State Of The Nation

It is absolutely essential that we do not underestimate the depth of self-delusion of which the American people are capable. According to the Census Bureau, as of July 2016, white people constitute 77% of the U.S. population (although the number drops to 61% if you exclude Hispanics and Latinos from that figure). African Americans still constitute only about 13% of the general population (although they comprise 45% of the incarcerated). In other words, white people still have the country firmly in their control and yet...they are scared to death.



The other day, I bought myself a nice pair of Rockport half-boots (with the zipper on the side) like I used to wear in the late ‘60s-early ‘70s. While I was massaging them with mink oil, I noticed the tag: Made in China. I thought to myself: "Of course. Where else?"

The militarized corporatocracy, run by white CEOs, Republican and Democrat, have spent the past 70 years selling out the white American working class, but the working class (caricatured above) blames everyone for their problems but themselves and those CEOs and the military-industrial complex that is impoverishing them.

Their hero is Donald Trump. Despite every sign of utter incompetence on his part, the latest Gallup poll shows that he still has the support of better than 1/3 of those questioned.

In the late 19th century, Leo Tolstoy asked why men stupefy themselves with tobacco and alcohol (today, we would have to add pharmaceuticals, fast food, television, Pentagon-sponsored video games, and the internet into the mix). His answer: to silence the voice of conscience. So long as human beings succeed in doing that, there will be trouble.



We reached the tipping point after the Second World War (in reality, an imperial European civil war) when corporate America did not transition back to peacetime production but created the militarized Leviathan that rules the world by violence today.

Unless and until a new counter-ideology (with real punch and advocates who cannot be bought) arises to cut through the Xanax, beer, and bacon-grease soaked brains of working class white Americans, the Pequod will remain our flagship and Ahab our captain (be it Trump, Pence, or some pathetic Democrat equivalent).



My advice: Embrace the Sublime but keep your eye on the shadows on the wall of Plato's cave just often enough to know when to duck.