The Moment of Convulsion (James Howard Kunstler)

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

Dec. 27, 2010 -- PARIS -- A little ways off the curb on the Boulevard Henry IV here in Paris, you can see the memory of the Bastille outlined by a course of masonry in the pavement, in particular one of the bulbous towers of the old fortress-prison.

It marks one of those threshold moments in history when things got out-of-hand -- in the late afternoon of July 14, 1789 -- and by the time a mob had detached the head of Warden Bernard-René de Launey from his shoulders and paraded it around on a pike, everyone in the city knew that they had crossed into the politically unknown frontier of Revolution.

Seeing this residue of history put me in mind of a riddle that one of my college professors presented to us one day years ago: why did Achilles drag Hector around the city of Troy three times? We came up with dozens of reasons ranging from conjectures out of the text of The Iliad to lame bits of Hippie numerology, but nobody could furnish the answer that the prof was looking for, which was eventually revealed: Because he was just that pissed off.

This was the idea that dogged me in the winter twilight of Paris late on Christmas Day as I pondered the fate of my own country back across the cold cold sea. A lot of Americans are beaten down and discouraged these days. They've lost not only jobs, incomes, and houses, but also a sense of purpose, and perhaps faith in the essential fairness of the American venture -- as the propane runs out, and families try to subsist on Froot Loops, and the re-po squad turns up to haul away the Ford F-150 Raptor. Meanwhile, in their last remaining refuge from harsh reality, TV, they glimpse the likes of Jamie Dimon, Chloe Kardashian, and Jay-Z emerging from limousines looking hopelessly bored with wealth beyond imagination. When will the folks out there move from shame and despondency to being really pissed off about the disposition of things?

Isn't that a question, though?

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http://worldnewstrust.com/all-content/the-moment-of-convulsion-james-howard-kunstler.html

[Demeter]

1. Do We REally Have to Wait for That Many People to Get That Pissed Off?

Couldn't we fix things BEFORE we get to bloodletting and lamppost hangings and riot?

[Tace]

2. Would Be Nice

With the ongoing militarization of our police, violent upheaval could be very ugly, indeed.

[alterfurz]

7. I am afraid so.

An old friend has long maintained that so long as there is (relatively) cheap gas/food/beer, along with professional sports/American Idol on TV, there will never be any pushback in America. Meanwhile, we wait for that point to be reached, to which Douglass & Kafka refer:

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. -- Frederick Douglass

Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached. -- Kafka

[WingDinger]

3. Are you sure I didn't write this? Note that we havent been accustomed to squalor.

And won't TAKE IT nearly as long.

[ladjf]

4. The "when" would need to happen before the "pissed off" have

become too weak to mount any significant opposition. That rubicon may have already been crossed. nt

[WingDinger]

5. You consider us worse off than the pre-revolution french? They had nothing,

Revolutions dont start when people are at their nadir, they start when there is a glimmer of hope. That hope could be anything, and we certainly just got some hope, special delivery of the lame duck congress.

[loudsue]

6. The revolution already happened. The military industrial commercial complex won.

They were REALLY pissed off that the the New Deal, then the 60's revolutions happened. The owners of capital (capitalists) retaliated with THE POWELL DOCTRINE, and the revolution turned in their favor. They won.

[DaveT]

8. That's true

but things do not hold still. The first one now will later be last for the times they are always changing.

There are no final victories for anyone.

[freshwest]

9. Went to the link. That's intense. Hits pretty close to home, too.