tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post5405700144390112703..comments2023-11-05T01:53:40.235-06:00Comments on the Hipcrime Vocab: The Other DieoffsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-16742366099076451382015-12-19T21:26:49.079-06:002015-12-19T21:26:49.079-06:00What I'd ideally like to do is set up a full W...What I'd ideally like to do is set up a full Wordpress application on a server and manage that, so I can full control over the blog's functionality and design. That would be ideal, but since I don't have a job anymore, there is no way I can justify the expense since I make no money on this blog. So free will have to do for now.escapefromwisconsinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369565788469048090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-62197745735705777552015-12-19T21:24:05.205-06:002015-12-19T21:24:05.205-06:00The commenter below references Morris Berman; his ...The commenter below references Morris Berman; his new book on Japan might be instructive. I think most other societies have been around since long before capitalism and subsequently have a social glue and set of behaviors that binds them together and protects them apart from the current economic system. America, by contrast, does not, Its "culture," such as it is, *is* the economic system. It is a Market society, and as such has devolved into a pitiless Darwinian competition of winners and losers. There is no older, pre-capitalist culture to fall back to, unlike the Old Worldescapefromwisconsinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369565788469048090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-37970435368654309732015-12-19T21:20:04.658-06:002015-12-19T21:20:04.658-06:00I have read it and as a native I think it's ri...I have read it and as a native I think it's right on the money (no pun intended). Berman's is the best articulation yet of the moral nihilism at the heart of our society.escapefromwisconsinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369565788469048090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-17785896652754269422015-12-18T00:34:06.988-06:002015-12-18T00:34:06.988-06:00Very interesting,good job and thanks for sharing s...Very interesting,good job and thanks for sharing such a good blog.your article is so convincing that I never stop myself to say something about it.You’re doing a great job.Keep it up<br />Electrician in Adyarhttp://superantz.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-62263122606988404642015-12-12T18:28:54.484-06:002015-12-12T18:28:54.484-06:00The quality of the 'helpful criticism' sho...The quality of the 'helpful criticism' should match the quality of the blog. The way you approached it was pretty 'snarky' as another reader put it.<br /><br />No, I've not been to any school for special snowflakes, but I will be sure to say 'Hi' to your fellow alumni from one of those schools.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-42287824939018721162015-12-12T14:53:37.641-06:002015-12-12T14:53:37.641-06:00And here I am, making another request. Oh well. If...And here I am, making another request. Oh well. If I don't say it now, I'll probably never say it: I just pointed people your way regarding your past architecture posts. I had to tell them to fish, which is not an easy task in a voluminous blog like this one. That leads me to suggest -- when you have time, or the money to pay someone to do it -- to come up with an easy-to-navigate archive. As it is currently configured, this blogger blog is horribly user-hostile.<br /><br />When I post something, there are invariably typos. I run it through a spell checker before posting, and even then, some stuff sneaks through. So... dont' worry about it overmuch, we can handle it. :-) verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06823525858589365541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-40485752314359356982015-12-09T20:28:05.549-06:002015-12-09T20:28:05.549-06:00If you ever wanted to know the cultural roots of A...If you ever wanted to know the cultural roots of America's hustling tradition read Why America Failed by Morris Berman. That's why even as a Canadian I find American society and materialism extreme. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-59913266730726859122015-12-09T19:44:11.031-06:002015-12-09T19:44:11.031-06:00I hope your comments section stays civilized... wo...I hope your comments section stays civilized... would be sad to see it degrade.<br /><br />"Isn't it time we start acknowledging that this is what capitalism is. I mean inherently."<br /><br />You know, I honestly don't think it's capitalism. This opinion comes from the short time I lived in Japan. Throughout my time there I wrestled with the issue of why their society is so much more civilized and less nasty to each other, and my girlfriend at the time replied that they have a saying "we all eat from the same bowl". And it's true: you live and breathe there and you can plainly see that their corporations are not gutting the country for their own enrichment to the level that is so common place here (you'll have to trust me on this: I know the US media roundly denigrates Japan's economy etc along with everyone else's. The US media paints the picture of a country on the brink of desperation, which just isn't true.)<br /><br />So I'm of the view that our American problems are more cultural/situational in nature, perhaps amplified by various policies and factors at the moment. Capitalism enables it, sure, and has inherent injustice, but cast Americans into a different system, and I'm pretty confident most of the same injustices would play out through different channels. Likewise if other deeper factor changed I don't think our capitalism would produce the level of nastiness we are currently experiencing.<br /><br />Would we have gotten here if, say, we had drifted away from capitalism in bygone decades? A very interesting thought experiment..<br /><br />So I hate to say it but there isn't an easy answer: capitalism of itself is not it, in my view.<br /><br />I don't have the answers, but I do know I love your blog and it informs my world view. We are all trying to figure this stuff out.meat wadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06170569967198071605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-87903503651052785102015-12-08T12:33:21.058-06:002015-12-08T12:33:21.058-06:00Thanks for your long and thoughtful reply!
