SitRep, Auslander goes behind enemy lines
I have just returned from a trip to USA. It matters not why I had to go, it simply suffices to say it was not my choice and it will in all probability be my last journey west baring an emergency that requires my presence. I am getting old and such long journeys are pretty hard in regards to the time and strain of so many hours in flight.
My first impression of Miami Airport was not particularly favorable. Every few minutes there was an announcement in English and Spanish of the penalties for doing this, that or the other thing, half of which seemed to concern smoking on Airport grounds. From my visual and audio observations roughly 95% of the Airport workers spoke in Spanish to each other, in English to those of us who spoke same. TSA was different, marginally so. As I walked past the various food and goods kiosks and small shops in Airport I noticed the prices. 9 dollars for a cup, as in small coffee cup size, of ordinary beer and 5 dollars for a hotdog.
After collecting my bag I hailed a cab and was promptly told I could not do that, I had to go to a particular area to get one. I did so, got a cab and told him where to take me. $24.00 for a roughly 1 mile trip. Cab was clean as a whistle and the driver was polite although not particularly skillful.He was from Pakistan and had been in US for 6 years with his wife and very extended family.
Arrived at hotel. Before I could rent a room there was a problem involving a credit card. I don’t have one and Hotel could not understand that concept. In the end I offered to leave a substantial deposit for any damages to the room and assured them I would be leaving before noon on the morrow. They relented and charged no security deposit after I showed them my Russian passport, which they found exotic and made a copy of. Once in the room I cleaned up from the long flights and then went downstairs in a quest for food. I asked the front desk of restaurants in the general area and also where I could purchase a lighter since I smoke. I was instantly informed that smoking was forbidden on Hotel grounds except at the far end of the building in the middle of the small parking lot in a smoking area with no seats or roof and smoking anywhere else would get me evicted on the spot with no refund of payment for the room and my belongings would be brought to me at the entrance gate and guard post. I mentioned that she had not answered my questions. Lighters were available at the benzine station adjacent to the hotel compound and numerous Cuban and Mexican restaurants were located. I don’t particularly like Mexican or Cuban and said so and the charming young lady said she thought the in house restaurant had a hamburger on their menu. I went out, purchased a lighter ($2.50, sextuple what I pay for the identical Bic in Russia), enjoyed a smoke outside the compound and then went back in, went to my room and changed shirts, donning a genuine Black Sea Fleet tee shirt. By this time I was not particularly caring of whom I might offend.
I went down to the rather nice but not palatial restaurant, sat at the bar and asked for a beer and a menu. The barmaid asked if the shirt was in Greek, I told her no, it was Russian. She asked where I bought it, she’d never seen a Russian shirt, so I told her it was purchased at the Russian Navy Uniform Store in Sevastopol. She asked where Sevastopol was. The beer was 5 dollars but at least it was a liter, not a 6 ounce cup. Since it was early in the evening, actually very late afternoon, we ended up chatting for a while as the bar was not crowded. This young lady was American, college educated, a liberal arts degree, and she was quite gleeful that she was makingfar more as a barmaid in a good hotel than many of her friends who were struggling away in just about any vocation except what they were trained for. She had an out of wedlock child that her grandmother cared for while she was working and hoped to eventually buy a house in Miami although she said she could not buy anything without help from her grandmother.
She had several tattoos that were visible on her lower arms, one of which was a large marijuana leaf. She is clever, she saw me glance at the body art, smiled and pulled both her sleeves up to expose her shoulders. She had solid body art as far as I could see. She then pulled her shirt collar aside just a little to expose the fact that her upper chest and shoulders were covered with’artwork’. I asked her why, if she supposedly wanted to buy a house, did she spend giant money on body art plus a very expensive I pad or whatever plus a very expensive cell phone. She replied that she liked body art and the electronics were demanded if she wanted to keep in touch with her friends. I ordered a $15 hamburger with fries. The burger came with a lot of different items stacked on it according to the menu so I told the barmaid I wanted it plain, just the meat,the bun, the fries and catsup, salt and pepper. She told me salt and meat are bad for me.
By this time the after work crowd was arriving in dribs and drabs. I was alone at the bar at that time and a well dressed lady entered the bar area and sat beside me. Within 5 minutes I knew she was divorced with three children, her oldest having killed himself last year, she hated her ex husband, she worked for a large PR firm based in Texas where she lived and she hated President Obama, plus she was here without her boyfriend. She asked why I have two wedding bands, one on each hand, so she learned a tiny bit about marriage in Russia.
She asked my vocation and I told her I was retired and now I write. She asked what I write, I told her my first book, a novel, had been published on Kindle back in June and this winter it would be translated to Russian for the home market. She asked the name, I told her, she pulled out her Ipad and in seconds she had the Kindle info in front of her. She quickly read part of the preview on Kindle and bought the book. I was a bit surprised. She said she was going to Bermuda in two days for a week of holiday and would read the book there and she also asked me what the general story line was. I told her and also told her that the tome was written in an English version of how we speak in my home city. She said the part of the first chapter she had quickly read the language used was very formal and polite with proper rank and titles used in normal conversation and was that how we actually talked. I told her that is, indeed, the way we talk. She stated that such formality was foolish and not needed.
During our conversations two Navy officers, fliers, walked in and sat on the other side of her at the bar. We ended up chatting for the next couple hours after taking a table, where we were joined by two other Navy fliers, officers also and staying in hotel with the first pair.
The officers were very polite in our conversations and asked nothing of me that could not be construed as public knowledge. The officers were quite knowledgeable of the current situations in Syria and the general area but knew only what west media tells them about Novorossiya and EU, the lady also knew of the assistance of Russia to Syria. All five were well educated in the formal sense and the lady was quite strong in her comments about President Obama and how inept he is in her opinion. While the officers offered no opinion on Mr. Obama they showed no discomfort while the lady denigrated the president. We also spoke of the conditions of theAmerican citizens and all were of the opinion that the current economic situation was not good and all offered anecdotes of friends or relatives who are no longer doing well economically and saw no redress in the near future. We also spoke of the continuing passage of ever more repressive laws concerning what American citizens can or may do and say. Each, now that we had a couple beers in us, again offered anecdotes of the repressions of free speech in normal conversations and the restrictions that were placed on everyone as to how their children would be raised, especially in the Armed Forces. The oldest officer, who looked to be mid 40’s, mentioned that his two sons in University were afraid to say anything that would offend their classmates,generally concerning anything that could be construed as being conservative, racist, negative concerning those of the alternative life style, negative concerning the floods of immigrants coming to USA, and one had made the comment that if he said anything against the overriding liberal mantra of his university that ‘they will destroy me and I will have to change schools’. Another officer said the same had been happening to his three grade school children, he said it was almost as if they were being brainwashed daily. He said it had gotten so bad that his wife went back to work so they could put their children in a conservative private school. I asked if the situation had improved and he said yes, to a remarkable extent but at the cost of his wife having to go back to work to pay for the school and not being home to raise the children while her husband served.
Next morning I was up early and set about taking care of the main reason I returned, obtaining anew passport. Having set that process in motion I went back to hotel, checked out and their shuttle took me back to aerodrome. I arranged a round trip flight to Orlando where my friends would pick me up. $400 for that early afternoon flight. On arrival in Orlando it was again continuous announcements over the intercom of the penalties for doing this, that and the other. I had forgotten about my lighter in my pocket and handed it to Miami TSA going through security.The TSA man said not to worry about the lighter, I could carry it with me. Interesting.
Recon, it begins. The gated community.
My friend’s wife picked me up and off we went for the hour or so drive back to the coast. The roads were full and as usual the main road was in excellent condition. Everyone was doing exactly the speed limit and I noticed a good number of patrol cars on the road, not only on that trip but everywhere I went in my almost three week stay.
My friends live in a gated and affluent community on the water. By gated I mean it was just that,two ways in or out, gate houses with guards and electric gate and 2.5 meter walls around the entire community with security patrols all night. I had spent a couple days at a time with them last year when I was in USA, this time that is where I stayed for the duration. The entire roughly 10 hectare community within a community is spotlessly clean and orderly. The houses are not mansions but surely not poor. Service workers are in there every day during the day but not a sound is heard before 09:00 or after 16:00. Each service vehicle had a windshield tag stating their company. Not a single child living in that community goes to public school.
After setting to my second important task on the first full day of staying with my hosts I took part in the early evening tradition of gathering with neighbors and talking. One, living on the west side of my host, was an up and coming mid level designer for a well known air frame company. The one on the east side was a serving 05, the one directly across the street was a serving 04, both having married well. All three had grade school or younger age children, the children out with the adults but quiet, properly dressed and very well behaved. My hosts had told the neighbors and security that I would be visiting for a period of time but not much else. One of the first questions was of course where I was from. When I said Sevastopol, one wife stated she had been to Sevastopol in Wisconsin and it was nice. I gently corrected her and told her I was from the other Sevastopol, the one on the Black Sea.
For the next two and a half weeks the neighbors met several evenings a week to talk, some bringing friends to see the exotic visitor from The East. These people are not foolish, they are all very well educated, upper, very upper, middle class, with vast information at their fingertips but none had ever met a ‘Russian’. The conversations were erudite and interesting, intelligent questions were asked by them and by me. No one was standing there with an I pad or talking on a cell phone as is so extant in America now, all paid attention to each other and to the conversations. I answered all questions honestly and completely, the answers often leading to other questions. I don’t know how many times I went over the sequence of events in Sevastopol before, during and after the journey back to Mother with new visitors, our work with the evacuees and refugees summer and fall last year, our duties at Battery amongst other places and so forth. Of great interest was the day to day life in our humble city, how people live, shopping,services, just about everything. Again, all questions were answered honestly, good and bad told.
Mid level economic status
One of my tasks was to speak to the locals and not so locals, the ‘ordinary’ people who did not live in gated communities, ergo I did not attend the get together in my host’s community every evening, I spent about half the evenings at local pubs and restaurants speaking to not only locals but the ‘snow birds’ who were just beginning to come down from up north for the winter, aka Yankees. Many of the conversations were quite interesting. I chose pubs and restaurants that seemed to cater to the people I wanted to speak with.
The conversations with people were quite interesting and, regardless of education level, often every bit as erudite as with the gated community residents. I found many to be struggling to maintain the level of lifestyle they had grown accustomed to over the last two or three decades and there were often laments that things had changed, work was much more difficult and time consuming with a steadily decreasing level of payment not taking in to account the inflation and often large price increases of basic necessities.
Most of these people were either self employed or in trades and services with a few mid level office workers and managers. Most gave me chapter and verse what has changed in the last two or three decades, laying out the ever increasing government rules and regulations involving everything from taxes to employee benefits to on the job safety to access and non discrimination towards just about anyone. More than one mentioned the almost fear in some offices and large companies now of saying anything that could be construed as being derogatory toward anyone or anything. Over the course of almost three weeks in one pub we actually got a sort of little groupgoing were we met every few evenings to chat on many subjects from microscopic local to the world situations.
Shop workers
Since I had a bit of a list of things to obtain from my charming bride plus I had to some odds and ends for one of my tasks I had the opportunity to speak to a fair number of store workers. I tend to shop early in the day, not particularly liking crowds. As seems to be the norm in any store or shop I visited, I was always asked for an address and phone number. I of course told them my address and number was useless for their records as I don’t live in US and this statement much more often than not led to a friendly discussion as the shops in the mornings are not crowded.
The conversations generally did not last long, often less than 10 minutes in the large stores, once for 30 minutes in a small shop. It is amazing what one can learn of someone in 10 minutes. The clerks were almost always women except in the hardware stores, running the gamut in age from just out of school to retirement age. The first question was invariably where to I live, from there it was quite easy to turn the conversation to them.
It seems that few, if any, made enough money to live on from their shop clerk vocation. In general any woman under 30 had a child, almost invariably out of wedlock. Most had a live in man but were not married. The women over 30 were generally married, some with children,some not, but a good number of the small numbers I spoke to were divorced.
All complained one way or another of the steadily increasing work loads put on them, the decreasing number of floor workers and the lack of any meaningful increase in wages. Those with out of wedlock children were invariably on some kind of government assistance and were very careful to keep their work remunerations low enough to stay on the assistance. The over 30 women generally complained of the younger workers and how hard it was to motivate them to work as they should and all complained of the ever increasing restrictions on what they could and could not say in conversations either amongst themselves or with customers. All had at least one anecdote of someone being terminated from employment for saying something that did not meet current company policy. More than one also complained of the ever increasing numbers of mandatory employee meetings that they were required to attend.
