Doomer Optimism
So, Waferinos, there are these folks, Americans but intelligent, who had the sense to flee the US and resettle in Uruguay, where they are trying to employ the idea of my "Dual Process" essay, and create alternative possibilities. Good folks, you'd like them. Anyway, they call their enterprise "Doomer Optimism," and they did an interview with me a short while back, which I thought some of you might enjoy. Here's the link, chicos:
posted by Morris Berman at 7:20 PM
188 Comments:
Doctor,
Great interview as always. Here is just one example of what ex-pats are missing not living in this violent shithole. In addition to being in fear for their lives of a mass shooting in school, kids now have to take precautions at a little league game.
https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/nearly-100-shots-fired-near-youth-baseball-game-south-carolina/X2B4QH7YUBHXXPSTUBFQF43M2Q/
I really enjoyed the interview and discussion. You are a great orator, Dr. B.
Mike-
Many thanks; yr too kind.
mb
Awesome interview. I loved how you went back to the human consciousness trilogy as they are my favourites (not only by Dr. Berman but in general). Also the, briefly mentioned, idea that history is plastic or malluable resonated with me as I subscribe to the belief that history is creation, human creation. Sure, there are laws and trends in history and in social and individual behaviours but there is no determinism à la Marx or Hegel. Humans do stuff consciously and this create their own History.
Dear Dr. Berman-echoing what other Wafers have stated-Excellent interview with critical thinking folks who escaped the world's massive mistake.
You touched upon the negative identity of the US empire (defining itself by what it's in opposition to). Your past analysis regarding this 'identity' explains to a large extent why America failed. Also, spit up my coffee with the Danforth Quayle not speaking Latin comment in Latin America...
Here's some more profound quotes from Quayle-a true american-up there with Kamala, Hermann Cain, and Tulsi.
https://www.bauer.uh.edu/rsusmel/Other/Quayle.htm
Dr. Shit-
Thanks so much. I do miss Herman and his 999 Plan. It wd have saved America, no doubt abt it.
mb
Wafers-
Our girl is doin' OK!:
https://caknowledge.com/tulsi-gabbard-net-worth/
Thanks again for coming on Profe, we have gotten some very positive responses from it so far! It was a pleasure as always, onward and downward; Doomers but optimistic.
Patrick-
Thank *you* for the invite. Here's something to brighten yr day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQSNVBLTXYY
mb
I work at Walmart. I need to get into public service. The Obamas are also millionaires. They own a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard. Nancy pelosi and Kamala Harris are also millionaires. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/a30169311/barack-michelle-obama-buy-marthas-vineyard-house/
Mo-
The elite are trash. Never forget that.
mb
Wafers-
Something to start off yr day w/:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQSNVBLTXYY
$33 billion to Ukraine? Wow! Gratefully our decaying defense contractors can now unload some of their surplus death machines and thus be freshly infused with more tax-payer $Cash Money$. I was worried about their viability for a while.
Just imagine if our Government spent money like this on it's own people. It will never happen though. Anyone who believes in and supports either of our two main political parties is a pox upon the land.
This ship isn't sinking, this ship is sunk.
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2022/04/28/biden-asks-congress-for-new-33-billion-ukraine-aid-package/
Greetings MB ands Wafers,
MB-
Many thanks for the excellent interview and humor! "Kamala is a moron" had me on the floor in fits of laughter.
MB, Wafers-
Here is a very good analysis of the roots and consequences of the war in Ukraine:
https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/tony-wood-matrix-of-war
American moron dept.:
Oklahoma Republican lawmaker, Sean Roberts, wants to refer to himself as "The Patriot" on the ballot.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/27/the-patriot-sean-roberts-nickname-oklahoma
Miles
Brief story of mine. Recently there was a hoarder house that made the front page of the local paper. I went to that house. There was a neighbor next door drinking beer sitting on a chair in his yard watching the vultures swoop in. I asked the guy with the beer, "did you know your neighbor was a hoarder and lived in filth?" The guy said he never met him. Welcome to America.
https://www.facebook.com/Quality-Estate-Sale-by-Kendra-101277138601457/videos
Why didn't you praise the youngsters for their
patriotic loyalty to the Second Amendment? Think
how the example set by their elders serves to protect
our blessed nation from a tyrannical federal government. Think of the money saved by the taxpayers
by all these youngsters killing themselves instead of
using tax dollars to keep them in jail or prison.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/youth-gun-violence-increased-dramatically-110407794.html
Come November, ass on a platter:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/28/politics/us-economy-shrank-democrats-2022-midterm/index.html
Come 2024, Trumpi redux!
mb
Buffoon Dept.:
https://imageholder.org/nina-jankowicz-of-disinformation-governance-board-sings-a-mary-poppins-style-parody-song/#gref
Another for the Buffoon Dept., USian douche bags in action (redundant)-drag race in Ohio:
A shit box versus a luxury shit box and it ends well. USians focused on very impt. things, like cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIY8tkbsHe8
Okay. Let’s recap some of this week’s angry, violent road rages:
Atlanta.
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/man-shot-road-rage-incident-i-85-after-angry-driver-followed-him-miles-police-say/3EK3LQXSIJGC5E2UER3GLRWOVQ/
Durham, North Carolina.
https://www.wral.com/i-m-going-to-die-victim-s-emotional-911-call-released-from-road-rage-shooting-in-durham/20254677/
Up in South Dakota.
https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/04/26/sioux-falls-police-report-shots-fired-road-rage-episode/
And of course that great conservative, 2nd Amendment loving, family values state of Texas where anything goes.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/trackdown-road-rage-shooting-guadalupe-de-la-cruz
Once again, who needs to hear about murder, violence, and armed bloodshed in Ukraine? We have plenty and more each day here in the great exceptional U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A!
Note to phones-
That was already posted. You might want to be aware of what is on the blog, b4 u post. In addition, we try to be more of a discussion forum rather than a bulletin board, so in the future, you might provide some commentary or analysis. In sum: this is a serious blog. We look forward to your intellectual maturation.
mb
Schmiden is a douche bag, and Kamala is brain dead. The country is finished; Trumpi waits in the wings.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/29/americans-believe-nothing-is-getting-better-biden-feeds-that-disillusionment
Whatever happened to communist brainwashing, now
replaced by Capitalist brainwashing? As an economic
stimulant, why not credit cards for children? Why not
arming poor children so they can rob their way into
the higher levels of consumerism? The kind of dimwits
who advocate that reducing shopping will cure us of
our materialistic society forget to mention that the
end of shopping as the meaning of life will mean a
massive, incurable depression leading to the end of
the way things are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGN1ZEABk_Y
Fun interview Dr. B, good to hear your voice again.
Just what Marblehead said and others including MB said all along:
https://newrepublic.com/article/166233/ukraine-war-us-military-spending-biden
I dunno Wafers, I thought it was bad during the pandemic, and it was, but now it seems (in the US wherein I am stuck) like things are getting even worse. Multiple friends and family are all reporting insane HR people and management people. As if the entire laptop-class structure is consuming itself in its own paranoia. Oh so sorry you spent the last 2 years stuck in your 4000 square foot house with a full fridge, but the rest of us who actually had to work the whole time (and not paid extra) are pissed...
Pastrami-
Gd essay; too bad it won't make any difference. But there is a silver lining: this foolish resurrection of the Cold War can only hasten our decline. Self-destruction is the order of the day.
Cosmo-
Not necessarily. Check out story #2 in "The Heart of the Matter," and rest assured: I'm not a dimwit.
mb
ps: Pastrami: the depth of the American head in the American rump regarding the Ukraine (and just abt everything else) is a wonder to behold. As Gore Vidal famously remarked, "Stupidity excites me."
As for Elon Musk, he is certainly a douchebag, but a very peculiar douchebag. Apparently he lives "below the poverty" level. For a house he has a remarkably ugly 50 thousand dollar "box home". This living in voluntary poverty would be cool, except that it would be much cooler if he gave some of his 70 billion away to people who needed it. Speaking of which, don't you hate that vulgar American phrase "He is worth...."? As in, "He is worth 70 billion!" I wonder if the French speak of wealthy people in this manner?
The commentators in the below video are annoying, but I suppose they are basically correct. Musk is a beta. At any rate, the part about Musk is from about 16:10. I didn't know he had a 30 billion dollar divorce. Seems like his goth stay-at-home girlfriend was perhaps--do you think? interested in his money. Women file 80 percent of all divorces, the main reason for which is "he didn't make enough money."
16:10.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQaHfsqdOfM
Oh, and here is Musk's home. No one would ever accuse him of having an overly developed aesthetic sense!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyXlVT207UQ
Megan-
I just can't avoid the feeling that he's a gigantic buffoon.
mb
Meanwhile, Schmiden is doing what he can to hurt the country and the American people, and Kamala is doing nothing at all, because she's a bag of douche fluid. As for the population, they are clueless, ridiculous people. Full steam ahead for implosion of the country!
Weekends especially are perfect times for the many mass shootings here. And a good venue for one is a bar. Go, New Orleans!
https://www.ksla.com/2022/04/30/6-people-shot-popular-uptown-new-orleans-bar-first-weekend-jazz-fest/
Also, never forget something. “Authority” here in the great U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A! is sacrosanct; it is incapable of any wrongdoing; it always is to be respected; and it never is to be questioned. This goes too when encountering “authority” while traveling on our roads.
https://vtdigger.org/2022/04/29/former-deputy-sheriff-found-guilty-in-road-rage-incident/
Check out the mug shot of this creep.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2022/04/29/palm-harbor-man-charged-with-hate-crimes-after-racially-motivated-road-rage-attack-officials-say/
p.s. Is it just I? Or are many more ugly “macho” USAins in their twenties going bald early in life? Is it the processed food/chicken sandwiches in this fast food society that’s causing it?
Wafers-
I had a remarkable dream last nite, and I thought I wd enlist yr help in interpreting it.
I dreamt that Kamala was giving a speech in front of the Capitol. She was flanked by reporters, a guy from Popeye's Chicken, and an armed soldier, later identified as Col. Meathead. This is what she said:
"My fellow Americans. Recent conversations with the historian and social critic, Morris Berman, have convinced me that I have no more brains than a bag of oranges. The empirical evidence is overwhelming that I am just a sac of rancid douche fluid, and that the best thing I could do for the country at large is have a soldier gun me down in the street like a dog, and put me, and you, out of our misery. (I shd add that my husband, who is Jewish and therefore very smart, doesn't let a day go by w/o telling me that I have shit for brains.) But before that happens, let me make two recommendations.
"One: Joe will have to decide on my successor, but my own suggestion is to replace me with Tulsi. It wd seem that only the philosophy of Tulsism can save us.
"Two: But in the event that we can't be saved--which seems very likely at this pt--I suggest that all Americans be provided w/weapons, and that they gun each other down in the street, like dogs. This will solve the problem of how to end the American empire (looked upon w/relief by most of the world).
"In conclusion, pls don't judge me too harshly. I know all of you expected a lot of me, but what was I beyond a diversity choice, really? Once the election was over, Joe had little use for me. I mean he too is not terribly bright, but at least he cd see that I was a liability--pretty much a joke--and needed to crawl away into a hole somewhere. So I'll see you all at the Last Roundup. Yee-hah!"
mb
MB,
Well, here's Paul Krugman on Friday doing his duty for the Times by supporting the war in Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/opinion/russia-ukraine-biden-aid.html
Let's not try to stop the war! Let's do all we can to escalate it! Let's ignore that fact that Russia has 6000 nuclear weapons! What could possibly go wrong with these policies?
People around me seem clueless about the possibility of this ending up in nuclear war. Their perspective is one of: Putin bad, Russia bad. All of this seems to me to be the end game of the last several years of Russiagating by people with long Trump Derangement Syndrome, brought on the the fact that Hillary lost to a game show host.
And wasn't Trump supposed to be the dangerous president? Wasn't Biden supposed to be the sane one? Yet he and people like Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin are doing all the can to escalate this war into a nuclear confrontation, or so it seems to me. This is what's keeping me awake at night.
ccg-
The NYT is little more than a collection of fawning bozos. Hi-IQ dummies. Meanwhile, without taking serious critics into account (Mearsheimer et al.), the gov't and the country have gotten onto the resurrect-the-Cold-War bandwagon. And *this*, not competent analysis of the situation, is regarded as sanity! This will continue the age-old American pattern of negative identity (thereby making us feel gd), and making shitloads of $ for the Military-Industrial-Complex. Front-page NYT is basically a gov't propaganda sheet.
mb
More weekend mass shootings in the land of the free ( to kill somebody).
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/atlanta-police-1-dead-4-shot-outside-cleveland-ave-apartment-complex/GTGRCNA7SVFX3EG2ZJAFN3GV5Y/
https://www.whio.com/news/local/breaking-4-injured-after-shooting-springfield/KGCYHJWEI5HHTLZC5BGA2KRWSI/
https://www.wapt.com/article/one-dead-multiple-shot-at-mudbugs-festival-at-state-fairgrounds/39869754
p.s. Doctor, Here’s a great new site that keeps track of the recent mass shootings, the numbers of them so far this year, where, etc. Maybe the online gambling sites can start taking futures odds!
https://massshootingtracker.site/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
CCG, long Trump Derangement Syndrome is for sure a thing. We saw it all pandemic (and still do ... Trump minimized the effect of the virus so dems automatically had to maximize it), now we see it with Ukraine. I see blue and yellow flags/pins/avatars all over the place. I truly wonder how many of these virtue signalers could even find Ukraine on a map?
Anyway, Schmiden is in Minnesota today for Mondale's memorial service, alas I was unable to secure an audience so I could micturate upon his loafers, or lacking that on his rug. Forgive my lack of planning, I had a 6-pack of Bud Lite ready to go too.
Wafers-
My pal Nomi Prins has a new bk out (in Oct.) called 'Permanent Distortion', in which she reverses her earlier predictions abt the American economy going to crash, and instead paints a picture of what might be called permanent neofeudalism. I.e., what we are going to see is more of the same--huge divide between rich and poor--except even more huge. The rich are going to get supersuperrich, and the rest of the population will be supersuper ground into the dirt. I haven't talked to her abt her new bk and her new take on the American economic future, but she basically says, If you think things are grim now, just wait. No Hedgean revolution, of course (she's not a moron), just increasing misery for pretty much the whole country.
This is not, then, a prediction of collapse, regardless of who is in the W.H. But it is, perhaps, a prediction of a different form of collapse: America living in an ever-deepening river of shit. What might we predict on a political level, if her picture is correct? As the vice tightens, what will be going on not only in national politics, but also on the street level of American life? What say you, Waferinos?
mb
Check it out:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/alice-walker-anti-semitism-new-yorker-essay/629711/
Dr. Berman,
Regarding your comment from the other day that Musk is a "buffoon", yes, that is a more fitting word than "douchebag". From one "logophile" to another, "douchebag" is better reserved for the asshole, in-your-face types like Steve Jobs. Musk has softer edges, and and is honestly more creepy than anything else. "Buffoon" is definitely the mot juste in his case.
Though Musk is certainly a kind of "idiot savant". If you haven't seen it, check out "Return to Space" on Netflix. It is impressive what that company was able to do with creating the first self-landing rocket. But it is "impressive" in a very narrow and not altogether healthy sense. When I was thinking about Bezos' and Musk's obsession with colonizing space, I said to myself "These guys must be atheists." (Haha, apparently they are. No offense to the atheist posters here.). At any rate, this obsession is very childish and has a kind of frenzied, nihilistic feel to it. Below is just a teaser for his substack essay, but the insight machine John David Ebert has an interesting take on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKiPpbZjCFQ
Unknown-
Sorry, I don't post Unknowns.
mb
Wafers-
I continue to be intrigued by Nomi Prins' prediction of endless, deepening immiseration as America's future. As late as 2018, she was predicting a crash more catastrophic than the one of 2008. Now, she doesn't see that happening. Her 'vision' is that between now and the end of time, every month will be increasing hell. There won't be any major discontinuities, in short; just more of the same beyond tolerable limits.
What might that look like? For one thing, it makes no diff at all who wins the election in 2024. Whoever the pres is, he will just be riding the waves--like a cork, so to speak. The war in the Ukraine will be like the one in Afghanistan was: w/o meaning, and w/o end. The rate of domestic massacres--now something like 1.1 per day, on average--will rise steadily. Suicide rates, along w/those of opioid addiction, alcoholism, cell fone addiction, and so on, will skyrocket; and treatment of Americans by Americans, wh/is pretty awful today, will be a kind of horror show tomorrow. Things will probably approach the scenario laid out by Lionel Shriver in "The Mandibles," i.e. a war of all against all. The population will distract themselves w/the following sorta dogshit:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/01/us/monica-friends-house-replica-trnd/index.html
(Really, what cd be more stupid?)
And on the global front, the US will be of less and less concern to other nations. It will be seen as increasingly irrelevant.
Of course, a crash is still possible; Nomi is hardly God. And as a discontinuity it wd, I suppose, be more 'entertaining' than incremental devolution, the latter of which has a certain boring aspect to it. My repeated prediction of things being over in 2030 included the notion of a crash, followed by the increasing strength of secessionist movements. These movements cd gather strength w/or w/o a crash, but it's not clear that they wd be able to alter the pattern of deepening immiseration. This pattern, by 2030, could certainly degenerate into the scenario predicted by Lionel Shriver, wh/cd also be a scenario w/o any foreseeable end to it. Life, in short, will boil down to survival on a daily basis. I guess my suggestion of New Monastic Orders (in the Twilight bk) might indeed become the only way 'out', beyond emigration.
Just thinking out loud.
mb
Hello Wafers, who else, in your opinion, other than a USian, would claim that she drove her SUV down a flight of stairs because the GPS showed her that way!!! I could think of none.
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/woman-in-us-who-drove-down-stairs-blames-gps-police-say-she-was-drunk-2938491#pfrom=home-ndtv_lateststories
Wafers,
Out of foolish curiosity, I went to a talk the other day that was supposed to be about ‘being a warrior’ and developing a ‘warrior’s consciousness to fight against social injustice’; “heck”, I thought, “maybe there’s some truth to be learned from this woke stuff, I’ll give it one more try and attend this conference”.
What ended up happening in the talk, linguistically speaking, was probably the most Orwellian thing imaginable.
So, the speaker and the respondents defined all injustice in American society as the result of “whiteness”, and then proceeded to define “freedom” as whiteness (these were very high IQ people that read Heidegger, Focault, Lacan, Plato etc.).
So now the Woke Progs are starting to fight against freedom!
Additionally, the speaker told people about a talk he gave a few years ago where some white women asked him “what can we do to empower people of color”, and then how in response he lashed out at her angrily "on the behalf of all colored people" and felt it necessary but also felt guilty afterward (the point being that a warrior is one who fights injustice, but takes upon themselves the burden of the guilt of doing so).
Of course I'm 20 times more intimidated by the christianized fascists on the right, but holy shit would I not want these Prog bolshevik fanatics, and hate filled racists, getting more of their hands on power.
Thinking out loud here too: my gut says Nomi Prins is right about how this will go down. In a similar way to you Dr. Berman, I believe Ophuls is thinking out loud in a footnote from Immoderate Greatness and maybe makes the distinction you’re making here: “This book is about the process of decline and fall in general, not about the destiny of any particular society. Nevertheless, a brief word about the fate of the American empire may be apropos.” (p 90) Or: “It is also an open question whether the United States can desist from suicidal stupidity. Despite rising criticism at home and abroad, it persists in simultaneously pursuing all three major pathways to self-destruction mentioned in the previous chapter: war, debt, and inflation.” (Ibid.) source: Ophuls, William. “Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail.”(CreateSpace Publishing, 2012) Thanks to Wafer NeilW for recommending Ophuls this past October.
