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Page added on December 21, 2015
Kunstler: Christmas Present
Theory du jour: the new Star Wars movie is sucking in whatever meager disposable lucre remains among the economically-flayed mid-to-lower orders of America. In fact, I propose a new index showing an inverse relationship between Star Wars box office receipts and soundness of the financial commonweal. In other words, Star Wars is all that remains of the US economy outside of the obscure workings of Wall Street — and that heretofore magical realm is not looking too rosy either in this season of the Great Rate Hike after puking up 623 points of the DJIA last Thursday and Friday.
Here I confess: for thirty years I have hated those stupid space movies, as much for their badly-written scripts (all mumbo-jumbo exposition of nonsensical story-lines between explosions) as for the degenerate techno-narcissism they promote in a society literally dying from the diminishing returns and unintended consequences of technology.
It adds up to an ominous Yuletide. Turns out that the vehicle the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee was driving in its game of “chicken” with oncoming reality was a hearse. The occupants are ghosts, but don’t know it. A lot of commentators around the web think that the Fed “pulled the trigger” on interest rates to save its credibility. Uh, wrong. They had already lost their credibility. What remains is for these ghosts to helplessly watch over the awesome workout, which has obviously been underway for quite a while in the crash of commodity prices (and whole national economies — e.g. Brazil, Canada, Australia), the janky regions of the bond markets, the related death of the shale oil industry, and the imploding hedge fund scene.
As it were, all credit these days looks shopworn and threadbare, as if the capital markets had by stealth turned into a swap meet of previously-owned optimism. Who believes in anything these days besides the allure of fraud? Capital is supposedly plentiful these days — look how much has rushed into the dollar from the nervous former go-go nations with their wobbling ziggurats of bad loans and surfeit of production capacity — but what actually constitutes that capital? Answer: the dwindling faith anyone will pay you back next Tuesday for a hamburger today.
We now enter the “discovery” phase of financial collapse, where things labeled “capital” and “credit” turn out to be mere holograms. Fed Chair Janet Yellen herself had a sort of hologramatic look last Wednesday when she stepped onto her Delphic platform to reveal the long-heralded interest rate news. Perhaps Mrs. Yellen is a figment conjured by George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic shop (now owned by Disney). What could be more fitting in a smoke-and-mirrors culture? Anyway, the rude discovery that capital is not what it has appeared to be is now underway, with the power to derail political systems and societies.
Is there anyone who thinks the Presidential election campaign is not completely deranged? Well, it is the analog for America’s deranged financial polity. The graceless Mr. Trump necessarily reflects the just grievances of the great public wad, but has anyone noticed that he is incapable of stringing together two coherent thoughts? I suppose one thought at a time — or maybe a percentage of one thought — is enough to satisfy the sputtering masses, faced as they are by the arrant theft of both their patrimony and their future. But it adds up to something like flying blind through a shitstorm with your pilot in the throes of cerebral infarction. I don’t want to be on that plane.
Then there’s the giant flying reptile known simply as Hillary. She will blow up the sad and noisome remains of the Democratic party and then she will preside over the blow-up of the USA as an advanced techno-industrial society. That final outcome may be inevitable one way or another, but the journey there need not be so harsh. America needs a vision of something other than itself as a permanent demolition derby, which, by the way, will not be “solved” by pushing everyone into a Tesla instead of a Ford F-150.
It’s not just the Federal Reserve; everything around us is backed into a corner. Come January, when the dazzle of Star Wars
fades away, you will hear instead through the long dark nights a howl of raging animals. Merry Christmas to all.
109 Comments on "Kunstler: Christmas Present"
Pennsyguy on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 2:16 pm
No worries. In January NFL playoffs will keep most of us sedated. Then it will be time for a huge celebrity scandal. We should be good until at least the 2016 convention season. Then there is always a “Terrorist” attack in reserve.. Never underestimate our masters’ abilities to keep reality at bay. Seasons Greetings!
onlooker on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 2:27 pm
Here is one of the few commentators out there both articulate and on the money. Yes everything is unwinding as the era of discovery is upon us. Discovering the extend of the smoke and mirrors of all this. It is the phase when worthless money meets depressed demand meets resources shortages. An era that heralds the downfall of techno-modern civilization.
