Jeff Huber wrote yet another fine article recently, this one titled Enduring Blunder. (Sounds like one of those macho U.S. military names for their failed campaigns, doesn’t it? Operation Desert Storm. Operation Iraqi Freedom. Operation Enduring Thunder. And the truth of the matter. Operation Enduring Blunder. Yup.)
In it he quite justly criticized the military and political establishment of this country for its shortsightedness in every aspect of international policy. ObamaCo just as much as BushCo.
But…he didn’t go far enough.
The problem does not lie only with the political or military segments of this culture. It is everywhere at present, and it threatens to burn us right down to the ground.
Soon.
Just like The U.S.S.R went down.
Obama may just turn out to be our Gorbachev. A well-meaning, highly intelligent and politically gifted (relative) liberal who got caught in the riptides of history.
Maybe we have just gotten too fucking big.
Read on for more.
Jeff wrote:
We won’t make western democracies out of either of our Bananastans. We won’t eliminate corruption. We won’t stem opium production. If we effect regime change we’ll just be swapping out puppets. It’s too late to keep them from becoming failed states because they already are.
The only problem with this statement is that it doesn’t go far enough. He wrote:”…either of our Bananastans” and “It’s too late to keep them from becoming failed states because they already are.”
The truth of the matter is that we actually must deal with three failed states.
And the U.S. is the third one.
It’s just so big that no one wants to come out and say so.
I have been writing on the web since 2003 about this failed state. Most often I use the phrase “rotted through and through” and I will stick to that idea here. Nothing is working here. Nothing. Not the mail, not the corporations, not the government, not the media, not the educational system, not the financial system, not the health system.
Nothing.
I also call it “the Verizonization of America” because I first realized it clearly while standing in a crowded Verizon store on Central Avenue in Yonkers, NY (a mostly working class suburban city outside of New York) somewhere around the year 2000 with my then-13 year old son. Nothing whatsoever was working. The crowd control was non-existent; the parking lot was in total chaos; the help had no idea about the products and services that they were supposed to be selling; the customers were stupid, angry and abusive both to each other and to the staff…a disaster in the making. I left after 10 minutes and just barely beat the arrival of the equally abusive Yonkers cops as they poured in to quell the mini-consumer riot that was brewing. My son and I sat across the road in our car and watched. It was deep.
It is now much deeper.
I could just as easily call it the McDonaldsization or the Micrososftization or the Citibankization or the Mass Mediaization of America.
We done got too big.
Too fucking big.
It’s not power that corrupts, it is size. Over-complexity.
What we have here now is a failed state. Perhaps the largest, most powerful failed state in the history of the world. Certainly the most dangerously armed example of the species ever to exist.
The Tyrannosaurus Rexization of America.
And you know what happened to those bad boys, don’t you?
They got taken down by “circumstances beyond their control.”
And when they went down, who ate them?
Relatively weak, furry little critters.
Like these fools.
Yup.
Bet on it.
As above, so below, if we do not get our shit together and get it together soon.
Walt Kelley was right. We have met the enemy, and it is us.
The big enemy.
The big big, BIG failed state.
The United States of Enronization.
The Madoffness of it all.
Many people are now predicting the fall of the United States. The big breakup. Back in the U.S.S.R. redux.
Look at this map.
Look, please, and not in any sort of partisan way.
As could be plainly seen during the end of the Bush era and right on through the 2008 election, the Limbaughs have a solid 30+% of this country in terms of population. Then there is the so-called “swing vote” and the solid 20%-30% that is Democratic. Capture about 1/2 of the swing vote and you win. It’s that simple. Obama did it, the old man didn’t. BUT…besides getting over 45% of the total vote, the Reds also won in what looks to be about 80% in terms of land.
UH oh!!!
My guess is that they also have well over 60% or 70% of the military.
Oh SHIT!!!
Check it out. The red nation is mostly rural and thus very hard to control while the blue nation is mostly urban and thus siege worthy at the very least.
Modern seige. YOU know…turn off the power, stop the food supply, blockade the egress routes and sit back and watch ’em self-destruct?
