[JohnLudi]

Howdy,

I post here very infrequently, but lurk here pretty much everyday. I thought I'd put my latest blog post (from MySpace and my own site http://johnludi.com) on here as it concerns a lot of the topics covered here...and some of you may get a giggle or two out of it.

I include it in it's full and unedited form, including the personal crap, mainly because it's Sunday night and I'm feeling far too tired and lazy to edit it.

Peace,

John Ludi

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Reflections on 2006, projections for 2007

Ah…another year has passed, another year closer to…to…to…well…god knows what, really. To a brave new world where advances in our understanding of matter, energy and spirit allow us to ascend to a level where we can transcend our history of violence and conquest as a part of a "density shift" at or around the alleged cosmically pivotal year of 2012? Or to a complete collapse of our entire global civilization leading to utter anarchy, chaos and massive human depopulation? Or to just more of the usual crap: buying stuff, eating things, and slowly consuming the planet with only marginal consequences to our own species as we respond to our insatiable drive for more, more, more, and more?

For myself, 2006 was a blend of pride at my own small triumphs and accomplishments and dismay at a world slipping deeper into a chasm of willful ignorance and denial.

I'll tackle the former subject first, as it is of the least interest to anyone who does not happen to be myself…a fairly limited audience.

A year ago I was living in Wixom, Michigan, a former quasi-rural outpost of suburban Detroit (rapidly becoming the latest home of Starbucks and stripmalls…just in time for the Ford plant closures). In 2003 I had moved back to Michigan, where I am originally from, very reluctantly as a result of the termination of a brief but horrific marriage that would never have happened had I not had several DNA strands of idiocy frolicking around in the shallow end of my gene pool. Michigan was a place I had vowed never to live again after I had fled from there to live in Minneapolis in 1992. I think my thoughts upon leaving Michigan that first time were something like "I will eat my own eyeballs before I set foot in that stinking primitive backwater again".

However, the best laid plans, etc.

During my recent exile from decency and civilization, I had been dividing my time between my job (security system sales and design), my social life, my current two recording projects, and the occasional celibacy-inspiring date with uni-browed Michigan women who chew tobacco and wear Nascar jackets. Not the worst of all possible lives, considering that the vast majority of human lives through history have been "nasty, brutish, and short" and generally had much to do with slaving away under some landowner or warlord or some such, but not the best life either. During my 3 ½ years of torment I had met many fine and excellent exceptions to the Michigan norm of rivet-headed knuckle-draggers with room temperature IQs (especially through Meetin Detroit, a haven for some pretty cool people), and had managed to reconnect with my father (after a gap of 27 years), amongst other like joys, but living in Michigan was an impoverished and soul-eating experience that made the idea of dying slowly in a medieval torture chamber seem almost perky by comparison. I was making just barely enough money to pay my meager bills (thank you, Michigan economy) and was so demoralized overall that my artistic pursuits were slowly falling by the wayside.

Fast forward a year and much of that has changed:

I moved to Chicago for the second time at the beginning of September, and life improved manifestly. Within a few short weeks I started dating someone who (in a sudden reversal of a long-term trend of mine) is kind, considerate, treats me well, is great company, and is emphatically not psychotic. I also landed a job that, while perhaps not a viable long-term prospect, pays better than some of the positions I've held recently, is within walking distance of my apartment, and only takes 40 hours a week out of my life…leaving enough time for me to actually record and mix the albums I've been working on for the last 10,000 years or so.

And then there is all the art, culture, and food in Chicago.

Aside from missing some of the friends I have in Michigan like I would miss my own lungs if they suddenly were stolen by an international cartel of lung thieves during the night, I find the memory of the dull, throbbing ache of living in Michigan being rapidly supplanted by all the wonderful new memories I am making here in Chicago…and I've barely even started to make connections here.

All in all, 2006 was a good year for yours truly.

Not so for the rest of the planet though…which I will attempt to address with the intent of brevity, though there is so much to say that there is no way that I can even begin to scratch the surface.

GLOBAL WARMING:
With the release of Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, the limp and sodden mass mind of the Great Unwashed finally started to "get it"…(not that it will change their behavior any: Americans will only give up their SUVs when the only option left to them is to live in their rusting husks while they live off of tainted rainwater and squirrels). Gore's flick, as well as all the extreme weather, the various news reports of glaciers breaking up and the dawning realization that the moneywhores that populate the Whitehouse may not be acting in the long term best interest of the planet or anyone on it, seemed to catch their attention for the brief period before the latest season of American Idol began in earnest. The phenomenon itself didn't go away after the run of An Inconvenient Truth though, and the latest news from those climate scientists who don't get a big fat paycheck from the oil industry is depressing indeed. During the past year it has become apparent that the outlook is a LOT closer to the more pessimistic end of the spectrum of earlier prognostications.

One of the BIG news stories that came and went (between the far more important stories about breast implants and bulimic models) was the report that the Amazonian rainforest is only a year or two's continued drought away from total destruction. As it turns out, the rainforest is FAR more fragile than anyone had ever imagined. There has been a drought there for the past two or so years…rainy season has not been particularly rainy. It is estimated that more of this lack of precipitation could cause the shallow root systems of much of the flora in the region to simply dry up, leading to a potential massive die-off of one of the most ecologically important parts of the planet.

But don't worry about all this climate change stuff, cause Christina Aguilera's bod is just smokin' in her new video! Hell's yeah!!!

Anyway, we CAN count our blessings: So far the huge methane deposits in the northern tundra have not spewed into the atmosphere, and the Greenland ice cover has not slipped into the ocean…but there IS always 2007. I personally think we have a few more years before things REALLY get bad, but I am eternally grateful that I chose not to have children in this life.

PEAK OIL/PEAK NATURAL GAS:
Despite a brief little scare when gas at the pumps topped 3 bucks, few people seemed to become any more aware then they had been before that the lifestyle they enjoy (and…um…the entire global civilization that brought it about) is based upon a finite resource that is probably at or around the peak of it's production and facing an unavoidable decline. Toward the end of the year, CERA put out another specious puff piece that probably made Exxon executives dance a merry jig, the various Peak Oilers responded to it with the right and proper amount of inflamed vehemence, and the average American stood around at the mall belching and scratching his ass with cattle-like indifference.

As Tom Whipple of the Falls Church News has pointed out, what has saved us in the "developed" world so far has been 3rd world demand destruction. Entire sections of continents that could afford oil at $20-$30 dollars a barrel are hard pressed to buy it at $50-$70. They are simply doing without. Few are faring well, and as far as I've heard, none are learning from the example of Cuba, who learned how to live without a great many things after the Soviets stopped being the Soviets. Cuba was relatively well-positioned to make those kinds of sweeping changes, however. It is highly doubtful that countries like the US will be so fortunate. This demand destruction courtesy of the world's poor has kept the price of oil from continuing its skyward trend, but soon enough we will run out of impoverished "underdeveloped" countries to leave floundering in the dark. It will hit us one of these days. And it will keep hitting us…and hitting us…and hitting us…forever…or until we totally restructure our oil-dependent global civilization…whichever comes first.

THE DYING OCEANS:
The real lungs of the world, the oceans, continued to develop vast dead zones due to our various effects upon the planet, ranging from climate change to over fishing. The tiny little organisms at the bottom of the food chain found it increasingly harder to survive, causing all the bigger organisms to get that much more hungry and die. Other contributions such as overfishing have helped too. Go humans, go!!!

DIMINISHING BIODIVERSITY:
2006 saw the continued advancement of the most recent mass species extinction on this planet…and the first caused by human intervention. Yay, Team Human!!!

THE BUBBLE ECONOMY:
Fiat currency and forced liquidity continued to keep the illusion of prosperity alive during 2006, both in this country and in a great many others, such as Australia. Personal debt (as well as Federal debt) climbed into the clouds as Americans started spending more then they made and created a negative savings statistic that has most of us who bother paying attention to such things hiding under our beds and crying for our mommies.

The housing bubble finally burst, as anyone who knows anything about boom and bust cycles knew it eventually would. Foreclosures increased dramatically in many areas of the country and housing starts plummeted. What a shocker…

Of course, this is the kind of thing that happens when you base an economy upon the notion of infinite expansion (interest rate influenced free market capitalism) within in a closed system (Earth). When you run out of ACTUAL wealth (goods and services) you have to supplant it with fake wealth (debt and liquidity) to keep the whole gravy train moving on the tracks. The only problem is that you will run out of steel to manufacture tracks with at some point and then the whole thing becomes a big merry mess. Oops! The other factor in limiting expansion is the notion that there are only so many markets you can sell to. Part of this is alleviated by economic pet rocks and hula hoops like the housing bubble or the dot.com boom, but you eventually run out of ephemeral novelties like those too. Bummer.

Norman Greenspan made a few sputtering utterances from the safety of his retirement, but neglected to really confess how he, more so than any other single individual in recent history, helped to create the economic ledge that we are all about to fall off of.

THE RE-STALINIZATION OF RUSSIA:
Putin continued to become a lot less shy about his increasing yen for domestic control and global strategy… I could almost hear him snickering at Bush as he proved himself to be a master of Machiavellian behind-the-scenes maneuvering (while Bush proved himself to be a master of blundering miscalculation and drooling redneck stumblebum stupidity). And Russia has oil, by the way. And Russia will end up keeping its oil. And Russia will have oil when we are burning all of our furniture to keep warm.

THE GROWING TENTACLES OF CHINA:
China continued to stake its claim as the eventual dominant economic force in the world during 2006, forging alliances and brokering deals that will insure that the US will be left far behind in the dust as history inexorably marches on. China, along with India, continued to modernize and expand economically, creating ever more global demand for energy and resources. They also continued to buy America's debt and sell us low grade plastic crap at Wal-Mart, while India continued to be the favored destination of jobs that once were held by workers in the US.

THE DEATH OF THE MIDDLE CLASS:
The dollar continued to lose its value relative to just about every form of currency that does not come inside a Monopoly game, thus decreasing the buying power of middle America and insuring that the average American works longer and harder to stay in the same place.

(Mind you, the whole notion of a Middle Class is kind of a historic anomaly in the first place. For most of our history (or at least since we stopped being hunter/gatherers and began to have the ability to hoard wealth in the form of crops and lands), people have lived in a strata of only two layers: servants and served. This whole idea of an affluent worker class is pretty much unprecedented and can only exist when there is plenty for all…like when nature gifts us with a free ride via incredibly cheap energy for a century or so. Otherwise, the whole idea of a middle class is really far-fetched. Consider the past century of growth in both population and economies to be akin to an algae bloom and you are on the right track.)

THE MIDDLE EAST:
The Bush Follies in Iraq and Afghanistan continued their march towards quagmire status as we were forced by the administration and the lapdog mass media to confront the notion of a 3rd groovy little war in Iran…and probably a nice little draft to go with it!

THE QUALITY OF HUMANITY:
My personal observations about human nature have grown increasingly dour over the years…2006 did little to add light to the darkness. People (from my observations) continued to get more stupid, selfish, crass, banal, impolite, and disinterested in anything that does not contribute to their own self-gratification.

And no one seems to know how to drive anymore.

The vast chasm between the intellectual and spiritual haves and have-nots got ever wider in 2006. While a tiny fraction of a percent of humans on this planet continued to evolve their awareness on levels both intellectual and "spiritual" (for lack of a better term), the majority either stayed in the same place or accelerated their backslide into neo-barbarism.

And speaking of barbarism…just to show that she will not fade into obscurity and trailer park living (as is her right and proper destiny), Brittany Spears graced us with several looks at her bare crotch…and added yet another entry on my ever-growing list of Things I Never Want to See Again.

MY PROJECTIONS FOR 2007

PERSONALLY:
I will finish both of my albums. The world will not notice them all that much, unless I set myself on fire on national television or something.

I may put a band together…or I may not. I will start doing acoustic gigs around Chicago, though.

I may start a paranormal/politics-oriented podcast, if time permits.

I may start my own design/install company…or at least design/consulting as my AutoCAD skills have been resurrected by this new company I'm at and I'm pretty damn good at what I do.

GLOBALLY:
I'm going to counter my own usual doom and gloom and go out on a limb with the following statement about 2007: The US economy will NOT collapse in 2007…it'll collapse in 2008. The reasons behind this estimation are so myriad and complex that I'll not even get into them, but I think the Great False Wealth Machine will keep churning away for the next year or so…long enough for the REAL powers-that-be to engage in some hardcore CYA to ensure that they are well insulated and living in some remote and far flung place when the rest of us are looting the last cans from the grocery store shelves.

We may not go into full scale war with Iran this year…but we will do SOMETHING jarringly stupid in that part of the world, beyond our current debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first real effects of Peak Oil will begin to be felt in the 1st World. The aforementioned demand destruction in the 3rd World will begin to spill over to the US as our misbegotten attempts to secure our energy future via guns (instead of diplomacy, investment in renewables, and collective lifestyle changes) are exposed as the folly they are. Gas prices will go up into the $3.50 range during peak driving season, probably to stay this time.

