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Page added on July 18, 2016
Kunstler: A Dark Prospect
I was in the streets of Chicago in 1968 during the Democratic Convention. It was only a few months after Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot to death. The “establishment,” as we called it back then, was all set to nominate Vice-president Hubert Humphrey who had started out in Washington as a Midwestern progressive firebrand but was now was broadly perceived by America’s hippie youth as a stooge and a sell-out to the evil forces running the Vietnam War.
I wasn’t exactly a protester, more like a proto-journalist, there to witness an epochal event. It was a wild three days with a lot of moiling in Lincoln Park and Grant Park, and finally out on Michigan Avenue the night of Humphrey’s awful apotheosis, where things got especially ugly and the tear gas canisters flew. But that was about it. Nobody got killed by the police, or vice-versa, and then we all went back to college (my SUNY school cost $500-a-year back then, by the bye). Nixon was the consolation prize.
Back then, it was in style to assassinate political leaders. Today it’s in fashion to assassinate police. It’s hard to imagine easier targets. Where trouble is brewing in the streets nowadays, there they stand: right out in front, easily distinguished in their uniforms. That was exactly the picture on the front page of The New York Times today: the thin blue line in Cleveland, where the Republican convention convenes this week to nominate the golden deus ex machina Donald Trump. There are few things in life one can predict with certainty, but given the grave events of recent weeks, it is hard to see how deadly gunplay might be avoided at the 2016 Republican convention.
Maybe the police will just decide to stay indoors and not present themselves as targets. Likelihood of that: not much. Ohio officials are talking about suspending the “open carry” law for the duration of the event. That would probably make for better “optics” than, say, an armed mob brandishing repeating rifles, but even if that law is suspended, it’s not hard to imagine people carrying weapons in a guitar case or a backpack. The killing meme is just on, like the deadly spirits that wafted out of Pandora’s Box.
Maybe it’s time for the Black President, Mr. Obama, to just come out and tell the black population that their grievances against the police are trumped up, shall we say: that Alton Sterling was not an upright citizen doin’ nuttin’ but a convicted felon carrying a gun, and that we still don’t know the facts about what Philando Castile was doing when he got shot in his car, and, well, he might just go back and shake off the fairy dust surrounding the Michael Brown (Ferguson) incident, the Tamir Rice (“toy” gun) incident, and all the other ambiguous situations of the past several years that have sparked the current crisis in race relations.
Otherwise, it’s beginning to look a lot like race war in America. Political and thought leaders have so far failed to conduct that fabled “conversation about race” that is such a phantom presence in the national life. It is apparently too painful to actually undertake. The pretenses about it have become ludicrous — for example Hillary Clinton’s recent utterance that “white people need to recognize our privilege,” and the fatuous calls to “come together.”
Both black and white America (especially “liberal” HRC America) might better ask themselves: why have we promoted the idea that blacks needn’t bother trying to assimilate into the nation’s common culture (such of it that actually remains)? This is what the idiotic “diversity” cult does, accompanied by the even more idiotic idea that “inclusion” is required for those who choose not to be included in that common culture. The damage from fifty years of these shibboleths ought to be obvious now. But emotions are carrying us past the moment of self-examination on any side. Perhaps that “conversation about race” can only take place after a greater convulsion, when people finally get sick of what their dishonesty has wreaked.
26 Comments on "Kunstler: A Dark Prospect"
JuanP on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 12:31 pm
“Maybe it’s time for the Black President, Mr. Obama, to just come out and tell the black population that their grievances against the police are trumped up …”
Yet another openly racist essay by JHK. That is as far as I got. Maybe this fucker is suffering from dementia or something!
Hello on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 1:47 pm
Finally a piece from James that makes sense.
Meanwhile good old Europe is importing negros as fast as they are produced straight from ape land. Good job, Europe!
Anonymous on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 2:40 pm
Kunstler has gone full-blown police-state, (with racism too). He should have stuck to writing about urban sprawl, and the un-sustainability of uS car-dependency. He was actually good at that, and worth listening to. But Kunstler as a (rascist) wannabe political pundit?
Fail.
