Will there even be a 2011 season? - The Orange Mane

baja · 03-19-2010, 08:04 AM

Families in U.S Suburbs Going Feral?

Originally posted by Dmitry Orlov to the ClubOrlov.Blogspot.com

Another guest post. Translated from the Russian by Your Humble Narrator. It's a letter sent in by one young, once optimistic Russian who finds himself marooned in some blighted Boston exurb in southern New Hampshire. -Dmitry

Dear Dmitry,

I hope you don't mind that this is in Russian. I think that this way I can be more completely honest. I am a relatively recent graduate of one of the many faceless post-Soviet institutions of higher learning, with a degree in philosophy. Last year I moved to the USA and married an American woman.

The question of when the modern capitalist system is going to collapse has interested me since my student years, and I have approached it from various directions: from the commonplace conspiracy theories to the serious works of Oswald Spengler and Noam Chomsky. Unfortunately, I still can't fathom what it is that is keeping this system going.

My wife is a very pleasant woman, but a typical white conservative American. Whenever any political question comes up, she starts ranting about the Constitution and calling herself a libertarian conservative and a constitutionalist. I used to think that she is well-educated and understands what she is talking about. In fact, she is the one who introduced me to the US, and I once believed everything she told me about it. But as I found out later, she understands nothing about politics, and just repeats various bits of populist nonsense spouted by Severin, O'Reilly, Limbaugh and other mass media clowns. Well, I am not going to try to prove to my wife that she is wrong on a subject that I don't quite understand myself. After all, she is a good wife. And so I try to steer clear of any political questions when I am with the family, although I do not always succeed. Perhaps if I had a copy of your book, it would help me explain myself to her better, but our family was one of the first to be flattened by the real estate market collapse. My wife went bankrupt, lost her bank account, house, job and the rest a while before I came here, and so we can't buy anything online.

In the talk you gave at the conference in Ireland you mentioned that there are certain regions of the US where the common people only eat garbage food from places like Walmart, which consists of artificial colors and flavors and corn, and that such a diet makes them "a little bit crazy." To my utter disappointment, I have to entirely agree with you. Various witty Russian commentators love to heap ridicule on the "dumb Americans" and on the USA as a generally stupid country. But if they spent a bit of time living here and paid closer attention, they would realize that it is not the low cultural level that distinguishes Americans from, say, Russians: both are, on average, quite beastly. But even when I've visited here before, as a student, my first impression was of a country that is full of madmen, ranging from somewhat mentally competent to total lunatics. And the further south I traveled, the more obvious this became. At first I even marveled at this, thinking, look at how intoxicating the spirit of liberty can be! But now I understand that this is a catastrophe, that American society is brainwashed and alienated in the extreme, and that all that's left for Americans to do is to play each other for the suckers that they have become.

Unfortunately, I feel the pernicious influence of all this on my own family right here and now. You don't have to be a brilliant visionary to realize that in the current situation all these endless suburbs, built on the North American model, are slowly but surely turning into mass graves for the millions of former members of the middle class. Those that do not turn into mass graves will become nature preserves - stocked with wild animals that were once human. My family is turning feral under my very eyes. Lack of resources has forced us to live according to the Soviet model - three generations under one roof. There are six of us, of which only one works, who is, consequently, exasperated and embittered. The rest of the household is gradually going insane from idleness and boredom. The television is never turned off. The female side of the family has been sucked into social networks and associated toys. Everyone is cultivating their own special psychosis, and periodically turns vicious. In these suburbs, a person without a car is as if without legs, and joblessness does not allow any of us to earn money for gas, and so the house is almost completely isolated from the outside world. The only information that seeps in comes from the lying mass media. And I understand that millions of families throughout America live this way! This is how people turn into "teabaggers," while their children join street gangs.

For me, as for you, this is the second collapse. You had left USSR before it happened, while I was there to observe it as a child. I saw what happened when people were finally told that they were being had for seventy-odd years, and were offered a candy bar as consolation. Now, after all this, Russian society is finished. It grieves me to see the faces of Americans, who still believe something and wave their Constitution about, and to know that the same thing is about to happen to them. I think that the model which you have proposed will allow us to confront and to survive this collapse with dignity.

