So how does this end?

Stumbled upon yesterday's Michael Hudson's interview where he answers this question: 

Ross: Well, let me suggest that you were living in one of the most advanced oligarchies in the world at the moment. So how does this end?

Michael Hudson: Ha! The same way that Rome ended. In Rome the oligarchy always overreached itself, impoverishing the economy. In Rome that led to a Dark Age. We’re going to be entering something like that at the end of summer in this country, because you’re going to have many homeless pouring onto the street, many families losing their homes, small businesses who’ve had to go under, medium-sized businesses that have decided to sell out to the large private capital funds. The economy is not going to look very pretty.

Read the whole interview, especially oligarchy part, but while I agree with Hudson, I think one important detail must be added to purely economic outlook and I mean, of course, real economy. I read at Saker's site a very interesting piece by Ramin Mazaheri about millenials: Pity post-corona Millennials… if they don’t openly push socialism. Before going there let's remove a little 800 pound gorilla or two out of the way:

1. The term "socialism" as it is used in the United States is absolutely meaningless term because it doesn't cover all complexities of "socialist"  model which is way more complex than mere "state's (collective) ownership of the means of production". So when you read the term "socialism" be aware that even if to use adjusters for state's involvement into the economy it still wouldn't give people in the Western block any better understanding of such a complex phenomenon as socialism. One thing for sure, however, is that whatever "socialism" means under any particular circumstances it surely means ANTI-laissez faire'. This one applies well.

2. I am NOT a "socialist", despite giving Soviet version of it proper credit for a number of outstanding achievements in every single sphere of human activity ranging from culture, to economy, to war, to science and the list is huge. I am, however, in no way reluctant to discuss failures of said Soviet model nor am I a Marxist, despite using Marxist method in my analysis. I am an economic fusionist, who understands human nature and self-interest as NOT always rational, plus it is my long-standing position that Anglo-American economic "theories" are the theories created inside the environment which never knew Continental Warfare of any serious scale and are absolutely anti-scientific and are nothing more than ideological concoctions, especially as is the case for modern era. 

Now that this is out of the way, I have to give Mazaheri a credit where credit is due because he states some crucial truths about modern generation:   

... the very sectors where Millennials can be most often found – restaurants, retail, tourism, hospitality and creative – will be the most decimated by corona lockdowns. What’s more, this age group has – necessarily – the least seniority, experience and skills and thus they will be the first to be fired in every sector. Labor participation rate for Millennials had only just returned to pre-2008 levels, but – as I stressed to my often-dismissive elders – levels “returned” only via terrible part-time jobs, gig economy work and short-term contracts in Europe. How long will it take to return to (these fundamentally inferior) pre-2020 levels? ....if you thought Millennials were too sensitive before, then imagine how they will be after the corona trauma? There is no “victory” to be had here for the survivors – all they did was cower at home, sometimes snitch on their neighbors, and often couldn’t even risk trying to volunteer to help the elderly and vulnerable. This is going to create guilt and shame personally, mistrust and resentment socially, and a desire to save, hoard and not take risks economically.

Pay attention to the fact of this very generation being one of the most important pushers for legalization of pot and users of it, not to mention other drugs of choice, which automatically precludes them from entering a serious labor force thus reducing their already less than impressive competitiveness, once, especially the "level" of education in the American public schools is considered. Moreover, apart from drug problem it is also a generation of the most active Social Justice Warriors, namely people with a complete mental breakdown being exhibited daily all over every existent social media platform where this generation worships bat shit crazy Greta Thunberg, fights for the rights of the unicorns and goes "woke" in vast numbers daily. Make no mistake, this whole psychiatric event didn't start with millenials, it started with Boomers. So much so, that the best of them, people with enough intellect and consciousness to see what is going on, apologizing:

History will probably record that America’s Baby Boom generation threw one helluva party; Gen X was left with the sorry task of cleanup crew; and the Millennials ended up squatting in the repossessed haunted party-house when it was all over. On behalf of the Boomers, let me try to explain and apologize.

But it is too little, too late on a scale of generations. And I do feel sorry for generation which was convinced that FIRE economy was a viable one, it never was. In case of emergencies first casualty is always a service sector. Millenials, using Russian expression, were left at the broken trough. But if that wasn't bad enough, this generation, especially its urban "advanced" category of iPhone users, Elon Musk-worshiping, Beyonce listening, metrosexually sensitive, part is absolutely not ready for real life. They never were from the inception, and that is a huge problem. Them "pushing for socialism"? With all my respect to Mazaheri otherwise excellent piece, here is how their "pushing" looks like: 

I am sure American oligarchy couldn't have asked more for feeling absolutely secure in their position than Millenials' "socialist aspirations". It also makes a significant segment of Millenials who know how to shoot, fight and start fire in the woods, delightful by looking at their future victims. But I know what I am talking about from the rich personal experience of studying Marxism-Leninism not only in theory but seeing how this theory was applied to creating a powerful, technologically very advanced, military, massive economy and suppression apparatus of appropriate scale. After all, it was none other than Lenin himself who is on record that "Revolution is worth something only when it can defend itself"(c). Bingo! I doubt that liberal arts graduate who used to work in Starbucks as a barista and who knows all differences between iPhones and what Game of Thrones characters are all about, understands anything about basic tactics of urban combat or ever saw how a person dies. So, under these circumstances, the case for socialism's triumph in the US is rather weak. Increase in banditry, gangsterism, street violence--that goes without saying, it is to be expected, but not the push from generation of many splendored genders brought up on Star Wars "woke" versions for "socialism". Industrial plant and its labor force are a much better medium for arriving to the threshold of "socialist" aspirations simply because of a different cultural outlook. But never mind, we all should remember that Marx saw... the United States as the country perfectly primed for socialist revolution. Well, he abhorred Russia and Russians and I am not sure what a level of a butt-hurt would he have experienced should he lived long enough to witness the events of 1917. 

This is my only quibble for otherwise superb article which is worthy of reading. At this stage, however, we all should also expect a degree of social disobedience from many Americans who, actually, ARE bearers of a true spirit of freedom which could be one of those unforeseen factors for present American oligarchy who thinks that it had it all under control. Many Americans, and even some Russians (wink, wink) still believe in some inalienable, God-given rights and that it is on display today in Michigan. 

And liberty for all. This is the factor X in all of that, not to mention the fact...drum roll...of Democratic Party trying to sabotage the nation to have any chance this year at elections. Read attentively: I still didn't disclose my theory of which I stated some time ago, but more and more facts begin to emerge that make Covid-19 affair in the US look rather suspicious.    

Mixed Feelings.

It is with the mixed feelings that I write this post, because I know how adults and, in the United States, baby-boomers, failed them--in some sense they are victims. On the other hand what did one expect? I am talking about millennials. I was going to write about this for some time, because I think it is a huge problem, especially when I saw this some time ago. 

Make no mistake, I probably will have same reactions as this dude when teaser trailer to Denis Villeneuve's Dune will come out next year, but you know my background, not that I am any standard next to which public discourse should be judged or serve as an embodiment of an adulthood--I am definitely not. But this dude is dedicated, he has his life at the altar of the nauseatingly long and increasingly talent-less liberal "woke" public announcement also known as Star Wars money squeezing machine, which long ago lost it, if it ever had anything to really lose, any charm and dreaminess it enjoyed through Episodes 4 through 6. I feel for this guy and the problem is not him personally, the problem is that he is not alone. Robert Bridge writes in his painfully succinct piece:

Increasingly open to astrology, magic and sorcery while happy to virtue signal on behalf of any PC-saturated issue, the entire millenial generation seems wholly unequipped to face the daunting challenges of adulthood.They may not know how to change a flat tire, cook a simple meal or stop living in their parents' basement, but Millennials – the tech-savvy demographic typically born between the years 1981 to the early 2000s – seem increasingly preoccupied with subjects of a less practical nature ever since graduating from college. Whether it is symptomatic of Trump Derangement Syndrome, some kind of New Age mysticism or perhaps spending four long years studying impractical liberal arts courses, it’s hard to say. But many people are looking to empower themselves with alternative techniques once ridiculed as sheer quackery.

