Building nihilism

I produced a Seattle Times blog post on the "You didn't build that" manufactured controversy. The comments are as instructive as anything I wrote. We're going to see a summer and fall of silliness before the elections. But beneath many of the trivialities are profound truths — such as the refusal of wealthy Republican Willard Milton "Mitt" Romney to release his tax returns, as his father did when he ran for presidency. And this seeming kerfuffle.

The Republicans and "independents" (who really lean Republican) are embracing a philosophy that can only be described as nihilism. As I pointed out in my post, only in a nation that became wealthy and safe thanks to the delicate balance between government and the private sector could we even have the luxury of this discussion.

It's easy to think that, once in power, the Republicans will continue their own brand of big government: Heavy subsidies for arms merchants and polluters and all members of the oligarchy that have gained control of our politics. The government will grow just as it did under Reagan and both Bushes.

But there is also reason to believe that this time will be different. For one thing, the stakes are higher with many facing near depression conditions and the planet in peril. But more important, the GOP has become more radicalized than it was even under George W. Bush. With the Party That Wrecked America back in charge and things continuing to get worse, its ultra-reactionary elements will gain even more power.

Their Ayn Rand dream is the total destruction of the commons, from "government schools" to Amtrak to the repeal of the Great Society and the New Deal. That they are driven by vast ignorance doesn't matter. They are driven. The oligarchs will let them go; there's plenty of America left to loot. By the time they realize that the revolution is poised to eat them, they can relocate to better climes.

As Emil would say, my computer time is limited today, but I throw this out. We are facing a formidable force. The destruction of the American way of life is its aim, whatever its patriotic sloganeering. Their nirvana will make the Articles of Confederation look like good government and Somalia look like a strong nation-state.

 

Comments

[Petro]

The comments over at the ST post were wearying. Particularly the rejoinder that "the government didn't build that infrastructure, my taxes did."

If there ever was evidence that ideology blinds... no, that ideology stupifies...

[Petro]

AzRebel - wouldn't mind an observation from you on this:

[Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.] said that the risks of fracking “are too great to ignore”...

Fracking Damage Not Covered by National Insurer

[cal Lash]

petro, u can find more stupify comments in response to Charles Bowden and Molly Molloys article in the New Times.

[Petro]

Maybe after a nap.

(Enjoying Desert Solitaire - thanks, cal.)

[AzRebel]

Hey, Petro.

We stay clear of the oil industry. They destroy everything they touch.

They're fracking nuts.

[eclecticdog]

Rogue, sounds like you've been reading Chomsky (why do I want a sandwich now) over at TomDispatch.

Best comment: Were that things were as simple as the simple wish they were.

[cal Lash]

Very clever REB.
Petro, Abbey can relax you in one moment and the next enrage you. I would liked to have drank some Mezcal with him. And Mezcal is the name of a book written by Abbey's friend Charles Bowden.

"The destruction of the American way of life is its aim, whatever its patriotic sloganeering."

Jon, The tea party and right wing nut jobs and religious kooks I know really believe they are going to bring back something resembling the fifties if only they can get rid of that BLACK, Socialistic Muslim in the WHITE house

[eclecticdog]

cal, read thru many of the comments on Bowden's article and Jon's article. I found the one's from Seattle to more stupifying. Some folks are really full of themselves. I think azrebel has been watching too much Battlestar Galactica :)

[cal Lash]

Eclecticdog, Rebs house is really a space ship
as is mine just smaller

[morecleanair]

To an Independent like me, Mittens Romney comes across as a total fake. Give me Chris Christie or Mitch Daniels any day. They're real. After Mitt's London Olympics debacle, it is hard to muster any respect for him. I know enough not to underestimate the political machinery, but this guy's chutzpah is breathtaking!

[eclecticdog]

It not chutzpah, its entitlement.

[Petro]

Mitt's off to Israel. His staff is no doubt prepping him furiously, quaking in terror.

[Petro]

Romney (in a London fundraiser with 250 bankers, including Barclay's):

I’d like to get rid of Dodd-Frank and go back and look at regulation piece by piece.

Romney Promises Libor-Scandal Banksters He'll Score for Them

Consistent with my earlier comments regarding his paper-tiger role in the upcoming Obama's-in-the-bag "election," it looks like he's doing more than place-holding: He is apparently charged with leaning hard on shoving the Overton window even further rightward. It's unclear whether or not he's actually aware of this - the old "evil or stupid?" question.