What interesting timing for you to bring up from Nomi Prins and her new book - I may give it a read. I’ve had several conversations over the last few weeks that seem to track the trends you mention. My wife and I talking about how, the harder we work the less we seem to have (after a recent income tax bill). She’s from Mexico and said to me yesterday, “it looks to me like they just gave slavery a new name”, between all the taxes, fees, debts, interest on interest… add to that the hassle of daily living where we do 5 jobs, 4 of which used to someone else’s and they got paid for it. Rent goes up, property taxes too, only hedge funds will be able to buy any real property. It’s not hard to see the creeping potential for a new kind of feudalism. In a conversation with a friend I told him I’d heard that even ‘nomads’ living in their vans may be getting hassled more often. It sure seems like the noose has been tightening ever since I started paying attention, say, 35 years ago. It’s kind of like being a rat in a glue trap, you can go limp, whither and die, or struggle and you wind up stuck worse. At any rate we’ve moved up our exit plans from 5-10 years to more like 3-5.
Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers,
How does one 'get over' (be at peace) with the USian immigrants/spouse friends who made a willful choice to emigrate from their native country to the US empire? Many of these folks appear more interesting than the average USian; however, what bothers me, and I cannot come to peace with, is that they 'chose' to come to the US--they voluntarily want what the US is offering. In essence, they're Americans with fully buy-in, and hence, they're dreck.
Also, speaking to some European colleagues, they have the love/like America brainwashing. Americans being 'good guys,' e.g., Trump bad, Biden good. Ukraine good, Russia bad, etc. Their knowledge of history appears to be Western media/"news" and blindly following America 'lock-step' as vassal states. I have lost faith in some of these Europeans being unable to see what the US empire was really about--and it bothers me.
Thank you Dr. Berman for allowing me to post some anecdotal observations. Please delete if inappropriate for the blog Sir.
Roland-
I corresponded a bit w/Ophuls after I published my bk on Japan, in which I quoted him. He's no dummy.
mb
Joe-
Cut back by 30%. Thanks.
mb
Dr., you asked above: “As the vice tightens, what will be going on”? IMHO I guess, in addition to the already mass shootings & deadly road rages, the following:
As you mentioned in DAA, the further triumph of religion over reason. One only has to take a look at the Christian Right and its millions of evangelical devotees ( a la Dostoevsky/ Brothers Karamazov) in this pathetic de facto theocracy. For example, these idiots in this one church (of many) are singing praise and adoration to this carpenter who, as you have stated, probably never even existed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdQ2ff-XyD8
I mean, what other country on this planet has a geographical section that literally is defined ( in the Random House Dictionary, no less) as the “Bible Belt”?
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-bible-belt-1434529
What other country has a “Creation Museum” that teaches the earth is only 6,000 years old and baby T Rex’s were put onto Noah’s Ark?
https://udayton.edu/magazine/2020/09/creation-museum.php
This nonsense will add to the further dumbing down ( see the statistics below) of this shithole as it further descends into worldly irrelevance; and on, as you have said, an ongoing slow slippery slope.
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy
And USAins will spend their lives ( Brave New World Style) staring into their ( transitional object) smartphones, watching television or something streaming on a computer, ( mainly men) looking at porn, taking drugs, and partaking in the new USAin national pasttime—gambling.
https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2021/11/14/is-casino-gaming-the-new-national-pastime/
https://www.draftkings.com/
Joe-
Clearly, a bleak outlook, and one that is very likely. There is a process of moronization going on that can only accelerate over time. (Along w/digitalization, weaponization, monetization, and so on.) Note: still too long. In future, make abs. sure you don't exceed a half a page. Thanks.
mb
Wafers-
I think, as part of Nomi Prins' prediction (see above), we're gonna see a lot more of this:
(2) New Rule: American Kleptocracy | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - YouTube
All of u out there: NOW is the time to hit the road, not 6 mos. from now. NOW.
mb
I wonder if Vegas has odds on this. Perhaps the bet will become an
investment opportunity in the form of a junk bond, anything to keep
money circulating. Perhaps WAFers could put together a lottery for
predicting the time and day when civil war official is declared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AS11SbvLmM
Here is Tucker Carson giving voice to all the things I and many others been thinking about the war in Ukraine and the prospect of this leading to a nuclear war with Russia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGvO8b-tiaM
No wonder the New York Times just devoted two days of long articles on Carlson, the purpose of which, of course, was to smear him for going against the accepted narrative.
ccg-
This is gd, but there are 2 other factors that are probably more impt. One is financial: war is far more profitable than peace, and the folks who are profiting from this war are the usual suspects: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, et al. The 2nd is what I've talked about many times, esp. in the essays in QOV: historically, and psychologically, America needs an enemy to function, to feel whole--what is called 'negative identity'. This is why the whole country, from the top down, is keen on this war, and has no interest in the args. of Mearsheimer and others that *we* caused this war, not Russia. Hatred of the other strengthens yr ego boundaries, and is a pseudo-way of being strong. It's a major reason why Jimmy Carter, who told the American people in 1979 that we cdn't keep blaming the USSR for our problems, got voted out of office. Anyway, the charade abt saving the people of the Ukraine will continue, even if it leads to a nuclear confrontation. Here's W.H. Auden: "We would rather be ruined than changed." It's true, amazingly enuf.
mb
Why wd this be happening?:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/03/politics/uss-george-washington-sailors/index.html
ps: ccg: I'm thinking that MSM shd really stand for Mostly Shit for the Masses. Regarding Ukraine, the masses are totally duped, as they were during the Cold War. This is no surprise, considering the intellectual level of the American people. But Carlson's speech pts to something else as well: Dem or GOP, the country is being led by buffoons. These are people for whom political advantage is more impt than the possibility of unleashing a nuclear war. This is by now obvious, but it's also scary; hard to believe, except that this is America. Iffy times ahead.
mb
Prins has nailed it. I looked up a bunch of her stuff. Continued decline doesn’t have to be dramatic, rather it is more akin to being slowly squeezed. Unfortunately I’m feeling the squeeze right now. Almost no one I know was in normal mental health when the pandemic began. Now everyone I know are s totally out of sorts.
On the military issue (a bunch of miserable sailors), the only insight I can offer as a former teacher is that the military does recruitment far better than anything else. Most likely f the kids are whisked away right after high school and have absolutely no idea what they are in for. God help you as a teacher if you ever discouraged them from signing up. They are very immature and then find they’re under a draconian system that they cannot escape.
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000180-874f-dd36-a38c-c74f98520000
I’m sure there will more decline over this.
Wafers-
Let's elaborate on the Prins Paradigm, along w/the Shriver Paradigm. Every day we will sink deeper into the mud, increasingly hating ourselves and our lives, wh/we rightly perceive as stupid and meaningless. By 2030, everyone will be carrying a gun, and just randomly shoot whomever they encounter in the street. Law enforcement will join in with this activity, wh/they will find enjoyable. I'm not sure this scenario is all that far-fetched. On the macrolevel, we pursue a dishonest (and imbecilic) war; on the microlevel, self-destructive lives. This seems supremely obvious.
mb
Hello Wafers,
First I'd like to apologize to Dr. Berman because I wrote a comment as an anonymous a couple of dats ago, I was writing while in a hurry running errand early in the morning and I forgot to put the name.
second, here is a bit of old news (two years old) but I don't think that's important as it does show one aspect of the decadence of the empire.
https://www.thelocal.no/20200731/norwegian-flag-taken-down-in-us-town-after-being-confused-for-confederate-banner/
I guess this falls in the same category as banning Marx because of the war in Ukraine, a tragic comedy, or a comedic tragedy. Onward we go!
and finally, I found a page on social media (Reddit) where they collect the dumb stuff americans say online. I spent the whole morning laughing while reading this.
https://old.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/
Orca-
Not sure what a 'dat' is, but what the hey. Meanwhile, do you know what Americans are doing, following the Prins-Shriver Paradigm? That's rt: beating off! So once we include this, we hafta speak of the Prins-Shriver-Berman Paradigm.
mb
I meant days, I still can't handle typing on a smartphone
Some more USAins in action. Check out the picture of your typical Usain “family values” male from Bible Beltland.
https://www.counton2.com/news/crime/50-year-old-ladson-man-found-in-bed-with-7-year-old-girl/
Some of them don costumes in wacky Frisco.
https://www.counton2.com/news/man-climbing-sfs-salesforce-tower/
And some of them remain anonymous while trying to kill somebody in one of our many daily road rages.
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/mans-car-catches-fire-after-seattle-road-rage-shooting/G5Y5QJ2PPNAUTJRPG3S57U6JYU/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Orca-
I like dat; as in the street expression, "True dat."
Meanwhile, I'm going to write out an address I'll give to the Dems in Nov., after they get creamed in the election. You guys might wanna store this in yr files, for Nov. 9.
"So, as predicted, you got yr asses handed 2u on a platter. From early on this year, Bill Maher, Elizabeth Warren, and I kept begging you: DON'T BEAT OFF. ACT NOW! So what did you do? You beat off. And now, yr completely in the shit. And what will you do in response, between now and Nov. 2024? Of course! You'll beat off. Why? Because it's all you guys know how to do. And between Trumpi's election and his cancelling of all future elections, declaring martial law, etc., what will you do? Why, you'll beat off.
"I'm honestly wondering if there is a stupider group of people in the world, than you guys. Choleira, we say in Yiddish."
I don' care what anyone says, Americans are great people:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/04/statue-native-american-ballerina-destroyed
Sing it! “The anger’s high, the bullets fly, deep in the heart of Texas!”
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/05/04/possible-road-rage-shooting-ends-in-2-vehicle-crash-in-southeast-houston-hpd-says/
Where to drive to in Georgia after firing shots at someone? A nail spa!
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/douglas-county/woman-shot-teen-face-during-road-rage-incident-then-went-get-nails-done-judge-says/UXZCZGPRYZEB7OPJOPHIZJKXRI/
But in Missouri you yourself may get shot while at a health spa.
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/road-rage-leads-to-gunfire-outside-south-st-louis-shopping-center/
Louisiana: A new hot spot for mass shootings & lawless college frats.
https://www.wafb.com/2022/05/03/5-people-shot-n-39th-street/
https://www.wafb.com/2022/05/01/police-investigating-street-racing-near-college-drive-saturday-night/
And it’s all only here in the great “exceptional” U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Joe-
I love the bit abt getting yr nails done after you shoot someone. It seems v. American, somehow.
Wafers-
Time to do a State of the Union report, I think, under the umbrella of the new Prins-Shriver-Berman Paradigm (PSBP).
Prins: We are in deep shit, and every day it's going to get deeper and shittier, to the end of time.
Shriver: Prepare for the war of all against all. In a decade or so, Americans will gun each other down in the street like dogs, as a reflex.
Berman: Anyone with political clout can be counted on to beat off. This is because Americans in general are not v. intelligent or effective, so all they can be expected to do, really, is beat off.
Summary: As far as the future of the country goes, it don' look so great.
mb
ps: I do, however, take some comfort in the fact that our armed services are in tip-top shape, and run by extremely intelligent people:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/04/politics/xavier-sandor-parents-cnntv/index.html
More grist for the 2nd Civil War mill? It is truly something to see the apoplectic response of "the left" to the impending overturning of Roe v Wade. Here come some strongly worded statements!!! Oh no!! Look out, fascists, here comes an official document from the office of...:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/3/2095673/-Statement-from-Obama-on-the-draft-Supreme-Court-decision-to-overturn-Roe-v-Wade
Ya know, with towering figures like these, I'm sure everything will be just fine and dandy...
Don't get me wrong - I am horrified about what's coming...but that's what happens, Dems, when you continue to enable the fascists and zealots that comprise the GOP. They will have their theocracy, or they won't have anything at all. You would think that January 6 would have taught the Dems something, but alas...
DTE
Dio-
Like you, I dunno who 'the left' is, but I do know that their idea of fighting is to issue strongly worded statements; in a word, to beat off. It's quite amazing, that the right knows how to organize, alter voting rights on a local level, accumulate weapons, and in general, get what they want, and 'the left' doesn't know shit.
mb
For intelligence, you hafta go *outside* of the US:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/04/brazil-lula-zelenskiy-blame-war
Here's a recent documentary on the use of lead in the 20th century. It far surpasses what the Roman Empire did. This is likely one of the most important factors of collapse of society (lead poisoning caused mass stupidity). Why all these people & corporations aren't considered the greatest enemies of humanity, I don't know.
https://youtu.be/IV3dnLzthDA
I wonder if alien beings have already surveyed this planet to find
the danger of arriving in America for a visit. They will probably
wait a few decades until it and most of the rest of the world have
passed into dead junk heaps.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/revealed-why-aliens-haven-t-175238797.html
Evidence for the Prins argument:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/05/politics/biden-economy-analysis/index.html
When I think of what's gonna happen to the Dems in Nov, I shudder.
mb
Wafers-
It's called karma. Almost to a person, Americans were enthusiastic about the capitalist-consumerist way of life. They loved radical individualism, and shunned any form of socialism or even social cooperation. They cheered our imperialistic wars (until we began to lose them), and their idea of spirituality was organized religion, which actually avoids dealing w/the human condition. Well, they reaped what they sowed; the results are now in:
On the Prins level: increasing economic immiseration, i.e. being ground into the dirt.
On the Shriver level: the war of all against all, as frustrations bring Americans to the point of randomly killing each other.
On the Berman level: nothing they can do about it now, beyond beating off.
This, folks, is known as karma.
mb
Is there no upper limit to American stupidity?:
https://www.tamilbloggers.xyz/u-s-refuses-to-invite-cuba-to-summit-of-the-americas-in-los-angeles/
I'm not sure how many here are familiar with the nextdoor website, which amounts to social media for neighborhoods and close by neighborhoods. If you want a glimpse into the USA, just read the newsfeeds. Infighting; fake friendliness; "patriotism"; thinly veiled racism; gossip; and over charged consumerism. It's all there and more. Karens abound I tell ya! I guess you need to be a resident of the neighborhood to subscribe. However, someone runs a twitter account that displays some of the more ridiculous posts from the site: https://twitter.com/bestofnextdoor?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Case Studies in US "exceptionalism"--Atlanta 'Pedal Pub' (vehicle that rides around a city with drunk schmucks in it--what could go wrong?!) crashes due to intoxicated driver injuring 15.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/pedal-pub-crash-atlanta-driver-dui/85-35477f5e-91e1-4ee1-841a-0d35c5619398
Schmiden delivering war cheerleading at an Alabama missile factory (missiles are present in the background) states Ukrainians are naming their kids Javelin and Javelina after the USian missiles that will give them "freedom."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-gTEzpncao
Dr. Shit-
Metaphorically speaking, Schmiden is driving a pedal pub, and it's crashing.
mb
Dear Dr. Berman,
The election of two presidents, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, not by a POPULAR election, but by the Electoral College, has made the many unfounded wars and the Supreme Court challenge to Roe possible.
What a terrible consequence of an attempt by the Floundering Fathers to prevent the tyranny of the many, (as commonly referred to as democracy) making instead a tyranny of the few.
The Empty States are over-represented.
There are 50 Senators in Congress from the 25 least populous states, the population of which totals about the same as two, California and Illinois combined, that have only four Senators.
CNN on Monday night claimed that the five justices in favor of overruling Roe were Bush 43 appointee Alito, Bush 41 appointee Clarence Thomas, and three Trump appointees (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett), while Chief Justice Roberts, appointed by Bush 43, is prepared to uphold the constitutionality of Mississippi's abortion law without overruling Roe.
The problems with America are much greater than this, but the flyspeck problem of this terrible Constitution, can only add to the impending finality of the collapse.
Glenn-
Well said, but in future pls watch length: 20% less wd be just abt rt. Thank you.
mb
Wafers-
So let's talk abt Russia. There is a Russian word, poshlost, that is hard to translate, but it includes kitsch, vulgarity, immorality, and spiritual bankruptcy. When I think of America, I see it as the land of poshlost.
Where is the American Pushkin/Dostoevsky/Tolstoy? Where is the American Tchaikovsky/Rimsky-Korsakov? Sure, we have Melville and Leonard Bernstein, but this is not in the same league, I don't think. What have we ever been, but a business civilization? And the result, is poshlost. (And, one might add, lost.)
mb
Glenn - take it to a political blog. You seem to be arguing in favor of centralized control. I don't care about the moral issues around this, but the unintended consequences of reproductive control mixed with a hustling business environment is not a good mix. Children are now a kind of luxury good for the elites, with middle income people choosing to be DINKs, and poor people having kids & getting on welfare. A lot of people choose abortion & birth control out of duress and desperation (middle incomes choose it to increase their bank account), because it doesn't make sense to have kids. This is another sign of our failed society. Dropping birth rates worldwide aren't due to education; but due to duress of the pressures of global industrial life. People choose to be DINKs these days to enjoy vacations & consumer goods.
DINK-
1st of all, this *is* a political blog. Glenn came to the rt place. 2nd, your reply to him is a non sequitur; it has very little rel. to what he posted, as far as I can see. 3rd, Glenn provided a lot of data for his argument; you provided none at all. In short: it's you, I think, that needs to find a different blog. Best of luck.
mb
Here's a good article about the coming of a multipolar world, the rise of China and Russia is already here. Here the author asks the question, will the US survive such a world? And his answer is a conditional 'yes'. But we know better, multipolar world or not there is no escape to the empire from its eclipse as the roots of the demise ardeeper in the economic system.
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/the-dollar-system-in-a-multi-polar-world
Well, impatience certainly is in the DNA of USAins.
https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/chicago-united-passenger-climbs-wing-plane-arrested-report
Maybe they also think they can hop a free ride on the wing of a plane and cool off by taking off their clothes in the process. LOL!
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/intoxicated-man-jumps-fence-at-midway-airport-attempts-to-stop-small-jet-cpd
At least the decline of the USA is entertaining.
Orca-
It will survive like England: a 5th-rate power.
mb
More from the "now they've really done it" files with regard to Roe:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/4/2095990/-Tectonic-event-has-bent-the-arc-towards-Democrats-The-GOP-may-very-well-be-over
Oye vey...Look out for marches on Washington!!! Look out for the crocheted hats or whatever they'll be wearing this time...
The main page of "the left:" continuing to fail to understand the nature of the fanatics and fascists who don't give a damned about anything other than imposing their will on others.
It's all over but the shoutin' folks.
DTE
Dio-
Well, it's kinda fun, watching the country go to hell in a basket. Meanwhile, yes lots of marches and pussy hats and, in a word, vigorous beating off.
mb
ps: I'd like to pt out the advantages of the Berman paradigm. With the Prins paradigm, all you get is depression, as Americans are economically ground into the dirt. With the Shriver paradigm, you get an awful scenario, of Americans gunning each other down in the street like dogs. But with the Berman paradigm--a country beating off--you get laffs, genuine entertainment. Let me give you an example.
Rabbi Lerner of Tikkun Magazine recently posted an article saying "shame on you!" to the Supreme Court. This is a classic example of the left's idea of political action, or power. The SC cd care less abt being shamed, because it has no shame, and unlike Lerner, it understands what real power is all abt. Lerner is a v. smart guy; he's also a total moron. My friends, I just can't help it: this is funny!
mb
Wafers-
April was the 16th anniversary of this blog. Kinda hard to believe. For those of you who have been here over the yrs, you know how much I love Shakespeare. So quick, and no consulting Google: in what play do these lines appear:
"Then come kiss me sweet and twenty
Youth's a stuff will not endure."
Ahhh...
mb
A footnote to Glenn's comment: see maps #6 and #24 to show how things
could work once there's a fire in Washington D.C. and a state of
emergency requires one-man absolute rule, as it did for Hitler.
https://www.boredpanda.com/interesting-maps-graphs/?utm_source=leenks&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic
Dio: This article gets some things right, at least it points out that class, not right vs. left is the primary abortion issue.
https://newrepublic.com/article/166313/end-roe-wade-motivate-democrats
as usual the pretend (read: rich and white) lefties and feckless corporate Dems (all of them) will do nothing but beat off while wearing pussy hats.
from the article: "Nothing in recent years better illustrates erroneous mainstream interpretations of Roe than the ubiquity of cloak-and-bonnet costumes at pro-choice demonstrations. The outfits invoke the classic novel and TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, which imagines a dystopia that relegates women to incubator status. Suffice it to say that the overwhelmingly white professional-class women who don these costumes don’t inhabit a country on the verge of becoming a theocracy or even a patriarchy, but an oligarchy—the harms of which they’ll be relatively spared from."
Hi Dr. B - I believe that is from “Twelfth Night.” One of his loveliest plays, I might add.
Capt.-
Bingo!
Cel-Ray-
More beating off! It's the Berman Paradigm.
mb
Interesting chat by Gonzalo Lira regarding what the US empire exports to the world and if the US disappeared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrV1SwwQV8s
Dio-
Post only once every 24 hrs, thanks.
mb
Wafers-
I've been thinking abt the Berman Beat Off Paradigm, and realize I've been taking too much credit. The paradigm actually belongs to Christopher Lasch, in his 1979 bk, "The Culture of Narcissism." What he said was, During the 60s the left found out that it was powerless to make any significant changes. After all, it envisioned a very different type of society: not capitalist, consumerist, imperialist, warmongering, and so on. The crucial chg it wanted to make was in the relations of power, and in that, it failed miserably. So (said Lasch), not being able to alter the things that mattered, it turned its energy toward things that didn't: the campaign against smoking, for example. Of course, it's better that Americans don't smoke, altho lengthening lives that are basically empty and meaningless may not be so great an achievement. But the pt is that nonsmoking has 0 to do w/rels of power. The left wanted real power (intercourse); instead, it shifted to symbolism (beating off). This is why I say that Lasch, not I, is the real patron of the Beating Off Paradigm. What wd he have thought of pussy hats? I shudder to think.
Anyway, I think we have been at a level of beating off that we might call Lasch I. We are now moving toward Advanced Beating Off (ABO), or Lasch II. And of course, along w/that come the Prins Paradigm and the Shriver Paradigm, to make life a living hell. The response, ultimately, will be Lasch III. You can imagine what that will consist of.
mb
In a misguided effort to enhance economic productivity, Nicolae Ceausescu decreed in 1966 that Romania would develop its “human capital” via a government-enforced mandate to increase the country's population. Ceauşescu, Romania's leader from 1965 to 1989, banned contraception and abortions and imposed a “celibacy tax” on families that had fewer than five children. State doctors—the menstrual police—conducted gynecologic examinations in the workplace of women of childbearing age to see whether they were producing sufficient offspring.
Don't let the Supreme Court see this.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tragedy-leads-study-severe-child-neglect/
Hopefully this will not be next on the agenda of US Governmental Idiocracy.
Wafers, for today I am going to stay away from the news about the dead empire. Instead here is a beautiful japanese-soviet film By Kurosawa. The film reminds me of the subject matter of 'Wandering God'. I found it on youtube with english subtitles.
https://youtu.be/2EWdAnJsfdc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_(1975_film)
It is good to enjoy something nice once in a while away from the news of buffoonery and mass shooting.
Orca-
One of my favorites, actually. The final scene, of Dersu watching an American sitcom on TV, is too perfect.
mb
Only here in the land of exceptionalism with its nonpareil champion political party of “family values”:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/06/indiana-andrew-wilhoite-charged-murder-republican-primary
Doctor, You mentioned George Carlin jokingly asking: “Where do you think our leaders come from? Mars?” Maybe he should have said they come from a jail cell.
Joe-
Or from a buffoon factory. Check out the guy's face: This is the face of America. Why shdn't he be on the Supreme Court, or in the W.H., I ask you?
mb
Two years after the US government handed out billions in loans to small businesses, evidence of a huge amount of fraud is coming to light:
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/shedding-light-paycheck-protection-program-loan-abuse
"These fraudsters lined their own pockets at the expense of taxpayer funds, taking roughly $80 billion in relief (10% of the total funds allotted for this program) before it could go to small businesses and their employees."
In a functioning, responsible country this would be a massive scandal, with official inquiries and resignations of high level politicians and bankers. In the US, it's barely being talked about.
Jason-
Check out Bill Maher's most recent show, "American Kleptocracy." We are corrupt down to our socks.
mb
The American government is a legalized criminal enterprise. I think the fbi destroyed the Italian mafias because it didn’t want competition. The US spent 8 trillion dollars on the war on terror for the past 20 years. But we still have terrorism in the world.
https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar
Mo-
Regarding yr assertion re: the FBI: any evidence?
mb
Dr.,
I am going to raise a possibility here, that while Prins is bang on with her assessment that further steady increases in misery are in the cards, a much quicker decline is a possibility due to the way the cards have falled. What Glenn mentioned is the vision of many fundamentalist Christians who want to give their god a “quiver full” of believers.
Abortion is the perfect issue to divide the USA into smaller “republics.” The fight is gone to the extreme:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/louisiana-bill-abortion-homicide-1347890/
The fundies think there has been a holocaust of American babies, the wealthy left of the coasts prizes autonomy over all else and will not submit readily to fundies. It is not a solvable problem either due to our crap political system. The abstract nature of the debate ushers in a medieval sort of crazy pointless debate that is mostly moral posture on both sides.
I worry for my family. Plenty of trouble brew on the horizon.
Regarding Glenn's Floundering Fathers - the recent RvW kerfuffle made me realise the irony that Ireland's constitution, written by a rightwing conservative catholic has produced a country that is LIGHT YEARS ahead of the US. Gay Marriage (achieved before US by direct referendum) and legal abortion (granted, only won a couple of years ago, but again by direct vote, and it CAN NOT BE OVERTURNED absent another ref., which the right know they'll lose, but by an even bigger margin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-fourth_Amendment_of_the_Constitution_of_Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-sixth_Amendment_of_the_Constitution_of_Ireland
Americans were head over heels when they won abortion & gay marriage by judicial sleight of hand. Well, what was won by sleight of hand can be lost by it, as it turns out.
Maybe next time have a right wing catholic prick write your con, and wait 70 years for the referendums to pass.
Wafers-
Let's summarize the US today:
-Economically, we are mired in corruption
-Socially, we are alienated in an every-man-for-himself value system and way of life
-Politically, we are hopelessly deadlocked, and possibly on the verge of civil war
-Culturally, we are characterized by poshlost, i.e., kitsch and vulgarity; we are a cartoon version of what a real culture is
-Militarily, we can't win a single war anymore, and our troops are committing suicide
-Psychologically, we are empty, brainwashed, and addicted to drugs of various sorts--techno-toys in particular
-And as individuals, we are an embarrassment; little more than a collection of buffoons
Have I left anything out?
mb
Spiritually we have Tulsism (and the workout videos), which is good I think.
Orca-
Of course; the problem is that most of the country has failed, so far, to embrace this key to salvation. Americans deny their Inner Tulsi, wh/has left them desolate, ships w/o a rudder. Americans need to get monetized, weaponized, digitalized, vulcanized, moronized, and above all: Tulsified.
mb
Check it out:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/07/i-yearned-for-a-deeper-slower-more-useful-existence-dispatches-from-the-great-resignation
Marilyn Monroe song and dance number "Heat Wave," from her movie "There's No Business Like Show Business," 1954. Slight modifications with apologies to Irving Berlin:
"We're having a buffoon wave
A tropical buffoon wave
The buffoonage is rising
It isn't surprising
This is America, after all."
MB is simply wrong about our military. I trust he'll be watching tv
for our next clear victory.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-proposed-launching-missiles-mexico-115824257.html
Rollo-
Why stop w/Mexico? There's also Kenya, New Zealand, Ecuador...
mb
MB: Interesting article about the so-called "great-resignation" unfortunately it's totally about rich people ... "I had a big house and gave it all up" for the simple life, how much $$ did you get from that house sale? Ben Short was an Advertising Creative Director who, let me guess left with a few hundred thou $$. Oh, yes easy to give it all up when you inherit the whole cabin and land. Oh I used to work at Apple and now am an executive director at Stanford, but no the $200,000 I make a year doesn't mean anything.
It isn't really the "great resignation" rather rich people who are perfectly fine working at home, while the low paid essential workers deliver their food to their front door:
https://qz.com/2150951/the-great-resignation-is-not-really-great-or-a-resignation/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/great-resignation-myths-quitting-jobs/620927/
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-pandemic-created-a-perceived-new-class-division-the-laptop-class-vs-everyone-else/
Sorry Dr. Berman if I seem snarky, I've been an essential worker this whole pandemic and the bullshit piled on by the laptop class who have no problem moving out to a cabin and paying for all their food, healthcare, etc. is rather deep.
The state I live in recently passed "hero pay" for pandemic frontline workers. My bosses son worked at an ICU during the whole thing, risking his life every day and he got the max payment ... $675. Thanks.
Bub-
Gd pt! Thanks for yr input.
mb
For today's topic I present to you: 'How to kidnap your kid legally'.
Seriously, you can pay a company to kidnap your offspring in the middle of the night causing them a life long trauma without any legal repercussions.
A culture needs to create the type of individuals that keep the culture alive, and America needs to create traumatised individuals to keep american (non)culture alive.
