Spiegel's overview of US decline

[KGW]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

attillaHun.jpg

There is no "shortcut" or "better mousetrap". ..

For anyone reading this, now is the time to make history. You can gamble on an easy life and be sad that you won't be able to indulge in all the trivialities of modernity, or you can strive for immortality and risk everything to be remembered as someone great.

[Chomsky]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Is there "a religious notion of man" that does not "contradict reality" ?

Put another way, is there a socially organizing principle that shows fealty to reality?

[GRG55]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

...3) Universities must be purged of all liberal ideology. The first step towards this goal should be the closure of departments that foster Trotskyist cultural revolution, i.e. Womens' Studies, Queer Studies', African Studies' and all the rest. The elite is steadfastly liberal, almost maniacally so, and the danger of a Cultural Revolution as in China is very real. After an immediate purge, restricting the number of classes for non-technical fields is a simple way to prevent a new liberal rise. Say, you can only have 1 non-technical professor for every 10 technical professors. This will also help the economy in the future as revolutionary ideology has no economic value.

...

Universities reduced to technical trade schools. Interesting concept.

Wonder how much more I'm going to have to pay a plumber with an Ivy League diploma...

[shiny!]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Life is struggle. Everything that defines humanity, particularly civilized humanity, has been born of unspeakable suffering. Overcoming is what has created man as he exists today. And so shall it always be.

This is it in a nutshell. The mess we are drowning in is a mess caused not by low interest rates, subprime mortgages, newfangled financial inventions, too-easy credit, liberal social programs, poor education, too much bureaucracy... whatever. Those things and more are only symptoms of the real problem, which is a widespread loss of moral fiber in every strata of society. It is an imbalance that must be corrected, and that corrective process, I fear, is going to be a very painful surprise to many who have never suffered real hardship and have no generational memory of it.

I'm not going to enjoy the tyranny phase of the process. I think we're actually in it already, but it's disguised to look benevolent, e.g. cameras on every streetcorner and TSA abuses for our "safety".

Serge, do you have a sense of how long that phase will last and how it will transition into a healthy society? In other words, how much worse does it have to get until it gets better?

[bungee]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

My hope is that the people of the world are smarter than the fascists believe. My hope is that the people of the world will demand more democracy from government, and more transparency in government.

Statistically speaking half of the worlds population are more stupid than the average person so I would not hold your breath.

The only thing they will be demanding is more free handout for themselves and more trashy TV shows to sit in front of while they vegetate and discuss the finer points of the latest celebrity gossip.

[GRG55]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

...The only thing they will be demanding is more free handout for themselves and more trashy TV shows to sit in front of while they vegetate and discuss the finer points of the latest celebrity gossip.

I've noticed an interesting behaviour with the children of a few of my peers. They don't seem to have any social skills. They seem to relate to their computer video games more than they can relate to another human being, including their own parents.

What's even worse is that the majority of these parents don't seem to think there's anything wrong with their kids...

[oddlots]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Yikes Serge I think I've got a candidate for you:

Or perhaps I'm blowing your cover.

The two statements that most intrigued me (apart from the news that you are at least consoled in your suffering by exclusively beautiful women) were:

The military must establish order in every city so that there is no fear anywhere in the country.

This will also help the economy in the future as revolutionary ideology has no economic value.

Stay thirsty my friend!

[shiny!]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

I've noticed an interesting behaviour with the children of a few of my peers. They don't seem to have any social skills. They seem to relate to their computer video games more than they can relate to another human being, including their own parents.

What's even worse is that the majority of these parents don't seem to think there's anything wrong with their kids...

I've noticed this as well. I'll smile and say a friendly word to a young person and they just stare back at me blankly. I'm not THAT ugly! Many of them have non-existant communication skills.

I recently broke off a friendship with a woman who has a teenage daughter with Asperger's syndrome- a mildish form of Autism. The girl is extremely naive and emotionally immature. She has terrible communication skills- poor diction, irrelevant responses. She's "in her own world". She has no friends. She has been in trouble in school for problems with "anger management".

One day, the mom e-mails me that they are at a shooting range where her daughter is receiving shooting instruction. She crows proudly that the first thing her daughter wants to do after that is go on a predator hunt and kill coyotes and mountain lions. All my alarm bells went off.

