Guest Post: Years Of The Modern

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform

Years Of The Modern

Is humanity forming en-masse? for lo, tyrants tremble, crowns grow dim,
The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a general divine war,
No one knows what will happen next, such portents fill the days and
nights;

Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vainly try to
pierce it, is full of phantoms,

Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me,
This incredible rush and heat, this strange ecstatic fever of dreams
O years! – Years of the Modern- Walt Whitman

The great American poet Walt Whitman wrote these words in 1859.
Whitman was trying to peer into a future of uncertainty. He was sure the
future would be bleak. He had visions of phantoms. Maybe he saw the
600,000 souls who would lose their lives in the next six years. Whitman
had captured the mood of a country entering the Fourth Turning.
He didn’t know what would happen, but he felt the beat of war drums in
the distance. Whitman did not have the benefit of historical perspective
that we have today.

There have been three Fourth Turnings in American History.
The American Revolution Fourth Turning ended in 1794 with the Crisis
mood easing with the presidency of George Washington. Whitman didn’t
realize that, 64 years after the previous Fourth Turning, the mood of
the country was ripe for revolution and the sweeping away of the old
order. When the stock market crashed in 1929, 64 years after the
exhausting conclusion to the Civil War Fourth Turning, Americans didn’t
realize the generational constellation was propelling them toward a new
social order and a horrific world war. It is now 66 years since the
conclusion of the Depression/WWII Fourth Turning. All indications are
that the current Fourth Turning began in the 2007 – 2009, with the collapse of the housing market and the ensuing financial system implosion.

I find myself vainly trying to pierce the veil of events yet to be.
The future is filled with haunting phantoms of unborn deeds which could
lead to renewed glory, untold death and destruction, or the possibly the
end of the great American experiment. Walt Whitman captured the change
of mood in the country with his poem. History books are filled
with dates and descriptions of events, battles, speeches and
assassinations. What most people don’t understand is Fourth Turnings
aren’t about events, but about the citizens’ reaction to the events.

The Boston Massacre did not start the American Revolution Fourth
Turning, but the Boston Tea Party did. John Brown’s attack on Harper’s
Ferry did not start the Civil War Fourth Turning, but the election of
Abraham Lincoln did. World War I did not start the Great
Depression/World War II Fourth Turning, but the 1929 Stock Market Crash
did. The 9/11 terrorist attack did not start latest Fourth Turning, but
the Wall Street induced housing/financial system collapse did. In each
instance, the generations were aligned in a manner that would lead to a
sweeping away of the old civic order and a regeneracy with the
institution of a new order.   Old Artists disappear, Prophets enter
elder hood, Nomads enter midlife, Heroes enter young adulthood—and a new
generation of child Artists is born.  

  

One hundred and fifty years ago this week Fort Sumter was bombarded
by upstart revolutionaries attempting to break away from an overbearing
Federal government based in Washington D.C. Exactly four years later the
butchery and death concluded dramatically with Robert E. Lee
surrendering to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox and the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre. For the next
four years we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of various battles
that marked the Civil War. What people will not consider are the
similarities between that tumultuous period in our history and the
period we are in today. Fourth Turnings are marked by different events
but the same mood of upheaval, anger and fury.

As Strauss & Howe note in their book, the morphology of a Fourth Turning follows a predictable pattern:

• A Crisis era begins with a catalyst – a starting event (or sequence of events) that produces a sudden shift in mood.
• Once catalyzed, a society achieves a regeneracy – a new counter entropy that reunifies and reenergizes civic life.
• The regenerated society propels toward a climax – a crucial moment that confirms the death of the old order and birth of the new.
• The climax culminates in a resolution – a triumphant or
  tragic conclusion that separates the winners from losers, resolves the
  big public questions, and establishes the new order. 

Strauss & Howe describe the normal sequence:

This Crisis morphology occurs over the span of one turning, which
(except for the U.S. Civil War) means that around fifteen to
twenty-five years elapse between the catalyst and the resolution. The
regeneracy usually occurs one to five years after the era begins, the
climax one to five years before it ends. 

The catalysts are relatively easy to identify, but the point of regeneracy is more subtle and harder to grasp.

Fiery Moment of Death & Discontinuity

“Like nature, history is full of processes that cannot happen in
reverse. Just as the laws of entropy do not allow a bird to fly
backward, or droplets to regroup at the top of a waterfall, history has
no rewind button. Like the seasons of nature, it moves only forward.
Saecular entropy cannot be reversed. An Unraveling cannot lead back to
an Awakening, or forward to a High, without a Crisis in between. The
spirit of America comes once a saeculum, only through what the ancients
called ekpyrosis, nature’s fiery moment of death and discontinuity.
History’s periodic eras of Crisis combust the old social order and give
birth to a new.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

 

 

The catalyst for the American Revolution was the Boston Tea Party.
The catalyst for the Civil War was the election of Abraham Lincoln. The
catalyst for the Great Depression was the 1929 Stock market crash. The
catalyst for the current Crisis was the housing/financial system
collapse. The catalyst is an event that terminates the brooding mood of
the Unraveling and unleashes the fury of a Crisis. The three previous
Crisis periods in American history were driven by different events, but
similar generational dynamics. By closely examining the dynamics and
threats that were facing the country during these previous Crisis
periods, we may be able to peer into the murky fog of the future and
make out the phantoms of events to come. What we know for sure is every
previous Crisis had an economic and fairness dimension that provided the
initial spark, triggering a series of events that eventually led to an
all encompassing war for survival.

American Revolution - The economic dimension that
led to the onset of the American Revolution can be summed up in the
rallying cry of the colonists, “No Taxation, Without
Representation.”  The British felt that the colonies were created to be
used in the way that best suited the crown and parliament. The French
& Indian War left the British Empire deeply in debt. They responded
by demanding more revenue from the colonies. The British Parliament
continued to pass taxation Acts which became increasingly onerous to the
independent minded American colonists:

• Sugar Act – 1764
• Currency Act – 1765
• Stamp Act – 1765
• Townshend Acts – 1767
• Tea Act – 1773

The increasing levels of taxation and control resulted in the
formation of Committees of Correspondence and the Sons of Liberty.
Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine and the other firebrands led the movement for
independence. The colonists grew increasingly angry with the heavy
handedness and harshness of the British Monarchy. These incidents and
actions solidified the mood for independence: 

• Quartering Act – 1765
• Boston Massacre – 1770
• Intolerable Acts – 1774 

As you can see there were years of economic and political turmoil
before the Boston Tea Party catalyst event ignited the revolution. The
mood of enough citizens had shifted as the generational alignment no
longer allowed for compromise. In the end, the increase of economic
restrictions and limiting of freedom led to the revolution. As a side
note, a Fourth Turning does not need a majority to be initiated. Only
one-third of the colonists actively supported the rebellion.

