American history, talks about this single moment of change, particularly in the years leading up to the (first) Civil War. Tensions between North and South had been building for years, but there was one moment - when Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter, a Union garrison. These were the opening shots of the (first) Civil War. There's points like this throughout history, where the situation is changed forever, and there's no going back to the way things were previously. Ordinary people could no longer avoid the situation which had been brewing for years. A turning point like this is coming for the USA.
Another academic I like is Peter Turchin (PeterTurchin.com), who applies a lot of math and systems theory to the history of societies. He likens our time to the period immediately before the first Civil War, and also to pre-revolutionary France.
No comment needed:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/bethanyshondark/status/1036078461029376000
The world missed a great opportunity for a war crimes tribunal.
Two birds, one stone: slut-shame Meghan Markle's hats so they stop reproducing.
Dr. B and Wafers: apologies for the too long previous post (which is lost, no worries!) and the lateness of this reply. I wish I could say I've been enjoying my long weekend, but nope! Just catching up on work of all kinds.
ReplyDeleteTo summarize the lost, too long post: much of what I was going to say on MGTOW was already said by someone else following (excellent Wafer thinking at play). Megan, your friend chose to work long hours, perhaps even to keep his job (not unheard of) but definitely seems a difference in values between husband and wife.
My problem with MGTOW (and metoo) is evidenced here over and over: shifting blame to "them" as a group in entirety. All women are bad, all men are bad, all whites are bad, all blacks are bad, all muslims are bad, you get the picture. And in almost all cases, this generalized anger is also misdirected. The problem in the example Megan gave is the courts, not all women.
Yet Millenial is also right: people are discarded nearly as often as furniture.
Generalizing, misdirected anger is becoming the norm, it seems. To answer your question, Dr. B, about the two possible outcomes in jjardens posting suggests that fascism is the direction we are taking (or being led, for the conspiracy perspective).
Dan D-
ReplyDeleteWhat wd a slutty hat look like? A pussy hat? I don't find them particularly stimulating.
mb
A case of déjà vu all over again?
ReplyDeleteMy compulsion to take a look at at least some of the comments on articles I’m reading produced a case of déjà vu with the Orlov piece on McCain.
The final comment by reader “bixler” read like the earlier post by the GSWH in this thread. Whole phrases rang familiar. Didn’t do a line by line comparison but it seemed nearly identical.
A quick check by another member would reassure me that I’m still relatively compos mentis.
Puss-
ReplyDeleteManichaean thinking is the touchstone of people who are not very bright.
mb
Jas-
ReplyDeleteI just checked out the billy axler comment you referred to. It's verbatim plagiarizing from my blog, my discussion of "Bob" (Chuck Searcy) and the alleged torture issue. Mr. Axler just did a cut-and-paste. No interest in citing his sources.
mb
To Larry Power--
ReplyDeleteI subscribed to BookPostUSA immediately after reading Joy Williams' review of that new biography of Meister Eckhart. (And seeing, at the bottom of the review, that Book Post links to indie bookstores.)
“Every creature is a word of God” Meister Eckhart
Panentheism and the via negativa are where it’s at, dude. Thanks for the link! This is why this blog is so valuable
@BrotherMaynard- I am happy to tell you that I no longer live in the US. I returned to Mexico a few months ago. The analogy you mentioned comparing the collapse/breakup of the US with that of Yugoslavia is exactly what I was imagining. Due to the nature of American society, people, culture, and also looking at US history (ex. the Civil War), it seems that most likely the collapse/breakup of the US will be extremely violent and full of horror. When I was in the US I told a # of people about this and they either ignored me, changed the subject or they had the attitude of "well if I die then I die."
ReplyDelete@Bill Hicks- I think the same. Any type of regulation/control will be vilified by greedy pigs who only care about making $ and unconscious about the environment, those in need, people's health etc.
@Marianne- Most Americans react with a fierce rage whenever someone criticizes the US, its culture, its policies or a political leader that they support. I have said in this blog b4 that the US looks like a cult.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned this b4: a few yrs ago the Pew Charitable Trust did a poll on American attitudes toward the elite (upper 1%). I think 61% said they had no problem w/the elite; they just wanted to join them! Recently I was searching for that poll on Google, and had no success in finding it. I know I didn't imagine it. Can any of you guys help me out here?
mb
Hello, Dr. B,
ReplyDeleteFound this on GlobeScan:
https://globescan.com/public-remains-concerned-over-wealth-inequalities-global-poll
Australis is #1 at 61%, and US is at #3 at 58%. This was 2008 - 2012.