Apneaman on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 3:12 pm
All the race problems are symptoms of much bigger problems that the system and it’s owners and slaves are incapable of resolving.
To y’all “normal” Americans, I say stay out of the fray and don’t worry about being labeled a fence sitter. It’s the only rational response to that unstoppable inertia.
Brent on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 3:30 pm
Kunstler is entirely correct with his assessment. Ignore him and civil war (“race war”) is next.
Nice sight btw, this massive disciplined American biker SA. They won’t shoot cops, gurn cars, etc. Will be enough to deter the BLM/SJW/LGBT commie “tolerance crowd” from irresponsible actions.
Oh Juan…. races obviously exist and everybody has a slight preference for his own race. Racism is universal, deal with it.
For the first time in hundred years the voice of white America is being heard and might, I repeat might prevail after decades of pandering in the favor of “minorities”.
Obviously the professional lefties won’t go along and a confrontation, if Trump would win, is inevitable. Kiss the old USA goodbye. This is going to be the Mother of all Implosions.
Brent on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 3:41 pm
The bikers heading for Cleveland to protect Trump against the leftist establishment goons. Nice.
https://mobile.twitter.com/TomCarterforMS/status/754089475899293696/photo/1
jjhman on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 3:44 pm
Wow. Suprising amount of rascism on the ole peak oil site.
Kunstler disappoints on so many levels. I used to read his site every week until he went totally uber-Israel. Now he just seems like another angry guy who has a way with prose but knows nothing. Like George Will with a hangover.
Keith McClary on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 4:50 pm
Anonymous on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 2:40 pm :
“Fail” ???
It seems to be the recipe for success.
Apneaman on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 4:59 pm
jjhman, I’m not surprised. Like bonehead Brent said, racism (actually fear of others) is inherent and I know it’s in me, but so is wanting to stomp someone’s head into the pavement when I get really angry, but since I wish to live in a civilized manner I do my best to control these inherent emotions and not just give in to them like a spoiled child. I used to think that the reason we paid for all that research into human behaviour and psychology was so we could use the knowledge as a shield against our shortcomings. Looking at the big picture and where we are at today, it’s seems it was for not. Over 90% of Americans are clueless in general and well over half are complete fucking retards. These people posses zero insight and go through life, from birth to death, without ever taking so much as an intellectual baby step away from the comfort of their tribal myths and rules. The idea that one of the opposing player might have a valid point or be right and thus the home team wrong is not up for consideration. Don’t even think about it. There is a playbook and it must be adhered to strictly and all independent thinkers are kicked off the team. These political party flag wavers are the worst and anyone who defends either team should be immediately written off as one more rabid tribal monkey.
Here’s a video of democrats VS republicans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tEwvst3iOs
HARM on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 5:00 pm
Is it just me, or is JHK starting to sound like an old racist uncle getting drunk at a family BBQ?
JuanP on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 5:07 pm
Brent, Thanks for enlightening me! Sure, I didn’t know that racism is universal because I don’t understand that humans have a tribal brain.
Thanks again for that lesson!
You can let your most primitive and brutal instincts control you or you can try using your prefrontal cortex to control them. The choice is yours! LOL!
Brent on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 5:15 pm
It is indeed just you, Harm. JHK is genuingly concerned that the situation could get massively out of hand. Why do you call him a “racist” (a word btw made en vogue by the butcher of Russia, Leon Trotzky) if he obviously is afraid of a race war? If you scale up what happened in Syria, Iraq and Yugoslavia to US proportions, expect 3-4 million deaths in the US if the joint would begin to fold. And you are concerned about useless empty words like “racist”, the US equivalent of “class enemy” in that other commie shitpile USSR?
