Despair, Rage, Anxiety

I think I’m getting emotional whiplash.

When I read an inspiring “call to arms” from someone like Rev. William Barber (yesterday’s post), I feel hopeful. Then I stumble across an article like this one from a publication called Eudaimonia & Co., titled “Why We’re Underestimating America’s Collapse.”

When we take a hard look at US collapse, we see a number of social pathologies on the rise. Not just any kind. Not even troubling, worrying, and dangerous ones. But strange and bizarre ones. Unique ones. Singular and gruesomely weird ones I’ve never really seen before, and outside of a dystopia written by Dickens and Orwell, nor have you, and neither has history. They suggest that whatever “numbers” we use to represent decline — shrinking real incomes, inequality, and so on —we are in fact grossly underestimating what pundits call the “human toll”, but which sensible human beings like you and I should simply think of as the overwhelming despair, rage, and anxiety of living in a collapsing society.

The author’s first example is our epidemic of school shootings–when he wrote it, we’d had 11 school shootings in the prior 23 days.

America has had 11 school shootings in the last 23 days, which is more than anywhere else in the world, even Afghanistan or Iraq. In fact, the phenomenon of regular school shootings appears to be a unique feature of American collapse — it just doesn’t happen in any other country — and that is what I mean by “social pathologies of collapse”: a new, bizarre, terrible disease striking society.

Then there’s the opiod epidemic, which he asserts is also unique to the U.S.  He says such epidemics don’t occur elsewhere, “ especially not ones so vicious and widespread they shrink life expectancy.”

His third example is the phenomenon of “nomadic retirees”. These are older Americans who live in their cars, going place to place, season after season, chasing low-wage work.

Now, you might say — “well, poor people have always chased seasonal work!” But that is not really the point: absolute powerlessness and complete indignity is. In no other country I can see do retirees who should have been able to save up enough to live on now living in their cars in order to find work just to go on eating.

Our lack of health care gets a predictable call-out; life expectancy in Costa Rica is higher than in the United States, because Costa Rica has universal healthcare.  But he ends with an even more depressing observation.

How did America’s elderly end up cheated of dignity? After all, even desperately poor countries have “informal social support systems” — otherwise known as families and communities. But in America, there is the catastrophic collapse of social bonds. Extreme capitalism has blown apart American society so totally that people cannot even care for one another as much as they do in places like Pakistan and Nigeria. Social bonds, relationships themselves, have become unaffordable luxuries, more so than even in poor countries: this is yet another social pathology unique to American collapse…

Americans appear to be quite happy simply watching one another die, in all the ways above. They just don’t appear to be too disturbed, moved, or even affected by the four pathologies above: their kids killing each other, their social bonds collapsing, being powerless to live with dignity,or having to numb the pain of it all away.

This is a dramatically dystopian view of our country. The author, one Umair, concludes that ours is “a predatory society,” and he has chosen examples–he has cherry-picked examples–that support his thesis.

I’m not prepared to accept his diagnosis.But it is hard to argue that his examples aren’t significant, compelling–and horrific. Or–unrepresentative though they may be– that they don’t have a ring of truth.

Should the world follow the American model — extreme capitalism, no public investment, cruelty as a way of life, the perversion of everyday virtue — then these new social pathologies will follow, too. They are new diseases of the body social that have emerged from the diet of junk food — junk media, junk science, junk culture, junk punditry, junk economics, people treating one another and their society like junk — that America has fed upon for too long.

Somewhere between the hellscape that Umair apparently lives in and the resistance that William Barber proposes to lead is a more balanced picture. For every sociopath Umair describes, I know a loving, caring, engaged citizen. For every pathology he identifies, I can point to a countervailing virtue.

But he sure made me think. And drink.

35 Comments

  1. As a counter, we have Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and millions of folks who think they are the people with the solutions for us. Time will tell.