Enbion
As a child of an unfortunately very necessary divorce when I was a teenager (my mother became a manic depressive/paranoid schizophrenic and my father was forced to take me and my two younger brothers away), I have to say that I've always taken an extremely dim view of parents of dependent children who get divorced simply because they've grown apart from their partners in some way. Hey, do you suppose that MAYBE part of the reason America is so fucked up is that we've now had decades of 50% plus divorce rates? If you're childless or your spouse is truly abusive that's one thing, but wrecking a kid's world simply because your "bored" with your spouse makes you a flaming fucking asshole--in my humble opinion. Oh, and even though dad was ultimately awarded custody of all three of us kids, yeah, he still had to pay alimony. Never once heard him complain about it though.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the "news," just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for the Catholic Church: Nuns At Vermont Catholic Orphanage Accused Of Sexual Abuse, Child Torture And Forcing Kids To Kiss Corpses. I might be a little more leery at trusting the veracity of these allegations given the time lapse involved were it not for proven abuses such as the Magdalene Laundries atrocities in Ireland--which this case seems to resemble. Plus this little quote--an admission of guilt if there ever was one: “While it cannot alter the past, the Diocese is doing everything it can to ensure children are protected.”
Enbion-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. It's not the Pew poll I remember rdg, but at least it's something.
mb
Bill Hicks -- Your humble opinion is fucking damn correct. Even I don't think that you should get a divorce unless its a terrible marriage, and especially if you have kids. This is also one of the reasons why I hated American parenting. With divorce rates and extramarital affairs so high, couples no longer have faith that they will be together longer. Hence there is resistance to love your kids deeply because they are the biggest obstacle to breakup. I have a feeling that all the parental talk about raising independent and strong kids is actually a cover for couples to go their own way and chase their desires and not be worried about the mental trauma inflicted upon the young ones. I once casually joked with my 4 yr old that who will he choose to stay with if we separated and he started crying profusely. Realised how deeply they are affected even at the thought of breakup; but even here the American culture teaches the kids to be prepared and eventually accept that this is a normal way of life. Sometimes I feel sorry for Americans cause they might have never experienced what true love and caring is and hence most turn out to be callous. Bill, it's good to know that you turned out to be a great Wafer despite the pain instead of a typical American asshole.
ReplyDeleteThinking about the Pullman Strike and the birth of Labor Day. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/how-or-how-not-build-labor-movement
ReplyDelete@Bill
ReplyDeleteAmerican history is the only history in which random psychotics are constantly killing relevant leaders as well as the public at large. History seems to be building to some final triumph of the act of lawless, senseless murder. It's not the violence itself that's a new social dysfunction, but rather the nihilistic spirit of that violence.
@Megan
When I used to teach high school, I remember one parent teacher conference where the husband kept referring to his wife in the third person, even though she was sitting right next to him. "Susan can do that", rather than her talking or him asking "Could you do that?".
As in many well-to-do 'professional' marriages, it was completely obvious that she may as well just have been an employee to him. And vice versa as well- she could only endure this treatment if she thought of him as an economic asset. This would just be their problem if everyone else wasn't forced into adopting their same worldview, which is where you get cases like your friend- basically decent people who can only express their values in a warped value system.
Dr. B, I agree about the Manichaean thinking, but I was referring to the ecological fallacy, and more specifically, the fallacy of composition. This is where an attribute of a group member is attributed to the group as a whole. Jeff eats lots of ice cream. Jeff is a 3rd grader. Therefore all 3rd graders eat lots of ice cream. The converse is also a fallacy (the fallacy of division). 3rd graders eat lots of ice cream. Mike is in 3rd grade. Therefore Mike eats lots of ice cream.
ReplyDelete@Bill Hicks, you make some very good points about the selfishness of the parties involved in Megan's example. I would just note that while you are 100% correct, it's possible that working long hours on the husbands part was also selfish. We just don't know for sure.
It's not just the kids who suffer. I had a friend who went thru the same thing, and along with the financial pain was the very real emotional pain of having his ex wife, her boyfriend, and his kids all living together in what also used to be his house.
narcissism, selfishness, callous disregard for others, and fallacious thinking ... onward and downward we go!
Never married, never wanted to be.