Their general appearance and education seemed to be of two worlds, the over 30 women being able to speak correctly and knowledgeably, the under 30 women not so much and their English,for all being their native language, was laced with mistakes and mispronunciations. Obviously the larger stores have dress codes to one extent or another but it was interesting to see the interpretations of the code by generation. The older the women were, the better dressed, not expensively dressed, they were. The under 30 women were much more casual in their approach to work dress and I don’t remember seeing a single female shop clerk under 30 in a skirt or dress,all were in trousers of one sort or another. As an aside, almost all of the under 30 women had some sort of body art visible.Summation
Please understand that I speak and write in a manner that to some will seem archaic. I am not politically correct and I tend to use older terms that clearly state what I want to say but in today’s America would be construed by some as being mildly derogatory. This is not my intent, I simply want to convey what I observed and heard clearly with no confusion as to what I mean.
In general there has been a sea change in the attitudes of American citizens in the year since my last visit. I found that the attitudes, hopes and aspirations of the citizenry in general were to a large extent delineated by social and economic class. Nowhere did I find anyone who was totally hopeless concerning their futures, but I did not speak to anyone who was not in an either work or social environment, in other words I did not go to ‘the other side of the tracks’ and speak to people on the street.
Hotel and aerodrome
The first group I talked to that first afternoon and evening in Miami, I would say they are well educated and relatively well off. I got the impression from talking to them that they didn’t quite know or understand what has and is happening to America and had no way to affect what they perceived as a continuing decline in American culture, education and business. I also have the impression that if I had gotten to know them better all five would have been far more open about their thoughts but that was not to be.
The strongest impression I got this time was the attitudes at Airport and Hotel Staff, basically ‘do what we tell you to do or else’. The thing that really stuck out in my mind was Hotel telling me that if I smoked anywhere but that tiny designated area in the far parking lot I would be escorted to the gate, put out with no refund and my possessions brought to me at the gate. I guaranty you that if I was to put my Rota around that hotel and lock it down, then fluid and hair test every living thing in it down to the stray cats, 50% minimum would fail, having imbibed some illegal herb or spice recently enough for traces to show up.
Goods and services
Prices for goods of almost any type have increased dramatically over the last few years. This was not only obvious from observation but was also the subject of constant discussion, everyone I talked to in any environment would eventually complain about rising prices and stagnant or defacto decreasing income for many. It is senseless to compare goods and services between USA and RF, it is two different worlds, cultures and economies. However, even I, one who shops rarely and who buys only what he needs, noticed when I was filling my wife’s list that prices are noticeably higher in the twelve months between my visits.
Cases in point. I was instructed to purchase two more pairs of jeans. I did, exactly the same old and well known manufacturer, style and size from the same retailer, Bealls. Last year the cost not including sales tax was $36.00 per pair, this year the price is $43.00. That is a 19.5% increase for the same jeans, made in Mexico.Exterior brass round knob door locks, pairs, keyed together. Roughly the same increase, 20%,from the same retailer, Home Depot.
3 mm socket head pointed set screws, 6 mm length, anodized black finish, per 25. 12% increase per 25 and difficult to find the 25 unit packs, most were in 10 unit packs at double the price.
Cigarettes, L&M, standard. I smoke but I bring enough with me to last the duration, I buy a couple packs as gifts for a friend at Battery. Last year, Jacksonville, Florida, $4.50 a pack. This year, Broward County, Florida, $7.20 per pack.
My observations of prices for anything I needed to purchase or pay for were the same, in general a 20% price increase over last year, excluding petrol which had gone down marginally. I discussed the prices for services with my hosts and both stated that the cost of lawn service, for instance, had gone up about 15% for the same crew. They now pay $95 per month for mowing and trimming weekly. Their lawn is not large, two men can mow and trim it in its entirety in 15 minutes or less, I timed them. The crew of two men did four houses adjacent to each other at the same time and it took them from 45 to 50 minutes from drive up to load up to do the four houses.
As an aside, I was in The South. While there my bride mentioned that she wanted a Confederate Flag since it is so similar to the Novorossiya battle flag. At that time the news was full of actions against that flag and as a result I could not find a one anywhere. I went to several shops who should have had them, all said their stock of flags was removed from their stores and they had no idea where to obtain one. One went so far as to tell me not to be so open about what I wanted, that times are changing. Not a problem for my bride, when informed of the negative result in the quest for the flag she promptly started to make one, she being quite the seamstress and embroiderer.
Shop workers
In summation, none of the clerks I talked to were particularly happy nor particularly unhappy with their work, they worked because they had to, not because they particularly wanted to. All were polite and smiling, the older ones more genuinely so. I don’t see any revolutions starting in the stores and shops but on the other hand I doubt a one of the clerks I talked to would be very helpful to their superiors if such a thing happened.
Professionals
It is here that we see a more open difference between the classes.
This group is very intelligent and very well educated, quite aware of the world in regards to how it will or will not affect their children and the legacy they are working so hard to accumulate for their children, be it educational or monetary or both. They had very interesting questions and they were not asking the questions for conversation, they were genuinely interested in the answers and often asked additional questions during the questions and replies, often commenting on the total difference between two cultures. All in all I was impressed with the breadth of their knowledge and their willingness to ask and discuss things they did not understand. Although several of the men asked, when the women were not within hearing, what is was really like during the troubles, not a one of them has ever served in combat although a good number are or were serving. They have not a clue of the violence extant in our warring world so I pulled the punches and simply told them that it was an interesting time, that my wife and I had been on the barricades day and night for the first few days, how cold it was and such.
That being said, in general they have not a clue of Life, their world is insulated from the real world. Most of them are children of parents in the same economic class. They of course have vast information and technology at their beck and call but not a one truly understands the very dangerous situations extant in our world. On the other hand, they don’t need a ‘clue’, they have their own well insulated lives to live, they will raise their children well, most are religious, some deeply so but the religion is not worn on their sleeves. In the end most will prosper, some will not. Many of them are 30, some even 40 years younger than I am. I do not envy them what they will see by the time they are my age.
United States of America
It has been two seeks since I returned to our bucolic little valley. In that time the war in Syria has dramatically increased in tempo, the war in Novorossiya is slowly increasing in violence, the war in Yemen is just as brutal and violent as when I left on my journey, Africa is Africa, war there will never end. European Union is reaping what they have so diligently sown for the last 4 decades and economically EU is in the toilet and someone is reaching for the chain.
I have had a goodly amount of time to contemplate what I have seen and heard in USA in that three weeks. I will lay the blame on no one for the current state of affairs in my country.
The United States of America is slowly drowning in hubris, economic downturn, disaffection of her citizens, ever growing and repressive regulation, tax levels approaching, for some,confiscatory, arbitrary court decisions, a rampant and steadily growing law enforcement community who more and more equate themselves as a quasi military unit, oppressive laws and regulations for the majority to protect the rights of infinitesimal minorities, arbitrary seizure of citizen’s private property and wealth and a public education system that has totally broken down and has forgotten what it’s primary task is.
Culturally, America is falling apart. I won’t even begin to speak of Hollywood or the mainstream and not so main stream media, all one has to do is look, not only look but SEE. The numbers of people walking around glued to their I pads or whatever you call them is huge. Going in to average restaurants one sees tables with two and four and six adults, all glued to their little hand portable computers and not conversing with each other. Every single lady whom I spoke to who was not married had a child out of wedlock. Who is raising these children, what will they be as the grow to maturity? It seems that for the majority of families except the gated community both husband and wife work full time. What about their children, who is raising them, who is instilling the cultural values of America in them? I can answer that question for you. No one.Children, teenagers and young adults are walking around looking like either street bums or something from a Mad Max movie, either that or tattooed like some South Seas islander.
The Armed Forces of the United States of America are also declining. I had the opportunity to speak to more than a few serving members in my time there. Gone is the pervasive bravado of but a decade ago, the ‘we can lick anyone’ attitude. To a man they all lamented the changes in the Armed Forces of the last 10 and more years, the forced integration of the deteriorating culture into the Armed Forces has led to noticeable numbers of the company and lower field grade officers leaving service, some of their own volition, a not small number invited to leave. Senior Sergeants, the backbone of any army, are also leaving in droves. Where in times past man would stay in for 25 or even 30 years, now it seems that most senior sergeants leave the day after they get their 20 in. Training and doctrine seem to have taken a distant second place to political correctness, not only in word but in deed. Women are being forcibly integrated in to combat units and will be expected to serve in the lines with the men. Many serving women have children, many out of wedlock, ergo deployment for them will be difficult if not impossible, plus it is an established fact that when deployment is on the horizon a not small number of women turn up expectant and can not be deployed with their units. All well and fine, you may say, but the reality is these women have been trained at great expense with their units for many months and sometimes for years. Taking them out and replacing them with another soldier right before deployment who does not know his fire team or O Group comrades, does not know the subtle differences in the way they conduct operations, leads to soldiers being killed, pure and simple.This for Political Correctness? It’s not worth it.
Actually, I will blame someone. I blame myself, me. I was too busy enjoying the fruits of the labors of my father and grandfathers and furthering my career rather than make sure The United States of America remained true to itself and strong.
I have failed.
bv Auslander Sevastopol,Crimea RF
Auslander’s New Book
Rather perceptive analysis by the Auslander:
Behind enemy lines: Yes, Indeed.
His trip to the same area of residence as the Saker & Me is quite accurate in its descriptions & portrayals of our neighbors, and their pathos.
The US of A is a giant Nation of 320 millions, and not homogenous. There yet exist differences in class and social and educational existences of our people. However, they are mostly, brainwashed, intimidated, poorly educated, socially dispersed, and suffering a slow, but enervating great economic downturn.
1. The coup d’etat in Dallas of November 22, 1963, is the *Key event that presaged the great negative pattern that has inflicted America in the half century since.
2. And the peoples and their nations of this planet have been made to suffer greatly as a result of this Key political takeover on the part of the international Zionist Bankers, their MOSSAD, and the compliant American Traitors within the CIA, FBI, American Armed Forces, and local political Oligarchs.
3. The 2 million dead in Vietnam, 1 million in Indonesia-1965, 100,000 in Guatemala, and millions since in dozens of other invaded and brutalized nations are part of the tragedy.
4. The Auslander’s tale is one of many testimonies that reveals the great vacuum within the consciousness of the American people. They are amorphosed. They do not know; they do not want to know; there is no one they can talk to, no one they may rally-lead to the bariccades; they suffer slow death rather than the quicker death of the Palestinians, Libyans, Novorossyans, Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Yemenis, Sudanis, Somalis, and so many other peoples.
The American people receive the Novocaine when they visit the Zionist Terrorist Dentist. For Americans, Canadians, Australians, as with the English, French, Germans, Belgians, Norwegians and the other North Western Europeans, a slow death awaits us. In some ways to feel the pain is better and more honorable.
Or! We can Restore the Republic!
IMAGINE
accurate.
Well, the article is quite instructive, I dare say. My compliments to the author of this reserch, he is a talanted journalist. This report is a bit buffling, I didn’t expect to find this kind of story about the USA, because I have had an impression, that everybody in the world was worse off, but the USA. While being in the UK, I heard some complaints of locals, conserning the fact, that the middle class in Great Britain was worse off, but I didn’t pay much attention to this complaints. So, what was depicted in the above article looks like a conjuncture of cyclical & systemic crises, facing by the US. No wonder than, that their government tries to benefit from the wars all over the globe. The picture drawn in the article, is quite dire, I wouldn’t like to live in such kind of society! I find the canges in the US to be very interesting & worth examining.
Very interesting read from the ground level. Thanks.
It’s dangerous to be in the US now; Russia is safer.
At 75, my interest is less about safety than truth. My days are numbered but I have a son age 22. I fear for him and all the younger people.
I’m hoping for a soft landing if our country can return to nature-like technology, to quote Putin.
I believe in love, the real kind which is virtually unknown. Love is the quantum factor which defies analysis. That’s where my intention is, even as I fight off the onslaughts of the patriarchal legions. I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
I wouldn’t want to live in any other place than here. It’s the heart of darkness which pumps its bad blood to the whole world but it can’t be all bad or the world would be dead. By the US I don’t mean just a political place. I mean US as in all of us. To generalize with risk, we all have a US and a RF in us.
The US on paper stands for some of the highest ideals ever expressed. On the ground this has been the worst fall since the Fall of Man. And the worst is yet to come.
It’s ironic that the Russian Saker flies from here to somewhere nearer to Russia because of an apparently unexpected death of a dear one while his book written in the US breaks free like the soul of a mother. Shortly before, a Russian visits the US and chronicles a dying culture.
Things are coming to a head. The boil is reaching the breaking point within and without. The sharp-eyed eagle is soaring over the vineyard tended now by smaller sakers. By now I’m half-eagle and half-saker.
I know what I have to do and I’ll do it, love willing. A mother’s death is a sacred event at its best. A country’s death is a signal event at its worst.
