2013-10-01

Social Mood and the Government Shutdown

One of the military unions in Greece demanded the resignation of the entire government and that government recently branded the upstart Golden Dawn party a criminal organization. There's a real risk of a coup in Greece, either by the bullet or the ballot, and it grows the longer and deeper Greece sinks under the weight of its debt burden. Greece today is a far cry from Wiemar Germany, a nation that was in civil war for years before the Nazis finally came to power. Things are bad in Greece, but they are still much better than 1920s Germany, and by comparison, things are way better in the United States. And yet, many people think this is the end.

The Beginning of the End for Washington

It is much more accurate to quote Spengler: It's not the end of the world, it's the end of you. Or may, it's a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It's a depression when you lose your job.

If Washington represents people and ideas, then yes, this is the beginning of the end of Washington. If Washington represents the central government's position of power in the world and domestic affairs, yes, this is the beginning of the end. Otherwise, things aren't that bad, it's social mood playing itself out among the sheltered Washington-New York media-politics axis.

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