ReplyDeleteThe only experience I had of the thing was my own family. My father, who worked for a tobacco company as a shipping manager, was from a large family (three boys, three girls). He was asocial and bipolar, not wanting to do much besides sit quietly in his chair after dinner. Spent long days 6 AM ‘til 8 PM during tobacco season, preparing tobacco purchased by his company in the local markets for shipment to the factory for making into cigarettes. Weekends generally off—Sundays certainly—but the occasional Saturday AM shift when required. Usually exhausted from all appearances. Mother was an office manager at a doctor’s surgery. Highly social, had lots of women friends, earnestly hoped my father would become so himself. Vain hope. As far as I could tell, the only pleasure she got from the marriage was whatever joy my brother and I offered her as a mother.
Always surprised at marriages that last more than a few years, and feel that children may suffer more if they’re obliged to exist within a family where father-mother antipathy is palpable, hostile exchanges are frequent, and any love that might have once existed is long gone.
A recent visit to the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh left me feeling unwelcome. The vibe is now more exclusive. This was extremely evident at the restaurant. It used to be a cafeteria where you carried your own tray. Now the menu is pricey with small servings. The body language and tone of voice of the hostess and the waiter left no doubt that I was not the “right” clientèle. I fired off a letter to the President and CEO. The return letter from the CEO confirmed my impression. “We wanted to create a food destination.”
ReplyDeleteSo to console myself, I turned to Mr. Pellegrino, plasterer, accordionist, and artist. Since today is Labor Day here in the USA, you might enjoy hearing his musical thoughts on labor from Western Pennsylvania in this song.
Pellegrino does dry wall and plastering. He appears on stage in his white bib work clothes.
Larry/Sparks: I had never heard of panentheism and so have been looking into the difference between that and pantheism. I would say that I’m a monist, which I guess puts me in the sphere of pantheism – at least as far as I’m able to understand it. BTW, have either of you ever read any of Wei Wu Wei’s writings, especially Ask the Awakened, one of my favorites re the negative way? Challenging and lots of fun. I’m ordering Dangerous Mystic.
ReplyDeleteBill: I think another reason couples “grow apart” is because the children become the sun around which the parents’ lives orbit (at least here in helicopter-ville) with little attention paid to the marriage itself. Regarding the Vermont nuns: I left the church over 50 years ago when I learned about the Spanish Inquisition which began in the late 1400’s. So in light of recent revelations, I will never understand how anyone can consider the RCC to be a moral authority. As far as I’m concerned, supporting the church in any way, even by attending mass, is participating in evil.
George: Strange kind of “casual joke” to play on a four-year-old.
Wafers,
ReplyDeleteIf you can stand one more McCain reference I recommend this article about him in Alighieri's circle.
DAN CAREY
McCain’s Second Coming
Marianne
Bill - sorry to hear about your mother, mental illnesses usually do rip families up, I very nearly destroyed mine. Damn fine too for your dad to pay alimony, sometimes that's the best that can be done, the disability system discourages family/marriage many families have to essentially make their children wards of the state to afford 'treatment.' Maybe it's always been thus but healthy, vibrant relationships have got to be the major exception to the rule in USA! I couldn't marry and bring kids into this world unless I was reasonably assured I could provide for them, don't haveta be rich but I would want a decent standard of living, a compatible mate and I never met...I have the hardest time understanding people who have children w/o any means of support, I mean an illegal crossing the border with an infant is sad, but why do you have one to begin with? Infants blown up in Syria bother me too.
ReplyDeleteHedge's latest article shouts the Slaves Revolt (hundreds of protestors outta 2 million prisoners) on the same day this story comes out of Nevada
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2018/aug/31/report-woman-lay-dead-in-nevada-county-jail-cell-f/
Any Wafers wanna wager most Amerikans would respond 'she shoulda paid her traffic tickets and not got addicted.
Human beings SUCK...
ReplyDeleteMoose drowns after people crowding to take pictures scare it into water...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/moose-dead-drowns-crowded-vermont-wildlife-lake-a8521281.html
My parents ran a mom and pop shmata store for 43 years and were married for 58 years until my father died in 2008. My mom is 93 and just recently I asked her if she ever thinks about the store. Her answer was startling. She said, " I never think about the store and there's something else I never think about, my husband." Amazing. You're married for 58 years and he's become just a distant memory or no memory at all? I'd like to hear some Wafer's stories about long marriages if you can.
