Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year - 2007

Dr. Clyde Wilson is certainly not out to win friends or even influence many people. With words as hurtful (but true) as the ones below, few will hear and fewer still will act:

People who are ignorant of and indifferent to their background (and those who misrepresent it for present-time advantage) are barbarians—that is, people without a civilized culture. Our leaders view American society as a commercial enterprise in which profit and consumption are the only values. After all, a customer is a customer and yesterday is just a past opportunity for sales. Who worries about where the customer comes from? As a society we have lost sight of the truth that economic abundance is not a self-perpetuating technical trick but rests ultimately on mental and moral qualities. Mental and moral virtues are declining in power and the evidence is already there of the loss of prosperity that necessarily follows.

But a society without ancestors (bastards?) is not the worst of the American decline. The worst is a lost future. Our forebears felled forests, planted trees, built houses, fought wars in the consciousness that the benefits would accrue to their descendants more than to themselves.

A people who took any thought to the welfare of their grandchildren, much less future generations of their own blood, could not possibly tolerate the ongoing destruction of our human environment by politicians and plutocrats. Burke defined civilization as the awareness of the interconnection of past, present, and future. Conservatism was the preservation of the essence of civilization amidst the inevitable flux and chaos of existence.

In 2007 I expect that we will see much more of the same - bureaucrats and politicians catering to the here and now without care or concern for the here-after. Corporations run amuck and a population bedazzled by temporary things.

There are of course other possibilities for 2007 - hyperinflation spurred on by foreign governments dumping the dollar - perhaps that combined with years of runaway corporate and private debt could crack the entire system. More than likely the goons in the Federal district would simply find a way to declare yet another "emergency" to save us all if such circumstances actually played out.

Somebody will do something about Iran in 2007 - their economic policy is a direct threat to our hegemony, their nuclear ambitions make Israel nervous - that is enough to unleash the dogs of war.

Bush will ignore all advice and seek to follow his misguided surge strategy in Iraq. This will come to naught except additional casualties. Depending upon what happens with Iran I expect that Bush will announce a phased withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2007 (after his "surge" fails). I cannot imagine that his party would stand to allow him to go into a presidential election season with Iraq hanging in limbo.

The two major parties will sort out their field for the presidential election - I suspect that McCain will end the year as the GOP front-runner. In the end it does not matter who comes survives the year for a 2008 run.

I dread the goings-on in Congress. I foresee old bad ideas like national health-care coming back to the table. With fascist in the White House and Socialist in the Congress this cannot be a good year.

Nothing but talk will occur with North Korea. In fact if all really goes badly in the Middle East the US troop reductions on the peninsula may speed ahead by years.

China will continue to play it cool, snipping at the edges of the hegemon, building strength and artificially keeping her exchange rate favorable to cheap labor. The dragon still needs a few years before she rises.

We are due for another "terrorist plot" to be uncovered. The State of The Union speech is drawing near and GW does not have much good to talk about.

At the end of 2007 we will be just what we are now, as Dr. Wilson says - bastards without a real future. Most of us still won't know it though.

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