Yup. Like that.
My guess is that NYC would go down in under a week. LA even quicker. (They’re not so used to scuffling, them left coast softies.) Others would follow.
Where’s yer Blue State then motherfuckers?
“Ohhhh…THAT couldn’t happen!!!” say the bourgeois leftiness softies.
Wise the fuck up. Of course it could. Why do you think the Romans tried to keep varius generals and their legions out in the sticks after the wars were won?
OR lost.
Barack Obama likes to compare himself and his position to Lincoln’s. Let us all pray that he doesn’t get that for which he apparently longs. I suspect that the result wpuld be radically different this time around.
Jeff, let me ask you this question. What percentage of the personnel that comprise the U.S. military…and I am talking here about personal ties, not oaths of service, duty or any other subjective ideas…what percentage of that personnel is intimately connected by blood and history to the red portions of the above map and what percentage is connected to the blue areas?
Hmmmm….
Maybe we’re actually better off with the military engaged in unwinnable wars in the Absurdistans for a while longer, eh? Rather than winnable ones at home?
That’s what I am smelling, anyway.
I hope that I am wrong, but the stench is growing unbearable to me.
Admittedly, I’ve got a keen sense of smell, but there it is.
Let us pray that it is just a passing odor.
Some skunk or stinking possum lumbering by downwind.
Let us pray.
Or be preyed upon.
Watch.
We are all Watchmen, now. Watching the tides of history and hoping that there are no tsunamis in the immediate offing.
Watch.
And like I said…let us pray.
Later…
AG
Hunker down, folks.
The big, BIG show’s jest gettin” started!!!
Bet on it.
AG
Oh Arthur, why so serious?
Because our mortal asses are on the line is why.
They laughed at the Nazis too.
“Es kann nicht hier geschehen.” they guffawed through their pork, potatoes and beer. (“It can’t happen here.”)
Just before the inflation got so bad in Germany that the equivalent to our own lovely Joe The Plumber class signed on whole hog plus postage.
And then it did happen.
I watched quietly yesterday as a bunch of well meaning middle class NYC musicians laughed at the “stupidity” of Rush Limbaugh and his compatriots.
Those right-wing motherfuckers have essentially ruled this country from the day that JFK went down right up until this last inauguration with the possible exception of the first few years of the Clinton Administration and Carter administrations.
They are batting well over .750.
How stupid are they, really?
I ain’t laughing, myself.
Not hardly.
Bet on it.
Wake the fuck up.
It can happen here.
It already =has, to some degree.
It’s just been…subtler.
Media driven and electronic surveillance-enforced.
You don’t need any concentration camps if one out of every 31 Americans are in prison…look it up, that’s about 1 out of every 17 men because the female prison population is miniscule, and more like 1 out of every 10 minority men seeing as how minority races are so so much more heavily represented than white people in the penal system…and 98% of the rest of population lives a an information concentration camp that bounds their thoughts more effectively (and much more inexpensively) than can be done by barbed wire and guard dogs.
Wise up, bro.
“Ha ha ha” ain’t gonna cut it when push comes to shove.
Mahatma Gandhi once : “First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you. Then you win.”
What?
You think that onlky goers for the good guys?
Wise up.
AG
The Devil’s greatest triumph was convincing the world he didn’t exist, or in this case, convincing America that he was a just dumbfuck from Texas.
The United States exists because of the political theory of prior consent, that is, we agree by prior consent to be ruled by the people that rule us.
Should that ever change, should the folks with the guns and the bombs ever really, truly decide that prior consent doesn’t apply to them anymore…well.
Already went through that once in this country’s history on a large scale, and we’ve been dealing with it on a small scale ever since.
“We “…already went through that once in this country on a large scale, and we’ve been dealing with it on a small scale ever since?”
Be more clear, please.
AG
Aye, I did at that.
“…should the folks with the guns and the bombs ever really, truly decide that prior consent doesn’t apply to them anymore?”
Civil War.
I thought maybe.
“…we’ve been dealing with it on a small scale ever since?”
Does not compute.
