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October 28, 2009

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One of the frustrating things in reading Jim Kunstler's weekly screed is his insistence that the "passengers" (read, peasantry) will somehow revolt. With pitchforks and torches, they'll storm the Hamptons demanding their money back.

No.

We're too confused to blame anyone except the most obvious scapegoats that Beck and Limbaugh serve up. There's no clarity here beyond the stick-figure phantasmagoria of right-wing demogogues.

It would help if there was a real left in America to point out the gaps in right-wing narratives. Occasionally someone, a Michael Moore or Alan Grayson, will pop up. But just as quickly the messenger du jour will be marginalized as too crude. The warning to the left is simple: don't shout, don't kick under the table, and don't expect to be taken seriously. And that's Obama talking to us.

Populism is best served piping hot but only the right gets that privilege. I'd prefer colloquia and symposia to street fights myself. Unfortunately, this civil war is not happening in the hallowed halls of academe. It's outside in the blazing sun.


soleri-

At least its happening, this time, in a public blogosphere instead of tavern back-rooms that are closed to all but the people we already know and trust.

It isn't on Fox or CBS, but it is still more public than ever before. Talton and Kunstler are speaking to a wider audience than the local cronies of the Revolution. They are more connected to more people than Concord and Boston and Philadelphia.

Granted that revolution hasn't yet erupted, in part because things aren't bad enough for enough (distracted) people, but the Tea Party may be bigger and more widespread than before. I'm assuming that America still has some people that can be compared to the Founding Fathers and that "The Crisis" will eventually will eventually result in action. (Jon will understand the in-joke)

Following up on my own comment; even though there may be more people listening to Talton and Kunstler than there were reading Thomas Paine, I'm afraid its a smaller percentage of the population. That speaks to our educational (lack of) results and Jon's lament that no one learns history anymore.

I am not as disheartened by the loss of newspapers as Jon is, but I do worry about one of the causes. Newspapers flourished because people wanted to know what was going on around them. Newsrooms were the power because most readers wanted news. Other technologies can supply those needs, but the need seems to be disappearing. I'm not at all concerned by the folks who just read the paper for the latest Sale or the gossip or gardening columns. There are certainly plenty of outlets for those audiences.

We are losing the 'real' news that used to come from the local papers and the national news broadcasts. Those that are still in business have largely sold-out and are now delivering pre-processed news-substitute. To paraphrase Vincent Price- "I can tell its not news. Can't you?"

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