Stacy Summary: This article asks, “Are Americans a broken people?“
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Most recent: 
To Americans (and most anyone in any country in the world) it is not about We but, Me.
@Fsnoot – that’s a lot of links… actually I prefer fewer links and a more explanation… it appears that Basel is a framework to evaluate financial risk exposure based upon an international rubric…. but as in all standards, the standard of measurement is variable and debatable.
Still, the trend where we citizens accept “standardization” as a process is problematic.
Perhaps we should not accept “Standardization” of anything but by market dynamics?
Ayn Rand would have a perspective (i.e. Greenspan) but neither over regulation nor under review produce risk reduction.
@MISHOPNO
Yes. There comes a time when the masses will no longer accept the status quo. However, I submit that similar to the downfall of the Holy Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, Genghis Khan, the Spanish and Portuguese empires, and then the British Empire, the United States is under great attack.
Unfortunately, the state governments lack sufficient insight to clearly understand and define threat.
The federal government has elements within it that understand the threat, but taken as a whole, the government is so vast that it can not effectively contain a cohesive strategy to deal with the threats.
The hydra (to use FSNOOP’s analogy from another thread today) can not defend all heads and all arms.
There is a balancing act between the self perpetuation of the cash flow to support a federal agency and the expense and services from running it.
So long as foreign governments and investment pools remain willing to send us their money, our federal gov’t seems inclined to spend it.
But, the underlying United States GDP is tilted away from domestic industrial productivity and manufacturing. So, besides exporting US Federal Reserve Notes, what else do we export?
Well, I don’t think that it’s so much that they are a broken people, they are stupid people. The gringos really and fundamentally are the stupidest people on the face of this planet. No one is protesting the “sell-out” of the politicians on the heath care reform bill because NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE SUPPORT IT, in-fact to many people or perhaps safe to say that majority are so stupid they had knee-jerk reaction to the public option and where so stupid to believe that Socialized medicine violates free market principles that they opposed it. The Iraq & Afghanistan wars, –they could care less, even if they say they oppose it in a poll, it doesn’t really matter–Gringos love blood, they love wars, they love to see colored people get killed, especially if they don’t have to participate in them, or pay for them. The Majority of the American people are not paying for these in blood & coin, just some military families, and even them too many of them are so stupid that they think the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan are about keeping them safe at home from an Al-Qaida attack. They are people who have absolutely no soul. And they could careless about the foreclosure crises because too many of them the people losing their homes are people who should never have bought or taken those loans out int he first place and that they are losers. I’m not saying fear has nothing to do with all of this because it does, there is too much hate intolerance and bigotry by people if you say things that the stupid illiterate public in general doesn’t want to hear. How many of you ho read MAX wesbite also have blogs or watch programs and leave comment on youtube? How many times do you get nasty responses that YOU NEED TO SHUT THE F UP. There are allot of fat, mentally ill, punk loud mouth gun owners who will not hesitate to gang up on you or beat you up. So what do they do, they just debate and have discourse on things are fashionable acceptable such as being republican or democrat, or bickering over their sex rights and sexual preffrences and homosexual rights and feminism–the issues that don’t matter. Please do not forget the majority of the people that voted for Barack Obama voted for him because they were more concerned about their sex rights, and gay rights and women being able to continue to abuse the civil and family court systems and having a black GQ looking president than the Iraq war or the Bank Bailouts, or the Patriot Act or Real ID.
@@Calif. MD and Jeffrey C.
I’m glad you picked up on this issue. I think it is an important one. I’m not quite sure what being young (30s is young to me) has to do with it, but I don’t think it’s merely opinion as to what traumatized people respond to. Information is not enough. However I agree that information is necessary and there are certainly groups (among the most traumatized) who are not getting information either. I’m really looking for what can get us active.
My forbears did not find it un-American to resort to violence. That’s what the Revolution was about. But we are both misinformed about what violence is, cowed by the superior weaponry and overkill of police, and unused to risking our lives to “live.” What is it that spurs Iranians but not Americans to get active against rigged elections? I do think it is related to morale. Iranians have seen protests work to overthrow governments. We have not seen it in a long time, though mass action was a big factor in ending the Vietnam War and securing more civil rights. Iranians also are more used to truly life-threatening attacks at home. We are more complacent. And the internet has created a feeling of being active because of the surfeit of information and communication that is not real action.
I think right before the Iraq War (this one) MoveOn used the Internet/e-mail to mobilize the world against it. This was a good idea and a good start but clearly it was not sufficient. I’m not saying I recommend blowing up the Goldman Sachs building or doing violence to Mr. _____fein, but it might boost morale. And there are also more positive forms of solidarity and efficacy that come from mutual encouragement.
