Guest Post: Lies Across America

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform

Lies Across America

“Every single empire, in its official discourse, has said that it
is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it
has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and
that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy,
and that it uses force only as a last resort.” – Edward Said

The increasingly fragile American Empire has been built on a
foundation of lies. Lies we tell ourselves and Big lies spread by our
government. The shit is so deep you can stir it with a stick. As we
enter another holiday season the mainstream corporate mass media will
relegate you to the status of consumer. This is a disgusting term that
dehumanizes all Americans. You are nothing but a blot to corporations
and advertisers selling you electronic doohickeys that they convince you
that you must have. Propaganda about consumer spending being essential
to an economic recovery is spewed from 52 inch HDTVs across the land, 24
hours per day, by CNBC, Fox, CBS and the other corporate owned media
that generate billions in profits from selling advertising to
corporations schilling material goods to thoughtless American consumers.
 Aldous Huxley had it figured out decades ago:

“Thanks to compulsory education and the rotary press, the
propagandist has been able, for many years past, to convey his messages
to virtually every adult in every civilized country.”

Americans were given the mental capacity to critically think. Sadly, a
vast swath of Americans has chosen ignorance over knowledge. Make no
mistake about it, ignorance is a choice. It doesn’t matter whether you
are poor or rich. Books are available to everyone in this country. Sob
stories about the disadvantaged poor having no access to education are
nothing but liberal spin to keep the masses controlled. There are
122,500 libraries in this country. If you want to read a book, you can
read a book. The internet puts knowledge at the fingertips of every
citizen. Becoming educated requires hard work, sacrifice, curiosity, and
a desire to learn. Aldous Huxley  describes the American choice to be ignorant:

 “Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.”

It is a choice to play Call of Duty on your PS3 rather than reading
Shakespeare. It is a choice to stand on a street corner looking for
trouble rather than reading Hemingway. It is a choice to spend Black
Friday in malls fighting other robotic consumers for iSomethings, the
latest innovative, advanced TVs, flashy Rolexes, and ostentatious Coach
bags rather than spending the day reading Guns of August by
Barbara Tuchman, a brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning history of the
outset of World War I, which would provide insight into what could
happen on the Korean Peninsula. It is a choice to watch 6 hours per day
of Dancing With the Stars, American Idol, Brainless Housewives of
Everywhere, or CSI of Anywhere rather than reading Orwell or Huxley  and discovering that their dystopian warnings have come true.

 Conspicuous Consumption Conquistadors

Americans have chosen to lie to themselves. They have persuaded
themselves that buying stuff with plastic cards while paying 19%
interest for eternity, driving BMWs while locked into never ending
indecipherable lease schemes, and living in permanently underwater
McMansions bought with 0% down on an interest only liar loan, is the new
American Dream. They think watching the boob tube will make them smart.
They soak in the mass media hype, misinformation and lies like lemmings
walking off a cliff. Depending on their political predisposition, they
watch Fox or MSNBC and unthinkingly believe the propaganda that pours
from the mouths of the multi-millionaire talking heads who read
Teleprompters with words written by corporate media hacks. They tell
themselves that buying stuff on credit, giving them the appearance of
success as measured by the media elite, is actually success. This is a
bastardized, manipulated, delusional version of accomplishment.
Americans have chosen to believe the lies because the truth is too hard
to accept.

Becoming educated, thinking critically, working hard, saving money to
buy what you need (as opposed to what you want), developing human
relationships, and questioning the motivations of government, corporate
and religious leaders is hard. It is easy to coast through school and
never read a book for the rest of your life. It is easy to not think
about the future, your retirement, or the future of unborn generations.
It is easy to coast through life at a job (until you lose it) that is
unchallenging, with no desire or motivation for advancement. It is easy
to make your everyday troubles disappear by whipping out your piece of
plastic and acquiring everything you desire today. If your
brother-in-law buys a 7,000 sq ft, 7 bedroom, 4 bath, 3 car garage,
monolith to decadence for his family of 3, thirty miles from
civilization, with no money down and a no doc Option ARM providing the
funds, why shouldn’t you get in on the fun. It’s easy. Why sit around
the kitchen table and talk with your kids, when you can easily cruise
the internet downloading free porn or recording every trivial detail of
your shallow life on Facebook so others can waste their time reading
about your life. It is easiest to believe your elected leaders,
glorified mega-corporation CEOs, and millionaire pastors preaching the
word of God for a “small” contribution to their mega-churches.

Americans love authority figures who act as if they have all the
answers. It matters not that these egotistical monuments to folly and
hubris (Bush, Obama, Paulson, Geithner, Greenspan, Bernanke) have
committed the worst atrocities in the history of our Republic, leaving
economic carnage and the slaughter of thousands in their wake. The most
dangerous man on this earth is an Ivy League educated, arrogant
ideologue who believes they are smarter than everyone else. When these
men achieve power, they are capable of producing catastrophic
consequences. Once they seize the reigns of authority these amoral
psychopaths have no problem lying to the American public in order to
achieve their objectives. They know that Americans love to be lied to,
so the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed.

The current lie proliferating across the land of the free financing
and home of the debtor is that austerity has broken out across the land.
The mainstream media and the government, aided by various “think tanks”
and Federal Reserve propagandists insist that Americans have buckled
down, reduced spending, increased savings, and have embraced austerity.

Austerity – Circa 1932

 

Austerity – Circa 2010

 

They now proclaim that it is time to spend again. It is the patriotic
thing to do, just like defeating terrorists by buying an SUV with 0%
down from GM was the patriotic thing to do after 9/11. Defeating
terrorists by going further into debt was the brilliant idea of those
Ivy League geniuses Bush & Greenspan. Let’s critically examine the
facts to determine how austere Americans have become:

• Consumer credit outstanding is $2.41 trillion, the same level
  reached in early 2007, and up from $1.5 trillion in 2000. This is a 60%
  increase in ten years. Personal income has risen from $8.4 trillion to
  $12.6 trillion over this same time frame, a 50% increase. Americans have
  substituted debt for income in order to keep up with the Joneses. The
  mass delusion lives.  
• The MSM declares that the reduction in overall consumer debt from
  its peak of $2.56 trillion in 2008 to $2.41 trillion today proves that
  consumers have been cutting back and paying off debt. This is another
  media lie. Non-revolving debt, which includes car loans, education
  loans, mobile home loans and boat loans sits at $1.6 trillion, an
  all-time high matched in 2008. Credit card debt has “plunged” from $957
  billion to $814 billion, not because consumers paid down their balances.
  The mega Wall Street banks have written off $20 billion per quarter
  since early 2009, accounting for ALL of the reduction in credit card
  debt. Clueless consumers continue to charge at the same rate as the peak
  in 2008.
• Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt: $15,788
• There are 609.8 million bank credit cards held by U.S. consumers.
• The U.S. credit card default rate is 13.01%
• In 2006, the United States Census Bureau determined that there were
  nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those
  credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space – and be almost
  as tall as 13 Mount Everests.
• Penalty fees from credit cards added up to about $20.5 billion in 2009.
• The national average default rate as January 2010 stood at 27.88% and the mean default rate is 28.99%.
• Total bankruptcy filings in 2009 reached 1.4 million, up from 1.09
  million in 2008. Bankruptcies in 2010 are on pace to exceed 1.6 million.
   
• 26% of Americans, or more than 58 million adults, admit to not
  paying all of their bills on time. Among African-Americans, this number
  is at 51%. 

           Does This Look Like Austerity? Really?

 

This data clearly proves that austerity has not broken out across the
land of delusion. The billions in consumer loan write-offs by the Wall
Street banks that run this country have masked the fact that Americans
have not cut back on their spending habits at all. GMAC (taxpayer owned)
and Ford Credit continue to dish out car loans to anyone with a pulse
and a 600 credit score. The Federal Reserve and the FASB have
encouraged, if not insisted, that banks fraudulently value the
commercial real estate loans on their books. The Federal Reserve has
bought $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgage loans from the criminal Wall
Street banks at 100 cents on the dollar. The government’s corporate
fascist public relations firms then spread the big lie that the economy
is recovering and consumers should join the party and spend, spend,
spend.

If Americans were capable or willing to do some critical thinking,
they would realize that those in power have created the illusion of a
recovery by handing $700 billion of your money to the banks that created
the financial meltdown, spending $800 billion on worthless pork barrel
projects borrowed from future generations, dropping interest rates to 0%
so that the mega-Wall Street banks can earn billions risk free while
your grandmother who depended on interest income from her CDs edges
closer to eating cat food to get by, and lastly Ben Bernanke’s blatant
attempt to enrich Wall Street by buying US Treasury bonds in an effort
to make the stock market go up, while the middle and lower classes are
crushed under the weight of soaring fuel and food price increases that
exceed 30% on an annual basis. The illusion of recovery is not a
recovery. With a true unemployment rate of 22%, a true inflation rate of
8% and a real GDP of -1.5% (Shadowstats), we are in the midst of the Greater Depression. You are being lied to, but most of you prefer it.   

The Little Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know.” – M King Hubbert

When Jimmy Carter gave his malaise speech in 1979, Americans were in
no mood to listen. Carter’s solutions were too painful, required
sacrifice, and sought to benefit future generations. The leading edge of
the Baby Boom generation had reached their 30s by 1979, and the most
spoiled, pampered, egocentric generation in history could care less
about future generations, long term thinking, or sacrifice for the
greater good. They were the ME GENERATION. The 1970s had proven to be
tumultuous episode in US history. M King Hubbert’s calculation in 1956
that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s proved to be 100%
correct.

The Arab oil embargo resulted in gas shortages and economic chaos in
the U.S. Hubbert used the same method to determine that worldwide oil
production would peak in the early 2000s. If long term planning had been
initiated in the early 1980s, combining exploration of untapped
reserves, greater utilization of natural gas, development of nuclear
plants, more stringent fuel efficiency standards, increased taxes on
gasoline, and more thoughtful development of housing communities, we
would not now face a looming oil crisis within the next few years.
Instead of dealing with reality, adapting our behavior and preparing for
a more localized society, we put our blinders on, chose ignorance over
reason and pushed the pedal to the medal by moving farther away from our
jobs, building bigger energy intensive mansions, and insisting on
driving tank-like SUVs, Hummers, and good ole boy pickups. Kevin
Phillips in American Theocracy
explained that hyper-consumerism, fear, and inability to use logic have
left our suburban oasis lives in danger of implosion when the reality
of peak cheap oil strikes:  

 Besides the innate thirst of SUVs, some of the last quarter
century’s surge in U.S. oil consumption has come from Americans driving
more – some twelve thousand miles per motorist per year, up almost one –
third from 1980 – because they as a whole live farther from work. In
consumption terms, exurbia is the physical result of the latest
population redistribution enabled by car culture and the electorate that
upholds it.

Family values are central – if by this we mean having families
and accepting lengthy commutes to install them in reasonably safe and
well churched places. In the 1970’s such households might have been
fleeing school busing or central city crime; in the post – September 11
era, many sought distance from “godless” school systems or the random
violence and terrorist attacks expected to occur in metropolitan areas.

We willingly believe the lies espoused by the badly informed pundits
on CNBC and Fox   that if we just drill in Alaska and off our coasts,
we’ll be fine. The ignorant peak cheap oil deniers insist there are
billions of barrels of oil to be harvested from the Bakken Shale, even
though there is absolutely no method of accessing this supply without
expending more energy than we can access. Environmentalists lie about
the dangers of nuclear power, while shamelessly promoting the ridiculous
notion that solar, wind and ethanol can make a visible impact on our
future energy needs. Ideologues on the right and left conveniently
ignore the facts and the truth is lost in a blizzard of their lies. Here
is an explanation so clear, even a CNBC “drill baby drill” dimwit could
understand:

When oil production first began in the mid-nineteenth century,
the largest oil fields recovered fifty barrels of oil for every barrel
used in the extraction, transportation and refining. This ratio is often
referred to as the Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROEI).
Currently, between one and five barrels of oil are recovered for each
barrel-equivalent of energy used in the recovery process. As the EROEI
drops to one, or equivalently the Net Energy Gain falls to zero, the oil
production is no longer a net energy source. This happens long before
the resource is physically exhausted.