Hello on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 2:44 pm
>>> Here I confess: for thirty years I have hated those stupid space movies
Tell me James, what DON’T you hate?
I wish you a Merry Christmas, James….but wait, you also hate Christmas, right?
Plantagenet on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 3:24 pm
Kunstler’s take on the “giant flying reptile known as Hillary” is hilarious!
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about already with all the black helicopters up there!
MERRY XMAS!
ennui2 on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 5:36 pm
Kunstler’s writing is just a slightly crabbier Orlov. The two are kind of indistinguishable at this point. They appeal to people who just want to just kind of continually kvetch about their hatred of BAU while they postulate when the house of cards will fall, only to keep twiddling their thumbs waiting and waiting.
JuanP on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 7:16 pm
Kunstler paints a very sad, but true picture of where we are today in the USA. I haven’t watched a new American movie or TV program, read a new American book, magazine, or newspaper, or listened to new American music in years. It seems almost everything we make in this country these days sucks.
GregT on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 7:37 pm
In James wasn’t so right on, his ramblings would be funny. Unfortunately, there is nothing funny about any of this. As much as we all love BAU, and the conveniences of modern industrial society, BAU is going down the crapper.
GregT on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 7:45 pm
“I wish you a Merry Christmas, James….but wait, you also hate Christmas, right?”
What’s to hate? After all, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”
Now get out there and consume!
JuanP on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 7:53 pm
I haven’t celebrated Christmas or any other BS holidays in over 25 years and I am very proud of it, it is an imbecile tradition. I do understand the pressure on people with kids to celebrate, though. Skipping Christmas is another good reason not to have kids.
makati1 on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 7:55 pm
Well covered, guys. JHK’s picture ain’t pretty but it is an accurate summary of the Imperial State today.
This latest addition of an old idea (Star Wars)is probably just that, a copy of the original idea by those with little talent. Typical of the US today. I’ll wait a few months and buy a DVD on the street for $1. That will be a copy of a copy, but closer to what it is worth. Not the $4 a movie ticket costs here.
Originality is missing in America today, along with all other attributes of a healthy society.
Apneaman on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 8:20 pm
We’re Doomed. Now What?
“Today, as every hour brings new alarms of war and climate disaster, we might wish we could take Nietzsche’s place. He had to cope only with the death of God, after all, while we must come to terms with the death of our world. Peril lurks on every side, from the delusions of hope to the fury of reaction, from the despondency of hopelessness to the promise of destruction.
We stand today on a precipice of annihilation that Nietzsche could not have even imagined. There is little reason to hope that we’ll be able to slow down global warming before we pass a tipping point. We’re already one degree Celsius above preindustrial temperatures and there’s another half a degree baked in. The West Antarctic ice sheet is collapsing, Greenland is melting, permafrost across the world is liquefying, and methane has been detected leaking from sea floors and Siberian craters: it’s probably already too late to stop these feedbacks, which means it’s probably already too late to stop apocalyptic planetary warming. Meanwhile the world slides into hate-filled, bloody havoc, like the last act of a particularly ugly Shakespearean tragedy.”
more
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/were-doomed-now-what/?_r=3
Apneaman on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 8:56 pm
Growth Madness
“This may be the most unintentionally hilarious line from any story I’ve read this year:
Most notably, the group of economists is much more convinced than the general American public that immediate and bold action on climate change is necessary—and essential—to secure continued economic growth.
Economists: Buckle Up, Climate Change Is Going to Be a Rough Ride (Slate)
So, we need to take action on limiting our destruction of the biosphere to…wait for it….keep growth going!
If we don’t halt climate change soon, we might not be able to grow!
I have no words. I mean, what can I say to make that more ridiculous?”
