Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on June 14, 2016
Kunstler: The Desperate and the Disparate
As I was leaving Detroit very early Sunday morning to catch a plane, I saw the breaking story about a “shooting incident” in an Orlando nightclub, but the first reports did not detail any fatalities. Only after we landed was the shocking news of 50 dead and as many wounded revealed on the concourse TV screens.
Just in the past six months: December, 137 dead at the Paris Bataclan Theater (and two other sites); March, 35 dead at the Brussels airport; now the massacre at the Orlando Pulse Club. Before that, San Bernardino, The Madrid train bombing, the London Subway bombings… not to mention the videotaped beheadings of sundry Western journalists and other non-combatants… or the foundational outrage of 9/11. It gets more difficult for the democracies of the West to evade the recognition that a state of war exists between us and Islamic theocracy.
No one knows what to do about it , including, of course, the blowhard Trump. The perp in the Orlando slaughter, Omar Mateen, killed at the scene, was born in New York City, and many of the various European massacre perps were homegrown as well. Good luck trying to deport new wannabes like them. The mood for the moment, as in so many of these tragedies, is the awful combination of rage and impotence.
After many past atrocities, people of the Western nations under attack just sucked it up and moved on with daily life. These recent massacres, though, have stirred up the sleeping demons of Western politics. No sentient observer can fail to notice the extremities of feeling aroused in America’s 2016 election spectacle, which have overtaken dark trends underway for years already around Europe. One can only imagine that the sentiments will only get more extreme, as may the actions that follow
* * *
I was in Detroit last week for the annual congress of the New Urbanists, who hold their meet-up in a different city each year, more or less to keep up with developments around the country. The org was formed in 1993 to challenge the fiasco of suburban sprawl, which was defacing the national geography like some landscape-eating leprosy. The org has been most successful at changing the DNA of property development in hundreds of cities and towns: the laws and zoning codes that for decades made it illegal to build so much as a popsicle stand in America without supplying ten parking spaces. The New Urbanists are responsible in large part for the urban renaissance — not so evenly distributed around the country.
Detroit, of course, is the most extreme case of civic implosion in the USA. In 1950, it was the seventh-richest city in the world. By the turn of this century, it was left for dead and bankrupt. It’s creeping back now by small increments, which may seem like not quite enough, but is actually exactly the scale required for what is coming. The residue of the city’s skyscraper center still stands on Augustus Woodward’s disorienting semi-circular street grid. There’s a grand wish to bring it all back to life, but personally I think that giant office and apartment towers are not on the menu for The Long Emergency. Practically everyone I talked to about this issue thinks my view of the matter is nuts. But I reiterate: skyscrapers and mega-structures are already obsolete (we just don’t know it yet).
Our cities will come back as cities, just not at the scale of comic book gigantism they achieved at the height of the oil age, when Superman was leaping over The Daily Planet headquarters. And remember that most of our cities occupy very important sites, most particularly Detroit on its stretch of river between Great Lakes, on the border of Canada. It’s coming back now by small entrepreneurial gestures, hipster and hippie business start-ups, the “risk oblivious” art shock troops, a cadre of fearless homegrown architects, and some visionary urban designers. The ballparks and casinos have landed downtown, too, like UFOs from a planet of bygone utopian redevelopment fantasies, all crammed into the same sports ghetto where wild drinking and structured parking overwhelms anything like normal city life a few hours a week.
The geographically huge city offers plenty of forsaken small-to-medium buildings, some of them very beautiful and built to last for the ages, that can be bought for almost nothing. There’s an awful lot of empty space between them, and for the moment enterprising gardeners are putting it to use while time bides itself waiting to find out where fate wants to take it.