Canada will start to seriously debate the wisdom of supplying us with so much natural gas since they are merely a few years from NG decline themselves and the winters are not exactly balmy there. This will begin to create fissures in our generally friendly relations with our friends in the frozen north and we will see the farce of globalization take a few additional hits from that direction as well. It would be nice to see NAFTA and GATT go down the tubes, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

George Bush and his team will not suffer more than a further decline in popularity, unfortunately. He will not be impeached. Nor will Cheney, though I think that the sands in his personal hourglass may run short this year due to his long-term health issues. I have a feeling that he may have a potentially fatal heart attack in 2007…which is a bit of a shame as death is too good for him. Being fed on by rats and eels for the next 30,000 years is a more suitable fate. Whether Uncle Dick bites the big one or not, Halliburton will survive. And they will keep building "Detention Centers" domestically. So order your own cell now…before all the good ones are taken. I'll see some of you there in 2008, save me some rations!

Republicans will grow ever more shrill as their machinations continue to heap an accelerated level of ruin upon the planet and global economy and everyone but themselves will get more and more bitter about it…and Democrats will continue to flaccidly vacillate and pretend that they are somehow something more than just the friendly face of the corporatocracy…while the middle class in this country continues it's descent into an eventual high-tech feudalism. Fortunately John Kerry has destroyed his career in a barrage of pusillanimous backpedaling, so we may not have to be subjected to his spinelessness again anytime soon. Redneckus Americanus will never vote a black guy with a name like Obama into office, or even let him win at the primaries, so we will probably have to cope with Hillary losing the election for us after this years increasing campaigning leads us into the political hell of 2008.

And hey, speaking of that there global economy…I suspect other countries will strongly accelerate their trend of distancing themselves from the potential Titanic that is the US of A. This may be the year that China decides to cut it's potential losses and get out of the dollar, regardless of how it causes their exports to us to suffer. I also suspect that the dollar will continue to be pushed aside by several countries as the reserve currency of choice, probably in favor of the Euro. The dollar will keep losing it's value, though the ultimate outcome of either massive deflation or hyperinflation is still a year or so away.

I think these are all pretty safe bets, as is my faith in the continued whooshing sound of the housing bubble bursting, as all of those who so blithely prattled on about how "housing values never really go down" are proven horribly wrong when foreclosures continue to skyrocket in select markets like…um…Michigan, for example, and developments stand empty where trees used to thrive.

Avian flu may hit this year, but I doubt that it will be THIS winter.

Another safe bet is the that the field of UFOlogy will continue to flounder at the margins of the worlds attention, and that full disclosure will continue to not be forthcoming. We also will not be any closer to finding out who really killed JFK, or if our own government had a hand in the events of 911.

More evidence will be found that hints at a prior technologically advanced civilization that spanned the globe before it self-destructed, but nothing that will be conclusive to orthodox historians. They would never be convinced of such, even if they found a microwave oven buried in the left foot of the sphinx.

That's about it…I could go on forever, but I think I've covered all the basic points.

Despite all this dark and horrible crap though, I do wish you and yours the happiest of New Years. And I hope I'm wrong about pretty much everything and that history finds me a fool, if it remembers me at all.

[threadbear]

My God that's funny. I've been reading bits and pieces to my husband and we've been giggling for the last 10 minutes. But, about the Amazon forest and the droughts, that fills me with a feeling of such defeat and sadness. I can barely watch documentaries where a few animals are killed by predators, let alone imagine the scale of death and destruction that will be involved in the Amazon if things don't change.

[AirlinePilot]

I dont think it was meant to be amusing Threadbear!

As to the Amazon stuff I really didnt think it was that big of a deal and possibly a bit sensationalized until I flew down there a few years ago. They are denuding entire countries down there. Its actually sickening to see from the air. It cannot be good for the planet.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AirlinePilot', 'I') dont think it was meant to be amusing Threadbear!

As to the Amazon stuff I really didnt think it was that big of a deal and possibly a bit sensationalized until I flew down there a few years ago. They are denuding entire countries down there. Its actually sickening to see from the air. It cannot be good for the planet.

[topcat]

John -- Thanks for the good read! I needed a laff today.

Next time, put the dismall but insightful truth first so we can try to laff it off by reading the 'Michigan Blues.'

[JohnLudi]

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. I always feel that I'm in the company of like-minded people when I come to this forum...which is refreshing as most of the time I am not. I find most of the people here remarkably sane and reasonable.

As far as the humor, well...aside from laying waste to entire planets and finding ever more elaborate and expensive ways of keeping ourselves amused, finding humor in pathos is a quintessentially human trait. Glad to hear that some people think that I'm relatively OK at it!