Does Anybody Care? What the F**k?

You know, yesterday's post The State Of The Union was actually an important post as far as I'm concerned.  On Monday, I wrote a plain vanilla post about how fucked up our economy is, and that post got more hits than my SOTU post yesterday. Nobody re-printed yesterday's post, and nobody in general seem to notice it. The post got three (3!) comments altogether.

That is exactly what I would expect in a society that is falling apart, in a Declining Empire. Good for you, you're running true to form! Congratulations!

Does anybody care? What the fuck?

So I'll tell you what: there will be no post tomorrow (Wednesday the 25th). I will not put myself out to explain our grim sociopolitical/energy/trashing-the-Earth Reality to you as I do every other day of the week. Perhaps some of you "know-it-alls" out there are way past what I'm telling you. Good for you! I'm sure you're a lot smarter than me! For sure, the rest of the world is not listening, which makes me feel really good every day.

I just love it that typical human belief systems and Reality are completely incompatible. Love it, love it, love it!

Thursday I'll  be back with a post concerning the Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) weirdly optimistic production projections concerning crude oil and all liquids, projections which are very politically convenient for the current President.

Until then, I am going to take 24 hours off and re-evaluate what I am doing writing this blog.

— Dave

Postscript — my comment on this post (from the comments section)

The questions become — why do any of us do what we do? Why get out of bed?

When I wrote this post, I was very frustrated. A writer writes to be read. When I make the strenuous effort required to write yesterday's post, just to be met with what certainly looks (from here) like who cares?, the silence is deafening.

But I was not only frustrated about poor put-upon me, but also for Moyers and Stockman. How many people watched that video? I wonder. Why did Moyers bother to make it if few are willing to watch it? No one commented on the Stockman interview. No one said a god damn thing about that video.

So it looks a lot like who cares? again.

Today I had a chance to read over the actual SOTU address. If it is possible to overdose on Hopium, I must have come really damn close. I was feeling a little woozy by the end, overwhelmed by just how many confusions, distortions, contradictions, lies and just general all-around bullshit there was to debunk and straighten out — if I made the effort to do so.

But why, I asked myself, would I make that great effort? Does anybody really care if I do? In this case (the SOTU) it really doesn't matter. That was just a political speech in an election year.

But what about when I talk about the oceans? The climate? The liquid fuels supply? The social inequality and lack of fairness in the human condition? Is there the same apparent apathy and ennui?

I also thought in writing DOTE that it might be helpful to many of you to point just how delusional most human beings are. At the very least, if you understood that, you wouldn't have to waste your time dealing with them.

So, as I think about all this, the question becomes why do you get out of bed?

I can see that some of you do give a damn about the world you were born into, and for that I'm grateful. The unexamined life is not worth living Socrates said. They were right. If people are not curious about life on this planet, what are they doing other than eating, breathing, breeding and taking up (ever-scarcer) resources and space?

And I didn't threaten to quit yesterday. I merely said I was taking today off. And I'm glad I did.

Comments

[Honesty]

I'm going to start linking to your blog Dave. I'll hit up every forum, person, and relative that I can.

[xraymike79]

Don't measure the value or weight of your message by how many pinheads comment on it or how many shit websites pick it up. We live in a sick society which measures everything in terms of money and profit. The subversive message is the only one worth listening to; everything else is simply a compromise to the corruption and falsehood that comprise our current system. Burnout from raging against the system is to be expected.

I think you are your best when you write a full-on lampoon of our situation like in the article of Obummer's 'used-car salesman' antics in front of Disneyland.

[The Practician]

I'm a little confused here Dave. Of the (relatively) limited number of blogs I read and enjoy, yours is probably the most pessimistic, but it is also very grounded and reality based sort of pessimism. What sort of response exactly were you expecting? How many times have you written about how impossible, or at least unlikely, "change" is at this point? Certainly, you should know enough about optimists after all the writing you've done about them to know that they don't count themselves among the regular readers of your site. Who does that leave to comment?

[John Andersen]

I think many people (including well-read thinking ones) care much less about Washington DC happenings than ever before.

Perhaps their focus is increasingly on local matters because that's where they see possibilities for change.

Personally, I read peer-reviewed history all of the time, but can't force myself to listen to a politician give a speech.

For what it's worth, I visit your website daily.

[Robert Cook]

Every evening I read this blog, Rice Farmer, My Budget 360, Of Two Minds, The Economic Collapse (when I can get it to load), The Downward Spiral, Washington's Blog, and occasionally some others.

Up to now, I have never commented. I suggest that a better measure for you is hot many hits you get, not how many comments.

Your blog helps bring the issues that ought to be, but are not, part of our presidential debates to light, making it abundantly clear that neither political party are serving our interests.

We are living in interesting times, and they will become even more interesting as time goes by. Most of the public is like Forest Gump, things just happen to them. Your readers are trying to understand why they are in the pot of water, just how hot it is, and how they and their loved ones might climb out to some sort of safety. Right now, it looks like we're all screwed, some sooner, some (even the very rich) later.

Please keep writing, but not to the point of deep frustration.

Thanks!