The people who are running this game now do not think a damned thing about “prior consent”. These are the kinds of people who have been breaking treaties throughout the history of the world. What does “prior consent” have to do with slavery or genocide?
Nothing whatsoever.
Ir’s just about power and greed.
If you consider otherwise…if you are fighting these sorts of criminals with an eye towards their honor, their intelligence or anything else other than pure, naked power…then you are going to get your ass kicked at the first sign of weakness.
there’s a sayinbg “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.”
Well…don’t bring a Political Science book either.
This is not “The Great Game”, Zandar1.
It’s a gang fight, only fought on a more sophisticated level than chains and knives.
The “political theory of prior consent” means nothing to an armed robber.
Remember it.
AG
Oh the people who are above the law, above being ruled, they stopped believing in prior consent a long time ago. But most of us still do.
When that changes, when a whole bunch of folks go “He’s not my President, I don’t recognize his right to be President, he’s not an American citizen” and whatnot…that’s when it all comes apart.
That’s what I mean by prior consent.
You also wrote:
The “folks with the guns and the bombs” are not the “whole bunch of folks” who will say “He’s not my President, I don’t recognize his right to be President, he’s not an American citizen.”
They are the ones who will use the media to hypnotrance that “whole bunch of folks” into saying that, and the ones in control of the guns and bombs…and in control of the the WMDs as well (Both Weapons Mass Destruction and Weapons Mass Deception)…simply do not believe in anything other than power.
No “prior consent” bullshit, just who wins.
Does the mob guy believe in “prior consent” when he terrorizes a neighborhood into submission? Of course not. He just does it because that’s how he gets his goodies.
All of them. Riches and pleasure both.
Does the predatior think about “prior consent” when it swoops on its prey?
Nope.
It’s just hungry, and there’s dinner.
Same here.
These are predators, Zandar1. Not political philosophers.
Bet on it. And then act on that bet.
Because brother or sister…that is the ongoing truth of the matter.
Bet on that as well.
How does prey best protect itself from predator?
Concerted action.
Yup.
A large enough, well-balanced and disciplined enough herd will simply run over a pride of lions.
That’s the answer. The only answer.
Parley with them?
Please.
They hungry!!!
And we are what’s for dinner.
If we do not realize that one salient fact. then…
Yup.
Later…
AG
.
It’s fear that is based in your analysis. You live and witness just a small part of what’s happening in this world. You got touched by the madness of the masses. I avoid them out of principle, because they can be manipulated and move in a pre-planned direction. See the masses of communism, fascism and islam fascism. The US has a quite different problem, getting bogged down by it’s inherent fear of big government. To regulate the surroundings of society where the masses can consume and behave in a social manner. The American way is founded in the 18th century of pioneers with the theme “Go West Young Man” or “California or Bust”. The law of the wild west is insufficient to survive the rat race of the 21th century. The infrastructure advances of the past centuries with the iron horse, automobile and the transnational highways have not seen further developments. The hubs of airlines has it’s limitations. The investments in local, state and federal projects have been insufficient. America is a third world country on health care, education, job security and ecology. Now it’s falling apart and no time or funds left to fix the problems. Downfall of an empire comes from within by seeds laid in it’s foundation.
Just a thought …
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."There are fears and then there are fears.
Idle fear is one thing.
The fear you might feel if you rounded a corner and saw a lion in full charge coming your way is another sort ofd fear entirely.
You thjink that mine is idle?
Mere paranoia?
Read on.
I actually travel through more social levels and more physical areas of this world than anyone else I have ever met except other traveling artists who are not so famous as to be well insulated from the world’s reality by excessive amounts of money. One day I am in the presence of millionaires at a dress ball, the next I am playing for the people in South Africa or Colombia.
Really.
One day I am dealing with ghetto-bred musicians who have come up the hard way, the next I am giving lessons at Juilliard to the children of privilege, the next I am being asked to do a clinic/masterclass in London or Port-au-Prince, soon after I am subbing in a NYC ghetto school. One day I am driving a rented car through the red clay areas of Georgia, the next I am on the bullet train between Osaka and Tokyo, and then I am walking home alone with $5000 worth of instrument on my back through the lonely, dark Bronx at 2AM.