The eagle and the saker are tangled skeins in a super-position. How we view them and what we do with them makes a difference; distance does not. Our world hangs in the balance of the destiny of man.
Count Tolstoy wrote War and Peace. Then he wrote Resurrection.
Very moving, Mr. Leary, especially,
It’s ironic that the Russian Saker flies from here to somewhere nearer to Russia because of an apparently unexpected death of a dear one while his book written in the US breaks free like the soul of a mother. Shortly before, a Russian visits the US and chronicles a dying culture.
Thanks.
What was to admire in the “culture” prior to the beginning of its death?
Maybe what is truly admirable is universal (not limited by ethnic or geographic birthright) yet at the same time not commonplace but won at great price.
“What was to admire in the “culture” prior to the beginning of its death?”
Nothing really…
Some facts of history: http://mtwsfh.blogspot.fr/2007/12/1620-plymouth-massachusetts.html
It all sounds good to me. Those behind the U.S.-based imperial endeavors think that they can stay on top by exporting and imposing on everyone else the same political, economic and “cultural” regime that has worked to their short-term advantage at home — by force of arms where bribery and corruption fail. In reality, they’re digging their own graves and it’s encouraging to see that the work is progressing so well.
That founding U.S. revolution allegedly against “imperial tyranny” worked out really well, didn’t it.
The founding fathers were just a group of business men that didn’t want to pay tax, not much has changed if you look at US businesses today Google, Apple, Starbucks none of them pay any income tax.
Very true.Most people don’t seem to get that connection,but you are right.While most consider the “American Revolution” as a “progressive” revolution.Some historians (and I agree) consider it ,for the time period,as a “regressive” revolution.Most of Europe at the time was moving towards a modern state formation.Doing away with (trying to in theory) special regional and class privileges.Trying to unite the nations under national governments.And the American Revolution was seen at the time as a backlash against the modern unified state ideal.It was only later,that it assumed the mythology it has today,as a “Democratic peoples Revolution”.Ironically,the French Revolution was closer to that.And the American Revolution through history has benefited from a superficial connection to that one.
Spot on! Having been born in the USA in the tail end of the baby boom, I’ve watched with utter dismay as my country has decayed into corruption and imbecility. And I’m actually one of the liberals, with a number of gay and lesbian friends. I’m glad our nation is now tolerant of them but I can’t stand the PC gestapo. As for smoking — I’m not even a smoker, but those increasingly nonsensical restrictions piss me off. First they came for the smokers, you know how the story goes. The idiots seem to think they’ll get cancer from a single molecule, when in reality the air pollution here in Phoenix is probably far worse than second-hand smoke.
My son’s dorm room has a sign that says Arizona State University is drug-free, tobacco-free, alcohol-free and and weapons-free. (I’m not so naive as to think these rules are actually enforced; my son told me a kid in his dorm was arrested for having shot someone.) Funny how the word “free” now connotes prohibition. Orwell would be proud.
@Arizona An-cap
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/8742
Class and Alcohol in South Africa
Alcoholism is a social disease of epidemic proportions in South Africa that affects primarily the poor and working classes, which are hardest hit by both the causes and effects of alcohol and alcohol abuse
….[]…
Or as even Bakunin, who was known to be a drinker, once put it:
“Let us then be good brothers and comrades, and let us organize ourselves. Do not think that we are at the end of the Revolution, we are at its beginning. The Revolution is henceforth the order of the day, for many decades to come. It will come to find us, sooner or later. Let us therefore prepare and purify ourselves and become more genuine, let us be less talkers, less criers, less phrasemongers, less drinkers and less rakes. Let us gird our loins and properly prepare ourselves for this struggle which will save all peoples and finally emancipate humanity.”
(See Cutler, The Basic Bakunin Writings 1869-1871, p65)
I’ll drink to that! :-) Though my intent was not to celebrate alcohol, as much as I love beer in all its manifestations, but to share Auslander’s gripe about petty restrictions, which I believe are usually counter-productive. Just one example: back in the my youth when you could smoke just about anywhere, very few of us took up the habit. Now that it’s a thought-crime to even think about smoking, it seems like half the millenials I meet are smokers. Ironic that the young and broke have embraced such an expensive vice.
Dear Auslander,
Don’t blame yourself. As another born in the USA – now renounced and living in another country – I can tell you there is nothing more we could have done. For more than 30 adult years I was well aware of what was happening in the country, and was unable to make any difference whatsoever. Even in high school in 1970 it was well known by my peers that the deep state had murdered the Kennedys and that everything the empire was doing in SE Asia was war crime.
The families who own the Fed own the deep state, the media, and all the politicians. In the early 2000s, I participated in the truth movement, supported videos which got over 50 million views on youtube. All of which had no effect. Probably half the population knows the deep state has interests inimical to their well being. But even now, they are still too comfortable to risk losing what they have by opposing the system. Unfortunately, it is the resources and leadership of the gated community dwellers who will be needed to retake the country their ancestors lost in 1913. And those people are still trying to make a deal with the system. Things need to get much worse before they can get better.
I actually don’t think there’s much that people can do against the deep state….has it helped in Greece ? Something else is going to have to happen if the world is to shake off the deep state.
I don’t know what it is but I wish commenters everywhere, not just here, would realize that by blaming themselves (or perhaps I should say everyone but themselves) they are not doing a service to anything…just blame blame blame……its not the answer to any sickness …. and actually I don’t think the sickness is in the people..its in the system.
Peter Antonsen….get to work ! And Cynthia McKinney, I know you work work work…what can I do for you ?
Hahaha,Ann,I think you know what it will take.I think we all “know” what it will take.But none of us (for various reasons) want to mention “that,that we dare not speak its name”.So,I’ll also for reasons play along,and just use the code phrase, “American Spring” is what it would take.And the powers that be,would kill without mercy anytime they suspected it was really coming to pass.
Hi Mr Uncle Bob, hahaha…except that I don’t think that an American Spring will work….yeah, lots of people would get arrested and perhaps worse…but did Occupy work ?
Except
To inform people more. That is important, and I like it that Auslander’s article is about people now in USA liking Putin…its aggravating how short term memory they all are, but nevertheless…its good news…
1913 ??
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30620.htm
…A Constitution was written that came to be regarded as American Holy Writ. Its central purposes were to defend private property and suppress mass democracy. It has fulfilled both those mandates beyond the wildest dreams of its creators.
Once the existing oligarchy was secure in law and native people largely exterminated, the ruling class increased its wealth and power fantastically in the 19th century, using the government as its enabler, exploiting to the limit the device of chartered corporations.
With its phenomenal money power, the financial elite began to use the military to expand its sway beyond the continent. Regions, territories, islands, and whole countries were annexed, invaded, and possessed outright, their peoples crushed, suppressed, and ruled.
Because ordinary Americans, like any people, need to believe that whatever the ruling elite undertakes in their nation’s name must be essentially benevolent, noble in purpose and justified in fact, the myth had to be radically modified for imperial expansion.
The foundational story was that Americans had come to a howling wilderness teeming with godless savages and, through invincible strength of character and purity of purpose, had tamed the land and honorably earned the right to possess their bountiful home.
In the era of extra-territorial expansion that version was polished to justify and ennoble imperialism. The new corollary was that America could not ignore colonialist brutality but was obliged, by the Manifest Destiny that led us to civilize our own continent, to carry our mission into barbaric darkness wherever tyranny created abuse and suffering.
A national myth that absolutely binds the loyalty of a people to its government must be a subtle and powerful elixir that elevates and aggrandizes that people’s self-regard. National policy will then appear to be an extension of its superior citizenry’s inchoate will, and the basis for a justified arrogance toward the lesser world.
The simple, powerful myth of America’s altruistic and heroic benevolence, shaped and maintained by the financial/political power elite, infused Americans with a deep and outrageously hubristic sense of racial superiority that, mobilized behind various imperial enterprises, has given all such adventures the character of a quasi-religious crusade. In this way insatiable imperialism acquires the apparent moral perfection of a syllogism.
Nationality? another infantile disease to be manipulated.
Commenting on your own posting. Somewhat disingenuous.
Mod-hs
Mod-hs said:
“Commenting on your own posting. Somewhat disingenuous.”
Why?
The thought came to me after I made the original comment.
Do you not get bored looking at ip addresses? if you’d prefer I have a few isp’s to choose between?
I watched the video embedded in the article you posted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N2Xh5eN2fXY
Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine
This Is A Must Watch Video
An excellent production…..sadly all true.
cheers
Joy, words dire and hard and I keep meditating. Thank you. Fm south america I am and feel myself your voyage colleague.
An excellent,excellent,article.Thank you for posting it.I can vouch for every word you said.I see the same everyday living in the US.BTW,the prices you mentioned are why places like Walmart and Target are so popular.The jeans (maybe not the same brand,but then also,maybe) would be a third or more cheaper in those stores.And since your deeper interactions were with mostly the lower middle to upper middle classes in the US.You would really be surprised if you had gotten to see and talk with the lower classes in the US.
Thanks for that.
Awesome, Auslander.
So, is this your book?
amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZGCY8KK?keywords=Auslander&qid=1448148128&ref_=sr_1_8&sr=8-8
You have captured America in a melancholy romp in precise fashion, delineating the sorrowful mess that the country has become.
Marvelous read, entertaining in itself, and I look forward to you novel.
Behind the lines, and pulling the wool off the sheep. Not real wool, but real sheep.
Please, don’t stay away so long.
Should have made it a URL link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZGCY8KK?keywords=Auslander&qid=1448148128&ref_=sr_1_8&sr=8-8
Thank you for the suggestion. A link to the book on Amazon has been added to the bottom of the article.
mod-hs
Thanks very much for this excellent, though very depressing, report. I hope Florida is not typical of conditions in the whole USA. Perhaps people in less urbanised regions maintain the old ways to a greater extent.
I was struck by this comment:
“I am not politically correct and I tend to use older terms that clearly state what I want to say but in today’s America would be construed by some as being mildly derogatory”.
As an elderly British man, I can testify to having met with the same attitudes when I worked for an American corporation. Those who know me would describe me as normally polite, although I can be argumentative and sometimes perhaps insensitive. Never knowingly, though. It seems that is no longer good enough, so – as far as possible – I simply avoid all corporate and politically correct people now. It is refreshing to read the remarks of Russians, who seem admirably forthright and honest. I very much like that style.
Citizens lost control of their governments long ago.
It is more recent that they lost control of they culture, society, religion, family and traditional values.
About 40 years now. During the reign of neo-conservatives, but not caused by them. The insistence of the right to break unions, to marginalize all who didn’t accept big corporations and ostentatious wealth as signs of American greatness, and the building of government and executive power under the guise of fighting USSR, liberation movements, terrorism and anything Israel wanted or needed led to empowering the Liberals who came back, took all government at every level, in all the big states, dominated media, education and created a Cult of what was a very failed social ideology.
Now the nation is broken into pieces, a warmongering hegemon runs America as if was no different than Bulgaria or Albania. The government Americans see is a facade. There is a double government, the shadow government that is the heart of the Hegemon. And no citizens or groups can affect it.
The breaking of all middle classes was planned not an accident. The destruction of all the Western economies is intended.
These are old games played new on the heads of the educated and professional and skilled. They are all pushed down, shoved to the bottom. Silenced.
1960 Eisenhower warned.
1963 JRK couped.
And then they were off an running with the perfected technologies of chaos.
Well Russia was down for the count and a miracle came in 1999—Putin.
The US has a slim chance with Trump. As unlikely as Putin was in 1999.
And he’s said it over and over: “I can get along Putin.”
Trump could get along with Putin, I don’t have much doubt, but can he shut off the deep state? If he would not succeed in that challenge, nothing significant would change.
I am afraid that it is no longer a matter of money to exercise power in the oval office, but rather brute force/violence or the ruthless threat of applying it. Does Trump bring his own army to root out the few hundred cabals running the show? And is he willing to risk his own well-being and that of his relatives? Only then will he have a small chance of success.
The same applies for anybody else.
Trump is part of the deep state….you don’t get that rich without being part of the deep state.
Well, I don’t know Trump and I don’t mind, actually. The political system in the USA is fundamentally broken, delegitimizing the government by voting empty (one big cross over the ballot) appears to me the only reasonable action on election day.
things could get much worse though Marcel…here is Ron Paul liberty report on Trump – first 5 minutes
https://youtu.be/eJlJspIf5RM
Trump is part of the deep state in the same sense as when Michael Corleone tells Senator Geary, “You and I are part of the same hypocrisy…,” but the pulling of strings also has a spiritual/ritual dimension. Consider the titles of these books: Chris Hedges’,War is a Force that gives us meaning and James Douglass’ JFK and the Unspeakable (italics mine). And then there’s the altar of the (not so) perfect crime: 9/11 and its subsequent permutation/iteration….