  2. … uh, I think you forgot the ‘Gnashing of teeth with attendant wailing and moaning!’ he has sure approached the Father Caughlin stage of ‘fire and brimstone’ and I suppose there are ‘certain types’ inciting the perversion of our body social… eh?

    Is it time to drag out the ol’ hair shirt and Flagellant’s Cat-o-nine-tails..?

  4. Barber is full of hope, but our dystopian existence is the reality. “Americans appear to be quite happy simply watching one another die, in all the ways above. ”

    I believe Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to these spectators as the “silent majority” whose inaction sides with the oppressor.

    Umair is correct in referring to our “predatory” culture. Albert Einstein pointed out the same thing in his 1940’s dictum…”we remain in a predatory phase of capitalism.”

    I hope he mentioned how we dominate the world with our number of prisoners. And Trump wants a military parade.

    Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Socialist is the most popular politician in America. Yet, Donald Trump is our POTUS.

    The Elite who met in Davos believe in Umair’s reality and they are scared. In America, our ruling Elite have responded with censorship, surveillance and militarizing the police. Free speech is becoming extinct. The free press has been extinct for decades.

    Bernie just used the word, “authoritarianism” which is amazing for a U.S. politician to utter. He’s not a sellout like all the others. Meanwhile, we have the Super Bowl and Grammy award shows to distract us… 😉

  5. I have bemoaned the fact that neighborhoods are no longer comprised of “neighbors” as we of my generation and my children’s, grew up in. How many of you know who lives next door or across the street from you…I know the ones in my neighborhood who planted “Trump” yard signs and now display “Trump” attitudes as I pass them and wave “hello”, still accepting them as my neighbors.

    Family structures have fallen apart; not only through divorces but also the many “unwed” pregnancies with family members who don’t know one another when they pass on the street. We are divided at this time by politics as never seen in this country since the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction. “The South” (racism and bigotry including entire races of people) has moved north and infected families and neighborhoods and now controls the political world and our government.

    “Despair, Rage and Anxiety” appear to me to be displayed more by the Republican supporters in their attacks on anything supporting community values, neighborly friendships and strong family ties. They are very poor winners; we struggle to remain strong in our determination to remain humane, open-minded and accept our defeat with grace and diplomacy as we continue to fight for American rights for Americans.

    “For every sociopath Umair describes, I know a loving, caring, engaged citizen. For every pathology he identifies, I can point to a countervailing virtue.”

    For those of us not in the position of being active in the work field, or actively in the public scene; we must depend on blogs such as Sheila’s as the media has become questionable and/or often biased in their views. If we can no longer trust – or even communicate rationally – with family and neighbors; how are we to know who is friend and who is foe

  6. Rather than writing, “Americans appear to be quite happy simply watching one another die, in all the ways above”, the author may have been more accurate to state that our political leaders have brought us to this state and we the people, although sympathetic, are unable to affect change in a dysfunctional governmental system motivated and guided only by money.

  7. Reagan began the destruction of unions and workers no longer had bargaining power in the economy. He did away with the Fairness Doctrine. So all ‘truths’ were equal. It seems to me that we are back to our colonial roots and a class based or debased system. In the 1930’s people and FDR got tired of old people dying homeless and eating dog food and instituted a national pension system. Not to mention programs to keep the displaced workers working until the business cycle improved. It was unchecked and dishonest greed that caused the great depression.

    To have enough workers in the great postwar expansion corporations had to accept union and workers demands for benefits. Labor had a seat at the negotiating table. All that was seen as hampering businesses expansion., so move production to places were workers have no hope of ever being paid fairly. Lazy entitled union worker hurt the economy, was the line of BS they used to get more than capitals fair share. Europe after two brutal beyond belief world wars, decided that the work of State was the well being or welfare, of it’s citizens. USA believes that the most brutal ruthless wolves deserve the whole meal and to rig the system to pit workers against each other so ‘winner’ takes it all. The saddest thing is so many (working whites from low to middle class) believe this mean spirited, selfish, con. Want a window onto how bad things could get? Watch ‘Babylon Berlin’ set in the failing Weimar Republic; there are many un-comforting parallels to what is happening in the USA now.

