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Page added on July 7, 2014
Kunstler: Never has a society appeared so childishly decadent
W ith lakes, swimming holes, rivers, and pools beckoning, I went to a sporting goods chain store at the mall — where else? — seeking a new bathing suit (pardon the quaint locution). The store was curiously named Dick’s. All they had were clown trunks. By this I mean a garment designed to hang somewhere around mid-calf, instantly transforming a normally-proportioned adult male into a stock slapstick character: the oafish man-child.
This being a commodious warehouse-style store, there was rack upon rack of different brands of bathing suits, all cut in the same clown style. I chanced by one of the sparsely-deployed employees and inquired if they had any swimming togs in a shorter cut.
“What you see is alls we got,” he said.
Even the Speedo brand had gone clown — except for the bikini brief, which I wore back during 30 years of lap-swimming, but which I deemed not quite okay for an elderly gentleman on the casual summer swim scene. So I left Dick’s without a new suit, but not before having a completely unsatisfying conversation with one of the managers.
“In the old days,” I explained, “bathing suits were designed to minimize the amount of cloth one dragged around in the water. These clown trunks you sell not only make a person look ridiculous, but they must be an awful drag in the water.”
“That’s what they send us,” he said. “It’s alls we got.”
The Fourth of July rolled in just in time to celebrate the disintegration of Iraq following our eight-year, three trillion dollar campaign to turn it into a suburb of Las Vegas. Me and my girl went over to the local fireworks show, held on the ballfield of a fraternal order lodge on the edge of town. The fire department had hung up a gigantic American Flag — like, fifty feet long! — off the erect ladder of their biggest truck, in case anybody forgot what country they were in. Personally, I was wondering what planet I was on. It was a big crowd, and every male in it was dressed in a clown rig.
The complete outfit, which has (oddly) not changed in quite a few years (suggesting the tragic trajectory we’re on), includes the ambiguous long-short pants, giant droopy T- shirt (four-year-olds have proportionately short legs and long torsos), “Sluggo” style stubble hair, sideways hat (or worn “cholo” style to the front ), and boat-like shoes, garments preferably all black, decorated with death-metal band logos. You can see, perhaps, how it works against everything that might suggest the phrase: “competent adult here.” Add a riot of aggressive-looking tattoos in ninja blade and screaming skull motifs and you get an additional message: “sociopathic menace, at your service.” Finally, there is the question: just how much self-medication is this individual on at the moment? I give you: America’s young manhood.
Does it seem crotchety to dwell on appearances? Sorry. The public is definitely sending itself a message disporting itself as it does in the raiment of clowning. Here in one of the “fly-over” zones of America — 200 miles north of New York City — the financial economy is mythical realm like Shangri-La and the real economy is somewhere between the toilet and a rat hole. Under the tyranny of chain stores, there really is no true local commercial economy. The few jobs here are menial and nearly superfluous to the automatic workings of the giant companies.
I don’t have the statistics but I suspect a lot of the males around here are on federal disability payments, and probably in the psychological categories including “depression,” “learning disabilities,” “ADHD, and so on.” In such a situation, wouldn’t a person benefit from presenting himself as child-like, with a dash of menace? And wouldn’t it be advantageous to look that way all of the time, in case one was unexpectedly visited by a government employee?
Down in Brooklyn, a world away, the young men go about in their hipster uniforms: Pee Wee Herman cut casuals. They’re still role-playing “the smart kid in the class” even though they’ve been out of class for a decade. Their computer dreams of IPO glory are formulated with the tunnel-vision of science fair projects. Left out are the realities of the greater unraveling.
Women are not at the center of this story. Theirs is another story. Let some woman tell it before I get to it.
Never has a society entered an epochal transition with such unpreparedness.
Never has a society appeared so childishly decadent.
13 Comments on "Kunstler: Never has a society appeared so childishly decadent"
Makati1 on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 6:40 pm
JHK sums up America very well. I had a similar experience clothes shopping on my last visit. Stores full of stuff I would not want to be caught dead in, let alone on the street. We are a nation of semi-adults and that is being generous.
I cannot speak for Europe, but I know that the Filipinos and most Asians still dress reasonably sane, at least in public. You might see a Tee shirt with a less than proper imprint, but it will be on a teen, not an adult. And pants are at the waist, not half way down the butt.
Dress, manors and speech are visible signs of the state of any country. Sadly, the US is in the trash bin. “You know!” And the “F” word is so common, I bet they don’t even realize they are saying it two or three times in every sentence.
They are exceptional alright…
redpill on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 6:55 pm
I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about Mak. God, you’re like a fucking repeating record for fucks sake!
noobtube on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 7:15 pm
Just since 2000, it seems like everything has gone to crap… the food, the clothing, the electronics, the houses, the health care, the restaurants, and on and on.
The quality, available to the masses, just seems to be getting worse with each year.
14 years into the 21st century and it seems like everyone is either fat, in debt up to their eyeballs, living check-to-check, totally obsessed with themselves, or intentionally ignorant about and unwilling to do anything in their local community or neighborhood that actually makes a difference.
Never seen the United States like this.
There is a creeping fatalism to it all. It’s as if the young have just resigned themselves to their fate and have no fight in them. Just go along to get along.
Maybe 10+ years of wars will do that to you.
Norm on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 7:23 pm
If only 1 person in 100 is a decent human being in this new USA, your job is start sorting thru all the trash, until you get acquainted with somebody kind.
