So many forces are arrayed against a return to the previous “normal” that we will be lucky, in another eighteen months, to still find ourselves speaking English and celebrating Christmas. What’s “out there” is a panorama of mutually reinforcing critical problems pertaining to how we live on this continent. Like the obesity, heart disease, and diabetes that plague the public, these problems are disorders of lifestyle habits and the only possible “cure” is a comprehensive revision of lifestyle. With the onset of spring weather and the cheez doodles and monster truck rallies and NASCAR tailgate barbeques and the drive-in beer emporiums all beckoning, can the public public shift its attention from these infantile preoccupations to saving its own ass?
From No Recovery for America’s Economy by James Howard Kunstler, at Whiskey and Gunpowder
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
A Notable Quote
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Your First Amendment right to free speech is a privilege and comes with a measure of responsibility. You have the right to exercise that responsibility here but we reserve the right to inform you when you've used that right irresponsibly.
We are benevolent dictators in this regard. Enjoy.
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With all regard to Mr. Knustler: The economic crisis to him is an all-consuming because he is an economic writer, and I'm sure that every day all day he is worried and surrounded by this problem and it's consequences.
ReplyDeleteFor the rest of us it is a tangenital influence on our lives. Lower new home starts affect construction workers, but are they all constantly worrying and working to get people to build new homes? I'm sure car dealers worry about the American car market, but individually most people put the problem aside, because these problems are not of a nature that individuals can address or influence.
Even doctors don't spend all day working to get the public to change eating habits. Why? Because our society is large enough and diverse enough to sustain people whose sole job it is to work on these problems.
We don't need to stop NASCAR tailgating, and if we did it wouldn't do anything good anyway.