  8. America has been undermined at a very deep level. The DNA of the BODY POLITIC has been transformed from democratic to fascist. Any efforts to move toward a just and equitable society will be fruitless and impossible at this stage. No change is possible until we become completely honest with ourselves. Without a FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE, neither an Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Sanders will have any answers or will they even be considered as an answer to the Fascist infrastructure that is being hastily put together overnight.

    The first step has to be the creation of new effective institutions. Old ones such as the Southern Poverty Law Center led by Morris Dees must be replaced at once. Anyone who believes the Democratic Party is a problem needs to understand that the SPLC is a bigger one. They have KNOWINGLY allowed the Religious Right/Far Right to go uncontested by their narrow focus on extremist groups, while at the same time making common cause with the Religious Right/Far Right through their partnership with the Anti-Defamation League.

    Where do you think a major portion of the recruits pouring into the extremist groups are coming from? Do I need to answer that question?

  9. Marv; copied and pasted from a Southern Poverty Law Center web site, dated March 27, 2014:

    “The Southern Poverty Law Center – the supposed anti-hate group that inspired a hateful terrorist attack at a conservative organization – has been dropped as a resource by the FBI.

    The apparent “scrubbing” of the site, which also eliminated the Anti-Defamation League,” was not announced by the FBI.”

  10. JoAnn,

    Thanks. I’m not dismissing the fact that the SPLC has provided valuable information in the past. I know you have made good use of it. But, historically, in many cases like this one, the “good” has been used to cover-up the “bad.”

  12. If you don’t know your neighbors, whose fault is it? I make it a point to take a bottle of wine to each new neighbor that moves in. We chat and get to know one another. I know all of them. I knocked on doors after Irma to make sure the older neighbors were okay and see to their needs. We were all out helping one another after the storm.

    It’s the people who make the neighborhood. That’s me. That’s you. I was raised to go out and help whenever I saw someone in need, and I daresay most of you were, too. Just do it.

  13. Cherry-picking is not the point here. The point is that everything he lists is correct. He didn’t zone in on one topic and say this proves our society is broken; he surveyed many topics to say, or at least, imply that rose-colored glasses distort what is going on.

  14. Peggy, I can say the same thing… only it is usually a cake I take as a welcome gift.

    And Pat, I agree. I would add that what is happening with Trump’s trade wars and rejection of science will effect every one of us. And not in a good way.

  15. Well Peggy; I would have no way of knowing my neighbors were not neighborly had I not attempted to introduce myself and make friendly overtures when I moved into the two east side neighborhoods when I moved back from Florida in 2001. I have lived in Florida for 7 years, in two neighborhoods, and found the same neighborliness I had always lived with in Indianapolis. I worked with the one friendly couple two blocks away to get the attention from the City to clear out the vastly overgrown drainage ditch with a serious rat infestation problem. It took five years. I also receive reports of all registered sex offenders, especially child molesters, who move within a specified area near me. I printed pictures and molest records for families with children and saw that each new family was aware. As my hearing lessened and more and more I had to ask people to write notes, the avoidance grew more and more. Just simple greetings and name exchanges or problems with that ditch, speeders, street conditions, brief basic neighborly conversations; NO political conversations. Invitations to stop by for coffee or iced tea have been ignored here since 2006. Weather permitting, I walk daily with my 4-wheeled walker and am well aware that the few who are out look the other way when I get near…since the 2016 election. Prior to that they did wave, smile and say hello but it ended there.

    I did do it!

