Thinking about James Kunstler

[phantom power]

Although I like a lot of what Kunstler has to say, there's always been something about him that rubbed me the wrong way, and I couldn't put a finger on it. But there's a bit in his recent posting that helped clarify it to me:

"First, a little background briefing on where we are at -- to use some of the bad grammar now normative in American life -- before I make predictions (i.e. guesses) about the year ahead."

That was a completely gratuitous bashing of colloquial grammar. What rubs me the wrong way is that Kunstler doesn't just have a problem with our cheap-oil-dependent society. He has a sort of misanthropic contempt for everything about modern society. And it shows through in everything he writes. There's a facet to him that doesn't just think our society will collapse, he's looking forward to it. In this respect, he's actually similar to the "Rapture Right." Their hatred of modern culture, and eagerness to see apocalyptic disaster visited upon it, colors everything they say.

This is a shame, because he's one of the few who saw early some of the big, big problems headed our way. Yet I think his misanthropy handicaps his own efforts, by turning people off, instinctively or unconsciously.

Weigh in!

[ret5hd]

1. 230

[Tace]

2. He's A Bit Cynical At Times...

and he may turn some people off... but he's generally spot on... and while I believe his call for 6,000 Dow in 2006 is premature... 4,000 Dow by 2010 seems more than likely. Sorry folks, most Americans are willfully ignorant obnoxious pigs.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Bashing of colloquial grammar?

It seems to me that was an acknowledging that the supposedly educated elites - Yale educated, no less - use phony colloquilism to convince the 'masses' who they so disrespect that they can connect with them. There is a problem with that?

[phantom power]

6. I take it at face value. He's complaining about modern grammar.

[Dora]

4. I don't know much about Kunstler....

But I liked something he said well enough to use it as my sig line.

In response to your post....

I don't look forward to the inevitable collapse American and western society is headed for. This could happen next year, in five years, or in fifty, or not in my lifetime. But history repeats itself, and it seems pretty obvious that we're all on an accelerating downward spiral.

But I do look forward to the potential for radical and liberating change such a collapse will bring to us.

And as far as gratuitous grammar-bashing is concerned - we see plenty of it here on DU, and I don't see any of our resident schoolmarms being accused of misanthropy.

I loathe seeing/hearing "have got" (instead of must) and "looking to do" (instead of trying), and many other contemporary language mutations. I keep my yap closed, most of the time. Kunstler makes a living by keeping his yap open - if the degeneration of language peeves him, then he has every right to voice off. If this alienates people, what's the problem?

[phantom power]

7. It's not any one thing about him, it's a sort of pattern.

His comment about grammar just happened to be the thing that crystallized an impression for me, and I became so pleased with myself that I decided to post about it. He's made other comments in the same vein, for instance he once wrote about a meeting with some young techies from silicon valley:

I was invited to give a talk at Google headquarters down in Mountain View last Tuesday. They sent somebody to fetch me (in a hybrid car, zowee!) from my hotel in San Francisco -- as if I had any choice about catching a train down, right? Google HQ was a glass office park pod tucked into an inscrutable tangle of off-ramps, berms, manzanita clumps, and curb-cuts. But inside, it was all tricked out like a kindergarten. They had pool tables, and inflatable yoga balls, and $6000 electronic vibrating massage lounge chairs, and snack stations deployed at twenty-five step intervals, with lucite bins filled with chocolate raisins and granola. The employees dressed like children. There were two motifs: "skateboard rat" and "10th grade nerd." I suppose quite a few of them were millionaires. Many of the work cubicles were literally modular children's playhouses. I gave my spiel about the global oil problem and the unlikelihood that "alternative energy" would even fractionally replace it, and quite a few of the Googlers became incensed.

"Yo, Dude, you're so, like, wrong! We've got, like, technology!"

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary13.html

Yeah yeah, those youngsters all dress like hooligans, listening to that rock and roll music. *yawn*. I'm also old enough to react with some combination of amusement and annoyance with the way kids dress. But you know, my dad still reacts the same way to the way I dress, and I'm 36. Culture changes. Clothes change, music changes, speech changes. Memetic ecology, always evolving, yada yada. I can only imagine the horror I'll endure when my kid becomes a teenager.

He's obviously free to express any darned opinion he wants to, but he's got big, important insights, and I have this visceral negative reaction to the way he pollutes it all with grouchy commentary about superficial things. None of that makes him right or wrong, I'm just trying to articulate what I dislike about his essays.

[Dora]

9. I understand what you're saying

and you know what, you're right.

I've visited his website several times, and I've never been able to keep myself there long. I'm not exactly an intellectual slouch, but I always felt somewhat condescended to when reading his material. And perhaps this will be Kunstler's challenge - to work on relaying his message without being caught up in himself for being the messenger. It seems that he's proud of himself for thinking the way that he does - and pity the fool who hasn't figured it out yet.

