Wow. Every word he said is exactly what I believe has happened and is happening to our country. Just wow.
FYI Ping.
Worth the read.
An article in shades of grey, the US becoming the old East Germany with enforcers and thought police everywhere.
Great read, thanks.
VDH is the man.
VDH nails it.
He’s a genius. Before he died last year, Lee Rodgers used to have him on KSFO in San Francisco all the time, and I loved it.
He’s a bicyclist, and I love his writing about what he finds riding around his home near Fresno, California.
He offers real cultural insight, while somehow not getting bogged down in the (utterly horrifying and detailed) descriptions of taco grease, discarded dirty Mexican diapers, etc. etc. etc.
He writes well but also is a highly charismatic speaker —I’d even pull over and stop to hear him speak, he’s so good.
With NSA surveillance and IRS terrorism fast approaching 1984 levels, it is time to revive that ad, as juxtaposed with the outcome.
Hanson is spot on with the deadening of the American psyche. No longer is there any outrage at the idea of our once-great country literally dying. People close their eyes or avert their gaze as this administration uses every tool available to wreak oppression and national destruction upon all of us.
Americans have their toys, a roof over their heads and enough food to get through the week. They simply no long give two sh*ts about the existential threats to this country that unfold each day.
It isn't, as a philosophy major and one of the stupidest individuals I've ever had the misfortune to encounter told me one time, "all a matter of perception." I wish that it were. There is a serious, systemic rot, but strangely it seems to dissipate with distance from television, movies, popular music, popular culture. There is a medicated, anaesthetized polity whose veins are being systematically pumped full of poison to which it has become addicted. It isn't all of us, but it's enough.
If there is hope, it is that one can only do so much with such a wreck of a patient, however malign one's intentions. That may be cold comfort when the shooting starts.
Comments?
He’s an optimist. Bordering on pollyanna.
As I commented to my email list when I sent this article:
“VDH has a firm grasp of the obvious which he shares with us. Read and heed.”
He has long been one of my favorite commentators. Would that more people listened to him and heeded his advice!