After the briefest of lulls when oil reached $145 per barrel,
Americans have resumed buying SUVs, pickup trucks, and gas guzzling
muscle cars. They have chosen to ignore the imminence of peak cheap oil
because driving a leased BMW makes your neighbors think you are a
success, while driving a hybrid would make your neighbors think you are a
liberal tree hugger. It boggles my mind that so many Americans are so
shallow and shortsighted. According to Automotive News, at the start of
2008 leasing comprised 31.2% of luxury vehicle sales and 18.7% of
non-luxury sales. This proves that hundreds of thousands of wannabes are
driving leased BMWs and Mercedes to fill some void in their superficial
lives.

I bought a Honda Insight Hybrid six months ago. It gets 44 mpg and
will save me $1,500 per year in gasoline costs. I put 20% down and
financed the remainder at 0.9% for three years. My payment is $450 per
month. I will own it outright in 2 ½ years. I could have leased a 2010
BMW 328i with moonroof, bluetooth, power seats with driver seat memory,
lumbar support, leather interior, iPod adapter, 17″ alloy wheels, heated
seats, wood trim, 3.0 Liter 6 Cylinder engine with 230 horsepower for 3
years at $389 per month. At the end of 3 years I’d own nothing. In 2 ½
years I’ll be able to put $450 per month away for my kids’ college
education and I’ll be saving more on fuel as gasoline approaches $5 per
gallon. The self important egotistical BMW leaser pretending to be
successful will need to hand over their sweet ride and move on to the
next lease, never saving a dime for the future. I’m sure they’ll make a
killing in the market or their McMansion will surely double in price,
providing a fantastic retirement.  

             Delusional                                   Practical

   

The delusion that cheap oil is a God given right of all Americans can
be seen in the YTD data on vehicle sales. Pickups and SUVs account for
48.5% of all sales, while small fuel efficient cars account for only
16.5% of all sales. Americans will continue to lie to themselves until
it is too late, again.

Americans are so committed to their automobiles, hyper-consumerism,
oversized McMansions, and suburban sprawl existence that they will never
willingly prepare in advance for a future by scaling back, downsizing,
or thinking. Our culture is built upon consumption, debt, cheap oil and
illusion. Kevin Phillips in American Theocracy
concludes that there are so many Americans tied to our unsustainable
economic model that they will choose to lie to themselves and be lied to
by their leaders rather than think and adapt:  

A large number of voters work in or depend on the energy and
automobile industries, and still more are invested in them, not just
financially but emotionally and culturally. These secondary cadres
included racing fans, hobbyists, collectors, and dedicated readers of
automotive magazines, as well as the tens of millions of automobile
commuters from suburbs and distant exurbs, plus the high number of
drivers whose strong self-identification with vehicle types and models
serve as thinly disguised political statements. In the United States
more than elsewhere, a preference for conspicuous consumption over
energy efficiency and conservation is a signal of a much deeper, central
divide.

M King Hubbert was a geophysicist and a practical man. He observed
data, made realistic assumptions, and came to logical conclusions. He
didn’t deal in unrealistic hope and unwarranted optimism. He knew that
our culture had become so dependent upon lies and an unsustainable
growth model based on depleting oil and debt based “prosperity”. He knew
decades ago that we were incapable of dealing with the truth:

“Our principal constraints are cultural. During the last two
centuries we have known nothing but exponential growth and in parallel
we have evolved what amounts to an exponential-growth culture, a culture
so heavily dependent upon the continuance of exponential growth for its
stability that it is incapable of reckoning with problems of
non-growth.” – M King Hubbert

Our country is at a crucial juncture. It is time for thinkers. It is
time for realists. It is time to deal with facts. It is time to drive
the ideologues off the stage. Are you tired of lying to yourselves? Are
you tired of being lied to by the corporate fascists that run this
country? It is time to wake up. Right wing and left wing ideologues will
continue to spew lies and misinformation as they are power hungry and
care not for the long-term survival of our nation or the unborn
generations that depend upon the decisions we make today. It is time to
see how we really are.

 “Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent
oneself from thinking. People intoxicate themselves with work so they
won’t see how they really are.” –   Aldous Huxley

Comments

[benb]

Just another useless feeder here but (IMO) the author , Jim Quinn  seems cynical enough alright but a little to heavy on the generalizations. Why put so much ‘blame’ or ‘accountability’ if you like on the brainless consumer? After all they are for the most part merely fulfilling their behavioral programming. The population has for the last two generations been deliberately dumbed down by design through public education, mass media control, and brain damaging chemicals purposely added to food and water. [And if one disputes that fact just do as the author states you are incapable of then go on the internet or pick up a book and read about it.] I agree that there are no more citizens as we have for the most part been morphed into consumer units. That this is all by design is something which seems to have escaped Quinn…

[Seer]

"After all they are for the most part merely fulfilling their behavioral programming."

EXACTLY!  I look around and tell myself "bad programming, bad! programming."

[NERVEAGENTVX]

@Timmay

"I say to each his own"

Your logic sure doesn't leave much latitude for the greater good.

[Timmay]

Sure it does, to the the greater good of me.  : )

BTW, most any BMW will kick the snot out of any mainstream production hybrid on the highway.

BMW joke: What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine? The Porcupine has pricks on the outside.

[Lndmvr]

I kinda remember it as " My family tree is a cactus and all my relatives are pricks"

[Wily Wonka]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbXPu8RnsqQ

The TRUTH!

[RobotTrader]

Perhaps the best thing I've read on ZH so far.

A completely accurate portrayal of the sheeple mindset today.

And I doubt anything is going to change anytime soon.

Consumer spending and reckless behavior will continue ad infinitum.

Financed and paid for by the:

- Perpetual Motion Machine

- Age of Infinite Fiat

- Ongoing "Wash, Rinse, Repeat" cycles.

All the gun toting perma-gloomers betting on a collapse of the financial system are fooling themselves.

[Shameful]

Oh it will collapse, but I can't see much sense in shorting the system and playing the normal game. As you so aptly put it the pigmen won't let the party stop just yet. I figure this game only ends when all the chips (or the overwhelming majority) are sitting in the pigmen pile and they can't sheer the sheep anymore. Then it's time for slaughter.

[benb]

I’d say the U.S. is being reconfigured into a Mexico. The collapse has been gradual thus far.  

[honestann]

This is one of the primary reason for the current hysteria at the FederalReserve to "create [more] inflation" (which is 8% ~ 10% already in non-jiggered terms, and rising).

Here is how that works.  As the real economy of the USSA decays to trashware status, the inflation rate increases slightly more than the decay.  Thus, in "nominal" dollar terms, the economy is "improving".

