Memorial Service
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Bill Totten
Jun 1, 2023, 5:00:26 PM6/1/23
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Memorial Service
Liberalism was never about freedom, but nurtured a profound desire to
change humanity above all other aspects. This rendered it a willing
ally of tyrants promising to do the dirty work of such a project.
- John Waters on Substack
https://kunstler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Kunstler-Logo-2-res72-final-e1372906270122.png
by James Howard Kunstler
https://kunstler.com (May 29 2023)
For your reading pleasure on Mondays and Fridays
Support this blog by visiting Jim's Patreon Page
And thanks to all my Patrons for your support
An anxious silence falls over the land this Memorial Day as we discern
increasingly that those we put in charge of this shape-shifting thing
called the public interest are running out of trips to lay on the
people. Something grotesque is revealing itself: a bankruptcy not just
of money but of national purpose, meaning, and legitimacy. You realize
this day, with a breaking heart, that your country has been stolen by
psychopaths.
Brace for impact. We're already off the road, and now it's only a
matter of how this vehicle comes to a stop in the ditch. Then, it's a
question of how each of us emerges from the smoldering wreckage. The
main thing, though, is clear to everyone: What we were riding in is no
more. We're out there stumbling around in the dark, in shock, trying
desperately to assess our whereabouts and what has happened to us.
Now, the trouble with being ruled by psychopaths is that they don't
care about other people. They are actually incapable of imagining the
lives of others, especially the fact that these others care about each
other, and what happens to them. You may have noticed, for instance,
that the psychopath Senator Lindsay Graham (Republican, South
Carolina) went to Ukraine last week and declared, "Russians are dying.
We have never spent money so well." Only a couple of months ago, he
called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin. He stopped short of
dissing Mr Putin's mother.
Ukraine, of course, is a lost cause, and it was never a good cause in
the first place. Contrary to Lindsay Graham's untoward utterance,
American money has killed far more Ukrainians than Russians. He
overlooked an unappetizing tidbit because he doesn't care about the
Ukrainians, for whose sake our "folks" in charge supposedly undertook
this clusterfuck. Lindsay Graham also may not have noticed that our
country is collapsing and Russia is not. That must be because Lindsay
Graham does not care about Americans, either.
As for our money, it looks like most of the rest of the world - the
nations that still produce things of value - are so turned off by
American pathocracy that they are seeking every way possible to stop
using our money in international trade settlements. That money, our
dollar, became the world's reserve currency because our country ended
up on top in the previous world war and for the better part of a
century afterward dominated the planet militarily. Naturally, as our
leadership turned more pathological and pathocratic, so did our
military endeavors - until lately they amount to little more than just
smashing up other countries to show we can do it.
These other countries must wonder which is the next place that America
will try to smash up. Two of these other countries, Russia and China,
are coming around to the realization that they are possibly better
equipped to do the smashing than America is. There is no indication
that our pathocracy recognizes that the next smash-up may be World War
Three, and that we may not emerge from it victorious.
Hence, our anxiety this Memorial Day as we reflect on America's
military exploits generally, and must perforce contemplate our
less-than-glorious prospects ahead. How will our pathocrat neo-con
strategists greet the debacle of our failure in Ukraine? Denial and
spin, for sure. But will they scramble to dream up yet another
misadventure as reckless and absurd? You have good reason to be
concerned.
Pathocracy always marches toward totalitarianism because pathocrats
can't imagine a management of public affairs by people who care about
each other (and their country). Therefore, everyone must be subject to
incessant coercion and punishment, especially for their thoughts (and
especially for thoughts of opposition to pathocracy). However, there
are certainly more people who care about each other than there are
psychopaths in America. I'm not a big fan of quantification but, for
the record, psychiatric meta-analysis estimates that 1.2 to 4.5
percent of the population displays psychopathic personality disorders.
How that tiny fraction of the citizenry came to take charge of our
affairs is surely the big mystery of the moment. My guess is that
under conditions of economic-social-and-political collapse, the people
who care about each other become preoccupied with their mutual
caretaking duties while the psychopaths, unburdened by such cares, can
go about other business - such as plunder, murder, and the sowing of
chaos.
Sometimes in history, the pathocrats are simply overthrown by the
majority of humans with functioning emotional equipment. It's not
easy, though, because in most other places around the world, the
pathocracy become the sole owners of the guns and have armies and
police at their disposal to put down revolts. That's not quite exactly
the case here in the USA with our Second Amendment to the
Constitution. The putative president, "Joe Biden", cracked some time
ago that anyone seeking to oppose him better bring some F-15 fighter
planes to get the job done. As the good book says: "Pride goeth before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall".
This Memorial Day is the pregnant moment before history gives birth to
new and astounding events. Everyone senses it. The rough beasts are
out there slouching across the fruited plain. Attend to your duties
courageously, as those before us did, who we remember today.
* * * * *
This blog is sponsored this week by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for
investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. To learn more
visit: https://vaulted.blbvux.net/KoOEx
Manage Your Current Subscription:
https://kunstler.com/manage-your-email-subscription/
Privacy Policy:
https://kunstler.com/privacy-policy/
New Paintings from the 2023 Season:
https://kunstler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Barrel-Racers.jpeg
Barrel Racers, Cambridge, New York
Click for Autographed Copies from Battenkill Books:
https://www.battenkillbooks.com/product/living-long-emergency-global-crisis-failure-futurists-and-early-adapters-who-are-showing-us
Click to order from Amazon:
https://amzn.to/36ce8gx
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/memorial-service/
TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click
the appropriate link at the top or bottom of
https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2023/06/02/memorial-service/
Liberalism was never about freedom, but nurtured a profound desire to
change humanity above all other aspects. This rendered it a willing
ally of tyrants promising to do the dirty work of such a project.