American Civil War - The economic dimension that
drove the dynamics of the Civil War related to the Southern agrarian
society based upon growing cotton and the rapidly industrializing North
with its cities and manufacturing prowess. The invention of the cotton
gin led to many more plantations in the South depending solely on cotton
to support their way of life. Cotton farming required vast amounts of
cheap human labor, and slaves fit the bill. Abolitionists in the North
had the moral high ground as Southern plantation owners treated human
beings as property. Attitudes became more intense after the publication
of  Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
the Dred Scott Decision, and the John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry. The
issue of slavery had been boiling beneath the surface since the
adoption of the US Constitution. Various compromises had been struck
over the years to keep the issue at bay:  

• Missouri Compromise
• Compromise of 1850
• Kansas – Nebraska Act

These economic and human rights issues became wrapped in the mantle
of states’ rights and the struggle between the Federal government and
State governments. The battle reached back to the earliest days of the
Republic between Jefferson and Hamilton.  Many felt that the new
constitution ignored the rights of states to continue to act
independently. They felt the states should still have the right to
decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts. This
resulted in the idea of nullification, whereby the states would have the
right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government
denied states this right. With the election of Abraham Lincoln, the
Southern states saw a man who was against slavery, believed in a strong
Federal government, and supporter of the industrial North. The years of
compromise were over. The firebrand prophet generation took control in
Washington DC and Richmond Virginia. A fight to the finish was
unavoidable.

Great Depression/World War II – The economic
dimension that drove the onset of this Crisis was the unbridled greed
and speculation of Wall Street banks. The easy money policies of the
Federal Reserve, formed in secret and voted into existence on Christmas
Eve with many members of Congress not present created the Roaring 20′s.
While farmers struggled to survive on the drought stricken plains and
the average person lived a hard scrabble existence, the banking elite
reaped obscene profits, with the top 1% sucking 23.9% of all the
national income – the highest level in U.S. history.

The 1920′s were a time of cultural decay, decadence and disillusionment. This mood was reflected in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
As we know too well, every boom eventually goes bust. The bust came in
October 1929, with a stock market crash. Stockholders lost $40 billion.
The market dropped 89% over a two year period. By 1933, 11,000 of the
25,000 banks in the US had failed. These were mostly small regional
banks. The major NY banks such as JP Morgan and Mellon became more
powerful. The artificial interference in the economy by the Federal
government and Federal Reserve was a disaster prior to the Depression,
and government efforts to prop up the economy after the crash of 1929
only made things worse. Passage of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs spread the
depression around the world. The economic hardship in Germany led to the
election of Adolf Hitler and set the stage for a future war that would
kill 65 million people. FDR’s New Deal programs crowded out private
industry and resulted in unemployment staying at levels exceeding 15%
for an entire decade. Keynesian government spending prolonged the
depression and put into place social programs that set in motion the
debt bomb that threatens the country today.   

Force Advancing with Irresistible Power 

I see not America only, not only Liberty’s nation but other nations
preparing,

I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combinations, the solidarity
of races,

I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world’s stage,
(Have the old forces, the old wars, played their parts? are the acts
suitable to them closed?)

I see Freedom, completely arm’d and victorious and very haughty,
with Law on one side and Peace on the other,

A stupendous trio all issuing forth against the idea of caste;
What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?
I see men marching and countermarching by swift millions,
I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken,
I see the landmarks of European kings removed,
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give
way;)

Never were such sharp questions ask’d as this day,
Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God,

Years of the Modern- Walt Whitman

 

 

Walt Whitman foresaw vast armies on the march and old orders being
swept away by the historic denouements that were rapidly approaching.
But even he couldn’t have foreseen the butchery and tragic deaths of
over 600,000 men in the next four bloody years. The economic dimensions
of the current Crisis were foreseeable at least a decade before the
Crisis arrived. The Federal Reserve, under the “wise” supervision of
former Ayn Rand disciple Alan Greenspan, progressively blew one bubble
after another through its easy money policies. The Greenspan Put allowed
the Wall Street vampire squids to suck the life out of the American
economic system without fear of being harpooned for taking financial
system endangering leveraged bets. The financial oligarchs used their
influence, power and vast wealth to repeal Glass-Steagall, capture and
buy off the rating agencies, neuter the SEC and other regulatory
agencies and place their executives in high level government positions.
The ruling wealthy elite again matched their peak take of the national
income, just as they did in 1928.

 

The debt, fraud and lack of financial regulation that catalyzed the
near collapse of the worldwide financial system in 2008, 63 years after
the end of the last Fourth Turning, have not been purged from the
system. In fact, those in power have decided more debt, accounting fraud
and financial ignorance is the path to recovery for America. The issues
which will be the driving forces during this Crisis are clear to anyone
with their eyes open:

• A National Debt the will approach $20 trillion by 2015 and has already surpassed 90% of GDP, the point of no return.
• Annual deficits exceeding $1.5 trillion and equal to over 10% of GDP.
• The unfunded promises made by slimy politicians over decades for
  Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security exceeds $100 trillion and can
  never be paid. 
• A military industrial complex that controls Congress, is fighting
  three wars, occupies hundreds of bases throughout the world and spends
  $1 trillion per year, seven times more than any other country in the
  world.
• A financial industry debt peddling complex that has gained control
  over the government and media to such an extent they have been able to
  rape and pillage the American people for three decades, convincing
  regulatory agencies to allow them 40 to 1 leverage, crashing the
  financial system through a massive mortgage/derivatives fraudulent ponzi
  scheme, threatening the American people into giving them $4 trillion of
  taxpayer money, paying themselves hundreds of billions in bonuses for a
  job well done, and then insisting on lower taxes for their corporations
  and the rich oligarchs who inhabit these towers of evil in downtown
  Manhattan.
• Wealthy elite who use their existing wealth to control Congress, the
  media and the financial debt peddling industry, abscond with 25% of the
  national income and control 42% of the financial wealth in the country.
  At the same time real wages of middle class Americans have been
  stagnant for 4 decades, real unemployment exceeds 20%, 45 million people
  need food stamps to make ends meet, and real inflation on the things
  middle class Americans need hovers around 10%. The gap between the Haves
  and Have Nots has never been greater.

   

• The Federal Reserve has boxed itself into a corner and will be
  unable to extricate itself with its only weapon – the printing press. It
  has tripled the size of its balance sheet to $2.7 trillion, with at
  least half of the “assets” consisting of toxic worthless mortgages
  bought from their Wall Street masters. 0% interest rates for two and a
  half years, QE1 and QE2, and allowing banks to fraudulently report the
  value of their loans have failed to jumpstart the economy. Come June of
  2011 they will be faced with a dilemma – PRINT or DIE. If they stop
  buying U.S. Treasury debt, interest rates will go up dramatically. If
  they keep printing to buy U.S. Treasury debt, the dollar will continue
  to fall and inflation will accelerate from its already high level.
• The biggest wildcard among the Fourth Turning catalysts is Peak Oil.
  The modern industrial world is completely dependent upon cheap
  accessible oil. Globalization, consumerism, suburban sprawl, food
  production and distribution, and all means of transportation are
  dependent upon cheap abundant oil. Peak world oil production has
  occurred. Demand will outstrip supply going forward at an ever
  increasing rate. Various levels of chaos will ensue as the realization
  of this fact becomes evident to everyone.
• The peak oil scenario will mix with the toxic brew of religion. The
  centuries old war between Christianity and Islam has been gaining
  strength over the last three decades. The revolutions spreading across
  the Middle East will not die down. They will intensify and create havoc
  for the existing despotic regimes. The new regimes will not be friendly
  towards the U.S. The combination of peak oil, with the fact that 56% of
  the world’s oil reserves are controlled by Muslim countries in the
  Middle East provides an unsettling backdrop for the U.S., which controls
  less than 2% of the world’s oil reserves. 

  

• The technological complexity and interconnectedness of people across
  the world is a danger and a possible boon to civilization. Our entire
  world is dependent upon computers and networks to run our
  infrastructure, defense, commerce, and everyday lives. Armies, naval
  ships, and massed confrontation will be made obsolete by cyber warfare.
  Computer hackers will be able to do more damage to a country in minutes
  than armies could do in years of traditional warfare. The trillions the
  US spends on aircraft carriers, fighter jets and tanks will be wasted.
  The positive side of technology has been realized in its ability to
  organize people to fight oppression and government propaganda.
  Likeminded people have been able to use technology to seek and reveal
  the truth.

The initial stage of this Fourth Turning has run its course. The
catalyst was easy to recognize. The issues that confront the nation over
the next twenty years are clear. What is completely unclear to me is
how our fractured society achieves a regeneracy – a new
counterentropy that reunifies and reenergizes civic life. The regeneracy
usually occurs one to five years after the Crisis era begins. This
means that the country would need to reunify and begin to confront our
challenges by 2013. Regeneracy began with the Declaration of
Independence during the American Revolution. Regeneracy began with
Abraham Lincoln demanding the enlistment of 500,000 men after the Battle
of Bull Run. Regeneracy began with FDR’s New Deal programs in 1933
during the Great Depression. What will begin the Regeneracy this time? 

Something Wicked This Way Comes 

“Decisive events will occur – events so vast, powerful, and
unique that they lie beyond today’s wildest hypothesis. These events
will inspire great documents and speeches, visions of a new political
order being framed. People will discover a hitherto unimagined capacity
to fight and die, and to let their children fight and die, for a
communal cause. The Spirit of America will return, because there will be
no other choice. Thus will Americans reenact the great ancient myth of
the ekpyrosis. Thus will we achieve our next rendezvous with destiny.” - Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

 

The storyline promulgated by the mainstream linear thinking opinion
leaders is the economy is recovering, the banking system is sound, the
stock market is booming, buying a house is a great investment, inflation
is below 2%,  jobs are being created, and consumers have regained their
confidence and spending power. This message is hammered home on a daily
basis by the corporate run mainstream media. It is patently false and
the thinking members of the American public know it. The economic
condition of the country is rapidly deteriorating. While politicians
posture and lie to the citizens, the fissures in our financial system
grow wider. As of today, regeneracy and unification behind one common
national purpose seems light years away. Strauss & Howe speculated
in 1997 about potential events that could spur events during the next
Fourth Turning. One of their possible scenarios looms in the near
future:

• An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The
  president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total
  government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress
  rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president
  threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the
  debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics. 

The event necessary to cause a regeneracy in this country will need
to be on an epic scale. Based upon a review of the foreseeable issues
confronting our society it is clear to me that a worse financial
implosion will strike before the 2012 presidential election. It may be
triggered by a debt ceiling confrontation, the ending of QE2, a panic
out of the USD, hyperinflation, a surge in oil prices, or some
combination of these possibilities. The ensuing collapse of the stock
and bond markets will remove the last vestiges of trust in the existing
financial system and the government bureaucrats who have taken taxpayer
dollars and funneled them to these Wall Street oligarchs.

The economic chaos will likely lead to a Republican landslide in the
2012 election. A Boomer Prophet with a reputation for fixing financial
disasters (aka Mitt Romney) would be given a mandate to fix the economic
system. All generations will realize that generational promises made
cannot be fulfilled. People of a libertarian mindset, like me, will not
be happy with the turn of events. In a chaotic scenario, the Federal
government is likely to assume even more power than they have today. The
American people will be fearful and angry. If the financial criminals
on Wall Street are brought to justice, the chances of a unified populace
will increase. A drop in everyone’s standard of living would be
acceptable, as long as the rich shared equally in the burden. If the
super wealthy oligarchs retain their power, a fracturing along class
lines would become a distinct possibility. Social unrest, riots, and
violent protests along the lines of the current situation in the Middle
East could develop. Then a question of military use against the civilian
population becomes paramount to what would happen next.

Amidst the financial chaos will be the ever present peak oil issue.
The increasingly high prices and imminent shortages of supply will
exacerbate the pain for the American people. The current War on Terror
is really a cover for keeping American troops in the Middle East as a
forward vanguard to keep the oil flowing. The U.S. consumes 7 billion
barrels of oil per year and will use all means necessary to keep it
flowing. With a Boomer Prophet leader invoking American manifest
destiny, it is likely we will intervene to protect Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
and Kuwait in the name of democracy. A terrorist incident in the U.S.
would provide convenient cover for further intervention in the Middle
East. As with most wars the unintended consequences will overwhelm the
best laid plans of politicians and generals. Further U.S. intervention
into an already exploding Middle East will likely spur a larger conflict
between Islam and Christianity. Ground zero could shift to Europe as
millions of Muslims have settled there and will not react positively to
western powers siphoning oil from Islamic countries in the name of
Christianity. History has taught us that Fourth Turnings end in all out
war. The outcome of wars is always in doubt. 

