Street Sounds
A friend of mine is a Wall Street vet, fifty-ish, smart big-picture guy, unrepentant hyper-conservative and proud member of that staunch 28%. Recently I asked him about his take on "things" (understood in the context of past conversations as the stock market, economy, and a dash of geopolitics). His response: "We're f*cked. We need the oil."
Succinct, and not particularly insightful. But, as a sample of the mood that prevails among a certain set, maybe worth keeping in mind pre-November along with this stark manifestation of "consequences."
Succinct, and not particularly insightful. But, as a sample of the mood that prevails among a certain set, maybe worth keeping in mind pre-November along with this stark manifestation of "consequences."
posted by The Cunning Realist at Tuesday, April 15, 2008
14 Comments:
If we need the oil then the dead enders will vote McCain in hopes he will get it for us. Save that he will lash out at those who won't give it to us or lastly just lash out at anybody just for spite. So to will about 50% of the voters.
If, and not a very big if, things get worse economically then the desire to lash out is going to grow and grow and grow. Lash out beyond the shore and lash out here. Especially among those like your friend who have it all. For 30 years they have gotten more and more and they like it. It now seems to be the natural order of things.
People amaze me sometimes. We need the oil, so we kill people and take it from them? Is that how this country wants to operate? Do we have an introspective bone in our collective body?
What happened to that fabled American can-do attitude? We can't figure out a way to live without oil, or at least with less? We fancy ourselves to be the pinnacle of technology and engineering. So where are the entrepreneurs moving to take advantage of whole new energy markets and alternative fuels? Seriously, this oil crisis should be a huge business opportunity.
Instead we decide to steal what remains of a dwindling resource. Smart; real smart.
With that attitude we are. We need real leadership that empowers the people, really believes in our system of, for the people, by the people, who can bring people together, has communication skills, and a positive vision. We need our Liberal Democracy and not Fascism. We need leadership that says what it means, and means what it says.
I'm with the "can-do" attitude. The time of just taking what you want, regardless of the sovereignty of a nation, the people, the environment, is over. It has to be over.
We need to believe in ideas and science. We need to make positive progress. Oil and coal is the past! Republican control, especially this admin, and things like Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, have not only held us back, but took us back. We have a lot to do to catch-up and make-up. I truly believe, "People will rise to meet the level of your expectations of them.". And it has to be more than Bush and his admin's "shop", "fear", "be careful of what you say".
We aren't the great Americans if we can't solve this one, are we? I'm always surprised how small-minded, hardcore Conservatives are. Why invent something real, if we can beat someone else over the head to get it. I thought we were the model for the rest of the world on how to do it right.... If everyone in this global economy, global planet, behaved this way..., hhmmm...
We were f*cked when we re-elected this "tribe" in 2004.
No of it really makes any sense. Obviously we didn't help improve exports from Iraq. Why would we risk the country falling apart rather than putting one of Saddam's generals in charge and leaving their military in place. If we wanted to get their oil that was the obvious choice. I think Bush and Cheney must haved believed this Democracy nonsense. That freedom would spread and all the arabs would be grateful and shower us with oil. LOL. No...doesn't make any sense.
The wall street opinion. Monetize or socialize...no doubt which side they fall on.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120813349057411671-lMyQjAxMDI4MDE4NDExMzQzWj.html
"People will rise to meet the level of your expectations of them."
You've got much to learn if you really believe that. Ask anybody who has ever run their own business...and tried that. They have quickly gone bankrupt. I'm just talking about the mass of people...there are some businesses that rely on smart capable people but those require a good deal of efficiency and much hard work. There is never big money there because your margins are smaller due to higher wage costs. Our great business schools teach the idea of scalability. Your business has to be run by dumb people and your product sold to dumb people. This increases your margins...and makes the business easy to duplicate. The pessimits among us believe that education in the US has been dumbed down for this purpose. To turn everyone into Britney Spears worshiping TV addicts. That way you have as large a pool of dumb workers and dumb consumers as possible.
You'll have to trust me on this...I speak from experience because I once had the foolish notion in my own head. It does not work in the real world. When dealing with mass man...do not expect much from him.
The only way to reverse that trend is to dramatically change the way we educate kids in this country. That would decrease the size of mass mindedness rather than increasing the size. I highly recommend John Taylor Gatto's book the Underground History of American Education. As somebody who suffered horribly in the public school system...after I read this book (probably only 5 years ago) I was shocked at how much I identified with it. It answered many questions about many things I perceived to be wrong about our country but never could quite explain why. Ohhh...and never under any circumstances put your own child into a public school.
CR, I must say that I am astonished by your friend -- "hyper conservative" and a member of the staunch 28%.
I don't need to go into too much of the laundry list on this, do I? Torture? Wireless wiretapping? Massive deficits? Teaching "intelligent design" in schools? Blah blah, you know the drill.
The only thing your buddy can stand on is that he doesn't like taxes, so he supports Emperor C Plus Augustus. At least that's all I can see.
Remember how Jimmy Carter advocated a policy of energy independence by the 1990s? Remember how everybody thought that he was a girlie-man for thinking like that? How would we be doing today if we had put some serious effort into that, along the lines of the "can do" spirit the other commenters have mentioned?
The current version of Republicans are not excusable any more, they have become the embodiment of the banality of evil. Hannah Arendt was quite insightful on that topic, I must say.
Bring back the Republicans from the Eisenhower years. I might disagree with them, but they weren't sociopaths.
Whammer
The spice must flow!
He who controls the spice, controls the universe
Bush/cheney only started the Democracy for Iraq blather when they pushed the purple-finger elections as a way to prove that something was going right over there. Elections were never in the plan, what plan there was, at least not that soon. With no WMDs found they had to show the war for something. Elections do not make a democracy, institutions do, impartial judiciary, non-corrput police etc.
Their election ruined Iraq. And the election/soveriegnty thing ruined their plan for the oil too.
how many of you commenters are actually doing something yourself to lessen your usage of oil?
A "democracy" is needed in Iraq to legitimize the PSAs that exxon will get. If a non friendly regime tries to privatize the oil the U.S. can intervene. Install another puppet and resume the oil extraction. Rinse and repeat.
how many of you commenters are actually doing something yourself to lessen your usage of oil?
I dare say all of us are, in that we are all attempting to influence our countrymen to vote a competent leadership into office. What are you doing? Wearing hemp?
I have a transit pass and feet; use all three.
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