  17. “For every sociopath Umair describes, I know a loving, caring, engaged citizen. For every pathology he identifies, I can point to a countervailing virtue.”
    Which points to a 50-50 split, which makes the point that Umair has it right; the split sixty years ago–preceding the ’60s generation and the devil’s baby book– might have been 5-95 in favor of American virtue. We need another continent on which to start over with the American experiment. And when we find it, when we start over, let’s build a government that is not so fearful of small harms that it paralyzes its ability to govern. Government is not a doctor and does not function at all when its overriding concern is First Do No Harm. Good solutions pinch some people in sensitive places, which can be corrected later, after the larger ill has been cured or is in remission. And that paralysis was the condition of government that 2016 Trumpsters saw, and a paralysis made even worse if Clinton won. Future democratic candidates for any office should campaign for policies that promise a little less bedside manner and a little more cure.

  18. In 1976, I joined the Indianapolis Rotary Club, which had nearly 600 members. The same year, my wife and I moved to the home in which we still live. (Laziness has its rewards.) Six Rotarians lived in our neighborhood. And now, no Rotarians live in our neighborhood. They all were discourteous enough to die. The Club now has less than 300 members. I don’t know what happened to the other 300. A great many of them were old, so death is not out of the question.

    Through the years, I’ve belonged to a number of organizations, and I don’t think the people of yesteryear were any more pleasant than people of today are. However, I do believe their living habits are dramatically different. Far fewer people subscribe to the daily newspapers. Young adults are fascinated with Facebook. Every age group seems to have different means of communication. And that may be the problem.

    We all need to learn how to talk to each other. What media are in play? How do we use them? There’s just one thing I want to emphasize. Don’t bother me with this nonsense. I’m a believer of life, liberty and the pursuit of chocolate chip cookies. Find someone else to talk to.

  19. Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz demanded the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep Adam Schiff, be recused from future involvement in the Trump-Russia probe.
    Razzberries to Matt Gaetz who’d better switch parties or flip hamburgers after 2018.

  20. “…the American model — extreme capitalism, no public investment, cruelty as a way of life, the perversion of everyday virtue — then these new social pathologies will follow, too. They are new diseases of the body social that have emerged from the diet of junk food — junk media, junk science, junk culture, junk punditry, junk economics, people treating one another and their society like junk — that America has fed upon for too long.”

    It’s the extreme capitalism brought forth by Reagan, Gingrich and the new Republicanism. The lurch to the right abetted by hate/talk radio in the persons of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, et. al., helped feed the beast inside the ignorant. We have gated communities where homogeneity is normal, where the fearful hide behind their walls and refuse to engage their neighbors.

    It is the extreme capitalism that has morphed into outright fascism that has exacerbated these issues of the downward spiral. Kids having access to guns, because some beast like Wayne LaPierre thinks everyone should be packing heat, makes their underdeveloped sense of right and wrong lethal.

    Bottom line: End Republicanism, end fascism, end extreme, unregulated capitalism, and maybe, MAYBE we’ll have a country worth rebuilding.

  21. Last summer I demonstrated downtown here in Indianapolis for Enhanced Medicare for All. I met five men that were from Denmark. They could not understand why we did not have a single payer system. Health care in Denmark is universal, free of charge and high quality. Everybody is covered as a right of citizenship. They also mentioned several other social supports, child leave, day care, free public education and free college.

    Now they mentioned Denmark has higher taxes than we do because of these services. This got me to thinking here in America these social supports are available via our ala carte system. So if and only if you can afford them, you can have them.

    The Danes could not understand why we have such lax firearms laws here.

    America at it’s core is cruel and vicious society based on economic class and subdivided further into race, gender and ethnic origin. That said individuals can and do perform altruistic acts of kindness. However, with some exceptions you are on your own. As long as you can keep up with the herd, you might survive. If you cannot keep up you are like a wounded, or old zebra and the lion pride is preparing their assault.

    I am not going to get into the partisan blame game of it’s all Reagan’s fault etc. The Democrats have had plenty of time to address these issues and stood by with their hands in their pockets.

    Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi gave an eight hour speech on the DACA issue. DACA impacts a million or so individuals. Will Nancy Pelosi give a speech about the millions of Americans who have no heath care, or who cannot “afford” it and propose universal Enhanced Medicare for All health care coverage?? Do not hold your breath.

    You see as the cynic I am Pelosi’s speech on DACA does not step on the toes of Wall Street, Universal Health Care would.

  22. Raw capitalism is anti-civilization by nature. The idea that fear is the most powerful motivator is one of man’s oldest thoughts. As any student of management can tell you, organizations ruled by fear are dysfunctional, produce human misery, and yet occur over and over in a very competitive environment. Competition is necessary to produce better outcomes, but it must be controlled to prevent horrific outcomes. We have fallen to a point of ignorance that we elect governments that believe competition, not cooperation, is the way to solve all problems. We are regressing, moving backward, and the result will be 19th century ways of thinking and 19th century misery.

  23. Sheila,

    “Somewhere between the hellscape that Umair apparently lives in and the resistance that William Barber proposes to lead is a more balanced picture”

    A more balanced picture would be an ETHICAL FRONT proposed by Hermann Rauschning. It wasn’t a new ideological movement. He had been an insider with Hitler and had broken off because of his extremes. He knew the enemy better than anyone in the opposition. His major concern was that the ETHICAL FRONT might not develop soon enough, and he was right, it didn’t.

    The ETHICAL FRONT is explained in “The Revolution of Nihilism: Warning to the West” by Hermann Rauschning (Alliance Book Corporation, New York, 1939).

  24. Neighborliness should be a good thing. We live “in the country”. Neighbors are seperated by acres not footsteps on sidewalk. Recently (in January) we had a neighbor from down the road knock on our door one evening and ask if he could take some of the tree wood on our property. We live back from the road under a canopy of trees. Agreed he could take wood from trees already fallen and along the road side, and not to cut anything standing or come up into the property. Asked if he’d be neighborly in return, and plow our drive when it snowed. He did the opposite. Took advantage of us. Cut some standing trees too. Put tractor gouges in the land from where he wasn’t supposed to have taken wood. Didn’t help when the snow arrived. Several years ago, another neighbor similarly took advantage. Came on our property and helped themselves under the guise of doing yard work for which they were paid, including taking several cherry trees still in burlap that were to be planted. Don’t know if it’s partly a ‘man taking advantage of older women thing’ or what, but this kind of neighborliness we can do without. Defnitely makes one reluctant to be neighborly.

  25. More on an ETHICAL FRONT:

    “Meanwhile slowly, very slowly, the intellectual elements of the new front are being formed, of the opposition that really has a chance of overthrowing the Nazis. It shapes itself with tantalizing slowness, and the nightmare continues that it might not be ready in time, that it might not be there at the decisive moment. One must say, in its defense, that even spiritual processes are not easily brought to completion today in Germany. Even pure thought needs a minimum of ‘living space’, discussion, verbal crystallization, and contact with critical opinion, all of which is highly dangerous, if not impossible. Above all, however, thought is hindered by the daily flood of propaganda [sound familiar]. It is like trying to compose a symphony while the same potpourri of marches roars in one’s ear in a continual and compelling fortissimo.”

    “Germany Jekyll & Hyde: An eyewitness analysis of Nazi Germany” by Sebastian Haffner (Secker and Warberg, Great Britain, 1940) p. 204.

  26. I read Sheila’s referenced materials of today and its explanation for our fear and frustration of today and thought it overblown. By necessary implication, the piece calls for a return to “the good old days.” What good old days? The days of the Great Depression, McCarthyism, the Cold War, the Cuban crisis, the Vietnam war? Wall Street’s plunder of workers’ wages etc.? We’re not the first to be met with existential problems, and probably not the last.

