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When The Narrative Breaks
Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
Sometimes societies just go crazy. Japan, 1931, Germany, 1933. China, 1966. Spain 1483, France, 1793, Russia, 1917, Cambodia, 1975, Iran, 1979, Rwanda, 1994, Congo, 1996, to name some. By “crazy” I mean a time when anything goes, especially mass killing. The wheels came off the USA in 1861, and though the organized slaughter developed an overlay of romantic historical mythos — especially after Ken Burns converted it into a TV show — the civilized world to that time had hardly ever seen such an epic orgy of death-dealing.
I doubt that I’m I alone in worrying that America today is losing its collective mind. Our official relations with other countries seem perfectly designed to provoke chaos. The universities have melted into toxic sumps beyond even anti-intellectualism to a realm of hallucination. Demented gunmen mow down total strangers weekly in what looks like a growing competition to end their miserable lives with the highest victim score. The financial engineers have done everything possible to pervert and undermine the operations of markets. The political parties are committing suicide by cluelessness and corruption.
There is no narrative for our behavior toward Russia that makes sense anymore. Our campaign to destabilize Ukraine worked out nicely, didn’t it? And then we acted surprised when Russia reclaimed the traditionally Russian territory of Crimea, with its crucial warm-water naval ports. Who woulda thought? Then we attempted to antagonize them further with economic sanctions. The net effect is that Vladimir Putin ended up looking more rational and sane than any leader in the NATO coalition.
Lately, Russia has filled the vacuum of competence in Syria, cleaning up a mess that America left with its two-decade-long crusade to leave a train of broken governments everywhere in the region. A few weeks back, Mr. Putin made the point before the UN General Assembly that wrecking every national institution in sight among weak and unstable nations was probably not a recipe for world peace. President Obama never did formulate a coherent comeback to that. It’s a little terrifying to realize that the leader of our former arch-adversary is the only figure onstage who can come up with a credible story about what needs to happen there. And his restraint this week following what may have been a US-assisted shoot-down of a Russian bomber by idiots in Turkey is really estimable. It all looks like a feckless slide provoked by our side into World War III, and for what? To make the world safe for the Kardashians?
The uproars on campus before Thanksgiving are more a reflection on the astounding cowardice of college presidents than the foolishness of young minds — which, being not fully formed, are easily susceptible to idealist figments. The adults in charge ought to know better. Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber actually entertained the “demand” to erase Woodrow Wilson’s presence on campus for being an arch-segregationist by a black “social justice league” that at the very same time demanded separate (i.e. segregated) social space for blacks only. How did he reconcile these pleadings in his own mind, I wonder.
President Biddy Martin of Amherst pandered to students protesting against free speech, saying:
“Over the course of several days, a significant number of students have spoken eloquently and movingly about their experiences of racism and prejudice on and off campus. The depth and intensity of their pain and exhaustion are evident. That pain is real. Their expressions of loneliness and sense of invisibility are heartrending. No attempt to minimize or trivialize those feelings will be convincing to those of us who have listened. It is good that our students have seized this opportunity to speak, rather than further internalizing the isolation and lack of caring they have described.”
Bottom line: hurt feelings supposedly cancel free speech. No, that’s exactly the opposite of the meaning of the First Amendment. How can a college president fail to understand that and fail to defend the campus against that sort of Jacobin despotism? The answer is they are hostage to dogmas cooked up by race-and-identity careerists who don’t really care to make distinctions between what is true and what is not true — and that is now the official tone of higher education in America. It’s a short hop from there to not knowing the difference between what is real and what is unreal.
The phenomenon of demented lone gunmen killing strangers and innocents will morph into civil insurrection, especially as the major political parties break apart and the loosed factions set out to settle their old scores by whatever means they can. History knows that violence is infectious and that social inhibitions melt away when the conditions are ripe. Groups give themselves permission to act outside the bounds of normal behavior, and all of a sudden atrocity is the order of the day.
Both Trump and Hillary have the mojo to destroy their respective parties and I think the probability is that they will. Unfortunately, we don’t live under a parliamentary system that recognizes smaller factions as legitimate parties, so we are sure to live through an era of political disorder. What emerges from that could be a very severe polity, since it will be based on the wish to restore order at all costs.
It is likely to get the shove it needs from the implosion of the financial system, which is now running on the fumes of dwindling credit. A false capitalism reigns based on false capital — notional wealth where there is really no wealth; value where there is no value. Moments like this in history beat a path straight to currency collapse, and that will open the door to a greater collapse of all our familiar arrangements.
Surely there is some kind of massive unseen sensory organ in societies that receives the signal that systems are failing. And surely it spooks the individuals who make up those societies so badly that they will believe anything and do anything.
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...I'll have no place to stay.
It's time for a new movement.
Pissed Off Old White Guy Lives Matter.
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Face it, the United States is ruled by proto-Nazis, just as Paul Craig Roberts has written about constantly. Welcome to Gulag America.
Call what you wish, but dictatorship is what it is. Of course, this time its different......
The last thing to pass thr' your brain before the .40 slug does.
last week I sold one share of Amazon (minus fees) for a hooker, 8 ball, and a hotel room... yeah it's just paper wealth
...the rest I wasted.
We gave it all she had under ZIRP and NIRP. The media will be spinning a better monetary fund model.
Watch it unfold.
It is already here - the relentless push towards a crypto currency.
Every monetary transaction tracked, service fees, negative interest charges, taxes, every time.
And, instant mark to value power, instant print to infinity fake digital currency powers as well.
And the long government nose up your hooptie, 24 / 7 / 365.
Merry Christmas, from Your Controllers.
It's all predicated on one group of elites deciding for everybody what is right and wrong, but the problem is most elites are indistinguishable from the village idiot.....
I'd say most elites are downright evil (thinking their opinions are worth more than the people whose throats they are shoving their opinions down is at the very least sociopathic). The village idiot is most likely benign.
America is at least 4 or 5 country's traped in one body
It's only two. Real Americans who believe in freedom and despise slavery in any form, and sycophantic traitorous swine who will go down with their system.
Not really. I agree with your general statement, but there are likely irreconcilable differences between at least two distinct parts of the country and probably more like 5. I see distinct and problematic differences between: The South, Northeastern region, the Midwest, southwest sunbelt and the Northwest. I feel a peaceful dissolution would solve the culture war problems and let people get back to work and know their tax dollars to to support a civil society they agree with whether that's a theocracy or a Democratic Republic with strong rule of law.
The way the republic was envisioned by the founders was for there to be a division of power between the federal government, the states and the sovereign citizen. The individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is part of the social contract. Where we went off the rails was when the federal government usurped the power to advantage some states to the disadvantage of others. This initially started with tariffs that were designed to protect northern business interests to the disadvantage of southern consumers. That trend once initiated morphed into the notion that the Supreme Court through Marbury v Madison has the authority to pass whatever law it wishes in the pursuit of its peculiar sense of social justice.
How is it that nine people have the power to force states to accept their interpretation of what is right in regards to gun laws, abortion and whether or not Bill and Ted have a right to get married. Those issues are in the domain of state law not federal law. In an effort to make one size fit all they are going rip us a part.
If we go back to federalism as it was intended then Muslims can force every pork product out of Michigan and both Muslims and Baptist can vote with their feet. As it is now, the pot is going to simmer until it boils over.
None of this matters as long as the Fed, ECB, and other central banks PRINT, PRINT and PRINT. The printing presses hide everything that needs to be addressed. THAT IS THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE of market manipulation and QE. NOTHING EVER GETS FIXED!!! But every dipo... the Fed and ECB have your back. Easy money.
