The Meme Generation

When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.

—Neil Postman (via azspot)

(via azspot)

I love local merchants. SHAZAM!

Merry Krampus!

From the National Geographic blog:

A wild Christmas character is making a devilish comeback. Krampus gets his name from a word for “claw.” That’s apt for a demon said to grab naughty children and stuff them in his sack. Popular in Alpine villages centuries ago, Krampus scared kids straight—his long red tongue upped the fear factor—and taught them that evil bows before good. He served Santa’s forerunner, kindly St. Nicholas, who had “the power to send Krampus back to hell,” says Austrian ethnologist Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann.

Europe once had a roster of Christmas rascals like Krampus, many with pagan roots. And Yule was a lot like today’s Halloween, partly because farmers had time off from chores and could party with abandon. On December 5, the eve of St. Nick’s feast day, folks would bang on doors for food and drink.

I can see how “be good or you’ll be stolen by a demon” might be more effective than “be good and you’ll get some smart summer slacks.”

Cat walking underwater to a smooth and sensual jam. (h/t @tenderlove)

In a very small area, less than 10,000 square miles, we have counted more than 100 fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the water column and injected directly into the atmosphere from the seabed,” Dr Semiletov said. “We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale – I think on a scale not seen before. Some plumes were a kilometre or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere – the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal.

—

Shock as retreat of Arctic sea ice releases deadly greenhouse gas - Climate Change - Environment - The Independent

Methane is 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. This is really bad. Possibly “short-term” really bad.

The two most likely consequences of this situation are: 1. the ruination of the Republican Party or 2. the ruination of the United States. The more likely Republican nominees for president would put the Republican Party far to the right of “mainstream” America.

All things being equal that should mean electoral disaster (the ruination of the GOP) in November 2012. But, of course, sometimes all things aren’t equal. Thus, with disappointment in President Barack Obama running so deep among America progressives there is no telling how many of them might sit out the 2012 election.

Even though progressives alone do not win elections, their numbers count if things get close. Thus, it is possible, if not probable, that a crazy right-wing president (one even more shallow, ignorant, hypocritical and mendacious then George W. Bush) could be elected. If that happened it could mean ruin for the nation and disaster for the world. Here is why:

1) Such a president would almost certainly take the country into another full-fledged war, probably with Iran and therefore the Shiite Muslim world. They would continue to comply with Israeli wishes without question further alienating the majority of people in the Sunni Muslim world.

U.S. state violence and terrorism will increase and breed reciprocal terrorism in the Middle East. Therefore, more 9/11 style episodes could be expected. The new president’s tough guy attitude would no doubt spill over into policies toward Russia and China. The United Nations and international law would be discarded (to say nothing of the general practice of diplomacy) and torture would again be a standard procedure for clandestine American government operations.

2) Domestically such a president would hack away at all government agencies except those involved with the military, police bureaus (FBI), intelligence and the courts. Social services would go by the boards as would regulatory oversight. The natural environment would deteriorate. The gap between rich and poor would grow and grow while the middle-class would shrink and shrink.

Marx’s predictions for capitalism would come back into style on the Left. Essentially, a new age of Social Darwinism would dawn. Poverty would increase, racism would return to the public realm and urban riots would probably come along at some point as well. A new depression would be a real possibility.

By the time the nation’s voting citizens came back to their senses, it might be too late because by then civil liberties would be a thing of the past.

(Source: azspot)