[Phil]

I reckon it's really just an excuse to bludge on the Australia Day holiday. Why don't you take the next couple of days off as a sickielike the rest of us and avagoodlongweekend?

xx

[Ed Boyle]

You are a true inspiration to me.

[WK]

I come by here occasionally to get an additional perspective on things. Dave, I don't know what kind of soul searching you need to do. Quite honestly, I think there are two major variables at work here. One, you are far from being the only voice in the 'Armageddon' blogosphere culture forecasting doom and failure. I have a pick of many blogs wit this kind of negative forecast being projected, and which has been projected since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis began. Two, I am not sure what additional wisdom or action I am supposed to impart. This country is indeed in a deep hole, when frontrunners like Romney and Gingrich are proposed and favored by the political opposition. Obama has no business being reelected, his stewardship of the economy and oversight of the partisan wrangling in DC leaves a lot to be desired He also quite possibly was not born in the USA, though I do not consider myself a birther. The fact that he can be electable considering the unemployment situation is testimony enough to the fact that we do not have effective leadership in the USA, nor have we in some time. All pols are much more preoccupied with public image than actual substance, since as we know politics is a perception business 100%.America is not a great country any more in many ways, but still a strong one in military and economic ways. We are in decline yes, but I am not sure if any one person can do much about it, and that may explain a lot of the resignation you may be seeing with no responses from your blog readers. I can only handle so much negative outlook at a given time then I need a break before getting more.

[step back]

Dave,

Clearly you did not hear what fearless leader said in tonight's SOTUS.

Anybody who says America is in decline does not know what they are talking about!

That's you Dave.

Fearless leader says you don't know what you are talking about.
Fearless leader says all we have to do is come together and watch each others backs (like them Marines that terminated Osama did) and hold hands and stitch stars onto a spangled banner and sing Kumbaya and then nothing can stop us because we after all are "Americans" and when God goes out and about blessing artificial constructions of the man creature, the first thing that God does bless is this America thing. Simple as that.

Why do you blog?
I don't know.
Why do any of us monkeys howl at the moon and spit into the wind?
Maybe cause we're nuts.
Maybe cause we're trying to find a way of not being nuts.

[John Ennis]

Dave:

For what it is worth, I think that you ought to take a break for a bit. Drop down to one post a week and your music picks.

Hell, we all need a break, I have taken a couple of different one since I started this in 2005.

The blog is for you, not us low-lifes reading you. Rest for a while. Sure you will lose readership, that has happened with me every time. But you keep your sanity and what is left of your youthful innocence.

I appreciate everything you write. But one has to keep things in perspective

John

[Resolute]

Now, now Dave. Don't go into a pout and please avoid becoming too seriously self important. We all appreciate your efforts. This is no time to dither. Soldier on.

[elvinator]

i read your posts every day. your point about dem and gop differences being tiny in the big picture was eye opening. it must feel like preaching in the desert sometimes but please don't stop. you shine your light in some dark places.

[Paul Stahnke]

relax Dave. I always read your blog and appreciate your ideas. I also never comment because my echoes would be 'noise' as far as it goes. Stop if you want, but you are doing this for the ideas and purpose, not for ....well, whatever.

My late Dad used to say that if the world is just a little bit better for you having lived, then what you are doing is worthwhile. Clearly, this blog is helpful.

I was hoping to read your take on your bud's speech, Hopey Changey. Oh well, maybe one day the cost of energy and why will really come out.

Paulo

[Glenn]

Easy does it... I get your posts in an RSS feed and read every one of them first word to last. It's still sitting in Google Reader and will be read. I enjoy reading what you have to say and find your perspective quite valuable.

[BS]

I read you every morning. Kind of gets the blood flowing a little better. I admit I agree with you (most of the time) and it may be just stroking my bias. But you often show data supporting your ideas, which is why I read your posts. Fake gov stats hopey changey rhetoric are not important. They stroke the bias of the masses and we are all going down the tubes because of it. So hang in there, it is important.

[Eugene12]

I appreciate you being there. As others have said, I don't feel so alone. I'm a loner so don't know many people but the ones I do know don't have a clue and don't want one. Also, I keep in mind about half of Americans can't, or barely can, read and write. Of the remaining half, few are interested. As my daughter says, "I don't want to hear it". She and her husband make about 250K a yr so this type of info is very threatening. Basically as long as people can afford their toys they really don't care. As far as those at the bottom, the attitude is to hell with them anyway. Their own fault they're where they're at.

I do agree with Stockman. I think it's going to take a massive catastrophe to rattle things and the country may not survive it. I, also, believe this country was founded on "crony capitalism". It has, finally, truly spun out of control.

[Mike]

First Time - Long Time

Great blog, I know the choir is mostly here, but I still enjoy this site, The Downward Spiral (billhicksisdead.blogspot.com, and of course, ZERO HEDGE (the site that violently woke my up back in 2008/2009).

Keep up the GREAT work and don't despair, it's always darkest before the dawn. I do alot of bankruptcy work and trust me, TPTB can't escape simple MATH anymore than my clients who have tried.