It only hides it on the surface. If you look at first and second order derivatives, it hides nothing.
sorry, but i can't help but LOL at the "trump destroying the republican party" line. the republican party destroyed the republican party when they allowed these deficits & debt to be run OUT OF CONTROL by BOTH a republican president AND a democratic president (when they controlled congress). complete fucking horseshit - if they wanted to put an end to obama's non-sense, they could have started when they took back the house & doubled-in when the reclaimed the senate. now i GET they want all 3 but the water has been coming to a boil the last few years even if the rest of the country is too fucking retarded to understand how things like obamacare are boon-doggles that are crippling us economically.
trump is no different than putin in that regard - he is guy who is fucking sick & tired of all the bullshit being spun around washington & people making $$$ off it. whether its the defense industry or healthcare industry or the banks with the fed ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. another reason i laugh at people who think trump is a joke of candidate. he and ted cruz are the only 2 who have the fucking balls to shut down the FOMC and this insanity which is buying your own debt with money that does not exist. its now become en-vouge and countries are basically doing the certifiably insane & when the shit hits the fan, they will say they learned it by watching us (who learned it by watching the japanese, great "model" to follow).
Have Trump and Cruz ever even spoken of the FOMC, the Federal Reserve, FRN's or fiat currency? Not that I'm aware of. If so, please provide a link.
Armed Resistance
What Trump has repeatedly said, is there are positions he will not discuss because it destroys his negotiating power.
Kind of like the opposite of Obama and the Fed, where they telegraph every move for the enemy or their cronies.
Best thing for the Fed to do is velcro their lips shut and run monetary policy for the sake of the country and not their cronies. In fact, a bump in interest rates would be an economic boon. Then never discuss whether you will raise or lower rates.
And the best thing for Obama to do is stay away from cameras- it is far better to be thought a dithering dilettante that to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
But Trump's mask fell when he openly supported torture.
The Republicans destroyed their party when they proved willing to break all their own rules to deny Ron Paul even a single vote at the convention. Not even a speaking role for his and all his supporters trouble. In some cases, the former leadership at the local level walked out with the votes, refusing to step down, and in others cops were called to eject party members who wanted change.
For the false two party system to fail, one of the legs has to break first. They need each other to survive, which is why they cooperate and conspire against all of us. It doesn't matter which party collapses first; it will be a glorious day.
@ Poaster. +1000
Everything is going great. Record profits and executive pay on the coroporate side, and plenty of money in the pockets of their crony politicians. And they've told you over and over that a rising tide lifts all boats. So what the fuck more do you people want???
I have defined the narrative since March 10th 2008 @ 11:00am Bear Stearns time New York shitty, Kunstler. Moreover, the narrative is that America is a failed totalitarian dictatorship that is clinging to fascism in order to attain some semblance of survivability where there really is none. Like Hollywood, the CIA script writers think they can write their way out of imploding Ponzi hell when we all know that is not possible.
Furthermore, you have done your level headed best to perpetuate the Zionist state that has delivered up the very 'narrative' that you now condemn out of hand, and out of ignorance in terms of your own involvement. In brief, as an industry Jew propagandist you have some soul searching to do IMHO. Think of de Rothschild Bank, Kunstler, and then sit down to write ideas instead of more propagandized spin that emanates out of New York shitty.
It all looks like a feckless slide provoked by our side into World War III, and for what? To make the world safe for the Kardashians?
Good question...
I don't recall the Germans going crazy in 1933.
I recall the Germans invading because communists were there.
Once you start that lie, how can anything after have any relavance in the world other than to spread disinformation, tyler?
Its funny that so many blame the "nazies" when it is the 'ashkenazies' who are the problem.
Not a post goes by that doesn't fullfull godwins law.
Prove me wrong.
Currency collapse generally requires a failed economy to collapse against another. When we're all racing to the bottom, we all go down together.
The difference this time is there are 7 billion people who need feeding, most concentrated in massive conurbations. War is way to expensive now, so we will soon be clubbing ourselves with sticks, fighting over the few scraps of food. No one will be honouring food stamps or food banks.
The f***ing mad psychopathic bastards that run everything will whip us into a frenzy to distract from the people who have accumulated everything worth having. But they do not have another planet to run to. When they appear from their holes in the ground. They will be living in the same stinking mess as any other survivors. Good luck to them!
I've been practicing roasting rats on a stick over a burning tire. Gettin' pretty good at it
Bon appetit, Tex.