Kaylore · 03-19-2010, 08:10 AM

There's the debbie-downer Baja I know!

baja · 03-19-2010, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaylore

There's the debbie-downer Baja I know!

Hey don't shoot the messenger, I don't live in Suburbia so I have no idea what things are like there.

no-pseudo-fan · 03-19-2010, 08:23 AM

Very Nice.

Not included in this article: Everyone and everything you ever loved will die, and you will also die.

baja · 03-19-2010, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by no-pseudo-fan

Very Nice.

Not included in this article: Everyone and everything you ever loved will die, and you will also die.

I have decided not to die.

baja · 03-19-2010, 08:27 AM

It must be scary to be living dependent on the network of systems that are collapsing all around.

Kaylore · 03-19-2010, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja

Hey don't shoot the messenger, I don't live in Suburbia so I have no idea what things are like there.

Yeah we noticed with this comment.

Quote:

It must be scary to be living dependent on the network of systems that are collapsing all around.

I know you're out of the country and you live in a relative paradise where you're at, Baja. And the US is definitely going through some fierce economic trouble. If a Republican was in the White House it would be all over every newspaper. However let me assure you that we still have running water and the grocery stores still have food. It hasn't quite turned into The Road Warrior yet. However as soon as it gets to where I need to strap on some tire armor to get to work because tranny's are trying to hit me junkyard morning stars hanging out of dune buggies, I'll make sure I post something on here about it.

bronco militia · 03-19-2010, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Yeah we noticed with this comment.

I know you're out of the country and you live in a relative paradise where you're at, Baja. And the US is definitely going through some fierce economic trouble. If a Republican was in the White House it would be all over every newspaper. However let me assure you that we still have running water and the grocery stores still have food. It hasn't quite turned into The Road Warrior yet. However as soon as it gets to where I need to strap on some tire armor to get to work because tranny's are trying to hit me junkyard morning stars hanging out of dune buggies, I'll make sure I post something on here about it.

FYI...baja lost his sense of humor years ago

Rohirrim · 03-19-2010, 08:54 AM

Dmitry, you've got to go outside and rub a little sunshine on your face.

baja · 03-19-2010, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Yeah we noticed with this comment.

I know you're out of the country and you live in a relative paradise where you're at, Baja. And the US is definitely going through some fierce economic trouble. If a Republican was in the White House it would be all over every newspaper. However let me assure you that we still have running water and the grocery stores still have food. It hasn't quite turned into The Road Warrior yet. However as soon as it gets to where I need to strap on some tire armor to get to work because tranny's are trying to hit me junkyard morning stars hanging out of dune buggies, I'll make sure I post something on here about it.

Things are far from good here Kaylore. Tourism is off by at least 50%.I would guess unemployment is over 20% and rising, all construction has stopped. Crime is way up especially home break ins. Lately some very bad actors from the border gangs have been found hiding here. There have been kidnappings (several). Personally I have not worked for over 2 years, partly by choice and partly to focus on my ranch.

I truly hope the US figures a way to become fully functional again because it is true that " So goes the USA so goes the rest of the industrialized nations".

baja · 03-19-2010, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bronco militia

FYI...baja lost his sense of humor years ago

Not true, in fact you could not be further from the truth on that one BM.

bronco militia · 03-19-2010, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja

Not true, in fact you could not be further from the truth on that one BM.

hopefully I'm wrong

watermock · 03-19-2010, 09:03 AM

Intersting. But not enlightening unless you're allready polarized.

First, why is he here? Is a Male Russian clone of I married a Russian wife? and was he dissapointed he arrived during the initial colapse?

This isn't the land of milk and honey, but it still should be without the corruption in
Govenment, the financial olicarchy and the underground economy of drugs.

So he's in some blighted Boston suburb.

Considering Putin's buddies have made themselves billions and the conference was in Iceland, you would think he would start to undertand the influence of NMC's and the IMC on America.

Personally, I think his dillusionment still isn't focused, but he knows something is very wrong.

baja · 03-19-2010, 09:07 AM

What do you think is wrong Mock?

watermock · 03-19-2010, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja

What do you think is wrong Mock?

The immigrant or America?

no-pseudo-fan · 03-19-2010, 09:13 AM

America: The Land of Immigrants that hate immigrants.

