Dithery, nasty, and wussy

Always good for an endorphin crash, James Howard Kuntsler patiently explains yet again that life as Americans know it is like so over. Conventional economic growth is laughably unlikely. At best, the American economy might undergo a transformation in which the standard of living no longer will be “measured in things like shopping mall sales and vehicle miles driven.”

“We have an awful lot to get real about.”

Well then, we’re well and truly screwed because Americans don’t get real about things very well. Not measuring out our lives in vehicle miles driven and shopping mall purchases may well be beyond the limits of American imagination.

We’ve had an awful lot of things to get real about for nearly a half-century, yet Americans keep cheerfully electing officials who are dithery, nasty, and wussy -- sometimes all at the same time. Then we obediently aid and abet them in the consumption of enormous amounts of money and time to build not much and to achieve even less.

Americans getting real about getting real? I don't think so.