* * *
This website suffered a pretty severe Denial of Service (DoS) attack the past few weeks, culminating in a disabling shut-down last Monday. We don’t know who the culprits are. Readers may know that I boast of being allergic to conspiracy notions, but I can’t help thinking that some of Hillary Clinton’s wealthy friends out in Silicon Valley might have put their geeks and nerds up to the job. Another website unfriendly to the Clintons, Yves Smith’s Naked Capitalism blog, suffered a very similar attack last week. We’ve made some changes to fortify this operation and hope to be back to the familiar layout this Monday, perhaps a little later than the usual 9:30 a.m. posting time. But we’ll be running on the alternative Patreon site too, just in case. Thanks for being patient about this problem.
51 Comments on "Kunstler: The Desperate and the Disparate"
Plantagenet on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 10:58 am
Kunstler may be right that Hillary’s minions are responsible for hacking Kunstler’s website. The Hillary campaign has a billion dollars of corporate money to spend, and they announced months ago that were setting up a group of paid employees to go after things on the internet that they felt were unfair to Hillary.
I suggest Kunstler only post pro-Hillary things on his website until after election. Perhaps then the attacks will stop?
Cheers!
Hello on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 11:09 am
>>> No one knows what to do about it , including, of course, the blowhard Trump
That’s not true. By large, the regular population very much knows what to do about it. But the regular population is not allowed to defend their countries. They are forced to accept their own genocide imposed on them by their political correct leaders.
yoshua on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 11:25 am
The religion of peace has been waging jihad for 1400 years. The war will end when Islam has conquered the world and implemented sharia law all over the world.
Islam is a dream come true for the MIC.
onlooker on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 11:31 am
And the MIC made sure the dream would become a reality with 911 and the subsequent aggression over in the Middle East. Basically, a tit for tat is what is has become in the way Israel and Palestine have been going at it back and forth. The War will not end until either one side it totally vanquished or both agree to end hostilities and coexist peacefully.
JuanP on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 11:33 am
Hillary or Trump? Which would make a worse US president? I truly don’t know. I am very proud that I have never voted in an election in my life because I stopped believing in democracy as a minor, and I am glad that I don’t have to choose between them.
Democracy is for poor ignorant fools. It was created by the rich to oppress the poor, just like religions and capitalism. It makes sense for 1%ers to believe in these crazy ideas because they make them very rich, but for most people believing in all that crap is a mistake. You can’t fix stupid, and most humans are extremely stupid.
Democracy, religions, and capitalism are irrefutable proof of human ignorance, stupidity, and lack of common sense.
onlooker on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 11:44 am
“Democracy, religions, and capitalism are irrefutable proof of human ignorance, stupidity, and lack of common sense.” Quite true Juan. They are a fraud to the masses as they are portrayed as good concepts and institutions, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. We have been duped people
PracticalMaina on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 12:04 pm
Hillary does have Google at her back, and she has been using it.
Not Google as in truth or facts of course, but as in AI capable of the perfect marketing schemes.
PracticalMaina on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 12:05 pm
Not the stuff in the news about biased search results but this…http://qz.com/520652/groundwork-eric-schmidt-startup-working-for-hillary-clinton-campaign/
JuanP on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 12:20 pm
Onlooker, I was just going to post a rant here about Orlando, Americans, and the USA because Boat pissed me off with one of his comments, but I stopped because you lead by example with your attitude and moderation. I am glad we have you here. I have been trying to control myself lately because you inspired me to try and be better than that. Thanks for that! I want to be a better person than I am and you’ve helped me. 😉
onlooker on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 1:04 pm
I really have an affinity for your sincerity and opening up to your personal struggles Juan. I am glad if I have touched you positively in some way. Always wishing you the best. Que sigue bien amigo.
HARM on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 1:21 pm
“I am very proud that I have never voted in an election in my life because I stopped believing in democracy as a minor, and I am glad that I don’t have to choose between them.”
At risk of igniting a flame war, that was not a brave choice at all. That was giving up. Supporting a third party candidate (or even better, running for office as one) and pushing for publicly financed elections would have made a better choice.
jjhman on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 1:27 pm
Juan:
Remember what churchill said about democracy:
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/winston_churchill_5.html
That’s worth thinking on. It is depressing to continue voting for the least of two evils but it is worse to be totally in the hands of someone self appointed to make laws.