Thus, even as real quality of life goes squarely down the toilet, the predators-that-be can perform their usual jedi-mind-tricks, point to these totally bogus numbers, and say "we have made life better".

Unfortunately, too many people are stupid enough to believe overt crap even when it directly contradicts what they can see with their own eyes.

[Founders Keeper]

[All the gun toting perma-gloomers betting on a collapse of the financial system are fooling themselves.]---RobotTrader

I hope you're right, and we "gun toting perma-gloomers" are wrong.

Because, if we're right, all will go wrong.

[Wily Wonka]

Robo

Tell us what you really think! Your sarcasm is thick and your opinion in valued on ZH. So tell us how you see the next 5 years playing out!

[barroter]

To me, being in debt to "keep up with the Jones'" is a waste of your life.  What do you get? Perhaps  a pat on the head from ur "betters?"

So go lease that BMW, and never realize most people spend about one second out of sixty thinking about YOU anyway.

I kind of like the freedom you get by NOT being in debt. And if the neighbors adjudge me as unfit since I don't own 5 LCD tv's...screw 'em.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

@robottrader

"consumer spending and reckless behavior will continue ad infinitum"

Really? Not if the laws of physics and mathematics still apply!

There's only a free lunch available for so long, and sooner or later the piper has to be paid. Taking into consideration that the only thing keeping this country solvent right now are accounting gimmicks and a printing press, I'd say that piper is going to collect sooner rather than later. IMO it's only a matter of a tipping point before this economy is FORCED to rebalance itself.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

P.S. robot, I wasn't the one that junked you

[Auberon Herbert]

I was with you until you went off the deep end with the peak oil nonsense. The market works. As the price of oil rises uneconomic production methods become economic and investment flows into new production and exploration technology.

[CrashisOptimistic]

I'm not going to rant or pontificate.  I'm just going to ask you to research Canterell.  Google will find it for you.  I know you don't know what it is.  But go have a read about what technology is doing to solve all such issues and how more money invested takes care of it.

[Seer]

An unicorns will come and we'll all be saved!

1. Maintaining parallel systems is very, very hard, especially very big ones.

2. Economies of scale also works in reverse.

Thanks for play, I think...

[trav7777]

Gawd, just STFU already.

And Quinn with his peak "cheap" oil.  Oil does not know how much it costs

[NERVEAGENTVX]

LOL tim

[Timmay]

OH and Irony of Ironies, guess who helped deliver this Tripe of an article to the Zerohedge viewers? None other than your favorite corporate sponsor and ZeroHedge website advertiser....  B-M-W.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

"As the price of oil rises ... and investment flows into new production techniques"

Okay follow me...That's like saying that if you locked someone in a bank vault(sphereical planet) and supplied them with enough money ,technology, and incentive they could somehow materialize themselves a ham sandwich?

[NERVEAGENTVX]

WOW, I would highly recommend  Chris  martensons "crash course" to anyone who hasn't seen it yet @ chrismartenson.com. One of the most informative 3hrs you'll spend in front of a computer screen.

P.S. besides ZH of course

[Canaduh]

Hold my beer brah, I gotta take a Wikileak.

[Cardinal Fang]

We cannot learn from history because so little of it is factual.

Oil or otherwise, E still = mc² , peak oil is nary a blip in the vastness of entropy.

[Oh regional Indian]

An interesting, resonant essay by Paul Craig Roberts...

http://rense.com/general92/post.htm

ORI

[DavidPierre]

YOU Can't Handle the 9/11 Truth: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Explains.

http://vodpod.com/watch/4756837-you-cant-handle-the-911-truth-dr-paul-craig-roberts-explains-

[Adam Neira]

The truth will set everyone free but a famous line from "A Few Good Men" comes to mind...

"You can't handle the truth !"

Another good saying from a wise sage also befits the time...

"It doesn't matter what you think we will all know the truth and what is correct in the end !"

Guess what boys and girls ? The "end" is nigh.

P.S. I have always known that G-d needed certain people to hold the very fabric of the universe together. He has a very big spreadsheet on which is recorded all the merit and demerit points of the living and the dead. I am convinced he wants a kingdom of truth and justice to reign on Planet Earth. I know that children, righteous adults and the dead agree with me. The satanic forces must be deposed.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

Try putting E=mc^2 into a gas tank.

[Rusty Shorts]

 - yeah, E=mc^2 is exactly what we are putting in the gas tank, that's what worries me ... mass and energy are interchangable. the earth is a giant ball of mass and energy ... and recieving a continous stream of energy from the sun, so, what does this mean?

[i-dog]

Is that why Americans are getting heavier?

[trav7777]

sigh...there is no relativistic implication in the chemical combustion of hydrocarbons.

[tallystick]

You can use electricty from nuclear power to drive non-thermodynamically favorable reactions.

Liquid fuel can be made from many types of inputs.

[trav7777]

such a notion is stupid

[RockyRacoon]

Yes!  And to think I had assumed we had reached peak stupidity a while back.

Seems there is a self-replenishing supply of it in Washington DC.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

 @ adam neira

You will probably find yourself best served by keeping the religeous inuendos off ZeroHedge. I'm sure there's probably a million and one (ad infinitum) religion, faith, spiritual blogs out there...This isn't one of them!

[Adam Neira]

Zut alors !

I have offended your secular sensibilities by including one particular three letter word into my post. How remiss of me. I quite enjoy throwing spiritual cats into a flock of atheistic pigeons. The feathers always seem to fly...

[i-dog]

"one particular three letter word into my post"

Does this ( ^ ) go with that ( v )?

"I have always known that G-d needed certain people to hold the very fabric of the universe together. He has a very big spreadsheet on which is recorded all the merit and demerit points of the living and the dead. I am convinced he wants a kingdom of truth and justice to reign on Planet Earth. I know that children, righteous adults and the dead agree with me."

Take your primitive superstitious nonsense somewhere else.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

 A one "three letter word"?

Try going back and re-reading the rest of your post.

Sounds like a short term memory problem, Methinks the flying feathers are in your head.

[Adam Neira]

You are a pedant.

The only "religious" word in my post was G-d. The rest would all be found in the "Short Oxford Secular Dictionary". This book really does exist. I saw it in a Monty Python sketch.

I'm sure if you were dying of thirst in the desert and a friendly bedoiun offered you water, you would reject his offer based on his poor pronunciation.

