Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on November 16, 2015
Kunstler: There Are No Safe Spaces
I ’m not persuaded that world opinion will ever “make sense” of the Paris attacks. The non-linear rules the day. So-called Fourth Generation Warfare works because there are so many small arms loose in the world and any band of maniacs with a few machine guns and a pound of Semtex plastic explosive can create the equivalent of a war zone in a given locality.
As for the French military, the obvious first move was to bomb the ISIS “stronghold” of Raqqa. But haven’t the US and Russian air forces been doing exactly that for some time now? Either they’ve already bombed the place and everything in it to gravel, or air power is not what it’s cracked up to be — and we have plenty of reason to believe the latter after a decade of selectively pounding jihadists from Afgahnistan to Libya with nothing to show for it except a refugee crisis.
One thing seems assured: hard-line governments are coming soon. Politically, the West had boundary problems that go way beyond the question of national borders to the core psychology of modern liberalism. When is enough of anything enough? And then, what are you really willing to do about it? The answer lately among the Western societies is to do little and do it slowly.
The behavior of college administrators and faculties in the USA these days is emblematic of this cowardly dithering. Intellectual despotism reigns on campus and the university presidents roll over like possums. They don’t have the moral strength to defend free speech as the campus witch-hunts ramp up. The result will be first the intellectual death of their institutions (brain death), and then the actual death of college per se as a plausible route to personal socioeconomic development. The financial racketeering that has infected higher education — the engineering of the gargantuan college loan scam in tandem with the multiplication of “diversity” deanships and tuition inflation — pretty much guarantees an implosion of that system.
The cowardice in the college executive suites is mirrored in our national politics, where no persons of real standing will dare step forward to oppose the juggernaut of Hillery-the-Grifter, or take on the clowning Donald Trump on the grounds of his sheer mental unfittedness to lead a government. In case you haven’t noticed, the center not only isn’t holding, it gave way some time ago. The long emergency is showing signs of morphing into something like civil war. The Maoists on campus apparently want to turn it into race war, too.
So many forces are in motion now and they are all tending toward criticality. The European Union may not survive the reestablishment of boundaries, since it was largely based on the elimination of them. Spain and Portugal are back to breaking down politically again. The Paris bloodbath has discredited Angela Merkel’s plea for “tolerance” — of what is proving to be an intolerable alien invasion. The only political figure on the scene who doesn’t appear to be talking out of his ass is Vlad Putin, who correctly stated at the UN that undermining basic institutions around the world was not a good idea.
None of this is good, either, for a global economy constructed around long, hyper-complex, and fragile chains of obligation, the most critical being global finance and global energy lines. You think the Paris attacks were bad? Just wait until a few maniacs lob some explosives at the giant Ras Tanura oil refinery and shipping terminal on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast. Imagine if that happens in the middle of winter, when Europe is freezing. Do you suppose the Big Brains in the Pentagon think about that? The West itself, including America, is a circus of soft targets. The softest ones are between our ears.
30 Comments on "Kunstler: There Are No Safe Spaces"
Hello on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 9:02 am
Importing Mohamed dick lickers is never a good idea. Will the west learn? Or is it too late?
joe on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 9:13 am
If they overreact to these outrages then America might commit itself to another Pyrrhic victory just like Iraq. The truth is that Islam is a religion and ideology. Western countries are not ready to face up to what the Spanish realised 500 years ago. Western liberal opinion will never do the work that needs to be done to keep people safe. As for IS? One word, Dresden. Why are most buildings in Raqqa standing? Because Pakistan has nukes and would give them to the Saudis if we used a heavy hand.
eugene on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 9:22 am
Past yrs, I’ve spent some time studying Middle Eastern history. My conclusion is what took them so long. It is a story of exploitation, brutality and doing with them as we damn please by the European/American powers. So I’m not anti-Muslim as are most Americans. But them we have to be some of the most easily manipulated people on earth. And “hello on mon” is a good example. I feel for the families in Paris but I, also, feel for the families of the Middle East. Far as ISIS, just the other side to me. We’re all a bunch of brutal bastards. We need to pull in our horns, stop solving everything with a gun or we’re in for a long, long spell of this. Blowback I think it’s called.
As far as arms in the world, most have “made in USA” on them. Far and away, we’re the biggest arms dealing there’s ever been. But, hell, if holding up a banner of religious/governmental goodness is your game, have at it.
Rodster on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 9:24 am
There are NO safe places anymore because of the Western “divide and conquer” strategy. The MENA is a total mess and we played a 90% part in making it worse.
