Bread and Circuses

The big news on the climate-change front this week, for those of you living in caves, involves a big dose of denial. A large number of emails from the University of East Anglia webmail server were hacked, thus igniting a controversy about whether global climate change is “real.”

In a word, yes. Lethally so.

Interesting timing, wouldn’t you say? Immediately before world leaders meet in Copenhagen to discuss how they will respond to the probable extinction of our species, we’re saved. Global climate change is all made up, silly. Those scientists were just playing mind games. Government leaders need do nothing at all. Go back to your SUVs and televisions.

After all, the stock markets are up. Never mind the reason: massive illegal infusions of cash from the U.S. government (i.e., you and me, without our permission or even our knowledge). And it’s not as if any other news about the industrial economy justifies Dow 10,000. Consider these headlines, for example (with quotes from each article in parentheses):

U.S. Economy is a Geriatric on Viagra (Too much monetary Viagra can cause it to drop down dead from heart failure)

The U.S. Recession Jobless Interest Rate Conundrum (Fed chairman Ben Bernanke certainly has his work cut out for him if he is at all concerned about the international value of the dollar)

Long Way for Nothing (Despite the big stock market rally, we aren’t better off than we were before Lehman went under [in September 2008])

Revising the Fed Waltz with A.I.G. (The Fed, under Mr. Geithner’s direction, caved in to A.I.G.’s counterparties, giving them 100 cents on the dollar for positions that would have been worth far less if A.I.G. had defaulted)

U.S. Mortgage Delinquencies Reach a Record High (The economy and the stock market may be recovering from their swoon, but more homeowners than ever are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments, according to figures released Thursday)

Congress is Losing Its Patience with the Fed (This is strictly circus action from the bread-and-circuses crowd on Capital Hill, as evidenced by this quote: “I don’t think it ever hurts to have a member of Congress stand up and denounce the Fed. There is a lot of anger out there, and this is basically a therapeutic gesture,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.)

Joshua Kosman, Predicting The Next Credit Crisis (A rain of defaults is already starting)

Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government (“What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter,” said William H. Gross, managing director of the Pimco Group, the giant bond-management firm. “The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the ones left over from the last winter.”)

15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams (The economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate)

So, the game is afoot. On one hand, recognition is growing that we are running out of time to save the living planet and our humanity (as I’ve been writing for years). On the other hand, recognition is increasing that the industrial economy is collapsing right along with our humanity and the natural world.

None of these matters of importance prevent the New York Mets from supporting terrorism (hence terrorists), or stop the Australian Senate from burying their collective heads in the sand about peak oil, or prevent the mainstream media from blathering about how Americans feel about about Obama’s endless wars, or prevent the mainstream media from blathering about any number of other stories relevant only to about six people on Earth.

Seems we have plenty of circuses. But for an increasing number of people, not much bread.

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