The End Time Chronicles

"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy."

- John Updike

Rich people are stupid. Or maybe they're smart. Who the hell knows? Watching A-Rod grimace through his interview with Peter Gammons on ESPN, it was hard not to think about Bernie Madoff and what his answers might be to reasonable inquiries. Rodriquez and Madoff both seem to have responded to the uniquely American notion that everything goes forever upwards; profits are endless and records will all be broken. That's nonsense, of course; the 100 meters will always require a certain amount of time to be traversed and the record will eventually reach human capacity. And markets, as every economist will concede, are not endlessly upward bound. Capitalism is imperfect.

Rodriquez seems to be implying that it's our fault he cheated. He said the reason he took steroids was because he had "the weight of the world" on his shoulders and there were "great expectations because I had just signed this enormous contract." What crap. How did Gammons not laugh at this guy? This is the moral equivalent of your sixth grader getting caught looking at his desk mate's test paper during an exam. "Gee, dad, I knew you really wanted me to do well and had great expectations that I would get an A but I hadn't studied and I didn't want to let you down." "Thanks, son. I'm proud you did what was necessary to succeed."

His other excuse was, "It was just the culture of that time." Ah good one, Alex. Not enough character to know the difference between right and wrong, eh? That's kind of the Nazi war criminal defense. "I didn't really feel like killing those people but it was our culture at that time." Like the old Texas Ranger said, "Right is still right even if nobody's doing it and wrong is still wrong even if everybody's doing it." The distinctions aren't subtle, A-Roid. They are pretty stark and obvious.

A Rod, of course, is easy to hate. He's right out there in front of us being a Yankee and hitting the baseball. When I was a kid and hating the Yankees on the radio as Mantle and Maris decimated the Tigers and broke my Motown heart, I gave them their grudging respect. Maris' forearms didn't look much bigger than my own bird-like appendages and made me think anything was possible and I still may yet make it to the big leagues. Even the uninitiated knew The Mick was a bit of freak but Maris' performance confirmed that mechanics and hard work created possibilities for lesser creatures. A-Rod, Clemens, and McGuire did too; they simply added controlled substances to the equation. Who wants to let down America?

Bernie Madoff has no playing field but he saw a sucker in our culture's obsession with risk-free and assured profit and the need to win. Maybe he thought anyone stupid enough to believe in that deserved to lose their money so he drew silly graphs with endlessly ascending red lines and reassured the doubtful. Wall Street didn't do anything much different than Madoff by bundling up nonsensical dreams and then spinning them out to buyer after buyer on a credit swap swirl. Are we this stupid and greedy? Do we deserve our present economic peril or are some of us victims?

Too much of our population has now grown cynical from the lies and cheating and stealing that they do not expect any change. We no longer anticipate much from congress and the senate and our media beyond entertainment, and they don't even do that well. Watching Republicans wail about the stimulus plan is laughable after their silent acquiescence over the Wall Street bailout of hundreds of billions. The markets must be saved even though the homeowners and workers can be sacrificed. Things couldn't have been too bad, actually, if some of those firms receiving bailout money decided to pay it back right away when they learned that salaries were to be capped by congress at $500,000. The Democrats, for their part, seem almost as if they can't think of anything to do but print more money and give it away to different interests, along with more bankers.

Oh sure, none of this is our fault. America is not to blame. There are just some bad actors in high profile positions. Really? Our sports heroes are gone, exposed as liars and cheaters. The people we trust with our money turn out to be thieves of a magnitude not known to history. Our president lies us into war, ruins damned near every institution of our government with political folly, and then retires safe from the law in the western sun. You can't even ask the question "What the hell's wrong with us?" because the answer requires decades of explanation. An increasing number of Americans wonder if our country will even survive and a scary proportion of those have asked the troubling follow up question as to whether we deserve to survive and have entered our final decline.

I don't know anything except for the fact that I hate the Yankees.

Comments

[smag]

Did someone say the BO administration?

[SamEllison]

Jim, I am a Yankee fan.
Having said that,
Aroid was a Ranger when
he admitted using the juice.

[lilian101]

The tenor of the article ridicules the entire concept of the problems it addresses. It is too cute to have baseball players have problems because of drug use. And some people really don't believe in endless consumerism? What?
The author needs to write for Saturday Night Live, but the SNL writers can't figure out what to ridicule in politics anymore.
It is a conundrum

[twocrows]

People looked at me like I was crazy when I paid off my last house 11 years early [in 2002]. And, again, when I sold it, downsized and paid cash for my current home.
They looked at me like I was delirious when I pulled almost all my money out of my bank and stashed some in a safe deposit box and brought the rest home [last year].
And, when I sold my few stocks and bonds, again stashing the cash at home, they called me Chicken Little.

Now, these same people are asking me if I'm psychic.
Nope. Observant.

[professor]

Mantle and Maris took speed.

[Donnie4488]

"We have met the enemy,and he is us." Oh Pogo,where are you now?

[elramees]

James Moore, you wrote, "Americans wonder if our country will even survive. " You go on to point out the greedy ills of high profile individuals, but know this, if I was never exposed to high profilers, I would experience the effects of sins heaviness in this country. Dr. Joseph Lowery pleaded in his prayer, "...Keep us forever in THY path we pray...Lest our feet stray from the places our GOD, where we met THEE. Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget THEE..." The prophet Habakkuk wrote, "...because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as sheol and is as death and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto himself all nations and heaps unto himself all people...Shall not all take up a parable against him and a taunting proverb against him...Woe to him that increases that which is not his!"