@ SG,
Maybe it’s the soundtrack used in Guantanamo interrogations (not the Hanukkah Mix — I liked Lionel Hampton, not sure what Marlena Shaw was doing there), the other thing.
an important article!
however, i would have to add (and i dont want to add) that another detriment to our republic is the lack of “education/reasoning skills”, in particular re healthcare.
anyone familiar with healthcare expenditures should be aware that our country is a large country with a growing population of mostly immigrants from poorer economies in an increasingly competitive world, competing for a smaller pie. the US cannot afford healthcare (add’l programs) as it cannot afford the ones that it has (medicare, medicaid, ss, presc drug), in 5yrs, ss will no longer be a net contributor (revenue) but a negative and in 10yrs, medicare will steepen the costs to approach 1 trillion dollar deficits annually.
it is simple math – we cannot afford what we have.
perhaps, the sense of getting something for nothing, a consumer economy is the greater malady to our economy.
Hey Max. This is a link to an article titled “Drug money saved banks in global crisis,” from the guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
I started reading the articla and became too demoralised to finish it!!
@Y’all
yeah I hear you coz you never stop talkin shit a mile a minute at the top of your voices… over and over…your GOD… your Country… your FLAG… and your PROBLEMS… just YOUR voices over and over… spewing out your BELIEFS and your BULLSHIT day after day after day… LOUDER and LOUDER… I hear you… yeah I hear you… I HEAR YOU…. SHUT UP…. SHUT UP… I don’t know what you’re talking about… SHUT UP … SHUT UP… SHUT UP… I HEAR YOU I don’t know what you are talkin’ about … SHUT UP…shut up!!!
Americans are not a broken people. It is my belief that they (and other citizens in the western world) have had their power aparatus usurped and do not understand it well enough in order to find the right joints to strike. The american populace is seething. A little direction, and the right precipitant, and itll be revolution in the US
While everyone’s entitles to their opinion, I have a question.
Lots of people keep talking about “The Great Turning Point.” It’s like suddenly every sane person will suddenly get the courage to act.
Let’s define that. What exactly is that? Not talking points from whoever. But a real idea.
Consider everything’s that happening now:
2 wars, no single payer coverage. Drug cartels helping to keep banks going. The President is surrounded by ex-Wall Street people. And the list continues.
Obama could use his current authority to declare a national emergency and implement single payer. Screw the giant corporations and their millions in campaign donations (bribes). If he’s really concerned, why doesn’t he do that?
Cute soundbites like “it doesn’t happen overnight” aren’t the point.
The banks get richer. And, the “pundits” keep getting richer off all their books on this. Do we REALLY need another “hard-hitting volume” on the “Inside Story” on what went wrong? Also, why does the business MSM continue to dumb down basic terms? I still hear some asking guests “for the benefit of our audience who may not really understand this, what is a derivative”?
Look it up on Wikipedia. In 1 hour online you could pick up a lot of basic market terms. And yes, knowledge is power.
Once again, what specifically is “The Great Turning Point”?
Destitute, degenerate, corrupted, and still darn arrogant like the British. Sorry. The anglosphere is still quite smug. I don’t know why exactly. It’s time indeed for a good humiliation by the rest of the world.
Nakheel default today?
Bloomberg is updating and covering this story
3.5 Billion snow balls to 5 Billion as calendar rolls.
Dubai World D-Day is today.
CaliDoc:
It is from the jan 01 2010 mandate to put the globe under the process of unilateral commitment to capital adequacy ratios. I’m fussy about the risk management end: what I know is there is the standardized approach and the internal risk based approach and I am thinking that the big banks get to use irb cause they can afford the programs to run it: it is out of basel committee; china is on board for this. (assets are tiered as well which makes some less lucrative)
Here are links:
http://www.bis.org/fsi/fsipapers04asia.pdf
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/reuters/2009/11/23/2009-11-23T121128Z_01_HKG303608_RTRIDST_0_CHINA-BANKS-CAPITAL-UPDATE-2.html
http://picker.typepad.com/legal_infrastructure_of_b/2009/11/just-what-is-basel-ii.html
http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbsca04.pdf
This one is really easy to understand and spells the affect of basel on capital flows:
http://www.lw.com/upload/pubContent/_pdf/pub1746_1.pdf
http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/newsdesk/pittsburgh/draghi.html
http://www.risk.net/oprisk-and-compliance/news/1498836/basel-ii-capital-rule-final-rule-approved-occ-ots
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:g7CbKgV6hE8J:www.g24.org/cornfor2.pdf+january+1+2010+standardised+approach+basel+2&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGvjdV6Z20dz2GEjq4VYpRishGN4mh7cLAXUgrOvfZgnlw4WVLLgUKYDdzkEqF838Y2C1aKl9Z8GFtYjPoH99RgK3hyJdPhbS2PFtG4WMRkPyVVVPpvsX27UBHeLc0pd9yk9KF&sig=AHIEtbTm77rVKNZOKqmnma0cdxh2L7bcCg
http://oberon.sourceoecd.org/vl=2185788/cl=45/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin/wppdf?file=5lgsjhvj78hg.pdf
I have oodles more but am sleepy and I think that’s enough to keep you busy for quite some time to come!