“It’s ironic that the Chinese are supposedly Neoliberalism’s great “lifted out of poverty” success story, yet they are already having to delay retirement even as they supposedly get richer? WTF? In fact, without China, global inequality would have been broadly constant over the past 25 years, and in effect its 2011 level would have been higher than in 1988! (source). So what is the benefit again? What is the point of getting richer if we have to work longer and need two incomes where one used to suffice? Why is nobody asking that? It seems a growing economy leads to more work, not less.”
more
http://hipcrime.blogspot.de/2015/12/growth-madness.html
Apneaman on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 9:11 pm
Corn-Pone Hitler?
“To me, what’s most fascinating about Trump is the degree to which he reveals how disgusted downscale white voters are with the party they have been fanatically supporting since Reagan. It is a constant source of wonderment from astute political observers the world over, that the white American working class consistently votes for a party that seems to want to destroy them based on their rhetoric and legislative aims. This is chalked up to a number of reasons, usually tied to the manipulation of racism and religious fundamentalism.
That’s partially true, of course, but what I think is the case is that people vote Republican because it’s their “team.” That is, what the Republicans do and how they govern is largely irrelevant to the people who vote for them. For example, people are Packers fans whether or not the team makes it to the Superbowl or loses a few games. It’s their “team,” and being a fan is a par of your identity. People are loyal to their team through thick and thin, win or lose (just ask Cubs fans). Voting Republican is largely an exercise to affirm one’s affiliation to a particular segment of the American population – uneducated, white, rural, religious, gun-toting, church-going and fetus-fetishizing. The Republican party has become the party of affiliation for the downscale whites who have been left behind by Neoliberalism; what I’ve termed the “rump.” As it cynically catered to this demographic to gain political power, it soon adopted all their worst elements – their bellicose and hypocritical religiosity, their lust for war and violence and disdain for the arts and culture, their xenophobia and their hatred. The Republicans are the “team” of rural whites and the executive class. Strange bedfellows to be sure, and that difference is partly behind the recent internal Republican civil war and the rise of Trump.”
http://hipcrime.blogspot.de/2015/12/corn-pone-hitler.html
JuanP on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 9:46 pm
Ap, I will be using fetus-fetishizing in the future! 😉
Apneaman on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 10:03 pm
Juan, The Hipcrime Vocab is one of the best and most underappreciated social commentary blogs out there. The owner, escapefromwisconsin, is not a super doomer like me, but what the hell – no ones perfect.
JuanP on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 10:11 pm
Ap, I’ve read quite a few things written by escapefromwisconsin through the years. He is definitely an original thinker.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 12:24 am
Hollow Promises and Ugly Unspoken Realities
http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2015/12/21/hollow-promises-and-ugly-unspoken-realities/#comments
ennui2 on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 12:25 am
‘That’s partially true, of course, but what I think is the case is that people vote Republican because it’s their “team.”’
What you’re describing is tribalism or identity-politics.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 12:46 am
http://hipcrime.blogspot.ca/2015/12/corn-pone-hitler.html
“You cannot threaten American culture because there is no culture. America’s only “culture” is making money. It is not so much a civilization as a business proposition. Its soul is hollow and empty inside, and there is nothing in it’s back heart besides pandering to the lowest common denominator, Social Darwinism, and the eternal need for “more.” You can’t destroy what never existed.”
‘Merika is a political sewer pipe. People get the government they deserve.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 2:36 am
“So, we need to take action on limiting our destruction of the biosphere to…wait for it….keep growth going!” But what is even more funny is voter who believe this nonsense or want to believe it, who go out an vote for politicians who talk this way. WTF.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 2:42 am
On further reflection is not that what the whole Green movement been about, hey we can still grow but in a sustainable way. Yeah right. Just another variant of wishful thinking.
Davy on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 5:38 am
Extremism is hollow and empty and reflects sewer pipe thinking.
JuanP on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 6:23 am
Onlooker “On further reflection is not that what the whole Green movement been about, hey we can still grow but in a sustainable way.” I agree. There are some expressions like sustainable development and renewable energy that simply make no sense at all.