- John Waters on Substack
https://kunstler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Kunstler-Logo-2-res72-final-e1372906270122.png
by James Howard Kunstler
https://kunstler.com (May 29 2023)
For your reading pleasure on Mondays and Fridays
Support this blog by visiting Jim's Patreon Page
And thanks to all my Patrons for your support
An anxious silence falls over the land this Memorial Day as we discern
increasingly that those we put in charge of this shape-shifting thing
called the public interest are running out of trips to lay on the
people. Something grotesque is revealing itself: a bankruptcy not just
of money but of national purpose, meaning, and legitimacy. You realize
this day, with a breaking heart, that your country has been stolen by
psychopaths.
Brace for impact. We're already off the road, and now it's only a
matter of how this vehicle comes to a stop in the ditch. Then, it's a
question of how each of us emerges from the smoldering wreckage. The
main thing, though, is clear to everyone: What we were riding in is no
more. We're out there stumbling around in the dark, in shock, trying
desperately to assess our whereabouts and what has happened to us.
Now, the trouble with being ruled by psychopaths is that they don't
care about other people. They are actually incapable of imagining the
lives of others, especially the fact that these others care about each
other, and what happens to them. You may have noticed, for instance,
that the psychopath Senator Lindsay Graham (Republican, South
Carolina) went to Ukraine last week and declared, "Russians are dying.
We have never spent money so well." Only a couple of months ago, he
called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin. He stopped short of
dissing Mr Putin's mother.
Ukraine, of course, is a lost cause, and it was never a good cause in
the first place. Contrary to Lindsay Graham's untoward utterance,
American money has killed far more Ukrainians than Russians. He
overlooked an unappetizing tidbit because he doesn't care about the
Ukrainians, for whose sake our "folks" in charge supposedly undertook
this clusterfuck. Lindsay Graham also may not have noticed that our
country is collapsing and Russia is not. That must be because Lindsay
Graham does not care about Americans, either.
As for our money, it looks like most of the rest of the world - the
nations that still produce things of value - are so turned off by
American pathocracy that they are seeking every way possible to stop
using our money in international trade settlements. That money, our
dollar, became the world's reserve currency because our country ended
up on top in the previous world war and for the better part of a
century afterward dominated the planet militarily. Naturally, as our
leadership turned more pathological and pathocratic, so did our
military endeavors - until lately they amount to little more than just
smashing up other countries to show we can do it.
These other countries must wonder which is the next place that America
will try to smash up. Two of these other countries, Russia and China,
are coming around to the realization that they are possibly better
equipped to do the smashing than America is. There is no indication
that our pathocracy recognizes that the next smash-up may be World War
Three, and that we may not emerge from it victorious.
Hence, our anxiety this Memorial Day as we reflect on America's
military exploits generally, and must perforce contemplate our
less-than-glorious prospects ahead. How will our pathocrat neo-con
strategists greet the debacle of our failure in Ukraine? Denial and
spin, for sure. But will they scramble to dream up yet another
misadventure as reckless and absurd? You have good reason to be
concerned.
Pathocracy always marches toward totalitarianism because pathocrats
can't imagine a management of public affairs by people who care about
each other (and their country). Therefore, everyone must be subject to
incessant coercion and punishment, especially for their thoughts (and
especially for thoughts of opposition to pathocracy). However, there
are certainly more people who care about each other than there are
psychopaths in America. I'm not a big fan of quantification but, for
the record, psychiatric meta-analysis estimates that 1.2 to 4.5
percent of the population displays psychopathic personality disorders.
How that tiny fraction of the citizenry came to take charge of our
affairs is surely the big mystery of the moment. My guess is that
under conditions of economic-social-and-political collapse, the people
who care about each other become preoccupied with their mutual
caretaking duties while the psychopaths, unburdened by such cares, can
go about other business - such as plunder, murder, and the sowing of
chaos.
Sometimes in history, the pathocrats are simply overthrown by the
majority of humans with functioning emotional equipment. It's not
easy, though, because in most other places around the world, the
pathocracy become the sole owners of the guns and have armies and
police at their disposal to put down revolts. That's not quite exactly
the case here in the USA with our Second Amendment to the
Constitution. The putative president, "Joe Biden", cracked some time
ago that anyone seeking to oppose him better bring some F-15 fighter
planes to get the job done. As the good book says: "Pride goeth before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall".
This Memorial Day is the pregnant moment before history gives birth to
new and astounding events. Everyone senses it. The rough beasts are
out there slouching across the fruited plain. Attend to your duties
courageously, as those before us did, who we remember today.
* * * * *
This blog is sponsored this week by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for
investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. To learn more
visit: https://vaulted.blbvux.net/KoOEx
Manage Your Current Subscription:
https://kunstler.com/manage-your-email-subscription/
Privacy Policy:
https://kunstler.com/privacy-policy/
New Paintings from the 2023 Season:
https://kunstler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Barrel-Racers.jpeg
Barrel Racers, Cambridge, New York
Click for Autographed Copies from Battenkill Books:
https://www.battenkillbooks.com/product/living-long-emergency-global-crisis-failure-futurists-and-early-adapters-who-are-showing-us
Click to order from Amazon:
https://amzn.to/36ce8gx
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/memorial-service/
TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click
the appropriate link at the top or bottom of
https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2023/06/02/memorial-service/
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