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Page added on October 1, 2012
Kunstler: In Full Flight
Flying at higher platitudes in the thin upper air of his own mind last week, Republican candidate Mitt Romney remarked apropos of airplane travel: “[T]he windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous.”
It turned out that Mitt meant the remark as a gag. But it sheds some light on the hazard of trying to be funny by saying the opposite of what you mean, and also on the essential character of Mr. Romney who, to put it as plainly and directly as possible, is the sort of person commonly described as “an asshole.” Hence, the thought that must be flashing through many people’s minds these days when Romney’s off-kilter, square-jawed, grinning visage floats over the nearest flat-screen: Who would vote for that asshole…? Being given to more baroque taxonomy, myself, I would be satisfied in calling Mr. Romney an empty vessel in a vacant room in an abandoned property in a forsaken land, and leave it at that.
It happens that his opponent, Mr. Obama, is a genial fellow with whom almost anyone might like to have a beer. Despite his winning smile, though, the president has managed to cripple due process of law, make war on the nation’s own citizens, let Wall Street criminals run amok, and sell out the electoral process to a corrupt corporate oligarchy. I wouldn’t vote for him again if he water-boarded me in a Jacuzzi full of Schorschbräu’s Schorschbock 57 beer ($275 a bottle). But he’s welcome to come over to my house and watch the baseball playoffs if he brings his own six-pack and a bag of Cheetos.
And so it goes on the backstretch of the emptiest election contest in memory. The nation simply can’t contend with the existential problems it faces and doesn’t want to hear about them. As far as I can tell, nobody is paying attention to the campaigns, not even the reporters, certainly not the bloggers, who have their eyes on the riots and other kinetic unravelings related to the money crisis in Europe. Here, where anything goes and nothing matters, everybody just goes through the motions of electoral politics. It all has the odor of a ritual that nobody remembers the original purpose of – namely, to govern, i.e. to manage society’s collective affairs. These days, nobody believes that our affairs are manageable, and their perception is probably correct, especially when it comes to paying for it all, since accounting fraud is now the basis of all financial operations.
But I don’t mean to just deplore the situation. It is what it is, and we are at a certain juncture of history because of the choices we have made, and we’ll have to see how the consequences roll out. Here’s how I see some of them.
The Romney election fiasco will destroy the Republican Party, just as the Whig party fell apart in the last days of Millard Fillmore. The religious nuts and Dixieland ignoranti will demand the expulsion of all non-extremists and Karl Rove will be left at the Nascar track with Honey Boo Boo on his lap and a dwindling “base” of shrieking microcephalics awaiting the second coming of Adolf Hitler in a green satin Mountain Dew race-day jumpsuit. Respectable conservatives (they exist) will have to take their pleadings elsewhere, the venue or party yet-to-be determined, perhaps off-shore somewhere where the downtrodden sew blue jeans and counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbags.
Meanwhile, genial Barack Obama glides to victory and then presides over four more years of implacable contraction that will make the Great Depression look like an episode of Cake Boss. The contraction is upon us because peak oil is for real and shale-gas / shale oil is what used to be known as “a bill o’goods” which one is sold by underhanded means and, boy, was this country sold. BP, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil and the gang carpet-bombed the cable news networks all year with shale propaganda and now everybody and his mother thinks we’re going to run Walmart indefinitely on the rectified rock-farts of North Dakota. The sharpies over at Spin Central haven’t figured out yet that true “energy independence” means living without the oil you need to run your stuff.
