How Nutty are We?

Loser robs bank, drops loot,
finds his car keys locked in car,
shoots himself in leg trying to escape.

How nutty are we, really? I think we are about to find out in less than two months. According to the polls and the conventional wisdom (if there is any) Republicans are now believed to take over the House and also perhaps the Senate. I cannot bring myself to believe this is going to happen (but, of course, I am more often wrong than right when it comes to predicting American voters). If it does happen what does it mean? It means that we have decided to turn the country over to the very same criminal conspiracy (that once was the Republican Party) that caused our current mess in the first place. This seems entirely nutty to me. Either voters have no memory to speak of, or they believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. But this is only part of the problem.

Thanks to the rise of the Tea Party, there are going to be a few candidates who are so extreme in their views, and in some cases I think so downright loony, it is going to be truly interesting to see if any of them can get elected. I think this Rubio guy in Florida is an example of an extreme right-winger. But he is, I guess, at least partially sane. There is Sharon Angle in Nevada, an example of a candidate so far out as to be perhaps crazy. The Miller guy who defeated Murkowsky is another case in point. There are a few others of this ilk as well. And of course Michelle Backmann is up for re-election. I suggest that if any or all of these candidates can successfully get elected or re-elected it will be proof positive that a majority American voters are as nutty as can be (this will not entirely surprise me). I think this situation is so fascinating I can barely wait until November.

It is undeniable that things are not going well with our country, especially when it comes to the economy. It is equally true that Democrats have demonstrated a lack of spine and have failed to act as the majority party. But to blame Democrats for everything, especially President Obama, when the Republicans have stubbornly blocked every attempt to improve things for Main Street, is also pretty nutty. We find ourselves in a strange kind of double-bind. On the one hand the Democrats do not deserve our vote, but the Republicans are worse, and there is virtually no other alternative, other than not voting at all. This is a classic example a frustration-aggressive complex. As there is no satisfactory choice, there is frustration, and the natural result of frustration is aggression. Fortunately, to date this has resulted in only a few acts of violence, but there is a possibility for more to come (“we came unarmed this time,” and we may have to consider “2nd amendment solutions,” and etc.). While I don’t believe we are, as yet, teetering on the brink of revolution, I think we may be tottering in that direction.

I spent an hour today with a dear, but rather eccentric friend, who is about as apolitical as it is possible to be. I doubt he has ever voted and he is no political junkie. But he believes we are witnessing the end of the “American Dream,” that is, the idea that everyone will own a home and one or more cars, and a swimming pool, and so on. He thinks the current recession is probably permanent and there is not going to be a turnaround in the next quarter, or next year, or the year after. In spite of being withdrawn and apolitical he is a very shrewd observer of the current state of events. I believe he is basically correct, and we can see this happening: rampant unemployment, even of well-trained and talented people, many of whom will probably never find a position to make up for what they have lost, thousands of people who have lost their homes, or are about to lose them, who will probably never recover completely, the price of food climbing year after year which will no doubt be exacerbated by global warming and the cost of transporting food such long distances, social security and medicate being threatened again by those desperate to regain power at any cost, our empire probably about to collapse because we can no longer afford it, the rise of China, India, and other powers competing for increasingly scarce resources, and so on. I believe the future for the American Dream is indeed bleak. As my philosophical, if eccentric friend says, “It won’t be too hard to get used to relative poverty once we have no choice.” One possible bright spot, as the Dream fades it will probably take unregulated free-market capitalism with it, a victim of its own excesses.

LKBQ:

To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.

Friedrich Nietzsche

TILT:

Fishers are one of the few predators that can successfully hung porcupine.