Dark Side of Easy Street

There is, of course, a "dark side" to "easy" living. Every inconvenience, every minor altercation, every complication, and any deviation from the formulaic routine quickly spirals into a big problem. Intolerance is an issue brought to the forefront. The obsession with simplicity, the mundance, the ascetic minimalist life-style becomes overbearing. And, the pariah status completely subsumes the individual.

Typical "Dark Side" Hottie

Part of the problem ... well, a large part of the problem ... is financial. Every since the crooks have taken over the global financial "system," the rank-and-files peons have reduced to serfs and slaves, myself included. A simple life requires an enormous amount of assets. There is no way to cordon oneself off from the madness unless one has the resources to do so.

My situation has degenerated to the point that I must consider moving into a "crack house" in crime-riddled Chinatown. Like most "projects" for the poor, the "crack house" aims to provide "independent living" for the destitute. As Kevin Barbieux wrote in a recent post in The Homeless Guy "blog," those kinds of living arrangements are like prisons. And, the inmates are usually alcoholics, illicit drug users, or mentally ill.

On a side note, I read an interesting forecast for 2014 predicted by Jim Kunstler on his Clusterfuck Nation "blog." Kunstler is one of last holdouts of doomsayers. The rest have already defected to the "mainstream." I don't always agree with him, but the following excerpt sure "hit home":

It is sickening to see what we have become. Our popular entertainments are just what you would design to produce a programmed population of criminals and sex offenders. The spectacle of the way our people look — overfed, tattooed, pierced, clothed in the raiment of clowns — suggests an end-of-empire zeitgeist more disturbing than a Fellini movie. The fact is, it simply mirrors the way we act, our gross, barbaric collective demeanor. A walk down any airport concourse makes the Barnum & Bailey freak shows of yore look quaint. In short, the rot throughout our national life is so conspicuous that a fair assessment would be that we are a wicked people who deserve to be punished.

Couldn't have expressed the point any better.