People often confuse “decadence” with drinking and screwing a lot. Those, however, are often present in young and vital societies as well. But political decadence means a loss of any sense of tradition, or duty, or political shame: It’s the destruction of the unwritten rules that hold the polity together, even if the forms are obeyed.
I guess WMCB’s pessimism is rubbing off on me. I’m finding myself thinking less about solutions and more about bomb shelters.
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Imagine if Sarah Palin said that ? Even if she is a white girl and helped her high school basketball team win a state championship? Nah, she’s got class.
Poor MSNBC looks like another flop on their hands. Funny that they were disappointed/surprised that he scored best with the older crowds. The son of Mia and Frank out of curiosity I’m sure many tuned in for a look see.
http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/ronan-farrows-new-msnbc-program-off-to-slow-start/
A lot of the younger crowd have little or no idea who Mia and Frank were.
Hate to be always bringing people down. But more so than the political stuff, the thing that alarms me most lately is the complete disintegration of all social cohesion in my lifetime. No one trusts any of our institutions anymore – but more than that, the very idea of having social cohesion, or generally agreed to morals, or institutions worthy of trust, is jeered at. The thing is, though, that it’s really hard to even have discussions about that without shades of “You just want to be a rigid prude and have a tightly controlled society” being assumed.
Um, no, I don’t. But some degree of organic social cohesion has to be there, or NO system of govt or politics is going to do any good. Healthy societies can flex and adapt to a lot of various political winds. They can even thrive under various forms of govt. They have enough “unwritten” structure to flex, counterintuitive as that sounds.
But if you lose all sense of real community and commonality? If there is almost zero common ethos? That’s a very very fragile society, because it’s brittle. And it doesn’t take much to blow it the fuck up, or flip it on a dime in some very nasty directions.
So yeah, I’m fucking worried. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I am. That Whittle video about Weimar is eerie in its familiarity.
As for me I’m all for the whole world being united in one big happy multicultural brother/sisterhood of humankind, but there are two little problems with that idea:
1. There is no evidence that multiculturalism works on any scale.
2. There are a whole lot of people out there who have a very different idea of how things ought to be. In fact, there are more of them than there are of us.
I feel very similar although I cannot relay my thoughts as well as you. I can’t put my finger on it. Feels like to correct a few wrongs we are throwing the baby out with the bath water. I was not a happer camper during Bush’s time in office, but I didn’t have this sense of dread. Think things are going to get wotse. How could my contry elect a man with Wright, Ayers, Soros and no experience. Couldn’t sell that script in Hollywood. The reason I doubt I will be able to support Hillary is because I think she was honest in New Hampshire. About what was coming our way and she enabled it. For what so she can be president? I hope I am dead wrong.
This is the first time I’ve watched that particular Whittle video (mainly because I am sick of all things Pedo-Porno-Miley).
The bit at the end where he says like then, our elites are filled with self-loathing and a kind of death wish – very insightful and from everything I’ve seen, true.
Sometimes things have to fall completely apart for the slow learners to get the message. Which sucks for those folks who do get the importance of what you’re talking about.
The slow learners want to dismiss it as just Old-Fartism, or prudery. It’s not. At all. Healthy societies can and do have nudity, or edgy art. Don’t be silly!
It’s about social cohesion. It’s not about the loss of this or that virtue, it’s about losing the underlying idea that Virtues even exist.
Weird comparison, but it’s like a societal orgasm. I like orgasms. Lots of them! Orgasms are GREAT!! But you know what would be horrifying? Seeing a human being hooked up via brain electrodes to some sort of perpetual orgasm machine. Forever. That, to me, is the kind of creeping horror I have at what our society is doing to itself.
I find this shocking , and she says this with NO SHAME Fla Dem: Without Immigration Reform, Who Will Clean Our Hotel Rooms And Do Our Landscaping?
Similar to the argument Dems made in the 1850s about cotton pickers
These idiots used to be “country club” Republicans. Before that they were feudalist Democratic masters. Nasty people. The lower orders were to be controlled and “farmed” for labor and rent. Now the parties have almost completely flipped again. The “intellegencia” serves their economic superiors just like a good overseer did with slaves.
Exactly my thoughts ! If we free the slaves , who will pick our cotton and plow our fields /
Exact same mentality .
It’s not all sunshine in the sunshine state, Alex Sink was the dem gubernatorial candidate last time around against Rick Scott……oy!
How are they finding housekeeping staffs now? Oh wait, legally and under the current laws.
This kind of goes along with the ” we are re-enacting 1930s Germany”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-panel-debates-technique-that-would-create-embryos-with-three-genetic-parents/2014/02/25/60371c58-9e4d-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html
Remember when eugenics, human experimentation, and trying to build perfect humans was something the Bad Guys were obsessed with?
