0 comment Sunday, August 17, 2014 | admin
Reading around the Internet today, I kept coming across discussions about Obama and the frequently-repeated belief that his election will lead to some kind of turnaround in our favor. I suppose it could be said, then, that people on the right as well as on the left believe Obama's 'change' mantra, and somehow, both ends of the political spectrum believe that he is capable of working some kind of positive change, whether by accident or intentionally.
I hate to keep flogging the deceased equine, but let me go at this one more time from a slightly different angle. Assuming that Obama is incapable of delivering on his promises of 'healing' and 'unifying' and bridging the racial gap, assuming that a New Golden Age is not within his powers of manifestation, and assuming that things actually grow demonstrably worse (as most on the right assert) -- this is where it all breaks down for me. Suppose an economic collapse occurs, followed by conditions worse than in the depths of the Great Depression, which some believe will happen. Why should the masses of people out there, given their general cluelessness and passivity, suddenly begin to blame Obama, or even to be disillusioned with him?
Will the media desert Obama, or will they, like the good cult followers they are, cover for him and blame the crisis on the right?
If Obama fails in the sense that his agenda is thwarted in Congress (which I actually can't imagine happening), will the people blame Obama, or his opponents (who will of course be 'racists'?)
I think that just as when Bill Clinton ran into opposition and trouble, the left and the unthinking masses who are led this way and that will circle the wagons and support their beleaguered President.
Any economic crisis will likely be blamed on the greedy capitalists, who, as 'everybody' knows, are all WASPs who live in lily-white enclaves.
And if, as some foresee, there is a galvanizing of the White majority, what then? Any action, even lawful and legitimate, will likely be shown in the media as 'extremism' and the response will be to vilify any attempt by majority White Americans to press for their own interests.
The incident over the weekend of the church shooting is already being portrayed as 'right-wing extremism', and it will be followed by a lot of earnest condemnations of 'right-wing gun nuts' and bigots, with renewed calls for gun control and monitoring of 'right-wing hate sites' and groups. The man was deranged, to go after children and unarmed churchgoers, but he will be described as typical of White male 'right-wingers.'
And if some on 'our side', which means anybody White and right-wing, act out, that will only provide a pretext for more repressive laws and policies, and more ramping-up of PC propaganda.
I just don't see that the worsening situation, which will come regardless of who is elected in November, will automatically act in our favor. That's where I just can't take the giant leap of faith required to be a believer in the Worse Is Better, Vote Obama movement.
Oddly, it appears that on the left or among the 'moderate'/populist faction, many people are convinced we are on the cusp of some kind of momentous change, but of course they diagnose our problems very differently, and prescribe very different kinds of therapy for us.
I found a link at Occidental Dissent to James Howard Kunstler's blog, (which I won't mention because of its vulgar name), to a Kunstler article about 'Rebecoming', which seems to be his idea of this change that is supposed to be upon us, where the ugliness of modern America will be swept away by something along the 'small-and-local-is-beautiful' lines. Now, I happen to believe that small and local are beautiful. I happen to agree that what America has become, with strip malls, Wal-Marts, trashy entertainment and directionless, dispirited people, is not what America should be, or used to be.
However, both Kunstler's take and that of most of his readers seem to focus on what they no doubt perceive as 'White trash' culture, although no one uses that term specifically. They discuss women with tattoos (I agree about that), video games, drugs, and NASCAR. The last item seems to be a slap at Southron people, since the South is the basic fan base of NASCAR, though many heartland Yankees like it, too. But I get the sense that the people at Kunstler's blog look down on lower-class Whites as being the problem. If only everybody were educated and refined as the upper middle classes.
They leave out the obvious fact that of course working-class middle America is dispirited and demoralized; what can we expect after decades of dumbed-down schools and 'entertainment', all promoted by educated upper-middle-class and wealthy liberals? They mention thuggish, underclass behavior on the part of Whites (though they scrupulously avoid racial labels), but they fail to see or acknowledge how the liberal racial agenda has acted as a way of spreading underclass behaviors to the general population.
They ignore how 'free trade' has all but destroyed our manufacturing base, and how much of our agriculture has also been destroyed, leaving many previously hard-working Whites without the hope of work other than low-wage, part-time McJobs, and leaving some to nothing more than unemployment benefits, if they are lucky.
Many of the people they apparently despise were once people who had well-paying blue-collar jobs, with security, and now these people find themselves adrift. These people are mostly ignored by the Republicans, and because most are White, are now written off by Democrats as well.
Kunstler and his fans seem to remind me of Bill Kauffman, the populist/agrarian writer. I admire a lot of what Kauffman has to say, and have linked to his pieces. He writes wonderfully, and expresses a nostalgia for lost America -- but like Kunstler, he seems unwilling or unable to see that the old America that was so much better, so much more liveable and safe and clean and well-ordered, was so because of the people who made it what it was. Change the people, by means of liberal propaganda and maleducation and depraved entertainment, and you change America. Replace Americans with people from retrograde Third World environments, and again, you change America for the worse.
It's all well and good to lament for what America once was, or might still be, given the right circumstances, but a recipe is only as good as the ingredients. The right ingredients in the right proportions are necessary. You can't change the people of America, or exchange the people for others, and wonder why it just isn't the same.
But the message I take away from Kunstler's piece and his commenters' reactions is that everybody, right and left -- and center -- see that America is in great distress. Everybody can read the 'mene, mene, tekel, upharsin' on the wall, but not everybody can decipher it. And unfortunately, though lots of people see the need for a cure, not many of us agree on what medicine is needed, or even which doctor should prescribe and administer it.
And seemingly everybody thinks that a change, any change, is bound to be a change for the better. But the problem is, how can so many different opinions lead to any kind of constructive change?