ReplyDeleteAnon-
ReplyDeleteI don't post Anons.
mb
Regarding modern couples, Banksy sums it up quite well:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/salsgallery/13868973685
Kanye
Blogger Gunnar,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the story on the Texas women who died in a Nevada jail. More detailed info with pictures here:
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2018/08/31/kelly-coltrain-death-nevada-mineral-county-jail-denied-treatment/1145643002/
I tell ya, Karma will destroy or is destroying some people!
Diogenes,
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're on to something there. I suppose many relationships fail in America because American people live on a very superficial level. We no longer have any frames of reference for living in a deeper way. I've been joking about "Eat, Pray, Love", but really, for many American women, this is pretty much the level of culture they are exposed to. In the past, my friend's wife might have been able refer in her mind to, say "Jane Eyre", or "Kristin Lavransdatter" as longsuffering female archetypes who "stuck it out" when things got tough. Now, the frames of reference ("E.P.L", "Fifty Shades of Gray", etc.), tell us that it's all about what WE are getting out of it, and how well our partner is fulfilling OUR own hedonistic desires, etc.
Tim Lukeman made the comment earlier about how we've lost "mystery, tenderness, romance". Well, when one is living in an entirely Id-based culture that focuses exclusively on animal excitation and crass sensuality, it's only natural that these finer and more delicate things will fall by the wayside.
Steven Pinker -- "Money Really Does Lead to a More Satisfying Life (The old study showing lottery winners are no happier in the long run was underpowered and misreported. Lottery winners really are more satisfied over the long term.)"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/business/money-satisfaction-lottery-study.html
Hmm, sure, but he fails to mention this is a longitudinal analysis of a *Swedish* population sample. Of course they'd be happier candidates. They begin w/ having a baseline of friendly humanity and solid cultural values.
Cloe-
ReplyDeleteIn addition, there have been many studies of the subject, in America and elsewhere, that confirm the fact that lottery winners are unhappy. Unfortunately, these are the kinds of links I don't save.
mb
A commentary on the Brazil National Museum fire:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/09/what-goes-up-in-flames
In the late '70s I was driving from Massachusetts to New Jersey. In Connecticut I picked up a hitchhiking couple from Denmark and we had a nice talk. When we hit the Cross-Bronx Expressway and the fire-gutted landscape, they went silent. After a few minutes they quietly mumbled how it looked like photos of WWII bombings.
New York City's answer? Decals of shades and flowers in the windows of gutted building facing the Expressway-
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/12/nyregion/residents-give-a-bronx-cheer-to-decal-plan.html
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteSomeone recently sent me this: Orlov, vintage 2006:
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2006-12-04/closing-collapse-gap-ussr-was-better-prepared-collapse-us/
mb
Morris Berman: Here is the link to Dmitry Orlov's eulogy for John McCain:
ReplyDeletehttp://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-senator-masquerading-as-gas-station.html#more
As I've said, I don't know how well you get along with Mr. Orlov., he's not exactly a US-phile. But it *is* quite humorous.
I am new to posting on here and since the Orange One was elected, I find my views and opinions are not popular on blogs I used to post to. So I have no great hopes of seeing this published.
alex-
ReplyDeleteI think this link may have been posted here already. In future, always send messages to most recent post; no one reads the older stuff. Thanks.
mb
It's hard to know how much China, Russia, Israel, S. Arabia, Iran, religions, globalism, corruption, open borders, alphabet agencies, etc., have subverted the country over the years. Follow the billionaires, see Europe's immigration issues?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Scott Adams denounced the Q movement as 100% not true and bad for the Trump brand whatever that is, "another simulation". I can't even know if that's a tongue and cheek response since everyone is acting with persuasion these days instead of honest upfront facts (which according to Adams, don't matter since that's not how people make decisions). Regardless, I think Trump could represent a more sovereign interested branch off of the globalist club. There have been even mainstream stories I've never seen before under him though who knows if everything is controlled opposition, a mental mind F.
Currently, the nation seems like a persistently constructed war with its-self. Most people have just enough of the picture to get themselves into bad weeds. The centralization, globalism, media control, corruption, inequality, lack of justice and opportunity, and spin all seemingly aligned against Trump, masquerading as free trade competition lassez-faire etc., sure feels non-progressive and communistic, like the radical left media, including silicon valley giants. Context and connected dots can find common ground, but the corp state isn't allowing that which Trump tweets and other alt-media touch upon. The military spending is same old.