Yesterday I spent an hour talking to one of the community garden members. He is a biologist and has worked in Antarctica, the Arctic, the Amazon, and many other cool places. He now works in the Everglades doing environmental and hydrological restoration. We were talking about how annoying the tree hugging environmentalists and green growth and sustainable development believers are. He told me that environmental scientists, biologists, and other nature scientists consider them the worst obstacle to implementing changes. Fighting that irrational optimism can be a bitch.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 6:37 am
Yes Juan we should have realized quite some time ago, that any growth was counterproductive, that it what about downsizing in every way possible. But like you say irrational optimism mixed with an obsession with the modern lifestyle mixed with some really distorted humans beings at the top leaves us where we are. So we will contract but not of our own choosing.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 6:38 am
was about downsizing
JuanP on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:03 am
Onlooker, It is an obsession alright!
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:13 am
Juan good to see you reconsidered leaving this site for good.
JuanP on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:24 am
Onlooker, I couldn’t stay away! This crazy community is the one I have identified most with in my whole life. I have always been a loner because I can’t relate well to normal people and I’ve given up trying to, but on this board we have an adorable bunch of geniuses and freaks and this is the only place in the world where I feel like I belong and am understood. I am here for good. This is the only place I’ve felt at home in my whole life.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:39 am
thanks for sharing your genuine heartfelt sentiments Juan. By the way I am of Spanish origin specifically Colombian. Feliz Navidad y Ano Nuevo Merry Christmas and Happy New year. Juan.
JuanP on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:51 am
Onlooker, I figured English was not your first language. I guess you know by now that I am Uruguayan. My wife works with many Colombians and her boss is a very rich Colombian from the Chehebar family. It was thanks to him that we got our green cards. He helped us and many others for no reason other than he is a good, generous person. I usually can tell when someone is translating inside their heads by their word and expression choices. I have taught English as a second language in the past. Muy felices fiestas para ti y tu familia tambien!
Hello on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:56 am
FROHE WEIHNACHTEN AN ALLE UND VIEL GLUECK ZUM GEBURTSTAG LIEBES CHRISTKIND.
Hello on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:59 am
>> Muy felices fiestas
It is sad to see that you don’t honor your traditions. It’s traditions that make the world interesting. I guess you have been living in the USA for too long. Where everything is reduced to consumption and traditions are exterminated in the name of efficiency and political correctness.
FELIZ NAVIDAD
Davy on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 8:25 am
Hello, everything and everybody are strong words besides have you ever lived in the US? If you have, then how many states? The biggest US criticism is often from those who don’t live in the US. US criticism is vital but when it is combined with extremism that is focused into a narrow message it is not accurate. The message then become trash like all the other refuse floating around the net.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 8:34 am
onlooker, 24 years ago the wisest man America ever produced, George Carlin, called out the majority of environmentalists for what they really are – NIMBY’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4
What’s interesting is how today, conservatards are linking this clip all over the tubes and trying to use Carlin’s critiques of privileged environmentalists to prove that there are no environmental problems. Of course nothing could be further from the truth and out of all identity groups, none were more despised by Carlin than conservatards. Worst of a bad bunch he would say.
I always like to link this video in response to clear up the confusion of what Carlin thought regarding the environment and the fate of the apes.
George Carlin – Circling The Drain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPbwqnN67R0
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 8:49 am
Yes Apeman NIMBY as in hypocrites. George Carlin yes from what I do know, he was so blunt and direct and witty in his comments. Yet because it was part of his schitck/routine, the elites left him alone. Sometimes comedians can speak the plainest because they can camouflage it as a joke or humor.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 8:53 am
Davy, when I brought up the fact that I had lived and worked in the US (7 years) to lend weight to my arguments and critiques, you downplayed it and mocked me for bringing it up. Now you are asking another critic if he has every lived there like now it’s the all important factor. Sounds like you want it both ways.