….I guess I’m being pedantic, (I consider my self more of a gnome than a troll) but getting back to Trump, I agree that the funk of Ronald Reagan is all over him.
though I’m beginning to think that Rubio is destined to the president worse than Obama
Trump is such an interesting phenomenon.
I don’t think he is part of the Deep State (there are many ways to game the American system and become very rich), but if he ever became president—-anyone who becomes president—must learn pretty fast where the marching orders come from
Trump is his own kind of fool—yet he sort of has the freshness of the traditional Fool character. He is almost foolishly unafraid of saying what he thinks.
In a way, Obama is worse fool . . . Obama cares too much about what the wrong people think. A “smart” fool.
Neither one of these fools strikes me as having the intelligence and courage to lead this country. The last person we had who possessed those qualities was JFK.
He knew that he “knew” too much.
Katherine
Compare any of these American clowns with Putin and it comes up that Putin is not a roaring genius or superman, but a sane, mature, smart, well educated, honest, and moral human being who looks like a superman in comparison. His big advantage is that he is not a psychopath like the rest of them, and learns from experience. He’s like a good teacher in a grammar school class — not superhuman but the only grown up in a room of little kids.
Sure he above average, but so are many other people in the world — who have not, however gotten into a position where they can put their talents to use. The power generally goes to psychopaths because the system is screwed up and favors the wealthy, dishonest criminals, and the crazies — and in fact generates lunatics and crooks from kids who could have grown up as normal people in a sane society. (CF Pink Floyd, The Wall).
Trump started off as a multi-millionaire. Why would a person not be happy with that and pursue a useful life of self development instead of getting into the ego, power, and greed games? Because he was already a neurotic — he was raised crazy, like the rest of them. Just watch him talk — watch his facial expressions and listen to his voice and what he says — the guy is a crazy.
Watch and listen to to rest of US politicians — they are crazy.
Watch and listen to Putin — he is a sane human being. Same with Lavrov and most other Russians in leadership: sane human beings.
I find remarkable that so many so many people watch these crazies and don’t recognize them for what they are — can’t spot the psychos right off.
Having grown up in the same cosmopolitan milieu as Trump and hundreds of millions of people who have come through New York, his expressions (facial and spoken) are very common and trustworthy. He rings true. No one takes him as a egomaniac. He’s self-promoting and overly proud of his accomplishments, but he is without artifice. New Yorkers can spot a phony at 100 paces. He’s real.
Then judge his children, all four grown. The fifth, the youngest is only 9 and we don’t know yet. But the others are self-disciplined, happy, intelligent, responsible. A good test of a man and father is how his kids mature into adulthood. His are exemplary.
He speaks without Political Correctness. Most importantly, he will ratchet down the hatred of Russia and Putin.
He is a businessman. He wants to do business with people. He wants people to rise up and make something of themselves. He sees poverty and collapse of the middle class as a tragedy. These are not signs of psychotic behavior (unless you are a Liberal who want government control of everything economic.)
Is he perfect? Will he do some things that aren’t to our liking?
There never will be a perfect leader. He will spend most of his time fixing the nation. It’s a great opportunity for Russia and China to push Eurasia ahead. Trump will be waiting as things develop to make deals for America. That’s his thing. He wants the US nation out of the Chaos business.
I don’t know what part of NY you were in but none of the ones I knew when living or working would be fooled by him, as I’m not. There’s nothing cosmopolitan about being a loudmouth,an as****e, or a bigot. ( http://www.cair.com/press-center/press-releases/13258-cair-condemns-trump-s-refusal-to-rule-out-ids-for-u-s-muslims-carson-s-comparison-of-syrian-refugees-to-rabid-dog.html )
Yeah — we can spot phonies, so be careful.
Good to have a New Yorker explain Trump a bit to the rubes!
I mean that sincerely. (Cf. the great classic Steinberg cartoon that kind of explains the Big Apple’s mentality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Avenue)
I don’t agree with all that New Yorker say about Trump—his actions as a possible pres—but you as a New Yorker can speak to that particular brand of NY bravado.
It has its good and bad points, but New Yorkers tend to be streetwise.
And I think that is a good point.
Although the statistics say what a large percentage of Americans now live in cities, many American cities are agglomerations and not real metropolises.
I am one who NEVER would have imagined myself ever having a good word for Trump. I lived in Hell’s Kitchen (Times Square’s backyard–before the “cleanup”) for 10 years and sort of hated what I saw Trump doing to NYC. Not to mention I think he also wrecked Atlantic City. A lot of great old Americana.
But that was then and this is now.
Just the fact that Trump doesn’t seem to be buying into the Putin hysteria and doesn’t shy away from calling out the stupidity of many of his fellow pols are plus points for him.
Basically, though, the American political scene has become terrifyingly ridiculous.
Katherine
Actually, forget this NY nonsense. Nothing about NY explains Trump’s craziness, and even that streetwise stuff is largely just a myth — there were about as many fools in NY as anywhere else when it came to politics and being scammed — at least up to about 20 years when I moved away from the area (where I lived for over 40 years). The style was different but the substance was much the same as here in Illinois, and a lot of that was city with so many people crowded together versus more rural where people are closer to nature. Some of favorite and most realistic people were the ‘rubes’ I met in upper state in the Tupper Lake area when I spent a summer there.
I’ll say something else: the last thing the US needs is another “businessman” is government. Government is not supposed to be a business or about money and profit, and that idea is the root of much of the current waves of fascism. I saw first hand what that corrupting influence did in both NY and NJ, as well as in the small Illinois town I’m living in now. Manhattan, and the NJ bedroom suburb of it was a fairly nice place decades back before the ‘businessmen’ got power over it and ruined it for the people (which is big reason I moved away from there). But much the same was happening everywhere else in the country.
(BTW — the basic unit of walking distance in NY is not a pace, but a block — you see something from a block away, not 100 paces).
Katharine, Trump is part of the deep state…wall street….he has huge investments in all the corporations…please watch Ron Paul on Trump – first 5 minutes
https://youtu.be/eJlJspIf5RM
@Mats
losing control of religion (Abrahamic based, at least) is certainly no bad thing – that may be true of culture and traditional values also. The Kalama Sutta says:
“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.”
http://fakebuddhaquotes.com/do-not-believe-in-anything-simply-because-you-have-heard-it/
How many times have we been reminded of Ike’s farewell address.
I watched it……..he was an 8 year President…the most powerful man in the 1950’s world….but did nothing about the MIC[MICC].
Having made his legacy ? statement,what are the american people to do about it ??.
From across the pond, noone seem very electable, decision made already ?.
When Hitlery bombs out will ‘Barry the Bomber’ get ill? or a JFK ? if so Joe Biden, the most active VP in my lifetime,will step up and the incumbent invariably wins especially in a war situation.
Like dead fish,the US rots from the head down.
Citizens lost control of their governments long ago.
Or citizens never had control of their governments in the first place; “government of the people, for the people” being part of the myth that stabilized the relationship between a people and the state apparatus. As time progressed, the State exerted its power over more and more areas, giving rise to what Foucault called “biopolitics.”
I hope Auslander and his wife are OK now.The terrorist Right Sector and Crimean Tatar gangs have blown up all the electrical towers connecting Crimea with Ukraine.And there is a total blackout of electricity in Crimea.Only hospitals and such are on generators and the Crimean authorities are rushing to figure out how to restore power.I can’t believe they didn’t know that was coming.And have immediate backups planned for it.There has been talk about them doing that for months.Another case of trusting your enemy rears its ugly head.When will Russia end this BS.Crimean militia troops themselves should be formed and liberate all Southern Ukraine.If Moscow can’t or won’t do the job,do it yourself and ask permission later,much later.Its more than obvious Ukraine is now a failed state and the different regions need to free themselves (with help from their friends if needed).Coddling the junta needs to end.
Welcome back Auslander… you have been missed.
Born in the USA. A Yankee (from New England). My roots trace *directly* to the early settlers. (My wife is third generation Russian/Romanian, by the way.)
Found your article most interesting, but your research was done in Florida!
Florida is considered a different country. Ok, that is a joke, but not entirely. We have a saying, “Only in Florida”. You should Google that.
Again, your perspective was most interesting. It is refreshing to see things through a visitor’s eyes. (I am suggesting nothing by this reference) but I suddenly recall what Khrushchev noticed when he visited America. He was taken on a tour designed to impress him, such as visits to huge assembly factories, but they did not. What impressed him were the milk bottle deliveries left unattended on doorsteps and the massive car junk yards – he was amazed we could afford to be so wasteful. It would *never* have dawned on an American PR person to have Khrushchev observe milk bottles nor even junk yards.
I always look for any comments by Auslander here. I enjoyed this sitrep, and I know the territory he describes and this report is very accurate. I shall have to buy his book. Please post more often here, sir, if you have the time to do so. Your contribution is certainly appreciated.
This article describes much of what is emblematic about the US now — the growing power of business at the expense of the people, and the loss of any true justice, fairness. rule of law, or even common sense.
Posted by Portside on November 21, 2015
http://portside.org/2015-11-21/arbitration-privatization-justice-system
In Arbitration, a ‘Privatization of the Justice System’
Printer-friendly version
Over the last 10 years, thousands of businesses across the country — from big corporations to storefront shops — have used arbitration to create an alternate system of justice. There, rules tend to favor businesses, and judges and juries have been replaced by arbitrators who commonly consider the companies their clients, The Times found.
Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Michael Corkery
New York Times
November 1, 2015
It is a sin to despair, for it absolves us of effort. Those few thousands who run the world and now own half of its wealth outright– they wish our destruction; but they are few and we are many.
Joy, when machines and societies break down they do mostly have to get worse before they get better. But this time the pathogen has designed the breakdown for the purpose of murdering most of our species. It’s not so difficult. A breakdown in distribution. Monsanto, et al’s control of most of our seed-grain– for us and for animal feed. The success of any one of their schemes for global rule: TTIP, or the UN’s Agenda 21, or even just the cashless society. Perhaps a final hoax to help the abdication of the dregs of sovereignty– might be a new “ebola” requiring universal vaccination (against what? life? pregnancy?). Might be a small “imitation nuclear war”. People will believe anything if they see it on the idiot box.
No, this time it won’t get better after it gets worse. No swing of the pendulum for us. We are going to have to stop it. No, I don’t know how. And I see not the slightest indication that either Russia or China wishes to see sovereignty returned to individual nations. They seem only to want a share of centralized power. But for us we need to fragment the power, to give it back to each country, and then to decentralize it in our own. No people in the world has a chance unless their nation’s government can create it’s own money outside of the IMF/Fed system. And unless that government makes its own bilateral trade rules. Where these are ceded to supranational entities, no democracy at home can help us.
I think a great many people know what kind of government we need, and quite a number are willing to fight for it– with work and even combat. The trouble is that there is no structure, no organization into which we can plug our effort. With just that– with organization– we might even have a fait accompli. But I don’t know how to get there from here..
But how can it be mysterious? I expect it’s the same methodology by which smaller causes are won.
The purpose of primary revolutions is to improve the quality of live for the previously deprived people. The very basic causes such as hunger will stay the major drivers for such uprisings.
However, we need a revolution of a totally different kind. We are over-using our planetary resources for producing ever more waste year after year. We know that we have to stop this insanity as soon as possible for the sake of our well-being. However, this challenges us to abolish our consumerism. This challenge crashes head-to-head with peoples expectation of “more than yesterday”, “more than my neighbor”, “higher social status” (another word for showing off), and so on. Hence, it is notoriously difficult to set that transition into motion.
Intellectually we would know what to do, but emotionally most people are not up to the task.
Well, at least there are a few signs pointing in the right direction:
– The world population as a whole is still growing, but only the most deprived poor people are procreating as if there were no tomorrow. Chances are good that the world population will max out at some 9 to 10 billion people mid-century.
– Sustainable energy generation is becoming a major producer of electricity. This sector is on its way to 100% renewable energy production, although too slowly in my opinion.
– Organic food production keeps expanding, but I don’t expect the major transition to happen before fertilizers run out. Natural limits will finally kill the industrialized food production. I guess the agroindustry has another 15 to 20 years until it will be doomed.
– Another positive trend: young Europeans buy less cars. However, the global demand still grows as for most other goods. The world may well turn into a big trash bin before people give up their over-materialistic lifestyles.
Marcel,
I’m sorry that you have been hoodwinked by the very oligarchs who wish to vastly reduce our numbers. Of the things you mention only the desirability of organic crops is valid. The oligarchs control so much of what we read and hear that it is not surprising that you should have succumbed to the belief that mankind is too numerous and even his expiration of CO2 a toxin. All false. If once you understood what is normal– the many cyclical, periodic oscillations that together determine and maintain our climate– they could no longer impose upon you. I know that it is with the true desire to protect the earth that is our home that you recommend these things. And that you cannot know that the restriction of energy, and austerity generally, are another scheme to consolidate their oligarchy.
