Sucking in the '00's

Remember the 1970's? You probably don't want to. Inflation, stagflation, malaise, misery index, US humiliation, bad fashion, disco. The list is almost endless.

The Rolling Stones (a group I do not really like - they don't try hard enough) best summed it in the title of a 1981 Album (or around that year) - "Sucking in the 1970's". And did it suck.

Yet, there is a rolling Zeitgeist in American decades, probably since the 1890's. It goes like this. In one ten decade, there is a reformist (considered liberal) tinge to it. The next decade is followed by conservative reaction. Then there is another liberal trend, etc.

The late Robert Sobel, a historian, noted "This is drama, not history." Despite his opinion, it seems to have played out. However, for it to be accurate, one needs to add another type of decade - the sucky decades.

The corallary goes like this. There is a "conservative" decade, followed by a reform decade, followed by a sucky decade. The 1890's, the 1920's, the 1950's, and the 1980's were triumphs for a conservative zeitgeist. The 1900's, the 1930's, the 1960's, and the 1990's were triumps for a reformist zeitgeist (although the reform was largely out of the United States, especially in Eastern Europe and the Asian mainland, and Bill Clinton tried his own types of reforms). The 1910's, the 1940's, and the 1970's were horrible decades for all involved - no one really won. And the 2000's appear to be the same as this type of decade.

One characteristic of the 1910's, the 1940's, the 1970's is inflation. We have all the ingredients for a lot of inflation. This is due to a war, as all decades had. And the fact that people have lost all sense is seen in what people wear - a lot of ugly clothes out there (at least grunge fashion had a certain sense to it, as well as 1980's fashion). And the music - disco in the 1970's, and the Britany Spears the dominate the charts of today. This holds true after the 1940's too, when after WWII, there was a lot of inflation, the clothing was bad (as people then had horrible taste, especially in colors) and the music was the worst ever produced (to be saved by Rock N Roll); most importantly, there was a belief that we could lose the war on terror of that era, the Cold War. The 1910's had the red scare and the big inflation.

Today, the fact that people have lost all their sense can be seen in fashion - there are a lot of ugly clothes out there. Think of all the bad musicians dominating the charts - even much of the "rock" of today is bad. And the terrorists are dominating the headlines, leading to hot war in two places, with bad news (since the good news is downplayed) coming out of those places. At least this was the case before the New Orleans disaster. This disaster is now spiking the oil prices, which is, in combination with increasing government spending on domstic items and war (as in the late 1960's), will lead to high inflation - as is considered in this country. As such, I predict high inflation next, and possibly stagflation will come back.

If we go into the next decade, the "conservative reaction" may be those on the left who halt the reforming impulses that the right wants to implement - I think the left/right switched places in the zeitgeist sometime during the Reagan era. And bad fashion, as well as bad music, will go away - I think hip hop will lead to a major new genre in the next ten years.

The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared." One law of history is it often repeats itself. Thus, you can be prepared by looking to the 1970's, see what happened, and see how the most successful people - not the celebrities, I mean ordinary people - not only survived, but thrived.

The Lesson from The Big Easy

The floodwaters have taken taken over the city. Worse is yet to come as the storm is creating potential floods in the Ohio valley - which will eventually return to New Orleans.

Now, almost all have been evacuated. The rest are demanded to be out.

In the words of one tourist, "It's downtown Baghdad."

While we can ponder the causes, I think the most relevant is the effect - the long-term effect. one commentator today said "this means New Orleans will no longer be a major city."

He also suggested that housing prices there will plummet, because people will no longer want to be there. The highest point there is only six feet above sea level.

Lesser New Orleans has only 480,000 people. This is significant as it was once the largest city in the south - it was the Confederacy's largest city; when captured, it was a major blow to it. Although I do not have census figures, I doubt it is even one of the ten largest cities in that region. If the above statement of that commentator is true, that means New Orleans will shrink to the influence of a Modesto, a Yakima, or an Akron. Think about the implications here.

If one studies history - and I don't mean stopping at World War II, or the American Revolution, I mean the whole breath of it - one can see the fall of cities. Meaning the fall of civilizations. Cities that were once great become ghost towns - like Babylon, or Sparta, or Timbuktu. Or Pompei. Seattle, near where I live, can easily be destroyed by an earthquake that has not occurred in "historic times" (for this area), or by a volcanic eruption of the magnitude of Mount Mazama (today known as Crater Lake). I live twenty five miles from an active volcano, which could easily do my in. However, if the main volcano, Mount Rainier, erupts, rocks would fly over Seattle - as geologists have found - and a disaster of a much larger magnitude would happen.

As New Orleans is near the delta, there is a chance it could eventually disappear into the sea - literally. The hurricane may be the beginning of this process. This shows the transitory nature of our material creations. Which is why one needs to be prepared, in many different ways, for any disaster that happens. That includes stockpiling essentials (which would have been a big - albeit temporary - help to some of the people), and having a place to go if you become a refugee - which is now the description of some of the citizens down south. And I mean out-of-region. It also helps to stay out of the central parts of major cities, for the peril is greater, and you have an easier time evacuating. For mother nature is unpredictable, indiscriminatory, and disaster can strike easily without warning.

OK - I decided on a title of this blog

The Iconoclast.

Someone who likes to demolish idols. That is kinda me.

And, oh boy, are there idols to demolish.

