Reply To: Re: I nominate this for your next series

[Bot Blogger]

Hey Candace,

You’ve hit it on the head. Literally. We need to think about what we think and most people aren’t used to doing that. People look to authorities to tell them what to think. Fox news, the church, the universities, these are the authorities people look to, to know what to think. These authorities are completely corrupt as Chris Hedges has repeatedly pointed out.

But now, with the onset of decline and contraction, people who don’t know how to think at all are looking for answers. They are looking for someone to blame:

“The long-term unemployment, the collapse of housing prices, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the draconian cuts in social spending have created a climate in which the vulnerable, the different, the marginal—from Muslims to undocumented workers to homosexuals—are blamed for the nation’s decline, White argues. This climate is fueling a culture of hate. Right-wing candidates, channeling the rage and frustration of a beleaguered working and middle class, use marginal and oppressed groups as scapegoats.”

https://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_war_on_gays_20120528//

This is why it won’t be so easy to go out on an inquisitional tour of those who have caused this: because there will be many vigilante posses on the trail. Could cause a traffic jam.

I think your use of the word rational is interesting too. Because the root of the word is ‘ratio’, which implies proportion. In that sense, who is to say that a rational response to complete economic collapse isn’t proportionately extreme? I think better words to use might be reasoned, justified, or equivocated. Because this is the kind of thinking people use to explain their actions. We shall see a lot more of it soon.