Its quite interesting to see how spreading Hopelessness is affecting different societies around the world. In the Middle East, this has manifested itself for quite a while in the form of increasing Religious Fanaticism. In Russia, its increasing Alcoholism, in Japan a stoic acceptance of their impending social collapse graphically depicted in Anime. Here in the FSofA, increasing Postal Events by “Psychos”.
Despite the fact the behaviors are precisely the same between an Islamic Suicide Bomber who walks into a Hotel lobby and randomly blows up whoever happens to be there and an Amerikan Psycho who shows up in a Safeway Parking Lot with a Glock, the actions aren’t perceived in the same way either by the media or by the typical Amerikan Observer. When a Muslim pulls this stunt, rather than fixing the blame on the psychotic actions of the individual, the blame is placed on the Religion of Islam in general. When an Amerikan Psycho goes Ballistic, the root causes are placed on that person’s Individual Psychology.
Following a particularly spectacular Postal with high profile victims, the media immediately goes into overdrive to find out as much specific detail about the Psycho’s prior life, parents, home life, school records, work records, whatever they can dig up. In the end, you get a finely detailed Profile of the individual, which of course about always pegs that person as a disaffected loner with some kind of Fringe Group affiliation.
The key here is that this person’s problems are never seen as being caused by his immersion is a corrupted society, but when looking at a Muslim Terrorist that is how it is ALWAYS seen. Muslim’s aren’t seen as Psycho because they are individual nutcases, they are seen as Psycho because they are part of a Psycho culture. For the Amerikan Psycho the opposite is described, his behavior results from his own deficiencies and not because of the Psycho Culture he is immersed in. Interesting, no?
In both cases, the person is marginal in the society as a whole. Muslim Suicide Bombers are a VERY small fraction of all the Muslims wandering around out there. Similarly, Amerikan Psychos are a very small fraction of HS Losers or Postal Workers. In both cases though, these folks latch onto the most Violent means of lashing out against the society they are immersed in as they can. In its own way, Amerikan culture is just as sick as Islamic culture is, and so the psychos/terrorists on both sides act out in very much the same way.
The sicker the culture, the more Psychos or Terrorists it will nurture. There may or may not be biochemical imbalances that contribute to the metal illness in the individual, but the total psychosis doesn’t come just from inside the mind of the psycho, it develops over time as a reaction to events and circumstances in that person’s life. The less real caring there is in the culture, the longer psychotic behaviors will develop, and after a few years the person is just a Time Bomb waiting to explode.
There is no telling at the moment how many Time Bombs are ticking out there, but as more people slide off the economic cliff and the culture doesn’t CARE about them, the more of them we are bound to create. For a while longer I suspect this will just manifest itself in Individual Psychos going ballistic, but as with the Muslims, as it gets worse this will evolve into a Group Activity. It already has really in the form of some Fringe Group Militias out there, just as of yet one hasn’t exploded before the Gestapo got wind of their activities and shut them down. However, worsening conditions will eventually overwhelm the ability of the FBI to catch them all, and so one will eventually succeed in pulling off some stunt to lash out.
Meanwhile, as Individual Psychos are analyzed in the MSM (and in the Blogosphere also), each side of the Political spectrum seeks to place the psycho into the camp of the other group. Conservatives hope to show the Shooter was a Liberal Left Wing Pot Smoker, Liberals hope to show he was a Conservative Right Wing Fundy Christian Tea Bagger. This isn’t really very important, because once somebody slides into psychotic thinking, they can take any ideology and use it to self-justify their actions. Statistically speaking, if there are more Left Wing Fringe groups out there than Right Wing, then more of the psychos will be Lefties. That was the case in the 1960s, with groups like the SDS, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers and the Symbionese Liberation Army. Today there are more Right Wing Fringe Groups, generally the Christian Militias and Survivalists and Wackos from Waco. So nowadays when a psycho goes ballistic, its statistically more likely that person will have nominal Right Wing politics. This doesn’t play well on the media level for more centrist Conservatives, so they have to do Spin Control dissociating themselves and their philosophy from that of the Shooter. Its still kind of up in the air whether Jared the Shooter was a Righty or Lefty psycho, so both sides are trying to peg his politics to the other side.