Look for the further Tea Party-ization of the Republican base ("government bad, bankers good".)

[Emil Pulsifer]

Side note: I've added a follow-up comment in the Strange Awaiting thread on the topic of part-time jobs as a percentage of newly created jobs since the recession.

[cal Lash]

Petro,
Do you think Romney would by into the Overton window in Boomsday?

A quote: "Growth takes place whenever a challenge evokes a successful response that, in turn evokes further and different challenge. We have not any intrinsic reason why this process should not repeat itself indefinitely, even though a majority of civilizations have failed, as a matter of historical fact."
Arnold J Toynbee, A Study of History.

Your Challenge today is to watch the movie Hunger Games and advise why it is not a vision of the future.
Forward your reports to DR Malthus and his offspring Mad Max. Delivery will be made by their courier AZREBEL

[cal Lash]

Petro said, "Look for the further Tea Party-ization of the Republican base ("government bad, bankers good".)"

Robber Barons are always with us there just is a lot more of them today, so many that they have been robbing each other.
Just a matter of time until we move to baron run citi-states.
where Energy is provided by pig shit. Wonder what the technology will look like?

[Snappy Comeback]

We can't aford to have a second President named Willard.

[cal Lash]

Millard??

[morecleanair]

Now, Willard Mittens Romney is kissing up to his friend Bibi the Hawk-meister in Israel. The word "grand-standing" comes to mind. Also, the words "oozy, oily and obsequious"! Maybe with "unctuous" thrown in for good measure?

[Petro]

Still waiting for Hunger Games DVD release to pirate - those cam versions aren't visually pleasing enough, and I suspect that the presentation is essential in enduring such an obvious plot.

Robber-barons only last as long as the suckers stay reasonably bought off (a "middle class"). The greedheads always overreach. The Overton window is a measure of what the "great unwashed" think is normal or reasonable (the "center") - if they're reasonably satisfied with their station. Then we progress to the demonization stage, which Romney et. al. are endeavoring mightily to deflect away from the greedy thieves themselves. This is a fragile endeavor, and may indeed progress to some temporary city-state condition (though I personally don't see that emerging from this particular crisis, except perhaps for a few outliers) - temporary because the French taught us all of the guillotine, and the Russians punctuated the message soon thereafter.

But, agrarian and post-agrarian history is a litany of unstable arrangements, constantly morphing from one to the other. Point being that we do not know what an equilibrium looks like, or if there even is one. The most stable arrangement that Man has ever known is the one that nurtured us into existence in the first place - the tribal hunter/gatherers, that in modern times (6-8,000 years ago) began to get knocked from that equilibrium from outside aggressors. The genesis of the overly-influential aggressive society that sprang from Europe (and other places to a lessor extent, of course) is a question - perhaps the "heroic" insistence on conquering unfriendly climates stirred within them this aggression...?

In any case, my point is that we don't know where this is going - if some previously occurring arrangement re-appears, we can be sure that it is just as unstable as the current situation (or we would never have changed into "this" in the first place.) My working thesis for equilibrium (why do I yearn for and tilt at that windmill? A question for another time), is that we're not going to balance the eccentric wheel of modern history until such time that we consciously agree that we have been mis-educating our young in their appetites and priorities, so that perhaps a tipping point of collective wisdom might emerge in a future generation. For we must not only return to a more balanced life on Earth, we must also gird ourselves from those who may, in the future, fall prey to the Sirens of greed and come stomping in once again with their "superior" technology.

(Sorry for the long post - I'm still on my morning coffee and I'm thinking aloud.)

[cal Lash]

Excellent Petro, just excellent. Cant wait until you have had a beer and a nap.

I have avoided the Hunger Games book and movie for the reason you point out "obvious plot". I was a return of the city-state thinker in 58 and have continued along that line with the delusional exception that man may in fact leave earth for other worlds.

Petro said "The most stable arrangement that Man has ever known is the one that nurtured us into existence in the first place - the tribal hunter/gatherers, that in modern times (6-8,000 years ago) "

and I agree.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Need a vacation from government/socialism? Go to Somalia! A 60 second video/commercial from the "Public Service Administration":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QDv4sYwjO0

[Emil Pulsifer]

Side-note: a little typo correction to my jobs follow-up in the Strange Awaiting thread.

[pat L]

Romney = Unctuous to put it mildly! As one fellow, who had a business dealing with Harvard Business School students put it; "they're all exactly alike". Do we need another HarBus grad in the White House?