It is frustrating and time consuming to be politically active. I’ve tried it and failed to accomplish much in the process. So I admit that it is outside of my skill inventory and try to do what I can:
-donate to causes I believe in
-write letters to my representatives
-sign petitions
-try to speak intelligently to those not paying much attention
-vote for the least of evils.
What sort of government would you advocate in place of democracy?
onlooker on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 1:45 pm
“What sort of government would you advocate in place of democracy?” Here Juan, let me take a stab at that too. I would like NO government. A form of Anarchy whereby people simply lived together until the golden rule “Of do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Basically, everyone coming to consensus about certain courses of action and everyone trying to agree on general principles of how to run their society. At this point I do not trust any top down approach or ceding of power to anyone or any group.
Boat on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 1:47 pm
Juanp,
Not one comment in the history of peakoil.com has made much of an impact. Mine included. My ideas have been the target of much hate just because they disagree. It’s weird world out there.
HARM on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:02 pm
“I would like NO government. A form of Anarchy whereby people simply lived together until the golden rule “Of do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Basically, everyone coming to consensus about certain courses of action and everyone trying to agree on general principles of how to run their society.”
@onlooker,
Show me an example anywhere in history of such a “government” actually working on any scale, and maybe I’ll take what you just said seriously. Otherwise, it’s just another anarchist-libertarian fantasy. Sounds great on paper, impossible to achieve in the real world, where men are just men, not angels.
HARM on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:07 pm
“Basically, everyone coming to consensus…”
This is arguably the most ridiculous part or a ridiculous statement. Consider the last time you got together with family for a holiday meal. Could everyone there agree on what’s “best” for society? Did everyone agree on *anything*, no matter how trivial? And that’s immediate *family*. Imagine what it would be to try to achieve consensus about anything when you’re talking 300 million unrelated people. Or 7 billion.
Boat on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:10 pm
yoshua on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 11:25 am
The religion of peace has been waging jihad for 1400 years. The war will end when Islam has conquered the world and implemented sharia law all over the world.
Islam is a dream come true for the MIC.
Good luck with that. Russian football hooligans came to England 5 days in advance to fight english hooligans. On game day the match ended in a 1-1 tie. Of course a fight broke out and both sides tore out a lot of seating to throw and beat each other with. Like with much Islam, climate change wasn’t on the agenda.
Davy on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:21 pm
Juan, is correct, democracy anywhere is a shame. Capitalism is suicide. Religion has been corrupted by both. Humans were never meant to be in populations and complexity like we are in today. It is plain to see for anyone who is not deceived by the insanity of modern life.
Government and markets don’t matter now. They will be chewed up and spit out by the collapse process. Look inward and to your local. Embrace original human values of tribe, family and the constructive confederation of like minded tribes and families. We need to give up on modern man at one level and suffer our way through the insanity on another. We can’t just turn off this nightmare. This is life and this is the hand dealt.
onlooker on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:22 pm
So basically Harm, you think we could not come to a consensus that we all wish to live in a world without war and violence, that we wished to live in a world with some justice and equality, some compassion and respect for each other and some understanding that together we are stronger than divided and that what is good for me or you is good for everyone else ie. Protecting nature. I have heard that before, some people just do cannot imagine this being possible, others can.
PracticalMaina on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:29 pm
I mean, how will we come to an agreement on who could kick whos ass? That is important, we need to play lacrosse against each other like the Native Americans did. Maybe we can substitute a soccer hooligan brawl for the increase in violence on the Ukrainian border it looks like we are preparing for.
PracticalMaina on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:48 pm
Anyone notice how these mass shootings result in gun control discussions, when mass shootings typically involve people with serious mental health issues. I saw a study recently saying that gun violence is only perpetrated by someone with a diagnosed condition a small amount of the time, what the study did not say is that the cases where mental illness cannot be linked to a cause, drugs or money can be. A mass shooting will involve someone with a mental dissorder, the overwhelming majority of homicides on a daily basis in this country are over turf in a poor neigborhood in order to sell drugs no more dangerous than what is legally available at the liguor store-pharmacy.
