Ready-For-Anything Nation
I’m in my 40s. My IRAs and 401Ks are in the toilet and will take years to recover. We still have a ways to go on the DJIA before it approaches post-9/11, but I have faith we can get down there without much effort. Between me and my wife and 2 kids, we are on the hook for $40k for the bailout...As to the foreign policy - the zeitgeist could be turning away from nuance and a lot more people could be ready to kick a little tail. The mood is changing and people are ticked. We don’t have an enemy like we had on 9/12 in this case, but I pity the next tin-pot that pushes a little too hard.
E-mail to National Review, 9/24/08
The natural tendency afterwards is to find something which is worth even less than oneself...It is not enough to take over an old contempt and to maintain it at the same level. What is wanted is a dynamic process of humiliation. Something must be treated in such a way that it becomes worth less and less, as the unit of money did...And this process must be continued until its object is reduced to a state of utter worthlessness. Then one can throw it away like paper, or repulp it.
Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power
E-mail to National Review, 9/24/08
The natural tendency afterwards is to find something which is worth even less than oneself...It is not enough to take over an old contempt and to maintain it at the same level. What is wanted is a dynamic process of humiliation. Something must be treated in such a way that it becomes worth less and less, as the unit of money did...And this process must be continued until its object is reduced to a state of utter worthlessness. Then one can throw it away like paper, or repulp it.
Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power
posted by The Cunning Realist at Wednesday, September 24, 2008
13 Comments:
There's always a percentage of any country who permanently want to fight somebody. Probably 10-20% of the country would be in ecstasy if Bush nuked Paris. But any guy sitting in the White House now has to face consequences for any looney foreign policy actions due to the current foreign/domestic stuggles we find ourselves in.
Bomb Iran? That'll make them as keen do do our bidding as we were to do Osama's on 9/12. Bomb Venezuela? $10 gasoline. Statists may abhor consequences but now are forced to realise that their actions will have them -- no more cakewalk invasions of Middle Eastern countries can be contemplated due to their inevitable consequences.
Actions that will now result in serious domestic consequences -- doubling and trebling of gasoline prices, double-digit interest rates and soaring import prices -- mean that military action is now counterproductive only, and any President will be only too aware of this, not least because the military will be telling him. Five minutes of high approval ratings doesn't make up for them falling through the floor due to the consequences.
At least one thing we have to thank Bush for is that he's graphically illustrated all this for future presidents and used up all available military/financial leverage in doing so.
Dick Dastardly.
Its October. The EU just said Iran is enriching Uranium. I would not be suprised. I would be digging and stocking supplies if I was an Iranian.
If you check out the Corner at the NR and other conservative commentators, e.g. Cal Thomas, you will see that they are laying the blame on Carter, Clinton and democrats in general for their support of housing for minorities, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for underwriting subprime loans.
It is pathetic.
Dick Dastardly Sez: no more cakewalk invasions of Middle Eastern countries can be contemplated due to their inevitable consequences... At least one thing we have to thank Bush for is that he's graphically illustrated all this for future presidents and used up all available military/financial leverage in doing so.
I can really tell that you don't live in the U.S. because you're totally 'misunderestimating' the "Exceptionalism" involved. Neocons etc. call themselves 'realists' because they believe might makes right, but the truth is at heart they're a bunch of Panglossian Pollyannas. They believe they are always and completely RIGHT, unquestionably correct, God's Chosen People (the religious Neocons; or, "the only nation who really understands Rationalism and the Power of Free Markets and Democracy" if they're atheist like Dick Cheney).
And this belief leads them to assume that their next venture will come off without a hitch, it'll be so smooth and impressive and profitable in fact that it'll make up for the embarrassment of their last venture. (Not co-incidentally, this is how some major Wall Street firms also function.) They are completely and willfully blind to their own mistakes and failures -- these can always be blamed on others, on Bill Clinton, or those ungrateful Iraqis who don't realize we're trying to civilize them, or whatever. Those hippie peacenick protesters at home, for example, they're the ones who "sapped the morale" of the troops and caused the invasion to fail. It was a great idea and it would have come off beautifully if we weren't betrayed. Dolschtoss.
Therefore this political group is absolutely incapable of learning from history. They see only what they want to see, and so each failure simply convinces them that they were right all along.
Just to clarify: Neocons aren't so blind as to send fictitious legions into Iran (ohhhh, if only! If only they could be isolated in a padded room and convinced that when they move their little plastic soldiers over their world maps, that real troops were marching on to victory.)
But what I mean is, given the troop commitments, a "blitzkreig" Rumsfeld-style "decapitating" airstrike on Iran, with minimum boots on the ground, will look more and more tempting to these people. As a means of salvaging their 'legacy', or as the Neocons would put it, dispelling America's lasting malaise from Carter and Clinton's mistakes.
(Even though sane observers realize that the Iranians have already prepared themselves for just such a plan.)
"The U.S. economy will endure this crisis, though many in it will suffer severely, and many have already."
"The 30-year push to eliminate (government) regulation must end. Markets require clear rules and mechanisms to enforce those rules. Without rules and enforcement, crises occur and people lose trust in markets. Without trust, markets fail and the economy suffers. Government must play a vital role in restoring trust. One of the presidential candidates clearly understands this."
I think I'll have faith in our system when the American people wake up, and think for themselves. I truly believe Nov 4th, will dictate how bad this gets for regular Americans.
What do you expect them to do? Bite the hand that feeds them?
Thomas,
In that respect, the neocons are like ideologues everywhere. Faced with the disatrous consequences of implementing their crazy plans, did the Khmers ever back off to reconsider whether their ideas were actually working? No way!
"It just means that we have not been thorough enough, and were it not for those bourgeois reactionary elements sabotaging our shiny flawless plan, we would have put the last nail in the coffin of capitalism. One last push and we will be vindicated! Onward comrades, and off to the reeducation camp, you unpatriotic book-readin' traitor!"
"Its October. The EU just said Iran is enriching Uranium. I would not be suprised. I would be digging and stocking supplies if I was an Iranian."
I thought you were already digging and stocking supplies!
;-)
"I think I'll have faith in our system when the American people wake up, and think for themselves. I truly believe Nov 4th, will dictate how bad this gets for regular Americans."
I think you're doomed to a faithless existence. Anyway, when the choices are between two corporate whores, how is that a choice?
Do you seriously think Democrats aren't corrupt also?
Do you really think Obama and his dial survey platform of "change" and "hope" isn't going to be more of the same, with maybe a smiley face plastered over it?
Of course, the Democrats always plaster smiley faces on the huge dildo they ass fuck us with, while the Republicans just ram it in all lubeless and dry, so I can see how Dems may be a slight improvement.
But one must face facts, if the Democrats had anything remotely resembling a ball sac, Bush would have been impeached by now. He hasn't been, so they don't, and we're doomed.
The only sane choice Americans could make in November is to stay away from the polls in droves.
An even saner choice would be another American Revolution, but this nation of overfed brain dead yahoos will never muster enough guts to actually do that.
The thing you are saying is a huge blunder.
I absolutely agree with anything you have printed here.
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