MATH ALWAYS WINS, just a questions of WHEN and HOW BAD

[Bill Hicks]

I sense that many of the people who are receptive to the message are getting burned out. I regularly participate in a couple of peak oil discussion forums and traffic has been way down there the last couple of months as well. TPTB have managed to keep things propped up far longer than most of us iin the community would have thought possible. Certainly, I would have thought that by now things would have deteriorated to the point where the official denials would no longer be plausible, yet they still are.

I always enjoy your posts, even if I don't always comment. If you need to cut back for awhile to keep your sanity, that's certainly understandable.

[Charles Monroe]

WHat's the point in commenting on a moderated blog post if all I'm going to do is say "yep"?
I could write one of my sarcastic(ish) attempts to inject some levity. But why spend the time if you're not in the mood to let it thru?
To the bigger picture and whether or not I give a fuck; The answer is yes with an if and no with a but.
Take some time off son. These problems will be here when you get back - at least *I'm* not going to solve them. After years of writing about how fucked up everything is, maybe a fresh approach of a one-a-week post of things you are doing to mitigate risk and/or build resiliency, etc.

[Mark]

I've only ever left a comment once, but I read you every day. I wouldn't blame you for taking a break, but if you stopped blogging I'd feel less well-informed. Thanks for the good (but hard) work.

[Dave Cohen]

The questions become -- why do any of us do what we do? Why get out of bed?

When I wrote this post, I was very frustrated. A writer writes to be read. When I make the strenuous effort required to write yesterday's post, just to be met with what certainly looks (from here) like who cares?, the silence is deafening.

But I was not only frustrated about poor put-upon me, but also for Moyers and Stockman. How many people watched that video? I wonder. Why did Moyers bother to make it if few are willing to watch it? No one commented on the Stockman interview. No one said a god damn thing about that video.

So it looks a lot like who cares? again.

Today I had a chance to read over the actual SOTU address. If it is possible to overdose on Hopium, I must have come really damn close. I was feeling a little woozy by the end, overwhelmed by just how many confusions, distortions, contradictions, lies and just general all-around bullshit there was to debunk and straighten out -- if I made the effort to do so.

But why, I asked myself, would I make that great effort? Does anybody really care if I do? In this case (the SOTU) it really doesn't matter. That was just a political speech in an election year.

But what about when I talk about the oceans? The climate? The liquid fuels supply? The social inequality and lack of fairness in the human condition? Is there the same apparent apathy and ennui?

I also thought in writing DOTE that it might be helpful to many of you to point just how delusional most human beings are. At the very least, if you understood that, you wouldn't have to waste your time dealing with them.

So, as I think about all this, the question becomes why do you get out of bed?

I can see that some of you do give a damn about the world you were born into, and for that I'm grateful. The unexamined life is not worth living somebody said. They were right. If people are not curious about life on this planet, what are they doing other than eating, breathing, breeding and taking up (ever-scarcer) resources and space?

And I didn't threaten to quit yesterday. I merely said I was taking today off. And I'm glad I did.

-- Dave

[Don Stewart]

My kids are tired of me sending them reading material. So I diligently try to cut down. But I did send them the last two posts and indicated to them that are 'really important' and that they should make the time to read them.

Don Stewart

[teri schooley]

Oh, Dave,
You wonder why you have few commenters when you have chased away everyone who might be one or two points shy of your IQ level by mocking them or banning them for inferior comments. Lots of people read you, no doubt. You have solid well-researched information and deserve to be widely read. However, when someone takes the time to leave a comment and is then mercilessly ridiculed for any remark that might not quite be up to snuff (i.e., he doesn't QUITE see the whole picture as well as you think he ought) or he is outright banned for the sin of mentioning the words 'Democrat' or 'Republican' (even if only to put a time-frame or background on his remark) or because he has made a small joke - heaven forfend! - jocularity in times like these! - well, these people are unlikely to want to return.

You are sort of in the position of teaching here. But then you angrily chase off all the students by calling them (us) names and making fun of how stupid we are. You can be utterly vicious in your responses to commenters, and that is the truth. Life is hard enough, Dave, and getting harder. You can't help it that the situation globally is for shit and thus the information you share must needs be gloomy, but you can certainly help how you make your visitors in the comment section feel. I'm sure you feel justified in your contempt for the lesser mortals, which may indeed be most of your English-speaking audience, but perhaps if you weren't so obvious about it, people would comment a bit more.

I can't speak as to "blog hits" except to say that you certainly SHOULD be near the top of the heap, but obviously it is not only the ones among us who have dared to leave comments who are idiots.

I know, I know. Now I am banned. Sigh.

[jack leonard]

Don't stop blogging Dave I read you every day, but this is the first time I have written a comment. That does not mean I don't appreciate what you are saying.
Jack

[Dave Cohen]

@teri

Yes, it's true I've chased some people off this website. About 15 to 20 total in the two years I've been writing this blog.

You see, I won't put up with the the very same bullshit I'm dissing from those making comments. There are million other places where they can spew that garbage. DOTE is not one of them.

Clear enough for you?

And you're not banned.

-- Dave