I think we will see that the mandates will profoundly affect the capital allocations in future as the securitization article questions. Especially in China.
@JeffCo – re: Polisci vs. psych
Extrapolation of theoretical psychology theory to social behavior is IMHO a BIG stretch.
The main psychological theories provide a framework for prediction of an individual’s action.
You are describing “market” or “group” behavior in the context where the propaganda tools are messaging with the intent of controlling social behavior.
There are very different circumstances in today’s discussion versus yesteryear’s manipulation.
The use of anonymous internet message boards and blogs can be a tremendous instrument for exchange of information but there are challenges sifting the finely granular truth from the gross chaff of assumption.
Max’s website brings people who want the truth together. Then, we as participants throw ideas on this board. I find this board compelling because I can discuss these issues in a forum which is not under the agenda control of the politicians.
My comment regarding your age was a statement of observation and fact. It is not intended as a criticism but merely an observation based upon the approach taken by different generations.
This financial crisis will be approached differently depending upon the age and generation of the people involved.
@Fsnoot – I do not understand the relationship between lending to small and medium sized business and Basel 2 or capital ratios… please explain
@ Mishopshno
I did read the article. I thought it was full of broad, unfounded generalizations. I also disagree with the idea that information is not enough and that morale is needed to get people to act. Perhaps this is me speaking from “Shock Doctrine” territory, but my opinion is that morale is not nearly as important as giving people information about what is going on. Why? Because I think all that is required to get people to act on their own behalf is a triggering event. This is probably a point of contention we will disagree on, but that is what I think.
When a triggering event occurs, such as the ones I mentioned earlier, people will need to have the information needed to act. But when cornered, I believe the people will act. The problem is that we have a massive propaganda arm of the US Government muddying the issues and co-opting radical ideas that could cause real change. I fear that without the right information people will be whipped into a frenzy to serve the wrong interests and ends (see: the last 9 years of US foreign policy).
The issue now is that most “Americans” are not cornered. They still have TV, food, unemployment insurance, and the illusion that Obama is changing things. Acting prior to a triggering event marginalizes you if you are not the triggering event. You’re just some crazed protester holding up traffic in the eyes of the media.
The author’s point of view is understandable when you examine an issue from a discipline that is focused mainly on individual problems like psychology. I think sociology and political science are better tools to understand and explain society and political structures. Perhaps that is because it is my background, but perhaps it is also because those disciplines are intended to categorize and explain these very things.
@ California Doctor
I’m in my 30′s, so I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult.
In any event, I was talking about propaganda and distraction. See my response to Mish for my points.
Yes, Americans are broken; for over 40 years Americans have been taught that the only acceptable way to change a corrupt government is by voting; well, we did vote
Hey Max, from your POV in Paris please tell me — how’s that voting thing working in America?
We’ve also been taught that Violence is never the answer; yet we continue to have violation of due process via Extraordinary Rendition and Torture; and I STILL don’t know what happened to that guy who was kidnapped off the streets of Pittsburgh, PA, by the military while other soldiers held protesters back at GUNpoint;
Max and Stacy please correct me if I’m wrong but — that non-violence thing doesn’t seem to working to well either
The time for violence in America has not yet arrived; but it’s coming; and when it arrives you see Americans cured of their passive, broken, indifference; why?
because violence is indeed NOT the answer, except when it is
Reopening the credit pools to corporations that are small and medium sized is critical, but the current banking climate is extremely restrictive of the entrepreneurial spirit.
@Calidoc:
Have you read about the Basel 2 mandates and their ensuing effects on capital adequacy ratios, or about the regulatory reform coming out of the Financial Stability Board with the BIS bank?
http://tinyurl.com/ye7m28s
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Sunday passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill with increased budgets for vast areas of the federal government, including health, education, law enforcement and veterans’ programs.
The more-than-1,000-page package, one of the last essential chores of Congress this year, passed 57-35 and now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.
@Mishopno – What to do?