Does this mean they leave the father’s defective DNA as is? Or will they get a forth person to fix the father’s defective DNA? I predict some people with huge ears and teeth like mules.
You know how baby names get popular then fade?
Imagine future generations where all the middle schoolers look like Justine Bieber, all the kindergarteners look like whoever last year’s teen idol was.
I wonder if the labs get to patent the perfect gene combos … of course they will.
As long as the “offspring” are all sterile it would be okay. It would be like human mules. Ligers are sterile too as I understand it.
I can’t feel ok with it at all.
Hybrids!!!! 😆
I’m joking. I think.
Well, you are probably right but don’t worry about them. They will all be in the Obamacare insurance pool and will be able to have endless procedures to bring them around to normal.
I remember a documentary on the Nazi “breeders”, women selected to “mate-raped” by hand selected perfect 6 ft tall, blond hair blue eyed soldiers, and they were kept in barn like dormitories. Newborns would come rolling down a conveyor belt, and the “undesirables” were culled (killed). Those who survived were sent to “schools” were they were indoctrinated from birth. These were actual films and I do remember vomiting after viewing. That was one effed up world.
Ugh. Anytime I think “things can’t get any worse”, I just take a look at 20th century history.
That was part of the readings I had in a history course. The allies and interim government had to place for adoption all the little children produced because no one wanted them after the war blew up the horror of Nazi policies. The babies were just livestock to the freaks who participated and thought up the shit.
Gawd, what an utter load of crap.
We are told: “Anita was dead by 29. So, by then, was the Weimar Republic.”
Except that Berber died in 1928 (well past her peak in popularity) and the republic lasted until 1933.
And then we are informed: “If you listen to the music of Kurt Weil and Lotte Lenya just for an hour, then the rise and mindless brutality of the Nazis becomes not only understandable, but inevitable.”
Except that Weil and Lenya (and Brecht, who seems oddly missing) were explicitly anti-Nazi. Is “Three Penny Opera” really supposed to be a symptom of what ushered in the Nazis? And let’s not forget that Lenya appeared in a freakin’ Bond film in the 60s. So, yeah, she was clearly a nihilist who enabled National Socialism.
And everyone knows that it is not Miley Cyrus who portends the demise of Western culture. It’s Snoop Dogg … or Marilyn Manson … or 2 Live Crew … or Madonna … or NWA … or The Clash … or the Sex Pistols … or The Rolling Stones … or Elvis and that jungle music … or something.
Has this place become an official Old Fart Zone? I suggest changing the tag line from “Fish or Cut Bait” to “Get Off My Lawn!”
Except that Weil and Lenya (and Brecht, who seems oddly missing) were explicitly anti-Nazi.
I think he’s saying that the Nazis were a reaction to the ethos of despair. When you grow up where everyone has given up, the energy of the Nazis, their arrogance that they will rule all become attractive.
That sounds like the same explanation for why ghetto/barrio kids join gangs.
They blame poverty and never mention the culture in which they live has been debased. Poverty affects culture but not always in a negative way.
It is in a sense a leadership vacuum.
Kids are naturally full of hope and energy – they will look for someone, anyone, with a vision for success.
From what I have read of juvenile/prison gangs the primary motivating factor is a sense of community, of belonging to something. Yeah, it’s twisted, but to these kids it is attractive.
Yup, that need to belong is a primal instinct in many. Probably based on a survival instinct. Find your pack if you want to survive.
Or the common German was so worn down by war, economic collapse, etc that they didn’t have anything left in themselves to fight back with. I think that is part of what is being done to the US. Grind ’em down enough and people won’t fight back. Art reflects what is going on in a society. I’m sure Falstaff is correct on the particulars of those artists but Whittle is not exactly an art and culture historian. He is trying to make a point and may be doing it with his examples off.
I think he’s saying we’re not supposed to be seeking out other opinions…. Forget about agree or disagree, or whether someone endorses an opinion just because it’s been posted…
To me, even Falstaffs comment is a worthy opinion with ‘factsy’ information that I can take or leave… And then the insult – which of course makes it difficult to care about the merit of the ‘factsiness’
I try to avoid living in an echo chamber. I make it a point everyday to read stuff I don’t agree with, even if it makes my blood boil.
I try to avoid living in an echo chamber.
But a padded chamber can be quite comfy. 😛
1. I believe he meant 29 years old. I could be wrong. Does that invalidate his thesis?
2. He didn’t say they were pro-Nazi.
3. He said they were a symptom, not a cause.
4. Done
Done? I expected you to finish with get off my lawn, LMAO!
Nevermind ISWYDT
LOL.
