Kunstler on his social vision:
The sclerosis of American life is shocking. If you go further north up the Hudson River, to Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, you’ll see a nation that seems ready to crawl off and die. There, it appears too far gone to even put up a proxy fight on a video screen. Frankly, I don’t want that version of America to survive — the America of chain stores, and muscle cars, and grown men obsessed with video games, drugs, and pornography, and women decorated like cannibals, and the vast, crushing purposelessness of it all. I have no doubt we’re heading into a convulsion that will wring much of this junk and dross into the backwaters of history.
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Insofar as one is lucky enough to remain sane it is not too hard to find fault with Brave New America, where a seemingly endless array of amusements lull the American mind and degrade his form, but under what banner is Kunstler willing to make his stand? And if not under the banner of traditional Western civilization – the white man’s cosmos – than what other (if any)? The Oriental? Some imagined enlightened past? Without a banner to rally around we can only play the part of Jeremiah when what we really need is a Moses.
Perhaps Kunstler belongs to that peculiar paleoconservative persuasion that is apt to find a superior sense of virtue and aesthetic quality in some earlier era of Western civilization whilst taking offense at much of what that era stood for (if pressed too firmly on the matter). But if so then he’s merely joined the ranks of the cowardly conservative set, who aren’t willing to defend what they truly love.
Perhaps Kunstler belongs to that peculiar paleoconservative persuasion that is apt to find a superior sense of virtue and aesthetic quality in some earlier era of Western civilization whilst taking offense at much of what that era stood for (if pressed too firmly on the matter). But if so then he’s merely joined the ranks of the cowardly conservative set, who aren’t willing to defend what they truly love.
Nope:
“And, remember, I write the following as a registered Democrat (and an Obama voter in my primary state).”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5bpxdk
So it’s likely that when he laments the “crushing purposelessness” of modern life, he’s envisioning an ideal world where we find our purpose in crusading against racism, homophobia, class differences, sexism, etc.
Or maybe he just thinks that the Dems are better on his one big issue. The Republicans, after all, are probably more popular amongst (white) suburbanites.
Kunstler had some negative remarks about “gender confusion” a few days ago. He claims to be alienated from the Democratic Party.
Okay, so some of his instincts are good. He sees that material well-being is not the be-all and end-all of existence and that, in many ways, it has harmed us.
But isn’t this one of the guys who thought the laughable “Y2K” bug would wipe us out? There is hating the current system for its soullessness and then there is predicting disaster after disaster, which never really happens.
If we’ll end, it’ll be with a whimper and not the bang this guy imagines. The system has more genius in it than this guy knows.
Still, it’s hard to fault him. His heart is in the right place.
That’s saying quite a lot these days, actually.
Not to nitpick but the Y2K bug was a serious problem that would have produced disaster of epic proportions had not billions of dollars had been spent to correct the problem.
However, Peak Oil is real and not amount of “alternate” energy fuels or wishful thinking is going to change that.
I didn’t take Kunstler seriously either when I first heard about him four or five years ago. The price of a barrel of oil has more than quadrupled since then.
Yes, peak oil is real. And if it is serious enough to break the back of economic globalism then we might finally have a chance to correct some things.
I would maintain that contemporary economic globalism is what’s propping up the current social order and all of it’s lies.
The ‘revolt’ of the Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday and Friday was interesting.
However, the story has barely received any coverage because a ‘strange creature’ washed up on a New York beach. How convenient.
Glad to see you are back.
I don’t know what happened and don’t care but ask you to stay up and strong. You are after all, of my generation.
I’ve been too busy with work to post much lately.
slow death of american suburbia?
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-ominous-sound-of-jingle-mail-the-death-of-the-american-suburbs-884251.html
On one had, Kunstler is no Pat Buchanan. On the other, he reaches people that the Right won’t reach and urges them to care about personal prosperity and self-actualization. You won’t find a quote like the above on Fox News.