Many years ago I worked in the legal field where I witnessed that a false account could appear entirely persuasive, until I’d heard the opposing side. I recommend to you http://www.globalresearch.ca/global-cooling-is-here/10783. In spite of its title it first gives a sound background of noncontroversial climate history– basic knowledge that I think would be a revelation to you; you needn’t accept his conclusion. Here are audio presentations of enthusiastic scientists speaking glowingly of their fields. http://Itsrainmakingtime.com/shows/
I, like you, prefer to live simply. I was raised on a 17-acre farm, and even now raise quite a bit of food on my city lot and keep chickens whose little self-contained community never ceases to fascinate me. I’ve only an old used car, and I regret that a leg injury prevents my using a Cargo Tricycle. Have you seen them; they look so great & allow you to get your exercise while you’re marketing. I’ve no cell phone, or i-pod or any electronics except the desktop I’m using now. But it’s only my preference and not a mandate for others– or a necessity for the earth. You mustn’t let the oligarchs invade your mind. It is the last thing that we have which is truly our own.
Regards,
Penelope
A good place to begin is to not use the words ‘fossil fuels’. Folks have found such ‘fuels’ on other planets (methane – the precurser is quite common in the universe.)
Important update to the situation in Syria. Turkey, under “quiet help” from US, is in process of snatching Northern Syria from Assad, this author has frequently been a very reliable source:
http://atimes.com/2015/11/turkey-gets-toehold-on-syrian-territory-finally/
Put differently, the race for Aleppo has begun. The point is, the Turkish-American operation comes at a time when with Russian air cover, Syrian government forces are struggling to retake Aleppo, which has been under the control of opposition groups for two years. To be sure, the Turkish demarche on Friday threatening Russia with “serious consequences” falls in perspective.
The US role in this daring Turkish enterprise remains hidden from view. Senior US officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, are credited with privately expressing views supportive of the Turkish proposal on free-trade zone, and leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has openly backed the idea, but President Barack Obama has so far preferred to stand in the shade with an ambivalence that appeared to weigh against the ‘no-fly zone’.
But if the latest reports coming from Turkey are to be believed, Obama has given the green signal, finally, for direct American military participation in creating the ‘safe zone’ in northern Syria. Indeed, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Turkey last week, Obama and Erdogan had the opportunity for holding in-depth discussions on Syria.
…
Suffice it to say, Erdogan has been shrewd enough to assess that the hour has come to put into implementation the creation of a ‘no-fly’ and ‘safe’ zone on Syrian soil. Of course, while doing so, Turkey will be pursuing grand ambitions, including territorial ambitions, that go far beyond humanitarian considerations. But that lies in the womb of time.
For the present, Turkey sees the ‘Balkanization’ of Syria to be inevitable, and as happens in such situations, the early bird catches the worm. Turkey is moving in to press its historic claim to the inheritance that it was unjustly denied when imperial Britain unilaterally apportioned the lands of the erstwhile Ottoman Empire in the Levant and Mesopotamia.
Thanks for posting that article Alan. I read the US announcement that US and Turkey were to “secure” the Turkish Syrian border, but had heard nothing more of it. I thought it may have been a means of keeping a rat line open to ISIS and al Qaeda but looks like they will go a bit further.
In a remarkably candid interview with Wolf Blitzer, Gabbard calls Washington’s effort to oust Assad “counterproductive” and “illegal” before taking it a step further and accusing the CIA of arming the very same terrorists who The White House insists are “sworn enemies.”
In short, Gabbard all but tells the American public that the government is lying to them and may end up inadvertently starting “World War III.” –
Read more here:http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-21/us-congresswoman-introduces-bill-stop-illegal-war-assad-says-cia-ops-must-stop
This seems to me overblown. This US supported conquest is about two Turkmen villages in Aleppo provinces that were occupied by ISIS. And although the ATimes article only points to Turkish militias other articles say that other rebel groups were involved too. See
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-backed-syria-rebels-seize-2-border-villages-report-1851826109%23sthash.CKAl8fXv.dpuf.
The ATimes article points also to a strong diplomatic protest of Turkey against Russia bombing Turkmen villages. But that is about villages in Latakia province that are now under attack by pro-government forces.
My fellow Sakers, I thank you for the accolades concerning my efforts. It has taken over a week to right the quite short synopsis concerning my observations whilst in USA. I understand that Florida, my old home and still HOR, is a different world compared to other parts of America but then what state or region is not? Each region seems to have it’s own cultural foibles and unique traits and that is part of the conglomerations that give America it’s unique diversity and cultural flavor.
The greatest difference I noted this trip as opposed to last year, taken at roughly the same time of year, is the marked, and I mean palpably different, attitude concerning Russia and her policies. Last year among friends of 20 and more year’s standing in north Florida the vitriol reached the level of being ridiculous and after a relatively short reunion with old friends and acquaintances at the pub we used to gather in I understood very well that I am Auslander, foreigner, but in my own land, not my current choice of residence. This year more than once in conversations mention was made of being able to buy or at least rent V V Putin for the duration, a 180 degree turnaround.
My leave taking was in many ways sad. The children next door, a lovely little girl of 5 and a boy of 3, liked this old man from The East. I taught them both the correct way to address me in Russian, Grandfather so and so, as opposed to Mr. so and so that their mother had them use. When I went to say goodbye the little girl wept, the little boy just clinging to me for a moment. Their mother and my hosts understood also. I will never return.
Larchmonter445:
Thank you for putting in the link to my novel. The book was an over three year effort although I had to take a one year hiatus from writing last year, events of more import were occurring. The tome is 100% fantasy although I did use some events and knowledges I have from my current life. The language can at times be quite salty but none is gratuitous and there is no sex beyond the occasional smooch. There is violence but again not gratuitous. The diction is like I told the lady at Hotel, English couched in the Russian form we use here, very formal and polite in public, not so formal in private. People we have known for a decade, we would not dream of speaking to them in public without their rank or formal title and they use the same formality with us.
Again, I thank all of you for your compliments on the SitRep
Kindest regards
Auslander
Well, we seem to have been in the USA at the same time, met the same people and visited the same places, sort of. I was in South Carolina in a very rich community. Then I travelled across the USA by train to San Francisco then up the Seattle. I noticed that the roads were really in poor condition compared to northern Europe. I talked to a wide group of people. Millionaires and hookers on the streets in SF. Apart from vast differences in wealth and lifestyle, they seem to have the same fears about the future and what it holds. A lot of people I talked to mentioned the word ‘revolution’, though what this means is unclear. In the US incredibly wealth exists side by side with the third world. The decay of the infrastructure is obvious. It’s the most class ridden society I’ve ever visited, but class here is only linked to money. The middle class are now being ‘exited’ from the great historical play called the ‘American Dream’ just like the traditional ‘working class.’ The middle class are being squeezed out as society becomes increasingly polarized economically and socially. This has big implications for politics. The US political system is totally broken and lacks virtually all legitimacy. Across the board everyone hates Washington. The military is, in many respects, the only part of society that still works anymore. It’s so big that it often seems like a society within a society, but one that’s a kind of ‘socialism’, but of a militarized kind, a militarized mini-state.
What happens to a state, really an empire, when it starts to get so much so wrong and the various parts and levels within it begin to pull apart from one another?
Americans are, I would contend, the most ‘propagandized’ people in the world. It’s astonishing the way they are bombarded by various kinds of ‘ideological slogans’ all the time and everywhere. Little slogans and stories on every product one buys, like biscuits or washing up liquid, or toilet paper. Everything has a little story to tell or a slogan on the packaging.
The television and the radio are incredibly bad, really toxic pollution for the mind. This starts with cartoons for babies and continues for all one’s life. The ‘news’ is almost total and pure propaganda.
My rich family lives in, literally, another world compared to ordinary Americans. They live in small protected castles with guards on the gates. It’s starting to resemble a feudal society with massive differences between the lives of the rich and poor, who at the bottom, the street poor, half a million of them, at least, and growing; almost live like beasts who come out at night to take over the streets. Streets that my rich family members never walked down and only occasionally drive through in their huge, gleaming, SUV’s.
Michaelk,
you said: “In the US incredibly wealth exists side by side with the third world.”
Interestingly,
Eric Walberg wrote this in 2011 /us-egypt-why/ :
“Income disparity is arguably the strongest impulse to revolt. As measured by the Gini coefficient (0 is perfect equality) Egypt stands in a far better light at .34 than the US .45 (Canada is .32).
So why did Egyptians succeed spectacularly where Americans — in even greater need of a revolution — fail spectacularly?
Egyptians seem to be much more politically astute than their American counterparts, more willing to admit that their leaders take bribes, lie, follow policies dictated by business or lobbies and which counter public opinion.”
While-do-Loop wrote this in July 2015 /a-tale-of-two-world-orders-unz-review-column/comment-page-1/#comment-122289
“R(ussia):———>40-41 trending up ****
United States:—–>40-41 Trending up
**** Since Medvedev became President GINI trend took a sharp upward direction; continued up under Putin only until recently: upward trend slowing (thanks to the Oilgarch’s money being confiscated/stolen by the IMF in Cyprus “bail-in” and thanks to “on-book” capital losses due to the recent sanctions/crisis).”
saker provided this report in September 2015 /sergey-glazyevs-report-about-urgent-measures-to-counter-threats-to-the-existence-of-russia/
“Measure Critical value Actual value in 2013 Actual v critical value
Gini coefficient 0.3 0.4 1.3-fold worse”
Spot the difference??
Interesting analysis and broadly correct. But it falls into the trap of believing that what disaffected wasps portray as the cause of America’s decline i.e political correctness, taxes, government regulation and racial/social tolerance and integration is the true cause of that decline.
Nothing can be further from the truth!
The decline of the US, as a global hegemon, is due first, to imperial over reach, hubris and miscalculation on the part of America’s white overlords and second to the rise of China. It has nothing to do with political correctness, taxes or government regulation.
The more fundamental decline of the US as a society, is the inevitable result of a hypermaterialist, hyperconsumption and hyperhedonistic culture. This culture is a product of hypercapitalism and greed and arose among the white majority, not minorities or immigrants, from where it has spread to all socioeconomic groups.
@Ngoyo,
Well said.
I once shook hands with Margaret Thatcher but have since grown to despise all Conservatives.
Indeed. We are now playing out the endgame of the course Reagan and Thatcher put us on. The were both reckless fools, and we now face the consequences of voting for them, just as Germans in 1945 faced the consequences of giving Adolf the power to rule by decree by a 4/5 majority vote of their legislature in 1933.
Ngoyo, I don’t think Auslander portrayed political correctness as in any way the cause of America’s downward path. but that he reported finding it– as a symptom of an encompassing CONTROL which the power structture is inculcating even in children. That one may not criticize or hold a judgement different than the one mandated, and that real consequences are visited upon those who disobey– this is tyranny, not mere political correctness, which was bad enough.
You say, “This culture is a product of hypercapitalism and greed and arose among the white majority, not minorities or immigrants, from where it has spread to all socioeconomic groups.” This assumes that the present lack of culture & education arose spontaneously among our people. This is untrue; the great foundations and think tanks, the CIA and their media have unceasingly propagandized to replace the real culture of the American people. They are the true authors of much of our movies and books– both fiction & nonfiction. They have pushed through legislation that bars our churches from discussing anything political, under pain of losing their tax-free status. Only members of CFR or Bilderbergers or those selected by them can attain high political office.
To catch a glimpse of what we have lost one need only read the novels of the late 1800s and early 1900s. What a different intellectual world! Alight with the idealism of doing right, the examination of the character of others, and one’s own. Or one may see the lost ability to think, to make fine distinctions, to philosophize from an examination of any history text written in the same period. It seems that all those American historians knew several foreign languages too, and continuously footnoted their works in French & German.
But above all else I think that it is impossible to maintain a culture where people watch 20 hours (at least) of TV a week– and such infantilizing stuff.
“This assumes that the present lack of culture & education arose spontaneously among our people. This is untrue; the great foundations and think tanks, the CIA and their media have unceasingly propagandized to replace the real culture of the American people.”
If you really believe that, you might want to take a look into Richard Hofstadter’s wonderful work “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.” The CIA and their media have only been able to replace, in the minds of those for whom thought is not an habitual process, one set of misperceptions and prejudices with another, different set. Those who actually read those intellectual novels 100 years ago are still reading and still thinking their own thoughts.
“[The CIA] have pushed through legislation that bars our churches from discussing anything political, under pain of losing their tax-free status.”