This exchange is boring. I'm off for a walk.

[Dismal Scientist]

The point remains, keep the religious comments off this website please. They serve no useful purpose for anybody.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

If your having to resort to picking words apart via a dictionary to validate a point, that plainly reveals everything I need to know about the validity of said point.

[NERVEAGENTVX]

Nice try at discrediting me via a racially bias scenerio. There's nothing I love more than the last bastion of a losing argument. You should comment for CNBS.

[arkady]

Started off great and then morphed into yet another Peak Oil propaganda piece.  

They have been becoming more frequent recently, no?

[trav7777]

yeah, probably because the major energy agencies like IEA, have just admitted that oil already peaked. 

[GoinFawr]

@ arkady and all his ilk:

"You people, you sit there... you're in for one helluva surprise!" -Christopher Walken

[robertocarlos]

Things could be worse.

[Edward King]

Thoughtful commentary.  Kevin Phillips' 2006 book is a great read.

[bankonzhongguo]

A Corporation is NOT a Citizen.

Until the Corporation finds itself a second class voice in our (any) Republic, no thanks to the Supreme Court and all the fine fine work of the lobby-Congress, things will just get worse.  Wait until Obamacare kicks into your monthly paychecks America. 

Austerity is paying $10 for one aspirin in a hospital and a guaranteed 20% net profit for insurance giants?  Is that the Hope and Change you were sold?

A Corporation is built around a fascist model of resource gathering, control and execution.  It is a superior perpetual force compared to that of a real human being with a soul.

Citizens verses Corporate Power. 

The FRB, IMF, BIS, GS, GM, KBR, MCD, XOM, CNBC, DIS, MON, etc. verses you and your family.

Pick a side, because THEY have.

Its a war only you didn't know it.

[DavidPierre]

'Murka' was always a corporate fascist enterprise from day one. Corrupted and bigoted euro trash washed up on the Atlantic shore and began the wanton slaughter, not just for profit, but also because of the fatal diabolic streak that twists through the very fiber of what it means to be a supremacist, geographically challenged thug, i.e. an "Amerikan". At first there were crumbs for the unwashed masses as the continent was pillaged and the natives exterminated. All the "Little Eichmanns" ... as Ward Churchill so rightfully put it after the self-inflicted wound on 9 11... were only too glad to dip in the blood as they grunted at the trough and swilled their bellies full of amerikan exceptionalism at the cost of the rest of humanity. Ordinary, flag waving war criminals, you inbreed  Murkans, turned a blind eye as the African was enslaved and bled right up to end of the last century. Now with Jolson O Ba ma as White house resident, Murka is no longer an apartheid, segregated mess .... like its deformed bastard idiot child, that pariah dog that butchered Palestine.

The great global rape by the Murkan death machine is in its final stages; oil has peaked and Iraq and Afghanistan's peasants are kicking the empire's flabby white serial killer asses as the disease of unbridled capitalist gluttony ravages the environment, gobbles and squanders dwindling resources and the very nature of life itself hangs in the balance. Despair spreading like a virus as even one time collaborators admit that the Frankenstein that Reaganomics and insanity has unleashed.  Recognize that it is too late to halt the inevitable NAZI conclusion to this fucked up nightmare. Now that the rest of humanity is proving to be insufficient to satiate the cold turkeying, baby burning beast that the judo-christless glob has spawned, the preverse zombie begins to lacerate its own entrails. All the evil that Murka has spawned will and must come home to roost, that's always been the epitaph of crumbling empires and their gone-to-seed merchants of death. Murkans deserve nothing less for the crimes that their masters have been perpetuating against the rest of humanity since this bible thumping Golem freak first came into being dressed in its righteous uniform rags, blabbering about God and nation and all the other half-wit mealy-mouthed drivel that only a backwoods redneck inbred MORON would have mistaken for anything human and decent.

But of course the professional killers, the corpocratic militocracy that you call your "culture", the shylock theorising neo-cohen instigators and all the retarded intellectuals and whoring bananas republic politicos of the Reich will go on believing to the end that their duracell toys and flocks of electronic murder machines will allow the blood fest to go on ad nauseam ensuring a thousand years more of this filth.

It is indeed a long sought pleasure to watch from afar at the last convulsions, as the horror and contagion spreads through the soul of the nation now that the body politic and the intellect of what was once at most a passable "democracy" now festers and fizzles out like that other Stalinist beast, the erstwhile Soviet Union, the mirror image and Siamese twin of what corporate amerika was really all about.

[Oh regional Indian]

Wow David P, that is some writing.

Sombrero tip!

ORI

[Mercury]

I think a lot of that may have been lifted from the back cover of DUNE.

[i-dog]

Don't be shy ... tell us what you really think!

[Bob]

That's not very nice, DavidPierre. 

But if there is a God, karma, or anything of the sort, it won't end nicely for us, either. 

[Jim Quinn]

DP has never had an original thought in his poor excuse for a life. He copies and pastes.

[GoinFawr]

http://raims.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/misstwoxxxsm.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Karnevalswagen_Merkel_in_Amerika_2003.jpg

[Midas]

Can I be smug too if I go buy a hybrid?

[Mercury]

Until someone demonstrates that the dust-to-dust energy cost of creating and using a hybrid or electric car is actually less than the same for a similar gas or diesel vehicle - smugness is really the only benefit you can expect to gain by driving a Prius.

[Oh regional Indian]

Excellent point Mercury.

It's called embodied energy and everyone would do well to study up on it.

Changes the way you see the world, completely.

ORI

http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/on-sex-and-death/

[robertocarlos]

Ignorance is bliss. I just watched Food Inc on the CBC. We are doing it all wrong even if it's for the right reasons. At least when the USA goes BK the corn subsidy will end.

[glenlloyd]

Take from it what you will, but I don't see it as being very far off the mark.

[tahoebumsmith]

And then we have our future generation that have now taken on more debt then all of the plastic slinging misfits in this country. They have been forced into the circle without even knowing it. They are fed promises of the future but soon realize they carry too heavy of a load and can't even make the interest payments. They don't even have a chance, their entitlement obligation will be 10 times what ours is today and we can't even sustain it presently. A 210 TRILLION DOLLAR tusanami that they will try to paddle against in their plastic kayaks. Stop kidding yourself into thinking there will be some miracoulous recovery, it just simply isn't mathematically possible.