Of course, humans create something, put it on a pedestal, worship it, and then do not think about the problems with the thing they created. Soon, an idea that was once le mode becomes tedius, worn, goofy, and ineffective. Like political correctness. Today, the high priests of political correctness are zealots who are promoting a set of ideas that are, well, dorky. Take recycling. Sure, it's a good thing to do - I recycle and reuse as much as I can - but there are people who are so into it they practically have orgasms over it! And I know some people like that, who get all excited over recycling things. Oh well - at least they don't have to worry about getting STD's!

I am a member of the so-called "generation-X". The person who coined this term originally meant it for people born in the years of 1958-1971; I am at the tail end of it (the "mainstream" media moved the category later on). And the menage et twa of all individuals of this age group (at least in America), no matter what political ideology, is nihilism. The leaders of the original boomer generation also wanted to tear stuff down, but they had their values they wanted to replace them with (which have wormed their way into our institutions).

Here is another idol that should be demolished - body art. For whatever reason, people like to turn their bodies into canvases, and it does make people look uglier. Take an attractive person who has a perfect body. So to be "in", they get an ugly tatoo (of who knows what) on some place on their body. So now you have this babe (or hunk, if your preferance is for men) who now has this blemish on their body. And, they might have a huge tattoo on their back, or tatoo's all over their body. That really looks ugly. And I can guarantee that they went to some guy who uses unsanitary equipment, because that much tattoo is very expensive, and people who do that much defacing probably do not have the money to pay for someone with sanitary equipment. So what may they have? Maybe hepatitis? Probably hepatitis? Would you want this person serving you in a resturant? Or a cafe? Much less sleep with them? Apparently some people do, as this is some kind of mating sign. Why they want to get hepatitis, I do not know. Maybe this is a way for ugly people to attract others, but attractive people need to do less, sometimes much less, to make themselves more attractive.

There is one sacred item that should not be torn down - following the beliefs of Jesus Christ, known as Christianity. And what I mean is following His beliefs as closly as possible, in the book called the Bible. Of course most people consciously pick-and-choose what to believe. I believe that it is possible to follow the good book as much as possible, be pious, but not be annoying at the same time. Now, I am not an active churchgoer, like I should be, but I'm sure God will eventually point me to one.

Of course many who appear to be obsessed with God all the time may not be. Sometimes people who are major sinners do so by "hiding behind their faith." I once went out with this chick, who we shall call Helga Huffelpuff (not her real name), who like to talk about her personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and how He influenced her life, and how she lived her life according to His principles. Well, in psych class they gave this thing call a purity test. 100% was totally pure. Well, she got a 4. Not 40, not 94, but a 4. I doubt there is a degenerate in Hollywood who could come that close. She even got her lesbian lover (who apparently permitted extracurricular activites - she asked me out!) to go to church with her. Go figure. And sure there are a lot more hypocrites. But it is much less pervasive than one thinks. If you watch Hollywood today, you probably get the impression that every churchgoer is a secret degenerate who harbors a big desire to do something naughty right here and now. The only exception is when the priest is a follower of liberation theology - then they are made into good guys. But that is the only exception allowed by them, which is a grossly unreal image. By-and-large, most Christians who are truly sincere about their faith (or most people who are truly sincere about their faith, for that matter) do not make mistakes (in terms of what the faith allows) very often.

What am I trying to say in this long rant? Basically, it is man who is corrupt. Who creates corrupt institutions (which, the majority of the time, probably the respective institutions started as some kind of reform movement and/or organization). Pure faith is not corrupt. It is man corrupts institutions. So there needs to be folly made of most institutions. Hence, the nihilist mindset of my generation is not so misguided.

Of course, lets use some common sense. If all institutions are abolished, there would be anarchy. And someone would come along and create new institutions to oppress everyone else. Probably someone who owns a lot of military hardware (and no, you can't get rid of military hardware, because the person who owns it will take care of you very quickly if you do!) This is what the dark ages was all about.

Being an iconoclastic blog can create problems. While looking at the blogs, I note there is a place where you can notify the administrators of "offensive content." But most things are offensive to at least somebody. So why have a blog? Being an iconoclast, almost everyone will be offended by something I write.

In any case, I intend to write about what I want to write about. And if you don't like what you read, find another blog. Maybe things on "server service" (as opposed to "customer service") or on my kooky theories about pre-Columbian explorations, or my gardening, or book reviews, or social theories, or history, or somatacizers (no, not womanizers - and how you spell that word anyways?). No poetry - you need to go elsewhere (who reads books of poetry anyway nowadays?). And I will try to stay away from politics - a passion of mine - because there is far too much political content (much of it uninformed) on the web. Basically, anything I feel about writing about, much of it iconoclastic. No focus. You just get facts and opinions from the most perfect person alive - me. At least that is merely my opinion of myself.

Eric

Like everyone else, I finally got a blog

Wow. I finally got a blog, like pretty much everyone else I know where I live (Seattle area). I also wonder if anyone will actually read it. Not like there's a shortage of people on the internet who want to give their opinion.

Now, what to write about. I could write about how "liberalism" sucks, but there are about thirty billion sources out there about how "liberalism" sucks, just like there are than many explaining how conservatives suck (but of course those sources are all wrong). I had an e-zine ten years ago explaining my political opinions, but that petered out after six issues. Oh well, everyone is entitled to my opinion. Although I am a very stingy person, I don't mind sharing my opinions with anyone else, and in fact, I am so generous in this aspect of life, I really don't like people sharing their opinions with me, and I think it's a good idea that they keep their opinions to themselves. In any case, there is too much political dribble out there, so I think I shall write about something else.

I guess I will have to figure something interesting and consistent to write. Notice the time submitted - the old joke is that anyone who owned a computer, that is what they were doing on a Friday night.

Oh yea - I would like to see what creative comments can be on this posting.

Eric