Me too 😆
According to my sources the “golden era” of the Weimar Republic ended in November 1929 with the NY stock market crash. After that the Nazi party became increasingly powerful.
Anita Berber died in 1928 at age 29.
Miley does show a decline of the Corporate culture. She was once very popular and had a huge young fan base of mostly girls, considering women make 80% of all purchasing decisions she could have been a marketing influence and the only thing media could think of to do with her was sexually degrade her to irrelevance. She has lost most of her influence and they have lost a lot of profit and they apparently don’t care. So if they aren’t in business to make money what are they in business for?
I think real American Culture is alive and well. Only the Corporate Culture is vulgar and pointless and ignored by most Americans. Although it is a problem for us that much of the world believes the Corporate Culture IS real American Culture. That is why we were attacked on 911. The attackers think Americans are evil based on the images of Corporate Culture they see in media, and don’t ever realize we are just as disgusted by Corporate Culture as they are. We probably have more in common with our attackers than we do with the purveyors of Corporate Cultural rot.
I dunno. It looks to me like MC is both popular and raking it in with both hands. But I still say she’s a cynical opportunist.
We survived the era of Madonna sexually abusing crucifixes on stage, so nothing shocks me anymore. I also survived (the play) Hair on Broadway when the entire cast got buck nekkid for about 5 seconds before the stage went dark.
I thoroughly enjoyed a musical called Assassins, where all the famous historical killers sang why they did it. Not everybody’s cup of tea, but I drank it up 😀
Sex still sells , and corporations know it better than anyone .
You should Google search “sex doesn’t sell” There are many articles with real data that proves this isn’t true. Also it is time for media to realize there are many views of sex not just the arrested development adult male view that is pornography.
Miley Cyrus is disgusting…nasty…the culture has hit rock bottom with that one. They say she has a good voice, and she is young enough to evolve as a performer. For her sake, I hope she eventually finds her artistic vision and voice, but to get there she needs to educate herself and have better advisers. In the meantime, I find her revolting, embarrassingly derivative, and just plain stupid.
HONK HONK!!!!
Same here, I find Miley a repulsive, vulgar joke and I am more interested in seeing some new women talent than in her rehabbed or current persona. But I guess the porn culture fans buy more than we do? I doubt it.
She is being promoted by the Corporate guys on every award show there is and is likely making money from the appearances. But she will never match Adele or Taylor, women with integrity and some mystery, for sales to consumers which is a measure of her influence. I’m not saying she isn’t making any money, I’m saying she could have made more money if they developed a product that appealed to the fans she already had. Of course the fools who promote her in the current way undoubtedly think they are representing a sexy woman and sex because that is their ignorant impression of women and sex.
Yes. Unlike Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, for example, MC is saying nothing new with her act (or shall I say antics!) which is only shocking in its sheer vulgarity and stupidity. The seasoned performers who are concerned for her are spot on. She’s really dorky too! I mean, her twerking was the most unsexy and pathetic attempt at dancing I ever saw. I want to feel sorry for her because she is so young, but all I feel is insulted by her crassness and cynicism. But, hey, she’s getting a lot of publicity and making millions, so I guess she’s getting exactly what she wants out of it. I think she and Justine Beiber are made for each other.
I’m on the fence with this one. If you have nothing to hide why wouldn’t you let the police search your home? The time it takes to get a warrant you’d have time to hide incriminating evidence, so I can see the point. Yet, gives the police a lot of wiggle room to abuse this new “rule”.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-scotus-lapd-search-20140226,0,3720623.story#axzz2uROivRYQ
I’m big on civil liberties but this case doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. The cops had consent.
The police would need a warrant to search my home. I’d also make them take off their shoes or boots.
LOL.
From the UK
http://www.charismanews.com/world/40685-millionaire-gay-couple-sues-to-force-church-wedding
Millionaire Gay Couple Sues to Force Church Wedding
War on Christians ? I believe the Unitarian Church (and many others) will give them the wedding of their dreams? Let me know if they want to be married in a Mosque, or in Uganda ….or Rev. Wright’s church 😉
They are being deprived of their right to a big lavish wedding in the church of their dreams.
New TLC Series:
My Big Fat Gay Wedding That I Forced A Church to Perform on Threat of Being Closed Down By The Government
I believe our Lola is ordained, she’d marry them. 😀 Heck, 12 years ago my son and his wife got married by a JP, thinking one day they’d have the fancy-schmancy wedding. As the years went by it just seemed like a huge waste of money for a party, especially after the twins arrived.
My own big fat High Nuptial wedding Mass was for Mom and our extended holy-rolling Catholic family. I wanted to elope to Vegas and get married by an Elvis impersonator, it would have been more fun for me 😀
It’s no fun if you don’t have to sue someone to comply.