[dark pools of soros]

if everyone has to watch out for everyone, then this society is a farce anyway..   the masses COULD watch brainless crap if their elected officials weren't corrupt..

just because the masses are dumb, must they be robbed and misled?? 

[nscholten]

That Hybrid is just another scam you have fallen for.  The 1974 Honda civic got about 54 miles per gallon.  In Europe, there are numorous vehicles you can buy that get over 50 mph.  And getting that Hybrid battery in your car doesn't expend any energy either....all the rare earth minerals that have to be extracted.  Of course we wouldn't want to have the effiieint deisel cars in America getting 50 and 60 mph or natural gas vehicles because how are the oil companies going to be able to continue the $8 billion profits every 90 days if that happened.  Oh sure, advertise the $50 million in "clean fucking energy" to please the masses.

[acidradio]

We started packing all sorts of safety gear and reinforcement into even the smallest cars on the roads. This increased the weight considerably. Either to compensate for this or because the market demanded it we put bigger and bigger motors in newer cars. The 1974 Civic you speak of had 53 hp or so. A new Civic? The smallest motor is easily double that! The Chevy Aveo, the perennial mini economy car sold in the US, gets like mid-30's MPG. That's pretty pathetic considering that the Geo Metro it replaced was rated 49 MPG! These are supposed to be economy cars. Where is the economy here?

If people would accept smaller motors with less horsepower we could sell non-hybrid cars that achieve amazing fuel economies. We go to wars and kowtow to countries that hate us to extract their crude oil. Wars and diplomacy are not cheap but we don't roll that cost into the price of gasoline. We don't charge the end users - motorists and trucking firms - what it really costs to repair the wear that their vehicles inflict on roads and bridges in this country. The price of fuel in the US is full of negative externalities. A lot of the big costs of either providing fuel or maintaining and building roads are borne on the taxpayer and not directly on the motorist through any kind of user fee or direct taxation. Through all this there is little incentive to have a smaller vehicle or a less powerful vehicle if you are paying perhaps the lowest price for fuel and road taxes in the developed world.

There is a way to fix this. Roll ALL the costs of driving into the cost of fuel. The wars, the money we pay to nations that hate us so that we can have their oil, REAL roadway and bridge maintenance costs. Get rid of the negative externalities. Yeah it will jack up the cost that we pay for fuel, perhaps $5 or $6/gal? But why should people with oversized SUVs and trucks be allowed to pay the same price for roads as someone in a more efficient car? Right now we subsidize the ownership of unnecessarily large vehicles. This would bring that to an end real quick.

Want to own an Escalade and drive it aimlessly? That's fine! But when you pay $5-6/gal for the fuel it voraciously drinks you may reconsider what you drive. At $5-6/gal many other vehicles will be more realistic. Or you might consider walking or riding your bike which people in the US don't do enough of anyway.

[YHC-FTSE]

If you're going to criticize "cleaning fucking energy", try learning the difference between mph and mpg.

Purely from the perspective of good engineering, there's nothing wrong with efficient end-user transportation that doesn't spew out tons of neurotoxins and cancer-inducing hydrocarbon particles during its lifetime. I have no words to sufficiently describe the dimness of those who advocate "dirty fucking energy". 

[trav7777]

Sigh...you guys need to understand Jevon's Paradox, ok?

The oil companies have NOTHING to gain OR lose by increased efficiency.  The oil will just end up being used elsewhere!

Doubling the efficiency of a car brings its operating cost within the reach of substantially more potential operators, many of whom would acquire one.

[Temporalist]

Iran May Have Missiles From North Korea, Cables Posted by WikiLeaks Show

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-29/iran-may-have-missiles-from-nor...

WikiLeaks: Iran 'obtains North Korea missiles which can strike Europe'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/8166848/WikiLeaks-Iran-obtains...

[Temporalist]

Blasts kill Iran nuclear scientist, wound another

"TEHRAN — Twin blasts in Iran's capital killed a nuclear scientist and wounded another on Monday, said state media reports that promptly blamed Israeli agents on motorbikes of attaching the bombs to their cars.

"In a criminal terrorist act, the agents of the Zionist regime attacked two prominent university professors who were on their way to work," the website of Iran's state television network reported, referring to arch-foe Israel.

"Dr. Majid Shahriari was killed and his wife was injured. Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi and his wife were injured," the report said."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iaif7DgIeXz37nsbcOOD2...

[Temporalist]

Israel consulted Egypt, Fatah on Gaza war: WikiLeaks

JERUSALEM — Israel discussed its planned war on Gaza with the Palestinian leadership and Egypt ahead of time, offering to hand them control of the strip if it defeated Hamas, US documents released by WikiLeaks showed.

The attempt to coordinate its devastating offensive against Gaza's Islamist rulers was revealed by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak whose remarks were included in a telegram sent in June 2009 by then deputy US ambassador Luis Moreno.

"He explained that the GOI (government of Israel) had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas," he said, referring to the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jirxD9gfhoureos1BvX0c...

[absinthejo]

Tyler Durden : In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.

It's coming, whether we want it or not. All roads lead to the Olduvai Gorge.

[Rusty Shorts]

"It's coming" ... indeed, it is.

[oh_bama]

This argicle is exactly the "popular science" type of thing that is popular but useless. ignorant americans like to read it, make them think they know the "truth" so they can enjoy the sense of " I am awake while everyone else is drunk" type of feeling.

I don't have time for this peak oil thing, I agree with the theory but so what? I will argue one thing: the "Consumer credit outstanding is $2.41 trillion" and educate the author why it is the right number.

First of all, it is not a big number. It is about 2 years worth of money printing from the Fed (QE2 * 4.) With inflation running at about 5% (keep the CPI shit to yourself please) It is silly not to borrow. In the grand scheme of things, 2.41 is too small a number and indicating american consumers are overly conservative.

Secondly, with my next door living in a much bigger place without paying his mortgage for about 2 years now, it is easy to understand that a lot of the credit card debt are just "educated and strategic decisions" looking at the number from surface without understanding the behavior finance behind it is just silly.

And finally and again, in the grand scheme of things, in this country it is way too difficult to save. retail investors are not allowed to invest in hedge funds so they can only put money in individual securities and mutural funds. Considering transaction costs, taxes and the systematic "investor take all risks and I share the profit" the smartest way to keep what you earned to yourself and your family is to spend it.

American people are smart. They are not ignorant. This political and financial system incentivised people to behave that way and therefore the system is totally broken. It is not the people. People are just trying hard to adapt and survive.

[EvlTheCat]

And finally and again, in the grand scheme of things, in this country it is way too difficult to save.

No it isn't??  I think what you wanted to say is. "I just don't want to save".  High yeld returns do not equate to savings.  Savings include sacrifice and time.

..it is easy to understand that a lot of the credit card debt are just "educated and strategic decisions" looking at the number from surface without understanding the behavior finance behind it is just silly.

I can understand from this statement why you find it difficult to save.  Your whole rebuttal is a testament to what the author of the article is talking about. Thanks for being the class dunce.

[Byte Me]

You missed

the smartest way to keep what you earned to yourself and your family is to spend it.

and

American people are smart. They are not ignorant.

Some Americans are smart but many really are ignorant, which is sad when one considers that the settling of the continent was largely conducted by outgoing types unafraid to pioneer and explore a bit. (Previous occupants not ignored you understand, they were already sort of settled.) The pioneers - on balance - tend to be more intelligent than the 'stay-at-homes' many of whom don't even leave their villages. So it's a real shame that this "colonial spirit of pioneering" doesn't seem to get inherited. It even seems that the new normal is to game the system because 'you can'.

(After he's stood in the corner with the pointy hat for a while - he can come back for re-Neducation.)

If he wants to, of course.

[RKDS]

Are you fucking high?  Why the hell should I save at, at best, maybe 0.5% interest, when inflation has been many multiples higher for the last 20 years?  I know it's hard for some of you high-rolling finanical advisers but try to look at the options available to people making $50K or less and it's a sick joke.  Oh boy, Bank X is paying 1% interest, oh wait, minimum deposit of $25K, and awesone, I get to rent a debit card and pay for checks too.

The guy you're replying to is absolutely right, people that save (myself included) are suckers who serve only to enrich the banks that lend their savings out at usury rates with those same savers as a backstop for all losses via taxation and bailouts.

[AnAnonymous]

People are just trying hard to adapt and survive.

The majority of the US People ride the wave. That is aggreed on.

But this leading to survival? Give me a break.

As to be the system, idiot, not the US citizens, please keep in mind that by US standards, the system is determined by the US citizens. They have the power, not their representatives.

[destiny]

Excellent, this applies to all countries !

[WarProfiteer]

Seems to me that it is a pretty big waste of time trying to change the minds of

people outside of your locality.

Even if you could have the attention of the masses briefly they would be unlikely

to listen to something painful, especially from someone they have no personal

experience with.

Lastly, I would certainly love to see the author attempt to pull a cattle trailer

with 5000 pounds of beef of the hoof with that Honda.

[vxpatel]

We are a nation of fat, dumb, consumers? So what's wrong with that? Our educational system, our corporate system, our economic system are all aligned to produce: fat, dumb, consumers...

This is the American way, and we are so committed to it, we are doing our level best to push it to the rest of the world, who are eager to change their way of life and become like us.

Palin/Quayle 2012! For an even dumber, more obese and even more Christian Nation!

[ConfederateH]

Jim Quinn portrays the decision between a Honda insight hybrid and a BMW 3 series as Delusional vs Practical and this really is a perfect allegory for Mr. Quinn's biggest problem, that he still buys into the liberal green unicorn and rainbow fantasy.

The real truth is that BMW makes the 3 series with small and simple diesel motors that will also easily get over 40 miles per gallon without complex electronics and heavy metal laden batteries that have to be replaced every 5 years.  They are not allowed into the country because Mr. Quinn's favorite liberal elite have decided to subsidize these hybrids and prohibit the import of superior small efficient diesel powered automobiles.

My suggestion to you Mr Quinn, assuming you want more credibility, is to drop the liberal eco bias to your posts.

[weinerdog43]

And my suggestion is to you is to shut your Traitor yap.  The North won...you lost.  Get over it.

[Fishing Chimps]

Yes, the masses are ignorant, but what of it? Pointing your finger at an ignorant man, and calling him ignorant, is an excercize in futility since the odds are that he's too ignorant to understand just how ignorant he is (ie he's ignorant of his own own ignorance). But the good news is that ignorance can be cured. Stupidity, however, is forever.

[Internet Tough Guy]

There are a lot of these articles on the internet, pointing out our ignorant, and in many ways, suicidal behavior. I agree with you that it changes nothing. We are too invested in the way things are; we are not willing to radically change. The radical change will come through collapse.

[Bob]

They are indeed all over the internet.  While self-defined "intellectuals" preen and battle for one another's admiration, the "ignorant" are left to their alledgedly well-deserved damnation by those who would (by their own argument) be their only hope of salvation. 

These superior people are little but useful idiots impotently celebrating free speech in the larger scheme of things.

[Miss Expectations]

Jim,

You should have bought an old Honda CRX.

Best Car Ever...Especially for a commuting car.  You can find them for under $1,000.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/17/autos/honda_civic_hf/index.htm

[anony]

Part of coming to the conclusion that most people are clueless, do not understand real risk, is their thoughtless  purchase of tiny shit cans to save on fuel.

You only have to lose one person you love dearly, being crushed by a semi to learn the hard way that buying these tin death traps is stupid beyond tolerance.

If you have children, do them and yourself an immense, life saving favor: buy a piece of reasonable iron, and fuck the few hundred dollars of savings.

[Implicit simplicit]

One would only need to get 10 miles/gal on a 2 mile work commute to save on gas than to get 45miles/gal. on a 10 mile work commute.

[Miss Expectations]

I could outmaneuver any semi in my agile, responsive and fast CRX Si.  Name a piece of reasonable iron that wouldn't be crushed by a really determined semi.  You win the clueless contest, anony.

[Byte Me]

+1

He's another demonstrating the article's premice.

[Croesus]

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/284/079/National_ID_Cards_Are_Coming.html

[YHC-FTSE]

If you REALLY want to know how the mainstream media ignores/spins important stories that show media manipulation, censorship, and military terrorism, then this link is a prime example. (I won't embed video because it slows everyone's connections to ZH)

RT Reporter is arrested at "School of the Americas", Fort Benning. The SOA is the training camp for South American Death Squads which has been running for decades. Fort Benning has also been associated with training insurgency techniques to the Mujahedeen, now known in a different name as Al Queda.

http://www.everydayshiz.info/rtmedia/crosstalk-rt-reporter-assaulted/

http://current.com/news/92822930_america-is-becoming-a-tyranny-rt-reporter-arrested-for-no-reason-video.htm

There is no freedom of the press, no first amendment rights. 

[johnnymustardseed]

When you are buying shit made in China for Christmas you are a heathen. $15788.00 in credit card debt on average. Most will never live long enough to pay it back.

[anony]

";;;; Hope.....the thing with feathers."

[darkpool2]

those who are already ènlightened`and manage their affairs in the manner described areconsidered DANGEROUS and potential `domestic extremists`.  You are a destabilizing influence if you control your own destiny and have the ability to tell others to fuck off with impunity.  Dont listen to this heretical argument if you know whats good for you !

[Species8472]

I put 20% down and financed the remainder at 0.9% for three years

In the real world you would be paying 5-6%. You pay .9% and in return I get doodily squat on my retirement income.

[The Real Fake E...]

one of the finer pieces I have read on ZH 

bravo!!

[FrankIvy]

Agree with all but 2 points:

1.  Buying a hybrid on credit is a sign that he hasn't figured it all out yet.  For 6 grand less he could have bought a Fit and gotten 40 MPG.

2.  He's right about peak oil and energy criticality and the impermanence of U.S. exponential-growth based living.  But, in the end, the solution to the problemes aren't to use less of anything.  The solution will never be to simply make everything and everybody 20% more efficient.

Why?

Because, if you make everything and everybody more efficient, in 20 or 40 or 50 years you'll have 20% more people, and if the silliness of the modern world is carried forward, they all will expect to live like the other 80%, which means that the efficiency gains are wiped out by the population growth.

In other words, all problems derive from too many people, and driving hybrids won't change anything other than making your wallet lighter up front.

[Bob]

All problems?

That would make for a wondrously simple "solution," but me thinks it may be a bit more complicated than that.

[aerojet]

I enjoy a good rant, but I think it is worth pointing out that the discussion of  consumer credit, especially credit card use is flawed--the "Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt: $15,788" only counts people with credit card debt.  That's misleading.

The rest is just as stupid, quite frankly.

"I bought a Honda Insight Hybrid six months ago. It gets 44 mpg and will save me $1,500 per year in gasoline costs."

Why the fuck did you do that?  The added cost of ownership on a hybrid doesn't work out unless gasoline is something like $10/gal.  A poor economic decision--it's like those idiots whose reaction to gas prices going up is to buy a motorcycle.  Stupid fucking idiots!  Cars are expensive, so if you want to preserve wealth, don't buy new ones at all.  A used Honda Civic would have been a much better choice from a total cost of ownership standpoint.

[GoingLoonie]

Good article, but an opinion with which I do not totally agree.  The largest single user of oil and refined gas products in this Country is and has been the US military and mercenary support over the last 10 years.  Does anyone know what it costs to support two wars half way around the world?  How come no one mentions this violent bi-partisan jobs program?  Must not be a good time to bring home hundreds of thousands of trained killers.

[TK69]

Uh, no.  This is just another version of "how America is ruining the world" BS.  Like the IVY league attitude, it associates various indicators in order to mold them into their biased version of the world.

People who want a better life for themselves and their children, do not cause economic destruction.  It is the pursuit of power, control, and the flawed perverted view of a "public good" over individual rights, that do.  Just take a look around the world and see for what it is and you will see true devastation.

If you want to blame people for spending money that they do not have or the gluttony of "mass consumerism", blame an unaccountable, unlimited supply of easy currency, not fox news or other media outlets.

Fiat currency causes the illusion of an economy while inflation, taxes, lower wages, regulations, debt, currency manipulation, economic disparity make it extremely difficult to live with any sort of decent lifestyle for the masses. It creates dependency on government and it concentrates power in the hands of the wealthy, while maximizing profit for the ruling elite, regardless of the production, services, or even jobs.

And, if peak oil is here, it is not because of SUV's, but because of the worlds dependency on foreign governments, as opposed to individual private business, to supply most of the world's oil.  Afterall, its not like other countries have the money or motivation to create, improve existing or new energy resources.

If you unleash individuals, as opposed to controlling them and manipulating them as a group, with a sound and accountable currency, you will unleash all kinds of solutions to the problems you addressed, including new and unseen solutions, if worthy of addressing.

[Nels]

Carter’s solutions were too painful, required sacrifice, and sought to benefit future generations.

Carter only had non-solutions.  Whether or not I wore a sweater and saved a bit of money on energy would not have solved much of anything.  Even if everybody did that, it'd affect the overall situation about as much as Obama's suggestion to be careful about tire inflation.

Reagan/Volker took steps that were very painful, required sacrifice and actually improved things.

Sacrifice can be wasted, and sacrifice suggested by leftists is usually a wasted effort for society as a whole.

[Rhodin]

First, i'm not responding to the peak oil premise, because i think most of the oil data is controlled by the liars (oil corporations and governments).  With data from known liars, it is hard to reach a clear understanding on oil depletion.

Next, i need to agree that the author has some points.

USA is built on lies.  True.   For one, the economy is built on the lie that paper is money, and almost all economic activity pays the price of that lie.  Also, federal office holders take an oath to uphold and defend the constitution, and flagrantly fail to fulfill said oath.   They are, with few exceptions, oathbreakers (liars) and should be executed for treason.

"The most dangerous man on this earth is an Ivy League educated, arrogant ideologue who believes they are smarter than everyone else. When these men achieve power, they are capable of producing catastrophic consequences".....Yup.  Obama, and many others, are dangerous dictator wannabees.

Quinn then shows there is a vast media/educational conspiracy dedicated to deleting Americans thinking capacity and programing them into mindless consumers.  Also true.  Unfortunately, he then blames the victims of this conspiracy for their inability to think.  American education is primarily about installing respect for and obedience to authority, and regurgitating required propaganda.  If the student excells in that box, denying his intuition, then maybe they teach how to think within it.   (Personally, many years later, i am not fully recovered from my "educational" experience).  Then there is the "infotainment" industry, dedicated to distracting people from considering matters of importance and programing them to be consumers of trinkets and junk.  Instead of blaming the victims, we need to remove the programming.