The CIA is responsible for many terrible sins over its history, but it’s unlikely that the CIA is responsible for the legislation that cancels churches’ tax exemptions if they use their resources to promote partisan politics. That legislation was passed in 1954, prior to the CIA’s acquisition of the immense powers that it has today. Additionally, only one church has actually lost its tax exemption under that provision in all the intervening decades.
Anonymous,
I was careless with my antecedent. The “they” who inhibited churches from discussing political issues is of course Congress– doubtless in obedience to some oligarchic foundation which wished less opposition in its remoulding of the American character.
It’s all very well to infer that those who have the habit of thought are proof against a culture that has been taken over by the organs of the oligarchy, but for the great majority the habit of thought is apt to be greatly influenced by public education. And the undermining of that education began very early in America. History was the first to go, when they combined it with trivialized “social studies.”
I know that the depth and breadth of my own thought has suffered from a culture so inane & I think that this must be true for others as well.
Penelope, I think my interpretation of what he meant as the cause of the decline, is quite reasonable. But I can see that your interpretation also fits.
Political correctness is a scapegoat. From personal experience as one of the minorities living in America, I can say that it is absolutely necessary. I have experienced the opposite, no PC in the workplace, and its no good. The consequences for being non-pc are something else. They are way over the top in many cases, too harsh. But thats not the fault of political correctness or of minorities. It is the fault of the incredibly harsh American culture. A culture that is deficient in sympathy or empathy. And yes a culture rooted in the white majority.
This is a culture where zero tolerance for grade schoolers is considered good. Where children are sent to jail for making fun of their teachers on Facebook. And that, after trials lasting just a few minutes. This is the land of three strikes and you are out. Where prisoners are kept in solitary confinement until they go mad and start painting with their feces. Here police shoot first and ask questions later. 98% of convicts never had a trial and the jail sentences actually make you feel sorry for the criminals.
Given such a harsh culture is it surprising that the consequences for political incorrectness are so harsh? This is just in line with the harsh punishments meted out for other infringements. The difference is that political correctness tends to trip up middle class and wealthy whites more than anybody else and so it becomes a major issue.
On the whole PC has been good for America. Without it, it would have been impossible to integrate the country and without that, America, not the USSR would have lost the cold war.
I did not suggest that the hypercapitalist culture arose spontaneously among white Americans. I just said that it arose there. As you correctly say, it was developed there. This was for the benefit of the 1%.
i think that this post was by ngoyo in response to Penelope. It seems to labeled Penelope responding back to herself (I having that that is a typo).
To Ngyoyo,
Precisely Ngoyo, anti discrimination is better than the alternative: it prevents disruptive elements poisoning the workspace or even a military unit’s cohesion. It prevents breach of contract: between employee and employer, contractor and client, businesses and customers, citizens to the society they live in. This was my main objection to the muted whining among the gated genteel majority class described in Auslander’s narration (my post is way down below).
Above comment is by me, Ngoyo, in reply to Penelope. I have no idea how it was labeled Penelope. Maybe I did it. Strange!
the Yale private club Skull and Bones took over the education system in US…read about it in Anthony Suttons’ book “America’s Secret Establishment” in early 1830’s….its the education that has caused the downfall of culture.
@penelope
Excellent post.
My reaction precisely. Additionally, and with regard to the original article, I respectfully beg to dissent; strip out the pseudo-sociological camouflage and what do we have left?
“Young people today do things that I do not do, and I do not like that.”
Two words come to mind (or are there three?)
Old fuddy-duddy.
The above was meant as a reply to Ngoyo, and the “anonymous” one above that is mine, but I forgot to “sign in.”
There could be a better process for managing replies, to make sure that they are attached to the post to which they are actually replying, and also a requirement that everyone register a user-name and be permitted to post only when signed in would eliminate a lot of confusion.
Hi Auslander, what a fabulous sitrep…but I don’t understand the last paragraph….you were living on the fruits of your recent ancestors and didn’t take care of your country ? But you’re not American are you ? If you are, you’ve been living abroad for a long time, as even in writing, your accent is not American. Or even English. Or Canadian….Russian I guess, or Ukrainian ?
Anyways, it was a wonderful read. And very true….up here in Canada its the same…every one has tattoos now….
Rudolf Steiner said that a tattoo is a remarkable thing for a person who’s asleep to observe, on their own body…not actually something I would want. There’s not much rest in it.
I wish actually I could escape from the culture you observed, here in North America, but we all have our dependents – mine being animals – so I stay. I wish I could move to Russia, or even to Novorossiya….which I would do if I had no dependents…good excuse I guess, as I can’t see myself ever not having animals…I’d be completely lost.
Thanks for such a great story and I sent it to my friends….by the way, what is the name of your book ?
Ann
Hello Ann, good to speak to you again and thank you for the compliments.
What I meant was the hard work my father and grandfathers did for America I had no appreciation of until I was too old to do anything about the slow deterioration of the results of that work.
I have lived in Sevastopol for over a decade and apparently my English is now suffering from Russian grammar and mannerisms translated to English. The funny thing is I speak very little Russian, barely enough to find the train station, reason being my charming bride speaks fluent English. I am American.
The book name is Never The Last One, the saying of Spetznaz, and I published it using the pen name ‘Auslander’. It’s on Kindle and it’s pretty long. I recommend reading from front to back cover without jumping around, there are several plots and sub plots wandering through the tome, all coming to fruition in the last couple chapters. Chapter 18 is the AAR, the After Action Review, wherein the fates of the main characters are told.
.
Kindest regards
Auslander
“What I meant was the hard work my father and grandfathers did for America”
Do you mean for these guys?
/usa-sitrep-november-21-by-auslander/comment-page-1/#comment-176896
If so, shame on you, your father & grandfather.
When referencing another post it would be helpful to other readers to know that you were also the author of the post. Please be honest with our readers and strive for transparency mod-hs
mod-hs said:
“When referencing another post it would be helpful to other readers to know that you were also the author of the post.”
The reference is logically connected (that is exactly why I made it).
I don’t see how it would be more helpful to identify that I was the original author. It would just add unhelpful verbosity (which is, in my opinion, what your comment has caused me do).
mod-hs said:
“Please be honest with our readers and strive for transparency”
I always give my honest opinion…on many occasions i’ve linked to others comments in the same thread when it supports the point I wish to make.
Anonymous posting (probably for around 2 years) has resulted in an increased posting rate (cf prior pseudonym[s]) – so that won’t change (without a policy change).
oh !! I’ll have to read the last page right away. Sorry…just kidding.
I’ll write it down and get it asap…thanks for comment
“I wish actually I could escape from the culture you observed, here in North America”
shhh, don’t let ubob know ;-)
Huh????
Why,would I care!
Everything changes. If we consider culture as a shorter-term reflection of heritage…what does this (really) mean, to you /the-fallacy-of-western-style-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-167191:
“No,we are connected to “who we are”,whether we like that are not.Your race,your ethnicity,is “you”.You might not like that.You may hate and want to change that.But while you can change beliefs,religion,even citizenship sometimes.You can’t wash away your heritage”
If, for example,one minute you worship the Bush Family, hate brown people and sing the Stars and Stripes before saying the Lord’s prayer at bedtime but then have an enlightenment. You suddenly consider the US as the most evil Empire and that Jesus is just another tooth fairy.
What is now residual after changing your beliefs and religion? a love of American Football? a pride that “America” was the first to the moon…some other quality (that you have pride in) to bind you to “a group”…
There is no doubt that we have parents but a child can decide to act as though they never existed. Culture and heritage do not have to count for anything. We can discriminate whether to have baggage or none – thankfully.
You previously referred to some dictionary definitions, here’s another https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage
“History, “heritage” refers to historical events or processes that have a special meaning in group memory”
Of course, you have to consider yourself part of a group for that to have any significance. That does not have to be the case.
I like the fact that you included “Why,would I care!”
As for Ann, all she must do is realise that she is not a part of that culture, live her life with that reality and she is free already (or maybe move to Havana, oops I see the flag flies there again also).
Hmm.
Look at yourself in the mirror.Then tell me how you are going to change your ethnicity or race.You “may” change your “thinking”.But you won’t be able to change those things about you.You seem like an intelligent person.But you waste that intelligence by playing at word games.To try and “prove” you are smarter than others.If you had anything important to say you’d just say it.Instead all your posts are like the ones above.All argumentative,but not argumentative to add to a conversation.But purely for the sake of being argumentative.It really is a shame that you waste all our time and your own for no good purpose.
Any particular rule broken in my unposted detailed reply?
The following is a reply to Any particular rule broken in my unposted detailed reply?
the moderator on duty attached the following note to the Saker along with your comment …
mod-hs
This person posts a lot of comments that mainly consists of copy and paste from other comments and articles (here on Saker), often having nothing to do with the content in the article he posts under. He singles out a commenter (like for ex Uncle Bob) and keeps on with his copying and pasting, in a tone that makes me think he just want to quarrel, not adding anything to the blog. In this comment he claims that 10 percent of the comments on Saker are his. Considering how little he adds to the information flow (which is the purpose of the comments section, I believe) I think he is only taking up space, using this blog for his own peronal purposes.
Auslander
An interesting read. But Florida is like texarse and new joysie, the arse end of the beast. Though, finding a place in the USA which is much better is a diminishing prospect.
BTW, while everybody is indoctrinated with worry about offending those they have previously been indoctrinated to “lynch”, their exceptional sacred zio-cow continues to terrorize the planet and keep the home population chasing their own tails over that difference between the older indoctrination and the current one.
Think about it.
“…keep the home population chasing their own tails over that difference between the older indoctrination and the current one.
Think about it”.
How To Think, while Chasing ones Tale.
‘It’s simple, gold is more beautiful than the body, rubies redder than blood…’
thank you.
excellent piece of writing, v interesting to hear what is going on over there.
I think the Iphone Ipad generation will just keep living in fantasy ignoring the premises of a fascist state creeping up on them, pretty much like it is here in Europe actually
Brilliant piece, Auslander. Wouldn’t call it a ‘sitrep’, it has more the feel of a short story.
Yes, there is a little bit of analysis, but it is the straight-forward, matter of fact descriptions of mundane occurrences, observations, encounters, chats with acquaintances and strangers that makes your sober, clear-minded and deeply humane tale of ‘life in the age of democratism’ and ‘free-speech-zones’ a little marvel.
Melancholic, saddening, yet in a strange and subtle way, uplifting.
“As an aside, I was in The South. While there my bride mentioned that she wanted a Confederate Flag since it is so similar to the Novorossiya battle flag”.
They might look similar but that is where all resemblance ends. Whereas the Novorussian flag symbolises struggle against Nazi oppression of the peoples of Donbass the confederate flag in the minds of many American blacks particularly from the south symbolises oppression of centuries of slavery and lynchings by white supremacists and the KKK and the disenfranchisement of an entire peoples based on their colour. No comparison of the two.
Miami, Stockholm, Paris. The Starbucks are everywhere the same. Wherever we set our foot, we are trespassing private property. Whatever we say will be used against us.
Our names in the passports we are forced to carry, are spelled in CAPITALS – thus making us innate corporate entities subject to corporate laws.
Our light bulbs, our stove, our windows, we are told, are not in accordance with the latest protocols and regulations. Even in our homes we are strangers in a strange land.
But all this won’t stop us from letting our spirits shine like a thousand candles. No matter what, we will sing our song.
very interesting. the author’s approach almost exactly mirrors what I usually do in any country I go to on a trip – talk to the locals, as many as possible, of as many levels and types as possible, in casual environment like bars or family restaurants. works like a charm for finding out what people, on average, really think.
Thanks for that; absolutely right, Auslander precisely on the right wavelength here.
Thank you Auslander for an enjoyable read.
The malady you describe so vividly is a soullessness,very much like working on an assembly line….constant repetition……..a mechanical existance..mind numbing shallowness.
As Penelope remarked people understand that change is needed,
“But I don’t know how to get there from here..”
I watch on a daily basis the repairs being made in the Donbass,the attempt to create a viable state………this is an opportunity that comes once in a millennium.
To re-create what was,or to choose a different path.
In every place world wide, on a daily basis, we re-create what was,
re-inforce the status quo……any attempt to establish alternate systems are ruthlessly crushed.
The constant attempt to control all human behaviour is born of fear, living in a gated community only gives the illusion of security,fear of the ‘other’ is not life but death.
The ‘Lawn-Order’ you described reminded me of a song by Pete Seeger,
“Little boxes little boxes,there’s a blue one and a yellow one,and they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same”
thanks for the story.
Interesting.
Do bear in mind that, as someone else has pointed out, the USA is a huge country and there are very big differences between regions, within regions, and within localities.
“Flahdah” is typical in some respects and very atypical in others.
Many AMericans don’t view Florida as being part of the Aemrican South.
I think this is incorrect.