The next really BIG form of Spin control in the attempt to legitimize your side of the Political debate in both the MSM and the Blogosphere is to dissociate your ideology as promoting Violence as a Solution. Probably the most common phrase you will read somewhere in an article is “Violence doesn’t Solve Anything”. This is powerful Group Think, especially because in any way being associated with Violence, even just saying something like “Banksters and CONgress Critters should be Hanged” could be construed as promoting violence and get you a visit from the Black Vans and a one way ticket to GITMO. At the same time, I cannot possibly COUNT the number of times I have read an analogue of the statement “Banksters and CONgress Critters should be Hanged” on all the websites concerned with the Financial Collapse, from Zero Hedge to this one and from both sides of the political spectrum. For the most part, long as its phrased in an abstract way and you don’t target individuals, you are probably pretty safe, but you sure would be in a world of shit if you Twittered out that Lloyd Blankfein should be fitted for a Hemp Necktie and he got strung up the next day. So I personally would never say such a thing, I just report what other people might say. LOL.
On a philosophical level, you really have to wonder about the Group Think idea that “Violence Never Solves Anything”. I mean, wasn’t the American Revolution pretty Violent? It solved the problem of Taxation without Representation, at least for the first 5 minutes after the war finished anyhow. Wasn’t WWII kind of Violent? At least for a few years it squashed down an overtly Fascist Goobermint from taking over the world.
If Violence doesn’t solve anything, WTF has it been undertaken EVERY time some people want to throw off the yoke of Tyranny? These folks missed a more effective solution to resolve the problem? What? Andy Hardy couldn’t just say “Hey Judy! I have a GREAT idea! Let’s do a SHOW! Then we can use the Box Office receipts to pay our Taxes and everything will be just SWELL!” LOL.
Doug Casey just cannot IMAGINE why people Riot. Doug would never Riot, he’s too busy counting up the Gold Coins in the basement safe of his Argentinian Doomstead to Riot. LOL. I’ll clue Doug in here. People RIOT because Peaceful Demonstrations aren’t WORKING. People REVOLT because the Ballot Box isn’t WORKING. Just about everyone would PREFER a Peaceful Solution, and usually they do try peaceful means before they LOSE IT. Saying it “never solves anything” is a crock of shit. It solves lots of things. Mainly, to get a good solution with Violence, you need to have significantly more Dead People on the other side of the line from you. Achieve that result, you have a very good solution for a while.
I can PROVE Violence works as a solution. Lets say me and another guy both claim the same Water Hole in the Desert. We fight, one of us dies, the other guy has plenty to drink. Problem SOLVED! Violence works very well as a solution, it has since the dawn of time and not just for Homo Sapiens either, just about every other form of animal life on the planet as well.
Who does Violence generally not solve problems for? The people in charge of the Status Quo of course. If they can convince the Slaves that Violence never solves anything, they can keep those folks enslaved forever! Generally speaking, people who have lots of Property and Wealth are VERY against Violence as a solution, whereas the Have Nots tend to be more FOR Violence as a solution. It doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to figure that one out.
Property holders become Pro-Violence once their Property Ownership is threatened, either by the Have Nots in society or by a Goobermint above them which is robbing them of their Wealth through Taxation. Our Founding Fathers decided Violence was a GREAT solution when the Crown over in England was taxing the living shit out of them. It SOLVED the problem for them also, although for most of the rest of the J6Ps in the Revolutionary War who fought for them to keep their property it didn’t do such a great job of solving the problem.
Regardless of anybody’s moral principles with respect to Violence as a Solution, the fact of the matter is that Violence will be undertaken here one way or the other, because we are rapidly running short of other options. How successful that violence will be at resolving the problems and who it will be most successful for remains to be seen, but by no means is it possible to say that it doesn’t work. It always works for one side in the battle, the WINNERS. They then also get to write the History books.
Anyhow, at the moment over here within our own borders, the violence while increasing is still a rather disorganized form of violence without much rhyme or reason. This is likely to morph over time into more organized forms of violence, AKA Civil War. Whichever way it comes out, whether the winners are the Illuminati or J6P, one problem will certainly be solved, or at least a big dent in the problem will be made, which is Population Overshoot. Lots of Dead People will solve a LOT of problems.
War? What is it Good For? Culling the Herd. That is why we have always done it, and why we will do it again. Unfortunately this time, due to extreme overshoot resulting from accessing the thermodynamic energy of Oil for the last century, the Biblical numbers of a 25% reduction when the Four Horsemen Ride Herd over Humanity is unlikely to be sufficient to solve this problem. If we keep the Death Toll to under 90% on this go round we will be fortunate. The Grim Reaper is waiting for the biggest Harvest of Human Souls of all time here, and before this century is done, more than 5B people will walk into the Great Beyond. That is just the way it is, the Doom Stout version of the future from the keyboard of RE, D.M., Ph.D.D., C.T., S.A. (Honorary Degree of Doom Meister, Dr. of Doom Philosophy, Collapse Theorist, Seer of the Apocalypse issued October 2008 by a Talking Moose and Flying Squirrel 4 clicks NE of Moose Creek)
RE
TeresaE says:
Interesting take RE.