Reopening the credit pools to corporations that are small and medium sized is critical, but the current banking climate is extremely restrictive of the entrepreneurial spirit.
So, I doubt that many educated people under 40 years of age will wait around for the US government to resolve the kleptocratic priorities and the financial coprophagia at the major banks.
@Mish -
I think Jeffrey C must be young.
The older people in the USA have already gotten their dose of reality.
The issue isn’t “reality” as much as how to resolve the issues created a poliical elite who have acted in a criminarl fashion.
The syndicates operating these kleptocracies are so powerful that the commoners can not hold the criminals in check.
How do you hold international criminals responsible when individual nation’s law enforcement permit the crime or lack the resources to prosecute or to see the issue?
Google expands tracking to logged out users
http://joshfulton.blogspot.com/2009/12/google-expands-tracking-to-logged-out.html
@Jeffrey C.
Did you read the article that Stacy was referring to? It makes a good case that when people are traumatized as we are all as Americans info is not what gets us active in our own behalf. It is morale building. I think Bruce Levine is right about this.
I think some of us are broken, with the majority of us just being incredibly disorganized.
@Blue Song – no orgasmic meditations [yet]
I hope that will happen for you next year; and it should, if the energy level keeps rising!
@ Mishopshno
I don’t think a morale boost is really what we need right now. At this point, I think it is better to understand the who, where, what, when and why of the situation and prepare for hard times ahead. A morale boost just seems like more optimistic BS and there really isn’t much to be optimistic about in the near term. We need a heavy dose of realistic pessimism and introspection.
So what actions shall we do together to boost our morale?
Stacy and Max keep the endorphins flowing with their truth telling and humor…the telling it like it is part. And they are of course taking their form of action. But as Bruce Levine says when you are thoroughly abused the truth is not enough.
So when Max rags on the American people for not doing enough I don’t think it is helpful. It’s almost like blaming a trauma victim for not “getting out.” What we need is encouragement. I think we will all feel better (and yes I am depressed now and have been since the invasion of Panama, since I was active in the Let Nicaraugua Live campain) if we as a group decide to do something together about the economic and environmental crisis and encourage one another in our successes.
@Will
Thanks for posting. I don’t get orgasmic meditating unfortunately, but it sure helps adjusting to the changes happening on this plane while keeping blood pressure down.
again..let’s look at ourselves and see what is happening with the EU.
I think it is very bad tooooooooo! Speaking about oppression
As the United States Congress is engrossed in debate about medical insurance and healthcare system reform, a video has appeared on YouTube showing the remarkable economy of Taiwan supporting a Pet Hotel.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6568880/17053736
Let me get this straight, the Asian economies are so strong that they’re building hotels for pets rather than regular kennels?
Meanwhile, California has people being foreclosed upon and shafted out of work, medical care insurance coverage, and food?
Nine_Nations_of_North_America
These boundaries are either very out of date or in jest.
@Y’all
Have been enjoying this free ‘Hannukah mix’ from indelsohn society… if you look at the player there is a free download button!!!
http://tinyurl.com/yaf9bxk
How can anyone take this crap seriously?
Psychologists aren’t mind readers and Psychiatrists can’t cure the brain. As an expat, I’m a bit ashamed of the inaction but have no doubt of the brutality in store when spark meets powderkeg.
Tutsis and Hutus is what comes to mind. I can’t remember how you distinguish between the two. Do any of you?
They say America sneezes and the world catches cold. Whatever action is taken stateside, it will reverberate you can be sure. This the winter of discontent….
They will just have to reboot…
Desiderata – Max Ehrman
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets/misc/desid/
@Pigdog
We’re already cut to pieces!
What do you think forcing millions of people into homelessness, bankruptcy, and unemployment is?
Do you even know who Dr. Michel Odent is…
No, why don’t we ask Mrs. Odent.
I just don’t like those two passages from his writing. I couldn’t care less who Mr. Dr. Odent is or isn’t. If you think about it, the words are two-dimensional. Did Mr. Dr. Odent make himself flat to take offense at my criticism?
in maternity hospitals
I’d like to see old cobble-knees IN THE WATER trying to be calm-like while the catalyst of the pain-threshold takes hold on his body. Blow all his theories to hell.
ad hominem
Stella, ya been a’stirrin them grits?
Sure nuff, Ma. Just lookin up a word’zit. ‘ad hominem’ Somethin like grits but with airy somethin added.
Stella, if them grits set to stick yur catchin’it.
Oh, here’tis. Attacking the writer an not his words. Well, ain’t that’the way a body writes? Don’t we all slap some-of-ourselves down-to paper with’the letters?
Stella, Ya better Hop-to-it and stir THEM GRITS.
