JH Kunstler's latest: Reality Receding

[IrateCitizen]

I run hot and cold on Kunstler -- hot because he recognizes the way in which our basic economic arrangements themselves are not only unsustainable in the long run, but because they quite often undermine the better angels of our nature; cold because too many of his columns are essentially excuses for him to engage in the same repetitive rant. However, I think in his latest piece, he really hits one something deep and meaningful in this paragraph:

This monster we call the economy is not just an endless series of charts and graphs -- it's how we live, and that has to change, whether we like it or not. Now, it is obviously a huge problem that a majority of Americans don't like the idea. If they were true patriots, instead of overfed cowards and sado-masochists, they'd be inspired by the prospect. But something terrible has happened to our national character since the triumphal glow of World War Two wore off. I just hope that the Palinites and the myrmidons of Glen Beck don't destroy what's left of this country in a WWF-style "revolution." In the best societies, such idiots are marginalized by a kinder and sturdier consensus about justice. In America today, the center is not holding because there is no center.

From my perspective, this paragraph resonates because it can also be found in Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History. Basically, Toynbee says that in all major civilizations throughout history, a small group of "cultural creatives" become the elites by offering new and fresh ways of doing things, and much of the masses are inspired by these elites and seek to emulate their behaviors. However, over time, these elites cease to be inspiring and then must increasingly resort to coercion to maintain their hold on power. One of the ways that a good many people respond to this phenomenon is to much less seek to identify themselves with those cultural creatives, and instead embrace the culture and social norms of the repressed sections of the proletariat (I mean proletariat in a persecuted minority sense, for example the early Christians of the Roman Empire, not a Marxist sense).

Our "center" can no longer inspire people because it has become ossified, decadent, and corrupt. Therefore, people seek their inspiration from other areas. On the one hand, there is the opportunity for new "cultural creatives" to emerge, proposing a new way of living that can appeal to increasing numbers of people as the existing order continues its inevitable decline. That is the positive option. The negative option is a desire to return to a golden age that is largely a work of myth and fiction, resorting to demagoguery and violent coercion to do so. This was the path taken by the Germans under Hitler, after their last real attempt at empire had failed. And it's the path being taken by those who subscribe to the rantings of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

Note, I'm not saying that Beck and Palin are equivalent to Hitler -- that would be patently absurd and a descent into hyperbole. Rather, I am saying that there are broad historical and sociological trends at work here, and the people mentioned are simply players in those trends repeating themselves.

Anyway, enough commentary. Here's the link to the article: http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/09/reality-receding.html#more

[cliffordu]

1. I'll say it for you:

Beck and Palin want the same kind of power over a 'pure' America Adolf had over a 'purifying' Germany.

[nashville_brook]

2. i really like your commentary on this -- i think it's actually better than the Kunstler quote...

The teabaggers aren't necessarily looking to return to a "golden age," I don't think. Rather, I think they're motivated by an extreme form of contempt. I think we're underestimating the degree to which pure hatred is fueling their actions.

What I don't know enough about post-WWI/pre-Hitler Germany is vast, but my intuition is that what we're seeing with the tea-baggers is a distinctly American mixture of racial hatred, perceived victimhood, and mass media incitement. I think it's the mass media component that makes it new to our time.

What's frustrating about this backlash is that it IS coming during a time of extraordinary cultural creativity. Seems like every time there's hope on the horizon for advancing human endeavor, some bunch of yahoos are right there to set fire to it.

[IrateCitizen]

4. Thanks, and response...

I absolutely think the teabaggers are longing for a mythical golden age of America, even if they are motivated by contempt in many ways. Keep in mind all of Palin's talk about "real America" (i.e. white and evangelical Christian). This idea of an exclusionary definition of America is what creates contempt and hatred toward all those who have sullied the glory of the United States -- intellectuals, liberals, racial minorities, atheists, etc. If you're going to ascribe someone's actions to hatred, it is paramount to look at where that hatred comes from if you want to try and counter it.

With regards to post WWI Germany, many of the same factors were at work. Germany was a late arrival to the scene of European imperialism, and their loss in WWI highlighted many of the reasons that they were not able to establish an empire of their own like France and England. They had limited access to salt water ports, they could be attacked by land on two different fronts, and most importantly they suffered from a shortage of critical resources, namely oil. When Hitler and the Nazis came to power, it was primarily due to two things: they promised a restoration of a mythical empire that never really existed, and they gave the German people a scapegoat for their position after WWI (the Jews). WWII was their last effort to seize a European empire, but it was ultimately the complete insanity of their government (read Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for a detailed account of this) along with the disadvantages I cited above that ultimately did them in.

What we're seeing now regarding backlash is inevitable in a period of cultural creativity. During Middle Ages Europe people were burned at the stake for offering a different cultural narrative that questioned the status quo. However, the Reformation and the Renaissance demonstrated that things eventually reached a tipping point beyond which there was no sustained return to the old order, even when dynastic rulers tried desperately to hold back bourgeois ascendancy during the Age of Absolutism.

[GliderGuider]

3. For a look at the new "cultural creatives"

Take a look at Paul Hawken's remarkable recent book "Blessed Unrest". I'm convinced that the spontaneous global movement he describes in it is a game-changer, with a potential influence far beyond any single domain like the environment or politics.

This movement involves the spontaneous, undirected, global emergence of small, independent, local environmental, social justice and ecospiritual groups that is already underway. Such groups have sprung up in every city in every nation in the world, and their number is growing by 40% or more each year. There are now over two million of them. It's the largest social movement the world has ever seen, and it's constructing a coherent, alternative cultural narrative right down at the grass roots. It's being driven by the growing number of environmental and social crises, much in the same way that antibodies spring into being in response to an infection. Given the continued growth of this phenomenon, I think there will be a tipping point at which the new value system will go mainstream. The existing power structures will fight it like hell, but as in the case of every other idea whose time has come, that will prove to be a forlorn rearguard action.

Here are some reviews of the book:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/books/review/Sullivan-t.html
http://engagedintellectual.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/blessed-unrest-review-by-paul-b-scudder
http://biblioarchy.blogspot.com/2008/08/blessed-unrest-review.html
http://deepgreenconversation.org/book-review-blessed-unrest
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/paul_hawkens_blessed_unrest/C396/L396

There truly is a miracle afoot in the world. Even Jim Kunstler is going to be shocked.

[tama]

5. Where does their history end?

Anarcho-communist and religious self sufficient gardening communities of 19th century? Early Christian, early Buddhist etc. ways of living? Ways of living of pre-civilized indigenous tribes?

They, us, have been here allways. What is different now is that the so called "civilized" people, ie. the citizens of the Empire, are starting to realize that the trap that they live in is really a dead-end.

[GliderGuider]

7. It's not so much their history or presence

As you say,they have always been with us. Rather, it's the influence they and their values have on the larger civil societies in which they exist. That influence has waxed and waned over time, depending on the perceived need for change. The need for change is being seen more urgently and more widely right now, so the messages that have always been held in such communities are gaining greater currency.

[wuvuj]

6. So when will the Vatican...

...admit that people are not the center of the universe...and quit promoting overpopulation? I think they did finally admit that the earth revolves around the sun?