“History offers more sobering warnings: Armed confrontation
usually occurs around the climax of Crisis. If there is confrontation,
it is likely to lead to war. This could be any kind of war – class war,
sectional war, war against global anarchists or terrorists, or
superpower war. If there is war, it is likely to culminate in total war,
fought until the losing side has been rendered nil – its will broken,
territory taken, and leaders captured. And if there is total war, it is
likely that the most destructive weapons available will be deployed.” - Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

“Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of
extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung
by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely
survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was reagrded as the
most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an
enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won,
America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next
Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a
similar scale.” - Strauss and Howe – The Fourth Turning

It may be 150 years since Walt Whitman foresaw the imminent march of
armies, visions of unborn deeds, and a sweeping away of the old order,
but history has brought us right back to where we started. Immense
challenges and threats await our nation. Will we face them with the
courage and fortitude of our forefathers? Or will we shrink from our
responsibility to future unborn generations? The drumbeat of history
grows louder. Our rendezvous with destiny beckons.

Comments

[Long-John-Silver]

Look at Silver taking off. $45 today?

[Strategery]

Te only realistic scenario that will panic the populace is financial. There is no Hitler. The American people wil blame whoever is perceived to have caused the crisis. The executive branch, the Congrss and the Fed need to do an about face and start choosing the American people over the bankers and millionaires-plus.

[DosZap]

Strat,

No hitler, but a system very similar headed this way.

And the people will blame the ones in power.they were, are, given the reins to guide and protect.

Now the horses are out of the barn, someone will have to pay.

John Galt.

[Waterfallsparkles]

The Bible says that the meek will inherit the World.  What happens if we go back to an Agrarian Society?  What will the people in New York and all of the Wall Street Bankers do?

[pan-the-ist]

Ask Pol Pot how that worked out for the Khmer Rouge.

I felt that a link might educate you.  You're speaking about creating a forced agrarien society and he beat you to it.

http://www.lycos.com/info/pol-pot--khmer-rouge.html

[Seer]

Forced agrarian society?

Heaven forbid that humans have to do actual work, like the rest of nature does.

Thomas Jefferson wanted the US to be an agrarian society.  I have doubts about one being sustainable, but I do know that it's far closer to sustainable than a "google society."

2/3 of the world's population lives on $3/day or less.  I wonder if they know that Google is hiring?

In the end which is more cruel, to have been forced to raise food or create widgets?  When things collapse there won't be a big demand for widgets.

[pan-the-ist]

Most of those people live in Ghettos in the city.

[Long-John-Silver]

Starve

[UnRealized Reality]

Well, maybe. Another opinion,opinions are like A**holes, everybody's got one!!!

[dbTX]

The economic chaos will likely lead to a Republican landslide in the 2012 election.

This is probably true and will be perceived as a mandate for manor change in entitlements which is the only way to bring the debt and deficit under control. Having said that, if the new President takes the steps to necessary, he/she must go into office knowing he/she will will be a one termer.

[I am Jobe]

America is a one party system with a two card monty. Nuf said. hang the bitchez and start over.

[DosZap]

No party CAN change the system drastically ASAP.

Unless they want new rope used on them.

Their must be a way to gradually wean us off this Marxist ponzi that FDR brought on line.

Won't ,cannot happen in an immediate fashion.Not of they plan on keeping this country in one piece.

If the ball comes down, and the pay outs stop, with no new jobs, this SOB is headed for  anarchy.

[Oligarchs Gone Wild]

We've had 80 years to pull things in, had we, then our country would have had the shock absorber to deal with this.  The shock absorber is now pushed beyond design and it's only a matter of time before the thing explodes.  Throwing all the wheels off the car and throwing its occupants into the cold and nasty reality of nature - without the guardrails of fiat currencies and government size ponzi schemes to prevent or delay it any longer.

[Seer]

Oh, I see, it's been the "Marxist Ponzi" that's to blame!  Well, bring on the "Capitalist Ponzi!"

Modern civilization, REGARDLESS of fucking which team one roots for, is predicated on a Ponzi.  If anything that you promote includes the word "growth" in it then you're advocating the Ponzi- FAIL!

[AldousHuxley]

What does a sane man do in an insane society?

[blindman]

he learn to stand on his head

[I am Jobe]

Drink............................

[pops]

Grow your own tomatoes and killer weed in the backyard.  Load the Glock, be happy and wait it out.  It won't last long.

[CrazyCooter]

Um, I would say its a toss up between (1) drink good beer, or (2) troll ZH.

Screw it, lets do both!

Regards,

Cooter

[yabyum]

If my name was Huxley, I would head for the Peyote stash.

[DosZap]

Retreat, and get away from it.before you become like all the others.

[Seer]

Not a sane question.  Next!

[takinthehighway]

If I have to read one more article claiming that the War of Northern Aggression was fought over slavery, I'm gonna lose it!

It came about because the Federal government taxed the producers and gave the proceeds to their favorites. Sound familiar?

www.southernnationalcongress.com

[UnRealized Reality]

Agreed, that's what I was stating in my above post. This articles belong in the fiction section of the library, not in the Financial blogosphere. Didn't even bother to read it.

[buzzard]

Didn't read it? I could tell.

[UnRealized Reality]

That's right, didn't read it! I do not waste my time on trash and fantasy, especially from this bias, want-a-be author. I've read better things in the Sunday comics. And It is only HIS OPINION, not fact, which makes it fiction, hence it belongs in the fiction section of the library, not on a so called financial blog. But ZH has to feed the beast.

PS: Oh yea, tell the person who scribbled these words that the world already ended after Y2K!

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Exactly. Thank you.

[treemagnet]

All I know is I've begun to prepare in a way that would make a "prepper" blush.  It may be in vain, but God help you people in large metropolitan (+suburbs) areas - especially those in cold climates and/or those relying on lots of private transportation.  Remember, you'll be competing for precious limited resources with lots of people willing (and able) to pay anything.  Prepare - whats it hurt?  And to you smug assholes living in gated communities feeling insulated about your "protected and safe" way of life - wake up.  Years of being treated like someone special has turned your brains to mush and no, two rented assholes in Ford taurus with "police-like lights" ain't gonna deter the determined.   

[CrazyCooter]

This sir, is precisely why I moved to Alaska! Took a fat pay cut, but I love it up here and the small town I live in has its feet on the ground.

