Decline of the Empire

In The Kingdom...

There is an expression which goes like this—

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is King

This "observation" is complete nonsense. There's a confusion about levels here. That observation may be true in what I call Flatland—this is the confused level where nearly all humans live—but it is not true from a vantage point outside of Flatland, where one tries to look at the human experience from an "objective" point of view (i.e., tries to maintain the greatest possible separation from a normal human frame of reference). Such a feat is not perfectly achievable, but I gave it my best shot.

My limitations aside, and contradicting the common wisdom, my experience of writing DOTE over these last four years says this—

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is merely an observer

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Great Truth about the Human Condition. Humans can not see themselves for what they are. In my own case, I have written (as of today) 1560 posts trying to explain to them who they are. All to no avail.

Needless to say, my efforts were futile because my goal was impossible. I was like Sysiphus pushing that rock up the hill over and over again, only to see it roll back down again.

[The Gods] had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor...

Like I said, I was merely an observer, even as I pointlessly pushed that rock up the hill over and over again...

You know, I have a kind of wonderful freedom here on DOTE because I can say anything I want to say knowing that only a few people (certainly no one important) is paying any attention to me ...

I mean, wow, it's like...

I'm Invisible!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

 
Compassion

Human Craziness Goes Hyperbolic

Mike ("Mish") Shedlock, who was recently fined by a French bank (Société Générale, 8000 euros) for quoting a French blogger who criticized that bank, has written an excellent post on current bubbles in <various markets all over the world, too numerous to list here>.

Although we are in Year 18 of what I call the Bubble Era, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse lately, a development which remained only a (remote?, likely?) possibility only a few years ago.

Preliminary Climate Talks Stumble To A Close

(AP) -- November 24, 2013

The world came together in a big way last week in Warsaw, Poland to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions which are warming the Earth's surface. Emphasizing what humans have in common while disdaining trivial regional, cultural or racial differences, the climate talks ended happily on Sunday with delegations from every country on Earth joining together to sing a rousing version of Kumbaya. This reporter got goose bumps...

 

JFK, 1962

I was nine years old in 1962, the year in which Jack Kennedy sat down with reporters from the three existing television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) to talk about his first two years in office (video below). Today marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.

All human enterprises are deeply flawed because they are the products of deeply flawed human beings. But in 1962, seventeen years after the end of World War II, and with Vietnam, Nixon and the dislocations of the 1970s still some years away, it was still possible to talk about The Amercan Century. It was possible to talk about a great country representing great ideals acting in great ways.

A Note On Economic Growth

Perhaps it's because I've been sick lately — it's some kind of flu that won't go away — but I am feeling very irritated with humans right now. Usually I just find them annoying.

The target of my wrath today is John Cassidy, a writer for the New Yorker. I was reading his article American Inequality In Six Charts. You can read it on your own. I've used some of those charts here on DOTE. Not that endless talk about inequality in America (including my own) has the slightest effect on the ever-worsening distribution of income and wealth—it does not.

Paul Krugman Gets A Clue! (Part II)

I am dee-lighted to inform the 17 people who still read here that it appears that Paul Krugman has gotten a second clue about what happened (and continues to happen) to the U.S. economy. You may recall that I wrote the original post Paul Krugman Gets A Clue! near the end of 2012. And here it is, less than a year later, and Paul is dazzling us with astonishing insight once again. I may have to revise my opinions about the man. This second clue occurs in his recent New York Times column A Permanent Slump?

Not As Crazy As It Sounds?

From the New Yorker's The Climate Fixers, a longish article on various geo-engineering schemes.

... the other [geo-engineering] approach is less risky, and involves removing carbon directly from the atmosphere and burying it in vast ocean storage beds or deep inside the earth. But without a significant technological advance such projects will be expensive and may take many years to have any significant effect.

There are dozens of versions of each scheme, and they range from plausible to absurd. There have been proposals to send mirrors, sunshades, and parasols into space.

Recently, the scientific entrepreneur Nathan Myhrvold [above], whose company Intellectual Ventures has invested in several geoengineering ideas, said that we could cool the earth by stirring the seas.

Hey, Main Street! (Good Luck To You Because You're Going To Need It)

Confirmation hearings for Janet Yellen started this week. She will be the next Fed chief, replacing "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke early next year.

Hopey-Changey wanted to nominate The Prince Of Darkness to be the next chairman of the Fed, but it appears that some moves are so outrageously self-serving that our ruliing elites are too embarrassed to go through with them.

We The People of course will be getting screwed over and over again, but it's good to know that there are limits to creating the appearance that we are about to be screwed over and over again.

Fisheries: Hope Or Despair?

Here's a short Friday post for your amusement. If you can't laugh at all this human confusion, what can you do?

I came across a Wonk Blog  report (Washington Post) called Just how badly are we overfishing the oceans?  It was written not long ago on October 29, 2013.

It's by Brad Plumer, who in my experience is a good reporter who does his homework.

I mean, just the fact that Brad is writing about overfishing does him credit.