So now just like cockroaches they are boarding ships and airplanes and bringing their destruction to those responsible.
apneaman on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 10:49 am
Hello, are you worried that the Mohamed dick lickers will cut in on your action? No worries dude, there will always be plenty of dick for you.
keith on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 10:54 am
We are in the stage of resource wars.
peakyeast on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 11:03 am
Rodster… There are no safe places becauses mad apes has overpopulated everywhere.
And I give Europeans 10% of the blame – and mad breeders 90% of the blame for the situation in MENA.
For example the average Kenyan woman has 4 kids. That is totally unacceptable and totally insane.
Chad, Sudan, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania, Egypt, Libya, Syria and so forth are not much better, if better.
THAT is THE problem.
Plantagenet on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 11:59 am
Kunstler can still turn a phrase. “Hillary-the-Grifter” is a pretty good line.
Vote Vote Vote Vote!
For Hillary the Grifter
Its too bad we still have elections
Or she could be president even swifter
Cheers!
JuanP on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 12:03 pm
Kunstler is right. College employees and professors suck big time. I couldn’t put up with their arrogance, ignorance, and lack of intelligence. I dropped out three times and never graduated. The first time I dropped out I had all straight As, a perfect 4.0 GPA, a full in state tuition honors scholarship, and was on my way to graduating summa cum laude with special distinction as class Valedictorian. What a bunch of arrogant pricks the college crowd are. I still discriminate against people with a degree to this day, particularly economists and lawyers. I will never set foot on a college again in my life.
As far as the French go, they are another bunch of arrogant pricks. The French are some of the most violent and agressive criminals in the world, and have been for centuries. They are right up there with the English, Japanese, and American in my short list of most barbaric, murdering lying pricks that ever roamed the earth. Je ne suis pas Paris et je ne suis pas Charlie. Fuck the French! My heart goes out to the billions of people whose lives have been ruined by the countries above, and to the countless millions murdered by them.
The EU never had a future, and I’ve been saying this since it was created. It was always a stupid, unrealistic proposition. The EU has no staying power and never did.
And, no, there are no safe spaces any longer.
Revi on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 12:15 pm
Imagine if that happens in the middle of winter, when Europe is freezing. Do you suppose the Big Brains in the Pentagon think about that? The West itself, including America, is a circus of soft targets.
I think a lot of people are thinking about that. We had the Boston bombing last fall, and we had 9/11 about 15 years ago now. I thought after 2001 that things have to change. The new house will be earth bermed for protection against bullets, with solar panels and a hidden driveway, in my humble opinion.
simonr on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 12:31 pm
The French are some of the most violent and agressive criminals in the world, and have been for centuries
You say that like its a bad thing ?
jjhman on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 12:43 pm
I read a long time ago that a terrorist is just an aggrieved person with a small budget.
There was an article in this morning’s newspaper describing the damage in Raqqa from the French retaliatory strike. It seemed that mosthly civilian targets were hit and, no doubt, more jihadists created.
Maybe my best analogy is that the Middle East has been a boiling cauldron of evil since oil was discovered underneath a bunch of defenseless savages. George “the shrub” Bush spilled the cauldron and there is no going back.
idontknowmyself on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 12:46 pm
The worst realization of my life is when I accepted that violence is the way nature changes its environment.
For example a forest fire burn everything so life can growth again. Heavy rain causes mud slide that change the landscape for something new and different. Animal kill other animal to get energy and therefore changing the life balance. Violence is everywhere you look.
Violence is how problem get solve by nature. This time will be no different.
I am so happy I never had kids. Life is a bad joke better avoided
apneaman on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 1:23 pm
Juan, it’s a toss up as to who is the most arrogant, but the French have definitely been fucking people over longer than the Americans. In an indirect way you can even blame the American empire on the French.
The French
“Well, I’m going to tell you guys something you probably don’t want to hear: these sites are total bullshit, the notion that the French are cowards is total bullshit, and anybody who knows anything about European military history knows damn well that over the past thousand years, the French have the most glorious military history in Europe, maybe the world.
Before you send me more of those death threats, let me finish. I hate Chirac too, and his disco foreign minister with the blow-dry ‘do and the snotty smile. But there are two things I hate more than I hate the French: ignorant fake war buffs, and people who are ungrateful. And when an American mouths off about French military history, he’s not just being ignorant, he’s being ungrateful. I was raised to think ungrateful people were trash.
When I say ungrateful, I’m talking about the American Revolution. If you’re a true American patriot, then this is the war that matters. Hell, most of you probably couldn’t name three major battles from it, but try going back to when you read Johnny Tremaine in fourth grade and you might recall a little place called Yorktown, Virginia, where we bottled up Cornwallis’s army, forced the Brits’ surrender and pretty much won the war.