Apneaman on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:53 pm
Boat, it’s not hate, it’s just tough love little buddy. We only want whats best for you.:)
PracticalMaina on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 2:54 pm
We should focus on the reasons for the violence, because I do not foresee any real gun control measures being implemented in the US, I may be wrong, but I do not think anything will get done until 3-d printing is so universal it wont matter.
jjhman on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 3:16 pm
As long as we have a government that thinks that the best government is government by corporate donation nothing will get done about sensible weapons control or mental health.
And don’t forget that this is a government that we either elected or let someone else elect because we didn’t vote.
Anonymous on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 4:51 pm
PracticalMaina , uS propaganda networks ALWAYS trot out the ‘mental illness’ line whenever these things happen.It might even be true given the epic levels of insanity among the american empires serf-slaves. The idea the gun and death lobby pushes however, is only ‘crazy people’ kill people with their guns, and the only defence for ‘normal people’ is of course, to buy guns to protect themselves. The idea that people who commit mass murder in the uS may not necessarily be mentally ill, is not something uS propaganda will ever discuss. They have a gun-lobby and gun culture to protect after all. Plus, calling every shooter ‘crazy’ is kind of convient in that shuts down any further discussion of the wider issues. He was crazy-end stop. Every single uS shooter story is exactly the same
1-The shooter was clearly ‘crazy’
2-The authorities ‘knew’ he was crazy, but did nothing. (How do uS authorities almost always seem to some kind of open file on shooters?)
3-He may have been crazy, but no one saw this coming. See point #2.
So you can rest assured, every shooter in the uS will always be found (by the media and authorities), to be either A) Mentally Ill, or B), A terrorist. Government tends to prefer B since it can used to support there GWoT campaign in some way, the media likes to default to A a lot.
makati1 on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 7:26 pm
The topic was well covered by the above comments.
Truth is gone in America and much of the rest of the world, but America is Number One in lies and coverups by far. It has the best propaganda system ever. Six men control 90+% of the news in America. Six men. And they do the bidding of TPTB.
HARM on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 8:08 pm
“So basically Harm, you think we could not come to a consensus that we all wish to live in a world without war and violence, that we wished to live in a world with some justice and equality, some compassion and respect for each other and some understanding that together we are stronger than divided and that what is good for me or you is good for everyone else ie. Protecting nature. I have heard that before, some people just do cannot imagine this being possible, others can.”
I agree that we should all live without violence, war or poverty and should protect the environment. Too bad not everyone shares/agrees with that view.
Polls taken since the Iraq war consistently show that a majority of muslims worldwide support imposing Sharia law or at least parts thereof (punishing gays, “honor” killings of raped women, chopping off body parts, killing “apostates”, etc.). Good luck with building your John Lennon “Imagine” Kumbaya consensus there.
ghung on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 8:10 pm
onlooker said; “So basically Harm, you think we could not come to a consensus that we all wish to live in a world without war and violence, that we wished to live in a world with some justice and equality, some compassion and respect for each other and some understanding that together we are stronger than divided and that what is good for me or you is good for everyone else ie. Protecting nature. I have heard that before, some people just do cannot imagine this being possible, others can.”
I’m fairly convinced that’s the issue. There have always been those who thrive by exploiting others and their environment to the detriment of both, and there always will be. There is no “we” when it comes to behaviour.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 9:11 pm
They talkin about terrorists hitting ‘soft targets’ but this one was extra soft target. Cause it’s too bad the gays are too limp-wristed or maybe they would have fought back. I doubt if the Muslim hated truck drivers, and went into a truck stop with 300 drivers in it, I bet he would be in real small pieces way sooner than the police could show up. And the body count way lower.
makati1 on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 9:55 pm
Go Speed, what a twisted view of the subsets of humanity you harbor. Truckers can be women these days or skinny men. The ones I know are NOT hulking apes but normal people who like to drive big trucks for money.
Ditto for gays. I know some who could wipe the floor with you in a heartbeat. They ride Harleys and have lots of those macho tattoos.
Typical American brainwashed stereotype ideas.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 10:15 pm
i require stereotypes to believe in.
gays speak in high voices.
blacks eat watermelon an chicken.
truck drivers are big and mean.
liberal women are bossy like Hillary
americans are fat and stupid and shop at wal-mart
republicans are all on welfare,
and food stamps.
millennials all smoke pot and play video games.
muslims all have dynamite around their middle, and a switch with wires in their hand.
the super rich make money no matter what, like if their nuclear plant melts down and makes Japan go away, they profiteer on the isnsurance money.
for what reason again should i think the world is any more complicated than that?
seems to be accurate enough…
:O)
:O)
LOL
makati1 on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 10:38 pm
Go Speed, whatever floats your boat…lol.
Ralph on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 4:22 am
I have not seen here mention that the Orlando shooter was himself a regular at the club. This adds a whole new layer to the story – He was born into a strict Islamic family who saw homosexuality as a sin, and who backed the Taliban. He was married and divorced from his first wife after a lot of domestic violence. He had expressed extremist views and had been repeatedly been investigated by the FBI. His (second?) wife knew of his planned attack and did not report him.
Clearly he was a deeply conflicted man who could not resolve his sexuality with his religion and the teaching of his family and society.
As such he was classic terrorist cannon fodder who none the less was able to legally buy a military assault
rifle and take out as many of his sexual frustrations as he could on the way out.
Go Speed Racer on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 4:24 am
Agree its important to not actually believe a stereotype is always true.
More important to recognize there are exceptions, people not matching to stereotype.
Even so, its a crutch that can be used to limp one’s way thru life.
I like stereotypes because it helps me
limp my way thru the world, thinking I
understand the world, when I do not.
Stereotypes can lead to hatred but this is wrong. The hate emotion needs to be avoided.
But a stereotype all by itself, is just a harmless way of guessing what people might be like, without really knowing.
oracle on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 6:18 am
yoshua,
“The religion of peace has been waging jihad for 1400 years.”
Those in the west who go to church to hear about loving your enemy and turning the other cheek, and then wage war and perpetrate violence need a new religion so they don’t live in a perpetual state of hipocrisy. This new religion’s principles might include:
(1) Think of yourself first.
(2) Get as much as you can for yourself.
(3) You may use force and violence to take stuff from others.
(4) You are particularly justified in using force and violence if someone hits you first.
etc.
peakyeast on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 6:25 am
I am with onlooker in this case of controlled anarchy.
However, the human race needs to be subjected to directed DNA-evolution and a significant sorting process to weed out the defectives. Otherwise it will never work – humans are simply not “mature” enough as a species.
That is not going to happen – at least not in a peaceful way since the weeding out has (according to statistics) to take place to an large degree percentagewise within exactly those professions/people that claim the power today.
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 6:36 am
Harm “At risk of igniting a flame war, that was not a brave choice at all. That was giving up.” I don’t have a problem with that harm, but I disagree. The reason I never voted is because I don’t believe in democracy, but I understand that for someone who does believe in democracy my actions could appear cowardly. From my point of view, though, what I did is just the most reasonable action. What sense would it make for me to vote if I don’t believe it would make any difference. And you are right that I gave up; I gave up on humanity as a child. This was a direct consequence of my knowledge and understanding of human nature and the human condition. Humans are hopeless and having any faith in them or their systems is, IMHO, a fool’s errand.
Do you understand that it doesn’t make sense for me to vote if I don’t believe in democracy’s capacity to effect a positive effect on the human condition?
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 6:44 am
Jjhman “Juan: Remember what churchill said about democracy:”
I neither respect nor like or admire Churchill, but I am familiar with the quote nonetheless. I just don’t believe it’s true. I believe we have primitive, tribal brains and we are not neurologically equipped to live in the world we live today in any way. We are a species whose individuals are horribly mal adapted to the world we have created.