    We need to consider context with our anxieties and sense of futility and not assume all is lost by reading a laundry list of contemporary issues that appear to be incapable of solution, instead using our energy to zero in on solutions to these problems. Progressive Republicans had problems in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with greedhog capitalism and responded with the Sherman Anti-Trust and Clayton Acts. FDR had problems with a starving America and responded with New Deal solutions. They did not need a mere recitation of the problems to drive them to action. They did something about them.

    I think we are called upon to do the same. The solution, perhaps unfortunately, is political. If we are to change things for the better and in the process rescue our currently threatened
    democracy, then we have to do something about it, and since the process is political, throw the money changers and arbitragers out of the temple (aka Congress) and reinstitute policies that favor people over money, and the time to start the process is yesterday.

  27. put these two studies,write ups together, dont be shy. the rev, and umair are right,but its spreads out like a flood. I work on the road,i deal,with,not your everyday people. I have a social life that tends to walk a fine line,wherever i am. Im not a bar room regular, but will partake in a good charbroiled burger at one. In this i meet a lot of diffrent people,attitudes,words,ideals,beggars and thieves,cops,all,,,,diffrent. I had to make decisions, and hopefully,my back isnt against the wall. I was raised street,inner city,and was a good kid. but, never the mind for judgements,they take too long. Ive seen or heard about every scam that can be. seems people have little to no self morals. its getting worse. Ill retire pennieless,living in my truck,and looking out the window, who cares, if i had stayed in the ny,nj metro area, union man,i could have had a retirement today,with 40 plus years. I made a decision i wasnt going to live in a sewer. you may have your opinion about this area of the country,but when its all congested into, what is the subject above,into,one square mile,multiplied many times,you getmy drift? even in NoDak north dakota,home,of red planet nation,teabaggers,and a dino for a senator, its white,clean,friendly,but has the most blaintant dieregard for human beings anywhere. so this is just a view of how,both sides are reconized. the fall out over the last 4 decades has amounted into,human disregard,scam central,and morals that will never again be practiced again. The local religious stations across this country,preach,with talking heads, the vote to eliminate the liberal, taking whats left of our goverment,and throwing it away,and yet, there the love thy neighbor and be god like… BS… many good revs today are, very cool, and talk like the congregation they inspire. They will be a light in the tunnel,and hopefully,crush the cheap rehetoric religious radio has become. The minds they control with hate,loathing,and contempt, ya gotta listen to these talking heads,bafoon every item they can grasp. Most sound like a carney barker looking for stupid. yes,i have seen people kicked,me too,physically..I may die pennieless,but i gave to the ones,who are,the left behinds,who never got a break. Money now controls our destiny,period,wall streets gang is in control, currency is the target,ask blackstone,they control 6 trillion$ and we were led to believe,that the right side of the isle,was our buddy… as working class, if your not a progressive,your just part of,the problem…get out and outside your comfort zone,look around,talk to people you dont associate with,get a conversation about,other sides,and how,they see it. its all the same reality,we arm chaired the issues,and now we pay..

  28. R. Cieslak:”Rather than writing, “Americans appear to be quite happy simply watching one another die, in all the ways above”, the author may have been more accurate to state that our political leaders have brought us to this state and we the people, although sympathetic, are unable to affect change in a dysfunctional governmental system motivated and guided only by money.”

    Absolutely correct. Why have the members of both commercial ventures known as the Democrats and RepubliCONS been tone deaf and blind to the needs of the country for decades? Because we don’t matter to them. Our lives mean absolutely nothing to them. They’re too busy moving up the ladder within Washington DC,attending cocktail parties sponsored by Pharma/Insurance/Lockheed Martin and facilitating the wants and desires of corporate lobbying interests. As far as Pelosi giving a speech for 8 hours……Too little too late. Plus,if she had stood for another 2-4 hours,she would know how the average Amazon Dot Com employee feels after a shift—of course, without doing the heavy lifting.