Calhoun on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 9:01 pm
Jim lives in rural way-upstate NY, a land that once was the commercial engine of the nation’s most vital state. That was over 100 years ago. The slide came slowly, but relentlessly. There were ups and subsequent downs — mostly downs. I witnessed it first hand. Today, driving through neighborhoods that I once knew to be active and healthy is a sad task. Crumbling infrastructure and a reliance on state jobs (that’s what you hope for) and retiree pensions that won’t exist for today’s retirees.
But, hey, we’ve got shale oil! We’re the new oil bully on the block. It’s a whole new paradigm. Isn’t it great?
Davy on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 9:22 pm
Redpill, Mak is a Wak. He is monotonous in his dribble. I see some of what Kunstler describes but not much. People around here a good solid hard working people. They dress decent and act decent. I am getting tired of Wak jobs putting down my country especially in comparison to a grossly overpopulated Asia that is in the process of destroying the world.
Makati1 on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 1:29 am
Davy you live in a sheltered world. It sure isn’t the real one. Been to a Walmart lately? Or do you even shop that low on the food chain? Or does your wife do all the shopping and you live strictly on the farm? I tried to buy a pair of sweet pants for lounging and couldn’t find anything under $40 that didn’t have beer ads, sexual themes, skulls and crossbones, gang graffiti, etc on them. I lived in Philly for a few years before I moved to the PS and it was a trash bin then. I can only imagine how it is today, except that I would never go back there to live again.
I guess living in the US today is just like living next to a sewer, you get to the point where your senses are dulled and you don’t even notice the stench. Only someone from the outside is blown away by the odor.
Makati1 on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 1:29 am
…sweat pants…
clueless on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 1:31 am
Delusional Davy,LOL. Makati1 and Noobtube are both white americans (i’m a psychic. lol), who are true to themselves and are just telling the truth. What’s wrong with that? Bashing is totally different from that…because that is what you’re doing, and comparatively, you’re the one who got the problem.
Btw, i live here in LA, and majority, specially at night, dresses like porn stars. Not to mention, half of the people here are nutjobs.
Oh…and please…it’s America who totally exploited, destroyed , trashed and ruined earth. Want some proof? GOOGLE.
You’re monotonous in dribbling. LOL
Makati1 on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 1:32 am
redpill, you are either not very intelligent, or you are blind to your surroundings, or a government bot. Perhaps you and Davy live in some fenced off part of the world where reality does not intrude?
Davy on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 2:18 am
The noob and clue are on the Mak show. Mak has waks as guests so we would expect clue and noob to show up. Mak you have been away for too long so what do you know. Besides when things get bad you will be living on coconut rations and we will be having steak. Clue LA is a special case study in American culture so I can understand why that is where you live. It is useless immigrants like you that came to our country, feed off it, and when you end up a janitor you bitch. Go home wuss. We don’t want nor need parasites like you feeding off our welfare system. As for noob he is probably a closet columbine brat ready to snap and end up on the evening news. See Mak, these are the cats you pal around with. It says volumes to your pedigree. I am glad you are gone Mak, so we don’t have to pay your nursing home bill. Let some Pilipino maid wipe your butt.
Arthur on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 2:46 am
Could it be that both Davy and Makati are right when they speak from their private experiences?
Isn’t so that rural conservative red state Rep ‘flyover country’ is better preserved than the decadent coasts, ‘rainbow country’?
Demi Lovato vs Edith Bunker?
http://youtu.be/OJGUbwVMBeA
Demi Lovato is the NWO. Pornofied, tatooed, raw fem-power, surrounded by disfunctional males in hot pants, leather boys, drag queens, good grief…
Camille Paglia can be proud, game, set and match, mission accomplished. Edith Bunker and her rock-solid marriage with Archie, based on an extremely efficient division of labor, where Archie does the opinions and Edith the coffee… has been defeated.
Now we all can go to Dick’s and buy non-oppressive swimming gear in line with the Zeitgeist.
Davy on Tue, 8th Jul 2014 3:39 am
Art, I agree, but I am forced into a corner by the likes of the extremists on this board like Mak, clue, and noob. I feel I am closing the windows to keep the pests out. Pests are what extremists are. I can liken Mak, clue, and noob to locust. Locusts come and visit an area with scorched earth behavior. They leave nothing behind with their visit. It is only their opinion that matters in their discussions. There is no balance or greyness with these pests. With these pests it is always about the food of their lust and that is justification of their ideologue. The truth does not matter with these folks. It is only their extreme view that matters not a balanced truth. A balanced truth is very difficult to side against. So, someone like Mak may speak some truth but the truth is twisted to his ends so there is really no truth to what Mak says. If one distorts the truth to prove a point this point is then a falsity and negates any truth to the “complete” argument. Parts do not add up to a whole with the truth if falsities are part of the equation. The truth is not some parts true and some falsities. This is precisely the predicament we see so often today with our BAU. BAU is no longer valid because it is a summation of truth and falsities. Reality is only reality one cannot pick and choose one’s reality. I do not claim to own the truth or have a corner on reality but I am willing to get closer to the two no matter the consequences. This is why I am currently a doomer type. It would be a lovely to have a manufactured reality we so often see today with BAU. Mak lives in a manufactured reality with his third world nest spiel of a port in the storm of descent. Mak is full of doo doo.