Those of you who have heard about Jim Howard Kunstler know exactly where the title of this diary comes from. For the rest of you, I recommend that you head over to his blog and read some of the entries. Jim does not mince words and with good reason. He has a lot to say about the situation that we as a society are now finding ourselves in. His lone voice has been ignored for years but with the events unfolding the way they are Mr Kunstler's prophecies appear supernaturally accurate.
In 2004 James Kunstler wrote a book entitled "The Long Emergency". The prescience of his predictions is simply astounding.
Mr Kunstler correctly predicted that the real undoing of America would come in a form of an economic collapse caused by the collusion of high energy prices and a finance/mortgage crisis. He specifically named Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as paper tigers likely to fall first in the midst of the coming shitstorm. Hie foresaw soaring foreclosure rates ultimately leading to a full blown housing market collapse quickly followed by ever increasing oil prices and American wages falling rapidly and leading to a total reshaping of the way America goes about living its life.
Despite being an avowed Democrat, Kunstler sees the problem as one that transcends the party lines. The problem as he puts it, relates to the way we 'inhabit the landscape' on this continent. What he means by it is that the problems we face today are mostly caused by America's love of suburbia and the rejection of traditional patterns of urban development. In the 1950's, James Kunstler argues, America rejected the traditional idea of a city life in the pursuit of the 'American Dream' that became synonymous with a comfortable life in a wooden cabin in the countryside. This iconic and idealized image of suburbia was cultivated by the real estate developers and car companies alike. Soon enough the project was out of hand and America was transformed into a vast land of suburban houses intersected by 8 lane highways and serviced by local strip malls. The concept of city life was denigraded to the point where the word 'urban' became a pejorative.
Unfortunately the vision of the future that Mr Kunstler paints is far darker than what we have seen to date. His predictions involve a near complete demise of the suburban lifestyle and a chaotic overhaul of virtually everything we do in this country - from the stuff we eat to the way we move people and goods around to the way we conduct business. He also predicts a possible societal collapse when a critical mass is reached of those who feel betrayed by the loss of their suburban dream. Panic, disease, death and misery follows.
I don't know if this is truly where we are headed. I don't know if Mr Kunstler is right in any of his rants but I must say that so far, he has been eerily prophetic and I feel that more of his predictions will come to pass before long. And it scares the living shit out of me.