The girl has no interest in competition shooting, or target shooting, or plinking, or learning self-defense shooting techniques. No, this emotionally damaged child wants to kill animals, and her delusional mother thinks it's wonderful that she "has an interest" in something! I'm a supporter of gun rights, but IMO, this child is now a danger to herself and others.

I told them what I thought of large predator hunts and explained the ecological damage they do, and the mom reamed me out for attacking her daughter. I cut them out of my life.

[bobola]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Interesting article.

The Petersons paid $69,000 for their light-brown ranch house, a few hundred meters from the ocean. Then the value of the property went up to $300,000. When Amie needed money to pay for a supplementary medical education, the couple took out a second mortgage. She says they took out less than half as much as the bank would have given them. But it was enough to bring about their financial downfall when the recession arrived.

Why not sell for 300k when the value was up and buy a cheaper house away from the water and pocket the cash difference? Why bet on an unsure thing..?

I would like to see the game Monopoly be a required course in high schools. Kids could be taught that property has a real value, and is worth what a renter will pay. Term papers could be written about theories and strategy of how to win the pay-as-you-go concept of the game.

Wife's aunt & uncle bought a house in San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley) many decades ago, which she said was worth about a million during the height of the dot com boom. In emails she would bitch about the power brown-outs, the traffic, the hoards of immigrants invading CA...etc....etc. The only reply she ever got from me was advice to sell, pocket the million and move from CA. The drastically lower value of the house they never sold is probably the only thing that has changed for her.

[flintlock]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

I was thinking...........China is short of Females, may be we could take the CDO a stage further?.....We offer to sell them women....only "AAA Females....Jerry Ryan (7of9) quatily............then when they get the box only.....Chelsea Clition!...........If don't start WW3 nothing will!

Mike

That was funny as hell Mega!

[flintlock]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

I've often thought it's almost impossible in the current circumstances to be cynical enough. And here's Serge sitting at the finishing line, well rested, not a bead of sweat showing as we labour up the hill, puffing furiously. Are you sure you didn't take a shortcut Serge?

SS, when I get depressed by all this I often listen to this.

That was awesome! I was sitting by the fire pit with my three kids last night trying to drill into their heads how lucky they were. They just rolled their eyes and told me I lecture them too much!

[flintlock]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Yikes Serge I think I've got a candidate for you:

Or perhaps I'm blowing your cover.

The two statements that most intrigued me (apart from the news that you are at least consoled in your suffering by exclusively beautiful women) were:




Stay thirsty my friend!

Are you kidding me? That IS Serge!

[oddlots]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Fire pit? Now that's awesome!

Just a note of caution for family night: that was the only Louis CK bit in existence suitable for family airing.

[flintlock]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

I've noticed an interesting behaviour with the children of a few of my peers. They don't seem to have any social skills. They seem to relate to their computer video games more than they can relate to another human being, including their own parents.

What's even worse is that the majority of these parents don't seem to think there's anything wrong with their kids...

Hell yes! Some kids just grunt when I speak to them. Perhaps they have been so trained not to speak to strangers that they can't distinguish between a stranger and their neighbor. I guess the parents just assume they will figure out on their own how to look an adult in the eye and speak in a proper manner. I've noticed some kids absolutely freeze up and freak out when you say hello to them. Or they'll act as if you are not there. I work in people's homes. Teenage kids and 20 somethings will sleep in until noon. They pretend I'm not there and go about making "breakfast" while I'm working 2 feet away. But cut the power to their TV and then I get a response!

[flintlock]

Re: Spiegel's overview of US decline

Interesting article.



Why not sell for 300k when the value was up and buy a cheaper house away from the water and pocket the cash difference? Why bet on an unsure thing..?

I would like to see the game Monopoly be a required course in high schools. Kids could be taught that property has a real value, and is worth what a renter will pay. Term papers could be written about theories and strategy of how to win the pay-as-you-go concept of the game.

Wife's aunt & uncle bought a house in San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley) many decades ago, which she said was worth about a million during the height of the dot com boom. In emails she would bitch about the power brown-outs, the traffic, the hoards of immigrants invading CA...etc....etc. The only reply she ever got from me was advice to sell, pocket the million and move from CA. The drastically lower value of the house they never sold is probably the only thing that has changed for her.

My aunt and uncle are eternally grateful to my Dad for pushing them to sell their $1,000,000 home in San Diego one year before the housing bust. Now they rent in the same neighborhood they used to own . Saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars.