Comments on: Road Trip

By: delbwato

delbwato — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:41:53 +0000

Easy there, Karl
I think, minus your indeterminate anger, we mostly agree.
-The Left and its flagship the NYTimes would be better described as dialectic “goobly-gook”. The didactic is more the traditional (that which has proven its merit) right vs wrong; good vs bad; truth vs popular sentiment; etc.
-All primitives have been pushed out, tyrannized or indelibly altered including those from whence we came – it’s the way of the world. Kunstler’s point (regardless of impertinent sentiment) seems to be that modern, energy intensive ways have destructive, if unintended, consequences. Furthermore, Kunstler’s general focus is of a societal model that was built upon cheap energy and that paradigm has shifted, though it hasn’t as yet made its inevitable impact.
-Protectionism is always a two-way street. If a sovereign penalizes imports for the “good” of its people you can be sure that the harmed sovereign will penalize the penalizer’s exports. Hardly a win-win situation when the US depends so much on imports such as raw materials (oil!). Remember history’s axiom: When goods don’t cross borders armies do.

Regardless of Kunstler’s Leftist tendencies (Hell, where does one find a conservative?) we ought not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The foundations of the tangibles of our societal model (as opposed to the spiritual truths expressed in our founding documents) are crumbling. It’s going to be a wild ride and it’s going to be in our time. Better to prepare for the inevitability of the future than to waste time pretending that we can relive the past, eh?

By: Mars88

Mars88 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:49:48 +0000

America had Ginsberg and then she had the 60′s. But who or what can stop a train wreck or who or what can stop an aging Hag from getting sick and dying a miserable death? The American Way of life? I wonder what the Super Bowl is going to be like next year.

Check out “The Age of Gladiators – Savagery & Spectacle in Ancient Rome” by Rupert Matthews. It is amazing how little has changed regarding the Spirit and Modus Operandi of Western Civilization.

By: Roland

Roland — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:58:38 +0000

Karl, suburbia is not Western Civilization.

I grew up in suburbia, and for a young boy it’s not a bad place to live.

But now as an adult, even with my fond memories I realize that as a type of settlement, North American style suburbia is very inefficient. People live too far from where they work, shop, and study. Suburbs force people to spend too time, energy, and money on transportation.

This style of suburban settlement was not a result of natural market processes. Instead, it needed massive public subsidization of infrastructure in order to come about. These perverse incentives distorted the marketplace.

Those perversities and inefficiencies must be removed. Then people can make more rational settlement decisions, and our society and civilization will eventually become much better off.

I disagree with much of what Kunstler says, and I think I understand why you found some of his remarks irritating, but the criticism of suburbanization long predates him. Lewis Mumford was accurately predicting many of the suburban problems back in the 1940′s, even before much suburbanization had occurred.

By: joseph zach

joseph zach — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:34:15 +0000

this guy hates the American Civilization. he won’t be happy until most Americans are dwelling in mud huts, cooking food in cast iron pots, over fires fueled by dried dung, with everyone wearing burlap dresses. Perhaps the dresses of the men could have a longer hem line than those of the ‘womyn’. I’ve read much of his work (via the Public Library) and believe him to be a proto-typical Socialist/Marxist/Bolshevik Collectivist.

I can imagine him, slavering and drooling , rubbing his hands in glee, should our civilization truyly DOES break down, with the concomitant death and destruction associated with severe events.

That a guy like this is on an alleged ‘contrary investment’ site, is simply mind boggling.

I prefer my business/economic sans ant political ideological flavoring. But that’s just me.

I reccommend that one goes to his web-site and see his pictures of MacDonald hamburger stands in the middle of a woods settings.

This ‘art’, (and I use that term advisedly) bespeaks to me of the author’s suffering from severe nuerosis if not psychosis.’
‘
this aritcle does NOT make me want to subscribe to any ‘financial information services’ as offered on this web-site; and ‘dat be fer sure’.

later

By: chuck

chuck — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:02:51 +0000

It is too late to protect ourselves from China. My the auto parts manufacturer my brother works for has been bought by a Chinese company. They are sucking out all the intelluctual property and patents.
My Nephew designs and builds industrial machines. The majority of his machines are shipped to China destroying jobs here in USA.

By: Carol Kramer

Carol Kramer — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:42:05 +0000

A word to the wise: Luck favors the prepared.

Glad to see Jim here at the Daily Reckoning! Can’t get enough (F&F) fiasco & fiesta.

By: Karl Marvin

Karl Marvin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:14:33 +0000

If I wanted leftist didactic gobbly-gook I would read the new york times. This guy hates western civilization and wants to destroy it. After all, evil whitey “shoved out the native Alabamu, Coosa, and Tallapoosa”. The poor victim Alabamu never “shoved out” anybody from that land ? The Tallapoosa were the sole inhabitants of that land since the beginning of time ? BULL. I am sick of the whitey/western civ. bashing that is the stock in trade of the left wind media complex. Your other writers froth at the mouth with smears of “protectionism” at the slightest hint of protecting ourselves from the most protectionist country ever: China. Who picks the articles for this site ?