Are you a member of it? I wouldn't blame you if you were. In fact, I might very well applaud your membership. Apparently, some portion of the citizenry are displaying righteous fury at town hall meetings of the sort routinely held by Congress critters, uh persons. The word is that our elected officials are getting more than they usually bargain for in this summer of discontent. It's no wonder really, because, despite reports that the economy is improving-it's not, and a visit to Karl Denninger's marketticker will prove it-we citizens' have not just been openly and outlandishly defied by the Federal Legislature, we have been made sacrificial lambs to the heinous Wall Street abattoir. And to add insult to injury this was done with the willing assistance of The House and Senate.
Our elected representatives have proven, in the starkest terms, to be merely our nominal representatives, and the repercussions of this, at long last, include some segment of the electorate getting a tad impolite. What a pity, but really, what, pray tell, is a bit of incivility compared to Congress' crime of aiding and abetting almost indescribable banker larceny of an unprecedented scope? This is not to say that the aforesaid galactic sized banker's crime is all that is on the list of misdeeds compelling voters to display maximum pique. From banker bailouts to government induced auto industry fiascoes to the latest health care initiative, there is plenty causing folk's blood to boil.
And who is to say the emotional display isn't mostly a positive development. At least it proves we are not all zombies here in Freedom's Land. After all, for a while I was worried that inhabitants of this nation were lacking the fortitude to directly (if not necessarily rancorously) confront officialdom. So, I guardedly take some heart in the news of the citizenry's recent unruliness, and will even dare to suggest that we may need more semi-raw displays of vitriol directed at both public and private higher ups. After all, the powers that be will continue to act, (in some cases egregiously), against our best interests until they are given strong incentive to stop.
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6 comments:
Voices of dissent are a good thing. However, there are those who would take this dissent and channel it into something ugly (Palin comes to mind). This duopoly that controls our political system presents a false dichotomy of choice. When the decision must be made as to which "evil" is the lesser, we only flip from one batch of cronies to another. We haven't escaped the fate of the Weimar Republic yet.
You may be right in more ways that one. We may get a proper dictator-as opposed to our present plutocracy, and we will also likely have Weimar style hyperinflation.
However, my thesis is that we will not have an old style dictator. What we are seeing are the early stages of the hollowing out of-if not the outright failure- of our nation state.
The mob will not be, as in a rocking ship, moving from one side of the ship (of state) to the other, but abandoning it altogether.
And all the kings horses.....will not put....together again.
So you're predicting a dissolution of the Union into regional powers?
I'm predicting that our nation evolves into something that features only remnants of our once vaunted functionality. Imagine a set of countrywide catastrophes that amount to an admixture of 9/11, Katrina, and the Weimar Republic at its most economically chaotic. Governments, both local and Federal, will be overwhelmed to the point of impotence.
Ours will be a nation that while appearing to possess the trappings of a fully functioning government, will not, upon even a cursory examination, remotely pass the test. This is, THE BEST we can hope for.
Moreover, I'd say the odds of the next and vastly more devastating stage of this horrible disintegration beginning before the end of the year are far from low.
I'm sorry to be so gloomy, but the evidence that our economy is in a terminal state is overwhelming, despite the present massive propaganda campaign afoot to convince the populace that a recovery is well underway. And when the facade is ripped off of the latest fantastic pack of propagandistic bullshit, the anger presently being displayed at town hall meetings is going to seem positively sedate by comparison. And that's just one problem among many that will be about the land.
I'm sorry to be so gloomy
No need to apologize. Once I saw that Obama was following in W's footsteps in so many policies, primarily propping up Wall St., I felt defeated. I gave up. I couldn't blog about it because the whole thing was too damn depressing and I've been struggling to deal with it. Rather than dwell on it, I've channeled my energies into getting projects done while we still have the money.
My wife's company announced a 10% cut in pay starting this month. There was a 20% cut for the month of June. They've already laid off as many people as they think they can and still function. Funny thing is, the execs are still getting their monthly bonuses.
I'm sorry about the pay cuts your family, and particularly your wife, have been made to endure. All I can say by way of comfort is I absolutely would not want to be an exec going forward.
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