I was ...Thanks for your long and thoughtful reply!<br /><br />I was listening to NPR yesterday and there was a puff piece extolling a book by a (supposedly) great author; the premise of the book was that a guy could wander the USA, and tell some sort of profound story in a series of snarky internet hotel reviews. At one point, the writer of these, the book's protagonist, ponders getting an infrared light to show the "sex stains" on the bedspreads of these hotel rooms. This is done with an ultraviolet light, and that fact is widely known these days.<br /><br />So yes, you are producing high quality writing and in huge quantity. And under the conditions of the modern internet, which makes pressing cuneiform symbols into clay seem rapid and nimble. I don't even expect to have internet in a few years if I extrapolate along the curve of decline - amazingly smooth and predictable! - that it's followed for me.<br /><br />Many thanks!<br /><br />Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13916394695449933164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-27009426454740249742015-12-07T12:53:19.066-06:002015-12-07T12:53:19.066-06:00Few notes:
1.) Thank-you for the compliments.
2....Few notes:<br /><br />1.) Thank-you for the compliments.<br /><br />2.) I have VERY little time right now to write anything, so I'm amazed I've been able to output as much as I have been.<br /><br />3.) There WILL be typos. That's just a fact. There will be more in the future. I write these quickly and on the fly. Sometimes I can take a bit longer to polish them, sometimes I don't. While I understand the intent is benign, it is VERY frustrating to have these constantly pointed out. Typically my process is to publish as soon as I'm done; maybe run a spellcheck (which I still tend to forget), but that will not catch everything. It's the nature of writing that it needs a second pair of eyes due to cognitive blindness, but I don't have that. Blogs are intended to be messy and not have the same standards as "professional" writing, but rather to get other voices out there. It's a "first draft," not a book. I can't and won't be held to that same standards as people getting paid to write for a living. Remember, you're getting this for free.<br /><br />4.) Typically I will go back and reread an entry over the next several days and scrub most of the errors. Not all, mind you, I've gone back to entries written years ago and seen typos that are still there. The closer you are to it, the harder it is to see.<br /><br />5.) If you've never written blog entries, I suggest you try it sometime, it might give you a bit of empathy for what we writers have to deal with.<br /><br />6.) If I do publish a book, and I hope to do so, it will have the requisite editing. I know for a fact there are any number of technical errors in many, if not most, of the entries. I'm not perfect, and I'm not even an English major. I've seen mistakes made even on the pages of "professional" writers/bloggers, and even on the sites of professional publications who theoretically have a huge staff and revenue to deal with that. (BTW, it seems even professional writers don't care what "begging the question" actually means anymore.)<br /><br />7.)There was guy who wrote the <i>Decline of the Empire</i> blog who would fly off the handle at even the most minor perceived slight and belittle and ban users left and right. I like to think I'm better than that, but I DO have my limits. I will ban commenters if I have to. I will shut down the comments if I have to. Obviously, I don't want to do that.<br /><br />8.) My advice is to refrain from pointing out mistakes in the future. Hopefully I will catch them. If not, well, that's just too bad. Unless it drastically changes the meaning of what I'm trying to say, of course.<br /><br />'Nuff said. I've actually got a lot of stuff in the prep phase, but I'm liking this one a week format, so I think I'll stick with it (with maybe something minor mid-week). I also have a backlog of comments to rely to, and I hope to get to that soon too. Thanks for your understanding.escapefromwisconsinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369565788469048090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-86452858023094682032015-12-07T11:45:11.100-06:002015-12-07T11:45:11.100-06:00I'm over 60 now, so I can pretend to enjoy a l...I'm over 60 now, so I can pretend to enjoy a little more perspective than I used to. What this particular blog entry describes is the 1950s on steroids. Everything described herein has always been thus, at least in my lifetime. It's just more intense today, and I don't know if that's because of overpopulation, the internet, or both.<br /> <br />In the 1950s, thanks to the GI Bill, millions of men went to college and into white collar jobs who never expected such good fortune, and the job stress and overconformity that resulted was rather dreadful for the children of these folks who tended to self-medicate their insecurities with tobacco, alcohol, and heavy doses of Miltown. <br /><br />Overpopulation leading to intensified competition for resources makes any animal group more antsy, and the internet never blinks. Scandals such as widespread priest pedophilia were simply not talked about in the 1950s, but such things can’t stay hidden today. (I look at that transparency as a good thing, by the way, even though younger people are disgusted because they can’t help but think priest pedophiles are a new phenomenon and a symptom of the End Times or whatever; it’s a sad practice probably thousands of years old, actually.)<br /><br />I do know with much certainty, after a lifetime of soul-deadening work in offices, that bureaucracy gets forever more complex. Too many people work in jobs that are about brainstorming ways of making life more complicated, sometimes in the guise of making life less complicated, which of course includes brainstorming new ways of ripping people off, because there are lots of conscienceless people around, and that’s not a new thing either. <br /><br />There’s one element in apocalyptic fiction that I don’t see examined, and that’s the complete removal of laws and bureaucracy, usually replaced by guns and warlords. Society is reduced by some sort of terrible die-off to a much more visceral and comprehensible level, and by so doing offers the reader or viewer a rather guilty-minded fantasy of an escape from the current system.<br /><br />What I’m trying to say is that this has all happened before in the US, several times in fact, and the last time it was this bad Franklin Roosevelt had to fight pretty hard to save capitalism from its excesses and he succeeded. Unless Bernie Sanders gets elected there won’t be a Roosevelt this time. <br /><br />I’m not sure what will happen, but if capitalism goes down I won’t mourn its passing. Capitalism is about theft of surplus value, and the applauding of selfishness. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-19972276848317263012015-12-07T11:40:00.853-06:002015-12-07T11:40:00.853-06:00Pointing out a misspelling is not hurling an insul...Pointing out a misspelling is not hurling an insult, the way you pointed it out reads a bit snarky.<br /><br />Great post. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-92206824751852142252015-12-06T20:29:50.279-06:002015-12-06T20:29:50.279-06:00Yes indeed ..the writing in this blog is amazing.Yes indeed ..the writing in this blog is amazing.cjrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03062767985742907941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-56033077430212451282015-12-06T16:11:16.787-06:002015-12-06T16:11:16.787-06:00Pointing out a misspelling is now considered hurli...Pointing out a misspelling is now considered hurling an insult? You must have gone to one of those schools for special snowflakes. <br /><br />I'd volunteer to proofread for free except I'm not sure how that's practical to do online. <br /><br />The reason I don't fuck off, as you say, to some other blog is because 99% of them are shit. I do read a few other blogs that are good ones though.<br /><br />The thing is, this blog is top rate. If it were the usual lousy blog, I would not care. The quantity of writing this guy does is astounding. I really think he could write several books and make decent sales. I fully expect to see this happen in time.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13916394695449933164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-56197506016956865912015-12-06T07:06:20.199-06:002015-12-06T07:06:20.199-06:00Alex, please make it a point not to return to this...Alex, please make it a point not to return to this blog in the future unless you have anything intelligent to add. Your comment is rude and pointless. This blog is a wonderful place of information, and not a place to hurl insults.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-78467764868924496642015-12-06T06:22:23.781-06:002015-12-06T06:22:23.781-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.. José Madeira .https://www.blogger.com/profile/03817341196234674474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-43948533901658904332015-12-05T21:37:40.254-06:002015-12-05T21:37:40.254-06:00Alex, there are plenty of other free blogs why don...Alex, there are plenty of other free blogs why don't you fuck off to one?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-76769477660713581422015-12-05T17:08:52.985-06:002015-12-05T17:08:52.985-06:00"eliminate rid" really? In your first pa..."eliminate rid" really? In your first paragraph? <br /><br />Hire a proofreader, please.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13916394695449933164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5813525365834911757.post-73220883781665228772015-12-05T16:41:54.464-06:002015-12-05T16:41:54.464-06:00"More than half of US public school students ..."More than half of US public school students live in poverty, report finds" (Guardian 1/17/15) So we've built a society in which half our children are poor, despite living in the wealthiest country on earth.<br /><br />I agree with what is I think one of your points: that we in the US could maybe manage collapse; we're still an incredibly wealthy country. I just don't see any signs of that ever happening.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com