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 7:02 am
Boat “Not one comment in the history of peakoil.com has made much of an impact. Mine included.”
I completely agree that our comments won’t change our species’ destiny in any significant way. My believing in democracy or voting for H or T would make nodifference, either. Our comments won’t change humanity but they might change a reader’s life for better. I have been inspired by many members of this board. Let me give you a specific example. A while back Ghung said something like “A man should be a jack of all trades and a master of one”. That comment changed my life in a radical way; I made a career change because after reflecting on that I realized that I considered it good advice and followed it. I have never been a specialist but since Ghung wrote that I have been studying more about growing food and how to teach others how to do it. I’ve gone back to school and everything. I became a certified arborist, Master Gardener, and will become a certified Permaculture designer before the year is over. My goal in life is now to teach others how to grow food organically with the fewer outside inputs possible.
Our comments won’t change humanity’s destiny, but they can change the lives of the people that read them and the people they know. Never underestimate the power of your comments to change lives for better or worse. I have been inspired by most of our members at one time or another?
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 7:07 am
Peakyeast “However, the human race needs to be subjected to directed DNA-evolution and a significant sorting process to weed out the defectives.”
I have been of the opinion that it would require some sort of weeding out of people for humanity to stand a chance for most of my life. Unfortunately, I haven’t been capable of imagining any good way to do that.
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 7:26 am
Onlooker “”Do unto others as you wish others did to you””
My wife and I have tried real hard to follow that teaching, but sometimes I get lost for a while. While I am not religious in any way now I was raised a Catholic and studied the bible for 12 years. I even attended Uruguay’s Jesuit seminary school for two years. I never intended to be a priest but they let me in anyway because the priest running it knew about me and my many problems and let me in against the rules as a favor to a monk who loved me like the son he never had and was this priest’s best friend. I also was official bible reader at my Catholic school for many years and spent Thursdays reading the bible from 8 to 4. The bible is mostly crap, IMO, but it contains many very wise teachings.
Cloud9 on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 7:27 am
Mixing Islam into a society that is largely egalitarian is like mixing oil and water. At some point a catalyst ignites a violent separation of the factions. Lebanon is a template for such reactions. France, I fear is very close to having its Lebanese moment.
I do not believe that the nature of man has changed much over the last ten thousand years. For that reason history offers us patterns that continue to be replayed over and over again giving rise to such maxims as power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Looking at those patterns, history has provided us with an example of what happens when gun abolitionists attempt to confiscate firearms here in America. The last time it happened, it sparked a revolution. The demographics of that Revolution is telling. About a third of the population supported the Revolution. About a third was ambivalent, and about a third supported King George. Only three percent of the population actually participated in the shooting war.
There are 200 million guns in hands of private citizens in the United States. Those citizens possess 2 trillion rounds of ammunition. Ammunition has a shelf life of half a century. I have military ball manufactured in 1942 that still functions.
There is a serious contingent within the gun owning community who believe that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to provide the means of American citizens to resist the government of the United States should it ever go nuts. That contingent will not disarm.
Taking the metric of the Revolution, to gauge the reaction to gun abolition, roughly two thirds of the population would disarm. At least 60 million fire arms would remain in the hands of the 100 million that would refused to disarm. That hundred million would for the most part remain passive. It is the three percent that should be of concern to the would be abolitionists.
Three percent does not sound like much of an issue until you grasp the fact that three percent of the population constitutes a swarm of nine million men and women who will kill those that come to disarm them. That is a swarm of nine million who will be very much like the swarm that shot the British Army to pieces on its march back from Concord and Lexington.
Consequently, gun abolition is not possible. What it will do is ignite second revolution. Imagine what nine million pissed off patriots could do with several truckloads of fertilizer. The loss of nine substations would collapse the grid for months. Under that scenario we would lose ninety percent of our population within the first year. Gentlemen, we all live in glass houses. Gun abolition is a stone we need not throw.
peakyeast on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 8:06 am
Democracy can only work if the people are truly educated (not specialists) and has access to true information without bias and has actual influence on the governing.
