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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (84847)	1/26/2011 11:41:22 AM
From: coug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

re: >>>War, fear, chaos and terror are meat and drink to the thoroughly militarized American power structure; it thrives on them, it can't exist without them<<<.. Yes and we feed the war beast on ALL sides to keep the MIC well and thriving.. :( It can last for awhile but not forever as it will eventually consume itself.. It always has and always will..

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (84847)	1/26/2011 11:53:44 AM
From: coug	2 Recommendations Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 89467

Since Obama mentioned the "future" so many times last night, it reminded me of our local commentator's piece in the paper last Sunday about "the future".. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "The future's so dark, I wanna pull the shades" Albert J. Nock, a writer I've quoted before, had an interesting take on a goal most of us assume is globally desired. Nock, who died in 1945, was a libertarian when libertarians made sense. In a commentary on universal literacy, he noted that it seemed appealing, but "It makes many articulate who should not be so, and otherwise would not be so. It enables mediocrity and sub-mediocrity to run rampant, to the detriment of both intelligence and taste ... it puts into people's hands an instrument which very few can use, but which everyone supposes himself fully able to use; and the mischief thus wrought is very great." For a minute there, I thought he was talking about the Internet. That instrument has its uses, though. Without it, for instance, I never would have found Douglas Coupland's "Radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years" in the Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed newspaper in Canada. Coupland, himself a nationally distributed Canadian, is credited with popularizing the terms "McJob" and "Generation X." He offered 45 predictions, tips and guidelines to help us deal with "the shape of things to come." Most have a paragraph of explanation, but often it's superfluous. Take No. 1: "Things are going to get worse." Stands by itself, doesn't it? And Coupland's amplification is appropriately brief: "No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down." Or No. 4: "Move to Vancouver, San Diego, Shannon or Liverpool. There'll be just as much freaky extreme weather ... but at least the west coast won't be broiling hot or cryogenically cold." No. 6: "The middle class is over. It's not coming back." I've been saying this since Reagan's first term, but Coupland illustrates it: "Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished? That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going -- to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole." Also: » Retail will start to resemble Mexican drugstores. "In Mexico, if one wishes to buy a toothbrush, one goes to a drugstore where one of every item for sale is on display ... One selects the toothbrush, and one of an obvious surplus of staff runs to the back ... It's not very efficient, but it does offer otherwise unemployed people something to do during the day." » Expect less. Not zero, just less. » Enjoy lettuce while you still can. "And anything else that arrives in your life from a truck. Get used to whatever it is they served in railway hotels in the 1890s ... Pickled everything." » Make sure you've got someone to change your diaper. » People who shun new techniques will be viewed as passive-aggressive control freaks trying to rope people into their world, much like vegetarian teen-age girls in the early 1980s. » People will stop caring how they appear to others. "To use a high school analogy, 40 years ago you had jocks and nerds. Nowadays, there are Goths, emos, punks, metalheads, geeks and so forth." If you doubt Coupland's accuracy, consider No. 35: "Stupid people will be in charge, only to be replaced by ever-stupider people." Almost eerie, isn't it? Verdi writer Cory Farley hosts a talk show from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KJFK-AM 1230. E-mail him at cfarley@rgj.com. rgj.com