Folks, if you truly believe economic collapse is inevitable...

[galileoreloaded]

than it is probably time to slow down and think for a minute. It would be totally appropriate to be freaking out right now, because we all like a predictable outcome, but the reality is that the present doesn't afford us a predictable outcome. Life doesn't afford us a predictable outcome.

The reality is that what will happen, will happen. Period. The reasons, the players, the timing, are essentially lost to us because alas we are but regular people in this life, like all others throughout history.

Now, I am in no way absolving the responsible, but if it makes you feel better, after watching the direction of the last several days, I am 100% convinced that 90% of our "leaders", on both sides, have absolutely no clue what to do, or how we got here. The other 10% are leading the 90% by the hog ring, but they are being led, nonetheless.

I have gotten MYSELF so worked up that I forgot the lessons of history, and the history of millions that stood in our same conundrum, albeit without the hideous, wondrous aid of instant communication.

Many peoples have broached almost identical periods in human history, and emerge victorious in their ability, conviction, and resolve. As Americans, we have a slightly larger cross to bear, as we have enjoyed decades of prosperity as measured by the rest of the world, developed or not, and as such, have a worldview that has elevated us beyond our ability to perform basic sustenance functions, and focus on loftier goals such as political science, social justice, and technological mastery.

This in itself is an amazing opportunity, but I don't think we can argue it has also left us with basic human deficiencies. The obesity rate is staggering. We have almost lost the ability and knowledge to grow our own food, and the chief method of communication with those "of a feather" so it were, is run by mindless machines humming in our homes and basements, completely subservient to an energy source that if once lost in one fell swoop, we would be unable to reproduce in untold manhours.

I am really not trying to sound preachy, I just think it is important to remember that as much as we think we control our fate, we have so very little control. Shit happens. Really nasty, unfair, heinous shit.

But we do control our reactions.

Take cookies to your neighbor. They are nice. I promise. (well, not if they cook meth in the basement, then stay away)

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Wisdom, those words. Thanks for that. nt

[endthewar]

2. "Happiness is a state of mind, not a state of being."

One of my favorite sayings (invented by me, or at least that's what I tell myself). I agree that a lot of things that happen in life are out of our control, but our state of mind is always in our control. Even when we must endure hardships, we can make the decision to be happy in life.

[Two Americas]

3. ok

I will try to relax and enjoy it then, since it is inevitable and why fight?

Yes I can see now that none of us matter, we amount to nothing, we don't count, we are powerless, and that we can never do anything about anything.

Sorry that I freaked out. I know how that disturbs you.

Shit happens, so we might as well eat it. We can't control the taste or nutritional value of the shit, but we can control our reaction to it. I will think positive, and pretend that the plate of shit is a plate of cookies. I will give my neighbor some, too. Ah, I feel better already.

[galileoreloaded]

4. Actually, I was speaking about reinstating a sense of local community

so when the shit goes downhill, and it undoubtedly will, you have a sense of perspective over the things that will be helpful to you rather than an unanswered letter or phone call to a person multiple hundreds or thousands of miles away from you that has proven time and time again that they don't really care, a phone call, by the way that I made twice today, proves fruitless.

See what I mean. We do matter, we just think we matter to the wrong people.

Jeesh.

[magellan]

6. I have to disagree with you slightly here

"We do matter, we just think we matter to the wrong people."

You're talking about the people we elect to represent us here. Well, needless to say we should matter to them, first and foremost. That we don't is the root cause of the devastating problems we face.

We either have a representational government or we don't. If we don't, a correction is in order.

It will come. There are hard ways and easy ways to adjust their viewpoint. They're begging for the hard ways. I'm not talking about revolution or anything like that...I'm talking about the unavoidable result of systematically disenfranchising 300 million people, most of whom will be hit hard by what they in DC have wrought.

What will they do when they don't have us to shake down anymore? What will WE (collectively) do?

Uncharted territory.

[Two Americas]

8. JFK

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

[Two Americas]

7. I know you were

I was being snarky. Sorry.

[VOX]

5. "What will happen, will happen"... Sorry, but I'm not bringing cookies to a street fight.

"What will happen, will happen..we have so very little control" -- this is certainly NOT the tack the GOP took in 2000 and 2004, and you can bet the bank that they're not going to relinquish power easily this year -- they're going to fight fang and claw, and to quote The Bard, I say, "Lay on, Macduff, and damn'd be him that first cries,'Hold, enough!'" Although a lot of good that did MacBeth ;)

I appreciate what you're trying to say, g.r., but I must respectfully disagree with the perspective that says we're just along for the ride, and have no input into our own destiny.

Just look how the GOP stole the elections of 2000 and 2004. They did not opt for passivity; instead they sent their Brooks Brothers shock-troops into Florida to raise holy hell, and had much to do with stopping the recount in 2000. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has documented, in excruciating detail, how GOP operatives deliberately stole the election by suppressing votes (among other crimes) in Ohio in 2004.

The long-term class and geographical conflict is threatening to tear this country apart. Do you think for one second that Republican strategists are saying to themselves, "We have so very little control"? Far from it. They are preparing to ***make*** shit happen, and to force this election in any way possible. In fact, since the days of Lee Atwater (who taught Rove his tricks), the right wing has controlled the (false) message that permeates our tribal air, to the extent that the term "liberal" is an obscenity, and that the public has everything to fear from a Democratic administration (Taxes! Spending! Soft on terrorism! Abortion on demand! and so on).

There's not a whole lot left to lose. This country now barely resembles itself -- it's morphed into a me-first, in-your-face cancerous lesion, and a vulgar pantomime of what it once was.

Only fighting -- hard and desperate -- will the roll back the shadow of corporate fascism. Democrats have turned the other cheek. They've taken the high road. They've got their self-respect, but now freedom is hanging by the slenderest of threads.

[galileoreloaded]

9. No apology required TA. And I am saying that the pin is out of the grenade..

as sure as I am sitting here. Massive deflation if we don't pay, and sure hyperinflation if we do, no matter the prerequisites. While we do have a social safety net of sorts since FDR, we don't have the natural resources, manufacturing capability, or any other "next best thing" unless someone discovers anti-gravity. We just don't. In 1929, most of the American west, including Alaska was yet to be utilized. We shuffle paper for a living, all of us directly or indirectly, as FIRE is the single largest sector of the economy, twice the size of manufacturing. We, unfortunately, have become a takeover target. That's the reality.
Once your past that and if you accept it, what to do next. Look inward, that is all I am trying to say. Ergo, the title "if you think economic collapse is inevitable"

Just want to explain my position better.

[tama]

10. Predictability

A system growing (exponentially!) in a limited environment cannot grow for ever but will collapse.
Thermodynamics gives us predictions that are accurate enough for practical purposes, and one does not mess with thermodynamics without messing the foundations of life, universe and everything.

This is not a mere systemic crisis of global capitalism, this is the crisis of civilization based on ideology of eternal growth by cancer like consumption of Mother Nature.

We do not control our reactions, but we can (slowly) practice changing our reaction patterns. How does a cancer cell stop reacting in disharmony and becomes (again) harmonic organ of the Body?

[galileoreloaded]

11. Agree!! It is a competition of resources problem....

undoubtedly. In the schema, we as an American society have had our fair share times about 100. What we witness and protest is the unfailing laws of nature re balancing. Unfortunately, this can have disastrous consequences for any psyche who is shaken when their belief system crumbles. It is anathema to them, and they bend reality to fit the outcome instead of doing the next right thing, and be REACTIVE to the environment as it is presented. Well phrased.

[galileoreloaded]

12. Forgot to add below, you starve a cancer. N/T