Perhaps I am finally glimpsing the meaning of the word “tragedy”. Not merely in a sense like Kunstler means when he says suburbia represents “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world”, but that one may be able to see – in slow motion – the process by which humankind is obdurately destroying its worldly future.

In other words, wouldn’t it make sense for the president of Georgetown, considering the lack of good, rewarding jobs, to encourage students and young people to become monks, nuns, and priests? God knows we need them. It seems like a better alternative to shopping, climbing the corporate ladder, or being a lifetime government bureaucrat.

When Ashcroft was holding forth about legal issues affecting the nation, he had a blue shroud placed over the statue of Justice because he did not like the idea of a breast hovering over his head. After all, the statue did not speak to him of anything other than nakedness. Allegorical tales are for sissified thinkers, not doers who boldly create reality out of a mirage. When Colin Powell appeared at the U.N. to pitch his Administration’s reason for going to war against a nation that did not attack us, they covered the painting of Guernica…Picasso’s depiction of the screaming horrors of modern technological war…. with a shroud because it would not do to have this depressing evocation of bombing sully our finely crafted bit of political theatre in support of bombing. Now we have the President, an Executive who has been holding a very public shopping for a place of worship in his new home, well..he shrouds any Christian symbol for fear of offending somebody. It might not have been him…it might have been his many handlers, the stage-managers of the modern Presidency….crafters of poll-savvy artifice. We shroud things we either do not wish to exist, or are afraid might be interpreted in ways we cannot control. Aside from debt, the fastest growing element of our government is secrecy. Perception control is the new liberty.

We have been given a world class lesson in “what not to do” and so there is a perfect opportunity for reinvention and redirection here but it is not in the cards because Washington D.C. is Washington D.C. Occupied Territory. It is as though we are now a vassal state to some remote and incomprehensible power that cares nothing for either the citizen or the land because it is engaged in some kind of foolhardy adventure in everyplace but where it should be. Change is now simply a new face. We have a choice to do this the easy-hard way or the hard-hard way and it seems we’re going double-barrel hard.
Let us load the gun, spin the chamber and heave a sigh of relief that the snap of the trigger is quiet this time.

That said, a climate of desperation and stymied inaction is only natural but at this juncture, it should be pedal to the metal because the edifice is about to fly part under the whirlwind pressure of it’s own spinning lies.

As a conservative Christian student, I was interested in your piece. Traditional conservative economic values are still based on the consumerism you seem to denigrate, simply removing big government shackles and letting the economy work its own magic, still providing for the materialistic attitude of the populace while using incentives to do so–only better.

Reading through your article reminded me of other pieces concerning the “rustic beauty” of pre-industrial life, etc. My question is this: what do you think is the individual responsibility of a moral-thinking person in this world? Is it to acquire these goods the best he can and then use them to make an impact in the world around us? Is it to find a “blue collar” job that isn’t the high-powered, consumer-driven position that modern Americans pursue?

Thanks! I really enjoyed reading this, and I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the much more difficult “so what?” and “what next?” questions.

MASUTOMI, Japan — Kenji Oshima lost his job in February at a seat-belt factory. So he applied for a highly competitive job-training program in an area he felt had more potential: farming.

The 35-year-old, dressed in his old factory uniform, spent a recent morning in a remote village three hours from Tokyo. He was digging an irrigation ditch around a rice paddy, contemplating which tool was more effective, a hoe or a shovel.

“I know it’s a hard life” compared with his former job as a bookkeeper, Mr. Oshima said. “But I want to become a farmer and use my own hands to do everything, from sowing seeds to shipping boxes.” He hopes to soon rent land nearby to start farming full time.

Why does it seem the only thing we Americans are so ready to lay down our lives for is the right to go shopping?

John Lukacs
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/putting-man-before-descartes/

My favorite newspaper bothered me the same way when it claimed to be the Daily Diary of the American Dream.