In reality, the roughly 300-year fiesta of an expanding fossil fuel energy supply is over, and that model of an economy with it. We’ll also soon discover the hard way that technology is not a substitute for energy. No matter how many apps you can cram into a little pocket-sized box you still need juice to run it. In any case, the folks who elected Mr. Obama will be furious when they learn the truth of our predicament. The Democratic Party may not blow up quite like the Republicans, but it could become the front organization for the imperial return of Bill and Hillary Clinton. I’ve maintained for over decade that Bill Clinton will get back into power despite the 22nd amendment because the nostalgia for the 1990s will be so overwhelming and irresistible in a harsh age. The only thing I wonder about is whether Bill or Hillary will succeed in getting the other bumped off. Otherwise the regime could develop into something like the brief joint Roman emperorship of Pupienus and Balbinus (238 AD). Eventually, I expect bankruptcy, political paralysis, and social disorder to become so extreme that a Pentagon general will stride into the White House and put an end to the freak show. A Navy Seal team spirits away Bill and Hillary to a dumpster in the ruins of Opryland… and it’s on to the new dark age.
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11 Comments on "Kunstler: In Full Flight"
Sharpie on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 3:50 am
Kunstler: the man America needs but doesn’t deserve.
BillT on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 4:31 am
“… technology is not a substitute for energy …”
When the deniers realize this FACT, there will be riots in the streets…
Frank Kling on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 9:48 am
So what do nothing? Forget it. I will vote for Obama because the Republicans are a sad but cruel joke. I am also confident that Obama will feel unencumbered by another election and as a consequence propose bold initiatives. The author seems to forget that the Republican’s were determined from day one to make Obama a one term president by opposing him on everything.
BillT on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 1:21 pm
Really Frank? Perhaps Obama won against the Jokers on the other team because he was supposed to win?
Did you ever consider that only a Democrat can take down the Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, welfare system without a riot?
Did you notice that the Police State plan didn’t disappear but was strengthened?
Did the National Debt decrease in the last 3 1/2 years? Real unemployment?
Did you notice that we are in more ‘wars’ today than when Obama took office?
Do you really think that The game will be any different if Obama loses?
Do you really think that flip/flop lying Romney is supposed to win?
Do you think?
Barbara Spencer on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 1:38 pm
I hope Obama will feel unencumbered by another election. But confident? Not so much.
Charitably, Obama would still feel the same personal, if not political pressures, that he feels today. Would the military/industrial complex really hesitate to put a bullet in his head, if he messed with their profits or power?
Hubbertsfreak on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 3:59 pm
Voting today is an illusion of choice. It doesn’t matter who the figurehead is in the White House. They are not the ones in charge. Why do actors go into politics? Because they know how to deliver their lines.
rollin on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 5:16 pm
Bill Clinton for king and Hillary for queen? We could do worse. The noblemen will be the heads of big industries and the knights will be the generals. I can hear the coconuts imitating horses now.
MrEnergyCzar on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 6:56 pm
Maybe Mitt will have the best debate in the history of debates and turn it around….
MrEnergyCzar
Mike in Calif. on Mon, 1st Oct 2012 10:28 pm
Changing captains on the Titanic ~after~ hitting the iceberg is futile. They’re both corrupt liars who share in common a life in which neither has held a real, productive job … ever.
Money shifter and community agitator, governor and senator, rich man and failed ideologue.
We need a federal law which requires polling places to offer barf bags, because every time I hear one of these human-shaped turds speaking I want to wretch.
As for Kunstler, he’s still pissed that he’s been duped twice. Once in his nostalgic 1960’s and second by O-business-as-usual. He should stick to what he’s good at … which ain’t politics.
Arthur on Tue, 2nd Oct 2012 10:41 am
From a viewpoint of European interest I tend to favor Obama, since he represents the leftwing of Israeli politics that is more cautious about the wisdom of kicking of a war against Iran, where Romney is the lackey of the Likud and will do whatever Netanyahoo says he must do. The latter has a great interest in war as he was the one who ordered 9/11 and he has the truth movement in his neck, as gleefilly recognized by the Iranians:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/09/20/262683/israel-seeks-iran-war-to-keep-lid-on-911/
For more years of peace gives Europe more time to achieve the official goal of 20% energy from renewables by 2020, which is enough to prevent the worst die-off scenarios, even if most of the industry will be flat on it’s face by that time if war breaks out.
Cloud9 on Tue, 2nd Oct 2012 10:57 am
Arthur, I wish you luck but things don’t look all that peaceful.