America is addicted to trauma, my hypothesis is that americans find value (an imaginary one à la Lacan) in being in the shit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_escort_company
Orca-
According to Wikipedia, this article is unreliable. But it is likely that we are wallowing in trauma. Bessel van der Kolk's bk, 'The Body Keeps the Score', is a best-seller, but I'm guessing very few readers will actually follow his suggestions regarding how to work thru trauma in their lives. They don't have a clue as to what 'healing' means. Probably less than 1% of Americans live in their bodies, and since they don't have much in the way of minds, in a certain sense they are practically nonexistent. A life of shadows, one might say.
mb
Glenn-
Sorry, cdn't run it. No links, no refs. You do understand how this blog works, yes?
mb
MB and Wafers,
Do see this video wherein Glenn Greenwald discusses all aspects of the $33 billion that's to go to support the war in Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pChC1JsvJAM
He mentions that while money for Ukraine was easy to come by from Congress, in the US 7 out of 10 Americans lives paycheck to paycheck. He also mentions that the military contractors have cut back on their lobbying efforts because the government is practically lobbying them to make more weapons and to make them faster.
What could possibly go wrong with this?
ccg-
Meanwhile, millions of Americans are running around sporting the Ukrainian flag. It's so perfect, how stupid Americans are, that they can't see thru all this, even when it's they who suffer. So after wasting trillions over 20 yrs in Afghanistan, which came to 0, the mil-ind complex needs a new locus for sucking up $, and finds it in a phony war in the Ukraine which will go on for years. At the end of which, as the WashPost did in its analysis of Afghanistan, we'll have a similar analysis, stating how the whole thing was bullshit. And then, we'll go on to another war, with the American public cheering it on. Remember the Lasch levels of beating off (see above)? I think we are now entering level III.
mb
ps: The crux of the problem is that America is a beat off culture, and therefore it cannot recognize beating off, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are now doing in the Ukraine, when it occurs. So we will eventually, probably, send trillions to the Ukraine--imperial overstretch, as did the Roman empire in. Suicide by our own hand. Who needs Trumpi, really? In terms of decline, Schmiden, who has the imagination of a rancid pumpkin, is doing a fine job. (His whole domestic program in tatters, all he can do is make diversity appointments and shift the country's attention to a phony war. Sit down and talk with the enemy? Who are u kidding? That wd be the opposite of beating off, i.e. intercourse with real results.)
The thing is, we have some cutting-edge female intellects to guide us, but only one of them is speaking up. Tulsi, Sarah Palin, and Marjorie, of course: where are your voices at this critical juncture? As for Kamala, she has explained that Russia is a big country, Ukraine is a small one, and that therefore what Russia did is wrong. A breakthru, 2b sure, but we need to hear from the other 3 as well.
Don't tell me we're not a great country. Don't tell me we don't know what we're doing.
mb
The action certainly is hot & heavy here in the Big Apple. For starters, I don’t know, Doctor? What do you think? Did they steal the vests because they despise Ukraine and are on Russia’s side? Are they instead going to resell them to make a quick underground economy capitalist buck? Or will they use them in armed robberies to protect themselves in case anyone shoots back?
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/nypd-searching-for-6-men-who-stole-400-bullet-proof-vests
A new gimmick to rob people: Drive by motorcycle jewelry heists.
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/man-on-motorcycle-wanted-for-snatching-jewelry-from-women
Or impersonate cops.
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/thieves-impersonate-cops-to-break-into-bronx-mans-apartment
NYC: Just a small microcosm of the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! and how this despicable society acts.
Joe-
Honestly, I cd use one of those.
mb
ps: I can't think of a more perfect example of beating off:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/08/politics/jill-biden-ukraine-visit/index.html
Well, maybe pussy hats, I dunno.
This author was clearly an early WAFer who obviously and wisely never
visited the USA. Imagine had he done so and watched tv for 24 hours
or listened to politicians speak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O9FFrLpinQ
Matt-
The narrator himself is pretty stupid; he doesn't know that in Italian, ci is pronounced chi. Hence, it's not Carlo Sipolla; it's Carlo Chipolla. He also says little is known abt the guy. Shit, I read Cipolla's bks yrs ago. All you hafta do is plug his name into Amazon. Hence, the narrator is a terrific illustration of what he is denouncing. An utter buffoon, who needs extensive slapping.
mb
Vey iz mir: Is there no end to beating off? Is there no upper limit?:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/08/world/zelensky-fleece-auction-fundraiser-trnd/index.html
Occasionally, commentators like Andrew Bacevich hit the Wafer nail on the head. This sweeping paragraph recently appeared in the American Conservative:
“To say that the nation’s political class, as embodied by the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties, fell short in devising remedies to these challenges would be a monumental understatement. Meanwhile, as if nothing were amiss, most ordinary citizens nourished their appetite for a way of life that prized mobility, choice, and unfettered consumption, with a side dish of celebrity.”
https://theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-divided-america-should-avoid-war-in-ukraine/
The only addition I would make to Bacevich’s “nourished their appetite” would be chicken sandwiches. In other words, the wool is the eyes. Or, to re-summarize in Wafer terms: ABO (Advanced Beating Off). I heard a radio ad during a recent baseball game urging everyone to visit their Chevy dealer and take “full advantage” during Truck Month. And so, the beat(ing) off goes on.
Sidebar: I haven’t commented much lately on the blog as my spouse and are still recovering from a bout with Covid in the last ten days of April, despite triple vaxxing. Still some congestion, but thankfully the coughing and fevers have been gone for more than a week. I look forward to better health here in Cascadia and seeing Evergreen’s spring 2022 enrollment figures.
Jack-
Very sorry to hear you are/were ill. I never got the vaccine, since I had a hard time believing it wd actually ward off the disease. But who knows? I cd still tank, like Evergreen. Am excited abt Truck Month, however.
mb
A mass shooting; road rages; and gun shots with children nearby. The deadly violent hot spot last week was New Orleans. Now it’s Atlanta! Where next? Is Las Vegas taking odds?
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/05/09/atlanta-condo-shooting-dead/4161652098229/
https://www.wsbtv.com/video/local-video/person-shot-road-rage-incident-brookhaven/39438a84-33eb-451b-a491-9f257eef7c50/
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/school-bus-shot-with-children-board-gwinnett/JGWGPV2MUFCH7KCTTBTGIE7ZUE/
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/police-shoot-man-who-opened-fire-group-children-bus-stop-northwest-atlanta/KSOBYOV5JVD4ZB3UURZE2R6SPQ/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
MB,
Well, I know of another example of beating off, at least in the sense of virtue signaling. A former student of mine is on the faculty of the Rochester Institute of Technology, and through him I learned that that institution is to award V. Zelensky an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Yep, he's hell bent on keeping the war going, no doubt at the behest of his US puppet masters, so let's give him a doctorate in humane letters and ignore the slaughter of his countrymen. As my former student said to me, this is industrial strength virtue signaling. He tells me that flags of Ukraine are all over the place up there in Rochester, at least in the wealthy suburbs.
On the other hand, last night I came across a Congressional hearing (must have been on C-Span) on the topic of US nuclear preparedness amid the war in Ukraine. Yes, these fools are apparently thinking the unthinkable.
ccg-
"We would rather be ruined than changed."--W.H. Auden
mb
O surely not:
https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/2022-pulitzer-airstrikes-gone-wrong
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/06/politics/uss-george-washington-conditions/index.html
Conditions on this navy aircraft carrier were so bad some sailors prefer to sleep in their cars. They had a string of suicides within a week according to the article.
The US spends so much on its military but clearly doesn't value the average grunt in the armed forces. Much more important that the CEO of Raytheon puts $20 Million a year in his pocket.
Subtitle this, "Money Kills!" With money the masses feel that one will
always be happy, have endless good friends, will be irresistible to
women, and, most importantly, be immortal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM20eUDP6GE
This is absolutely horrific.
Parents are unable to feed their babies.
The government must act, it's time to send $40 billion to Lockheed Martin.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/10/us/baby-formula-shortage.html
The Illinois State Police (ISP) is donating more than 3,000 pieces of protective equipment, including body armor, ballistic face shields, and ballistic helmets to help the Ukrainian citizens enduring the Russian invasion.
https://capitolfax.com/2022/05/10/illinois-state-police-donating-expired-protective-equipment-to-ukraine/
Gun homicides increased 35% across the country [USA] during the first year of the pandemic to the highest level in 25 years, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/gun-homicides-spiked-35-year-pandemic-cdc/story?id=84593945
Send this body armor, ballistic face shields, and ballistic helmets to Americans, not Ukrainians, because charity begins at home.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Right idea, wrong target dept.:
https://www.wbtw.com/news/national/florida-woman-threw-bucket-of-urine-in-mans-face-in-dispute-police-say/
Miles
ps:
Wafer T-shirt idea:
Front: Save Your Urine
Back: Donate To Wafer Shower Committee (WSC)
Jeff-
This is truly wonderful. Whenever urine gets flung, I get excited. But what was she doing w/a bucket of the stuff in her bathrm? Did she actually fling cold urine? That's disgusting. Meanwhile, check out her face: brr. The face of America. The chicken poop is a nice touch (she probably wanted a sandwich instead). I'm also a big proponent of flung dung.
mb
Action! Action! We want action! C-A-R!,,, G-U-N!
https://www.wral.com/arrest-made-in-road-rage-shootout-in-north-raleigh/20277406/
https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/multiple-shots-fired-vehicles-rammed-in-woodbridge-road-rage-incident/article_f144be86-d15b-11ec-8903-c33c8dc0c9e1.html
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/georgetown-man-road-rage-grandson-shot-traffic
What a great society! U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
"Nabokov may have been a great success at mastering the nuances of English and navigating the U.S. publishing industry, but he had deep scars from his forced nomadic life." On Vladimir Nabokov's 'Pnin.' https://themillions.com/2017/03/did-vladimir-nabokov-write-the-great-refugee-novel.html
Robbin-
It's actually quite funny, esp. if you went to Cornell. I missed him by 4 years. "Lolita," of course, is also gd (whose royalties got him out of teaching).
mb
Hello Mr. Berman,
Strong and brave cops ! ... They handle the situation so calmly...