  29. Gerald,

    “If we are to change things for the better and in the process rescue our currently threatened
    democracy, then we have to do something about it, and since the process is political, throw the money changers and arbitragers out of the temple (aka Congress)”

    It’s not only the financial capitalists (Wall Street). What about the Kochs, Bushs, and Mercers? They aren’t FINANCIAL capitalists but belong in the category of INDUSTRIAL capitalists. Let’s don’t make the same mistake as the Nazis in Germany and the more recent Occupy Movement.

  30. A related topic with enlightening comments.

    (snip)
    “Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has demonstrated it can shamelessly neglect the interests of supposedly core voter groups, like unions and people of color. See Thomas Frank’s Listen, Liberal for details. As most, it caters to the misleadership classes of these constituencies. As Lambert has pointed out, if the Democrats really cared about working people and minorities, it would make voter registration and fighting election abuses core party functions. But the Democrats continue to think they can fall back on “they have nowhere else to go” even as the Democrats have hemorrhaged seats at all levels of government over the last decade.”

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/the-payback-why-arent-black-voters-rewarded-by-the-party-that-depends-on-them-to-win-elections.html

  31. William,

    “As most, it caters to the misleadership classes of these constituencies.”

    Many thanks. I couldn’t find “misleadership” in the dictionary. Talking about deception. It looks like the Republicans might be running second to the Democrats. I’m not going to dirty my hands with them. Hopefully, some miracle might occur. But no one bets on a miracle unless they are a fool. Enough is enough.

  32. As I’m perusing the web this morning/afternoon I come to the following paragraph:

    But none of this mattered to Mohibullah, whose primary objective was scratching out his $3,400 a year as a livery cab driver. For all the talk of American money pouring into the country — between 2001 and 2014, that number was an estimated $686 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service — life for him was no different from the lives of men who came before him.

    It comes from this article:

    https://theintercept.com/2018/01/27/a-4-year-old-girl-was-the-sole-survivor-of-a-u-s-drone-strike-in-afghanistan-then-she-disappeared/

    I realize it’s related to today’s post as well. I don’t EVER WANT to hear/read that the US is incapable of doing anything (health care, et al)ever,ever again. If we can spend $686 billion (probably most of that going to Raytheon,Booz,Allen &Hamilton,Lockheed Martin, et al) we can do the things we need to do. Good things. I guess the point of the donor/investment-class is to destroy the entire world and spread bloodshed whilst both political organizations enable said destruction/bloodshed. Nancy Pelosi should not be given accolades for standing one time for eight hours to give one speech…..The question should be why hasn’t Nancy Pelosi been standing for eight hours at a time for a multitude of occasions.

  33. William,

    “The question should be why hasn’t Nancy Pelosi been standing for eight hours at a time for a multitude of occasions.”

    Answer: She has no “skin in the game.” She’s only there for the benefits, not for any possible loses. As you pointed out a day or so ago, she has nothing to lose when fighting for DACA.

  34. I’ve been following Umair Haque on Medium & Twitter for years, he’s awesome. His point about relationships is the most telling: in a society where Market Worship is unquestionable, the portability of labor is an absolute good, so the nuclear family (with no support other than that which can be hired) is the fundamental unit – and sometimes not even that.

    One of my former students had a father living in Birmingham, AL while she and her Mom lived in Groton, CT because jobs in synthetic chemistry aren’t especially plentiful. Why is this even considered a possibility? Because the only “persons” who exists are Homo Economicus.

  35. William your link to the Intercept article fits the description of “social pathologies of collapse”: a new, bizarre, terrible disease striking society.

    It is not a new disease. I have been reading the book – Then the Americans Came – Voices from Vietnam by Martha Hess. AmeriKa back then was committed to the same type of death from the air. Back during the Vietnam War it was not drones it was manned aircraft. The result was same. We have the technology of death so let’s use it seems to be attitude.

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