“…In Russia, its increasing Alcoholism, in Japan a stoic acceptance of their impending social collapse graphically depicted in Anime. Here in the FSofA, increasing Postal Events by “Psychos”….”
Well, this part is not entirely true, it is just never reported in mainstream media, thus in our country, we can pretend it isn’t happening.
There are INDIVIDUAL, frustrated, nutjobs ALL OVER the world that are “going postal” in their own way. China has had a slew of knife-welding lunatics that enter schools and kill kids – that is but one example that immediately popped to mind.
This type violence CANNOT be regulated away – no matter how many rights we gift away trying to.
A certain percentage of the population (world over) is just plain nuts. Throw in some ego-bashing, starvation or seemingly undue punishments and it doesn’t take much to push a nutjob over the edge.
Other than this one thing though, I think you are spot on. Individual lunacy, under the optimal conditions, tends to become group lunacy.
With millions homeless, millions more on the welfare and millions more directly receiving government wages/largess, I can see how we are accelerating towards the group lunacy “solution.”
Heck, it kept OJ and Rodney King as the darlings of failed court systems. Why wouldn’t we think it would “work” again.
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11th January 2011 at 3:11 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
@Teresa
Yea, actually I knew I was making an over simplification with that part of it. Japanese also clearly are not all “stoically” accepting their fate, I mentioned the knife wielding Japanes psycho back in the original V thread. The Ruskies aren’t all drowning themselves in Stoli either, there is plenty of thuggery going on over there as local ex-KGB apparatchiks try to hold onto their power bases, etc.
Certainly, when we start to see larger Group Actions like Riots and/or Takeover of Goobermint Buildings, we will know we have passed the point of No Return and TSHTF. I don’t think Da Goobermint is going to be buying off the FSA with another Great Society program this time.
RE
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11th January 2011 at 3:20 pm
Kill Bill says:
Rep. Dan Burton wants to enclose the House Gallery in “a transparent and substantial material” such as Plexiglas, an aide told CBS News. [Ostensibly to protect from armed and dangerous people]
Rep. Michele Bachmann once said she wanted people ‘armed and dangerous’ [referring to cap and trade issue]
Bizarro isnt it?
Politicians say government is the problem while being part of the problem and want people armed and dangerous to rectify said problem but also want to stick their fingers in their ears and wag their tongues at the people on the other side of the clear shield while discussing public policy in a Maxwell-esque cone of silence
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11th January 2011 at 4:51 pm
MuckAbout says:
The simple truth to the whole matter is that there are too many rats in the box.
When I was in high school, the US population stood at 144 million.
It is a proven fact among animals (and that is what we are – Automatic Apes) that is you increase the population beyond a certain point (varies with food/shelter/etc), violence and anti-social behavior increase – not linearly but as the square of the population. Double the population and you get four time the number of squirrels (i.e. anti-social members).
It goes no further than that regardless of agricultural land availability, population density, food availability, shelter, whatever. When there are too many rats in the box (the population expands beyond a tipping point – which may be higher in Japan, India and China than here due to social factors and differences – I simply don’t know), the pressure rises and more crazies rise to the surface.
Also with 309 Million people, this country is more than four times as likely to have nutjobs blow people away than when I was a kid at 144 million.
I liked it better when there were no Interstates, few four lane highways and a simpler life of greater individual responsibility and no TV.
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11th January 2011 at 8:29 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
I liked it better when there was no internal combustion engine, no agriculture and no smelting of metals, but that was a while back.
Of course, given this population density here is relatively mild compares to Asia, China and Japan should be filled with even more crazies, right? Makes you wonder what their REAL suicide rates are over there.
RE
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11th January 2011 at 8:54 pm
StuckInNJ says:
RE — you do try, but you’re just not gloomy and doomy enough.
Here is Pravda’s outlook for 2011 …. plenty of wars,hooorah! … will only copy and paste USA, Canada, and Mexico outlook.
