no supper tonight

I've never been one for alarmist behavior. I can wallow in obsessive dread with the best of them, but that's more rooted in the frustration of events escaping my control, things like car repairs or dental work where I'm forced to operate on someone else's terms. Outright panic just seems pointless; few things ever turn out as badly as imagined, and even the few that do live up to the ultra-negative expectations are better handled with a clear head.

My undergraduate mentor, a cultural history professor, would frequently evoke the looming spectre of societal collapse, always clarifying his somber jeremiads with "I say when, not if." Back then, I considered his apocalyptic assuredness as the affection of a veteran leftist prone to seeing dark portents on every horizon. Despite my ingrained cynicism, his pronouncements seemed based upon the grim predictions of 70's science-fiction rather than upon empirical evidence. Nowadays, though, I'm not so sure.

I have been feeling troubled as of late. The sensation is not the familiar one of personal existential dread, but rather a gut feeling that events of consequence are unfolding and interlocking at a glacial but accelerating pace. Food riots are breaking out across the globe, as the neo-liberal promises regarding globalization have proven themselves to be not only empty, but outright malignant in terms of consequences. Energy costs are skyrocketing, causing rampant inflation. The edifice of debt-financed prosperity has effectively collapsed. The programs and policies created to check and mitigate the damage have been defanged, dissolved, or discredited.

When school systems are dropping milk from the lunch menu so they can bring in soft drink concession revenue, the problem is bigger than a simple economic downturn. When a basic staple of life such as flour or corn is priced beyond reach because of commodities speculators, it is clear that the system is broken.

The center has failed to hold, and few people want to connect the dots and awaken to the greater problem. (In this country, its a matter of denial, in that few will acknowledge the notion that fast-and-loose capitalism does not intrinsically favor America and will devour any victim with equal aplomb.)

I can't shake the feeling that that this is just the beginning, that these events collectively presage something huge and ugly with the capacity of permanently transforming the global quality of life.

The Clash - Armagideon Time (from the b-side of the 1979 "London Calling" single; collected on The Story of The Clash, Part 1, 1990)