Are you giving workshops?
No. You'll have to figure it out on your own. It may be a challenge for you, but stick with it.
"Don't trust anyone over (the age of) 30." ~ Hippies, 1967.
With the typical "doublespeak" being applied here, clearly tells us we should have been not trusting anyone UNDER the age of 30.
Because we let this go on so long, we can now not trust anyone under the age of 78. I think we can simply kill everyone in the present school system.
Don't get more than a couple of weeks ahead, OK? Everybody's having trouble keeping up as it is.
Grants General Order No. 11
"anti-intellectualism to a realm of hallucination"
I know someone who works for a University. She’s in administration w/a union contract.
She has to work 14 hours a week in order to receive full-time pay for the week.
She works one day a week as administration writing policy and teaches one course, two nights a week; three hours each night. That’s it.
And get this… she cannot tell the students to cut class early, but if they do leave early, she can leave too!
I was an adjunct professor for two years, and worked basically the same exact hours as your friend for four grand a semester.
I added up the salary from my full time job, plus the "income" from teaching and realized I still made less than any of the profs in my dept, including the newest, non-tenured asst professor with no real-world experience. And I taught as much as him.
Such is the way of doomed societies.
Here are some signs of a coming recession.
1. Factory orders continue to drop
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-02/us-factory-orders-flash-recession-warning-drop-yoy-10th-month-row
2. Default risk spikes
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-02/us-financials-default-risk-spikes-2-year-high
3. M&A set record
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/05/29/mergers-and-acquisitions-set-record/
4. Fed sees 2 bubbles
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/02/20/fed-warns-of-two-bubbles/
o Commercial Property higher than pre-2007 level.
http://nreionline.com/finance-investment/cre-prices-are-now-officially-above-pre-recession-peak
o Global Corporate Debt Market hits $5 trillion.
http://fn.dealogic.com/fn/DCMRank.htm
5. Iron ore prices tumble
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iron-ore-prices-keep-crashing-adding-to-global-growth-fears-2015-11-30
6. Baltic dry shipping index tumbles
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shipping-index-falls-to-all-time-low-stoking-fears-about-global-growth-2015-11-19
Here is how to prepare.
http://michaelekelley.com/2014/10/16/8-things-to-do-when-recession-happens/
Here is how to get your mind off this stuff.
http://michaelekelley.com/category/humor/
Good luck!
If one good thing comes out of this emerging crises it would be the end of "banking" and usury as a legitimate concept among the public.
Banks are not required for anything but enlavement, and "interest" is their weapon. Investment can be done without borrowing, and the flow of money can be handled outside of their current global shadow system.
Banks are useless.
Yes. I've lost interest in banks.
This is that point when Kim Kardashian, in the middle of mindless anarchy and disorder, and when all hope seems lost, climbs on top of a Mercedes and yells out to console, calm, and reunite the masses, bringing peace and order once again to the people. Boy, are we screwed.
Surely there is some kind of massive unseen sensory organ in societies that receives the signal that systems are failing.
So-called "societies" are fictional, and thus have no sensory organs.
However, individual humans are real, and do have sensory organs.
Unfortunately, most humans have so thoroughly habituated the brainwashing foisted by parents, family, friends, teachers, mass-media and human predators-DBA-government and predators-DBA-corporations that... assumptions and conclusions in contradiction to sensation, perception and rational thought prevail and control.
Humans are a failed species.
Humans are so finished.
Just a matter of time.
"What emerges from that could be a very severe polity, since it will be based on the wish to restore order at all costs."
Even the CIA is split into opposing factions. Nobody is at the helm anymore in the USA.
To restore order, good luck. How do you get this hydra of conflicting interests, all heavily loaded with dollars and able to buy politicians, to stop pushing their own personal agenda at the expense of everybody else?
'Murika was dumb enough to label democracy "a tyranny of the majority", so now you have the tyranny of diverse, conflicting and powerful minorities.
Have fun.
Humans are merely specks of undigested peanuts in the cosmic butt-hole.