and this fucking country wants to spread peace and democracy around the world... shithole and joke of a nation...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10806857/Cop-shoots-elderly-woman-dementia-dead-doorway-New-Mexico-home.html
Nam-
The thing is, he was armed, and he gunned her down like a dog. Which is what a true American would do. True Americans are armed, weaponized, and have very short fuses. So perhaps some admiration is due here.
mb
Wafers-
Endless Hustling...What shitheads Americans are. I sometimes like to have Chopin in the background, while I'm working. I like his Nocturne in E-Flat. It's only abt 4 mins, but there is a 1-hr version consisting of a repeated loop. Can the hustlers leave me alone w/Chopin for just an hr? No. Every 10 mins the loop is interrupted by an ad for something, always seeking $. Here's how to prevent diabetes; here's an app for doing better mathematics; here's a discount on a special penis enlargement cream--etc. It never ends. And to Americans, this is savvy, gd business. Why listen to Chopin w/o interruption, when you can order some piece of crap instead? How revolting these people are. There isn't enuf urine in the world...
mb
What can ya say, really?:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/12/baseball-volodymyr-zelenskiy-autograph-auction
More angry road rage from USAins. Up first your typical macho baldie.
https://www.wrtv.com/news/public-safety/gun-pulled-on-teen-during-alleged-road-rage-incident-on-indys-south-side
Where it all started with the making of these things: Detroit.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2022/05/13/stop-and-go-traffic-sparks-road-rage-dispute-in-oakland-county-shots-fired-through-back-windshield/
Then good old Texas of course.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/road-rage-on-the-rise-in-austin/
And let the anger in traffic congestion fly there among those Lone Star conservative nitwits in their pickup trucks when Don the Con arrives.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/expect-more-traffic-downtown-saturday-due-to-trump-event/
Dr. Berman, try using an ad blocker or Brave browser instead of google Chrome.
https://brave.com/
On another note, personally I am having a great week in a dying world. A quote by the frenchman Edgar Morin I lately heard gave me the closest thing to a spiritual experience (I cried when I heard it the first time). The best thing to describe the experience is that I felt home in a mysterious yet not mind defying world. I think I know now what Dr. Berman was trying to say writing about nomadic consciousness, not intellectually, but in the flesh. Maybe this quote touched me because I have a constant fear that everything can change in a harsh world. Anyways, I think some Wafers might like it or like the one who said it whome I recommend reading.
"We are at the end of a cosmic wing, pushed into and by an adventure that is beyond us.
We are possessed by myths, gods, ideas... Our thought only comes to life at the temperature of their own destruction.
I'm shrouded in mystery, I feel like I'm walking in darkness, surrounded by galaxies of fireflies that both hide from me and reveal to me the darkness of the night."
I don't know where the quote is from exactly as I found it in a song that used a clip of the guy speaking (in french, which I'm glad I can speak it fluentluy).
https://youtu.be/hMfNmbXHmWk
I might have become a buddha, who knows? The dead empire did not steal that from us yet.
Joe-
Post only once every 24 hrs, por favor. Thanks.
mb
Jimmy Carter asks court to defend Alaska’s ‘unrivaled wilderness':
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-09/jimmy-carter-asks-court-to-defend-alaskas-unrivaled-wilderness?_amp=true
Compare to Obama & Biden:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/12/alaska-oil-drilling-lobbying-obama-213442/
Francis-
Check out the sections on Jimmy in DAA and WAF. Jimmy is the real McCoy; Obama and Biden are trash, typical garbage of our political establishment. The theme of WAF is that historically speaking, decency, integrity, and intelligence got marginalized; wh/is why America failed, and is going under as we speak. Shit, what cd be more obvious? Does any Wafer believe that there will come a time when the issues discussed on this blog will be at the center of our national dialogue? Answer: when pigs fly.
mb
On the other hand, declinists can enjoy a vigorous collapse of the country:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuVNzCnD8uA
So here's more evidence of the collapse that's underway: 10 people shot and killed at a supermarket in Buffalo. This appears to have been racially motivated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/14/buffalo-shooting-grocery-store-tops/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_news__alert-national&
Bigoted morons and guns. What could possibly go wrong?
ccg-
While Americans gun each other down in the street, like dogs, the president foments a phony war in the Ukraine. Every day, the disintegration of the country deepens, and appears to be more obvious. One wonders if Trumpi wd try to send $40 billion over there to fight Russia. Turns out, the # of GOP opposed to this folly is growing. The Dems, of course, are in lockstep stupidity.
mb
“Moscow” ( oops, now it’s “Mariupol” ) Mitch meets with Zelensky to discuss defending—of course the favorite USAin word—“freedom”. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and the other war profiteers from the military-industrial complex must be salivating.
Of course, not only Cornyn, Collins, Barrasso, and other Repugs want to assist the Turtle Face from Kentucky in helping the war profiteers. Pelosi, Schiff, and other Dems, including Barbara Lee, the lone dissenter on the 2002 Iraq War, have lent a hand.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/05/14/mcconnell-leads-delegation-senators-meet-zelensky-ukraine/3751652551745/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Wafers-
Check out 'Cruel Britannia' in the April 4 issue of the New Yorker, on the work of historian Caroline Elkins, exposing the brutality of the British empire. She won the Pulitzer, yrs ago, and is a courageous and brilliant scholar. Implication is that England may have been more cruel and violent than the Nazis.
mb
More US empire "exceptionalism"-- A USAian went into Hair World Salon and fired multiple rounds into staff.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/there-may-be-a-link-to-hate-dpd-chief-garcia-now-says-about-korean-salon-shooting/287-c462eb4d-bf02-40b4-8da4-17a94bba6166
Perhaps, the Europeans and other vassals should take note, this is The Shithole that you worship.
Wafers-
You know how I often pt out that hi-IQ Americans are typically dumb as shit. A gd example occurs in the April 4th New Yorker, an essay by Andrew Solomon on the fact that child and teen suicides have been skyrocketing. He asks, "Where are we going wrong?", and never answers it. The article is heavy on stats and individual case studies; the only time it attempts sociological analysis is with respect to the black community, and it's pretty superficial; he doesn't go very far with it. As for white suicides, or Latino suicides, he says 0 at all, and also 0 abt the suicide rate in general--i.e., what this escalating rate says abt American society as a whole. He never shines a light on the nature of that society, and on how our values and way of life are killing our children. I don't know who Solomon is, but I can tell you he is iconically stupid for all of America, which lives in a fog of clueless denial regarding just abt everything. Just how hip is the New Yorker, now in the ranks of the rah-rah-Ukraine majority (99% of the country), and publishing this mindless essay? *This* is the acme of journalistic sophistication in America? There really is no hope for this blind, fucked-up country, where the intellectual elite is as clueless as anyone else.
mb
Orca-
Sorry, cdn't run it. You provided no links or refs.
mb
Eggs? What abt feces?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/15/margaret-thatcher-statue-grantham-egged-within-hours-of-it-being-installed
I've noticed what seems like an extreme rise in competitive youth sports & gaming in the US since 1990. Rather than sport as casual recreation, it has come to dominate some families, where they're spending 3-5 hours a day and $10k+ per year on high school sports, traveling to other states regularly for games. I've noticed this has happened too with video games, whereas it was more casual in the 1980s, today there is an extremely competitive environment for winning. I think this is more of a sign of the collapse of the US where hustling & winning dominates everything.
https://www.pitjournal.unc.edu/article/competitive-youth-sports-and-rise-overuse-burnout-and-career-ending-injury
Re: the New Yorker Andrew Solomon article. Forgive me for being crass again Dr. Berman but who is he writing for? An elite, mostly white and rich reader. Therefore superficially (on paper and in public) guilty about their rich and white identity. The article from it's very beginning is richy-rich WASP NYC bullshit. Oh, my same-sex marriage son knows this kid who jumped off a building. Notice how careful he was to say how smart and athletic this kid was, yet a bully.
Poor kid, Trevor had tech-crap as the top 5 or 6 on his wish list.
Also notice there is not a single word about COVID lockdown, closing school or anything of the sort which has turned out to be an utter disaster for nearly all kids (sorry no link right this second, but I have 3 teacher in the family).
Is this really what the 1% and laptop class is reading? God help us all...
Well, things continue to decline apace in the land of opportunity, and those who can afford it are looking to purchase a second passport to somewhere safer. The amount of applications have gone up 300% over the last two years. The second passports don't come cheap. People are paying hundreds of thousands. Gravitas lays it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnuMAF0SaL0
One can only expect the prices to rise as demand continues to grow. That's the beauty of the free market.
Cel-
Sure, but even the white elite might want to know *why* the suicide rate has skyrocketed, i.e. if they have half a brain. He starts out by asking, Where have we gone wrong?, and then provides no further exploration of this question. The answer can't lie in individual psychology; it hasta be sociological, i.e. probe the nature of American society. No interest in *that*, quite obviously. That the society's values are all screwed up, that everything is hustling and competition, that other kids are rivals rather than friends, that the society is spiritually empty and provides no meaning in life, or any meaningful goals for its children--oh, clearly all of that can be ignored. Obviously irrelevant. (Check out the post by gaming for a single example.)
mb
Hello Dr. Berman,
I hope that you are well.
I submit to you another example or source of "where do they come from?"
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-education-threats/
I had a manager that used to keep a small cardboard box filled with some gravel that he gathered from the outskirts of our parking lot. He always likes to say the most people are about as dumb as a box of rocks.
Perhaps that is why I feel like I live in a quarry.
Peace,
Vince
I found this talk with Stephen Krotkin to be fascinating. "The only real threat to America is America." He disagrees with Mearsheimer, certainly a different point of view. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylaC0MUleZs
I'm not sure I agree with him, but has a lot of interesting stuff to chew on.
Baron-
His name is Kotkin. Attachment to the Hoover Institution marks him as hawkish on US foreign policy. Also somewhere on YouTube, there is a clip of Mearsheimer answering his critics, but it may not include Kotkin.
Vince-
No one can say Americans aren't gracious and charming.