onlooker on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 5:28 pm
There it is in a nutshell. That is at the heart of American dysfunction. The country that has come to epitomize the worse in humans, our primitive tribal monkey selves and monkey rituals Gorging on pleasurable activities and food and primitive addictions. A true hedonistic zombie fest of people unwilling to examine things either with their brain or their inner more reflective self. Just living in the moment, in their farce of a freak show pretending they love it because to not do so dispels their grandeur vision of themselves as the Manifest destiny people as the people who say “our way of life is non negotiable” Gorging also with this hubris of being the biggest baddest country yet hiding behind the empty slogans of what is politically correct and what deep down they know is moral. That they are the home of the free and the land of the brave. Making the world safe for democracy. As AP states living in fear of others but especially that they’re haven of hypocrisy and self deception will crumble and they will confront themselves for what they know they really are. What? Unhappy primates. Primates but with the malice and cleverness of humans living in this modern world, lives replete with all the primal urges fully activated hence a country of hedonists with a brutal streak thus their brutal sports and their acceptance of War in our name. Yes, I know I lived all my life in the US, I know we fear each other for what we are not what we say we are. And thaat we are afraid of losing what little we have, that is our self deceptions of being a good and happy people. Kunstler move over, I am taking over haha.
Brent on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 5:43 pm
Excellent piece about the demontage of Bill Kristol, the intellectual highend media madter of the zog-system:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/2016-bill-kristol-republicans-conservative-movement-donald-trump-politics-214025
It is game over for the likes of Kristol… and Kunstler for that matter, America refuses to let itself being used to fulfill the otherwise hopeless mission to attempt to ram the entire world into one kosher run global empire. Um… make that Wallstreet run empire, as we don’t want to upset the fainthearted here with these kind of micro-agression now do we. Not going to happen that empire, boohoo.
Even if Triump would lose, and signs are that it is going to be a close call, the “damage” is done and a European American block will have been formed looking for a way out of a system rigged against them. And they will succeed and gone will be the goose with the golden eggs.
Boat on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 6:22 pm
onlooker,
“A true hedonistic zombie fest of people unwilling to examine things either with their brain or their inner more reflective self.”
Lol, never been called “A true hedonistic zombie fest”. It is true to a point. I would much rather watch sports and grill than sit around and examine my inner more reflective self. Isn’t that what cults do?
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 7:52 pm
Not about racism. Kunstler saying if a cop shot you dead,
probably you did something illegal and dangerous to deserve it.
The lib media has it all distorted like these shooting victims are
just having a Saturday BBQ on the patio.
Typically they pulled a gun on the cop.
It’s not a racial thing at that point,
unless you are a liberal reporter.
JuanP on Mon, 18th Jul 2016 8:23 pm
Brent, Three or four million dead Americans? You are an optimist! Once Americans start killing each other instead of killing foreigners abroad the death toll is likely to be tens of millions dead, not just a few million. Remember that you are talking about the best armed, most insane people living in the most dysfunctional society to have ever existed. The rest of the world is really going to enjoy that day when it comes!
Brent on Tue, 19th Jul 2016 6:23 am
Juan, I was scaling up linearly from experiences in Jugoslavia, Iraq and Syria, meaning ca 1% of the population dies when a country falls apart.
JuanP on Tue, 19th Jul 2016 8:42 am
Brent, I think linear projections will not hold up in the future. Things seem to be going exponential all over the world, including the USA. With a global population of around 7.5 billion growing by 80 million a year in a planet that is going haywire, I expect the population to be reduced by at least half before this century is over. So, when I say that tens of millions will die in the USA I am allowing for the fact that the USA has a relatively small population for its rsources. I expect the population to be cut down by more than 90% in many other places.
DMyers on Tue, 19th Jul 2016 9:07 pm
I’m going to have to stand up and defend Kunstler against these charges of racism. First and foremost, an allegation of racism can be a lazy avoidance of the issues raised and a rational discussion thereof.
A frequent commentator such as K-man assumes that people have followed his ongoing polemic. A recurring theme with K has been this matter of young generation blacks failing to adopt the cultural norms of communication. This he argues is part and parcel to the liberal position that racial/cultural distinctions should be permitted in certain instances to assuage the social stress and rejection of those prone by social conditioning to offer a personal disconnect with the world of high paying jobs. I don’t believe the argument over whether this is racist or objective observation has been presented for final conclusions. If it is both racist and an objective observation, then we are obliged to reconcile the objective world with our political preferences, a much loathed activity. Everyone, black, white, Asian, Indian has to bend over and take it. That is the objective reality.
