Gloom and Doom

I’ve been accused of being a doomer. Perhaps.

Allow me to state my case. I fully expect my argument to anger some of you. (Wonder how many Facebook “friends” will disappear? Oh well…)

Strauss and Howe’s The Fourth Turning alerted me to something I hadn’t considered, that the atrophy I witnessed was cyclical and as predictable as the changing of the seasons.

I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into all the details.

Suffice it to say that we are well into a crisis period that typically last twenty years, more or less. These periods typically culminate in major wars.

Strauss has died. Neil Howe thinks this crisis began in 2007 putting us about a third of the way through this stage of history.

I think he’s too close to his own subject to see current history with the clarity with which he views the past.

I think the crisis began earlier, perhaps late in the year 2000. (I find it odd that all of those waiting for some cataclysmic event with the coming of the new millennia hardly noticed its passing).

Consider the formation of a cancerous tumor. Early stages go unnoticed, but in time, the magnitude of the event becomes apparent.

The illness begins with individuals. It later manifests in institutions, but without the failure of individuals, it cannot run its course.

Believe me when I tell you: we failed.

Events serve as sign-posts along the way, markers if you will, that gauge our descent into darkness.

A few that come to mind:

In late November of the year 2000, Al Gore was elected president by the slimmest of margins. This may or may not have been a good thing.

Whatever the case, the election was stolen.

George W. Bush was installed as president by the Supreme Court of the land.

September 11 of 2001 brought an attack on the two buildings of the World Trade Center in New York and of the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

A rush to judgment took place: Osama bin Laden and 19 accomplices were branded as sole perpetrators of the event with little evidence to back these claims.

The crime scene was secured without a thorough investigation and then disposed of as quickly as was humanly possible.

Book closed.

Waves of fear and anger were then channeled toward Iraq, a nation that had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks.

False evidence of weapons of mass destruction and potential imminent demise was presented.

Those offering counter arguments to this evidence were marginalized or vilified, some removed from their jobs, some imprisoned, some even killed.

The Patriot Act was installed.

Surveillance techniques were devised and implemented to spy on the entire world, including all citizens of our own nation, in clear violation of the constitution of the United States of America.

Multinational corporations (often bearing names once thought of as American) off-shored manufacturing jobs to countries with less stringent environmental practices. Workers in these countries serve as modern day slaves.

We paid for foreign goods with Dollars, created out of thin air, but backed by the threat of attack by the world’s most powerful military machine.

America went from being the world’s greatest lender to the world’s most indebted nation.

Our citizens became fat, lazy and sick.

Addicted to drugs, shoveled at the people by doctors which act as agents for giant pharmaceutical corporations.

Addicted to time wasting devices.

Meanwhile, the war on drugs not owned by these pharmaceutical companies grew to the point that America became number one both in total numbers and per-capita at incarcerating its own citizens.

George Bush was (re)elected in 2004.

Mid-east wars lingered, further bankrupting our nation.

Etc.

The stock market crash of 2008.

Rather than bailing out citizens with a debt jubilee, the government bailed out corrupt banks and Wall Street institutions.

The more I write, the more that comes to mind and I don’t have room or time for all of this shit. There’s torture, more lies, more deceit.

Then we elected the great savior, Barack Obama.

The Liar in Chief. (This motherfucker will lie to you and make you like it).

Obama ran on a program of change.

Those that opposed the bush administrations mis-steps suddenly went silent, despite the fact that obama took up where bush left off.

More lies, more wars. More off-shoring of jobs. More bail-outs of corrupt banks and institutions. More and greater drugs wars, more fucking prisons.

Obamacare sold as socialized medicine when in fact it’s forced participation in privately owned insurance scams complete with penalties for those that refuse to participate.

Yet more wars.

More fabrication of evidence. More lies.

Now we’re jabbing the Great Russian bear with a sharp stick….

Can you say dumb ass?

Doomer?

Damn right. This looks, smells, sounds, tastes and feels like doom to me.

Pull your head out of your ass and take a look around.

This ain’t over.