I’m a MOVIN, Ma. Seems like yur gotta swaller airy-thing in print these here days or someone is like to get uppity-bout it. Anyhoots, I like my hominy on my plate!
@Frances – ol cobble-knees – next sell.
Do you even know who Dr. Michel Odent is? Here’s a start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Odent
Two of his many notable achievements:
* Introduced in the 1970s the concept of birthing pools in maternity hospitals. Author of the first article in the medical literature about the use of birthing pools (Odent M. Birth under water. Lancet 1983; i:1476-77).
* Introduced in the 1970s the concept of home-like birthing room in maternity hospitals (Jane Gillett. Childbirth in Pithiviers, France. Lancet 1979; i:894-96).
There are many more. Did you think he was a porn star or something? He’s a doctor who is seriously dedicated to changing the somewhat Neanderthal way women are treated by many medical professionals during the pregnancy/birthing process.
@RobertinAmerica
My memory agrees with yours.
In order to evaluate if my memory was really correct, I went to BLS and looked at the PPI/CPI graphs for various regions of our nation.
The data appears to show continuing inflation at a rate of between 7 and 10 percent per year since 1972.
The slope of the curves change dramatically after Nixon removed us from the Gold Standard.
Last night I found a peculiar documentary on YouTube regarding the JFK assassination. The documentaries purport to show linkages between the Bush family circles, Nixon, and the JFK assassination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26CaVAy6vxU
It looks like the documentary was produced by something called prisonplanet.tv
The movie spends 5 graphic sequences setting the background of the crime.
I found the seventh film at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KJdUk5rf4 to be the most unusual.
The video was really eye opening.
@Will:
Why do you suppose that my criticism of the man’s writing has anything to do with his person? I chewed the bit you gave and spat it out because the taste was not to my liking.
I’m sure ole-cobble knees won’t care about my opinion: he’s on to the next sell.
I sure hope they aren’t broken. If you can’t do what is right, i guess you do what is left.
The American people are broke not broken. The banksters took our gold in 1933 and toke away our ability to pay. It is all debts, promises and interest. America is asleep lying on the railroad track. The train has left the station. Wake up America or you’ll be cut to pieces.
@Frances – ad hominem comments vis-à-vis Michel Odent.
Aw gee, Frances, give him a break! He’s doing the best he can. He’s only a scientist after all, and (especially after Climategate) we know how snafued they are these days…
Extremely long URL , so that you won’t post it anywhere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUlgqkFr5nk&playnext=3&p=F10D9DCA48A3BEC2&index=46&feature=PlayList&playnext_from=PL&ytsession=rZvokAz1nR2Ms-Bk3Sgaj7Z_CXbw6OPNA8vNgnh2T8UQPE99FpiaRgRUxOUY10K6WdDA5PnJw7VuuebM6jlKelya_qEj8E-Dyn_XFm2FnOc_pt6K8QuUlESkpLQ6NyTQg9J2OyjypSPodRgnUhlykMfrkVtSPjdAuQX9lAbOaEUeHPhDsa08cpUH6rI9MdXswfJ2pAtuybp3-4fIZ9cAUL1f9tSTZlxqYW52wrQ3bdb9yn0g1w842HLpNXfxAmx96EQCr0Zo1wwRUvl-LbPX3RaM9sSYtWpox7fV3VEaHmtWJVJCphyhSeL_-UyDCfXOqZK7nC1qMAH146QP7ppSdEXb2yDuTFkG
Penn and Teller Defend Ron Paul vs. Luntz and Fox News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If9EWDB_zK4&feature=PlayList&p=F10D9DCA48A3BEC2&index=44&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
“It is noticeable that orgasmic states have rarely been considered in the context of changed levels of consciousness.”
What a ribald assumption! If the author or his reading fellows have not observed something, then it is rare? How ethnocentric is that?
Old toity is relying on a Victorian/Puritanical subjected class of morals and virtues for his expansionary diatribe.
“Since the neocortex gives us access to space-bound, time-bound reality we can interpret subjective orgasmic experiences as opportunities to escape from space and time-bound reality.”
Good Lord. Has this man never heard of astral projection? Oops. Not Platonic enough, is it? Must stick with the old constructs that led to the atom bomb and the enslavement of the imagination.
The Great Derangement by Matt Taibbi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8JRW3cz1E&feature=PlayList&p=F10D9DCA48A3BEC2&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=43
In case you’re wondering why my last link is germane to the topic, here’s an excerpt from a book by Michel Odent:
@ Frances Snoot
Yes I have seen the FEMA administrative divisions, and I suspect that these were drawn up (at least in part) with an eye to what Mr. Garreau wrote about.
