January 08, 2018

Oprah-Riggins in 2020!

Well, Wafers, what can I say? The US is circling the drain in a race to the bottom. Absurdity is the touchstone of the final days of an empire. A country filled with horses' asses can only generate horse's-ass politics, and can only put horses' asses in the White House. Where is Joe the Plumber when we need him?

I've been reading Fellini's autobiography. He records several instances of meeting with American producers to obtain financing for various films. In most cases, they would have him come to their hotel rooms in Rome, greet him in their underwear, with a glass of Scotch in one hand and a telephone in the other (talking to Tokyo or whatever), wheeling and dealing. They had no interest in cinema or art; they were vulgar hustlers, nothing more. All of this dates from the 70s, or earlier. Fellini doesn't comment on any of this, he just reports it. The difference from European producers couldn't be more stark.

I would ask: How did we manage to produce such a garbage culture?, but I think I've already answered that. Anyway, Onward Toward Self-Destruction!

-mb

197 Comments:

Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Perhaps the funniest revelation in Wolff's book is that Trumpi did not want and had no intention of actually being president. It was all a giant scam from the outset (just like everything else he does.) In one giant cosmic joke, it backfired spectacularly (to the benefit of Wafers everywhere). As one wag put it: both camps were crying hysterically on electing night. As in an episode of the Twilight Zone, Trumpi out hustled himself.

The end of the USA won't be a tragedy. It will be a farce. Our 'Suez moment' will likely be a 'keystone cops'-like event of utter total and absolute incompetence.

When will Trumpi name his horse the secretary of agriculture? We're on our way now...go USA!!!

BrotherMaynard

1:50 PM  
Blogger Jason Tower said...

Maybe an Oprah presidency wouldn't be so bad. She might give everyone in the US a gift basket, like she used to do with her TV show audience.

On a more serious note, it's sad that in a country as large as the US we are calling on entertainers and business people to lead us. Onward and downward!

2:17 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Oprah my ass, what a hustler! JHK has a good take on it: http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/fairy-tale/

This may have been posted already, but the USA is going to collapse by 2030:

http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/the-fall-of-the-american-empire-will-come-by-2030-predicts-famed-historian

4:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bro-

Certainly, we are already living in farce. Oprah in the W.H. wd only be more farce. As for Trumpi: History chose him, a la Hegel, as a World Historical Individual. Didn't matter what he or anyone else wanted. The global political agenda is that the US go down the toilet, and he is the agent of that. (Hillary wd have done the same, only slower.) It's all sound and fury, a tale told by an idiot--but it signifies something important. As for us Wafers, while progs jump up and down and call for this or that and generally make asses of themselves, we lean back and enjoy the show. Every day in Americaworld brings more absurdities, and more self-destruction. I haven't had so much fun since I accidentally sat on a feather duster.

mb

5:22 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

WOW! O and Riggins --Positive Thinking and Hamburgers--very american.

Could you imagine those 'debates.' Talking about american 'greatness'--hoping/dreaming and then mandating correct burger orders for all!

Very exciting, the more america degrades and continues as the total farce that it was--perhaps, there may be mass emigrations?

Likely not, b/c 98.7% of americans still believe- if this, if that, might, maybe, someday, not that bad, only place they know, other places have trouble too, stick it out, buy 100acres in the whop whops, etc...

Stupidity excites me! -Gore Vidal.

5:31 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Well, as for Oprah, check out the bio by Janice Peck, and also Nicole Aschoff, "The New Prophets of Capital." Meanwhile, this is nice:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/08/netanyahu-son-bragged-about-gas-deal-outside-strip-club-tape-reveals

5:35 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Oprah is the queen of Fantasyland. Here's a nice quote from Kurt Andersen's "Fantasyland":

"More than any other single American by far, outside conventional religion and politics, Oprah Winfrey is responsible for giving a national platform and credibility to magical thinking, New Age and otherwise. In her broad domain, she is the Cotton Mather, John Wesley, Brigham Young, and Billy Graham, the first New Age pope. If Ronald Reagan was the first king of his Fantasyland realm, Oprah is still queen of hers. Like Reagan too, I believe she's both sincere and a brilliant Barnumesque promoter of dreamland."

Not bad, eh?

Miles

5:52 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Answering Master's question from a previous post about aliens: I find Zechariah Sitchin's books the best researched by far, if you believe such things can be researched at all. Please note that Sitchin doesn't deny evolution, but simply says that it happened across more than one planet, explaining what some people think strange (evolution seems to have gone too fast, etc.)

Sitchin explains then the origin of polytheistic religion as worship of flesh-and-bone "gods." Monotheism would derive much later from polytheism by one God getting rid of the others. It's interesting that the Greeks didn't believe in the immortality of man. If you create religion as an invention because you're afraid of death, it doesn't make sense, does it?

6:31 PM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

Oprah for President? If that happens I vote George Costanza for Secretary of State. He can work the Penske file for a few years.

7:01 PM  
Anonymous Sorrowful said...

Oh, Lord. Just when you think the U.S. can't get any crazier. Commentators all over the blogosphere are jumping on this. Here's Truthdig's contribution.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/not-president-oprah-trump-era-democrats-hail-idea/

“Look, it’s ridiculous — and I get that. But, at the same time, politics is ridiculous right now,” said Iowa Democratic operative Brad Anderson, a former statewide candidate who also ran President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign in Iowa."

So because politics is ridiculous right now, let's make it more so. There's no separation between showbiz and politics anymore. Maybe there hasn't ever been one . . . That the Demos are taking this idea seriously demonstrates their lack of viable options for 2020.

7:38 PM  
Blogger comrade simba said...

I wanna see the Democratic debates, Michelle and Oprah going at it like a no bacon moment at McDonald's.

7:52 PM  
Anonymous Bologna said...

Speaking of a cosmic joke (which may cause me to have an existential crisis), I'm sort of jealous of my fellow El Salvadorans with TPS running out. At least the option of leaving this hell hole is there, unlike the millennials like myself.My best advice could be to hustle here cause there ain't nothing here to lose literally.

8:03 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

Your '10-minute secret' to achieving your dream is finally on its way.
Obanga's slogan was HopeyChangey, Trumpi's was BevisButtheadIsAmerika and Oprah's will be PrimeYourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgnu9mapQiQ
in O's cabinet, cuddly boy with a braying voice, Robbins, will help guide us to touch our inner freedom.

"They run stars, we run wonks," says Moore. Yeah, the next wonk is your O.
https://youtu.be/VZ0zTdSMgqo?t=225
Progressives gone Turkey.
https://youtu.be/E-zPI0p5LeQ?t=313

Oprah baby, please save us from ourselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Djj-AECPxA

8:31 PM  
Anonymous Niget said...

What's your fav Fellini flick MB?

11:35 PM  
Anonymous Dan said...

All major media outlets touting Oprah for president-nauseating. Of course, not a word about her close personal friendship with Harvey. In fact, there are stories she procured and/or led unsuspecting women to his room. As for the US threatening to cut off aid to Pakistan and the Palestinians, no one cares. Russia and China are more than willing to fill in the gap and, of course, increase their influence. The petrodollar is apparently on its last legs as more and more countries are exchanging in their own currencies.Yes, Wafers, it's vitally important that Trump win re-election. Maybe by 2022 he'll have chosen an ambassador to South Korea. When asked about so many state department vacancies, Trump apparently said such appointments were unnecessary since he was more than able to conduct statecraft himself. Yes, the book claims that the Trump camp did not want to win the election. Just shows what a sorry sack of shit Hillary was-losing to a man who had no interest in winning.
Miles, glad you liked the toothbrushes. I'll bring more to the next NYC Wafer summit.

1:09 AM  
Anonymous PMD said...

Baltimore schools have no heat in their classrooms, but hey, at least Obama is going to get a presidential library with a yoga room, and a basketball court.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-08/baltimore-residents-use-gofundme-buy-heaters-broken-freezing-schools

2:26 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

From The New Yorker’s January 15, 2018 edition...The increasing UN-Fitness of Donnie.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/the-increasing-unfitness-of-donald-trump?intcid=inline_amp

2:28 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Please don't post the comment I sent earlier, I'm being a turkey. You are right, I'm speaking out of my buttcheeks about things I don't understand. It's all random, I forgot that you can make a statistical model of the number of mutations passed from one generation to the next, which I'm sure some biologist are working on it and some day in the future will figure out how exactly we got to where we are. And epigenetics just affects the expression of genes, not the pool of genes, for that mutations are necessary. Sorry for being a turkey, this is why I try to stay away from philosophy

3:57 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Regarding Oprah, at least Trump campaigned on some substantive issues such as the downside of free trade policies like NAFTA. If Oprah runs for president in 2020 her campaign will be an identity politics campaign on steroids.

@Dr. Berman,

Thanks for the heads up on Janice Peck and Nicole Aschoff. The Guardian published an extract from Aschoff's "The New Prophets of Capital" in 2015. It is definitely worth a read.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/09/oprah-winfrey-neoliberal-capitalist-thinkers

4:18 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

"Perhaps the funniest revelation in Wolff's book is that Trumpi did not want and had no intention of actually being president. It was all a giant scam from the outset (just like everything else he does.)"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We were also told for more than a year that Trumpi was the sexist, homophobic, incestuous, meat-eating second coming of Adolf Hitler, controlled by evil authoritarian mastermind Vladimir Putin due to that time Trumpi peed on Obama's hotel bed in Moscow with some hookers, and, er, um somehow Jill Stein was also along for the ride.

We are so collectively effed that I am relatively sure Trumpi is the least of our problems.




8:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I sincerely hope Sarah Palin runs for Republicans in 2020 so we have an epic showdown vs. Oprah.

Regarding Golden Globes:
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-golden-globes-a-wake-for-feminism/20729#.WlTCc0tG0Wo

O&D!

Kanye

8:27 AM  
Anonymous Davis said...

Thomas Chatterton Williams in the NYT on his argument for why Oprah 2020 is an extension of Trumpi and a terrible idea.

It's all coming up Berman!

8:37 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

It's good to know our Israeli allies have absorbed the most decadent features of American frat bro culture. The Netanyahu clan seem to have been taking notes on the Bushes, though they are not as good at concealing these kinds of things.

The emerging 'idiot heir' culture is sure to yield a lot of laughs over the coming years. Don Jr., Chelsea Clinton, Yair Netanyahu... The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

8:54 AM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

from a recent New Yorker article by Louis Menand:

Many Americans were shocked to hear their beliefs characterized as 'fake science' or 'fake news.' Those Americans thoughts that they understood what counts as evidence, what counts as reason, what counts as an argument. Suddenly, the rules changed. In national politics, you no longer need evidence as reason. You no longer need to make an argument. You need only to assert. If your assertion is questioned, you need only to repeat it.

10:28 AM  
Anonymous Derek said...

Wafers,

Fascinating story about the response to #MeToo and sexual harassment in France:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/09/catherine-deneuve-men-should-be-free-hit-on-women-harvey-weinstein-scandal

A useful reminder at just how crazy the discourse is in America.

2:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Derek-

Of course, hitting on women is not the same thing as rape, as I'm sure Catherine wd agree. But beyond that we have the problem that Americans are empty people, and this includes American women. Which is one reason why pol. correctness gets Americans all worked up: it enables them to feel a false wholeness, for a while, until they move on to the next pol. correct cause. The French tend to have a more solid sense of self.

Davis-

Link? Meanwhile, I wd love to projectile vomit on Oprah's head.

Tom-

Identity politics + how the mind creates reality. The queen of New Age bullshit.

Master-

Done as requested. Here is true Waferism: don't talk off the top of yr head on a broad variety of topics. Do serious research on a topic you want to discuss. Present yr issues, and yr evidence, one post at a time. Avoid turkeyism like the plague.

Niget-

La Strada.

Kashe-

But is he Penske material?

We need to rustle up a bunch of Wafer bumper stickers:

BARF ON OPRAH IN 2020

Can any serious person deny that the US is a joke country?

mb

3:17 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Gd film on American Dream vs. traditional cultures: "The Big Sick."

3:39 PM  
Anonymous Frank said...

Sole sustained result of the 16-year US war in #Afghanistan? A massive boost for the opium trade.

The Great Graveyard

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/09/how-the-heroin-trade-explains-the-us-uk-failure-in-afghanistan

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

Hi MB and fellow Wafers-

Well I checked out Kunster and Greer's predictions for 2018. What stuck in my mind was a back-and-forth between Greer and this one poster, Kev4321 (Kev) roughly between the 160th and 240th comments. Basically Greer stated his usual opinion that Americans don't listen to environmentalists because the latter do not practice what they preach: they lead lavish lifestyles, engage in slick PR, have huge carbon footprints, etc., etc. Kev noted that of course they're hypocrites because in America everyone is basically required to have a high-carbon-footprint lifestyle. Greer only doubled down on his oft-repeated opinion about hypocritical environmentalists; Kev replied to this by saying politely but basically that Greer just doesn't get it!. Well let me put my two cents in: I don't think either of them gets it but Kev is closer to the reality than Greer is: yes, the system we've set up in the USA basically requires mandatory hypocrisy but also the culture of hustling marginalizes those environmentalists who would practice what they preach: people in this country would just as soon dismiss them by calling them cranks, or worse.

PS Greer's blog is not nearly as good as this one and Kunstler? Forget it!

6:28 PM  
Anonymous Golf Pro said...

Wot think you Dr.B, of Patrick Deneen's view that the problems of the US are simply the inevitable result of the working out of the possibilities of liberalism as a political ideology?

I think this is very persuasive personally:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/patrick-deneen-classical-liberalism-strikes-out/

7:08 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

jjarden--do you have anything to say other than to just post more hysterical MSM anti-Trump links? I'd be interested to know, for example, exactly why you think Trump during his year in office has been any worse than Obama and Bush.

Wafers--here is an interesting essay that backs up what most of us have been saying about how perfectly dreadful it is to engage most Americans in conversation:

"One woman suddenly announced she was going to reread all of John LeCarre’s books. I asked which of them was her favorite. Her face went blank. She knew The Spy Who came in from the Cold, but couldn’t remember any of the titles of the rest. After that, we had to listen to an endless discussion about whether or not it was good to use boiling water as opposed to warm water when you make tea. The decision was that boiling water acts to make the tea bitter so it’s better to use warm.

"All of this was tittle-tattle. Such speakers don’t edit. They cannot determine the important from the subordinate, and they lack balance and taste. Nor so they have the talent to expand on their topics.

"These people there were honest, good natured, hard-working, but intellectually toothless. No one learned anything from what was said; no one was stimulated or excited or made eager to learn more. The speakers were all satisfied with doing the dead-man’s float.

"That’s our society today. Being with such people is intolerable because they are so boring. There was no continuous narrative, no interesting sequence of events or unexpected knowledge. There was no direction, no follow through, any point to it all."

7:18 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

MB-

Yes, Liberals are seriously wanting Oprah and Mehdi Hasan has a great article about it on the Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/08/oprah-winfrey-president-2020-trump/

What really strikes me is how stupid Americans are. The position of president is literally vote for the most popular person be damn their stance on policy. This leads us to only one conclusion. America is a land of idiots who as time passes by are more and more clueless about the nation they live in. They do not even have a topical knowledge on how their government works. I once had to explain to an idiot that stores are not public property and you can be ejected at any time.

8:41 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

but, but, americans have freedom of speech b/c we're great!

https://youtu.be/o1qien21GLE

Deyshia Hargrave- middle school teacher from the Rene Rost Middle School in Kaplan, Louisiana, attended the Vermilion Parish School District’s board meeting Jan 8 to voice her issue with a superintendent or any person in leadership getting any type of raise when no other staff was receiving a raise. “I feel like it's a slap in the face for the teachers, the cafeteria workers or any other support staff we have.”

Minutes later, an agitated armed city marshall holding his gun, tackled the English teacher to the ground and escorted her out of the building with handcuffs on as she screamed in pain.

In the failed empire, if you questioned anything, or 'spoke out of turn'--you were fucked.

That was greatness--usa, usa!

10:50 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

mass emigrations from the US?

Nope. Never. Not a chance. 99%+ of American believe they live and are living in the 'shining city on the hill'; they think everyone wants to be american and that our quality of life is the envy of the world.

Only 12% of Americans hold passports- many of them never used (for ID purposes only). If they do use them, they go to Mexico primarily Cabo or PV (Mexico 'light') or London (not really the full European experience). When abroad, I notice, most americans like to eat at McDonalds or Pizza Hut (I find this very strange, I mean, why did you leave in the first place?)

Just turn on AM talk radio and listen to your fellow americans 'speak their minds'. (trigger warning: you'll be absolutely terrified.)

_BrotherMaynard

11:36 PM  
Anonymous Francois said...

I would like to see an Oprah and Ellen ticket. Oprah should appoint Riggins as a special prosecutor to investigate McDonalds. She should appoint Chris Hedges as press secretary so he can quote Sheldon Wolin every day. I’ve felt for quite some time that Oprah should be made Queen of the Universe.

2:39 AM  
Anonymous Daton said...

http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2017/08/when-exactly-will-the-eclipse-happen-a-multimillenium-tale-of-computation/

What about this analog computer of the cosmos from 200 BC?

7:57 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

I don't post Anons.

Daton-

Nice, but not exactly in the league of Babbage's Analytical Engine.

Bro-

12% is an old figure. More hold them now, so they can go to Mex or Canada (when the law changed). But outside of that, yr rt, 88% never go abroad, and most of those probably can't find France on a world map.

Nesim-

One thing I have repeatedly stated here is that American stupidity is hardly a matter of IQ. Robt McNamara had a very high one, and was an utter moron. I recently saw some article in a major news outlet, advocating Oprah for pres. This reporter or editor was probably technically smart. You see why I say that America is a joke country filled with joke people. How long b4 Oprah is a candidate, and the Wash Post is endorsing her?

Golf-

I have enjoyed a few of Deneen's articles over the yrs.

mb

9:45 AM  
Anonymous Star said...

A Good German Idea for 2018 - To be rational means more than being able to deploy your means efficiently in order to achieve your ends.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/kant-not-cant-for-europe-by-yanis-varoufakis-2018-01

from a Kantian-inspired Yanis Varoufakis

10:17 AM  
Anonymous J Sparks said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/09/jfk-files-cia-set-first-date-king-hussein-jordan-hollywood-starlet/

The CIA is one hell of a dating service

11:02 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Brother Maynard,
You're absolutely correct about radio. We have 2 call in sports stations and whenever a caller uses a 50 cent word, or makes an allusion to some military battle to support a particular football strategy the radio host says something sarcastic like,"Well, looks like we have a college graduate here." Yes, I'm nauseous just thinking about O as president. The US will not suffer the death of a thousand cuts. Instead, it will suffer the death of a thousand jokes. Any historical precedence for that?
By the way, I'm making a major financial investment in one of my artistic projects. Think I'd get some encouragement? Of course not. The general reaction is "Are you sure you're doing the right thing spending all that money?"

11:05 AM  
Anonymous Liv said...

Speaking of Oprah running for president; today morning at my work, highly educated people were discussing how they loved Oprah speech and how awesome it would be if she can run. I couldn’t believe my ears, I was screaming inside: “Are you f’ing kidding me. Who the f’ck is Oprah in the first place? Another Disneyland celebrity? American stupidity index is increasing by hour in this country, even Elizabeth Warren today stated how “uplifting” and “great” her speech was. I almost spilled my coffee.
People know I am leaving this country soon, they tell me repeatedly that I live in “fantasyland” and will be back in no time because America is the best and nothing can even compare to the awesome life in US. Yes, 99% believe the best quality of life is only in the US. The quality of life for them means buying and eating junk, watching nonsense TV, and talk about nothing all day. Forget about talking about travel, family, community life, enjoying good cuisine, or discussing philosophy. I do not want to talk about an education in this country because it does not exist. I am still searching... Those have no value for them, but the next “iPhone” has. I never experienced such a pathetic and backwards culture.

11:26 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Michael Burgess writes:

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers,

This column by Paul Craig Roberts shows just how frustrated he is! I would add that he is right about the police not preventing crime but that the police follow the dictates of the powers that be: defending their property, business practices and intimidating (and perhaps terrorizing)the public. While carry laws might prevent some crime, real community would really quell crime. You have to remember that Paul Craig Roberts is an economist so while he certainly sees major problems with American society and a lack of any effort to deal with them, he doesn't to my knowledge question "the American Dream" nearly enough. But he basically agrees with you, Dr. Berman, at least conditionally, 'if carry laws are abolished, get out of the country while you can!'

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/01/10/us-devolved-police-state/

11:56 AM  
Anonymous Ponce said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/10/kumail-nanjiani-opens-up-about-his-wifes-illness-the-inspiration-for-the-big-sick/

For those interested in MB's film rec "The Big Sick"

2:24 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Zara, I haven't read Zechariah Sitchin but I highly doubt there is any solid evidence for aliens. Just keep in mind that everyone is a hustler and Zechariah Sitchin definitely made stuff up to sell more books. Also, evolution didn't go too fast, punctuated equilibrium does explain the missing transitional fossils. Randomness is more than enough to get order, it's why we have statistics.

Anyways, great article on Mexican towns breaking away, can you imagine freedom loving Americans taking power away from the state and kicking it out of their towns? Is there even towns in this country? Everywhere I go seem to be designed similar to suburbs with the primary intent of enabling as much hustling as possible. I specially like this quote, "The state police are treated like foreign invaders." In this country police is allowed to finger rape women and no one says a thing, at least in Mexico they know the police are not the good guys.

3:56 PM  
Blogger Mark Deagle said...

Dr Berman " Never understate the stupidity of the American Voter" This country has gone mad. The only ? Left is how much time is left before the country falls ? i wish you could talk more on this matter. Thanks Mark

5:03 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

@Dan, this is what you had mentioned in your previous posts as to what Israeli society has become. Shocking!
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/10/finkelstein_despite_racist_policies_corruption_scandals?autostart=true

A Ticking, Dove-Filled Time Bomb: Trump’s Trojan Horse Gift to Jerusalem.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/08/a-ticking-dove-filled-time-bomb-trumps-trojan-horse-gift-to-jerusalem/


Good film on American Dream vs. traditional cultures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Sand_and_Fog_(film)

5:33 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Wafers-

I thought you would enjoy an oldie but goodie column on 'wealth addition' (greed) at the NYTimes from a former hedge funder:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html

I've read the recent tax cut for the rich is the result of intense pressure by the Koches, Mercers, etc. You would think $90 billion is enough for some people but apparently not.

At one time, I knew some folks on Wall Street who make millions. Of the dozen or so I knew well I can truly say that I think only 1 person out of that group was genuinely happy. The others were sex addicts, or drug addicts (or both); almost all were having affairs and had kids who could generously be described as 'snotty'...overall they seemed pretty miserable.

When even the 1% in America is miserable, it tells you the American Dream is just a variation of The Big Lie. Even the people 'living the dream' are living in their own personal nightmare...

-BrotherMaynard

9:36 PM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

MB -

You have any specific recommendations for places in the US to get as far away from stupidity as possible? Any cities you think are particularly good?

I come across people DAILY with some irrational view that drives me insane. Whether it's a conspiracy about flu shots, to foods giving you cancer...I just can't take the anti-science thinking. This is on top of the baseline stupidity from all the trivial crap people want to talk about.

10:39 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

With each passing day the legend of Morris Berman grows: Somewhere in the heart of Mexico the master wafer dwells in the back corner of a dimly-lit cantina. You'll find him beneath the brim of a sharp fedora with a cool cerveza always close by...telling jokes...

Seriously though Morris you have to hand it to yourself this time. When the Oprah hysteria broke the first thing I thought of was your famous quote: "how is it that we haven't arrested this woman??" Well she hasn't been arrested but she's seriously being considered for president!

11:23 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

I don't know why people get so worked up about Oprah. If you had an incurable, painful illness, wouldn't you like a giant Novocain pump connected with a tube up your wazoo? I know I would. On the other hand, she'd allow the deep state's campaign of physical destruction abroad and socio-economic destruction at home to continue unchecked, for anybody who as much as suggested that she's not the second coming of Jesus would be immediately disemboweled and thrown to the dogs for being a racist, misogynist pig.

Also, as a show business celebrity, she's most likely a psychopathic narcissist too. In a word, she'd be just perfect as POTUS.

3:14 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

The Great Black Hope is nothing more than a dark skinned Donald Trump with female parts. Beyond obscene amounts of money, they are cut from the same economic-political cloth and are dedicated to the same ideas that made them wealthy: the Washington Consensus, neoliberalism, and TomBoy Friedman's flat globalized earth in which the rich get richer and the poor get fucked. Both blame the poor for being poor, ignoring the historical systemic blockades to economic advancement and racist barriers erected by a propertied class intent on keeping its wealth. Oprah is fond of channeling Norman Vincent Peale who blamed the existence of poor people on their failure to think sufficiently positive thoughts. )See the book "The Age of Oprah") None of this silliness matters anyway. Replacing Trump with Oprah would be tantamount to changing the Captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. The ship if going down. And nothing they or we do can change that inevitable event.

7:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is pretty neat:

"We are now starting to see that #MeToo is not a pro-woman movement at all. It is a highly politicised campaign driven by, and benefiting, well-connected women in culture and the media, who must maintain their alleged victim status at all costs because it is leverage for them in terms both of their career and their moral authority in public discussion. This is why they respond with such unforgiving, misogynistic fury to any woman who questions them – because these women, these upstarts, these difficult creatures, threaten to unravel the victim politics that is so beneficial to a narrow but influential strata of society today."

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-misogyny-of-metoo-katie-roiphe/20746#.WldaU0tG0Wo

Kanye

7:37 AM  
Blogger axmedbahjad said...

Prof. Berman I own your "The twilight of American culture"book and it is beautifully written! I listen to your interviews on Youtube.

Imagine you were tutoring Milton Freedman and others "how to write well," what would you teach them?

Cheers,
AB

9:46 AM  
Anonymous Edward Craig said...

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/how-to-become-wise-it-takes-more-than-googling-1.3344008

the Irish know their wisdom

10:29 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

AB-

It's too late, but I wd tell Milton to go into retail sales, or perhaps open a deli, and not publish a word on economics.

BM-

Always, always, capitalize Wafer. I never said Oprah shd be arrested, but let me go on record saying that her shoes need to be drenched in urine.

Aaron-

Fer chrissakes, leave the US.

Bro-

Check out a film called "Brad's Status" (Ben Stiller).

Liv-

Re: Oprah: I told you that a high IQ doesn't mean one is not dumb as a bag of hammers. Mark my words: this endorsing of her on the part of leading political and MSM figures will continue. Very few media editors will write the obvious: "Are you folks kidding me?" And they aren't, because they themselves are jokes. There seems to be little or no awareness that if a New Age buffoon like Oprah can run for pres, the nation has become Absurdistan.

Keep in mind that this is the only blog where you can get together with folks who have not merely high IQ's, but real ontological understanding; who can mentally distance themselves from the US, look at it like an artifact, or a bug on a slide, and say: "Jesus, can these people be serious?" In a nation of 325 million, all of 173 people are not insane.

Bk rec (terrific):

https://www.amazon.com/How-Filthy-Rich-Rising-Asia/dp/1594632332/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515684738&sr=1-1&keywords=mohsin+hamid

mb

10:35 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps:

http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/10/europe/catherine-deneuve-france-letter-metoo-intl/index.html

10:42 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

"We are now starting to see that #MeToo is not a pro-woman movement at all"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kanye, I believe this is known as "virtue signaling" in the modern vernacular.



In other news, a heartwarming story brought to us by staff at a Baltimore hospital:

http://talk.baltimoresun.com/topic/285478-video-shows-apparently-incapacitated-half-naked-woman-put-out-in-cold-by-baltimore-hospital/

11:10 AM  
Anonymous Kieran said...

MB, do you have a favorite short story, or collection of short stories?

In any language, I do know you're a polyglot

12:47 PM  
Anonymous tAD said...

https://inhabitat.com/ecouterre/oprah-draws-criticism-for-endorsing-face-cream-made-from-foreskins/

OPRAH 2020

1:11 PM  
Anonymous Molly Wood said...

“The Berlin Wall has now been down for longer than it was up.” Rafael Behr on toilet paper & the discontents of the winners in the Cold War.>>>







https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/10/west-cold-war-capitalism-eastern-bloc-populism

1:25 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Gratitude to MB, being a student of Wafer tradition I'm like, we all are, seers by extension - enjoy the marginalization, it's kinda fun once you adjust. (I was keen to Oprah being at risk of fire, now flooding has got her. Also I knew DACA was going to be used to give the appearance of bipartisan cooperation - no mistake they're doing this post Fire and Fury, and I've always believed the #MeToo crap is some political consultant's wet dream) But I still give 'Mericans too much credit, I don't as yet fully comprehend their skull cavity is full of shit. Kind of the point of the blog but it is schizophrenic for these people to insist on physical fitness 'challenging' themselves to the fullness of 'wellness' (I lived in gluten free Boulder so I know whereof I speak) but are literally as helpless as infants when it comes to the life of the mind, esp grievous when large swaths of the country are obese pigs.

How long CA gonna let, mostly southern states, hold them back from moving on climate change? Best bet break away and tariff the shit on goods (if there any) produced in southern states.

Bad News for 'Merica's mightiest army.

For you MB on this fine Friday, I'm sure as the trend takes off it'll become gender equal (The Swede's know what Americans want, very proud of my heritage 'bout now)

Turn that golden shower into real gold!.

1:59 PM  
Anonymous Papi said...


Welcome to E-Hell, Wafers and Wafettes
https://www.wired.com/story/international-electronic-waste-photographs/

2:12 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Psychiatrists are very concerned about Trump’s mental health and instability...


https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/news/politics/psychiatry-professor-warns-trump-mental-health-unraveling-article-1.3736638


https://youtu.be/ghg4-1rEZzk


https://youtu.be/kaN4PN8JkjE


https://youtu.be/FqCchf-BqVU

3:17 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Regarding the open letter that included Catherine Deneuve, is there any kind of similar response in the U.S.? Doubtful right? I understand how women can be against this open letter and think it harmful but I think the main thrust of it is calling out the #metoo movement for what it really is: puritanism. You can agree or disagree with puritanism but let's at least know it when we see it. The remarkable thing (or perhaps not, considering where I am posting this) is that Americans don't even know that their puritan roots are still very much present. I often will call an American a puritan in a derogatory sense and their reaction is always the same: one of puzzlement. The French never tire of pointing it out when they see it and always with disgust.

3:42 PM  
Anonymous Zen Citizen said...

Greetings Dr. Berman and Wafers,

I commend to your attention Dr. Robert Lustig's recent book, "The Hacking of the American Mind." At root is a neurophysiology-based argument that there is a fundamental difference between pleasure and happiness; he goes on to illustrate the ways in which the American food system, media, high tech, etc. are rigged to turn us into self-centered pleasure addicts (by triggering the neurotransmitter dopamine), as opposed to a people who aspire to outwardly-oriented, altruistic state of happiness or contentment (associated with seratonin).

In short, we're all being hustled by big business and its political enablers. The ways in which these "hacks" are detrimental to us include not only psychic / mood disorders like loneliness, anomie, and depression, but also physically in non-communicable "lifestyle diseases" such as obesity and diabetes. The former diminish the possibility of a co-operative society. The latter are eroding the economic foundation of the pyramid structures of Social Security and Medicare, which provide a humane counterweight to America's every-man-for-himself tendencies.

Complementing this site's key goal of documenting the tragic malaise of the American soul, Lustig's book documents the ways American culture is sickening our bodies by manipulating the chemistry of our brains. I haven't yet arrived at his discussion of how to protect oneself, but I suspect that his advice will be useful for any current or aspiring NMI.

3:50 PM  
Blogger Mohamed said...

Did anybody else notice Oprah is always on the cover of her magazine? It’s like the owner time being man of the year every year

4:11 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Master, I am honestly not here to push aliens or Sitchin. Dr Berman would justly kick me out. But I think a little Aristotelian logic could be useful:

Everyone is a hustler so Sitchin is a hustler.
Everyone is a hustler so Socrates is a hustler.
And so on and so forth.

"I haven't read [X] but I highly doubt there is any solid evidence for [matter discussed in X]."

You get the idea...

4:27 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

Last year's stock market rise should be setting off the early alarm of a hyperinflationary end to the madness. Instead the right wing turkeys are cheerleading bc it's 'their guy', and not pointing out that it's fake wealth like they correctly did under Obama.

It's very appropriate that Trump is only semi-approved by democracy (lost popular vote), hugely disapproved by common organizational and professional standards, yet cites the rising stock market as his sole justification. That's all there is to this system, and it's obviously a house of cards.

I read recently that Bezos et al are still much poorer compared to the 19th century robber barons like Carnegie. Yet the American media constantly promotes stats with tags like "the biggest/richest ever", discounting population growth and inflation. Inflation is at the core of what goes on here, with meaningless bubbles and pointless expansions, yet I don't think most Americans have the capacity to understand it. "Look ma, I'm getting rich" will still be the refrain as these bubbles pop and all the empty credit expansion since 2008 starts flooding the real economy.

5:18 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

I don't post Anons.

Mo-

A sure sign of massive insecurity.

tAD-

The real question is whether she is talking abt hot foreskins or cold ones. I personally am opposed to cold ones. Disgusting.

Kieran-

I tend to favor novels, but you might check out O. Henry, also Heinrich Boell.


Check it out: http://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/5/the_biggest_secret_james_risen_on

mb

6:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: The high-IQ/moron bandwagon continues to build:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/11/steven-spielberg-oprah-would-make-a-brilliant-president-and-i-will-back-her

6:15 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

"You geta car! You geta car! You geta car!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcJAWKdawuM

T-shirt idea:

IT'S OVER

Miles Dewey Deli

6:52 PM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

Well here's one New York Times commentator who's not on the Oprah bandwagon...

Oprah, Don't Do It

7:10 PM  
Anonymous Rosalie said...

As worldwide health improves, America lurches backward!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/01/10/worldwide-health-improves-america-lurches-backward/wCIHzNJrySVaYj8KoQA98L/amp.html

8:04 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Papi--over the holiday, I had a long discussion with my brother-in-law about his business, which is waste disposal in NYC (I was picking his brain to eliminate confusion about what should and should not be recycled). Regarding e-waste he said that most people believe that by taking it to e-waste recycling centers they are being environmentally responsible when the end result is as that article you linked described it. Meanwhile, if you just throw it in the garbage, it ends up in a U.S. landfill where, assuming all environmental regulations are being followed, at least there are proper linings in place to keep the dangerous chemicals from escaping back into the environment. Plus, and this is me now talking, you keep the Silicone Valleys assholes from getting their hands back on the rare earth metals That's a win-win in my book.

In the you can make this stuff up department, Trumpi is wondering why so many people from "shithole countries" like Africa and Haiti want to come to the U.S.--adding that we need more immigrants from Norway. Maybe someone should sit him down and explain that maybe if the U.S. through its imperial economic and military policies stopped turning those countries into shitholes, the people there might prefer to stay put. Plus, why would anyone in their right mind want to move from Norway to THIS shithole?

9:23 PM  
Anonymous Portia said...

Finally someone in the entertainment industry had the guts to call out Oprah on her BS: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/seal-oprah-weinstein_us_5a576fb0e4b0a300f9065f61

Of course he has already started to walk back his criticism. :-(

9:27 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

So when the spring semester starts in a couple of weeks, what I have to look forward to are my colleagues saying - without a single grain of irony - what a great president Oprah would be.

Kill me now.

9:50 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Good article on China's rise on the tech industry

"The number of graduates returning from overseas – mainly from the U.S. – skyrocketed to 432,500 in 2016"

" Of the more than 850,000 AI engineers across America, 7.9 percent are Chinese"

“Even if I get killed by the air and live shorter for ten years, it’ll still be better.”

This is just the beginning folks an exodus of Chinese immigrants is coming. I always laugh at Americans who think trade deals take advantage of them, China would never have developed if they couldn't protect their industries, the whole purpose of deals like the TPP and NAFTA is to have American corporations go global, America would never accept those trade deals if it wasn't that way. Mexico had twice the GDP per capita of Brazil in the 1990s and was growing at 6% without NAFTA, after NAFTA the country just became an assembly for American corporations and Brazil's GDP per capita caught up, Argentina collapsed and rebounded and already their GDP per capita is higher even Bolivia and Peru are catching up. America is going to hell no matter what but Mexico needs to start looking at different development models already

11:44 PM  
Anonymous Brothermaynard said...

Pot Trump calls kettle black...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/12/unkind-divisive-elitist-international-outcry-over-trumps-shithole-countries-remark

Has Trumpi ever visited Penn Station or LaGuardia in NYC? Taken the NYC subway recently? Flown on a US airline? They're all absolute shitholes.

Of course, culturally and politically the USA has been a shithole for some time now with our acceleration to shithole status having started under president ray-gun and now moving forward at iight speed under Trumpi.

Funny how Trumpi thinks people from Norway will actually want to immigrate here. Then again like most Americans, he actually thinks everyone wants to live in the USA. These folks really are beyond help...

BrotherMaynard

12:30 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

I know this is beating a dead horse, but I think this article by Morris Fiorina is one of the better ones that I have read about the 2016 election. I think it reflects what Dr. Berman said about the reemergence of class as an issue despite attempts to make the election solely about racism and sexism. Here is one interesting tidbit from the article:

“Working-class white women were almost six points more Democratic than men, but that gender gap was smaller than in every election between 1988 and 2004. Working-class women have grown more similar to men in the past three elections. The election of 2016 simply marked the latest observation in a long-term trend. Working-class identifiers have been steadily drifting away from the Democrats since 1964.”

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/01/10/the_meaning_of_trumps_election_has_been_exaggerated__135968.html

8:09 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Esca,
Yes, I'm thoroughly convinced that if there was not a world press, sans the NY Times and Wapo, Israel would engage in genocide of the Palestinians. Just read the quotes. Netan-yahoo! has said, "beat them up...until it's unbearable." Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan: "Palestinians are beasts. They are not human." And a former deputy prime minister:"Send Gaza back to the Middle Ages." As Finkelstein says in the interviews, "Israel is a mean place" akin to what the American south was before the civil rights era. It actually has a bleak future. One day an American administration will consider Israel a strategic liability especially as we enter peak oil. Where will Israel then turn as they had made little effort to be a friendly Middle East neighbor.

9:12 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I don't know if any of you have read my novel "Destiny," but Oprah makes a satirical appearance in the last third of the bk. This was written in 2007. Ten yrs later, she makes a satirical appearance for real. Here I am, the GSWH, and does anyone pay attention to me? Of course not. Every day, I think that the American people have hit rock bottom in terms of stupidity and self-destruction, and then guess what? They manage to go a few centimeters lower. Joke Population = Joke Nation. (That too wd be a gd T-shirt.)

mb

10:10 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: And given our downward direction, I'm thinking that the following election slates might not be too far-fetched:

Freddie Wadsworth/Oprah
Oprah/Shaneka Torres
Brittany Carulli/Oprah
Oprah/Latreasa Goodman
Tracey McCloud/Oprah

etc.

10:35 AM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

I'm worried about Christopher amidst this accelerated decline. Wafers turn away from the blinding light! American "greatness" almost always burns too bright for the conscientious observer.

Spielberg minions - aren't nearly all Hollywood war movies subsidized by the complex and pro-war - glorified propagandists and advertisers like K. Bigelow, etc., unlike O. Stone very few others.

11:35 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

To Zen Citizen - sounds like a corporate hustler's wet dream; paradise is a nation of citizens, excuse me, consumers lobotomized by the American Dream.

TO Tom - and who can blame them. The Dems have been steadily moving away from working class concerns at least since Clinton and NAFTA and welfare "reform" when they joined the Reps in sucking up to wealthy individuals and corporations for campaign contributions. The New and Better DNC knew that blacks had no where else to go but miscalculated on their ability to hold poor and middle class whites in line.

And if the degree of a nation's desperation is measured by the caliber of its Presidential candidates, America is hopeless. Pull up your lines, boys, its time to call it quits.

12:48 PM  
Blogger comrade simba said...


Re: Spielberg :
"Asked if she has the skill set to be president, he replied, 'Does our current president have the skill set to be president?'"
Wow. "As dumb as Trump" as a campaign slogan?

If it comes down to T vs O who else but 173 Wafers will see the utter pointlessness of marching off to the polls?

12:51 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Even during mudslides killing dozens and destroying homes, the americans were very very concerned about taxable sales, businesses, tourism, and how to recover (code word: financially).

"URGENT meeting in Santa Barbara - Emergency officials, city leaders and business owners meet about the wide ranging (est. Billions) economic impacts from the #Montecitoflood. Standing room only!"

Forget that many folks are still missing (likely died in the 10 ft of mud), many critically injured, dead animals/pets, massive devastation to the area.

Yet standing room only about how to get taxable sales and lure tourists back to the obliterated area to buy shit and resume their hustle.

3:38 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

The “Tide Pod Challenge” is now a social media phenomenon. Many young people are posting videos of themselves chewing and gagging on Tide soap pods.

Just how low in the Idiocracy can we go?


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tide-pod-challenge-ingesting-detergent-risks/


http://www.foxnews.com/health/2018/01/12/doctors-warn-against-eating-tide-pods-in-latest-social-media-challenge.html

4:12 PM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

"In the you can make this stuff up department, Trumpi is wondering why so many people from "shithole countries" like Africa and Haiti want to come to the U.S.--adding that we need more immigrants from Norway."

BIll,

You can make this stuff up actually. Is there even a shred of proof that he said this? Just the latest unsourced rumor to get everyone upset, IMO.

I post about this a lot, but I do so because I think the problem with the media goes beyond US borders. Here in Germany, once respectable outlets are breathlessly reporting nearly verbatim the same headlines we see at WaPo, NYT, etc. Even something as petty and obviously phony as CNNs edited Koigate video was reported as tho it were true. US aside, the complete takeover of corporate news is hurting us all.

US implosion I can deal with, but there was a reason I left 10 years ago and I don't wanna live in a brave new Germany. :(

5:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

comrade-

Spielberg, Meryl Streep, the whole high-IQ/moron gang, have dogshit in their heads. Utter douchebags. Like most Americans, they are stupid and frivolous. Which is of course gd from a declinist pt of view, because it turns the US into a shithole nation.

Are we seeing a mini foreign Suez Moment? Trump labels various countries 'shitholes'; this makes the US look pretty bad; and the more damage he does on the international front, the greater is our loss in credibility. For a true foreign SM, however, other countries need to realize that Trump is *representative* of Americans, not a deviation from them. There is a tendency to believe that if we just get rid of Trumpi, all will be well. There is a tendency not to notice that 67% of Americans approve of torture and drone strikes. And so on. Not clear how to get the word out, that the American people are not exactly models of virtue or intelligence.

mb

5:30 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Hola MB and Wafers,

MB-

You make an interesting point, MB. Trump personifies the American in toto: insecure, narcissistic, paranoid, brazen, violent, thinks they are better than "foreigners" and "illegals." Interestingly, this impudence to the other was displayed by Emily's parents early on in the "Big Sick" film you recommended. I would also argue that most Americans, like Trump, still have a problem with "the blacks," and continue to see women as second class citizens. How far have we come, really? Trump is the sum total of all American personality traits, and he validates our worst qualities by echoing and amplifying our stupidity and venality.

Miles

7:57 PM  
Blogger Sue Caldwell said...

Why not Oprah for President - at least she (perhaps naively) appeals to most peoples "better angels".

No one whatever their previous experience is in any sense qualified to be the president of the USA. It is easily the worlds most difficult and demanding job, especially now with the 24/7 "news" cycle, and with everyone and everything now being instantaneously inter-connected, to the extent that a third world war could very easily be triggered off.

It seems to me that entire world is now being confronted with or set up for one of those potentially catastrophic cathartic crises that Morris describes in his book Coming To our Senses. The now-time difference being the fact that such a catharsis will definitely be a world-wide event, unlike all of the previous disasters, except perhaps the two world wars, especially the second. It could be said that those two wars were a prelude for a much bigger future world-wide catastrophe.

Patrick Deneen blames liberalism as the cause of the now self-evident catastrophe.
Perhaps so, because liberalism can only work if a significant percentage of the population is very well informed and more importantly responsible for their presence and actions in the world.
That having been said it seems to me that the world-view and back-to-the-past religiosity promoted by the double-minded talking heads at the American Conservative website is precisely the world-view that provoked the previous catastrophes and ACTIVELY prevents any and every one from Coming to their Senses.

8:14 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

I guess it takes an African immigrant to truly put Trump's "shithole" comment in context. Shithole President and Shit Show Politics. Good essay but for the slight bit of hopium at the end.

I also like this: How Progressives Make Enemies.

Meanwhile, there might be some fun in my adopted state this weekend: Virginia cops brace for violence at dueling parades honoring MLK and Confederate generals. Guess it'll be a good weekend to stay indoors with all the blinds drawn.

Stupid American parenting tricks: For the second time in three months, a toddler overdosed on pills reportedly left out by a North Palm Beach-area woman. Check out the real "Face of America" mugshot.

And lastly, maybe we can start ratcheting down the sympathy for Puerto Rico (which is after all, part of America, sort of) now that their largest newspaper is blaming the post-hurricane crisis on "The Jew." They wouldn't dare printing shit like this in a newspaper in Alabama, for fuck's sake.

10:55 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

All Wafers should read Dataclysm


The co-founder of okcupid wrote a book on who we are when no one's looking using the data collected from okcupid. I think it's pretty good, it also shows what the future holds for us with big data. He showed a plot of women rating men and the plot was very skewed to the left
"translate this plot to IQ, and you have a world where the women think 58 percent of men are brain damaged." Seems about right to me, like Freud wrote, most men are worthless. Another interesting fact, women like men that are around their age and men always like 20 year olds haha

Here is a link to the book if you guys don't want to buy it.

12:39 AM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Aaron, much scientific research tries to shoehorn “discoveries” into known categories, and anomalies are ignored because they might upset an accepted worldview. A great book on this subject is Stephen J. Gould’s “Wonderful Life...” Try not to make science into a religion. Also, it’s good to remember that science has been corrupted like everything else.

As far as conspiracies are concerned, James Forrestal once said: “Consistency has never been a mark of stupidity. If the diplomats who have mishandled our situation in Russia were merely stupid, they would occasionally make a mistake in our favor.”

When I look at what’s happening in the world, especially the USA, I’m convinced that things are going on behind the scenes of which we are unaware. The elevation or manufacture of trivial issues is meant to keep us distracted so we don’t notice that we’re simply cannon fodder and basically slaves to a cruel system.

7:11 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Doctor,
Could be the real Suez moment. How could Trump now travel to any but majority white countries? How could he, for instance, go to South America or, God forbid, Africa? Demonstrations would be enormous.
Jjarden,
Saw videos of the Tide Pod Challenge. Never have I been more confident in the future of the (said solemnly) the United States of America. Gee, think Thanatos is in ascension?

9:34 AM  
Blogger Himanshu said...

Dear Dr. Berman,

Now that Oprah is the new "hope" for progs, I thought Wafers might enjoy the following essay by Joe Bageant titled "The Sucker Bait Called Hope", written after Obama was elected for his first term:

https://dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/the-sucker-bait-called-hope/

Excerpts: "Most Americans, regardless of their political leanings or religion, would not recognize the common good if it bit ‘em in the ass. We have no genuine concept of common good. We really don’t. Tocqueville observed that 170 years ago. He said that in America, no man owes another man anything. Nor is he owed by any other man. Where does that leave any movement toward the common weal requiring the cooperative efforts of more than one man? We all know the answer — The gubbyment. Which leaves the common good to greaseball politicos, banking and mortgage sharks, and a private cartel of behind the scenes hustlers called the Fed.....we let unseen elites own and manage our hard earned dough over quail and cognac on the 45th floor. They’re of the sort who know what’s best. You can tell them by their arrogance and their good looking trophy wives. And by their big limos. Americans know the superior man when they see it.Meanwhile, thanks to the doctrine of no man owing another, this doctrine of not being our brother’s keeper in any important way, we are left with the social ethic of “every man for himself. Damned all social taxes and collective effort, I’ll claw down my own share, and let the devil take the hindmost. Hell, maybe I’ll even end up there on the 45th floor among the quail eaters with a blonde waiting in the sack. Land of boundless opportunity, right?"

