The Forced Mediocrity of Capitalism

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The Forced Mediocrity of Capitalism

July 13

11:30 2012

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ADAM MICHAEL LUEBKE
Los Angeles

My reading list is down to two items: Hunter S Thompson, and the Book of Joel. Other than perusing the news everyday, and the political, economic, and cultural analyses in the daily papers, no other literature stirs me. HST and the Book of Joel are not exactly components of a well-rounded literary diet, but that’s the kind of rut I’m in. Both writers are far cries from the mediocrity of Capitalism, which I’ll touch on a bit later.

HST provides the frantic blusterings I need in this globalized, capitulated, and broken down American nation, where not even the American Olympic athletes are dressed in clothes made by their own countrymen. HST is a major American literary figure who has a penchant for using the sharpest verb in every situation.

The Book of Joel weights that anxiety with a historical, heavy-handed slap of apocalyptic prophecy. Joel is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Minor, not because his insight or poetry isn’t up to speed with the Majors, but because there’s just so few of his barn-burner passages in the Bible.

I find delight in dallying between HST and Book of Joel passages. For example, Hunter writes about the key to his wisdom:

Politics is the art of controlling your environment. Indeed. Never forget it, or you will become a Victim of your environment. Rich nerds and lawyers will stomp all over you worse than any A-rab, and you will be like the eight ball on some country-club billiards table near Atlanta–whack, over and out. No more humor (“Kingdom of Fear”, p 17).

Johnny Depp once told David Letterman something similar about Hunter’s life. He was determined to have fun, Depp said. That was his goal. He would let nothing get in the way. I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the truth of it. Hunter viciously controlled his environment.

The Book of Joel, a book that has given historians plenty of headaches as they’ve tried to date it, prophesies an environment uncontrollable by any human being. Joel most likely didn’t have any fun, except to breathe the sweet, untainted air of the ninth (or so) century, bce.

I understand the sentiment that only Bible-geeks look to the Word to find any solace or sense of knowledge about modern day affairs. So if I’ve become a geek or a goofball for clutching the multitude of thin Bible pages with a desperation of a man who knows his house is on fire, but also knows there are firing squads lined outside of both doors leading outside, and waiting for his escape, then so be it. The 2000s are extraordinary times, and there are more goofballs than ever. And now we’ve got a platform from which to loudly shout.

Don’t blame me. I’m seeking answers. Answers to why our human population isn’t thriving. Why our crops are dying. Why our police are happy squashing any protest that, ultimately, serves them. Why the Banking / Military cartel can, without going to prison, manipulate our worldwide interest rates that affect our credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and any chance for financial prosperity in our lives.

Whenever God’s army wishes to slaughter these ravishing locusts, I’ll clap my hands and then shake high in the air my Book of Joel.

But that is only the first drop in an ocean of disenchantment and worldwide despair. God’s army has more work cut out than it expected. Most people seem to sniff the rotten smell of rampant government and corporate corruption. Even my good old North Dakota born and raised grandmother has dumped both political parties and calls it a whole lot of nonsense. She knows the real unemployment numbers are horrifying. “We’ll all be working in the oil patch,” she recently told me. And she’s right. Wherever there’s oil or weapons manufacturers, there’ll be jobs.

The rest of us can compete for positions at the grand Walmarts that spring eternally around those final hubs of American manufacture. Oily stiffs and weapons technicians need to shop somewhere during their hours off.

Most people have fled the two-party, “voting is the answer” nonsense and are cobbling together answers from independent sources of information without commercials or Disney’s influence. There will always be the partisan hacks, though, who will play ball even after their hair is on fire. But these people are robots. They have no healthy sense of danger. People like Matt K Lewis from the Daily Caller, for example. His house could be on fire, but he’d go on dealing out the next hand of Romney-red cards to his friends at the table rather than taking the next best step in extinguishing the blaze.

Confidence in TV news hits new low

People like Lewis will always parse the should’ve, would’ve, could’ve moments of meaningless campaigns, such as Mitt Romney’s quest for the White House. Is Mitt not taking after Obama enough? Is Mitt too silent on the major issues? Well gee, Matt K Lewis, I don’t know, maybe Mitt doesn’t have a goddamned clue about what he’s talking about, or where he’s supposed to stand on which issue, and the only thing he knows for sure is that he’s got an awful, awful lot of money.

The one-sided, red and blue speculation about candidates and swing states and what should have been said is the constant triviality that’s killing this country. It is no different than Tom Cruise’s divorce. Who gives a shit? Mitt Romney, nor Barack Obama will ever touch the major problems of our nation:

a global war on terror that is sufficiently terrorizing humanity. The unlawfulness of spying and terrorizing the American people through legislation like the NDAA bill. The killing of an American citizen and his child because of orders from the White House. A global, deadly predator drone campaign. The attack on whistleblowers. The opened floodgates allowing unending torrents of corporate money to decide our elections. The terrible drug war. The embarrassing size of our prison population. Wall Street’s investments into prisons. Prisoners working for a few cents an hour to manufacture goods for our major corporations. Unmanageable government spending. Unmanageable Department of Defense spending.

The list would keep growing if I hadn’t stopped it. That’s why fewer folks want to read articles with titles like: Who’s the dope in Mitt Romney’s rope-a-dope strategy? Without addressing those issues, debating about red versus blue every couple of years is like masturbating quickly before you decide what to do about your burning house. Flee? Douse the flames? Warn your family? Squeeze out a few shots from your favorite double barreled shotgun?

How did this article start out? Why did Matt K Lewis’ name pop into this? Oh yes, the Book of Joel. I was only going to discuss my two sets of reading materials, and recite a quote from the Minor Prophet. I would end with a quote from Lewis, but that would be similar to scrutinizing the frilly singed lace sewn onto the edges of Satan’s whorish stockings.

I mean, if you’re going to study Satan, then study him. Get your fingers wet. If you’re going to write about politics, then write about politics. Get deep into it. Take a fucking chance. Go to those forbidden levels that people need to know about. Spread the word about the Federal Reserve being a private company of banking cartel mobsters who liberally print trillions of dollars to pump into foreign banks and multi-national corporations.

Dear Jesus! The mediocrity of this country’s established institutions and publications. Dear Lord! the mediocrity that capitalism incites in this nation. Money, and the need to grab at it, is the great equalizer.

But what will the sponsors think? They can’t sell risky information. People don’t want to hear about how their homes are going to lose value in the summer or fall of 2008. Well, don’t tell them. Fuck the truthful economists who are shouting Fire over an economy on the brink of collapse. That’s not good for the sponsors. Tell everybody that everything is OK. In fact, do one better. Tell them things are great. Never been better.

Capitalism is supposed to be the creative boon of a nation and its societies, but instead, capitalism sucks into one drab vacuum all that is good and bad and spins it into one culture. One mainstream idea.

Enough of that, or we’ll never get to the fire-breathing Joel:

BLOW ye trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand (2:1);

Well, I’m trembling. Everybody should be. Don’t blame me if quoting the Bible seems illogical. Are we nigh at hand for a Heavenly reclamation? I’m reaching for answers here. I’d quote the whole fiery Book of Joel if I thought it was worthwhile. But it isn’t. Not on this venue. Then I’ll have the churchies knocking down my door wondering how I dared mix, and so inexpertly, Hunter S Thompson, Joel the Minor Prophet, Satan, political hack writers, fake libertarian publications, and talk of working in the oil patch into one hell-fire blog post.

Dear Dirty America

DDA