the suspicion grows that nobody in charge of anything knows what what to do next

[Demeter]

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/president-s-day-james-kunstler.html



President's Day (James Kunstler)


Feb. 16, 2009 -- A creepy feeling ushers in President's Day this year as the suspicion grows that nobody in charge of anything knows what what to do next. The usual yin-yang consensus has solidified in congress along party lines, both equally idiotic. In the White House, Mr. Obama is under excruciating pressure to "do something" as systems unravel and economies augur into darkness. Amid all the anxiety and raging cluelessness, one thing is clear: we're doing everything possible to evade reality.

The reality we can't face is that one way of life is over and a new one is waiting to be born. It's been waiting, really, since the early 1970s, when God whacked the USA upside its head to announce that we'd outgrown our once-stupendous domestic supply of oil. I remember those fervid months following the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 (I covered the story as a young newspaper reporter). The basic message was this: from now on we'll be running this show on other people's oil so we better start doing things differently. Back then, the not-yet-lost-in-a-fog-of-greed Baby Boom generation rolled up its tie-dyed sleeves and got to work doing a lot of forward-looking things: micro hydro-electric, passive solar houses, rural homesteading, the next generation of public transit (BART, the D.C. Metro), the first wave of urban gentrification....

Then, in 1979, the Ayatollah tossed out the Shah of Iran, we got another dose of oil problems, and a year later, President Jimmy Carter's clear-eyed view of the oil situation as "the moral equivalent of war" got overturned in favor of Ronald Reagan's dreadful Hollywood nostalgia projector. As usual in times of severe social stress, the public got delusional. Mr. Reagan was very lucky. During his tenure, two of the last great non-OPEC oil discoveries came into full production -- Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and the North Sea -- and took the leverage away from the Islamic oil nations who had been making us miserable with their threats, embargos, price-jackings, and hostage-takings.

Americans drew the false conclusion that Ronald Reagan was an economic genius (a similar thing happened in Great Britain with Margaret Thatcherism). The price of oil went down steeply while they were in office. Britain could kick back and enjoy its last remaining industry, banking, on a majestic cushion of energy resources. The USA resumed its major post-war industry: suburban sprawl building. Reaganism got elevated to the status of a religion, though it was little more than a twisted version of Eisenhower-on-steroids. Under Reagan, WalMart embarked on its campaign to destroy every main street economy in the nation. The Baby Boomers came back from the land, clipped their pony tails, discovered venture capital, real estate investment trusts, securitization of "consumer" debt, and the Hamptons. Greed was good. (No, really....)....

[stray cat]

1. I never had the impression that anyone knew a guaranteed solution

[The_Commonist]

3. We make it up as we go along...

This has always been the case, for everything, forever.

[blm]

5. Most do...however, ignoring the powerful elite who INTEND for global fascism to emerge on top

BECAUSE of the haplessness and inattention of others is what helped the fascists to get as far as they have.

[NOW tense]

2. Everyone is just making it up as we go.

That is really what life is, "making it up".

[The_Commonist]

4. Great minds think alike!

Zap... you owe me a beer?

[Demeter]

6. But Knowing What NOT to Do, and Doing It Anyway

goes beyond insanity. And not doing what must be done, for temporary personal gain, is foolish.

[notesdev]

7. Doesn't help

that they rely exclusively on people who were part of the problem and didn't see it coming.

[Doctor_J]

8. NPR had on this AM the British SecState for finance

Really nice tapdance, but he doesn't have a clue what life is going to be like in two years.

[tonycinla]

12. In his defence....

Neither does anybody else.....

[Doctor_J]

13. agreed. My post was intended to elicit "If he doesn't know, no one does"

Hopefully no one is taking any predictions seriesly

[CJCRANE]

9. Yes, they're making it up as they go along but

it might just work.

The economy relies on people moving around and spending money. Doesn't matter what they spend it on - donuts or diamonds - as long as they keep spending.

The Bushco policies literally sucked out $3 trillion into an economic black hole so why not create some more money and put it back into the economy getting people to move around doing stuff that needs to done.

It's the opposite of the trickle-down effect...maybe we could call it the filter up effect..?

:shrug:

[Tartiflette]

10. Jimmy Carter

A man with the foresight to see beyond his term of office. If more people had thought beyond their immediate short-term discomfort then, and recognised as he did that a total change in direction was needed to shift the US (and by extension, the rest of the World, given the US influence) to less of an oil-based economy and into more renewables, then we would be in a far far better position today. We're essentially starting over, 30 years on. That was a major opportunity lost.
There are many people who should be prostrate before him, begging forgiveness for slighing the man's vision.

[wuvuj]

11. Carter is also right about...

...Israel/Palestine. :thumbsup:

[katty]

14. this line rings true....!

>one thing is clear: we're doing everything possible to evade reality.