Regards,

Cooter

[treemagnet]

I'm in the lower 48 - it snowed almost 11 inches here yesterday!  You don't have to go to AK dude!  All kidding aside, I read some of these posts and wonder how they'll do - especially the academics and gov't employees - I think they believe their "logical" and "cause and effect" thought process where, like Bernanke - all decisions are made in a vacuum.

[Trillax]

I grew up there.  I've been back a few times, but I can't say that I miss it truely.  However, the summers are something out of a dream.

[americanspirit]

With so many of the angry troglytes in this country thinking "Gee I wish I could get me a good blowjob to go with this Bud light- that sure would make my life a whole lot easier" I predict Sarah Palin will win by a landslide. All she has to do is keep licking that lip gloss and winking while all the trogs are thinking - "wow, look at those jaw muscles" - and she's in.

[pan-the-ist]

She does have a purdy mouth.

[Seasmoke]

still i am pretty sure you dont want to wander below her shoulders

[Long-John-Silver]

The sooner amerika is destroyed the better. I'm voting for Obama. 4 more years will finish US off.

[IdioTsincracY]

no way ... we need a professional for the job....
let's have W back!!

[Long-John-Silver]

He did his 2 terms but hay, the only thing different than Bush is Obama has a really good tan.

[Seer]

Finally!  I've been trying to figure out for some time now why GW got a second term!

One's gotta do what one's gotta do I suppose.  My mind doesn't really allow me to do stupid things, like vote (I support George Carlin's philosophy on this point).

[Creed]

yes, let's attack Palin by making her an object of sexual desire; after all, that is the only way she can win anything

how original of you

[Calmyourself]

Don't waste your time they will not have a discussion regarding the Palin or Bachman or any other conservative woman. Liberals are the biggest scum sexists, racists and projection tools on Earth..

[gunwinpark]

it's so true.  It's hard to be a woman on ZH.  Am I only boobs here?

[baby_BLYTHE]

Nope ;)

[Seer]

I think that they're all piles of shit.  Care to guess MY ideology? (dumb fuckers will guess wrong every time)

[treemagnet]

Hillary or Sarah  -  yeah, I thought so.

[americanspirit]

And Ann Coulter will be her VP. Rush as AG. Beck as Homeland Security. I can't help myself - the devil has gotten ahold of my mind. Please - someone shoot me, quick. Oh no - now I'm seeing Arnold as Secretary of Defense. Lloyd at Treasury. Bolton at State. No no no no no no!

[terryg999]

We have that exact scenario now except in reverse.  Biden, Holder, Janet....  same people different names. 

[Seer]

Exactly!  Party politics, the greatest set of blinders known to mankind.

[blindman]

http://esotericagenda.net/eawatch.html

.

the esoteric agenda 12/13

.

" afoot and light hearted, i take to the open road." w.w.

[Greenhead]

Ch..ch..changes... No doubt we are in for a change.  Question is, which direction.  Easy to make the case for more government control, digital databases monitoring the population, debt servitude, American Idol, etc.  Ont the other hand, the possibility exists to end the Fed, have a real monetary system based on gold.  Yes, I said it, based on GOLD.  The only way to limit the kleptocrats is to have a money system which is based on requiring the folks to acually pay real taxes for government expenditures.  Deflation is not the end of the world once the base is established.  We are so fearful of change and change will happen anyway. 

The argument for higher taxes will ignore the fact that labor is valued less than capital.  The real rich earn capital gains, not ordinary income.  All taxes in each tier should be the same regardless of whether they are the result of labor or capital.  Only way to limit the oligarchs.

[Seer]

Yeah, the good old days, back when, a... When exactly has it not been like it is now?

I detest the Fed, but let's get real here.  The basic game continues even if they're out of the picture.  It'll be just some other consortium of power brokers controlling things.  Our collective "wisdom" has been formed to operate under the premise that growth is necessary, and these power brokers are spawned and maintained from this premise.  They are the "dream makers:" they will tell us whatever we want to believe as long as we allow them power; and, because it's an impossible task (to maintain growh on a finite planet) they have to resort to the most insane tactics/distractions.

Changing the monkey grinders don't change the tune, or the monkeys...

[VyseLegendaire]

There's not such thing as the 4th Turning.

Repeat after me. 

There's not such thing as the 4th Turning.

There's not such thing as the 4th Turning.

There's not such thing as the 4th Turning.

Now go back to your cave and resume rubbing two sticks together. 

[trendybull459]

no news baby,its all known facts,thats you americans are sleeping,this info was printed that or other form one year back,awake Amerika!

[knukles]

We're Amerikuns and history don't apply to us.
Jus' wake me when it's supposed to be over. 
All this talk about fartin' around.
Oughta be ashamed.

[monopoly]

Tyler, super post. Very well thought out. Lets hope it does not prove true in total. I cannot believe that we are doomed to a third world, banana republic. It is all so obvious. We can still turn this ship around, as long as it will take.

I am planning for a complete collapse of our system, but still hoping, someone, somehow, will lead us and do what is right. Wishful thinking, I know. My head is not in the sand. We used to be such a great country with such great leaders. Amazing how greed rules a person's actions.

Thanks for all you do Tyler.

[IdioTsincracY]

+1

[Abitdodgie]

This time we should make a change instead of wanting a leader , we should all lead together

[Seer]

Turning this ship around is meaningless, it's still a pirate ship.

We've BEEN a third-world banana republic.  OK, we lived higher on the hog becuase we steal from the third-world, but...

The US is just more polished about corruption than other countries.  There's far more "wealth" in the US, which means that there's far more corruption.  It's all done under the guise of legitimacy: backroom dealings.

"We used to be such a great country with such great leaders."

Bullshit!  You name me a time.  You name me the leaders.  Extermination of natives.  Slavery.  Child labor.  Dixiecrats.  Rockefeller.  JP Morgan.

[disabledvet]

F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best:  "In America it's a sin to be poor."  Add Wall Whitman ("Oh, Captain, my Captain!") and "the empitness within" is cyrstal clear.  What could be more fitting than a "Trump Card!"

[Rusty Shorts]

It will end like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy5qJ2hLk44

[Hulk]

That was great!

[IdioTsincracY]

As soon as Republicans are back in full control, America will be great again.
No taxes for the rich, so lots of money will flow in from all tax shelters.
No social security or medicare, so whatever money the middle class has left will be promptly put in circulation.
The defense budget will quadruple, so we'll bomb the sh!t out of anything that moves.
Licenses will be given to every household to drill their very own oil well in their back yard.
Bazookas and bibles will be given free to everybody who has a valid US birth certificate.
And anybody who complains will be shipped out on boats like the Pilgrim Fathers.