Garcia Bronco · 03-19-2010, 09:13 AM

Only if Baja stays in Mexico.

no-pseudo-fan · 03-19-2010, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja

I have decided not to die.

What my previous experiences have shown me is that I will never die. I haven't died so far, so why should I die?

baja · 03-19-2010, 09:16 AM

Mock,

The global financial (credit) crisis and the seemingly break down of many systems, monetary, government (state and federal), health care, real food production, out of control corporations etc

baja · 03-19-2010, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by no-pseudo-fan

What my previous experiences have shown me is that I will never die. I haven't died so far, so why should I die?

Also depends on how you define "I".

Garcia Bronco · 03-19-2010, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja

It must be scary to be living dependent on the network of systems that are collapsing all around.

Systems always collapse. Everything has a half-life, meaning all things end. Something else will just take its place though.

baja · 03-19-2010, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Systems always collapse. Everything has a half-life, meaning all things end. Something else will just take its place though.

Well we are in agreement there Garcia. It's the transition from one system to the next that is the attention getter.

baja · 03-19-2010, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Only if Baja stays in Mexico.

Nope, I'll be in SD for half of April and May. August and Sept. in NE

Garcia Bronco · 03-19-2010, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja

Well we are in agreement there Garcia. It's the transition from one system to the next that is the attention getter.

No doubt, I think well survice.

baja · 03-19-2010, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

No doubt, I think well survive.

No only will we survive but I believe we are on the threshold of a quantum leap in conciseness. The old unsustainable systems will be replaced with a new level of understanding and cooperation that has never been experienced on earth before. How we get there is the interesting question.

03-19-2010, 08:04 AM	#1
baja It is what it Is. Pay attention. Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: in a bunker Posts: 54,376 Adopt-a-Bronco: Julius Thomas	Will there even be a 2011 season? Families in U.S Suburbs Going Feral? Originally posted by Dmitry Orlov to the ClubOrlov.Blogspot.com Another guest post. Translated from the Russian by Your Humble Narrator. It's a letter sent in by one young, once optimistic Russian who finds himself marooned in some blighted Boston exurb in southern New Hampshire. -Dmitry Dear Dmitry, I hope you don't mind that this is in Russian. I think that this way I can be more completely honest. I am a relatively recent graduate of one of the many faceless post-Soviet institutions of higher learning, with a degree in philosophy. Last year I moved to the USA and married an American woman. The question of when the modern capitalist system is going to collapse has interested me since my student years, and I have approached it from various directions: from the commonplace conspiracy theories to the serious works of Oswald Spengler and Noam Chomsky. Unfortunately, I still can't fathom what it is that is keeping this system going. My wife is a very pleasant woman, but a typical white conservative American. Whenever any political question comes up, she starts ranting about the Constitution and calling herself a libertarian conservative and a constitutionalist. I used to think that she is well-educated and understands what she is talking about. In fact, she is the one who introduced me to the US, and I once believed everything she told me about it. But as I found out later, she understands nothing about politics, and just repeats various bits of populist nonsense spouted by Severin, O'Reilly, Limbaugh and other mass media clowns. Well, I am not going to try to prove to my wife that she is wrong on a subject that I don't quite understand myself. After all, she is a good wife. And so I try to steer clear of any political questions when I am with the family, although I do not always succeed. Perhaps if I had a copy of your book, it would help me explain myself to her better, but our family was one of the first to be flattened by the real estate market collapse. My wife went bankrupt, lost her bank account, house, job and the rest a while before I came here, and so we can't buy anything online. In the talk you gave at the conference in Ireland you mentioned that there are certain regions of the US where the common people only eat garbage food from places like Walmart, which consists of artificial colors and flavors and corn, and that such a diet makes them "a little bit crazy." To my utter disappointment, I have to entirely agree with you. Various witty Russian commentators love to heap ridicule on the "dumb Americans" and on the USA as a generally stupid country. But if they spent a bit of time living here and paid closer attention, they would realize that it is not the low cultural level that distinguishes Americans from, say, Russians: both are, on average, quite beastly. But even when I've visited here before, as a student, my first impression was of a country that is full of madmen, ranging from somewhat mentally competent to total lunatics. And the further south I traveled, the more obvious this became. At first I even marveled at this, thinking, look at how intoxicating the spirit of liberty can be! But now I understand that this is a catastrophe, that American society is brainwashed and alienated in the extreme, and that all that's left for Americans to do is to play each other for the suckers that they have become. Unfortunately, I feel the pernicious influence of all this on my own family right here and now. You don't have to be a brilliant visionary to realize that in the current situation all these endless suburbs, built on the North American model, are slowly but surely turning into mass graves for the millions of former members of the middle class. Those that do not turn into mass graves will become nature preserves - stocked with wild animals that were once human. My family is turning feral under my very eyes. Lack of resources has forced us to live according to the Soviet model - three generations under one roof. There are six of us, of which only one works, who is, consequently, exasperated and embittered. The rest of the household is gradually going insane from idleness and boredom. The television is never turned off. The female side of the family has been sucked into social networks and associated toys. Everyone is cultivating their own special psychosis, and periodically turns vicious. In these suburbs, a person without a car is as if without legs, and joblessness does not allow any of us to earn money for gas, and so the house is almost completely isolated from the outside world. The only information that seeps in comes from the lying mass media. And I understand that millions of families throughout America live this way! This is how people turn into "teabaggers," while their children join street gangs. For me, as for you, this is the second collapse. You had left USSR before it happened, while I was there to observe it as a child. I saw what happened when people were finally told that they were being had for seventy-odd years, and were offered a candy bar as consolation. Now, after all this, Russian society is finished. It grieves me to see the faces of Americans, who still believe something and wave their Constitution about, and to know that the same thing is about to happen to them. I think that the model which you have proposed will allow us to confront and to survive this collapse with dignity.