Florida, in its history and social profile and the role of racism, is very much a part of the American South.
One of the most pivotal episodes in the civil rights movement of the sixties took place in St. Augustine. Attempts to desegregate a motel swimming pool resulted in a tense standoff .
http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_st_augustine_movement/
At the same time, Florida is a very distinct part of the USA with complex overlays resulting from its role as a retirement state, as an in effect Cuban and Latino state, as the locus of enormous wealth on the coasts, in particular, the Atlantic coast, etc. Not to mention its; utterly unique geographical and ecological profile.
I don’t know the area around Orlando, but I suspect that that area is significantly shaped by being the home to DisneyCosmos—the fantasy world, fantasy playground, fantasy America, best escape that many Americans can conceive of or even imagine. And this may make that area a very good one for taking the pulse of teh American psyche . . .
Katherine
I am European but tour and lecture widely in the US. My area is healthcare, always an intensely political subject, so it is easy to talk about US politics to my students, who range in age between 25 and 70. Over the last year, anti-government feelings – which were always present, if unfocussed – have strengthened considerably. Last week, speaking to a semi-rural crowd in a small, conservative town, I joked that many of the world’s problems could be solved by nuking Washington DC from orbit, just to be sure; thinking that their response would serve as a litmus test, even if I were to be tarred and feathered as a result. To my surprise the audience, some 300 strong, rose to their feet and cheered the sentiment to the echo – and this coming from an alien.
Auslander is correct when he talks of civil disaffection, but it is wider and deeper than he describes.
PaulC, thank you for that anecdote. I hope that some of your audience realize that it’s not government that’s the problem– but government as captured by the oligarchy.
I just heard a good 35-minuteinterview at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsH6awbnpY
Michael Parenti – Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies
and he mentions that the wealthy get plenty of handouts and benefits from the government, and this stuff about ‘small government’ is really about austerity with cutting off the people from the wealth they have produced and giving it to the capitalists and corporations — which could not even exist without the government.
Here is the way Americans are massaged by the media.
On Fox News website, an Associate Press release, which means it is on 1000 newspapers and radio news and 10,000 websites around the world. AP once was the bible, the standard. Now it is toxic and corrupt and infected like a streetwalker (male or female) with syph or HIV.
world/2015/11/22/crimea-reportedly-under-state-emergency-after-losing-electricity/?intcmp=hplnws
Here’s the headline:
Crimea loses power after Ukrainian towers explode
(Apparently, spontaneous explosion, not Ukie-nazi.)
Read further and you find not one single hint humans did this, or a photo, though many exist on the Internet. The culprits beat people trying to stop them. None of that in this “report”.
This is an act of war. Crimea is Russia. Yet, we get no hint that this isn’t an act of violence against two million people.
Imagine reading this if you had no critical facility to understand that this is all a lie, a coverup, and that Nazis numbering 100 did this two-steps of explosions to destroy electrical transmission to Russia.
Of course, Putin has patience. This goes into the compilation of crimes which at some point of his choosing, in a manner of his design, there will be retribution.
I and many others are impatient. But Putin always does things the right way at the right time. We should learn from the past.
And we should be cognizant of how Americans and others are bamboozled by the media and overwhelmed in their daily lives.
It doesn’t look like a lie. It doesn’t read as deception. But it is artful fraud. Propaganda. False witness from the AP.
And know this. It has passed through at least five humans to produce this ‘”report”. The originator and various editors and finally a news editor at Fox. And then the new technology like Google News and Bing New which use AI and algorithms to generate more, which then are “spidered” back and echoed on Search Engines around the globe.
Overwhelming the truth.
At this time Russia and Novorossiya have ceased coal deliveries to the orcs in response to the power stoppage to Krimea Peninsula. The perpetrators of this act put photos of themselves on social media standing next to destroyed electric towers.
The electric delivered to Krimea and Sevastopol is actually Russian from the Russian power grid, ‘transported’ down to Krim, in other words Russia provides the orcs with the amount of electric power needed by Krimea Peninsula and the orcs provide power to the peninsula. This arrangement is covered under contracts between Russia and Ukraine as is the high quality coal deliveries to Ukraine power and heating plants, the coal given as partial payment for the ‘transport’ of electric energy to Krimea. The rest of the substantial fees for transport is paid in ‘cash’ monthly.
Here is the current situation in Sevastopol:
The city is on energy rationing. Districts south of the harbor, depending on where they are, are included in the rationing, City Center with all government admin is not.
Our part of north side is scheduled for electric tomorrow at 00:00-03, 09-12 and 18-21.
Weather should remain moderate for the next 8-10 days, no frost.
All shops and magazines in the power rationed areas are of affected by the outages. Hospitals have all been either kept on line or for areas where that is not possible Navy generator units have provided them with auxiliary power units so they can continue operations.
Shops and magazines with perishable foods are selling the foods off at not much above cost.
All heating plants without in house electricity generators for in house power supply are shut down.
Petrol stations are all down when power is out except for the big one at Yalta Ring, they have generators. That station is now out of petrol and diesel and awaiting deliveries.
Militsiya have increased patrols.
Schools in the affected areas will be closed tomorrow as will be all none emergency government agencies in Sevastopol Region and Autonomous Republic of Krimea.
Thanks Auslander for the update….much appreciated.
Recently H.E. Vadimir Putin invoked article 51 I believe, of the UN charter, the right of self defence.
This act of sabotage is endorsed and encouraged by activists working to blockade and harm the RF.
A token National Guard presence brawling with these Majlis actors,is nothing but theatre.
This sabotage is an act of war !.
What do you think ?
Russia is offering 200 MW floating power plants.. Or nuclear subs can be used to power cities.. Since no one bought it, the subs were discarded? They even offered to desalinate the water using this as especially in the middle east there is no easy access to fresh water..
They should just hook up one of these electric subs to provide power until an under water power line can be laid next to the bridge they are building. 200MW is not enough to run everything but it would provide power for basic life. Such a contingency should have been planned for.
(Apparently, spontaneous explosion, not Ukie-nazi.)
I certainly am no fan of Fox news, nor much of a fan of AP, but this is what the Fox article actually said: (emphasis mine)
Ukrainian activists, including Crimean Tatars, tried to block repair works on Saturday, but retreated after clashes with police.
The Interfax news agency said police official Ilya Kiva wrote on Facebook Saturday evening that the repairs had been completed, but shortly after midnight wrote a new post saying the towers had been hit by new explosions. It was not immediately clear who was responsible.
So it’s made pretty clear that human saboteurs are at least suspected.
RT also has an article about the nuclear station being in trouble from no electricity
I am in agreement with your summation of the situation in the US, except for one small point. You said
“a public education system that has totally broken down and has forgotten what it’s primary task is.”
Not so at all! You see, their task is no longer to educate, but rather to serve as indoctrination centers. This has been the case since at least the mid- 1970’s, but there was gradual creep in that direction in prior years, after the Frankfurt School influence came to be widespread here.
The US military are not stupid, many of them are highly intelligent, more so than many other armed forces. The flaw being they are thoroughly corrupted by exceptionalism an propaganda.. The prefer a Libya with civil war, terrorists, most people below the poverty line and starving with owmen only good for one thing and not very pleasant with that sack they have to wear now to a Libya with the highest standard of living in Africa, free house, 50K when you get married, free electricity and a job and equal rights for women..
A lot of single mothers are in it for the assistance they get.. their grand parents usually look after the kids while she is out partying, this is a trend and done on purpose.. Although I have had many white men go on and on and on about Muslims and Asians and Africans and no good pollacks living on assistance and not willing to wok. The young white chic running around dragging a few kids and snorting coke seems to not be noticeable.. Must be another propaganda induced blindness..
Cigarettes, same pack tastes different at every country you buy it in, but it tastes the same everywhere in the US. So it is not the same in Europe or middle east or asia as in the US. I don’t know if it tastes the same in all EU or not as the taste was so different it was nauseating so French or German packs might be different unlike any state in the US where it tastes the same. Now food tasting different I can understand.. Same with coffee..
And as you noticed, many are well knowledgeable.. There are idiots in every country, but many countries the people are really ignorant and they are biased.. Religion, culture, status all keep them ignorant.. But Americans are not ignorant because of those factors, they are ignorant because they believe they are exceptional.. And because they are exceptional they don’t believe they need to put in the effort to make things happen. That others have problems because they are not part of that exceptionalism and they are defective.. The ultimate racism where everyone else is lower.. Not just people form other countries.. And if something bad happens to them, it is because they are not exceptional enough.. Muslims also believe something like that, as allah wills.. what happens is the will of god.. All the zombie movies convey a sense that the few of them are the only ones alive and all the rest are mindless dead people.
For all the talk of Americans’ unhappy plight, they have inflicted much greater levels of death, destruction, and exploitation on the rest of the world.
Never forget this.
Bemoaning the “‘concerns” of Americans is akin to throwing a Pity Party for a serial killer. It’s an exercise in pandering to a psychopathic mass murderer.
America is basically a mutant mix of the British Empire, Roman Empire, and Nazi Third Reich.
The USA is guilty of massive war crimes on a planetary level throughout its history beginning with its bloodstained colonization of the North American continent.
As such, the United States of America deserves to reap what it has sown.
Agreed.
that’s just bigotry…its like all the commenters who say ” France deserves this”…its just not true…
American people are some of the greatest…Saker lives in US…Stephen Lendman, Michael Hudson, Mike Whiteney, and on and on and on….
Blame rarely holds the whole truth.
Thanks, Auslander! I myself made a survey-trip last August. In my case through the coastal mountains from the Sacramento Valley to the Pacific and along the coast in a long loop. Of course specifics differ, but the sense of America’s “Spirit” was much the same as that which you describe. I “interviewed” people everywhere, ordinary people. I’d add that in the rural pubs they speak of revolution as inevitable and “9-11” as “an obvious False Flag coup” – that and the business at Dallas in ’63. I have heard people exclaim “Hell, you can see the f’ng squibs going off!” This history is an awful time, and sad beyond imagination.
I’m typing this about 3:30 pm UTC or 9:30 am my time. I read all the comments up to and including Katherine’s at about 3:00 pm UTC.
I liken this to a family conversation. I imagine the Saker and his family and friends and dearly departed mother in the background.
I imagine Auslander, his article here and the first two chapters of his book which I read for free at Amazon.
When I look up from this computer and out the windows I don’t have to imagine; I see a beautiful Southern California sunshine and a small slice of magnificent nature.
Today is November 22, the day JFK died, another event of imagination and memory.
Auslander is a made up name as is the Saker. My name is real insofar as my parents gave it to me according to the Irish custom: my grandfather was a Dennis and my father a James.
I live in mostly a made-up world with just enough reality to hold it together.
I am an Auslander in the sense of foreigner. I am a saker in the sense of wanting to be part of a real community via a virtual one. I have a real family and community too but they don’t talk like this one, at least not yet.
Auslander seems to be a friend of Saker’s. He fills in for the absent Saker. The Auslander has been absent himself but now is back. He comes from before my time here.
I liked his article but since I’ve read the first two chapters of his book I’m having second thoughts. The article appears to be factual and the book fictional. Now I wonder if there is not an unconscious blurring of the two.
Sort of like my staring into this computer and then looking out my window, like a window-mirror?The real and the surreal.
The book is like a foreign genre to me. Bear in mind that I am almost 76 and an old-school classic. The book strikes me as a post-modern zombie on steroids. It rubs me the wrong way but that’s what I need in my remedial education.
My inner critic sees a comic book of a new world order: Spetsnaz Superman, Rambo, rednecks, psychic dogs (two pairs to match Saker’s four of a kind), Barbie Dolls, Clint Eastwood, the Godfather and Oprah wrapped up in an action movie romance of “Love and Honor, Courage and Treachery,” to quote the sub-title.
The end of chapter two features a charade, a joke foisted on three women by all the other characters. Am I missing something? An inside joke that I don’t get? Is life but a joke with women the butt?
My inner lover says two chapters is not the book of 950 pages. She’s right. My judgments are premature and immature. Maybe I should buy the book just to keep peace in the family.
Anon at 8:03 am asked what was to admire in the US culture prior to the beginning of its death? Nothing that I can see except maybe its idealization of freedom, a romantic notion to be sure. It deserves the death it deals to others.
To get to reality I go back some 100,000 years to our original love culture, a romantic notion also but more than that.
Auslander’s fictional world of Spetsnaz is not my preferred world. The real world of Spetsnaz is stranger than fiction.
The factual world of the article is not really my world either. It may be in the future but it is not now. I suspect I’ve been unduly influenced by a particular politically correct blogging community.
I compared the vineyard to a family gathering, at say a marriage or a funeral (overtones of our present situation). A real family has differences, black sheep, black swans and even Spetznazs along with the normal sheeple. Auslanders and inlanders too.