To the extent that K suggests the victims of police murder asked for it, I disagree with him on this subject. Picking out a few examples where the victim probably did ask for it does not address the fact that cities like L.A. pay out large sums in settlement every year for claims of excessive force or other malfeasance.
To the extent that K is saying race is greatly overplayed here for the benefit of a purpose other than racial justice, I consider that a point worth pondering.
Kevin Cobley on Tue, 19th Jul 2016 10:04 pm
Maybe Kunstler should be time warped back to Germany in 1939 and see the results of the tripe he is now printing, he use to be a coherent teller of the Oil story, has now driven down nut job street with Alex Jones and Gerald Celente, the last “race war” in the US killed more Americans than WW1 and WW2 put together, that “race war” was fought with muskets and on foot, not with AR-150’s and high explosives and a host of vehicles.
PracticalMaina on Wed, 20th Jul 2016 8:03 am
The media has orchestrated this discontent well. Instead of there being large scale riots in New York, where a man was killed with bare hands by a pack of cops, running off mob mentality and subconscious racism and fully documented with video footage, we get riots in Ferguson, where no one with any connection to TPTB lose anything. New York is too important and visible, a primarily black neighborhood in New York burning would prove expensive, very news worthy and damaging to TPTB. Instead the corrupt corporations of St. Louis get a more militarized, FREE TO THEM, riot ready police force to guard the corporate headquarters. Monsanto, Peabody Energy, Arch coal, Patriot Coal, Anheuser-Busch.
PracticalMaina on Wed, 20th Jul 2016 8:06 am
Go speed, what about all the unarmed dead blacks, cell phone in the pocket look like a gun? Bullshit, if a cop is scared to the point of making life ending decisions for others, they shouldn’t be on the force. We can see dozens of videos of white overpriveledged dbags, bringing their assault rifles all around town on their shoulders, but if you are a black individual legally carrying…look out.
PracticalMaina on Wed, 20th Jul 2016 8:15 am
Even with these heinous murders of cops recently, at the end of the day, it will still be more dangerous to be a soldier, farmer, construction worker, forester or fisherman, president even IMHO. According to this list cops are the 15 most dangerous job (about half of their casualties are traffic related I believe)
http://time.com/4326676/dangerous-jobs-america/
He is way off base with this article I think, I see riots as more likely at the DNC, the Republicans did not present one good option with any support. And cops are not the easiest target, they are armed, and their brothers in arms will kill your ass, the easy target is US the public. Ever notice how it seems like public transportation is always a target of terrorism, but never a pro sport event, its like someone wants to keep us in our cars spending…..
jason on Wed, 20th Jul 2016 9:44 am
How can someone still be called a racist most blacks don’t assimilate into any mixed race. I spent years working in Africa where they have Black rule and black police. They still don’t become civilized, and I guess that’s because of racist white people too. 10s of thousands plus white women are raped every single year in the USA according to the US Justice web site. How does this make white people a little bitter. 60 blacks were shot by other blacks in Chicago on last 4th of July celebrating Independence. If some white person points this out he called the R-word. Well its time to strike this guilt ridden word from the dictionary. Whites will go away soon enough just look at South Africa, its time to look at whos promoting this Plague, and their cheerleaders. Some flavors of Humans are more violent then others FACT. Its fine for people to have their own opinions, but not their own Facts.
PracticalMaina on Wed, 20th Jul 2016 9:56 am
Midwestern cities are shitholes because the war on drugs, and globalism, I would venture an estimate that 9 out of 10 drivebys in the US are drug territory related. This is all because a couple republicans wanted to have a “war on drugs” all while smuggling coke and heroine in to keep the streets a mess, gotta keep the Rush Limbaugh types and GW types happy and high while they dodge the draft and such.
Calling an entire civilization out because of your limited experience in the world is racist, no 2 ways about it. If we want to talk about a violent people, look at who runs the world.
White women who get raped by wealthy white men don’t get justice, look at affluenza, we are really making exceptions for people born with wealth? How is that a handicap? A rich person can go volunteer and get perspective, a poor person cannot necessarily get the necessities to have a healthy happy life, big difference.
BTW, Egypt and Sudan were black civilizations while us whites were running around fucking eating and killing other hominids to the north.