“…have you ever lived in the US? If you have, then how many states? The biggest US criticism is often from those who don’t live in the US”
Maybe Hello lives in one of those countries that the empire has occupied for the last 70 years? Some folks are critical of those occupying them.
ghung on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 8:54 am
Happy winter solstice everyone. For all of you solar-powered folks, it’s uphill from here, or downhill, depending on how you look at it.
Davy on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:01 am
Ape Man, do you think possibly you were downplaying and mocking me at the same time? You have been known to do that when you get upset.
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:03 am
“have you ever lived in the US? If you have, then how many states? The biggest US criticism is often from those who don’t live in the US”
Not everyone identifies themselves with their tax farms. Some people prefer to think of themselves as individuals, and would rather not believe in the indoctrination fed to them by their owners.
To see the farm, is to be free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A
Hello on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:10 am
Davy:
It is true what you’re saying. And from some of my previous posts you should have realized that I’m a big defender of the US in general, especially against the mostly arrogant criticism from Europeans. And especially from Europeans who either have never been to the US or have visited only either New York City or San Francisco.
It is also true that Europe is going the same way as the US is, maybe lagging a few decades behind in eliminating all non-productive and non-politically correct (meaning all non marketable) traditions.
Have you ever lived in a small rural town in Europe? You will be surprised how many small and cute traditions are nurtured during the whole year. Not surprising most have a Christian background (although they don’t have meaning nowadays anymore). Something you will not see in the US.
And yes, I have lived in the US. I have lived enough years in Los Angeles and enough years in a 2000 people rural town in VT to have a very good grasp on the US.
Davy, this is something I cannot word well. You have to experience it to see the difference. Especially when you grew up in the US you won’t realize what you’re lacking.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:10 am
I don’t need to be upset to mock. I mock in my dreams ffs. I suffer from EMD
Excessive Mocking Disorder
Eli Lilly is currently working on a daily prescription medication for sufferers and those who suffer them, so there is hope yet.
ghung on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:21 am
Happy winter solstice everyone.
Davy on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:24 am
I have lived on the edge of Nuremberg and Schwabish Hall in Germany. I have lived in Anglet in south of France. I lived in Madrid and Segovia in Spain. I now have an Italian wife who’s family lives in Falcada in the Dolomites. I know what you are talking about and I also know the US is a big place to generalize about. I get your point but being in the minority I like to criticize inaccurate depictions of my country when they are excessive.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:29 am
Thanks ghung. Just once I would like to witness the solstice’s at stonehenge. I bet it would feel primal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXzzHM8zLw
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:38 am
” I like to criticize inaccurate depictions of my country”
My country? You are so brainwashed Davy, that it’s beyond pathetic.
Hello on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:52 am
Same goes for you GregT.
You are so brainwashed with your doomer/conspiracy/Im-a-victim pov, it’s sadly beyond pathetic.
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:56 am
“You are so brainwashed with your doomer/conspiracy/Im-a-victim pov, it’s sadly beyond pathetic.”
Nobody brainwashed me Hello. I figured it out on my own. Something that is clearly lacking these days. The ability to think for ones self.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:02 am
Brainwashed are those who believe anything coming out of mainstream channels, institutions or media.
shortonoil on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:08 am
“It’s not just the Federal Reserve; everything around us is backed into a corner. Come January, when the dazzle of Star Wars fades away, you will hear instead through the long dark nights a howl of raging animals.”
It is the sound one gets from 7.2 billion people fighting over the last ham sandwich! It’s time to take solace in the works of Will Durant, which I retrieved from a LIBRARY garbage can. When I asked them why they had thrown out the greatest set of historical works ever written they said: “no one was reading them anymore, and they needed the room for their DVD collection.”
Our civilization has become a pale facsimile of the society that at one time made great strides in music, art, literature, science, and law. “Kunstler’s writing is just a slightly crabbier Orlov”, because Kunstler is an old man, and there are almost no younger ones to carry on the baton.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:58 am
Hello, there is nothing more pathetic than blind obedient goose stepping tards pining for a golden age that never existed.