Joe-
Please post once every 24 hrs, not more frequently. I appreciate yr enthusiasm, but note that I can't keep reminding you of this.
mb
Orca-
Sorry, cdn't run it. We have a half-pg-max posting policy on this blog. Pls cut down by a third and re-send. Thank you.
Wafers-
Returning to the topic of Hi-IQ morons, in the past I've indicated that Francis Fukuyama certainly belongs high up on the list. Let me talk about his latest bk, "Identity." Actually, I recommend it: it's a pretty decent analysis of how we got into the political mess we are in, and the role of identity politics in all this. The only doubt I have at this pt is that he claims that Hegel's central argument is that history is driven by the struggle for recognition. This is not my understanding of Hegel at all, and it looks to me like Fuku has 'redone' Hegel so that he appears to be a supporter of Fuku's thesis. However, leaving Hegel aside, the book runs for 200 pp., and the 1st 180 are pretty good, imo. Then comes the last 20. Oy vey, when will American scholars stop doing this? Take me now, O lord.
A responsible historian, sociologist, political scientist, etc. does not tell the reader what we should do to fix things, or what we must do, because History is not going to pay any attention to these 'instructions'. It will go its own way, and the responsible scholar focuses, instead, on what is likely to happen, given present circumstances and tendencies. Getting into 'should' and 'must' is simply beating off, and this is what Fuku does in the last 20 pages. It's what I have called Lasch III level of beating off.
1st of all, when you tell us what we must do (to fix things), who the hell is this 'we'? Is it a cadre of high-powered intellectuals (read: idiots) pontificating from the heights of elite institutions?
2nd, how are 'we' going to effect these grand (and grandiose) changes? By publishing position papers in academic journals? That's sure to work! By sheer acts of will? By hiring the Army to enforce mass changes in behavior, and gun down those who won't comply like dogs, in the street? Last sentence of bk: identity, in the end, "will be the remedy for the populist politics of the present."
My ass. The man is brain damaged. What cd be a better illustration of beating off, than the conclusion of this bk? The sheer stupidity of Fukuyama, side by side with his solid analysis and great erudition, is breathtaking. A hi-IQ dunce.
mb
I can't help it: I love Americans:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/16/arbys-washington-urinating-milkshake
Dear Dr. Berman,
You spoke at Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle some years ago and the recording of that event was played on Alternative Radio.
One of the many fine points you made that day is like this one from today's post :
"1st of all, when you tell us what we must do (to fix things), who the hell is this 'we'? Is it a cadre of high-powered intellectuals (read: idiots) pontificating from the heights of elite institutions?"
For those who like to hear you speak, you are in my opinion in top form in this Alternative Radio podcast.
I couldn't find a link to your podcast on Alternative Radio, but I do have a copy of the podcast (copyright considerations?) I could send to you.
And many of your fine books are available at:
www.elliottbaybook.com/search/site/morris berman?page=1
You constantly see it. For this topic, no introduction is needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFL5NoM9GVE
Zig-
"gegen Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens"--Schiller
Glenn-
I don' need the podcast, thanks, but am a bit disapp'ted that that Seattle lecture is not available online.
Meanwhile, actual wisdom from our gal Tulsi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdl__Ul4mw4
mb
Biden is sending forces back to Somalia. Hey we lost Afghanistan now let’s try Somalia. The elites in this country never seem to learn from their mistakes.
https://www.newsweek.com/why-joe-biden-sending-us-troops-somalia-1707339
Forget Burning Man — Psychedelic Shamans Now Heading to Davos
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-05-16/forget-burning-man-psychedelic-shamans-now-heading-to-davos
Capitalism swallowing EVERYTHING..
Dear Dr. Berman and Wafer Glenn,
Thank you for the bookstore interview reference.
Is that bookstore interview whereby an USian dolt (redundant) persistently wanted and "action plan" to help "save" the US....He was frustrated with Dr. Berman basically saying it's over and there's no "rescuing" or "saving" the US-as what is there exactly to 'save?'
Another US clown who thinks some 11th hour rabbit out of hat, or if this, if that, we can do it bullshit..again, who's the WE?
Greetings MB and Wafers,
MB-
Many thanks for your review of Fuku's latest. At this point, it seems he is simply grasping as straws in order to find something redeemable in the American "Geist," so to speak. I'm puzzled by his take on Hegel as well. Didn't Hegel say that history is a vast slaughter-bench on which the lives and happiness of millions have been sacrificed? Seems pretty accurate to me. Also, a general look around at the American scene these days seems to confirm Hegel's most daring philosophical proposal: nothing seems stable, and that we are in the process of his dialectic of history. The tensions and strains w/in American life playing out on a daily basis have become so great that nothing makes any real sense anymore and is propelling us toward a collapse. Things are breaking down and falling apart rather quickly around here. Hegel's idea that something new will emerge from the cultural rubble of people living thru the American breakdown seems fairly plausible, but I think he would hafta agree w/us that American life more or less lost its way some time ago. What would Hegel make of Freddie Wadsworth, for instance? I worry that most, if not all, Americans are now so hopelessly stupid that they are incapable of fashioning some kind of positive renewal out of breakdown anymore. It's a sticky wicket for sure.
Miles
Jeff-
My understanding of Hegel is that he believed the driver of history was mind, or consciousness, becoming aware of itself. (A good topic to debate if yr a freshman at some college and stoned out of yr gourd, around midnite.) Fuku's failure to become of aware of himself wd suggest problems w/Hegel's argument.
Glans-
The one yr referring to took place in Charlottesville VA. The guy was enraged, stormed out, then wrote an article in the local paper claiming that I was in it for the money, because 'pessimism sells'. Yeah, right: in America, pessimism sells bigtime. I only slowly became aware of how stupid Americans are.
Cranium-
In 1999 I got inside the CIA, under cover of giving workshops in writing. I discovered that the Agency had a New Age/new paradigm/shamanistic division. What *can't* capitalism absorb?
mb
MB, Glenn and others. I think you're referring to this lecture:
https://morrisberman.blogspot.com/2011/11/seattle-lecture.html
Alas the link is broken, but this is the link to the other lecture MB mentioned.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?304518-1/why-america-failed-roots-imperial-decline
This is quite competent at presenting all the symptoms, but that the
cause is some vague decline in moral values explains nothing. It is
supposed to suggest that a great moral effort will quickly return us
to those G O N E happy days of the 1950s. The sense of doom in many,
many videos on YouTube is proof that WAFerism is on the move.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAstndvxGVM
Greetings all, here’s the link:
https://tvw.org/video/authors-hour-2011111062/
to Dr. Berman’s talk at The Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle on Nov 13, 2011. Meanwhile, based only on Dr. Berman’s synopsis, Fukuyama’s rabbit-in-the-hat (Identity) is a rather silly wager. As if there’s going to be the emergence of some kind of inner-directed citizenship. Not in the US, that’s for sure: there’s can only be hustle if there’s bustle, I guess. Question: didn’t Adorno/Horkheimer show that this kind of “inner-directed” citizenship couldn’t (or wouldn’t) occur because it ignores the leveling function of mass culture (“enlightenment as mass deception” is the catchphrase or meme here, I think)? Therefore, the so-called ‘end of history’ is really a function of the “stalemate between the political and the social.”
https://www.versobooks.com/books/970-the-hegel-variations
We have had a couple of more shootings the last few weeks in my small city of 25,000 people. This used to beca very rare thing, something you only heard about up in Dallas 50 miles north. The world is getting scarier and scarier. I hope there is no boogaloo, civil war, or whatever. I'm too old to fight and dont want to hurt anyone or get hurt.
Roland-
At last! Many thanks.
mb
On the sheer stupidity of what America is doing:
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/05/16/patrick-lawrence-the-new-iron-curtain/
Thank you kindly Dr. Berman for the consortium news citation
Please delete note below if you feel inappropriate.
Anecdote: Having lived and worked in Europe for many years, I had moderate hope for more nuanced and serious thinking from Europeans (not typical US empire Manichean "thinking").
It appears in general, Europe and its' leaders are acting as US colonies--lackies. Many European friends believe whatever is coming out of Washington/MSM without any critical thinking, nor examining consequences.
"Biden is a nice man..." "Putin bombs places..." is the level of discourse in my experience. If I respectfully discuss the history in brief of that region (e.g., US-backed coups, Nuland/Kagan, NATO, etc.), I get: "there you go again, hating America with dismissive eye-rolls." They appear like Americans, and just not interested in reality.
Also, I have lost count of the # US flags all over Europe. Many in places of non-US (war) significance; including, mairies, communs, beaches, lakes, parks, etc.
Dr. Shit-
I guess there really is no hope, eh?
mb
America is once again proving itself exceptional, this time in the numbers of traffic, pedestrian and cyclist deaths. Hell yes we're number 1. From the linked article:
"In fact, the United States is one of the only countries in the world that saw an increase in road deaths in 2020. The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group, which includes 34 developed countries, concluded that while the United States accounted for an increase in fatal crashes of 5.1% that year, the rest of its members combined saw a decrease of 19.2%."
https://www.route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2022/05/us-traffic-deaths-hit-highest-mark-over-15-years/367042/
Hey Doctor. Regarding Fukuyama, someone should show him this statistic on the mass shootings in this pathetic violent shithole. It verifies the long downward slope occurring here that you have mentioned. It goes back to 1966, more than 50 years in fact.
https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/deadliest-mass-shootings-modern-us-history
We can add Justin Bieber into the mix for explaining how we’ll pull the rabbit out of the hat. It’s too bad Fukuyama didn’t include Justin in his last 20 pages and how this millenial and his fans “can get to be the difference makers.” LOL.
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/justin-bieber-buffalo-supermarket-shooting-1235071281/
And in the “It Can Only Happen Here” in the Land of Exceptionalism:
https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/stevens-county/road-rage-ambulance-dui-stevens-county/293-3f02aa3b-912b-4c27-a3c5-f2fff7f577c5
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