{"id":21592,"date":"2016-09-10T13:45:27","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T18:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21592"},"modified":"2016-09-10T13:45:27","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T18:45:27","slug":"a-pleasant-lull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21592","title":{"rendered":"A Pleasant Lull"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"title-media-block\">\n<div class=\"post-title-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"title\"><a title=\"A Pleasant Lull\" href=\"http:\/\/kunstler.com\/clusterfuck-nation\/a-pleasant-lull\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">A Pleasant Lull<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry\">\n<div class=\"column column-01\">\n<p>A pleasant lull lies over the land where today fewer people labor honestly \u2014 and some labor gruelingly for too little \u2014 while a matrix of rackets sustains the illusion that our living arrangements have a future. Is Quarterback Colin Kaepernick on the minds of the millions moiling around their backyard barbeques? I applaud his refusal to stand for the national anthem, though not for the reasons he stated. Rather, because I\u2019m sick of vulgar symbolism in a dark moment of a fraying culture that demands more than cheap talk and lame gestures.<\/p>\n<p>In case you\u2019re wondering, the reason we\u2019re subject to all these repetitions of\u00a0<em>The Star Spangled Banner<\/em>\u00a0is not for love-of-country but something quite the opposite: the fear that its promises are empty. Ever wonder why every public official in the land has to wear a flag lapel pin? Should it be necessary for the president of the US to signal his devotion to duty? Wouldn\u2019t we normally just assume this to be the case? No, it signals the widespread and generalized anxiety that the national condition is dire and that we don\u2019t have the confidence or the clarity to face the challenges of the time. President Obama might as well wear a crucifix or a bulb of garlic in his lapel.<\/p>\n<p>In this presidential election year especially, Labor Day serves as a sort of collective deep breath before the plunge into a season of political anguish. The number of potential voters disgusted with the choice between two clueless monsters of egotism must be epic. If WalMart held a sale on bullshit filters, they might stand a chance of turning a Q3 profit. Otherwise, expect economic performance to be increasingly frightening even if\u00a0<em>The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>CNN<\/em>\u00a0continue to spin out tales of unicorns jumping rainbows.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Pleasant Lull A pleasant lull lies over the land where today fewer people labor honestly \u2014 and some labor gruelingly for too little \u2014 while a matrix of rackets sustains the illusion that our living arrangements have a future. Is Quarterback Colin Kaepernick on the minds of the millions moiling around their backyard barbeques? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[145,14236,449,1921,584],"class_list":["post-21592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-cnn","tag-colin-kaepernick","tag-james-howard-kunstler","tag-new-york-times","tag-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21593,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592\/revisions\/21593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}