Things Fall Apart

[proldic]

OK, heads up. I don't know how long this is going to last, but something is distilling in the US, out of what's been in the air. And it ain't lookin' good. <br><br>I don't want to fuel alarmist thinking, but I got to post about this one. A quick drive downtown today and I just got to feeling there was this manic bad vibe with the people and the traffic (you can judge the people's mood by the traffic flow btw). <br><br>Then I get home and read this about the west coast, from Brenda Stardom -- that's when I know this shit's for real:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>This May Sound Crazy - That's the subject of a post found on the hometown punk message board. This post didn't sound crazy to me at all:<br><br>I had to drive a circle around Los Angeles yesterday for business. LA Santa Monica Valley ect. It was really weird out there. I got cut off several times saw people fighting each other car to car obnoxious behavior yes more than normal. Got boxed in at two parking lots shoved out of the way by some bald yuppy at the bank while he was trying to get to the merchant account line. After that, night time, I dont think ive scene so many ambulances fire trucks and cop cars at scenes of crimes or accidents in so many places at the same time.<br><br>All and all I see people behaving irrational more so than the normal LA asshole.<br><br>Yeah you say that probably its just 3 day weekend people are just trying to get out of town. Partly yes.<br><br>But I think the devastation in Louisiana and people that see the Anarchy on TV and people behaving like animals in post holocaust has had maybe a subconscious or unconscious effect on the behavior of the everyday joe who would normally be different, but has picked up some every man for himself attitude.<br><br>There were others who didn't think he was crazy. It matters not this was Southern California because people there are scared something akin to Katrina will happen to them and what then? The above post illustrates how fear can manifest from events thousands of miles away...<br>People are outraged and scared.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.brendastardom.com/arch.asp?ArchID=729">www.brendastardom.com/arc...ArchID=729</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[chiggerbit]

What do you think is going on? Usually this brings people together, builds a sense of community, bridges those gaps. Is it this polarization that has been fostered in the last few years? What the heck has happened to us? My own suspicion is it is the Rush Dumbo-Limbo talk, the Paul Harveys and Pat Robertsons, Fox News. They have much to answer for. <p></p><i></i>

[rain]

did you read the comments thread from Hoagland's blog yesterday? someone there was reporting that another person, from Cal, had just picked up and moved to Denver.<br>what are the other animals doing ? I mean the four-legged ones. their behaviour can be a good indication if something really is up.<br>I'm presuming Prol. that you are also referring to the psyop component. the spreading of the 'meme' or 'virus'. one consolation that comes to mind, is that R.I. is a place where we get a chance to observe 'how things work', and maybe then, at the very least, stand clear of the whirlwind.<br>meanwhile, has anyone had a look at what's going on in the rest of the world lately. it's a bit crazy out there too. typhoons, earthquakes, crashes,... I noticed a lot of talk along the lines of 'well, the blacks aren't going to be happy about this'. (sheesh). helter skelter? not yet, but they're working on it.<br> <p></p><i></i>

[hanshan]

<br><br>Les yeux cernés à la facon des châteaux dans leur ruine <br>Une bure de ravins entre elle et son dernier regard <br>Par un temps délicieux de printemps <br>Quand les fleurs fardent la terre <br>Cet abandon de tout <br>Et tout les désirs des autres à son gré <br>Sans qu'elle y songe <br>Sa vie aucune vis sinon la vie <br>Sa poitrine est sans ombre et son front ne sait pas <br>Que sa cheuvelure ondulée le berce obstinément. <br><br>Des mots quels mots noir ou Cévennes <br>Bambou respire ou renoncule <br>Parler c'est se servir de ses pieds pour marcher <br>De ses mains pour racler les draps comme un mourant <br>Le yeux ouverts sont sans serrure <br>Sans effort on a la bouche et les oreilles <br>Une tache de sang n'est pas un soleil accablant <br>Ni la pâleur une nuit sans sommeil qui s'en va. <br><br>La liberté est plus incompréhensible encore que la visite du médecin <br>De quel médecin une chandelle dans le désert <br>Au fond du jour la faible lueur d'une chandelle <br>L'éternité a commencé et finira avec le lit <br>Mais pour qui parles-tu puisque tu ne sais pas <br>Puisque tu ne veux pas savoir <br>Puisque tu ne sais plus <br>Par respect <br>Ce que parler veut dire. <br><br>- 1932 -<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/filmnoir.html" target="top">www.brightlightsfilm.com/filmnoir.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/contents/MOTDAX_toc.html" target="top">www.hup.harvard.edu/contents/MOTDAX_toc.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br> <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The perfect storm and the feral city</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>By Tom Engelhardt <br><br>The headline read, "Direct hit in New Orleans could mean a modern Atlantis"; the first paragraph of the story read, "More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as [the] 140-mph hurricane churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years." That was USA Today and the only catch was - the piece had been written September 14, 2004 as Hurricane Ivan seemed to be barreling toward New Orleans. <br> <br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GI07Aa02.html" target="top">www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GI07Aa02.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><br><br>....<br> <br> <br> <p></p><i></i>

[hanshan]

<br><br><br>....<br><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://webmonkey.wired.com/netizen/97/18/katz0a.html" target="top"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Media Hysteria, Part I: <br>Epidemic of Panic </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <br><br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Media hysteria occurs when tectonic plates shift and the culture changes - whether from social changes or new technology. <br><br>It manifests itself when seemingly new fears, illnesses, or anxieties - recovered memory, chronic fatigue syndrome, alien abduction, seduction by Internet molesters, electronic theft - are described as epidemic disorders in need of urgent recognition, redress, and attention. </em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br><br><br>.... <p></p><i></i>

[Sokolova]

It would be nice and easy if we could say that there was no truth in this - but I think there is. Unfortunately Showalter's book (which is being flagged in this article), is not a real attempt to address this hysteria, rather it's a politically motivated way of dismissing many contemporary issues as being largely imaginary. In its way it is just as hysterical and fantasy-prone as the worst kind of conspiracy-nut on the web.<br><br>The true enemy of truth is the failure of discrimination between reality and fantasy. The fascists are trying to drown truth in a sea of relativism - as another poster observed here - and we are unwittingly aiding them every time we give credence to an unsupported rumour, and don't even try to distinguish the possible from the actual. <p></p><i></i>

[Ted the dog]

I live in L.A....I haven't really noticed what she's saying. L.A. will always have assholes. <br><br>IMO, if people are acting cranky or rude or disrespectful towards their fellow man right now, it's because gas prices are high.....and the scores of people in this city that are living way beyond their means by buying an Escalade and designer clothes while only making $40k a year and living in a 2 bedroom apartment with their parents, are frantic because they know the "richie rich" era is coming to an end. seriously. it's been escalating (Escalade-ing?) for a while now. pretty soon it will be impossible for the "have nots" to emulate the "haves" like they are currently. (why you'd want to emulate an obnoxious douche bag that owns a pearlescent white Escalade is beyond me, though)<br><br>things are going to get so bad with gas and money that people are going to have to throw in the towel and admit that they don't the money they try to appear to have. that's going to be a tough pill to swallow for the multitudes of people that have been raised on MTV. if you don't have the money, you're not a "playa"...the thing is, NO ONE has the money, so the image is an illusion in the first place.<br><br><br>Personally, I chalk most of this behavior up to this.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[AnnaLivia]

"NO ONE has the money"<br><br>i know where the money is.<br><br>i know where enough money is to ensure every single family on the planet has the equivalent of US $50,000.00 per year.<br><br>i know who earned that money, too, but you're not going to find it in THEIR pockets until you help the human species realize that overpay/underpay is killing us all.<br><br>try to picture a world where every single family is self-earning, and finally receiving, $50,000 a year.<br><br>we don't have to change the world. we have only to reason out what would make us happy, and proceed in that direction.<br><br>we really already know what would make us happy. we just don't act in accord with what we believe.<br><br>humans are hilarious. <p></p><i></i>

[thrulookingglass]

The clock is ticking people and all of us here should realize that we are circling the drain right now. Some people are wondering why Bush would let the storm hit (make it hit). We are in the last throws. All of this culling/massacres, whether here or in Iraq or Afghanistan or clandestine wars that we don’t hear shit about are about having less people to deal with when the final shitstorm hits, whether it is privileged mouths to feed after the next disaster or the poor masses to be drawn into “labor camps”. There have been comments made to Jeff’s blog – they’ve pacified the opposition. We have become so sinfully selfish in America. No one gives a shit about his or her neighbor. Ok, so some of you out there actually have a bbq with the neighbors and you kids skin their knees together. Please! What’s that saying keeping up with the Jones?! Your neighbors are now your competition! Who can own the most shit! Look the Hatfields got a new beemer! Those assholes. And how bad does it have to get before people look after each other?! Apparently you have to flood a whole city for anyone to lift their head from the sand. I felt a huge change in society post 9/11, and I mean days after. Everyone realized that day that you could got to work assuming a normal day and never come back! After that it was “I’m gonna get mine and get the fuck out, screw the rest of you!” People have been drawn into a sewer of immoral self-absorption that only fetid pseudo-capitalism could deep fry and serve with a smile. THERE IS NO OPOSITION. The US media IS the government! Did you see how fast those bastards put a clamp on the real reporting that erupted around 9/1/05 during the absolute horror show of depravity! And you know some high-up-exec at CNN, MSNBC, ABC where-ever got a call from some (alphabet soup) government agency saying, “put a lid on this shit now!” They had no choice, raw human emotion began to play out on television and for those of us who were there it was a beautiful moment. They had to acknowledge the suffering, it was that bad! They don’t care about rights, they don’t care about humanity, they are gorging themselves on turpitude and vices for the last blow out. Everything must go! Think of it this way, if we know the end is near…what do you think “they” know? The band is playing, the field is set, the lights are shining, the opposition is ready…<br><br> <p></p><i></i>