Hi Joe:
Thank you for your latest rant, "Madmen and Sedatives." I loved it -- as usual. I want to talk about the traffic monsters you described. I see them too and have been aware of them since the late 70's when I returned from four years living in a small town in Alaska. I have lived in a major city in the Pacific Northwest most of my whole life, but when I came back to this city from Alaska, I suffered a severe case of culture shock which I've never really recovered from.
The thing that really shocked and horrified me was the people in cars in traffic. Fat, middle-aged zombies. The way they looked, their hair and clothes, their cars, and especially the look on their faces. (Even now when I am out in traffic I dread to look at people's faces.) I reject them as a vision of my own future I don't want. Basically this is what it means to be a good American/good German anymore. I reject this people and its consumer mad culture. Although I have lived here most of my life, I am the proverbial "stranger in a strange land." I would love to leave, but I am stuck because I'm poor.
Here is what I want to add to your rant: I fear these people. They are dangerous. They support Bush and his wars so they can shop. People are dying horrible deaths so they can gas up, chow down, and "shop till they drop". They stick a Support Our Troops sticker on their car and head down to Walmart and the supersized foodmart.
Just imagine what these Americans will be like when things get really desperate here, when the economy tanks and food and medicine and gas and everything is hard to get because inflation is putting it further and further out of reach. It will be the worst of the "night of the living dead" nightmares. They are like addicts and won't think nothing of killing someone for a tank of gas or a cheeseburger. I have known that murderous look in their eyes for a long time.
Thank you again. It is encouraging and supportive to hear from others who are not in denial and can see where this is heading -- and that's a dark future for America.
Stay sane.
Tess
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Oh Tess! Come on now. They would never kill for a cheeseburger. But a tank of gas, now that's a different matter. Hell, they are already killing for every tank. They just don't see the victims.
Solidarity,
Joe