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03-19-2010, 08:10 AM	#2
Kaylore 6-37, Raider fans. Yummy birds and snow! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ceti Alpha V Posts: 41,323 Adopt-a-Bronco: Wesley Duke	There's the debbie-downer Baja I know!

03-19-2010, 08:23 AM	#4
no-pseudo-fan True Orange & Blue Follow me... Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: EPT Posts: 2,136 Adopt-a-Bronco: Hidalgo	Very Nice. Not included in this article: Everyone and everything you ever loved will die, and you will also die.

03-19-2010, 08:27 AM	#6
baja It is what it Is. Pay attention. Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: in a bunker Posts: 54,376 Adopt-a-Bronco: Julius Thomas	It must be scary to be living dependent on the network of systems that are collapsing all around.

03-19-2010, 08:54 AM	#9
Rohirrim Partisan Human Cannonball Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Twixt Hell & Highwater Posts: 49,103	Dmitry, you've got to go outside and rub a little sunshine on your face.

03-19-2010, 09:03 AM	#13
watermock "Hoodie Jr" "Hug me!" Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Hot Springs, Ouachitah Posts: 77,090	Intersting. But not enlightening unless you're allready polarized. First, why is he here? Is a Male Russian clone of I married a Russian wife? and was he dissapointed he arrived during the initial colapse? This isn't the land of milk and honey, but it still should be without the corruption in Govenment, the financial olicarchy and the underground economy of drugs. So he's in some blighted Boston suburb. Considering Putin's buddies have made themselves billions and the conference was in Iceland, you would think he would start to undertand the influence of NMC's and the IMC on America. Personally, I think his dillusionment still isn't focused, but he knows something is very wrong.

03-19-2010, 09:07 AM	#14
baja It is what it Is. Pay attention. Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: in a bunker Posts: 54,376 Adopt-a-Bronco: Julius Thomas	What do you think is wrong Mock?

03-19-2010, 09:13 AM	#16
no-pseudo-fan True Orange & Blue Follow me... Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: EPT Posts: 2,136 Adopt-a-Bronco: Hidalgo	America: The Land of Immigrants that hate immigrants.

03-19-2010, 09:13 AM	#17
Garcia Bronco Hokie since 1993 Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 46,001 Adopt-a-Bronco: Tom Jackson	Only if Baja stays in Mexico.

03-19-2010, 09:16 AM	#19
baja It is what it Is. Pay attention. Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: in a bunker Posts: 54,376 Adopt-a-Bronco: Julius Thomas	Mock, The global financial (credit) crisis and the seemingly break down of many systems, monetary, government (state and federal), health care, real food production, out of control corporations etc