I well realize the galactic scope of Americans' capacity for utterly mindless, contentless, meaningless spectacle. God knows, I've written about it often enough. But the absolutely overwhelming amount of colossal shit attendant upon this inauguration ("Look, Mom! Barack made me fly!" -- I do not exaggerate even slightly, scroll to about the midpoint of the story) is enough to make anyone who remains remotely sane loathe all mankind throughout all eternity.
I post this brief message only to let those few of you who have not lost your fucking minds know that you are not alone. Some of us, perhaps three or four hundred, still retain some connection to reality. But it frays and is under lethal attack. Whether the connection will survive the next day or two is an open question. Recourse to alcohol (and/or other substances of your choosing), sex and other diversions might be the wisest choice, until midweek at the earliest. Let's play safely: make it until the weekend. Hell, through the weekend.
I'm sure that other empires in their final phase of decline exhibited similar signs of complete intellectual collapse, combined with ungraspably trivial sentimentality that would embarrass a four-year-old of average intelligence. But the determined refusal to face facts, including the foundational fact that Obama is a singularly dangerous fraud, in tandem with Americans' love of political philosophy and ideas in general as expressed in a Hallmark card may well be unmatched in history.
To those of you so devotionally intent on celebrating this historically historic moment in history, as you accuse those few of us who are still capable of speaking in full sentences with actual referents of being "cynical" and shockingly lacking in what you so irresponsibly and reprehensibly call "idealism": Have a moronically good time, morons.
Read all of it and more of his posts at Arthur Silber's site Once Upon a Time. Then click the PayPal button or send him something from his Amazon wishlist. He deserves something for that post alone but he has written so much more that deserves to be in Time or Newsweek rather than on an anonymous blog.