An Inhuman Condition

“There is one thing solid and fundamental in politics. What is up today is down tomorrow.”
-Richard M. Nixon

Today I felt immensely anxious and altogether distraught about tomorrow. I feel like I am on trial for a crime I didn’t commit, and the jury has reached a verdict. I feel like I am about to walk into a court room facing four to eight years of serious prison time, and I cannot be sure what to expect. I would hope that the system was functional and everything would work out, but there is a large part of me that knows the system a little too well for that level of naïveté.

Liberals have been fluffing Barack Obama like he is already heir apparent to the oval office throne and red phone. The same folks who were so sure of John Kerry’s election are now celebrating the coming of Obama. The logic was that after four years of George W. Bush in Washington, that the country could not possibly re-elect him. It happened. Back at the end of the Reagan days with Iran-Contra still fresh in their minds, people thought there was no hope for a snake like George H. W. Bush to go from a key player in that debacle to the commander-in-chief. It happened. After Nixon they said Republicans wouldn’t win an election for 20 years. It happened. I can’t help but feel like Obama’s victory is far from won.

“And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. And one of his heads was as it were slain to death, and his death stroke was healed. And the whole earth marveled after the beast.”
-Revelation 12:2-3

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The laptop computer will be the death of our society. I see the signs written on the walls in ASCII. Coffee shops are littered by blank faces in front of glowing screens. Fingers type frantically to instant messages with friends they used to see in person. News, entertainment, everything is delivered over copper wires straight to their liquid-crystal displays.

It used to be the case that people would call one another. One would bump into someone on the street, have a small chat, exchange numbers and meet up at a coffee shop or bar for a few hours to swap stories and reminisce. Now one hears the sordid statement, “Oh, you should look me up on Facebook!” Instead of spending the few bucks and an afternoon conversing in the flesh, they pour over status updates, new profile photos, new notifications. Instead of post cards or letters, people send YouTube videos. Nostalgia is instantaneous, uploaded and tagged: “Yes, those are pictures from yesterday; I remember yesterday!” The only address anyone is interested in is an email address.

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The elections are marching military-style to their climax in three days. Americans spent September spending less than they have in a long while. Gasoline is practically being given away at deep-discount, pre-apocalypse rates. World capitalists are handing out $25 billion to keep Hungary, a member of the elite European Union, afloat between paychecks. Like a bunch of broke, blue-collar buddies, they are buying Hungary’s drinks at the bar to get him through the rough times.

All the news reads like the introduction to a long epitaph for Western civilization. A British monetary consultant firm has predicted that the West has five years until the developing powerhouses start to control world capital. Our little exploited children had to grow up eventually. My only question concerns the hell of a nursing home in which they will ultimately hide us away. It was all a wild ride while it lasted. Maybe lucky Americans will be allowed to work in call centers for India and sweatshops manufacturing small toys for Chinese children.

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“I can see the future, and the future holds nothing for me
I can see the future, and it makes me wish that I was blind
All the hype that intoxicates us tonight
All the crap out of which we manufacture our lives”
-Snog The Future

Here in the States people seem to be watching the news, eyeing the financial section of the newspaper and praying to their gods that the dollar doesn’t collapse like the WTC. Folks are without jobs, Wall Street is riddled with pot-holes, and the government is spending China’s money trying to patch our leaky roof. Ben Bernanke at the FED ready to slash interest rates down to a single percent as if somehow cheaper borrowing costs will drive debt-laden Americans deeper down the rabbit hole. OPEC has decided to produce one-and-a-half million less barrels of oil each day so they can continue lining the pockets of Shell and Exxon-Mobile. Everywhere I look the people with the money, the people with the power, are looking for bandages to patch up the Titanic global economy, but the water keeps flowing in.

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“There is no need for the president of the United States to be smart. He can be hovering on the grim cusp of brain death and still be the most powerful man in the world.”
–Hunter S. Thompson

There is no justice, equity, rhyme, reason nor value left in the American political system. All is fair in airport-bathroom love and preventative war. The most obvious clue that our system of governance will not soon reflect any of the aforementioned attributes is the latest turn in our presidential debates. McCain, in a primal display of ape-like feces flinging, turned an opportunity to address any issue at all in favor of his favorite new fatigued catch-phrase: Joe Six-Pack. Between McCain’s desperate attempts to dress himself as a Clint-Eastwoodesque underdog, and his feeble pleas for votes from the pious poor in this country, one gets the feeling that this man is comprised entirely of crap. It is then fitting that political discourse is reduced to fawning over the comments of some plumber on the campaign trail, and one can see in a crisp, sober manner that our country is floating clockwise on a path deep into the shitter.

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