James Moore, HOLY GOD has spoken, there is nothing else to be said!

[idest]

God was talking? When? He's gotta speak up because I didn't hear it.

[lefty46]

our value system has been corrupted.. we are willing to pay sports stars and entertainment people untold millions. we are willing to pay financial people untold millions and we are willing to let our manufacturing base erode. until we value the creation of wealth again, we will stay in trouble.and, wealth is created by making things. chase, jp morgan and the rest of the finacial giants do not create wealth, but just move it around, mostly for their own benefit.
i grew up in an area that had car plants, chemical plants and many other manufacturing plants within a few miles of where i lived. all of my family in my father'sgeneration had jobs with those plants and made a middle class living from them. those same people today would be unemployable in our current economy. making things is what creates wealth and until we recognize that, we will flounder.

[goodoldusa]

Americans are poor students, particularly of history. Every civilization has risen, and eventually fallen. We surely are not the exception. We have always believed we were special and blessed above all others.... I'll bet Egypt, Rome, Greece, etc. thought the same thing.
A strong dose of reality flavored with humility wouldn't hurt us.

[twocrows]

you're right, of course.
and lots of those other civilizations have lasted far longer than ours has.

[DBJay]

Some of us saw this crap coming down the pipe (stet) years ago, and almost despaired at the great American public.

Is the future of America to be read in our posts?

As I read posts in the HuffPO, the NYT, and from Americans in the Guardian-on-line, my hope is that the majority do not represent the best and the brightest. Sure, there are some great posts in all of them. But the majority are beyond worrying. Even some of the columnists. Some can never celebrate anything, exxcept maybe a birthday.

That said, America is on another brink. But it will last and recover, in spite of the drivel we post on line. It will survive, in part, becasue of three GOP senators who, whatever their motives, see the way the wind is blowing. Others will join them.

America needs a GOP, but not the one we have now. Major change is needed in that sclerotic, bilious body. Let's encourage that change, and for God's sake, celebrate something and stop whining. Some of us did see all this crap coming down the pipe years ago,

[twocrows]

As I read the comments, I noticed lots and lots of answers.
What I find interesting is that no one seems to have asked the questions until the crisis occurred.

If we do survive this, will we just return to the same old same old?

[trunk65]

What has happened is very simple. While the masses were consumed with materialism and upward mobility, the wealthy and the powerful rigged the game.They gutted American industry, shipped the jobs overseas, hired lobbyists to corrupt Washington, and put those in office to write the laws to protect and favor them. Then, as a final insult, they put an incompetent fool in The White House, and proceeded to haul away trillions of dollars in war profits and illegal and sleazy Wall Street scams. Now, as if waking up from an orgy of consumerism and binge credit card spending, the common man says "What the hell happened?" All the talk, the wringing of hands, and heated debate will not change the reality of where we are. The out of control flow of wealth to the top is destroying American society , and if you think those that are the recipients of this are going to allow it to be changed without a massive struggle, then you are sadly out of touch. Electing Obama was just a start. If we want our country back, it will require a fight.If we don't, there won't be an America as we know it.

[markjuliansmith]

It would be nice if 'Electing Obama was just the start' but sadly it is not going to be the case.

As for fighting that’s how we come to were we are now. Fighting only achieves the same or worse.

You are perfectly right as to the reasons for our arrival in all current societies at this low point.

The question is how do we replace what we have with what we all want?

First it is accepting by electing another politician under the same societal framework is not going to deliver us from evil.

Secondly accepting the notion of self-interest, which we have lauded as the most efficient means of enabling independence for all, is a failure.

Thirdly accepting the only way we can achieve true independence for ourselves is by first seeking to enable the independence of others.

Fourthly change our legislative and societal frameworks to align with point three.

Start by seeing what you can do to assist those closest to you to achieve independence and work outwards.

[craigcollier]

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." R. Bucky Fuller
The Panhandle of Texas is subsidy dependent (cotton) and faced with a declining water table (Ogallala Aquifer), but it is also potentially enabled by a good scattering of co-ops. After working toward an economic redevelopment concept for the last eight years, an idea of co-op capitalism has started to evolve. (Co-op: an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratic­ally-contr­olled enterprise.) No amout of dialouge, effort, or money can effect change if it is directed at the same economic processes of wealth creation and distribution. There certainly will be an extended struggle between the systems, but what would the recovery package have looked like if it had been put together a year ago. This largest of economic (cultural) situations in our history also extends the largest opportunity to cooperatively create a change. Maybe if we focus on the change, that's all we'll see.

[LuckyBlessed]

"if you think those that are the recipients of this are going to allow it to be changed without a massive struggle, then you are sadly out of touch"
Envisioning this monster is like watching a massive, massive, monstrosity of a lawsuit where those holding the purse strings are willing to hunker down for years , at whatever the cost.

[sirwilliam]

What is that line which seems to sum up everthing?

From "The Godfather":

"Its not personal; it's BUSINESS"

[TomBrentwood]

Lets not forget both of these scams took place as the regulators failed to do their jobs. MLB didn't regulate the ballplayers with the help of their union and the SEC & Fed let Madoff steal billions with Congress standing around like zombies.

[DBJay]

Exactly.

[TruthmongerII]

Very few in the U.S.S.R. thought their country would disintergrate, until it happened.

[twocrows]

And the same is true of Rome.

[LiberalForever]

A Rod, for all the millions he should have to return and for all of his lame excuses and his breech of the trust of kids, is just a tiny spec on the radar of "gimme gimme gimme".

A society based on consumption is what?