An Inhuman Condition

Here I am on the night of the Kalamazoo City Commission elections taking time away from my busy schedule of reading and consuming to pay attention. I’m stuck chain smoking and clicking the refresh button on my browser faster than a lab rat would click for cheese. I’ve been pondering the votes, assembling my own list of candidate stats and watching what is ultimately a pretty boring show. The incumbents are all far enough ahead at this point to keep their seats, and Mayor Hopewell is in no danger of losing the high throne.

I’ve been watching these results over the last few precincts and only one remains to report. I’ve seen Don Cooney lose the runner-up spot to McKinney by 66 votes, and now he’s down 107. I was hoping that someone as weird as Cooney would see some recognition. I had my hopes for the poor bastard last year when he ran against the Upton legacy for U.S. representative, and now it looks like he’s stuck a plain-ol’ commissioner. The past few elections I’ve seen him take the number 3 spot every time, and it looks like this one will be no different.

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While trying to stay current with economic news, I’ve noticed a trend where people looking for some sort of silver lining say things like, “at least the financial crisis is bringing corporate corruption to the attention of the American people.” The attitude seems to be that average folks don’t tend to pay attention to economic news and are therefore blind to the sort of corruption that led to this recession.

Bullshit.

I’m pretty sure that a whole lot of folks were quite aware of how far the capital cock was wedged up their ass long before IndyMac fell down. I think most people aren’t aware of the specifics, but if you can feel yourself getting fucked hard by these greedy twats, do you really want to turn around and see how deep it’s in? Eh?

I think people know and they write it off. I think when things are normal, the last thing one wants to do is watch daily updates that remind one that poor people keep getting poorer and those with money see it multiply. That trend did not start with Bush. It didn’t start with the housing boom. It didn’t start with the stock boom. The disappearing wealth of labor is inherent in the capitalist system itself.

So sure, there are people who were entirely ignorant of the specifics before it became a media issue, but they knew things weren’t right. I will also concede that there could exist such a person that lived their Big-Mac-Wal-Mart-Jerry-Springer-SUV-Anna-Nicole-Smith-desk-job-government-benefit-Paris-Hilton-buffet-slanket lifestyle without being aware that anything was unnatural, but I doubt that person is the majority. Sometimes being numb and willingly dumb is preferable to paying attention because awareness breeds depression.

“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 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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