I’m not making this shit up, bubba.
I SEE it.
I see some shit, Oiu. I really do.
Avoid the masses?
Short of becoming a hermit, how is one to do that, exactly?
They are everywhere.
AG
P.S> Just what are you saying here, anyway? It’s kinda…garbled.
.
Great analysis and feel the nation (or American society) is unraveling. I don’t agree as to the root cause of the present situation in America, IMHO it’s certainly not because …
Too fucking big.
It’s not power that corrupts, it is size. Over-complexity.
We don’t have the civil servants to run a community, or a state or the federal government. Nor are we willing to pay appropriate taxes and have faith in people running matters of state. America is based on the individual. Is the state of California in a position to secede and go forward as a single country?
America originated on the spirit of religious people who fled Europe on the Mayflower, the 1776 revolutionaries who defeated the British and established 13 New England states before expansion to the West and genocide of the indigenous folks. Indeed we fought a great war between brothers and were required to police the world in the aftermath of two great world wars.
In your analysis you expect another civil war and armed conflict. There is no call for such an effort yet, maybe because the nation has gotten too big for another revolution.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Size does matter.
There can be too much of something.
The dinosaurs found that out the hard way.
(The following is excerpted from a conversation elsewhere:)
Yup.
Have we lost the human touch?
Too big?
Too (necessarily) mechanized? (Necessarily because of size.)
That’s what am seeing.
The Terminator myth become reality, only the termination does not emanate from blazing weapons and metal-morphing machines.
It comes not with a bang but with a lonely, isolated whimper.
From just behind the computer keyboard.
Listen closely.
Hear it?
Know where it’s coming from?
It’s coming from you.
Later…
AG
I think that’s the longest statement (without a quoted article/link) that I’ve ever seen you post here!
From here. I figure we’ll see free HBO somehow manifest, just to keep the masses safely asleep….
and I think that throws your analysis based on the solid red counties.
Use the CNN Election Map, then choose a state and check out the numbers in each county. For example, Nebraska which looks a pretty solid red shows this for Cheyenne County:
McCain: 3284
Obama: 1,064
I would imagine some of those 1,064 Obama voters live with some of the 3,284 McCain voters. Or they have some other connection.
I don’t think it is possible to to conclude:
“BUT…besides getting over 45% of the total vote, the Reds also won in what looks to be about 80% in terms of land.
For all we know, the 1,064 people of Cheyenne County, Nebraska are the major land owners.
As to needing to get our shit together and soon – absolutely.
Frankly, any analysis that takes, as its basis, the types of simplified self-portrait-in-two-shades offered the nation by corporate media is going to be similarly flawed.
You just can’t take what they’re showing you for adequate representation, let alone base your worldview on it — despite the fact that we’ve all been force-fed the same-old-simple-same since we could sit upright.
“Gorbachev. A well-meaning, highly intelligent and politically gifted (relative) liberal who got caught in the riptides of history,”
but who will in the end be exhonorated and considered one of the Great Men of the 20th century. Gorbachev is THE man who ended the Cold War, only to have his reputation sullied by Russians, and diminished by Reagan loving Americans, who still think Ronnie had something to do with it.
Kudos to Jeff Huber, who wisely left MLW.
.
with 538 and 389 deaths respectively, followed by:
185 Pennsylvania
178 New York
177 Florida
169 Ohio
149 Michigan
145 Illinois
124 Georgia
118 Virginia
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Maybe it’s just a matter of perception. Sure there are small pockets of dysfunction, and moments of bad luck when we fall into them, but it’s been my experience that things do work surprisingly well.
I think our recent election demonstrates that “yes, it can” work.
Mark Newman, Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan published these election maps that change the picture based more on the human touch. Take a look – it’s more of a worldwide web picture than that media favorite antebellum one.
If you really look at the people, there’s only a small percentage of us that want war. The colors are starting to blend everywhere.
