[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

Nicotine and Fish

Genocide Summer Camp, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

This Can Create Endless Green Energy WITHOUT Electricity

Geoengineering: Who’s Behind It and How We Stop It

Pam Bondi Ordered Prosecution of Dr. Kirk Moore After Refusing to Dismiss Case

California woman bombarded with Amazon packages for over a year

CVS ordered to pay $949 MILLION in Medicaid fraud case.

Starmer has signed up to the UNs agreement to raise taxes in the UK

Magic mushrooms may hold the secret to longevity: Psilocybin extends lifespan by 57% in groundbreaking study

Cops favorite AI tool automatically deletes evidence of when AI was used

Leftist Anti ICE Extremist OPENS FIRE On Cops, $50,000 REWARD For Shooter

With great power comes no accountability.

Auto loan debt hits $1.63T. 20% of buyers now pay $1,000+ monthly. Texas delinquency hits 7.92%.

Quotable Quotes from the Chosenites

Tokara Islands NOW crashing into the Ocean ! Mysterious Swarm continues with OVER 1700 Quakes !

Why Austria Is Suddenly Declaring War on Immigration

Rep. Greene Wants To Remove $500 Million in Military Aid for Nuclear-Armed Israel From NDAA

Netanyahu Lays Groundwork for Additional Strikes on Iran: 'We Didn't Deal With The Enriched Uranium'

Sweden Cracks Down On OnlyFans - Will U.S. Follow Suit?

Joe Rogan CALLS OUT Israel's Media CONTROL

Communist Billionaire Accused Of Funding Anti-ICE Riots Mysteriously Vanishes

6 Factors That Describe China's Current State

Trump Thteatens to Bomb Moscow and Beijing

Little Bitty

Vertiv Drops After Amazon Unveils In-House Liquid Cooling System, Marking Pivot To Liquid

17 Out-Of-Place Artifacts That Suggest High-Tech Civilizations Existed Thousands (Or Millions) Of Years Ago

Hamas Still Killing IDF Soldiers After 642 Days

Copper underpins every part of the economy. If you want to destroy the U.S. economy this is how you would do it.

Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdel Nassers Chilling Decades-Old Prediction About Israel-Palstine Conflict.

Debt jumps $366B in one day.


Editorial
See other Editorial Articles

Title: THE COMING MALAISE
Source: Financial Sense Online
URL Source: http://www.financialsense.com/storm ... eo/pastanalysis/2007/0727.html
Published: Jul 29, 2007
Author: J. R. Nyquist
Post Date: 2007-07-29 07:54:30 by Arete
Keywords: None
Views: 154
Comments: 7

Remember President Carter’s 1979 Malaise Speech? Americans were losing faith in the country’s future, he said. They were closing the door on America's past. President Carter wanted to turn things around. He warned that rising materialism would not “fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.” He said it was a crisis of American spirit. In response to this crisis, Carter wanted the authority to ration gasoline, form an “energy mobilization board,” create a bureaucracy to guarantee that we would “never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977,” set oil import quotas and develop solar power. “These efforts will cost money,” Carter explained, “a lot of money….”

The country rejected President Carter’s call, and subsequently enjoyed three decades of prosperity. Carter’s policy was rejected because the American people didn’t want a lower standard of living. They didn’t want to forfeit their economic freedom. The American people cling to material happiness with a ferocious animal cunning. They do not believe in giving up, or giving over to obstacles. They want a good life. Their materialism is fundamental, and so is their comfort. They will reject any politician who tells them bad news. They will reject any policy based on pessimism. This is the lesson of the 1970s, taught by the great teacher of the 1980s – Ronald Reagan.

What we are seeing today is reminiscent of the 1970s. First, there is dollar inflation, understated by government statistics. Then there is the stagnation in the U.S. economy. An old depressing pattern has appeared again. We see an American president discredited and the presidency weakened; an unpopular overseas military commitment; rising oil prices; increasing government regulation and higher taxes. We know what happened at the end of the 1970s. American weakness and malaise led to aggressive Communist moves in Africa, Latin America and Asia (Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan). Then came the humiliation of the Iran Hostage Crisis.