Everybody seems to be cheering on some kind of apocalypse, and thus we all seem to be following the first pied piper who comes along.
I hate to keep flogging the deceased equine, but let me go at this one more time from a slightly different angle. Assuming that Obama is incapable of delivering on his promises of 'healing' and 'unifying' and bridging the racial gap, assuming that a New Golden Age is not within his powers of manifestation, and assuming that things actually grow demonstrably worse (as most on the right assert) -- this is where it all breaks down for me. Suppose an economic collapse occurs, followed by conditions worse than in the depths of the Great Depression, which some believe will happen. Why should the masses of people out there, given their general cluelessness and passivity, suddenly begin to blame Obama, or even to be disillusioned with him?
Will the media desert Obama, or will they, like the good cult followers they are, cover for him and blame the crisis on the right?
If Obama fails in the sense that his agenda is thwarted in Congress (which I actually can't imagine happening), will the people blame Obama, or his opponents (who will of course be 'racists'?)
I think that just as when Bill Clinton ran into opposition and trouble, the left and the unthinking masses who are led this way and that will circle the wagons and support their beleaguered President.
Any economic crisis will likely be blamed on the greedy capitalists, who, as 'everybody' knows, are all WASPs who live in lily-white enclaves.
And if, as some foresee, there is a galvanizing of the White majority, what then? Any action, even lawful and legitimate, will likely be shown in the media as 'extremism' and the response will be to vilify any attempt by majority White Americans to press for their own interests.
The incident over the weekend of the church shooting is already being portrayed as 'right-wing extremism', and it will be followed by a lot of earnest condemnations of 'right-wing gun nuts' and bigots, with renewed calls for gun control and monitoring of 'right-wing hate sites' and groups. The man was deranged, to go after children and unarmed churchgoers, but he will be described as typical of White male 'right-wingers.'
And if some on 'our side', which means anybody White and right-wing, act out, that will only provide a pretext for more repressive laws and policies, and more ramping-up of PC propaganda.
I just don't see that the worsening situation, which will come regardless of who is elected in November, will automatically act in our favor. That's where I just can't take the giant leap of faith required to be a believer in the Worse Is Better, Vote Obama movement.
Oddly, it appears that on the left or among the 'moderate'/populist faction, many people are convinced we are on the cusp of some kind of momentous change, but of course they diagnose our problems very differently, and prescribe very different kinds of therapy for us.
I found a link at Occidental Dissent to James Howard Kunstler's blog, (which I won't mention because of its vulgar name), to a Kunstler article about 'Rebecoming', which seems to be his idea of this change that is supposed to be upon us, where the ugliness of modern America will be swept away by something along the 'small-and-local-is-beautiful' lines. Now, I happen to believe that small and local are beautiful. I happen to agree that what America has become, with strip malls, Wal-Marts, trashy entertainment and directionless, dispirited people, is not what America should be, or used to be.
However, both Kunstler's take and that of most of his readers seem to focus on what they no doubt perceive as 'White trash' culture, although no one uses that term specifically. They discuss women with tattoos (I agree about that), video games, drugs, and NASCAR. The last item seems to be a slap at Southron people, since the South is the basic fan base of NASCAR, though many heartland Yankees like it, too. But I get the sense that the people at Kunstler's blog look down on lower-class Whites as being the problem. If only everybody were educated and refined as the upper middle classes.
They leave out the obvious fact that of course working-class middle America is dispirited and demoralized; what can we expect after decades of dumbed-down schools and 'entertainment', all promoted by educated upper-middle-class and wealthy liberals? They mention thuggish, underclass behavior on the part of Whites (though they scrupulously avoid racial labels), but they fail to see or acknowledge how the liberal racial agenda has acted as a way of spreading underclass behaviors to the general population.
They ignore how 'free trade' has all but destroyed our manufacturing base, and how much of our agriculture has also been destroyed, leaving many previously hard-working Whites without the hope of work other than low-wage, part-time McJobs, and leaving some to nothing more than unemployment benefits, if they are lucky.
Many of the people they apparently despise were once people who had well-paying blue-collar jobs, with security, and now these people find themselves adrift. These people are mostly ignored by the Republicans, and because most are White, are now written off by Democrats as well.
Kunstler and his fans seem to remind me of Bill Kauffman, the populist/agrarian writer. I admire a lot of what Kauffman has to say, and have linked to his pieces. He writes wonderfully, and expresses a nostalgia for lost America -- but like Kunstler, he seems unwilling or unable to see that the old America that was so much better, so much more liveable and safe and clean and well-ordered, was so because of the people who made it what it was. Change the people, by means of liberal propaganda and maleducation and depraved entertainment, and you change America. Replace Americans with people from retrograde Third World environments, and again, you change America for the worse.
It's all well and good to lament for what America once was, or might still be, given the right circumstances, but a recipe is only as good as the ingredients. The right ingredients in the right proportions are necessary. You can't change the people of America, or exchange the people for others, and wonder why it just isn't the same.
But the message I take away from Kunstler's piece and his commenters' reactions is that everybody, right and left -- and center -- see that America is in great distress. Everybody can read the 'mene, mene, tekel, upharsin' on the wall, but not everybody can decipher it. And unfortunately, though lots of people see the need for a cure, not many of us agree on what medicine is needed, or even which doctor should prescribe and administer it.
And seemingly everybody thinks that a change, any change, is bound to be a change for the better. But the problem is, how can so many different opinions lead to any kind of constructive change?
Everybody seems to be cheering on some kind of apocalypse, and thus we all seem to be following the first pied piper who comes along.
Labels: American Culture, Demographics, Liberalism, Populism, Societal Decay, Western Decline