[umass1993]

15. Have you seen "The Office"?

"Where's your flair?"

Kunstler sees this act as the bullshit that it is. Bullshit.

I am glad that I am not alone in this world, thinking that clowns that behave that way are b.s.

Sometimes I think I should get an ear pierced, to make me different, so I can fit in. <irony intended>

[phantom power]

17. Office Space? That was a classic!

[maxsolomon]

5. i went to see Jim speak at the Univ. of Wash. bookstore last year

and i've had an occasional email relationship with him regarding his blog.

but after seeing him, i left without buying the book or meeting him to get it signed. his future is too bleak, even for me, and i'm a terrible cynic. i didn't need to read what i already know; america is fucked up.

that doesn't mean i don't think he's right on in his analysis, and i use many of his terms (american crapscape) every day at work (i'm an architect). i'm not so sure he doesn't hope he's wrong, since he thinks we will willingly choose fascism once the energy crisis really hits us.

[Coastie for Truth]

8. I am a Lovins-Ovshinsky Techno-Geek, Unapologetically So

and Kunstler is totally dismissive of techno-solutions and calls us techno-geeks "utopianists".

[Pooka Fey]

10. I'll weigh in.

I applaud Kunstler for speaking his mind. I always enjoy reading Kunstler's blog - I don't agree with every opinion, but I don't expect to agree with anyone 100%. You characterize the now commonplace use of incorrect grammar as "colloquial", but I think that minimizes its cultural repercussions.

I agree that one should expect informal conversation among friends to be more relaxed. However, I become extremely irritated when I see the English language used incorrectly in books, magazines or newspapers. These errors were committed by a professional writer - who should know better, and furthermore, these errors were then overlooked by an editor whose specific job function is to prepare articles and books for publication! Likewise for the newsreaders and talking heads on television. Look out when they need to improvise to fill a couple of seconds of dead time.

Language is the most fundamental building block of education and it is likewise the common glue which unites a society. What does that say about our culture that even professional communicators don't care enough about English to make sure that they get it right? To me, it says that I live in a country where the overwhelming message from the top down is: nothing really matters much. That message really bothers me. How does it make you feel when you hear the (so-called) pResident of the U.S. visibly struggle to string together a subject, a verb and an object? It makes me want to crawl in a hole. However * 's language impediments are the least of his faults so we don't need to go there.

Certain areas of life require a more polished use of the language. The more we see slip-shod English become commonplace, the more difficult it becomes to hold oneself to any sort of standard. The wrong use of language is so prevalent, so "in your ears", that one has to make a concerted effort to remember how a sentence or phrase should be constructed.

I read an interesting comment on a blog the other night. The poster wrote that in her opinion, Rumsfeld has purposefully studied and mastered how to speak in such a way that it is literally impossible for the public to comprehend what it is he is trying to say. I really think social acceptance of poor grammar is a slippery slope, leading to the kind of distortions I just mentioned.

The school marm has spoken.
:rant:

[phantom power]

11. If I were King for a day...

I would make at least two changes to official standard grammar.

1) I would officially sanction the use of "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun.

2) I would allow sentences to end with a preposition.

[Pooka Fey]

12. Number 2 trips me up all the time. n/t

[umass1993]

13. Ya, I know where you're coming from ;-)

[Pooka Fey]

16. Word.

[umass1993]

14. Maybe he didn't have coffee that morning...

does seem a bit trite, but then again, he is a man of words, and so it may be more important to him.

I don't like it when musicians destroy a perfectly good guitar on stage. It just doesn't seem right to me.

As for the goofballs at Google dressing like idiots, he is right on target. It is tiresome to watch people walk around in their gimmicky clothes. "See! I'm different, not that different, actually I'm the same, but in a slightly different way!" Adbusters documents this behavior plenty. Poor nerds, they cry out for attention with their gimmicky clothing.

I like it when people are different on the inside. It makes for much better conversation then, "Hey man, nice tat!"

[rustydad]

18. Turning people off??

Kunstler is a very good predictor of the future, the problem is that his message his accurate, "there is no fix that we will accept". As a society we are doomed. The collapse can come from a variety of inputs but the one that is absolute is Peak Oil. He sees that and composes his essays as one would compose music on the deck of the Titanic as it slid into the cold Atlantic. What else to do? bob

[phantom power]

19. He could make the same predictions without insulting people's clothing.

[liberal43110]

20. I know what you mean...

but I don't think it would make a difference. His misanthropy is probably what allows him to see our society for the nightmare that it is. As another posted mentioned, his vision is very bleak and would probably be too bleak to break through to the masses even if he were a more likable character.