His work is a little dated since it was written in 1981, but the general idea is correct in my opinion, having lived all over the US and seeing firsthand just how different Kentucky is from Florida, or Texas is from Ohio, or your average inner-city black youth is from your average rural white youth. Generalizing about the “American Experience” across such diverse populations is misguided IMO. These people have very little in common as far as education, beliefs, cultural tastes, political opinions, etc.
Well if not broken, they’re definitely broke.
Question is, when do the creditors call in their debt?
@gb :
lol cool pictures, I like them.
The article Stacy linked is an nice exercise in stone-skipping at best: grouping of people based on pre-conceived borders is a futile chase as Jeffrey Cohlmeyer so aptly illustrated.
It is more for the poet’s imagination that the prognostication of intellectual elite agendists:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-map/
@HarryW:
It is amazing to me how you feel able and ready to stand in the stead as social behavioral helper to an entire country of multi-ethnicities based on the assumptions of one author.
Stacy,
Yes, they are.
They sold their rights for a 401K and negative equity. Disappointment with the proceeds seems to lie at the base of most of the complaints we hear now.
I think the article nails one cause of this passivity, social isolation:
“When people become broken, they cannot act on truths of injustice. Furthermore, when people have become broken, more truths about how they have been victimized can lead to shame about how they have allowed it. And shame, like fear, is one more way we become even more psychologically broken.
“…today, most U.S. citizens are broken by financial fears. There is potential legal debt if we speak out against a powerful authority, and all kinds of other debt if we do not comply on the job. Young people are broken by college-loan debts and fear of having no health insurance.
“The U.S. population is increasingly broken by the social isolation created by corporate-governmental policies. A 2006 American Sociological Review study (“Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades”) reported that, in 2004, 25 percent of Americans did not have a single confidant. (In 1985, 10 percent of Americans reported not having a single confidant.) Sociologist Robert Putnam, in his 2000 book, Bowling Alone, describes how social connectedness is disappearing in virtually every aspect of U.S. life.”
Yet Hondurans are prepared to risk death to defy their own US-backed oligarchs seizing power by coup and legitimizing themselves by a phoney election.
Exclusive: Honduran elections exposed, TheRealNews, 06 December 2009
Honduras: An election validated through blood and repression, TheRealNews, 07 December 2009
The point about morale is a key one:
“When people get caught up in humiliating abuse syndromes, more truths about their oppressive humiliations don’t set them free. What sets them free is morale.
What gives people morale? Encouragement. Small victories. Models of courageous behaviors. And anything that helps them break out of the vicious cycle of pain, shut down, immobilization, shame over immobilization, more pain, and more shut down.”
That’s what social organisation and mobilisation can achieve, if it can overcome passivity, it breaks down isolation and rebuilds morale. Comedy can too, as long as it’s not simply preaching fatalism, laughing in the face of disaster.
And of course, music — if you want to know a social or political movement, check out the after-party: Miriam Makeba – A Luta Continua [The Struggle Continues]
“I suspect that when the US central national government ultimately fails (through default, inflation, deflation, complete collapse, whatever), we’ll see a division of the US into parts similar to those I linked to”
Mr. Cohlmeyer:
Interesting insight! Do you know about the Fema regions divided along lines preset for ‘cog’ (continuity of governance) by the Federal Government?
http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/images/RegionsMap.gif
Your author’s lines are simular, except that New York is considered separate from the Foundary, and the Foundary is divided by the Ohio River. It is very interesting that the Empty Quarter extends down from Canada: the Queen bought land outside Denver. The mayor of Denver was knighted by the Queen for his services in making the new Denver airport a reality.
Thanks for your interesting post!
yES FORM MORAL COLLAPSE AND APATHY
@ Jeffrey C
Great post and link! Looking forward to the secession of Texas
You know, guys, the derivative contracts AIG wrote were done in London. Deutsche bank got in on the take. The ratholes in London are being cleaned out right now: quite a few Europeans and British (or English, seeing as the English consider themselves purer than the conglomerate contiguous empire and not to consider Ireland seeing as that was farmed like a hogpen), siphoned money off the corrupt ponzi schematic.
But it makes everyone FEEL better to scapegoat a group of people as the agent for group agency. It is almost BIBLICAL to do so: and the English are nothing if not construct-bound to scripture.