The trauma of the 1970s ended with the appearance of Ronald Reagan in the White House. Weathering a severe recession with steady optimism, Reagan shepherded the United States toward a period of sustained prosperity and apparent victory in the Cold War. As we look ahead to next year’s presidential race, however, we don’t see anyone resembling Ronald Reagan. The likely winner will be a Democrat and the Democrat philosophy isn’t the philosophy of Reagan. The Republican Party has been wounded by President Bush’s failed Iraq adventure. In recent days the polls show the three leading Democratic candidates beating the top Republican candidates. Furthermore, an economic downturn is expected by the end of the year and the party in the White House generally gets the blame. So instead of getting a Ronald Reagan, the country would be getting something else – though nobody is sure what that would mean.

The Republican candidates haven’t found their footing. They haven’t found the right things to say. Attempting to mimic Reagan won’t work, because the public mood has shifted and the Democratic candidates can also mimic Reagan. Underneath the surface, the country has been changing. It is more self-absorbed and more cynical. It seems that community interest has been gradually surrendering to fanatical interest groups and their politically neurotic adherents. The United States is no longer a healthy republic.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking that a monster has been growing inside America. It is the monster of political passion, misguided ideology and moral confusion. It is a monster born of a consumption culture whose intellectual and moral standards have been falling. There is every reason to believe that the political criminals of the future will pose as do-gooders. Their urge, however, will be to reduce the people to subjection while pillaging the economy. The clever demagogue knows how to divide and conquer. He creates and exploits the dividing line between rich and poor, black and white, immigrant and native. Listen carefully. Notice whether a presidential candidate appeals to goodness and justice or resentment and envy.

It is not a good thing when resentment and envy gain the upper hand in political discourse. Those who seek prosperity at other’s expense easily imagine that wealth is a matter of theft. Through the repetition of this theme, people may gradual come to accept an evil idea. If this idea hardens into a universal belief, the political arena can degenerate into gangsterism. The political cynicism of our time, in which all political leaders are rated as criminals, logically leads to the assumption that crime pays. Once this generalization gains common acceptance, everything is transformed and the United States becomes an Asiatic country.

I will end with a quote from Gustav Le Bon: “Our epoch … can be understood only by grasping the role played by the mysticism of the people and their leaders.” He further stated: “One cannot govern a people with true ideas but only with beliefs accepted as truths.”

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.

#2. To: Arete (#0)

The American people cling to material happiness with a ferocious animal cunning. They do not believe in giving up, or giving over to obstacles. They want a good life. Their materialism is fundamental, and so is their comfort.

J.R. seems to endorse this animalistic materialism in the above quote and then concludes below by saying the "consumption culture" (which sounds like much the same concept as animalistic materialism) has created a monster.

A monster has been growing inside America... It is a monster born of a consumption culture whose intellectual and moral standards have been falling.

Sam Houston  posted on  2007-07-29   10:31:07 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Sam Houston (#2)

He's saying that we should blame the rich and richer for being the way they are.

Arete  posted on  2007-07-29   11:04:37 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Arete (#4)

It is not a good thing when resentment and envy gain the upper hand in political discourse. Those who seek prosperity at other’s expense easily imagine that wealth is a matter of theft.

I get just the opposite meaning out of this, though. He is preemptively chastising the "have nots' for what he fears they are about to attempt to do to the "haves."

J.R. is extremely confused about the current state of affairs and therefore everything he writes about it is confusing.

From what I know of his writings, he genuinely misses the Cold War and indeed still calls the Russians "Soviets."

Sam Houston  posted on  2007-07-29   12:10:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Sam Houston (#5)

Nyquist forgets that originally, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" was written down as "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property."

Its in the American DNA and will never come out of it.

mirage  posted on  2007-07-29   12:35:47 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 6.

        There are no replies to Comment # 6.


End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.

TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]