Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Let's not dramatize Daschle


The California Energy Crisis - Wikipedia
The 2004 release of transcripts of taped conversations among Enron electricity traders in the summer of 2001 revealed that company insiders not only knew they were stealing from California and other states, but gloated about it. (...) At a time when streets in Northern California were lit only by head lights, factories shut down and families were trapped in elevators, Enron Energy traders laughed:
"Just cut 'em off. They're so f----d. They should just bring back f-----g horses and carriages, f-----g lamps, f-----g kerosene lamps."
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I don't want to dramatize the Daschle affair, it's just another drop in the boundless ocean of America's ongoing Satyricon.

The decadence of a society is a very mysterious thing. Many people recognize it, denounce it, rail against it; finally even a majority of its members might acknowledge it, but somehow, seeing it, recognizing and denouncing it doesn't change it. Decadence doesn't come about overnight, it is chaotic in its complexity and may go on a long time and rarely ends painlessly.

I suddenly became very pessimistic about the direction the USA was taking way back in the California electricity crisis that lasted from May 2000 to September 2001. I intuitively felt/feel that everything followed out of that: Enron, Iraq and all the ensuing Katrina and financial drek.

The California energy crisis was soon forgotten in the drama of 9/11, but for me it was more significant then the attack on New York and Washington.

9/11 was basically imperial blow back as if Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse could have raided Wall Street with a Sioux war party in the 1870s.

However, the California energy crisis was about a group of highly trained and skilled, educated, pampered Americans, 'masters of the universe' who had banded together to cripple America's most important state. This was terrorism truly worthy of Guantánamo.

I suddenly had the feeling that America was an empty shell.

The only way I can describe the feeling I had/have was that the USA had/has lost its Dharma.

Bush was for me only a symptom, never a cause.

Trying to pin it all on Bush is to distract attention from the hollowing out of a society. Bush had the merit of his clumsy inarticulateness, a magic buffoon who let people get a glimpse, a whiff, of how things really were.

The American people have now pinned their hopes on Barack Obama, who is no buffoon, magic or otherwise.

Can the new president fix it?

In Hindu mythology Rama restored Dharma and initiated the golden age of "Ramaraj"

Here copied and pasted from Wikipedia is a wonderfully condensed resume of the monumental Ramayana:

Rama's life and journey is one of perfect adherence to dharma despite harsh tests of life and time. For the sake of his father's honour, Rama abandons his claim to Kosala's throne to serve an exile of fourteen years in the forest. His wife, Sita and brother, Lakshmana being unable to live without Rama decide to join him, and all three spend the fourteen years in exile together. This leads to the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the Rakshasa monarch of Lanka. After a long and arduous search that tests his personal strength and virtue, Rama fights a colossal war against Ravana's armies. In a war of powerful and magical beings, greatly destructive weaponry and battles, Rama slays Ravana in battle and liberates his wife. Having completed his exile, Rama returns to be crowned King in Ayodhya (the capital of his Kingdom) and eventually becomes Emperor of the World, after which he reigns for eleven thousand years – an era of perfect happiness, peace, prosperity and justice known as Rama Rajya.
Alas, we are not Hindus, today's crisis is not mythological, Washington is not Ayodhya, we don't have eleven thousand years and, if the Daschle affair is any measure, I'm afraid Obama is no Rama. DS

6 comments:

Marcy said...

I'd go back a bit further to the S&L debacle but regardless there doesn't seem to be any turning back.

Anonymous said...

This comment is just for you since you wont have the balls to print something contrary to the consensus view on your own site, but arent you just a pawn in a chessgame that is history?

Theories of the United State's decline seem to come every 10-20 years or so. The popular theory amongst Russians about the US's terminal decline is an example of what I mentioned before.

You should be old enough to confirm this. It happened in the 70's and also during the late 60's as well as after WWII. And probably after WWI too! Just seems to form a pattern ya know? Forgive my carelessness with the grammar, now and in the future.

The Left is setting themselves up for a huge failure. Even Keynes would look at this "stimulus" package and conclude it was a collosal waste of money. And that's even if you believe in the multiplier effect, which has never been proven by the way. EVER! JUST LIKE CONTROLLING CLIMATE CHANGE!

It doesnt matter what Democrats do right now, it'll be dismantled in the future. Our spending is just not sustainable unless you can convince Americans to pay a 50% tax rate. Good luck with that!

I'm eager to to have the minor details filled in. Please feel free to enlighten me! And as for Daschle, he's just a typical pig with his head in the trough. So it is and so shall it ever be. There is no "change".


Adam

Anonymous said...

Adam seems angry about something and somewhat confused too. David is talking about meaning not being, Adam.
The system is corrupt, not dead.
Capice?
Perhaps all that talk radio is causing an irritating auditory hallucination, with those colliding voices in your head taking sides and leaving you to figure out what is real. Get a grip, Adam.
And BTW, any further comments by you will elicit no further response from me. I'm angry too, but I KNOW what I am angry about.
You ought to read some of David's archives and get a better understanding of what he is saying and try to comprehend what you are reading. I also disagree with much of the David sensibility, but I DO understand his outlook.
You don't.

Anonymous said...

i do understand his outlook and i do apologize. i was intoxicated at the time and i spoke without really thinking it through.

i know exactly why i do not like what is being done now in Washington. it just seems like history repeating itself, but as i said, i spoke with anger that was unwarranted and i will not post here anymore. there is no point in starting fights, especially over the internet.

sorry.

Adam

David Seaton's Newslinks said...

Noble sentiments Adam and an apology well given and well taken.
You are welcome to post here whenever you want.

Anonymous said...

I admire your fibre Adam, and carry on. Don't get too angry yet. We've more than likely a decade of chicanery to get through and you'll run out of steam too early. I don't like internet fighting either, I'm too Irish for that. I much prefer the 3D version.