Last week, giant symbols of American economic might were collapsing like a house of cards.First,GM is said to be close to declaring bankruptcy according to Goldman Sachs.Its stock is now worth less than that of CVS Pharmacy.It would be hard to underestimate the psychological and financial and social damage GM’s collapse represents to the American psyche.The car,the highways and the freedom they represented to Americans were unique in the history of the world.Much of America’s image of itself has been derived from the mythology of freedom car ownership represented.
As that image crashes and burns,it seems that every other symbol of American life either is just ahead or behind the car industry’s travails.The housing industry, which in its own way represented another symbol of the American Dream, is now a wasteland beset by problems of such magnitude that the Dream has now turned into a nightmare.Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac which are Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE’s) are crucial to the financial system because they pretty well underwrite over half the mortgages in this country.As the real nature of their dire straits makes its way into the headlines,it is becoming clear that the veneer of prosperity this country has come to expect is peeling away to reveal a sordid base.
In the Soviet Union, stripped of the American boasts of prosperity,sex, freedom and all the rest,the citizens had become so thoroughly disillusioned that they never expected anything from the system.That probably saved the people when the system crumbled.
In the American context, the facts are reversed.The barrage of propaganda over the past fifty odd years, has converted the population to an uncritical and unthinking blob of humanity that thinks that if you are an American you are exempt from the usual rules that govern human conduct.Bush is the prime exemplar of this attitude.So, when the main symbols that Americans have come to rely on to give them an anchor crumble they have nowhere to turn.It is as though a cruel joke has been perpetrated on them for a long time and Bush has been chosen as the messenger of the apocalypse to come.
It is time to shed our illusions and join the rest of humanity as equals and not as people who can do pretty much what we want and expect to be respected much less loved.
Ah, we were so ahead of our time
I even believe that the invasion of Iraq and the cooked up pretexts for that war were due to the realization of the powers that be that the end days of Empire are near.
That would have meant that the unquestioned dominance of the US in world affairs were drawing to a close.
Bush,Cheney and Rumsfeld decided to employ the only means the US had at its disposal,i.e. military power, to secure the dominance that has been eroding because of the emergence of rival powers like Brazil,China,India and Russia.
Desperate men like Rumsfeld and Cheney want to return to the good ol’ days of The White Man’s Burden.
No can do, says the world.
The Soviet Rulers were crude men who believed in threats and violence to subdue a rebellious population.They were no match for our rulers who have perfected a totalitarian system of thought control that seemingly makes it possible for us to express our thoughts freely and receive a response from the powerful.
I learnt that nothing we know about our system is true from the comments of one of my children who receive regular drills from their teachers about the importance of critical thinking.
In looking at the housing and banking crisis, my daughter raised the question whether the bloated defense budget and the enormous sums spent on the war might have caused the crises.She was told by her teacher that we cannot talk about these things because they are necessary expenditures!
Just when we need people with the ability to think and act, we are now asked to replace a spoilt brat Bush with an aging moron McCain.
We can safely assume that neither of them has ever experienced so much as an original thought in their lives.
Must be the water.Or global warming of putrefying brains.Or something.
I forgot to answer the title question. Yes, I am reminded of the end days of our rival empire. Not an exact duplicate, as you point out, but close enough to see the family resemblance.
I like AG’s take down below, too. We are a resourceful species. If we don’t completely make our environment uninhabitable, I do believe many will survive and prosper and get ready to do the whole darn thing again in new and interesting ways. Like Vonnegut’s title metaphor in The Player Piano.
A Canticle for Liebowitz
Dylan had a lyric, and title that went: “It’s Hard Rain that’s gonna Fall”
circumstance or not, it all started with RayGun ; )
that big ol’ green monster, called greed.
peace…..later
Lord, lord, lord. Can you believe that song was written 45 years ago?
Peace, brother.
Thanks, Omir. I almost forgot.
Oops, sorry – My Back Pages
another great one, thanks Alice
peace be with you
Oh yeah, another good one. In fact I’m not sure that Bob Dylan ever had a bad song in him. Arlo Guthrie tells this story:
“People ask me where I get my ideas. I tell ’em that ideas are like stepping into the middle of this stream, and ideas are going by all the time like fish in the water, and all you have to do is reach down and grab one.”
(pause)
“I’m just glad I don’t live downstream from Bob Dylan.”
Bob and Arlo are pretty good friends. I think he could write a book that had nothing but his Bob Dylan stories.
I’ve been crazy about Bob sice I was 13 years old, and yes he did publish one bad song when he was young and angry at somebody.
He was so cool in a geezerly Ed Bradley interview when he said he didn’t care about being dazzling anymore. “I had it once and that’s enough,” he said.
I feel like most everything I know I learned from Bob. and the Beatles too. Arlo gave me my name. Times are still changing, so let’s dance!
I don’t know as many Dylan songs as I should . . . but then, who could? I’m surprised Bob can keep track of them.
And I’m right with you there. I had a pretty conservative upbringing, by my reckoning, in a town that owed its very existence to atomic energy and the Manhattan Project. But for all that it was a pretty hip place in some ways, and there’s a lot more of the Sixties in me than I will usually admit. (In fact one of my handles on several other online communities is Mister Sixties. But that’s a different story.)
I think we all had a fairly conservative upbringing, but the freedom seeped in around the edges. I listened hard.
Here’s a good book that carried me right back there: “Wicked Messenger – Bob Dylan and the Sixties’ by Mike Marqusee
Lately I got the urge to return and started reading Peter Coyote’s “Sleeping Where I Fall.” Fascinating trip to visit the San Francisco Diggers.
When I really want to get back to 19, there’s Van Morrison singing “Carry Me Back.” Intensity as only he can do.
Speaking of different stories – tell us everything. I miss your Sunday tales.
the only thing I know that comes quickly, is getting old, especially when your there ; )
at least there is no doubt now, we know
peace brother
First of all…bravo!!! As I have been saying for several years Back In The U.S.S.R. ain’t just a song. The group “Bin Laden and The Boys” wrote the lyrics and performed the first superpower crash hit…U.S.S.R No More…and the present one as well, U.S. Got No Shot. Their models? The early supergroups “The Red Chinese” , “The Castros” and “The Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh Rockers”. With spiritual help from a number of Sufis.
But what you say above? About the U.S. being too soft to make it through this coming change of life?
No.
Not quite.
There are enough Americans who have been paying hard dues throughout our so-called prosperity…the prosperity of thieves…to take us through into the next level.
Into reality.
Economic reality.
The minorities especially.
And I do not just mean people of color.
Russians.
Central and Eastern Europeans.
Asians.
Hispanics of ALL hues. Especially the Central Americans.
All of those who when given a chance preferred to drop away from the rotted system. (I include myself in that group.)
We’ll make it through…if of course we are not incinerated first.
Watch.
AG