A few months ago a friend of mine introduced me to The Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle:
Commentary on the Flux of Events, the blog located on the website of James Kunstler, a novelist and former writer for Rolling Stone (in the 70s). Kunstler predicted the housing crisis and current financial meltdown long ago, and watching his predictions come true over the last few months has been disturbing. His vision of this country’s future is bleak, if not apolcalyptic. Here’s a quote from his October 20, 2008 post, entitled, “What Now?”:

To switch metaphors, let’s say that we are witnessing the two stages of a tsunami. The current disappearance of wealth in the form of debts repudiated, bets welshed on, contracts cancelled, and Lehman Brothers-style sob stories played out is like the withdrawal of the sea. The poor curious little monkey-humans stand on the beach transfixed by the strangeness of the event as the water recedes and the sea floor is exposed and all kinds of exotic creatures are seen thrashing in the mud, while the skeletons of historic wrecks are exposed to view, and a great stench of organic decay wafts toward the strand. Then comes the second stage, the tidal wave itself — which in this case will be horrific monetary inflation — roaring back over the mud flats toward the land mass, crashing over the beach, and ripping apart all the hotels and houses and infrastructure there while it drowns the poor curious monkey-humans who were too enthralled by the weird spectacle to make for higher ground. The killer tidal wave washes away all the things they have labored to build for decades, all their poignant little effects and chattels, and the survivors are left keening amidst the wreckage as the sea once again returns to normal in its eternal cradle.

I recommend reading the last several posts on his blog. It’s pessimistic stuff, but some would call it “reality based.” I’m hoping it’s not my reality. His “eyesore of the month” is also a favorite of mine.

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