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/06-01-2011/116445-2011_dark_year-0/
========================================================================
UNITED STATES
Can we say roller coaster at the police state park? Yup, the US economy is about to take its next plunge and this one is going alllll the waaaaay down, folks. The first thing to fully melt down will be the collapse of the municipal bond market, which in the past 4 weeks has already seen its foundation rumbling and shaking. No this will not be pretty. We are talking bread lines, wiped out cities, mass rioting and of course a total police force clamp down. The country with the most people in jail and the most laws on the books to make sure those jails are not empty is about to expand that little industry five fold.
Yes, the work camps will be churning with Chinese style factory slaves, basically, if you are discontent and protest or to poor to pay the ever growing and multiplying taxes and fines, you will be put to productive labour, what other nations might call slave labour, but what nations like China, N.Korea and soon the USA, will call “its human advantage”.
At the same time, the total disintegration of the Mexican state will fully spill over into the border regions of the USA, especially into Texas. Murder rates already extremely high will only grow. When Texas moves to close its borders, the Federal American government will ban them and will instead demand that the land is off limits to citizens. That along with the attempted seizure of the right to control air quality, and thus industry and economics, something the US Federals have threated that if they do not get control of, they will close the Texas economy, will finally push this former republic to become its own Republic, again.
Will this be peaceful, oh hell no, the American Federal are more than happy to exterminate to their black void of a heart’s content to make sure everyone stays in their claws, especially their most industrialized and resourced state. There Will Be Blood, as the movie title goes and the Texans will fight, especially when the arrests starts. The only hope of the Republic of Texas will be to see just how discontent the rest of the Confederacy is.
As for the Republicans, well, they’ll sell out, but they will make sure to show their bonifieds by making us their enemies at every opportunity. After all, the Americans need a boggy man. With luck, Russia will pull out its investments from the Big N.Korea of N.America and as the 4th largest investor that will hurt.
When the war in Korea finally erupts, the Americans will also play a roll, though not such a big one, especially since they are bankrupt. In truth the unification of Korea, which will happen this year, will be the straw that drives the Americans out. By the end of the year, Korea, the unified Korea, will conclude a “respectful” agreement to send the Yankees home. Japanese will be out in the streets to make sure the same happens there.
This will be the first major steps back for the dieing empire, but they will not be the last. Rome, er DC will be to busy trying to keep the Mexican civil war from fully exploding in the streets of Phoenix and San Diego, the Texas from being free and the South from rising.
CANADA
Well boys, the ride was fun but its over. That real loud rushing sound? That’s the ground coming at you. Your property bubble is finally going to burst and with the Americans going to hell, with China collapsing into depression and social unrest, with Europe staggering all around, no one needs the oil from the tar sands, to expensive. Same with most of the rest of the drilling. That means Calgary and Edmonton are in for a hell of a property crash, as without oil, most of those new citizens and residents will be running home.
MEXICO
When Hell is just not enough, might as well get a goodly taste of the Devil in Mexico. Between communists in the south, the Islamics recruiting, mass gangs and Cartels now out to over throw the governments, generals acting as dons, Saint Death devil worshiping all over, Mexico is done.
However, I am surprised it did not happen this year, though I suspect all the billions the Americans are pouring, billions they never had and never will, kept this at bay for another year. But folks, time is up. Mexico is done and the government can not even control small enclaves.
Revolution, coups, all out war, that is all that’s left for the most failed state of the Western Hemisphere..
Of course all of this will pour into the US and there will soon be strong terrorist and militant actions by these very players, to break loose the rest of the SW. Sensing that the Federals will not help them, those US SW states, with the exception of Mexifornia, will begin strong state level and vigilante reprisal attacks, turning the whole zone into one long running gun battle. Now there is an action vacation.
.
.
.
.
In Summary
In short, the majority of the world will suffer economic catastrophe, led by the final collapse of the US and UK and the economic depression of China. Smaller nations dependent upon these three: such as Venezuela, Brazil, Australia and others will see themselves driven to the edge or at least to their knees, though none will fall over the cliff.
Other nations, such as Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, South Africa and Mexico will face their final Armageddon, becoming nations in name only (Somalia is already just that). Depending on how hard the US/UK land this year, they may just join this august list.
Finally will be a series of wars:
Argentina vs UK, where Argentina will, with minimal conflict take the Falklands
Israel vs Hamas and Turkey, a war of mass civilian casualties and as usual, little real results.
Turkey vs Arab partisans, Kurds, S.Cypriots, Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbian mercenaries and finally Russia. This will end in a Turkish defeat and the military coup of its Islamic government.
The Koreas, where South Korea will finally enact a unification of the peninsula under its rule.
Somalia will see attacks by various world navies and invasion by Ethiopia and Kenya.
Afghanistan will finally find resolution of a sort, with the total withdrawal of foreign troops and a renewed bought of anarchy and civil war that will last into the next decade or more, with India, Russia, Iran and Pakistan making sure that no one clan or tribe comes to dominate that living hell.
A war in the Persian Gulf will also grind slowly. Started swiftly by the dieing American Empire, which itself will quickly withdraw, the Gulf States will be caught in a prolonged state of conflict, raking in the riches from the price of oil, while their peoples bleed and die.
Finally, the US itself will more than likely descend into a civil war with the newly minted Republic of Texas and possibly the old Confederacy, as well as various cartels of defunct Mexico.
Stanislav Mishin
Pravda.ru (English Version)
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11th January 2011 at 9:37 pm
llpoh says:
Muck – you were a kid at 144 million? Just how damn old are you, anyway?
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11th January 2011 at 9:45 pm
llpoh says:
llpoh … Muck grew up without electricity … that should give you an idea.
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11th January 2011 at 9:46 pm
Administrator says:
Muck has socks older than half the people on this site.
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11th January 2011 at 9:50 pm
Matt says:
Stuck,
thanks for the cozy bedtime story. Good news though, the pols in Tucson acted quickly to make protesting funerals within 300 feet illegal, based on pator fuckwads decalration that his circus was coming to town. Do you think they will still show up?
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11th January 2011 at 9:53 pm
llpoh says:
Matt – you can protest my funeral all you want.
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11th January 2011 at 9:58 pm
Kill Bill says:
The first thing to fully melt down will be the collapse of the municipal bond market, -SiNJa
I wonder would a guy jumping from a wall street high rise landing on and killing someone below be considered a murder increasing the square of violence to population density?
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11th January 2011 at 9:59 pm
Kill Bill says:
Tucson acted quickly to make protesting funerals within 300 feet illegal, based on pator fuckwads decalration that his circus was coming to town. Do you think they will still show up?
I think they should have passed the law but not make publically known then arrest those fake christians when they did show up.
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11th January 2011 at 10:01 pm
StuckInNJ says:
Matt — no way I can even fathom what these fuckwad perverts will do.
My gut feel is that yes, they will still show up. Why? Media coverage!! They are media whores — and the media will oblige and spread their stinky fishoderous legs.
Citizens in other cities have formed a literal human wall between these kooks and the funeral party, so much so that they couldn’t be seen or even heard. I trust the citizens of Tuscon will do likewise.
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11th January 2011 at 10:05 pm
newsjunkie says:
I think that the Westboro Baptist protestors are operatives actually working to suppress free speech and peaceful protest by being so vile that we BEG for it.
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11th January 2011 at 10:13 pm
SSS says:
Matt
Fred Phelps and his nutjob Westboro Baptist church members have no idea what’s in store for them in Tucson. This may be a liberal university town (via the spin from MSM and city government officials), but there are tons of free spirits here. The motorcycle clubs and border vigilante groups have already sounded, “Gentlemen, start your engines.”
If the citizens are doing what’s right, Phelps will not get within a fucking MILE of any funeral, much less than the just-mandated 300 feet by the Arizona state legislature. That holds particularly true of Christina-Taylor Green’s (the 9 year old) funeral services. I know that area well. Done right, it’s impenetrable to protesters.
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11th January 2011 at 10:23 pm
Kill Bill says:
Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka church known for its inflammatory anti-gay protests, plans to picket the funerals of the six people gunned down in Arizona on Saturday.
In a flier posted on its web site, the controversial church writes, “THANK GOD FOR THE SHOOTER — 6 DEAD!”
These people are just asking to be shot at by their actions [not by me of course] and when they are I wonder if they will thank God for that shooter.
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11th January 2011 at 10:23 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
@Stuck
If there is anybody who should be an expert on Collapse, it would be the writers of Pravda. They have been living it for 20 years already.
RE
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11th January 2011 at 2:31 pm
StuckInNJ says:
You all probably know this already … Westboro Baptist Fuckwads will NOT be protesting the funeral of the 9 year old girl.
In exchange for ………… media coverage!! Supposedly, at least one or two radio outlets in Tuscon agreed to this extortion.
However, they do plan on protesting the other funerals.
Godspeed to you SSS and other fine citizens of Tuscon in neutralizing that fuckwad.
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11th January 2011 at 3:46 pm