Problem solved!

[Long-John-Silver]

GE will be forced to pay taxes and GM will be allowed to produce cars they can sell unlike that stupid Volt thing.

[IdioTsincracY]

right ... Ge does not pay taxes because of Obama ... right!!!

And why save manufacturing when you can save GS, JPM, and the likes .....

inescapable logic = IdioTsincrasy

[Seer]

Save manufacturing?  The US should look to hang on to failing technologies?

Yeah, I can't wait for the solar-powered mining equipment that'll mine the rare earth materials so that we can all drive around in "efficient" vehicles going to meaningless jobs.

Don't confuse spinning wheels with progress.

It's fucking overshoot, nothing to do with "Democracts" or "Republicans."

[knukles]

GM
Gubamint Motors.... Hey, they're controlling shareholder and said they turned it around.  Still got some, no less.
So, what happened?
-Gubamin green leadership, carbon footprint, fuel efficiency standards... Vette's, CTS, Camaro, etc., muscle car attractions.  Check.
-Gubamint fuel efficiency standards, carbon foot print, fuel... you get it... Volt.  Worst of the "electrics" as they first sold it but's a hybrid (called misrepresentation, fraud) and's a piece of turd.
-Streamlining.  What?  Streamlined the debt structure by fucking each and every senior secured creditor let alone any other debt holder.  Check.  Jesus, talk about the government abrogating contract law.  No wonder the $US is falling.  Check.
-Talk about fucking the senior debt holders where the hell do the unions come in line for equity?  No where, nada, zilch, but they got a boat load of the company equity.  And you thought that oligarchs were in Russia, huh?  Check.
-Talk about focusing the business.  After getting rid of GMAC, they're going back into the same finance business which they went belly in before.  New management.  Check. 
-Oh, and a private equity group that owned GMAC got bailed out.  Double Check.
-And cars.  Quality inmprovement.  Steering wheels fall off, while electrics (hybrid, asshole) catch fire whilst charging.  Check.
-And the radical design changes.  In the spitting image of the Aztec.  Check.

Impressive shit.

Mission Accomplished. 

[Rusty Shorts]

I think this is the great example of why so many pin their hopes on the "as-yet-unknown-future-technology-fix". We just pop together the as-yet-unknown free energy device into the as-yet-unknown spaceship and fly to the as-yet-unknown destination and *wham!* populate the galaxy.

[Seer]

To steal a line from one of Steely Dan's songs: The things that pass for knowledge I  can't understand"

But... hey, surely we're saved because, well, the galaxy is so big it has to support infinite growth!  Step right up...

[blindman]

@" People will discover a hitherto unimagined capacity to fight and die, and to let their children fight and die, for a communal cause."

these words are poison, pure toxic death to those that listen.  the authors

should stop preaching death and shut the fuck up and let the sane people

have the floor.  you can't just throw the words "communal cause" into

this sentence as a way of excusing your murderous blood lust.   pigmen

i say.  let the authors go kill themselves for their sacred communal cause,

teach by example.  who do they think they are knowing what "people will find".

the arrogance needs beheading, big baskets for bad brains i say.

[Hephasteus]

That's not what they teach the army. Of course they lie about the communcal cause and just focus it on the best monetizers and indebters and controllers.

[blindman]

http://www.youtube.com/user/peacsees

song of the open road.  uncle walt

[The Real Fake E...]

found this on continental.com website.  wonder if benny is looking to horde all printing cartridges for himself.  go long printing cartridges!!!

The Transportation Security Administration is implementing new security measures including a prohibition of the transportation on board domestic or international flights to or from the U.S. of printer or toner cartridges weighing 16 ounces or more. Accordingly, effective Monday, November 8, 2010, passengers are prohibited from transporting these items in either carry-on or checked baggage.

https://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US/travel/Pages/BaggageChecked.aspx

[feeb]

Cute, but in case you weren't aware, this policy change was simply a snap reaction to the Yemeni ink cartridge bomb plot:

http://www.kuwaitobserver.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=433127

[knukles]

Was that the one that they were "testing" to see if it'd go through (WTF?) or the one that about 5 western gubamints knew about as it was already going.  And who the fuck takes/sends/gets/orders/evenfuckingthinks about sending ink cartridges from Sanaanabananna, Yemen to Chicago? 

Oh, look honey, I just got this catalogue in the mail from Abdul's Camel Scrota and Cartridge Shop in Sanaanabananna, Yemen and thought I'd give them a try.

Nice. 

[Seer]

+1000

[Caviar Emptor]

It's a bitter little world

[QQQBall]

Whatever happens will be epic. The system is broken - it is beyond repair. Bad is pushing out the good; the prudent are too afraid at this point to stand-up and raise hell, b/c they still have too much to lose. They stripped assets via lending fraud - they are stripping income via low IR policy and soon they will do both via increased taxes on income and assets. The capital controls have been tightening - 

Ben Franklin said something about wife & kids making cowards of us all - I would change that to debt. People have been suckered into surrendering their power and liberty for debt and the illusion of wealth and riches (spend now, pay later maybe).  TPTB like the immigrants having a non-status while suppressing wage rates; they like the people being in debt and on the edge of foreclosure or feeling that they could be redudant at any moment. The pople that still work, work for less with slim margins. Student debt is much more desperate on onerous than CC debt - its just the same blueprint with a tweek.  Its hard to feel comfortable tehse days even with low debt and savings - the purchasing power of the savings are being stolen so you are forced to take on risk at a bad risk:reward ratio. 

And hey - you read that article and wanna argue about what "rich" is... wake the fuck up yahho

[Seer]

"Its hard to feel comfortable tehse days even with low debt and savings - the purchasing power of the savings are being stolen so you are forced to take on risk at a bad risk:reward ratio."

Don't like it, don't play.  No one is forcing you.

But, really, should I expect 10% anual returns for doing nothing but "growing" money?  And if everyone were to do this?  Reality check...

Believing that it's good or it's bad misses the point that it's all an illusion.  Welcome to the Matrix.

[Catullus]

Fooled by Randomness. 

[indio007]

+1

[Waterfallsparkles]

As with Vampires, if you drain enough blood the Host will die.  So will the Nation once all of the life blood of the people is drained out.

[Sqworl]

Objective isn't to control the conflict, it's to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict, the true value, is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything.....