Its obvious that none of those three all-important points exist anywhere.
And where some or part of those qualities has existed they are hastily being nullified in these OH so tough times.
dooma on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 8:28 am
Interesting observations Cloud9. After the massacre of 32 people in Australia, I watched as a nation of people obediently handed in thousands of newly banned firearms in exchange for generous payments.
And all this from a bunch of ex British convicts.
I wounder how many of those “cold dead fingers” gun owners in the US would react if they were to place their entire family at risk by not handing in what are basically weapons designed for the military.
I mean it is still reasonably easy to obtain a firearm here. You just have to sit a safety course and have a background check, store the weapon(s) in a safe and the ammunition in a separate safe.
I am afraid that gun culture is far too ingrained in the American Psyche. And the 2nd amendment is always dusted off after the continual senseless, preventable deaths of people.
makati1 on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 8:33 am
peaky, Democracy is dead and is beginning to smell. I’m not sure what the title should be for what exists in the West today. Chaos reigns. Greed is rampant. Stupidity seems to be contagious.
I’m glad I grew up is a different world that gives perspective to what I see today. I can understand the attitude of the youngsters on here who do not have such perspective (72 years) to judge today’s world by. If you never experienced the old America, you cannot appreciate what you are missing.
Cloud9 on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 8:45 am
The zeitgeist unfolding in The United States is revealed by the gun sales taking place every month. Every two days, Americans buy enough guns and ammunition to outfit an army of fifty thousand men. The AR platform is the most popular long arm. For years it was sold in Walmart. It is so versatile that the caliber can be changed by pushing out two pins. The menageries of accoutrements that can be bought for this rifle are mind boggling. This is a different country than the one that existed when Patrick Purdy walked onto that school yard in California. Ak’s and AR’s are very common in the gun owning public. In addition, there is a significant portion of the population that is convinced that economic and social collapse are imminent. Nobody wants to be disarmed in that scenario. This current event will drive gun sales even higher.
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 9:05 am
Peakyeast, I don’t dislike the idea of democracy just its practical applications in the real world. Democracy, in theory, is a beautiful idea. It just doesn’t fit what we are.
PracticalMaina on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 9:08 am
In other words, all the big people win, NRA donations will climb, gun sales will climb, non profits in favor of gun restrictions will get money, police will get more funding, more incentive for the illusion of war on ISIS…..mental health will remain stigmatized.. you will continue to find gun accessories that greatly improve the tactical ability of a rifle in walmarts discount section…
JuanP on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 9:08 am
Dooma “And all this from a bunch of ex British convicts.”
I doubt that many ex British convicts turned their weapons in. Maybe you were referring to their descendants, many generations removed?
efarmer on Wed, 15th Jun 2016 9:52 am
There is always a difference between the beautiful idea and the ugly truths that confront them. I live near a New Urbanist development, built in a flood plain cornfield 8 miles from the major urban area, which then demanded to tax the dickens out of suburbia to pony up billions to hook a small NU village up to the dense city. I have many friends and acquantances who own guns, almost to a person they are convinced that in a mass shooting event one of their kind will pull out his 9mm and be a hero. I am of the opinion they will instead be a corpse unless the assault weapon wielder is inept. The distance between our beautiful and ugly ideas and notions is always hard to measure since we tend to apply our ideas to the world we live in to see it as being ripe and friendly for our most esteemed ideas and notions. Detroit is from the petroleum exploit into cheap personal transportation on a mass scale, the early stuff before sprawl was built well, it however is not in a standalone quaint town in upstate New York that allows romantic exploits to flourish, but instead is in the pressure of the existant embedded hunanity that is impoverished and undsiciplined in how one obtains their daily needs. The alternatives to urban sprawl and the strip mall franchise ghetto gauntlets that are the feeder streets of suburbia will not succumb to romantic ideas but to finding something that copes and works when the system simply won’t allow comfy living with drive thru burgers waiting at the end of the road feeding all the plastic houses on cul de sacs.