Thanks Alice – this is beautiful!
no matter how the maps are drawn.
ASs does my point about the real, blood alliances of those in the military.
High and low rank.
Blueish cities and suburbs are under-represented in the military (especially in the upper ranks), and the country areas are by far more self-sufficient should energy push come to food shove. I have many country relatives…all well armed by the way, and quite able to effectively those arms as well. There is a sense of community in the country…racial community (this all goes for minority country areas as well, of course), religious community and above all the community of shared hard times. If someone is in trouble…anything from a fire to a broken axle…in the country there is almost always a help circle near at hand. A personal help circle. Friends, neighbors etc., people who expect the same in return should they encounter difficulties.
In cities and suburbs?
Not so much.
Not by a long shot.
Which is my point.
Maps?
I got yer “maps”, right HERE!!!
Do not discount this idea.
The U.S. should have learned by now that indigenous people on their own turf…jungle, desert, country or city…are hard to beat unlss you are willing to bomb them all as dead as doornails.
And then what good are they?
Careful…
Later…
AG
AG, you read this, no doubt?
Civil Unrest in America?
the real U rate is 19.1% and is expected to go higher.
No, I had never seen it. But I do live in the Bronx, and I do know something about “civil unrest” having lived through the riots of the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
Often up close and failry personal.
Hell, I was playing in LA when the Rodney King verdict came down. I was playing in Roxbury (Boston’s Harlem) the night MLK Jr. had been shot. I was in Boston during one blackout and NYC during the other. Most people are pretty dumb, really, but a mob?
Dumb ain’t the word.
Vicious dumb.
Wicked dumb.
Killer dumb.
I know…
AG
There is a sense of community in the country…racial community (this all goes for minority country areas as well, of course), religious community and above all the community of shared hard times.
Absolutely right: Above all the community of hard times. Additionally, this isn’t even remarkable.
This is the foremost reason why I hope to continue living in the country for as long as I possibly can, regardless of what the future holds.
Community will be absolutely key for individual survival regardless. I feel very concerned for those people who don’t have this type of crucial support.
One sure thing that corporatism has always done, both here & abroad, is to absolutely destroy community. It represents a massive cult, really; membership requires that one abandons all other sustaining relationships. Then one must live by what’s left.
Precisely!!!
I have never heard it said more clearly.
Thank you.
AG
I’ll take the urban guns against the suburban/exurban guns any day – sheer numbers, tactics won’t matter without military intervention. If, as you say, the military intervenes on the side of the suburbanites then yeah, it’ll be a bloodbath. But in a straight-up fight? City vs. country/exurbs?
City all day.
Cup and saucer ain’t just for tea and crumpets…
In that scenario the Blue States apply to join Canada.
All those commenters who subscribe to “It can’t happen here”
Well it happened once and can be repeated. Recall the Militias of recent years.
Every heard of the “Sovereign Movement” and their counterparts sweeping through the various states legislature….some 28 states so far — the movement seeks to reclaim states rights?
Ever heard of the FEMA camps built to hold illegal aliens and rioters?
No conspiracy theory.
That map is also misleading for another reason, it completely ignores the fact that approximately 30% of the land is owned by the federal government, to say nothing of state and local government proprietorship.
This federal land ownership is also heavily skewed in the westernmost states, with something over 80% of the state of Nevada for instance being federally owned land. Nor must we forget that great chunks of land in the western part of the United States are under semi-autonomous Native American jurisdiction as well.
Secondly, the USSR disintegrated into 15 recognized republics, 13 of which were essentially non-Russian, some of them vehemently so (Latvia, etc). This on top of three generally unrecognized extra republics (Abkhazia, Ossetia and Pridnestroye).
Thirdly, the modern Russian Federation is still gigantic and composed of literally dozens and dozens of very independent, autonomous ethnicities, cultures and people speaking different languages. There is a Jewish oblast, a Buddhist oblast, plus several Muslim-majority oblasts, etc.
It is simply impossible to compare and contrast either the USSR or the current RF to the United States.
That being said, this doesn’t invalidate some of your observations about the United States 🙂
Pax