James Kunstler: True Blue

[IDemo]

True Blue

November 14, 2005

Years ago, President Nixon nominated a legal nonentity named G. Harold Carswell for a seat on the supreme court. Derided by the newspaper columnists as "mediocre," Carswell was defended by a conservative Nebraska senator, Roman Hruska, who said, memorably: "There are a lot of mediocre people in America who ought to be represented."

Now Hruska has been reincarnated in Senator Charles ("Chuck") Grassley of Iowa, who said the following a few days ago:

"You know, what? What makes our economy grow is energy. And Americans are used to going to the gas tank (sic), and when they put that hose in their, uh, tank, and when I do it, I wanna get gas out of it. And when I turn the light switch on, I want the lights to go on, and I don't want somebody to tell me I gotta change my way of living to satisfy them. Because this is America, and this is something we've worked our way into, and the American people are entitled to it, and if we're going improve (sic) our standard of living, you have to consume more energy."

Like the true-blue mediocre Americans of the Nixon era, American consumers (as we like to call ourselves) have the representative they deserve today in Senator Grassley. He expresses perfectly the dominant thought out there, which is as close to being not-a-thought as any thought can be. And this kind of proto-crypto-demi thought is exactly what is going to lead this country into a world of hardship.

[ixion]

1. Grassley has obviously been taking 'speech' lessons from chimpenator

That paragraph makes no sense to me at all.


This statement is illogical:

"In order to improve our standard of living, you have to consume more energy."

Now, there is an argument to be had for this statement, to be sure. The flaw in the premise, in this case, is the fallacy that you have to consume more to increase the standard of living. Actually, what you need to do, in my opinion, is find better ways than the HIGHLY INEFFICIENT means of delivering AC power via a power grid.

More power, by today's standards, directly equates to greater pollution. So how does increasing the amount of pollutions in our air and water and food supply increase our standard of living.

Speaking of standard of living...have you ever noticed how much rethugs like to yap up about this so-called 'standard of living' while they simultaneously make things worse in the job market and society in general?

If there is a god, and s/he has a sense of justice, idiots like "Chuck" Grassley will not be allowed to drive us off a cliff in the name of 'living standards'. :eyes: