"The New Doom"

[swag]

My question: is the mainsteaming of the econopocalypse a contrarian indicator, or is everyone just waking up to "reality"?

http://www.observer.com/2010/wall-street/new-doom

"Life is such a fucking disaster," a prominent New York hedge fund manager said recently. "We all live in some kind of world we create for ourselves. And I think that what happened is that built into that world were very enlarged expectations about what life was going to be. There's been this sensation of excessive expectation that, frankly, became unsustainable."

He had just returned from his ranch in the wilderness of central Idaho. "I just like it because it's massively low human density. It would be a place you could hole up in. But, gosh, I hope that doesn't happen."

Last week, not very far from the hedge fund manager's ranch, the billionaire John Malone gave a little-noticed interview to The Wall Street Journal from Allen & Co.'s annual Sun Valley conference. Asked about the biggest risks to Liberty, his media conglomerate, Mr. Malone said his concern was this country's survival. "We have a retreat that's right on the Quebec border. We own 18 miles on the border, so we can cross. Anytime we want to, we can get away."

His wife is more concerned: She's already moved her personal cash to Australia and Canada. "She wants to have a place to go," said Mr. Malone, No. 400 on this year's Forbes list of the richest people in the world, "if things blow up here."

[xchrom]

1. So what are hedge fund managers and forbes 400 execs

So worried about.

It's the rest of us taking a beating - and we will REALLY
take in a prolonged down turn.

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. The terrors. n/t

[Doctor_J]

17. Unfortunately, they have nothing to worry about

Someday, maybe

[Po_d Mainiac]

19. That's a real neat looking FRSP!

[FirstLight]

2. im not sure what to think

this article really leaves it all hanging. At first i thought it would be a peice aboout those wall st people who are trying to plot out their escape from the fall of society (boohoo, many of us have already begun that journey by being pushed to the economic fringe)

but really, we all know that the state of things is a huge clusterfuck. not much news there.

how did it happen? greed and deregulation...duh

how to fix it is the crux of the matter, and the answer seems to be similar to watching it play out and hope you're still standing when the dust settles....

which really, isn't new... just that the 'richies' are starting to look at rural living and jumping the border.

[azul]

4. I've-got-mine survivalist shows concern,

by taking the resources of the damned-in-hell minions.

[Warpy]

5. I have to giggle at these people trying to hole up and survive.

Can you imagine them trying to live without a platoon of servants doing all the stuff we take for granted?

In a worldwide financial meltdown, there will be no safe havens, not even Canada.

[paparush]

6. Jeeves, I say, Jeeves! Chop wood and carry water like a good servant.

Jeeves?

[northernlights]

21. +1000

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Demeter]

13. or even electricity and repairmen

[tech9413]

16. Sure I'll keep your electricity going

Keep me and mine going for a year and I'll keep the lights on for at least the next week. Don't like the deal? learn how to do it yourself.

[Tsiyu]

18. I giggle as well

Can't you imagine some hedge fund manager in his new hiking boots coming upon a cabin in the Northwoods:

"Say there, good man, my wife Bif just can't go ON without a brandy and a bidet.

And I'll pay you handsomely for some sushi and a place to plug in my iPhone."

The image cracks me up.

[northernlights]

20. my take, too

if they think they can run and hide from the robbed, I think they are mistaken. They are hated and will be hunted worldwide.

And in the meantime, their fantasies of hiding on their ranches, well, I doubt they'll last beyond the first couple mosquitos, never mind actual snakes, coyotes, bears, etc. I really can't see them chopping wood, carrying water, or weeding in the hot, hot sun.

And I'll never forget my ex-urb cousins freaking out when they spent the night at our house on 2 suburban acres. They couldn't sleep for the fear...the sound of crickets terrified them :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Newest Reality]

7. Accepting what is going on ...

might be a start.

Holing up is just another comfortable illusion to pile on the rest of the cultural bubble that will be the last one to burst. If anything, quite the opposite is in order/store and a culture of alienation has done nothing to prepare the people for an increasing need to put aside the mountain of inculcated bullshit and realize that cooperation, interdependence and a greater, more local intimacy are what survival will demand without a question or a theory required in the process. It will emerge in the very midst of the separative efforts to control it.

There is so much flotsam and jetsam clogging the perceptions, currently. Television is functioning as a tremendously effective tool for the delusion that manufactured reality can forestall the collapse indefinitely. Media serves the corporate interest to extend the game, yet there is a cognitive dissonance when people look around them and compare that to the fictive agenda simulating a growing hoax.

[nashville_brook]

9. notice it's the robber barons who want to "hole up" -- with our money.

[pretzel4gore]

8. you all realise of course, the entire thing was a big lie

Kurt Vonnegut touched upon the idea long ago, when he said the 'exploration' and settlement of the world by the thieves (my term) went so well because no one on earth ever imagined such greedy depravity, dressed up in such fine clothing, right out in the open, as the carving up of civilization by gunmen. Canada, USA and the rest of the Euro colonies were stolen from the rightful owners (who were, whenever possible, exterminated). All this is just bs, of course- judging the past with today's certainties is futility, but c'mon, the Hitler holocaust was only remarkable in that Europeans for once died in heaps, instead of...tigers and lions and bears. And lying became INTRINSIC to getting along here on the olde sod; unless you were a commie terrorist. The past was gone, and nevermind second guessing Cecil rhodes or Ann rand etc; nevermind that NATURE became a dirty evil thing needing enslavement, needing using it up, until today a significant portion of the human race who have voting power depend entirely upon air conditioning in order to get through their days! We are killing the planet because liars rule the damn thing, and we can't stop them from lying (there's a hit song saying 'I wanna be a billionaire SO FRICKING BAD...and be on the cover of Forbes magazine' etc....!)

I hate this planet, and its people and hope we will all die screaming 'please please! please' just so the Great Spirit can reply with eternal silence

[bemildred]

10. I for one look forward to the departure of as many of those greedy weasels as possible. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

11. Criminals plotting a getaway is indicative of guilt

how is that new?

[qazplm]

12. I'm not trying to belittle our problems

or folks who are struggling, it's real and it sucks but my goodness how lame have we become as a nation of people.

Things have been much worst in our past and we've overcome. We will overcome a severe recession too.

[marmar]

14. I look at it this way.......Yes, it's going to be horrific, but if we're smart.....

..... we'll build something better after the dark period ends. Something that values something other than money as means of exchange, something that places an emphasis on localization, something that conserves resources, and something that places people first - in other words, something other than capitalism as it exists today.
Again, if we're smart. And that's a big if.

[Citizen Worker]

15. This will require poltical will and leadership and at this time both are in short supply

[yurbud]

22. If all the hedge fund managers went to their private ranches and had accidents

cleaning their guns, the econopocalypse just might be averted.