[Navigator]

<<<The economic chaos will likely lead to a Republican landslide in the 2012 election.>>>

This is article incredibly naive.  Voters in Wisc., Mich., Ohio, Fla., numerous other states and anyone actually watching and thinking about the antics of the House Republicans have...very recently...been reminded of why they had Bush fatigue during the 2008 election.

Now that the R's have decided to take their facade off and try to fight their little class and social issues wars instead of focusing on the economic disaster that Bush left us, Americans see them for who they are and NOT for a group that's going to do anything to create jobs....which is and will be THE issue in 2012.

Junk away...but when you vote in 2012, remember today's House Republican focus on Gay Marriage and Abortion as America sinks under the auspices of radical extremist Republicans Bernanke and Geithner.

[DosZap]

Since we have only 2 choices, I will (barf) take the GOP.

At least they have come forward and vocally voiced that this insane spendiung must stop.

Me, I do not care how much anyone is paid, as long as the workers can get by, and live a semi secure life.

When that is lost, it's OVER.

[IdioTsincracY]

by all means ... like any Republican president has ever balanced anything ...
however we need to re-balance income distribution a little ... or maybe not

???

[IdioTsincracY]

Bush fatigue?!? what are you talking about?

http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Approval.htm

We need a new expression for 'short memory'.

It took just a year and a half to vote republicans back in the house.

[Navigator]

<<<Bush fatigue?!? what are you talking about?>>>

Here's what I'm talking about IdioT....this is the platform they ran on.  They never would have gotten elected if they had run on who they truly are and what they want to do to America...and I think you know it...or else your handle is prophetic.

http://WhenAreTheJobs.com/

[michigan independant]

I respect the opinion but I feel your timeline is to narrow. The stripe you opine on auspices I feel should expand to the thread of regard to the relentless policy of both party's. I think at this time you should ask a bluedog politico very pointed questions. In my opinion and before I noticed structual issues before 1979. This is in a regional context before the rust belt was popular. Also, after the consolidation in this predicated cycle then I would worry. You must remember the issue is that the seat is paid for the current Office as before, and in a true context since I noticed then "early eighties" the pervasive bent of mind we are dealing with today. In my observation to date the repatriated dollars is intellectual blackmail and Americans ignore the facts and fall for the noise. There are plenty of examples from secular and nonsecular sources which indicate these dynamics. I will forward malachi martin as emphasis , grant gefferies, and howard zin as further context to resource management channels. The point I would wish to posit as we already know is Congress was dismissed to local affairs only and really are sock puppets in the overall globalist view as such since i was lets say online in the early to these dymanics we still trip over today. To be honest i feel leo tolstoy had a better grip in 1899 than most today on the poisoned well called public opinion we see today. A few thought's sorry for the verbiage. 

[binky]

Mr. Quinn wrote:

Abraham Lincoln, the Southern states saw a man who was against slavery, believed in a strong Federal government, and supporter of the industrial North. 

The against slavery part is mostly poop.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo44.html

Overall, the article did wonders to cheer me up.

[Chuck Walla]

Social unrest is the whole point!  The bottom demands a solution or relief or justice or whatever. Someone gets violent. Others real or imaginary(MSM) demands it stop. The Government comes down. Confiscations, martial law, etc until control is assured to "protect" a fearful populace. Voila!

[WaterWings]

PURGES

Anyone that knows the truth and vocalizes is targeted for elimination. All under the guise of security - other than a new frontier for revenue, the purpose of social networking isn't for baby and vacation photos - it is a mechanism for control. Look at any similar point in history. Purges will come.

[Ned Zeppelin]

Left vs. right.  jesus.  There is one enemy, and they use that vs to confues and distract you.  Obama and Bush are one and the same.  No difference. 

[IdioTsincracY]

Not really ... not really!

I think the time will come when people (at least 90% of them) will have enough of the "trickle down" bullsh!t

Unfortunately to change the system we'll need the people who are still stuck on a mythical vision of what our founding fathers believed.

They think it's all about bad government ... they look at the puppets and forget about the puppetmasters ...

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

[knukles]

The Hegelian Dialect.

[jesse livermoore]

the gods of the copybook heavens with terror and slaughter return.

[XRAYD]

The time has come!

[XRAYD]

" ... the collapse of the housing market and the ensuing financial system implosion"

The above ignores the truth. Like mistakes "happening" or "the gun went off" - it is the "financial system" that manufactured the dynamite (CDOs, MBS, etc.) and blew itself up. Housing was just a tool for them to suck the blood out of the economy and the lives of people, because markets are "free".

[XRAYD]

The "masses" with social security, medicare, 401Ks and IRAs, are not the same as the masses with AK47s! or even pitchforks. They are mostly bloggers these days.

[feeb]

For those who hadn't yet seen it: Marty's back!

http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Hello%20World%2004-06-2011.pdf

http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Other%20Side%20of%20Inflation%20Mar...

http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Is%20Artificial%20Intelligence%20Re...

Brilliant work as usual, and now perhaps a little more measured now that his surroundings are a lot more conducive to sanity and freedom.  

[defender]

Seems like he has taken the gloves off since his release from prison.  I hope that his life has had some sanity returned to it.

[Hook Line and S...]

Peculiar... all the fourth turnings had bankers loitering about. 

• Revolution - Central banking monetary control, the colonies would NOT be permitted to print their own money (fiat at that!)
• Civil War - Central banking monetary control. State rights and slavery are but rosy herrings. Silver backed currency and Mr Booth were the results.
• WWII = Oligarchs gone erect and attempting to force Germany to 'make available' its assets to international financiers. US, R-fellers and R-Childs were all in on it, never knowing they were about to unleash Hisler, the one who would shut them out (except of course IBM and Chevron which profiteered marvelously).

As Strauss & Howe SHOULD CHANGE (AS POINTED OUT IN BOLD BELOW) in their book, the morphology of a Fourth Turning follows a predictable pattern:

• A Crisis era begins with a catalyst – a starting OLIGARCH/BANKER USING USURY AND FIAT SCAM event (or sequence of events) that produces a sudden shift in mood.
• Once catalyzed, a society achieves a regeneracy AS LONG AS THERE IS NO AMERICAN IDOL ON THE TV – a new counter entropy that reunifies and reenergizes civic life.
• The regenerated society propels toward a climax (FROM THEIR PORN ADDICTION AS THEY STARE AT THE COMPUTER) – a crucial moment that confirms EITHER the death of the old order and birth of the new, OR DEATH OF THE OLD ORDER AND BIRTH OF A NEWER AND MORE EFFICIENT SCIENTIFIC FEUDAL DICTATORSHIP.
• The climax culminates in a resolution – a triumphant or tragic conclusion that separates the winners from losers, resolves the big public questions, and establishes the new order.