I know what Bridge is talking about. First hand. No, not my children, they were brought up differently, being subjected from the earliest age to the idea of a respect to the labor--a real one. And if my daughter's path through economics' degree was somewhat expected in an uber liberal and woke Seattle (and then Milan), my son, certainly went, with approval from both mom and dad through this. Almost literally. 

And this is the key. Millennials are the product of the both America's catastrophic de-industrialization and ideology of being hip being shoved down their throats behind which is not just the fad of suicidal wokeness, a consequence of a degenerating education in fields which are useless, but of the complete removal of a productive labor as an honorable undertaking to be aspired to from whole generation's idea of a JOB and substituting it with the idea of being a office plankton at best, being unemployed, at worst as the normal state of the affairs and, in fact, things to be desired. 

 

That is why we have today almost a whole generation of 30-35 years old boys and girls, who see their realization in life in trying to make careers in cosplay, writing poetry, creating shitty music, being political activists promoting bizarre and ignorant causes, and, in the end, going full occult, while not being able to solve basic everyday tasks which grown up normal men and women solve without any problem. 

This speaks volumes about the mindset of the Millennial generation, which has been raised on an unhealthy diet of liberal radicalism and political correctness gone stark-raving mad. Because a president was elected that they didn't like, they now believe that the summoning of mystical forces will change things. This is an act of desperation, and attests to the type of education many of these young adults are receiving at some detached, tree-lined college where ‘queer and gender studies,’ for example, oftentimes substitutes for the time-honored classics of Western philosophy and history. Meanwhile, the study of science only seems to have merit when it confirms their exceedingly warped worldview. For example, that there are some 13 gender types to choose from, or that the planet and all of its life forms are about to succumb to man-made climate change. 

You all know this, you did experience this, most likely, yourself. Yet, here is even more damning, for the United States, thing: 

Only 39 percent of the current workforce is under the age of 45. And while jobs in the aerospace and defense sectors are seen positively by the majority of young professionals, only 1.5 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. have a science degree. Taken together, the challenge is obvious to the authors of the report: Aerospace and defense companies are “faced with a shortage of qualified workers to meet current demands as well as needing to integrate a younger workforce with the ‘right skills, aptitude, experience, and interest to step into the jobs vacated by senior-level engineers and skilled technicians’ as they exit the workforce.”  

Well, duh! What did they expect in the country where occupations of stock broker, entertainment star or useless celebrity for decades are considered as most desirable and involve no actual labor to get to at least some material and moral satisfaction benefits those positions allegedly provide. In the nation where the opinion of some dumbfuck from Hollywood who is payed huge sums of money to pretend to be other people is valued more than opinion of people with skills, knowledge and authority, it is no surprise that what would have been considered even 30 years ago as the state of being a loser is, today, extolled as a life's success today. This is not an environment which generates aspirations to get one's ass into some advanced manufacturing program to get a AAS in CNC Operations or become jet-engine mechanic, not to mention get at least a start with degree in fundamental science or engineering. Nah, this is hard and requires an effort. You know, mobilization of moral and physical forces inside oneself to achieve a tangible goal and become a productive member of the society, sometimes well-paid. That requires work, a hard work which makes one a real person. And Bridge is correct:

Perhaps the best takeaway for the more liberal-minded Millennials is to remember that what you learn in a classroom and what you experience in the real world are two completely different things. The higher institutes of learning would do well to remind their students of that difference, while allowing for a climate of frank and open discussion on all subjects. Even if the subjects bring discomfort, which is the way the real world works. No amount of magical spells or charms will change that.

The world outside doesn't need "philosophers" and political "activists", it needs people with knowledge and skills, people who can make a decision on their own and who can take responsibility for their actions, it needs people who can work hard, especially in a productive field and who, at some point of time, when shit hits the fan, and it will, can behave themselves as what modern generation failed largely to deliver--adults.