Mind you, normally BRITISH people are more open-minded and tolerant of other nationalities seeing as they get shafted to home regular. But here you go. There is always the odd-ball hitting like an eight ball in a game of catch. Hoping to dunk a side shot when all that is expedient is an open mitt.
http://www.globalorgasm.org/
http://www.globalorgasm.org/The_Science.html
@Y’all
Randy Newman – Political Science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrKYCsE48Lc
Its like a authoritarian police slave stopping a husband from a physical attack on his wife in a domestic violence case. If the cop intervenes the wife is likely to turn on the policeman instead of support him in his quest to stop the abuse.
I feel like a cop sometimes, when I tell sheeple that they are being abused and enslaved.
This is my first comment, but I really enjoy Max and Stacy’s market commentary and lurk here all the time.
“America” and “Americans” are empty terms. We are way too diverse to make sweeping generalizations about as the article does.
State and national boundaries largely ignore the actual cultural divisions, but it is easier to control access to resources and marginalize citizens by doing so.
It makes more sense to limit generalizations about the US to something that looks more like this, since the regional differences would be more representative of actual cultures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Nations_of_North_America
I think the vast majority of the US’ problems stem from an inability to govern effectively in a way that benefits the most. Instead, we see the national US government acting in a quasi-anarchical system of “competing interest groups” gorging at the feed trough for whatever they can. Since the politically ignored US citizens (like me) have virtually no influence to peddle, we are non-entities in the game.
Moreover, our primary method of exerting our influence (elections) has become a shell game, with the outcomes predetermined by money in the vast majority of cases (90% re-election rates for incumbents). When we amass our meager resources behind a particular candidate, it is too late. The electoral choice is between watered-down fascism administered by an incompetent central government and watered-down communism administered by an incompetent central government.
I suspect that when the US central national government ultimately fails (through default, inflation, deflation, complete collapse, whatever), we’ll see a division of the US into parts similar to those I linked to.
What does this have to do with the “broken people” article?
I think the article is really missing the point entirely. Perhaps that is because the author is approaching this problem from a psychological viewpoint rather than a sociological or political viewpoint. Or perhaps it is an article written for controlling dissent. Who knows.
But here is what I do know. Millions of people know and understand that they have no influence, especially after the botched Katrina response and the Banker Bailouts.
Protesting does nothing in our country because the country is so damned big and our media probably won’t cover the protests accurately anyway. A million protesters can drive a short distance and shut down a major European city. A million protesters nationwide in the US can fit neatly into our city parks and everybody goes about their business…or we can all drive for a day or two to DC and get tear-gassed and arrested, end up on the terrorist watch list, lose our ability to find a decent paying job and the elite will do what they want anyway.
Rising up would do nothing either at this point, again, because you’d just see a small pocket of resistance in some small region or town that would quickly get stepped on and squashed like a bug. Mass resistance won’t happen on a large scale unless and until something major happens to large chunks of the public directly, like $12 a gallon gas, the FDIC being unable to cover losses, or a major state defaults on bond issues.
Wow that was long winded. Sorry.
MOAN… MOAN… GROAN… GROAN… the same voice…over and over… desperate… to be heard… above all others… and so loud… DESPERATE… just DESPERATE!!!
I don’t feel that way about you, Supergeek. Why are you so paranoid?
@Y’all
MOAN… MOAN… GROAN… GROAN… the same voice…over and over… desperate… to be heard… above all others… and so loud… DESPERATE… just DESPERATE!!!
anyway maybe be more specific… which americans… are you talking about the same ones that are always complaining… the same old voices we always hear over and over every day… the middle class ones… the ones with all that time on their hands… the ones on a lovable laugh a minute journey with thrills and spills… for all the family… soon to be released in a cinema near you!!!
@Supergeek:
I went to school to be a writer. I spent my time here as an internship. You are a bitter and oscillating victim of your own ill-placed humour.
I leave you, then, to your ill-conceived notions of other people’s motivations. Enjoy!
If broken is on offer this week then… yeah… usa’ers broken… DESPERATE… to be broken… DESPERATE to be anything really
Whatever.
I work in the oil industry, with a lot of Americans.
How do you stay uncorrupted, Gino with the Hoodie?
@Y’all
anyway maybe be more specific… which americans… are you talking about the same ones that are always complaining… the same old voices we always hear over and over every day… the middle class ones… the ones with all that time on their hands… the ones on a lovable laugh a minute journey with thrills and spills… for all the family… soon to be released in a cinema near you!!!
I work in the oil industry, with a lot of Americans. 99% of them call themselves Republicans.
Most of them come across as intelligent, capable people. Yet when any conversation turns to anything with a political aspect, I find myself suddenly talking to a clone.
It seems the propoganda campaign the political parties wage against their own people, is 100% successful. Whether Americans call themselves Republican or Democrat, they have lost the ability to think about issues, in any way other then along the party line.
There is no deep thought or analysis.
They are mostly completely oblivious that the Federal govt, regardless of party is against the people.
At least the people who lived under communism knew they were living in a manufactured system.
Imagine how long ago communism would have ended if those people had as many guns as Americans do.
This brings genuine tears to my eyes:
“A sentimental name
Suzanna, whose registered name is Kenside Wallow of Sandringham, was born on February 19, 2008. Like all Sandringham pups, she was named by the Queen, who fondly remembered the story Susannah, A Little Girl with the Mounties by Winnipeg-based author Muriel Denison. Shirley Temple starred in the 1939 movie version of the popular children’s story.”
I think all this BS started when Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 (and committed treason in the process) and opened the hyperinflation genie out of the bottle. Since then, the criminal banking syndicate has declared all out war on the American people without them even knowing it! I remember my dad as the only one who worked as I was growing up; but then suddenly no matter how hard he worked we just couldnt make ends meet. At that point, my mother was forced to get a job just so we could keep our heads above water. I dont think they realized that the Federal Reserve System was the organization that was responsible for their decline in purchasing power and their standard of living. The Illuminati aka Bilderburgs/Warburg/Rothschilds whoever they are, are the proximate cause of the decline in America. I have witnessed the fleecing of America first hand by these corrupt bankers. JFK was the last American President who had enough nerve to stand up to the Federal Reserve and well…. we know what happened after that now dont we???
Until we the people globally fight central banks and close them down, no matter where you are, unless youre part of the Illuminati youre gonna get played like a voilin. its that simple!
Breaking news from Canada:
We interrupt your regular rant about barbarous Americans to insert this canine extra:
http://www.dogsincanada.com/meet-suzanna-of-the-mounties
Anyway, it will cause the US to collapse — but I have no desire to interfere with a process of nature.
Yes, why would you? Seeing as Canada is the tale ended wagging on the Queen’s favorite doggie.
@Y’all
If broken is on offer this week then… yeah… usa’ers broken… DESPERATE… to be broken… DESPERATE to be anything really… just as long as the attention is on them!!!
=========
You must remember that Americans are 99.99% pro Nepotism and pro Favouritism — and are willing to sacrifice their lives in the millions to keep the current lot in total absolute power.
Remember? I never believed that rot in the first place!
=========
On the YouTube, an American Imperial institution if there ever was one — there is only one page of videos that mention nepotism.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Neoptosm&search_type=&aq=f
I don’t believe VOA-IBB in any of its external language transmissions mentioned it either from 1945-Present. The export US news channels are in the same boat.
I believe favouritism and nepotism have about the same ranking, as these words are related to each other.
As any corrupt NY judge would say “I rest my case”…
: )
Anyway, it will cause the US to collapse — but I have no desire to interfere with a process of nature.
You must remember that Americans are 99.99% pro Nepotism and pro Favouritism — and are willing to sacrifice their lives in the millions to keep the current lot in total absolute power.
Remember? I never believed that rot in the first place!
I don’t think Americans are broken — they are too hypercorrupt and amoral to be broken.
You must remember that Americans are 99.99% pro Nepotism and pro Favouritism — and are willing to sacrifice their lives in the millions to keep the current lot in total absolute power.
MK is still beyond totally out of touch when it comes to how favouritism and nepotism has completely gutted the American Leviathan.
Only capitol outflows of 2 billion USD per hour for the next couple of months while the USD still has value can start to fix the problem — there must be wave upon wave of hyperinflation and currency devaluation.
http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Capital-Flight-The-USA-Has-Lost-it-s-Stature-as-the-Financial-Capital-of-the-World.pdf
Other reading :
http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/The-Sum-of-All-Fears-A-Great-Depression-11-26-09.pdf
http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/The-Dow-the-Future-Theory-Myth-12-6-09.pdf
http://cbc.am/Total-cost-to-goverment.xls
http://cbc.am/Total-cost-to-goverment.ods
Excellent article – and, yes, depressing. But it is amazing how little resistance there is in America, especially with the truly alarming betrayal of Obama – although, to be honest, his voting record in the Senate was a pointer to ‘change we can believe in’!
well let’s look at the eurepeans. As from the 1st f decembre we are officially not a democracy anymore!
a few good obama peace prize cartoons
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobama/ig/Barack-Obama-Cartoons/Wartime-Peace-Prize.0yRe.htm
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobama/ig/Barack-Obama-Cartoons/Obama-Receives-Nobel-Prize.0zIv.htm
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobama/ig/Barack-Obama-Cartoons/Obama-Accepts-Peace-Prize.0zIw.htm
First!
And yes, the Americans are probably broken beyond repair