Best wishes,
Himanshu

10:45 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

Well, he did the US a ton of damage in 2017, and has now started off 2018 with even more egregious behavior. The only worry I have is that all of those 'shithole' countries, among many others, think he is atypical of Americans. They don't understand that he is the heart and soul of America, the most obvious representative of our way of life and our attitudes toward others. That coin has yet to drop.

Master-

I think the Freud quote is, "Most people are worthless."

Bill-

For a long time now, I have suspected that Jews are behind all the bad weather in the world. Proof? Jews tend to live in places like Florida that always have gd weather.

Sue-

I personally am excited by the possibility of an Oprah presidency, and am buoyed up by all of these 'smart' people endorsing her. Meanwhile, you might wanna check out the Oprah bio by Janice Peck, as well as Nicole Aschoff's "Prophets of Capital."

Jeff-

I for one am hoping that the 'shitholes' remark is the mildest of Trump's faux pas in 2018. His historical job is to torpedo the country. We're off to a gd start.

mb

11:12 AM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Sue, I agree with you on Patrick Deneen. The section on culture was interesting, but the rest not so much. I'm one of "those who have suffered most from the dissolution of families, churches, communities, and a range of constitutive bonds" and yet not once did I consider voting for trump. It's not that simplistic IMHO. Also, he doesn't account for this continuing dissolution being based on our inability to trust our fellow man (or woman). Neighbors are to be distrusted these days, in general. The original cause of this circumstance may be liberalism, but becomes its own reinforcing feedback loop, independent (or especially in the absence) of any philosophy.

I can't agree about Oprah, however. She's just another oligarch selling snake oil instead of crude. My memories include learning she hangs out at the same not-so-secretive but definitely exclusive clubs/meetings. She may be the perfect choice to manage the aftermath of the coming economic collapse, but definitely not an agent of change.

To whoever posted the article on the Humanities, thank you, thank you! Wow, I enjoyed it immensely. If you missed it:

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/not-defend-humanities/

12:39 PM  
Anonymous Derek said...

Wafers,

Wonderful short story in The New Yorker about the American Dream (or lack thereof).

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/08/foreign-returned

1:17 PM  
Anonymous BH said...

I wonder how many of these people with high IQ's actually know the shit they have to peddle is in fact shit but do it anyway.

1:46 PM  
Anonymous Quiet Desperation said...

Apologies if this book has been previously mentioned:

https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Foreign-Country-American-Post-American/dp/0374280045/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515865908&sr=1-1&keywords=suzy+hansen+notes+on+a+foreign+country

The rarity of an American doing any form of self examination makes this worth the read, another example of America imposing itself around the world, this time in Turkey. After finally completing "Neurotic Beauty" I must admit to being unaware of the degree to which the United States imposed its economic, political and cultural will upon Japan. The fact that we eventually used two nuclear weapons on this culture is a sickening, almost disabling thought. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and agree with your thoughts about Japan's post-capitalist possibilities. The fact that there is anything left of the craft traditions in Japan after the onslaught of the consumerism,consumption and corruption inherent in capitalism is amazing in itself...Onward and downward.

2:05 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Sarasvati - The elevation or manufacture of trivial issues is meant to keep us distracted so we don’t notice that we’re simply cannon fodder and basically slaves to a cruel system.

I think what you said is very true. I've thought for a long time now that a corporate for-profit media must constantly manufacture news to keep people riveted to their tee vees. It's scandal after scandal. Crisis after crisis! Terror! Weapons of mass destruction! (We must invade now before its too late!) Football players taking knees!! The horror! Syria! Russian collusion! I'm old enough to remember the drug war of the 80's: it was mass hysteria and resulted in draconian public policies, civil forfeiture, mass incarceration, for-profit prison. Reasoned discourse by learned men it was not.

Trumpi used the corporate media against itself. He knew that they COULD NOT STOP covering him for economic reasons. Marx said capitalists will sell progs the rope to hang themselves. That's where we are now. These people just cannot stop no matter how self-destructive the behavior. It will only end when they destroy themselves. From the ashes, we may be able to rebuild. But as the professor notes, it won't be in the US.

On a positive note: there is now a stick to help you take selfies of your butt! A true miracle product...I want one for every room in the house:
http://incrediblethings.com/tech/now-can-take-perfect-butt-selfie-belfiestick/

The wonder of American capitalism! No wonder EVERYONE wants to live here.

BrotherMaynard

3:28 PM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

Speaking of Freud, Jung, Post-Modernists, beta-trolls, beta-male feminists, biblical stories metaphorically, chaos, dealing with chaos and the subconscious and the "underworld" by telling the truth, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USg3NR76XpQ

6:58 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Does anyone think it's a coincidence that out of nowhere Hawaii has an incoming ballistic missile false alarm attack just days after North and South Korea take steps to improve relations between themselves?

The USA has taken a lot of trouble grooming an enemy in North Korea, and now those wily Orientals want to throw a monkey wrench into its carefully-built hostile enemy scenario!

7:34 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Seems mighty Orwellian to me. Sec of HHS Verna wants to replace the 'soft bigotry of low expectations' by requiring work for Medicaid recipients in order to 'restore the dignity of work...'

Dignity in a sweatshop?.

Income limit for single person Colorado to get Medicaid is 15,800/yr - minimum wage is $10.20/hr - {30/hrs/wk for 48 wks @ 10.20 is 14,688} Not fulltime or part time either, just a shlub w/o healthcare

8:41 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Matthew Nicolson, 28, takes out his mother after argument over video game playing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/01/13/man-shoots-his-mom-in-the-head-during-tantrum-over-video-games-police-say/?utm_term=.57268a228a5c

Trumpo and Stormy Daniels convo:

Trumpo: "Hi Stormy, I'm Donald."
Stormy: "I know... Hey, DJT."
Trumpo: "I'm gonna cut to the chase, Stormy, I wanna be in u."
Stormy: "Easy, big guy. You can't afford me."
Trumpo: "You know, Stormy, I make lotsa money."
Stormy: "How much u got?
Trumpo: "I got a wad the size of the Empire State Building."
Stormy: "Well, okay, then."

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/porn-actress-says-stormy-daniels-and-trump-asked-her-to-join-them-in-hotel-room.html

Miles

8:41 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

@Himanshu, Fantastic article, Sucker-bait-called-Hope. Thanks.

https://www.joebageant.org/2006/08/29/is_gandhi_comin/
https://youtu.be/0SyXg9qT3mU?t=200
"You’re gonna hate me for saying this, but Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski are harbingers of an increasing widespread disenfranchisement and alienation. Read Gore Vidal’s written exchanges with McVeigh. Read Kacsynski’s manifesto. Despite the violence of their methodology, you won’t find a word you disagree with, and in fact will find insight into our condition under the consumer totalist state." Ignorance, Bageant noted, is the greatest enemy of working-class Americans: not terrorism, or drugs, or illegals, but sheer daftness. He labeled his countrymen "dumber than owl shit."

Ted and Joe had mentioned sucker facilitators like our National Petroleum Radio.
https://www.npr.org/2011/09/26/140702387/air-force-and-navy-turn-to-bio-fuels
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/7179:public-media-joins-gang-greens-in-colluding-with-frackers








8:46 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I was thinking, Trump's comment about shithole nations might actually bring him more support. Americans aren't very bright, they get happy when someone "tells it like it is" and "is not politically correct." Ofc, Africa has many resources that we're gonna need down the line so meanwhile we offend them China gives them soft loans, infrastructure investments, education, etc. I say go Trumpi! We can always use the military when no one wants anything to do with us, right?

Meanwhile, 99% Australian green sea turtles are being born female because their sex is determined by the temperature in which they are born and the warm weather made them all female. Not to worry though folks, global warming is just a Jewish conspiracy to get rid of the white race and create global government don't you dare fall for it. My recommendation, don't even learn to read, probably some jew made up the alphabet too, I say don't let them control your brain, best way to do it? Don't think

11:21 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

@Bill Hicks

The article of "How Progressive makes Enemies" misses the point. Many on the left look at whats going on in the Left and think its something super odd and crazy. How can these people act this way? Easy. Americans are Manichean and this is what makes them so crazy in their politics. Both the Left and the Right are Manichean by nature of American culture and thus both see the other as the embodiment of evil.

To steal from MB Americans politics is largely influenced by America's cultural negative identity. These people on both Left and Right are in opposition to one another which feeds their identity. American Politics is pretty much identity politics from top to bottom.

@MB

I think Move over George needs to be resurrected. The ass of some rich ugly girl is the perfect representative for the US dollar.

12:04 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

It’s normal now for America’s leaders to talk about physically pummeling each other. There is only one direction, and that is a continuation of this downward spiral we are in.


https://news.grabien.com/story-mcauliffe-says-hed-slug-trump-you-would-have-pick-him-floor

12:47 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

One thing that makes America pretty unique as a superpower is that it pretty much became a superpower because of the collapse of its rivals. The Romans had to overcome Eastern kingdoms in centuries of warfare, while the Brits built a navy surpassing that of their rivals. America was not proven through some unique endurance or brilliant proprietary technology. All the nuclear and space achievements of the Cold War came from Euro expats like Werner von Braun, and many countries have since reproduced and surpassed them.

Everything fall into our lap after Europe destroyed itself. Even the rival Soviets had been heavily weakened after decades of war and revolution. The Cold War itself a kind of fantasy conflict necessary to explain American dominance. Having the gulag state of the USSR as a contrast gave America a moral high ground. Europe was in no position to scrutinize America. It had the money, and was offering something better than the Soviets, who promised a return to 30s style totalitarianism.

The whole empire has been a kind of accident over broadcast and sold by the patriotic themes of old Hollywood. The only definite superiority we have had is in raw materials and economic production, but that means little without some truly civilized values. Maybe if we accepted our accidental ascendance with some humility it would have gone better, but it should be clear by this point that we have been in way over our heads for a long time.

3:07 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Liam Neeson with some pretty reasonable comments on the #MeToo movement. I guess now there will be petitions to remove Neeson from movies just like they had for Matt Damon.

http://theweek.com/speedreads/748765/liam-neeson-says-metoo-healthy-but-allegations-sparked-bit-witch-hunt

Good article on the mental damage caused by smartphones.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-smartphone-is-making-you-stupid/article37511900/

3:13 AM  
Anonymous Reed Gusmuth said...

Philosopher Onora O'Neill: "I wonder whether we will have democracy in 20 years"

via HP.com:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/onora-oneill-i-wonder-whether-we-will-have-democracy_us_5a4f8a12e4b0cd114bdb324f?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

6:32 AM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

From “the Pope is catholic” department of the obvious: the anti-Trump “resistance” are as bad as him. Check out Michael Moore's website. Trying to make money out of Trump in the most shameless manner. And I say shameless because he clearly doesn't have enough shame to realize when he falls into self-parody, like this jewel from his latest letter calling for impeachment:

The cautious and often-frightened Democratic leaders will usually, eventually, finally come around and do the right thing. And they do so because they are good at (sooner or later) listening to the will of the people.‬

After I stopped laughing I started thinking that these levels of self-serving delusion haven't been seen perhaps since Nazi Germany, when many Germans didn't know about the Holocaust because they didn't want to know (book recommendation: Sebastian Haffner's “Germany: Jekyll & Hyde”).

10:07 AM  
Anonymous Art said...

James Joyce died on this day in 1941, have been looking @ scans from his manuscript for "Ulysses". Bl structured using bizarre color schemes w/ highlighters. So surreal, almost more so than the content.

10:52 AM  
Anonymous MJQ said...

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/12/farming-small-planet

Small scale agroecology for a small world!

And I want to rec. a crop of books i am currently reading (sort of simultaneously):

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/best-books-food-insecurity#1

All of them are very 'up' books, as far as the Wafer Way. Mindful eating/consumption is incredibly important

12:25 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Thanks for all the interesting posts. I've been thinking abt the Oprah candidacy, and since the only criterion for such is visibility or popularity, why not Jean Claude Van Damme? I mean, I still prefer Lorenzo Riggins, but he lacks the cachet of Jean Claude.

mb

1:04 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...


Lizzie Dunn endured a severely disfiguring acid attack in New York after asking a stranger for a ciggie.

However, it appears, that she sprayed herself.

americans appeared to do anything for attention as they were ontologically and intellectually "dead." This is likely yet another Cluster B moment.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article194569029.html

2:53 PM  
Anonymous Georgia Peach Pit said...

MJQ - World Hunger by Frances Moore Lappé is one book in your grouping that I can personally attest as it being superb.

Zara - What happened to Moore? I liked one or two of his earlier doc films

Zombies- Jordan Peterson is too shrill and confrontational for me,personally. Or maybe not confrontational but proselytizing. He also sources a lot of his myth & metaphor for spiritual traditions from Joseph Campbell, who is just not a v rigorous source. He gives Jung just a bit too much credit too, but that's not as bad.

4:42 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

In the "Deadhead Sticker on a Cadillac" department, just the other day I saw a large luxury SUV with two bumper stickers on the back. The first read: "Trump/Pence," while the second read: "Expand Guantanamo, Bring Back Waterboarding." Just a little reminder that it isn't Trump's "working class base" that is the key to his support, but his more well off supporters--especially those authoritarians who work in law enforcement, military and security professions.

Reed--personally I don't see how anyone can say America has a "democracy" right now, and I'm not talking about Hillary and Gore being denied the presidency despite winning the popular vote or any such nonsense. Currently, we have so-called "elections" where the only candidates who can win reflect a very narrow sliver of public opinion and differ only on issues of minor importance such as identity politics.

Wafers--we have an escalation in the war against McDonald's employees who screw up customer orders only to be pummeled or have a gun pulled on them--now we have one McDonald's employee pulling a gun on another and pummeling him with it:

McDonald's employees fight, pull gun in front of customer

4:43 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

Like Hedges, West seems to still have hope-

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/14/america-is-spiritually-bankrupt-we-must-fight-back-together

5:15 PM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

Hi MB and all Wafers,

Lorenzo Riggins is an excellent pick for Oprah's running mate but I prefer Shaneka Torres! A good campaign promise/threat would be: All McDonald's restaurants will be serving bacon double cheeseburgers just like any Burger King, or Shaneka be shootin' up the McDonald's that don't!

Well the Trumpi is getting himself into more hot water with the mainstream media. The Orange Julius is both publicly denying and privately defending his "shithole countries" remark! Of course, there are reason why people from countries like Norway don't particularly care to come to the USA. One is that if you want to get by in this country, you have to endlessly compete with everybody else. The second is that the USA is, well, basically a shithole country. The third is, of course, is that the 'Murkin people are for almost the whole part turkeys.

Now from the American Culture gone viral abroad department: rioters trash several H & M boutiques in South Africa in protest over a monkey hoodie that the store was selling. The riots were organised by a radical leftist party, which means the USA isn't the only country with SJWs.

5:29 PM  
Anonymous West Coast Stan said...

Spinoza's Metaphysics and His Relationship To Hegel and the German Idealists

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/spinozas-metaphysics-relationship-hegel-german-idealists/

Great reading

10:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oprah is the perfect choice by the undead, neoliberal, corporate Democratic Party to stop Bernie in 2020. She’s even better than Michelle Obama, their backup plan:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/09/oprah-winfrey-neoliberal-capitalist-thinkers

12:42 AM  
Anonymous Megan said...

I don't know about Van Damme. I kind of think we should stick with Oprah/Riggins. Speaking of which, I looked Lorenzo up on YouTube, and I have to say that I was quite impressed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTpZB9b4u14

We have some fun at Mr. Riggin's expense, but I was actually rather touched by the pathos of the part where he says, "I ordered seven Mcdoubles and one chicken, but when I went outside to my truck and looked into the bag, I found that I had but SIX Mcdoubles." Alas, isn't that about the truth of things? We start off life so hopeful, wide-eyed and idealistic, believing in things like true love, nobility, and the essential goodness of other people..... But then, Fuck it! when we look in the bag for our seven Mcdoubles, there are but six Mcdoubles staring back at us! Sunt Lacrimae Rerum.

No, I say that now is not the time to waver in our support. Oprah/Riggins all the way!

Grandma,

Thanks for the great article on the Humanities. Very insightful and well-written. I was also interested in the part where you said "I am one of those who have suffered most from the dissolution of families, churches, communities...." Do you care to share, or is that too personal? It caught my attention, because it's precisely the loss of those things that has impoverished my own life.

4:03 AM  
Anonymous Pap said...

Today 69AD Otho seizes power in Rome proclaiming himself the Emperor, only rules for three mo.'s b4 committing suicide. Sixth emperor of Rome. The governor of Hispania Tarraconensis @ the time of the rebellion of Julius Vindex in Gaul, he seized the throne following Nero's suicide...

8:13 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Megan-

Quoting Virgil: nice touch.

Master-

You can't attack Wafers, or a subset of them. If you have a specific disagreement with someone, state it, and provide evidence for yr views. Elimlnate all Attitude.

mb

10:53 AM  
Anonymous Potato said...

Since you have predicting imminent American destruction personally for the last 30 years, and saying America has been on the way to imminent destruction for - depending on what book of yours one reads - anything from the last 70 to the last 200 years, why should we believe you that this time it is for real?

11:32 AM  
Anonymous Egg said...

Rome, Rome on the Strange ...

Chaotic, corrupt, incurious, infantile, grandiose, and obsessed with gaudy real estate, Donald Trump is of a Neronic temperament, David Remnick writes:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/the-increasing-unfitness-of-donald-trump

12:17 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Fellow Wafers-

I have some question for you: How many of you have actually left the USA? If you have, where did you go? And how has the experience been so far? Did you speak the language or have a job lined up?

I am trying to determine what country to relocate to in 2018. Canada is the obvious choice but my concern is that it is too close to the USA culturally (and physically- when the USA implosion comes). Having said that, it seems much more civilized than the US. Even their 'conservatives' are to the left of US democrats.

My heart says Scandinavia or Germany (the more I read of German culture, the more I like it) but I don't speak the languages. For kicks, I would learn toward Norway, Then, if anyone asks me why I immigrated I could say I was leaving trumpi's shithole...

BrotherMaynard

PS. Many thanks for the links to the Joe Rogan interview with Jordan Peterson. I was not aware. Peterson is a bit too didactic but this level of convo is better than 99% of the trash in the mainstream media.

1:35 PM  
Anonymous Grand said...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/27/the-language-animal-the-full-shape-of-human-linguistic-capacity-charles-taylor-review

The Language Animal by Charles Taylor, good work.

2:03 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

Somber apologies 'coz he's loathsome uncouth unsophisticated bubba​,​​ ​when Trump called them shitHole countries. The p.c high-priests are ​all ​upset that ​he said what every​ good amerikn​ ​already ​know​s​.​ Hillary, Oprah or Bernie would never use those hurtful words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlLqm3eDYMg
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pain-continues-after-war-for-american-drone-pilot-a-872726.html

Bryant saw a flash on the screen: the explosion. Parts of the building collapsed. The child had disappeared. Bryant had a sick feeling in his stomach.
"Did we just kill a ​kid?" he asked the man sitting next to him.
"Yeah, I guess that was a ​[shit] ​kid," the pilot replied.
"Was that a ​kid?" they wrote into a chat window on the monitor.
Then, someone they didn't know answered, someone sitting in a military command center somewhere in the world who had observed their attack. "No. That was a dog," the person wrote.
They reviewed the scene on video. A dog on two legs?

Obama didn't use the word. He just droned the shit out them shitHole people.​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8AFsBboxaE​

5:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Spud-

I've been predicting it since 2000 (Twilight bk), and I never said it was imminent. The problem is you come to the party rather late. The Wafers and I have discussed the various parameters of the American collapse for a while now, and I just don't have the energy to repeat that discussion for you personally. Something of a summary, however, is provided in an interview I did w/Nomi Prins for AlterNet a few yrs ago, and you can find it in AWTY, essay #9. Best of luck.

mb

5:46 PM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

Georgia I don't recall seeing you post before.

Regardless - I'm familiar with Lappe and none of my fav peak oil analysts and other intellectuals, Kunstler, Orlov, Friedemann, C. Martenson etc. ever mention her or her work as a serious thinker. I thumbed Diet for a Small Planet years ago and that seems to be obvious rational talking points and in her wheelhouse.

Amazon describes Ecomind, "In EcoMind, Frances Moore Lappé—a giant of the environmental movement—confronts accepted wisdom of environmentalism. Drawing on the latest research from anthropology to neuroscience and her own field experience, she argues that the biggest challenge to human survival isn't our fossil fuel dependency, melting glaciers, or other calamities. Rather, it's our faulty way of thinking about these environmental crises that robs us of power. Lappé dismantles seven common “thought traps”—from limits to growth to the failings of democracy— that belie what we now know about nature, including our own, and offers contrasting “thought leaps” that reveal our hidden power."

I found Ecomind as systemically dumb as Friedman in Hot, Flat, Crowded - although Friedman's description of the ad-hoc nature of the East and West grid was informative. Has her work affected anything or anyone beyond diet and food awareness, I doubt it. To me she is the soft rock of rock, the Windham Hill of Classical, the Breeze in Jazz, appeals to feel good extroverted progs but lacking in substance. Jordan Peterson is onto something with the damage dominance hierarchies do and male identity crisis. Kunstler has also explored that. Chomsky too. I've always been dismissive of religion, the bible, and ideology. Peterson is down on ideology up on metaphorical narrative in an evolutionary context for interpretation. That's rational in my estimation.

6:12 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Whatever happened to the Public Intellectual?


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/01/whatever-happened-public-intellectual%3Famp

6:17 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

Potato:

In addition to what MB suggested you read, you can also watch this video clip (from 2000) in which he says, "I'm pegging it [i.e., the collapse] for the later part of this [i.e., 21st] century."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGVB9qlfi3k&t=5m50s

Do your homework next time.

6:18 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Esca--indeed, I'm fucking fed up with douchebag liberals clutching their pearls over Trump's shithole comments while still venerating Saint Obarfa and now even rehabilitating the children's fingerpainter who occupied the Shit House before him. I used to love Michael Moore, especially his first film, Roger and Me, with it's dead on indictment of American capitalism. Yet Moore also has a man crush on the two Democratic assholes who as president cooperated with Republicans and signed most of the worst "free" trade agreements.

Meanwhile: Fast food pummeling goes big time (with annoying, pop up video of the pummeling): An argument over a missing cell phone led to a brawl at a Newark pizza place that involved at least 20 people, according to one witness.

And: "Good" moron with a gun executes teenager with a really stupid hairdo after a minor traffic accident: Witness to a killing: Rochester teen said 'I dare you,' and fellow motorist pulled trigger.

6:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

jj-

Actually, I received an award for being one in 2013, from the Media Ecology Ass'n. Maybe there is a god...

Master-

I'm wondering whether this is really the rt blog 4u, in that you can't seem to grasp my instructions abt not 'smearing' subsections of the bloggers here. I tell you to be specific, and you don't seem to understand what I mean by that. In general, I suggest you back away, take a deep breath, and post much much less, and think much much more. We have a certain way of doing things here that (trollfoons excepted--shit on them all you like) promotes civility and encourages intelligent dialogue. You haven't quite figured it out.

Bill-

Rochester is my home town. The guy who got shot may have possibly been the dumbest cluck on the planet. But speaking of absurd haircuts, why haven't Trumpi and Kim nuked each other by now?

mb

7:40 PM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

"I think we're all in a trance. We're walking around like zombies. I don't think we're even aware of ourselves or our own reaction to things." From My Dinner With Andre. So True!

8:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kashe-

A great film. In real life, Wally Shawn is a Buddhist. Meanwhile, here's a message from an anti-turkette:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/15/margaret-atwood-feminist-backlash-metoo

No way to stop hysteria, of course.

mb

9:17 PM  
Blogger Sue Caldwell said...

The Barbaric Heart of an adolescent nation stews in its own entropy, and we wonder why the center does not hold. Our mind games stand behind the devastation of place and economy. I've been an admirer of Curtis White for many years, and this book is a brilliant summation of his message.

The above paragraph is an endorsement by James Kunstler of a book by a genuine Wafer writer. The book is titled The Barbaric Heart - Faith,Money, and the Crisis of nature by Curtis White. Curtis also wrote The Middle Mind: Why Americans Dont Think For Themselves and edited a book titled The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work. One of the writers featured in this book is James Kunstler.

The publisher of Curtis White's book p3books which has also published a book by Nomi Prins who has endorsed Morris' books.

9:48 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Sue-

Curtis also did an endorsement for TMWQ.

mb

9:56 PM  
Blogger NeilW said...

This article seems to vindicate what you say about Japan, Dr Berman.
Regards,
Cranston Butterfield IV (the IIIrd was already taken), DDS, LLB, BA, MD, MA etc

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/japan-no-populism-reasons-by-ian-buruma-2018-01

2:09 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Neil-

Very gd essay, thank you. I am impressed by yr string of degrees.

mb

2:31 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

What you could be listening to instead of NPR:

https://thenewantique.blog/2018/01/12/in-our-time-melvyn-bragg-and-journalistic-irrelevance/

3:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kundera seems to be pretty on point:

"The opposite of such humour is kitsch, a world from which irony is banished. Laugh at kitsch at your peril, Kundera writes, for to do so is to risk social death: ‘In the realm of kitsch, the dictatorship of the heart reigns supreme… in the realm of kitsch, everything must be taken quite seriously.’"

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-joke-still-no-laughing-matter/20777#.Wl3qyEtG0Wo

Meanwhile in California:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/15/twelve-charged-defying-california-el-cajon-ban-feeding-homeless

Kanye

7:12 AM  
Anonymous Abe said...

Yesterday was a nice day to read MLK's fascinating(!) My Pilgrimage To Nonviolence. He learned from Enlightenment thinkers, some say rejecting Marx & Nietzsche & some of traditional Christianity, embracing a complex human nature, & of course Gandhi's nonviolence (not the same as pacifism). https://t.co/9lCIyk8sJ

Though with MLK, I’m not sure I buy he truly would have that shallow (as in non-existent) a reading but I do think being a civil rights activist who hadn’t forcefully enough denounced communism in the height of the red scare could be pretty dangerous. Hard to fault a guy. He was more socialistic in his last couple years

9:21 AM  
Anonymous Husk said...

Diogenes, great read. I wish MB had his own radio hour ... w/ Wafer calls and guests ... how informative, deep, and enriching that would be. Oh, one can dream.

9:36 AM  
Anonymous Dulouz Jr said...

Interesting article in The Guardian (Jan. 16)about #Me Too movement by Margaret Atwood. One quote : "In times of extremes, extremists win. Their ideology becomes a religion, anyone who doesn't puppet their views is seen as an apostate, a heretic or a traitor, and moderates in the middle are annihilated."

10:31 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Husk-

You can bet my 1st guest wd be Lorenzo Riggins.

mb

11:47 AM  
Anonymous Gabe said...

https://evolution-institute.org/focus-article/blueprint-for-the-global-village/

David Sloan Wilson's The EvoInstitute is making a very serious study of Norway as a case study of cultural evolution at the national scale leading to a high quality of life.

Another deficit in the president’s knowledge of history: Many, if not most of the Norwegian immigrants who came to the US in the 20thC were socialists.

11:59 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Michael Burgess writes:

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Dr. Alfred McCoy sums up perhaps much of the foreign relations damage and decline of US influence by Trump in 2017 and so far this year. McCoy seems to prefer US imperialism to any other country's imperialism - guess that's understandable. I am surprised that between the US military, intelligence agencies and what's left of the State Department that should be aware of what McCoy is aware of that radical action against Trump hasn't occurred. Maybe it will happen this year. Of course then the president will be Pence who doesn't strike me as an empire maintainer.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176373/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_tweeting_while_rome_burns/#more

12:01 PM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

A future Secretary of Defense, ready to right wrongs, thrash the heathen, and bring democracy to the benighted?

Senator Tom Cotton, R-AR and the youngest senator in the Congress. AB Harvard, JD Harvard Law, US Army captain, 101st Airborne, Iraq and Afghanistan service, Bronze Star, Ranger tab. The very model of a modern major general.

Under the heading “You say “shithole,” I hear “shithouse,” the following item:
“Three White House officials said [Senator David] Perdue [R-GA] and [Senator Tom] Cotton [R-AR] told the White House that they heard “shithouse” rather than “shithole,” allowing them to deny the president’s comments on television over the weekend. The two men initially said publicly that they could not recall what the president said.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/01/16/sens-cotton-and-perdue-are-outed-for-lying-on-trumps-behalf/




1:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jas-

What shitheads. Tomato, tomahto. As for G&S:

"In matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General"

mb

1:33 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

2nd the idea of Dr. Berman radio hour....The Intercept Radio Network?

Is this an omen or maybe the last Christian message to the world b4 'The Donald' ushers in the age of nuclear apocalypse?

The End is Near.

2:19 PM  
Anonymous Jimmy said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/books/review/global-literature.html

To read at least one book about every country in the world-- great idea for a reading project ,of anthropology and world travel thru books

A highly new monastic endeavor.

2:30 PM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

Hi MB and all Wafers!

Well today we have another data point in the onward and downward trajectory of America! Parents held on $18 million bail after house of horrors discovered in Perris, California.

"A 17-year-old girl called police after escaping from her family’s home where she and her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, some so malnourished officers said at first believed all were children even though seven are adults.

"The girl, who was so small officers initially believed she was 10, called 911 and was met by police who interviewed her and went to the family home in Perris, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. They found several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark, foul-smelling surroundings, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department."

Take a good look at the parents' mugshots, such fine representatives of this one exceptional nation under God.

3:33 PM  
Anonymous Boar's Head said...

Dr. B/Wafers:

As always, I've been reading all of your posts and continuing my routine of lurking and posting occasionally. Thank you to all for your insights into the looney bin known as America.

I've long beleived that professional sports are a major propaganda outlet and it turns out that my suspicions are dead on. I recently discovered a cool website, http://www.thefixisin.net, run by a cynical sportswriter by the name of Brian Tuohy. I read his book "THE FIX IS IN: The Showbiz Manipulations of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL & NASCAR" and had all of my suspicions that pro sports are about as legitimate as pro wrestling confirmed.

I highly recommend it to all Wafers that haven't yet completely detached from giving a crap about sports. This book will surely disgust you to the point of giving up that particular vice.

Lastly, about 17 percent of all Americans are on some sort of psychiatric drug, and 18.5% suffer from mental illness in a given year. Check out the links below; we really are living in an insane asylum.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/1-in-6-americans-takes-a-psychiatric-drug/
https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers

Hustling is literally driving this country insane!

4:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Regarding the Berman Radio Hour: you are all invited to suggest names for it. I'm thinking "The Great Seer Speaks," or perhaps "Bulletins (Droppings?) from the Shithole" might be gd. "The Wafer Hour" is kinda neutral; "For Whom the Bell Tolls" might be more to the pt. Then we'll need a theme song. Kate Smith had "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain." If this were a TV program, we could use Kim's buttocks as the moon. (Word has it she's abt to launch another potentially great intellect into the world.) What a world of possibilities.

mb

ps: Also: "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye," "Seminal Ejaculation," etc.

5:21 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

https://youtu.be/8Crf7dubJ3k?t=150
“We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway,… Over a period of three years or so, we killed off, what, 20 percent of the population?” — General Curtis LeMay. “Pyongyang, a city of half a million people before 1950, was said to have had only two buildings left intact,” — Robert Neer’s 2013 book, Napalm. "I have never seen such devastation. I have seen, I guess, as much blood and disaster as any living man, and it just curdled my stomach, the last time I was there. After I looked at that wreckage and those thousands of women and children … I vomited.” — General Douglas MacArthur

Amerikns jizz in their pants just talking of violence (on shithole people, of course). It's the Wetico in their DNA.
https://youtu.be/5Gnb-IWbBAk?t=20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEhmoed0HUk

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” — Thomas Jefferson

5:22 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Esca-

Thank you. We have so much to be proud of. But then, at least we have strength, right?:

http://beta.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldberg-diversity-strength-20180115-story.html#nt=oft09a-4gp1

mb

5:35 PM  
Anonymous Vince said...

"The O.D.D. Hour" (Over, Done, & Downward) Radio Program.

Our mission statement: "Urine for a treat".

Peace,
Vince I

5:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Vince-

Not bad. Another possibility is "We're No. 1!":

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/01/15/army-vet-sues-va-over-scalpel-left-in-body-after-surgery

mb

6:04 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

How about "The Scatological Hour" or "The Union Jacks" for a Berman Radio Hour?

Meanwhile, here's Philip Roth:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/books/review/philip-roth-interview.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=86E87BC501E69C36FF7151A08A2AA438&gwt=pay

Miles

6:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Very interesting interview. I like this quote from Mencken, who (Roth says) famously described American democracy as “the worship of jackals by jackasses." Even truer today, of course.

mb

ps: Maybe, "The Crowbar and K-Y Jelly Hour"

6:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Check it out:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/opinion/aziz-ansari-babe-sexual-harassment.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

8:18 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

That Ansari story gives new meaning and impetus to becoming New Monastic Individuals. We now have to be as celibate as monks to avoid being accused of sexual harassment.

8:36 PM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

@ Esca, MacAurthur wanted to nuke North Korea to oblivion. "“Between 30 and 50 atomic bombs would have more than done the job,” he said in an interview shortly after the end of the war. “Dropped under cover of darkness, they would have destroyed the enemy’s air force on the ground, wiped out his maintenance and his airmen.”" https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/18/why-does-north-korea-hate-us/

I believe that was part of why Truman had to rein him in.

The article states the U.S. killed about 3 million N. Koreans during the "conflict" of the 50's. It's astounding to think of the devastation--in human lives and in infrastructure destruction. It's no wonder N. Korea doesn't have any warm and fuzzy feelings toward the U.S.

8:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Chris-

Exactly rt. And this feminism gone wild is actually gd, from a declinist pt of view, because it eats away at the fabric of healthy human relations. Misery leeches the spirit out of the nation (what little spirit is left). Note that Marg Atwood and Cath Deneuve--very smart women--are not Americans.

mb

8:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nice pic of 3 American turkettes:

https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2018/0112/Now-even-some-tech-firms-acknowledge-tech-s-downside

Plus quote from major turkey at end, who actually thinks technology is neutral.

I suspect we shall continue to commit cultural suicide.

mb

10:18 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

More on Aziz:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/17/assault-is-not-a-feeling-the-aziz-ansari-story-shows-why-language-matters

4:07 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

We have discussed the possibility of a foreign Suez Moment for the US. The domestic one occurred when Trumpi got elected: this said it all. But on the foreign front, altho he has done a lot of damage, there hasn't been one decisive event that has made it clear to the world that we are washed up. (Altho a series of 'semi-events' could conceivably add up) As I stated earlier, part of the problem is that the rest of the world thinks Trumpo is exceptional, not representative of America at large, when in fact he is. For example, it's likely that a very large % of Americans (who never travel outside of the US) agree w/his statement that all of those Third World countries are shitholes, but the rap gets pinned on him alone. And then, when Trumpi ran for pres, he basically characterized the *US* as a shithole--crime in ghettos, infrastructure disintegrating, laughable school systems, Third-World-style airports, and so on--hence, his campaign to Make America Great Again.

In a word, I'm getting impatient for a foreign Suez Moment. 'Shitholes' was a nice start to the year, but as History's chosen agent for American dissolution, he's going to hafta do a lot better than that. I suppose a nuclear attack on North Korea wd do the job--as wd one on Paris--but I'm hoping that we might possibly be just a tad less insane. Problem is, given the fact that Trumpo is someone governed by his limbic brain, it's rather difficult to predict what the Grand Turkey will do next. (I certainly never saw 'shitholes' coming.) But in lieu of a foreign SM not yet occurring, I'm thinking that it might be fun for us, just as a Futures Science exercise, to create scenarios for such an event--or events. Liv, as some of you know, is mulling my suggestion that she urinate on Bethesda b4 departing the US; a wonderful possibility, indeed. But why can't Trumpi do that with some foreign capital? Take an Army helicopter, fly over, let's say, Amsterdam, pee on it, and then declare "I don't really like the Dutch." Or maybe put American troops on the streets of Hong Kong?

Wafers are encouraged to come up with various foreign SM scenarios.

mb

4:45 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

I dont have any foreign scenarios at this time but I would like to mention a book I'm reading. Utopia Drive by Erik Reece has an accurate diagnosis of American disintegration and a very interesting history of some of the more prominent alternative communities that were formed in the early 1800s as ways of escaping the American culture of the time and/or providing alternatives to hustler capitalism - private property, industrialization, concentration of capital, abusive working conditions, low pay, etc- that was even then the economic option favored by most Americans. Reece chronicles their rise and fall for the purpose of remembering and preserving their best ideas, some of which might be crafted onto MB's Monastic Option to help those of us stuck in this shithole (or is it shithouse?) culture survive as the Great Collapse.

Speaking of Monastic Options - I live in northeastern NC and would be interested in the possibility of meeting with other Wafers who might live in the area. Anyone out there interested?

5:13 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

pole-

Just checked it out on Amazon; looks v. gd. This is (part of) the alternative tradition I talk about in WAF, wh/got ignored or marginalized in favor of hustling and a life of robopathology (see Lewis Yablonsky).

Gd that you want to connect w/other Wafers; face-to-face is so much better than virtual contact, esp. if Wafers intend to take over the world. Our Summit Mtgs in NY are great for this reason; wish I cd make it an annual event. We reread the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, discuss the status of our (hidden) arsenal Upstate, compare various weapons systems, and plan where our 1st pt of attack might be (NY Public Library, probably). All of this has created a very strong bond. All we need now is a secret recognition signal, such as the Van Buren Boys had on Seinfeld.

mb

7:56 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Anti-hookworm medication that costs 4 cents in Tanzania costs up to $400 in the United States.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/12/11/567753423/why-a-pill-thats-4-cents-in-tanzania-costs-up-to-400-in-the-u-s

Which is the shithole country again?

8:20 AM  
Anonymous BH said...

I had a great uncle over in Korea when the war started. He was part of the occupation army and joined right after World War Two. He said we were lied to over here about the Korean War. Our government put Syngman Rhee up to invading the North or attacking them first, but his army stank so bad the North threw his back after a day or so of fighting. When he came home he reviewed many of the newspaper accounts and figured they were all in cahoots with the government in the lie North Korea invaded the South Korea. He passed away two years ago. And he was a rare man among veterans. He talked about the stuff he saw, he had to do in war, or saw others do in war. Scared the bejeezus out of me and his grandsons.

8:48 AM  
Anonymous Mike Kelly said...

Hi Dr. B and Wafers everywhere,

This morning I read Dr. B's suggestions to come up with American Suez moments, and then I heard these two pieces on the car radio as I drove to work.

US Naval vessels colliding with oil tankers:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/16/578478707/naval-commanders-in-2-deadly-ship-collisions-to-be-charged-with-negligent-homici

Trumpi is taking his America First message to a globalist conference. Wonder how that will go over?

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/15/trumps-going-to-davos-where-america-first-will-be-his-buzzword.html

I don't think either of these events is a Suez moment, but we're getting closer!

8:53 AM  
Anonymous Brent said...

1st cinema shown in 35 yrs in Saudi Arabia is the god damn emoji movie. Our imperialism has many faces:
:-)
:-(

9:05 AM  
Anonymous Tate said...

Martin Luther King Jr. taught a Social Philosophy course at Morehouse in 1961&62. Here’s the reading list and an exam. (Not too much different from what John Rawls taught at Harvard!)

http://dailynous.com/2018/01/16/martin-luther-king-jr-s-social-philosophy-course/

10:09 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Tate-

Impressive! Altho the omission of the work of Rom Mittney is a glaring one. Exam question: "Elaborate on the 5 cornerstones of the Mittnaic philosophy. To what extent would you call Mittnism a liberationist doctrine?"

mb

10:58 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

Re: the naval accident. I think Americans are addicted to scapegoating in an incredible way. Assigning blame in an over the top way is our response to problems, rather than fixing the system that put irresponsible people in charge.

I am sure the captains of those ships made major mistakes, and should be held liable, but this kind of response exonerates the system from blame. Why were those people in charge? Maybe our credentialing and training systems are actually not that good? Maybe they just won the popularity contest of American life and didn't really know what they were doing?

Every time a high profile or high status individual goes on trial or suffers scandal, the society that granted them that status is also really on trial, though that reality is obscured by scapegoating.

12:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I'm beginning to wonder if Aziz Ansari is a terrorist, and that what he did on his date was an Act of Terrorism. Shd he be sent to Guantanamo? That's the real question facing the United States today.

mb

1:36 PM  
Blogger Mohamed said...

The Saudis are finally civilized. Now they just need strip club and liquor store

2:29 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Potato-
Re: imminent collapse. To paraphrase, Rome didn't collapse in a day. :) The USA is currently has been and is collapsing. The collapse accelerated around 1980 or so with the election of ray-gun (extreme militarism, funding globally of right wing militias, massive cuts to social services, cuts to infrastructure, union busting, war on drugs, erosion of civil liberties, massive deficits, massive tax cuts for the 1%). Trumpi is ray-gun on steriods.

However, most Americans do not care. They are brainwashed.

The evidence of this is all around you as Wafers document daily on this blog:
* physical infrastructure decay
* cultural decay
* moral decay
* mass flooding and wildfires but our government prohibits mentioning global warming or other 'science based' causes
* extreme income and wealth inequality - beyond the gilded age and yet congress cuts taxes on the 1%
* social security and medicare are bankrupt and will be even more so once trumpi raids them
* horrible schools and universities paralyzed by political correctness
* mass incarceration yet horrible level of violence
* mass amounts of suicide and other deaths of despair

Really, who could disagree at this point? Do you think things are getting better? Of course, I wish things were not so. However, I can't deny the obvious.

-BrotherMaynard


2:34 PM  
Anonymous Canadian Guy said...

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/15/remembering-martin-luther-kings-radical-class-politics/


To Tate To Abe

- Jon of Canada

2:56 PM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

MB that sparked a question - was Rachel Dolezal a terrorist? From what I remember she was claiming an ethnicity that she clearly didn't belong to. It's all very confusing anymore.

Anyway, I am currently reading Reenchantment, my fourth read of your books. Thank you.

Kashe.

3:14 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bro-

Thank you. The 1st serious declinist alarm was by Andrew Hacker in 1970, "The End of the American Era," altho C. Vann Woodward correctly predicted our fall in 1953. Since Hacker, the declinist literature has been coming thick and fast. All of this, including the Twilight bk (2000), is all of a piece, i.e. a cumulative documentation of a nation on its last legs. You hafta be pretty blind to look at it and say, "See, it hasn't happened yet." As you pt out, collapse is generally not an overnight event (the USSR was an exception, as were the Mayans).

mb

3:25 PM  
Anonymous Pedro said...

"Catastrophe did not require a monster running things, just a moment of head-to-head dispute about something hard to give up, a couple of wrong guesses, or a run of bad luck"

World War Three by mistake

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/daniel-ellsberg-nuclear-worrier/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/world-war-three-by-mistake

HIGHLY RECOMMENDING BOTH BOOKS

4:50 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

@DioGenes, thanks for the BBC4 link, In-Our-Times. Civilized intelligent discussion on wide variety of subjects.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/wvSdFMv6yP0m6W5J8xyhBh/the-in-our-time-listeners-top-10

NMI for men is MGTOW ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx-4s1gGOkA
Who's turn to be on top tonight? The Equilibrium Dilemma - Briffault's Law.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/magazine/does-a-more-equal-marriage-mean-less-sex.html

Jordan Peterson : The cause of relational discord is weak women against weak men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2mHcp_Pt8U

6:07 PM  
Anonymous Static Stoic said...

“If judged purely by the normal standards of literary style and good taste, almost unremittingly atrocious" - David Bentley Hart on Revelation

The most striking feature of this review of radical new translation of the scriptural New Testament is to see how Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens are used as foils for people of faith to portray atheists as irrationally bigoted. That like it or not (and I don’t), we’ve allowed unreasonable men like these to become the public face for atheism. This is ironic, because they portray themselves as rational and skeptical, but their own arguments against religion often fall short in this regard. What a shame.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/the-new-testament-a-translation-david-bentley-hart/546551/

ordered it from Amazon after this:

"I hope I’m getting across the beautiful paradox of his New Testament—that it is simultaneously a kind of feline, Nabokovian modernist project, a meta-text in a matrix of eccentric scholarship, and a wild rush at the original upset, the original amazement, the earthshakingly bad grammar of the Good News. “And opening his mouth he taught them, saying: ‘How blissful the destitute, abject in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of the heavens.’ ” This is from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s gently administered program for pulling down thrones, decapitating idols, and jamming eternity into the present tense. Hart opted for blissful over the traditional blessed, he writes, because the original Greek, makarios, “suggested a special intensity of delight and freedom from care that the more shopworn renderings no longer quite capture.” So now we hear it, and are shocked by it: not the ambiguous benediction of blessed, but the actual bliss, right now, of destitution, the emancipation of everything being stripped away. It comes at us like white light, this generosity of emptiness, and because we’re not angels, we shield our eyes."

6:15 PM  
Anonymous Shawn said...

https://www.axios.com/saudi-arabia-sends-2-billion-to-war-torn-yemen-1516219755-36487578-9202-4e9b-a995-fb87709117e2.html

Sorry we bombed your country.

7:00 PM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

Regarding H1B's and outsourcing again and not being "technically competitive" arguments, a former Bangladeshi co-worker remarked recently after I asked him what he thought.

"H1B L1 have lobbyists that want to make the politicians and public believe they are the best programmers and that's why they are getting those jobs. But 70% of H1Bs come from a town called Hyderabad, and within 150 miles of that area. That doesn't account for even 5% of Indian population. They conspire to keep that control. It is a money laundering scheme, once they can take money out of purview of IRS, it lands in tax haven.

Why do you think Microsoft and Google hired Indian origin, because they did help with laundering. Indians didn't build Microsoft or Google, now they play up these Indians as those creating technology and jobs. H1Bs create jobs for future H1Bs or their children."

7:20 PM  
Anonymous A Cassandra said...

MB + Chris, re: Aziz ...

Zeus, The Ur-Grabber issues his long-awaited apology.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/zeus-the-apology/

7:33 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

America and it’s way of life nicely summed up in this old clip from the Twilight Zone...


https://youtu.be/TY6ZCHw3oA8

10:18 PM  
Anonymous AaronA said...

"The actual bliss, right now, of destitution, the emancipation of everything being stripped away. It comes at us like white light, this generosity of emptiness, and because we’re not angels, we shield our eyes."And

Thanks for this!

This is the true message of all religion, but how quickly it gets buried!

In Morris Berman terms, religion is the problem (Nomadic Spirituality - a masterpiece!) and he's both right and wrong. (In my interpretation)

Religions like Christianity and Buddhism start with this clear message that true bliss lies in not striving for superiority, which is a compensation for a crushing sense of lack and inferiority, but rather in accepting our individual nothingness as part of a cosmic whole.

In these terms, early religion is an attempt to subvert an emerging verticality and return to horizontality (brilliant way of conceptualizing this issue, Thanks Dr Berman).(again, my view. Berman disagrees)

But right from the start, elements from within the religion work to transform into the opposite message, and the mature Church of any religion is always about harsh vertically (striving for superiority).

But the original message always persists as a faint echo in the core of the religion, wrapped underneath layers.

And so, with a great deal of caution, and with the conceptual equipment provided by Dr Berman and similar thinkers, religious texts, especially Buddhist can be immensely valuable to Wafers.

12:24 PM  
Blogger flanagle said...

To Brother Maynard-You asked if anyone here has left. Yeah, I escaped nearly seven years ago. No interest in returning either. I will be happy to chat with you or anyone who is thinking it over. I`m not selling real estate or anything else. I`m at yahoo.com with the same name as here. Good luck.

1:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

flan-

Pls send messages to latest post. No one reads the old stuff. Thank you.

mb

1:14 PM  

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