[IdioTsincracY]

As I've already said, unfortunately we have a lot of people who decry their government (that actually represents them) in favor of the oligarchy.
They ask for reforms that are going to hurt them and favor the oligarchy, hoping in the "trickle down" effect.

This "trickle down" thing is the best scam ever created, after the "free" market.

Unfortunately, for all of us, pain will need to grow a lot before these people will realize that a class warfare has been in place all along, as wealth has been extracted from the many to the very very very few.

[Hook Line and S...]

Yep, no magic here folks...

Just the perpetuation of the 2000 year usury fiat scam in conjunction with statistically significant, elevated electromagnetic, geo-physical, and gravitational anomalies.

[DavidPierre]

HL&S:

Great summary/critique of The 4th Turding.

flag...+911

[Hook Line and S...]

This 4th turning BS mystique is turning my stomach.

I just had a writhing thought, one that stabs at my solar plexus. Hypothetically, If I was one of the darwinian chosen beings lodged fully within higher rebellion and armored with the practice of usury, then wouldn't I need to have a fiat currency that I could enforce others to use which allows me to stave off peak anything that others retain control of? 

It's been 'peak' (so to speak) for the third world for a long time, this, so its never peak for me.

On a finite planet, the third world must expand so that I might thrive in the zero sum parasite game. <end fantasy>

Unwillingly did most of us garner benefit at the expense of billions of other lives. The Fed, who once loved me, now abandons me! Damn them! Now that my master has demoted his butler to the lowest of servants, how ungraciously I must be going into exile!

[thedrickster]

"Represents" me? That is hilarious, thanks for the moment of levity. In case you haven't noticed, government is the ultimate tool of the oligarchy....a chicken and an egg type conundrum.

And to think that I was under the impression that ZH was simply too offensive for Obamabots to populate.....

Get the fuck out of here you sycophantic, communist troll.

[ebworthen]

Hey, everything is fine, BTFD.

Just don't worry about the $14+ TRILLION of debt, not to mention the unfunded liabilities 3X higher than that.

Toke the hookah, watch come Idol, Twitter, go shopping - Tomorrow will always be as good as today.

Puff...puff...pass...

[topcallingtroll]

Walt Whitman, the first gay liberation activist, believed in an optimistic future.  Your interpretation of phantoms is wrong.

when you read the poem it is clear that Whitman felt that the future belonged to the people and that the enlightenment would continue inevitably.

when he mentioned phantoms he was yearning to see that future, the drama, the deeds unwritten, the inevitable conflicts and sacrifice as we march toward a progressive future.  Phantoms referred to the difficulty of peering into that future.  A future that he and most americans of the time assumed would continue the march of enlightenment and progress, of the people breaking their chains and becoming free from ignorance and tyrants, but not without upheaval and major drama. 

I Sing the Body Electric is a paen to technology and progress.  It must have been incredible to live in the mid to late 19th century because all americans believed in the inevitability of progress and that it would be wonderful.

[Matte_Black]

I logged in only to to say thank you. Your post is like fresh air in a hot room, and a cold drink of water on a hungover morning. I will remember this post of yours the next time I think, "why bother".

[knukles]

My cynicism (not the right word, but the best I can come up with at the moment... bullshit fatigue... whatever) has grown so deep that I ask myself "why bother" and cannot at this very moment remember what was written other than it referenced Walt Whitman (I think) and may at one time have felt wonderful, uplifting, as if a spiritual awakening, but has absolutely no reference today, for we're way past the Nash equilibrium, into the Fourth Turning, experiencing the decline and fall of empire from within, with front row seats.

As opposed to Whitman, for many years I have, paraphrasing Yeats', been saying that there is "no center left to hold."
Remember, Hope was not a panacea, but another evil within Pandora's Box.

[blindman]

http://www.youtube.com/user/peacsees

song of the open road.  uncle walt

[MelvilleSaysNo]

If there's another 'terroist event' on Amerikan soil, I will automatically assume it is a false flag with the purpose of stampeding the cattle into another war.  Such as, for example, 911, Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbor, the Lusitania, the Maine, etc.

Then I will proceed to give Uncle Sam the finger.

[strannick]

Ground zero could shift to Europe as millions of Muslims have settled there and will not react positively to western powers siphoning oil from Islamic countries in the name of Christianity.

So 'Christianity' is why Nato is in Libya? Only someone whose brain is thoroughly soaked with university claptrap could come up with a statement so simultaneously ignorant, yet meaningless.

It does cause one to consider why these millions of Euopean-relocated Muslims felt the need to abandon the bosom of Islam in the first place.

[Seer]

"So 'Christianity' is why Nato is in Libya?"

History makes it pretty clear that religion is a very useful tool in securing new wealth for the ruling elite.

On one hand you have the fundamentalist types that are supporting the charge to erradicate the evil.  And on the other hand you have the more liberal Christians who see it as a need to "save" folks.  Different angles, same ending: spearhead to open up a counry for exploitation.

Got Mit Uns

[Dez Rodgee]

It really doesn't matter.  If WW III breaks out were all dead unless you have a bomb shelter and who wants to be underground without internet and eating prepackaged food for 2 years.  I am all about conspiracy theories, but does it really fucking matter if we get to WW III.  Life as you know it will be dead.  We can only hope that we just go through another great depression and we survive, because the other alternative is not very appealing.

[redpill]

This posting is not very helpful.  Very melodramatic, yes, but no specifics.  No shortage of vague generational slotting of significant historical events, but a notable lack of foresight of what is to follow. 

How does the old phrase go, those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it?  The author certainly knows some history, but I'm not sure he has truly learned from it.  He knows these things have happened and has tried to organize them into some overarching timeline, but he doesn't communicate an understanding of WHY they happened.  And because of that, he's rendered incapable of making any sort of concrete prediction of what we are facing now.

To make matters worse, the piece is largely rhetorical without any practical guidance or vewpoint.  I mean it ends with a giant question mark for god sakes.  Well I sure as fuck didn't need to read all that only to find out you don't have a clue what is about to happen!

[Seer]

If we all knew what was going to happen then TPTB wouldn't be able to manipulate things such that they stay in power.  While I know what TPTB want, I'm very sceptical that they will be able to necessarily control things to their favor.

[Vlad Tepid]

I like the Whitman quotes, but do you have an executive summary of this post?

[Agent 440]

Wow. People think *I'm* pessimistic!