The End of The World as I Knew It and I Don’t Feel Fine.
I lived in the happy days when America was populated by a citizen population that smiled more than occasionally. ( with apologies to Hank Williams)> We almost all had a hot rod Ford and a two dollar bill and on a Friday night went to a spot over the hill that had soda pop and the dancing was free.
No cell phones, no texting but everyone knew where to go for fun on a Friday night.
It’s been a long time since kids came home from school and Mom was there to get a report on the day in school. The evening news coverage on TV took about 30 minutes to cover the local and national events of the day.
We were constantly reminded to study hard so that we would have a possibility of being accepted into college. In my youth there was no expectation that everyone was able or entitled to go to college. It wasn’t the end of the world if college wasn’t on the agenda since there were apprentice opportunities that led to well paying jobs.
The jobs are gone, Mom isn’t home when the kids come home from school. Occupy Wall Street groups are camped in parks all over the country protesting their failure to get a job with the cry that they are the 99% being held back from success by 1% of the population that controls everything.
I listen with care to the statements of the protesters. They are absolutely clueless as a group. The media gives their mindless actions continuous coverage as if the activity has real newsworthy status. Local governments that have stringent rules for the permitting of hot dog stands, have allowed these groups to pitch tents in public spaces and foul the area with little action by law enforcement.
The San Diego Rally had a speaker who called for solidarity with terrorists that recently shot at the White House. Police have been injured and these small gatherings of anarchists at various cities around the nation continue to threaten our nations future.
It does not take a high level of understanding to recognize that these groups are organized and supported by a philosophy seeking a redistribution of the wealth. This is not a sensible spontaneous reaction to high unemployment. It is a calculated, sponsored movement to create chaos that will lead to the overthrow of capitalism as a core of our economic philosophy.
The followers of Saul Alinsky are using his chaos theory as the base action to take control of the Federal Government with a Left Wing Socialist revision of our economic system. Want to know where we are heading? -read Alinsky.
The Gimme, Gimme groups are on the streets, in the parks and receiving tacit support from liberal media and liberal local governments which are allowing these few radical groups to disrupt large segments of economic activity. The Federal government continues to buy votes with entitlement programs and by printing money that has a declining value The Occupy groups are costing government huge amounts of money for increased police activity and they continuously create actions that bring Alinsky’s chaos requirement into play.
I’m afraid that history is not on our side and we have passed the Happy Days of our life as a nation. The fact that there are millions of people that continue to support this administration is the real story behind the economic trials we are facing.
We have become complacent, fiscally irresponsible and unread as a nation.
Didn’t you live through the sixties? They were a violent and chaotic time too, correct? Civilization is moving at an ever accelerating pace. Old institutions, old values must change to adapt to the changing world. The geologically miniscule time-span in which cheap fossil fuels can gave vast wealth to the country that first exploited it (America) is about to end (some estimates say that cheap oil will end within the decade, some say $3.50/g is already the end of cheap oil). Your storybook reminiscence fails to identify the fundamental economic factor driving change: the revolution in energy that is underway.
It is human nature to ascribe cluelessness to others. We all think Congress, the President, Occupiers, Tea Partiers, all these groups and indeed all other people appear to be clueless to each of us. Incisive analysis needs to find the relevant issues that change the world. Not the knee-jerk dismissal of others that we all tend to do.
I suggest that what is incisive about the Occupy movement is not the police violence (fractured skulls of an Iraq vet participating in Oakland notwithstanding), it is not the small groups of radicals that are seeking to influence the movement, it is not the corporate media who are trying to trivialize the movement. The incisive issue is that people are gathering together to address the problems facing civilization! Where else do you see citizens congregating to discuss the issues of the day? Who else is striving to sort out what has changed and what needs to be done about it?
Neither Big Government, nor Big Business, nor even Big Religion are leading the deep discussion about values that is needed to face the deep structural issues of a civilization whose wealth based on cheap oil is about to end.
There is no social or legal solution to this problem. It is a problem of investment: civilization needs to invest in solutions to preserve its wealth by inventing new, cheap energy sources and “negenergy” or the savings in energy needs by efficiency improvments. The 1% annual energy efficiency improvements are inadequate. We need to achieve 3% per annum energy efficiency improvements or the crisis of losing cheap oil will be far more painful than the current economic troubles.
Look beyond the spectacles of Washington, Wall Street, and even the Occupy movement and seek the deep economic basis of our problems. Then gather with other people and discuss how do we solve this challenge to civilization. At least the Occupiers have that part of the equation right: they are gathering and discussing the issues. Unfortunately the corporate media have so polluted our information resources that the Occupiers out of sheer ignorance are shaking the wrong bush. But they are at least shaking bushes … trying to find solutions.
I hold great hope that the fellowship of the Occupy movement will eventually find the solutions that we all seek. But they will probably do so only at the last possible moment. And most people will fail to see the solution emerge: because the corporate media will focus on the minority that are anarchists rather than the majority who are actually struggling to find solutions the Great challenges that face modern Civilization.
Look deeper: the survival of civilization and your grandchildren may depend on it!
Chris,
Do you really believe that the Occupy groups are”people gathering together to address the problems facing civilization”?? If so, you simply have disguised your clueless review with rambling rhetoric designed to sound as if you have the only deep understanding of the situation available for consideration.
You opine that you hope that the “fellowship of the Occupy movement finds the solutions that we all seek”???
It seems that the change of old values taking place is being replaced with a society governed by no values.
Your comments make me gag.
Buck
Good stuff Buck…We are enduring a very trying time in our country and doing it with out political leadership who understand what America is all about. But I believe our nation can survive this period just as it has all the other terrible times in our history.My father told me how life was during the great depression, that was a time when people really struggled to find hope.
We’ll be okay.
Frank