Well, news flash: “we” didn’t win that battle, any more than the Northern Alliance conquered the Taliban. The French army and navy won Yorktown for us. Americans didn’t have the materiel or the training to mount a combined operation like that, with naval blockade and land siege. It was the French artillery forces and military engineers who ran the siege, and at sea it was a French admiral, de Grasse, who kicked the shit out of the British navy when they tried to break the siege.”
more
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7061
simonr on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 1:39 pm
apneaman
makes me proud
Davy on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 2:28 pm
Ape Man, better to be arrogant than insignificant.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 3:06 pm
ISIS is a crisis cult. Other examples of Crisis Cults include Nazi Party, KKK, the Boxers (from the BoxerRebellion), the Ghost Dance Movement, Easter Islandrs, and to a certain extent The Occupy Movement and The Tea Party. These groups tend to form due to collapse. More crisis cults will emerge as collapse proceeds. The least politically and economic resilient countries will collapse first, as is evidenced by Egypt, Syria, Ukraine etc. Of course there will be plenty of meddling from the more resilient countries as they define collapse as a political/economic problem and fail to see it as an ecological predicament.
apneaman on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 3:33 pm
Davy, still can’t make up your mind eh? One comment it’s all like oh we all got to join hands and come together for a gentle kumbia collapse, the next it’s spitting venom at whomever’s comment has happened to push your little tribal button. No wonder you’re so fucking dizzy – spinning around like that 9 times a day.
peakyeast on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 3:53 pm
Better to be insignificant and alive – than arrogant and dead 😉
Davy on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 3:58 pm
Ape Man did not say it was right or wrong just the reality of a mean world. That kind of explains your dizziness. You are as mean as they come but hate that in others.
Davy on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 4:07 pm
Sure peaky if you can manage that. More often than not that means being a country no one wants or cares about. If you have something then you are always a possible target. In this case you join up with the arrogant or group together and become arrogant.
Dredd on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 5:13 pm
But … but … what about downtown (The Evolution of Models – 15)?
Boat on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 5:19 pm
Dredd
How about 1940-2015.
makati1 on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 7:28 pm
Ap, JuanP, eugene, you covered it well. Thanks!
” The West itself, including America, is a circus of soft targets. The softest ones are between our ears.” As will soon be proved.
MSN Fanboy on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 8:57 pm
Apneaman do you want to meet up for sex?
I like bareback see and hairy hoops too, do you have a hairy hoop?
wildbourgman on Tue, 17th Nov 2015 3:09 pm
Even Chris Matthews wonders why the strapping fighting aged Syrian men are coming to the West in droves. To me this is either a Trojan horse strategy or they are simply worthless.
Some in Europe and in America have always wanted multiculturalism and those same folks also like to correctly point out that the percentage of radical Muslims are very low overall.
Well if you import people from a culture that has a percentage of radicals, you will then be importing the radicals in similar proportions, would you not?
There’s no way to stop these type of easy attacks. If untrained crazy lone gunmen in the States can cause havoc, what teams of trained gunmen with bombs can do is unfathomable.
Boat on Tue, 17th Nov 2015 4:02 pm
wildbourgman,
There are over 6 million Muslims in America now. They have assimilated just fine. Just because you may live in hate and fear doesn’t mean much.
Well if you import people from a culture that has a percentage of radicals, you will then be importing the radicals in similar proportions, would you not?
Maybe, maybe not. They will be screened. If criminal/ no entry. We don’t take off for religious views, race or gender.
wildbourgman on Tue, 17th Nov 2015 5:35 pm
Boat, we have had attacks from that 6 million even the assimilated ones. I don’t think “Maybe, maybe not” is going to be a good enough answer for many in the west right now.
Even Obama’s top level officials are saying that the screenings won’t be effective so I’m only thinking a pause is in order. No hate or fear just some common sense.
And by the way one report says it cost 12 times the cost to bring the refugees here rather than having them take refuge in a country much closer to their home. When you are 20 trillion in debt and have 200 trillion in overall liabilities you should probably look for the fiscally sustainable way to handle this.
It only takes a few bad apples to ruin the whole barrel.
Boat on Tue, 17th Nov 2015 5:55 pm
wildb,
Even Obama’s top level officials are saying that the screenings won’t be effective so I’m only thinking a pause is in order. No hate or fear just some common sense.
No immigration is common sense but has nothing to do with any race, religion or gender. A cleaner earth, smaller population and the fact fresh water among other resources are finite is a reality. Common sense says we are in overshoot.
The good news says most developed nations would be in population decline if it were not for immigration. A plan for a managed degrowth is the other half of commonsense. Technology will replace the need for more workers so if managed properly there is no need for big disruption. Having a constant worker shortage of will eventually lift all boats.
wildbourgman on Tue, 17th Nov 2015 9:10 pm
I don’t totally disagree with that Boat.