The US ideal of freedom makes for a real family; a Russian spetznaz one is also necessary for safety or freedom is swept away.
Tolstoy’s idea of non-resistance to evil may indeed be the solution but we’re too far down the road for it to have any traction and we’d all have to lie down before the terror tractor. Not going to happen.
I’m beginning to shoot from the hip and in danger of shooting my own foot. A spetznaz I am not. Thanks for allowing me to shoot off my mouth. Here in the US freedom of speech still exists in vineyards like this. Whether I learn anything only time will tell.
It’s now three hours later,11:30 am my time and 6:30 pm ours. I have a sinking feeling that I’ve made a fool of myself and wasted time. Oh well, what are families for anyway? When the saker’s away the fledglings will play.
Which button to hit? Post or delete? Be safe or sorry? Be a realist or a narcissist? To be or not to be? The lover is a fool so I’ll post, post-haste.
Trying to figure things out and asking others opinions on your understanding off things does not make you feel foolish. If people think they would look like an idiot if they ask questions then nothing would have gotten answered. I am with you here, confused about a lot of things but because of that I look for answers and I have found some that provides some satisfaction. I would rather find think I am a loon than remain ignorant. You know, not many people actually know much.. But that 1 in a 100 might see your confusion and provide an answer.. You might look like a fool to the other 99%.. but they never had an answer to give you anyway.
Dennis, I enjoyed your post ;-)
Always hit “post,” Dennis. You are a true poet. I noticed that for a long time, :)
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this with us.
My own minor additional comment would be to notice the proliferation of “consignment shops ” where people who are toiling financially place articles for sale. Essentially this is a genteel or slow motion version of what happened in Russia during the Yeltsin years.
Interestingn comment on consignment shops.
I too have noticed their proliferation and wondered . . .
As children we were kept clothed by my mother’s rummaging trhough the piles at mainly church rummage sales. As the the youngest of three girls I NEVER had anything new. Except maybe a set new underthings and maybe a blouse from Sears Roebuck which were our Christmas presents. My sisters’ things came originally from the rummage sale . . . Fortunately my mother, born fairly privileged in Berlin, had a heat-seaking mechanism for locating the better-quality stuff in the rummage-sale piles. The odd cashmere sweater. And wealthy parishioners donated good-quality items. Average quality then would go for excellent today.
Then, I learned to sew my own clothes.
Back to consignment shops. I have wondered whehter spoiled wealthy ladies are using these to get some cash out of their last seasons’ clothes and so these items are no longer being donated to thrift shops. On which many rely on for their wardrobes, especially moms to dress their kids. So are teh consignment shops an income stream for wealthy wives? Or do the consignment shops mean that everyone is seeking an income stream from used clothes instead of donating to nonprofit thrift shops and rummage sales (the latter seem to have become much more rare).
Or, on the contrary, are so many people purchasing so much cheap clothing made abroad that they can afford to get new shoddily made threads every year and have to clear out some space in their closets? The general quality of clothing available anywhere—new or used–has plummeted except for very high-end merchandise.
Katherine
Thanks for the nuanced reply, Katherine. My youngest brother, disturbingly successful in business, received X 3 hand him downs and cannot bear to have anything “pre used” near him.
Back to the point, the consignment shops I saw were in Palm Beach, and first time I was there 2012 they existed but not so many as Easter 2015. Since occupancy of retail outlets was down over three years, my guess is increasing use of consignment shops is due to distress rather than by lifestyle choice.
Wonderful writing. I know well how tragic the present situation in America is now and how it got that way. America will never return to where it was pre-Ronald Reagan. 9/11 was a set up to remove all law meaning all laws made since then are actionable, worthless. It has become a police state, a dictatorship. US killed one son and intends to never let the other leave as he has decided to move here. Not allowed.
The new Nazis.
Half of the quantitative easing by the Fed went to foreign central banks. The elites, many of whom are American, don’t give a rat’s behind about the nation state, the USA, and especially don’t care about the people here or anywhere else. They are forming a globalist gov’t. That’s where they’re headed. One of their goals is to have the U.S. and Russia destroy each other.
Yep.
You point out what is obvious, the facts concerning the decline of the society, culture, economy, the educational system, on and on we can go. Is the USA alone among nations when it comes to this phenomenon? The entire west is experiencing the same issues. China appears to have quite quickly reached a sort of apex. Japan is a basket case. South Korea will experience similar disintegration as its trading partners decline. Is Australia already not in the throes of decline? In Russia its banking system is controlled by western interests. Which places constraints upon the economy. The global south is a basket case. Please inform me as to where collapse and disintegration of society is not casting a shadow? It is a world wide systemic problem.
The root of the problem is globalization.
Most nation-states are in severe decline because of this phenomenon.
A really interesting read – thanks Auslander.
Glad you are safe home in Krim, even if it’s tough at the moment.
Somehow, I don’t think you wish you were ‘Back in the US-rael’, (They know how unlucky they are, boys..’):)
I’m 60. That means the US economy has been in decline all my working life, since before I finished college. If blame is to be assigned, I think it should go to the oligarchs and would-be oligarchs. The USA is at the point the USSR was, when Yeltsin was in charge (if only nominally).
When you look upon women with children and no husband, remember that a woman’s fertility is short, and to live without ever having a child is still not the average woman’s dream. If she were to wait for a solid husband to come along, the average woman would never have a child. I did marry, and a European at that, and still I am divorced because he wanted to go all-American California style. I believe I am at heart more of a European than he ever was.
American men are not good husband material. My father and grandfather were good husbands, so I know the difference. My daughter is 28, and has not found a suitable husband, and she is childless, still. I may never know the joy of being a grandmother. After she reached 21, I told her she could have children and I would help, but that given my personal experience, marriage wasn’t worth it. I avoided the drugged and drunk and unemployable and stupid men, and ended up with a real psychopath, instead. We didn’t know about psychopaths, when i was a girl…but the psychopathic personality runs American multinational business and government these days. One learns, shuns, or hides. There is no peaceful coexistence with a psychopath.
Auslander your article:
So lucid, concise yet descriptive and detailed. Auslander you have a gift.
Your writing is, for me, superb.
I hope you contribute more such writings to the blog.
The content opinions and conclusions are more varied – and that’s to be expected: we can’t agree on everything.
You are objectively correct in your assessment that integrating women into combat units (in light of the context of children with no fathers or deployment avoiding pregnancies) has a real cost both economically and in lives. To keep an indivual in a job where the burden falls on others to subsidize the personal choices of that individual is not fair to rest of the unit or workforce.
By the same token, white(i use white here because your implied “distress” at the workplace “speech” restrictions on the “majority” population, the truth is it can also apply women in general, to Hispanics, Jews, to Muslims, fanatical protestants and roman-catholics, to atheists and to asians in arenas where they predominate), white employees in a business (public or private), employees that engage in gauche, offensive, racist, bigoted, sexist speech and behaviour in the workplace also cost the rest of the unit both economically (wasted time, damaging team moral, exposing the business to unnecessary risks) as well as harming efficiency (by damaging discipline, cohesion and focus). No business should have to subsidize some good-old-boys biggoted private mind excrement – you’re on someone else’s time, you’re being paid, you have no right to use that time to engage in discourse that damages team moral (the same is true for other parties). The enterprise should not have to carry the costs or subsidize for the effects of conflict arousing racist, tribal or generally offensive speech.
Now what you do in the privacy of your own home, is your business and nobody should have the right to impinge upon that: that’s your own time and as a free being you need the opportunity to think unpleasant thoughts, pleasant thoughts, to think hatefully, to think good thoughts, to discuss these things with those you trust, to cast out one demons, to see things from any perspective any extreme, to think freely good or bad: how else do we develop spiritually or intellectually – but in the privacy of your personal time and space without harming others, that’s your contract with the rest of society.
It’s really hard to feel sympathy for a view point that says that I feel oppressed that I can no longer racially, or sexually insult my fellow human being, that I have to be accountable for such behaviour, that I could get fired(!). That kind of whining (on the part of the people you had discussions with) is weak and unmanly.
How do the people of Donbass feel about the subhuman status and bigoted language used to described them (moskals, etc,) by those neo-nazis philosophical cousins of Jim Crow in Galicia? How helpful were those words towards national cohesion in Ukraine? How harmless were these words towards the cohesion of the Russosphere?
Food for thought.
I would like to put this video up on this sitrep because this video is also about America..and fits in well…in the first 5 minutes Ron Paul and his assistant, discuss and quote Donald Trump and his popularity…
https://youtu.be/eJlJspIf5RM
And the fact that Americans like it when Trump says that security will take over the whole country….is due to the education system…there’s really no other explanation for it.
“Actually, I will blame someone. I blame myself, me. I was too busy enjoying the fruits of the labors of my father and grandfathers and furthering my career rather than make sure The United States of America remained true to itself and strong.
I have failed.”
The most thought-provoking, touching comment made in the entire article. As another ex-pat, it produced a shiver down my spine and a sudden deep sense of regret for what should have been and never will be. I,too, have failed.
Very interesting article about USA. But similar issues and trends exist in North-west europe and Australia.
As I currently live in Australia, I have observed many similarities with all these that were mentioned about USA.
Many Australian women have out of the wedlock children. An increasing trend is single white mothers with black babies, the product of one night stands or brief relationships with (usually unemployed or criminal) African refugee men. On the other hand many Australian men are in relationships or married with Asian women.
A significant percentage of the total marriages broke down after a few years. Ex husbands are forced to pay a lot of money for alimony to their ex wives. Marriages and divorces cost a lot of money in Australia.
Usually, both parents work and parents use baby sitters or private childcare for their children. Middle class people prefer to enrol their children in private schools and pay a lot of money.
Newly wed couples are deep in debt as they borrow $500,000 + in order to buy a new house.
There is a huge bubble in the real estate market that is sustained by home acquisitions by foreigners, mainly middle class Chinese immigrants.
Besides the home loans, many Australians owe a lot of money for their student loans as universities are usually not free. Universities are full of Asian students who pay a lot of Money to study.
Younger Australian people are full in (usually awful) tattoos and many have ear piercings that have deformed their earlobes (by creating huge holes in the earlobes).
Most people seem to be friendly, courteous and political correct. Gay and lesbian couples are n
common. Many young people are trying to be gay friendly.
Alcohol use is very high and many women become intoxicated in the nightclubs and are promiscuous. But also drug use is widespread. Most young people smoke Marijuana and many others use ecstasy pills, ice , and other stuff.
With neoliberal globalization and job outsourcing in Asia, job security is a thing of the past. As Australian manufacturing is in steep decline, services jobs (restaurants/cafe/clothing shops etc ) are more widespread. Many students or young graduates work in coffee shops or part time assistants in various shops to get by. Without relevant job experience, is very difficult to find a job. Corporations demand more and more skills, qualifications and experience and use various psychometric tests .
Also, immigration is very high and local workers face competition by foreigners. Parts of Australian cities have Asian majorities (similar to the Latino populations in USA). Besides Asians, there are many Muslims, Latinos, Africans etc in Australia.
While workers in construction are mostly Aussie, other professions (taxi drivers, super market clerks, security, grocery stores etc) are almost filled up by Asian immigrants Indians/Sri lankans/Pakistanis.
The decline of US economy has been caused by economic globalisation. American manufacturing moved overseas to various cheap third world countries. Wall street pushed for financial deregulation and the economy got hurt by the burst of various asset bubbles.
The transnational elites who rule global economy use USA as a proxy by taking advantage of the American military capabilities.
All these wars and all these so callwdfree trade agreements are not for the benefit of American national interests or American people.
We are moving away from the era of nation states. There are only multinational corporations now. States are controlled and used by the super rich elites who own all these interrelated corporations/banks/media etc and control all these pupper politicians by offering bribes or media coverage.
As for the cultural decline, is not only specific to American culture. It is also about European culture . The role of corporate mass media is vital for the cultural degeneration. Mass consumerism, hedonism, degeneration, drug use etc is promoted by mass media and portrayed as “cool”, “alternative” etc. Even the current tattoo mania is a by product of American global media with all these trash shows about tattoo artists.
The system wants uneducated young people who waste their lives on drugs and alcohol.
Excellent Read. I have friends from the US that are Christian missionaries here (in South Africa) and this post encapsulates what they have been saying. They go to the US once a year, usually over our long (summer holiday) in December and they have noticed the sea-change in the US.
All governments are instituted by God, but the men in them soon try to usurp Gods power and tend to become more dictatorial and poweer hungry. Eventually leading to the position the US is in today where the government has no interest in the people they are supposed to rule through service but are soley concerned with entrenching and increasing their “power” usually through dividing and conquering.
Great post, thank you for the prospective from outside the US.