I’d bet money on it.
Oh, Jesse, be still and know your race-baiting heart.
Reminds me of this blog post on MOTUS …. funny stuff with real links 😀
http://www.michellesmirror.com/2014/02/lewis-farrakhan-wants-his-own-water.html#.Uw4ShZs8vhw
Gotta be sh*t stirring to keep them on the Plantation, eh?
More here:
http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/02/ucla-student-council-rejects-anti-israel-divestment-resolution/
Oh, it’s a young anti-semite crying and gnashing her teeth.
Awesome.
She is the note-taker. She isn’t even a voting member. Who gave her her sense of entitlement to disrupt and act a fool?
If she tears her garments, maybe Miley’s people will pick her up….
Can’t understand what the snowflake is crying about? What was the issue?
My God. We have hysterical neurotic children driving political movements in this country.
And notice how everyone sits there? In a sane world someone would tell her to get herself under control or leave the room, and if she couldn’t seem to do either, slap her.
I am picturing a scene from Airplane.
I like the guy who does the face palm about a minute in …..
Stole it!
I’m surprised that nobody caught the connection between the title and the MC graphic.
Or maybe you did.
Talk about tooting the horn from both ends…. MC’s in-your-face “end” is as gross as her wagging tongue. Yeah, the end is near all right.
I groaned to myself. Then took a drink.
The mothership, Comcast, is now pimping Fallon in commercials for Xfinity as well.
maybe we should turn back a little time
My great grandson will be the weather kid on the radio today in Philadelphia. Must brag he is such a cool kid
Awesome!
Great!!! 🙂
thanks. he is such a great kid. and I am so proud of my granddaughter. she picked a good man to marry and is raising such awesome kids.
she does give me a lot to brag about
Be proud!
Awesome!
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/02/25/karma-tommy-christopher-fired-at-mediaite/
MYIQ aren’t banned from there?
Let me check the list . . . . . . yep, I sure am.
http://americanthinker.com/2014/02/our_weimar_republic.html
is this a great minds think alike day?
a must see video
http://www.cnsnews.com/video/cnsnews/post-pajama-boy-obamacare-promotions
post pajama boy obamacare promotions
OT. Need help on the central coast! Three days of non-stop weather alerts are borne out! Since daybreak have been inundated with over .001423″ of drizzle driven ahead of 15 knot gale. Oh, the inhumanity! Temperatures plummeted to 59°. Will be forced to close everything down (like Wash DC in a trace snowstorm) if this continues much longer.
Sounds like a typical July day.
You’ll sing another tune when it reaches you.
It was over 80 degrees here yesterday.
Wait until it gets to 78, then you’ll be screaming for help. 🙂
*looks at snow on ground*
Sun’s back out. “Where, oh where has our little storm gone”?
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/02/threats-of-physical-action-at-dartmouth-then-and-now.php
how much are the parents paying for these brats to go to college?
http://www.redmassgroup.com/diary/17806/attorney-for-another-child-kidnapped-by-childrens-hospital-talks-about-justina-pelletier-case
has anyone been following this case where they took a girl away from her parents?
do not think anyone should take a kid to this hospital. does not seem safe for the children or the parents
Boston Children’s Hospital saved my son’s life twice. I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to take a child there. The place is teeming with great doctors, well-trained and caring nurses, and a support staff that goes the extra mile. I don’t know what the other side of this story is because the doctors, the lawyers, and the judge are prohibited from discussing the case in public because the child is a minor, but I am absolutely sure there is one. A clue might be that the doctors from Tufts University, across town and the owners of another first class children’s hospital who transferred this girl to Boston Children’s, have not stepped forward to offer any testimony in support of the parents.
I pity Trayvon’s parents for their loss, but I am rapidly running out of sympathy. They are clearly in denial about what happened and what kind of person Trayvon was.
A lot of people are in denial. And a number of people are purposely promoting it. Cynical and pathetic.
See where “Young Republican” leaders are now lampooning the Tea Party.
There comes a time in the dying process when an animal is still standing, swaying, blinking and appearing to be alive. But in fact it has stopped pumping blood and breathing, and is moments away from keeling over and joining the landscape.
The GOP is dead, but doesn’t know that yet because its nerve structure has ossified. RIP.
Populist movements are hard. And they almost never succeed as a cohesive thing. The best they tend to do is have influence in their larger organization. I think the Tea Party has injected a bigger sense of smaller government in the GOP. But the old guard GOP is just as much a big government pusher as the Dems. So we’ll see how things shake out. If neither party changes their ways, it won’t really mater. It’s all going to collapse under its own weight. Fun times.