Summary: Many of the social ills disrupting America result from the fragmentation of society (creating more flotsam, people isolated from friends and family) and growing numbers alienated from society. Here’s a look at one scary example.
“Seattle Airplane Suicide Is A Barometer of Culture“
By Giovanni Dannato at Forward Base B, 16 August 2018.
In a society where most people have lost hope in a worthwhile future, the creep of nihilism gains ground in human hearts.
A mild-mannered airport worker with an affably broey affect commandeered a huge prop plane in a daring last act on earth rather than eke out another four to five decades as a wage slave in a drab and pointless neo-liberal society.
What is most telling about this event is not the actions of a single man, but the overwhelmingly positive public reaction I’ve seen so far on social media. Some are even calling him “Sky King” {like the long-running radio and TV show; sample episode here}.
People often identify with the motives of mass shooters more than they admit but selfishly taking the lives of others dampens any sympathy they may feel. Even in the darkest and angriest periods of my life I was disgusted by the thought of petulantly lashing out against people I didn’t even know. Sky King Rich Russell sets a new precedent by going out in a stoic and affable manner while harming no one.
This may be a natural reaction to incentives as mass shootings are now so common that like car crashes, they cease to be of much note. It now takes some more flair and creativity to get the mass society’s attention and hold it for a news cycle or two as one’s final legacy to the ages. A fleeting reward but still better for a few than to labor a whole lifetime away, appreciated by no one.
In this time of constricting internet censorship, this suicide is an important indicator of the culture. The more the system takes away from people, the less they have to lose. Isolated suicidal people and nutjobs are harmless on their own, but the crowds regard the Sky King as almost a Robin Hood kind of figure. He hurt no one else, showing millions a glimpse of real freedom, while putting a dent in some impersonal corporation’s bottom line.
When crowds begin to support this kind of behavior, the real trouble for elites is just beginning. It is a sign that under certain circumstances, certain targets are seen as legitimate by most people.
Very tellingly, Russell was a European-American, especially when most airport workers I see running around are minorities. Suicidal behavior, especially that requiring real initiative and planning is endemic to higher-agency Euros and Asians. The Africans and Indios of this world may groan from time to time under the lash of their overlords but they resign themselves to the grimmest slog of daily life and always manage to push out progeny just the same.
I honestly cannot completely blame the world elite for wanting to replace a troublesome population with more pliant and domesticable strains. If that task were completed, there would be no more airplane thefts and no more flamboyant aerobatic maneuvers born from heightened existential consciousness.
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Another perspective to our situation
A society with large numbers of alienated young men is like a forest loaded with tinder. One small spark and conditions change. This foreshadows a future for America.
“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s**t we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war. …And we’re very, very pissed off.”
— Said by Tyler Durden in Fight Club
About Giovanni Dannato
“GD is a longtime wanderer who always carries a book. He’s never burdened down by much but enjoys consumable creature comforts like cigars and a nice scotch. He keeps fit with both weights and cardio.”
— From Return of Kings; see his articles there.
He has twitten two “dissident fantasy novellas”: “Apostasy” and “The Warlord” (posted at Logos). See his What I Believe page and some of his favorite sayings. Read the interview with him by Robert Stark at Voice of Reason. A couple of other blogs he has written: 6 Heretic’s Way and Kingdom of Introversion.
He tweets at @GiovanniDannato.
For More Information
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about alienation, and especially these…
- Diagnosing the Eagle: Alienation.
- The bitter fruits of our alienation from America.
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is the secret life of many Americans.
- Vignettes of men and women in America, alienated from their true selves.
- America’s men and women, alienated from our true selves.
A powerful book about fragmented lonely America
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
By Robert D. Putnam.
Putnam is a professor of public policy at Harvard (see Wikipedia). From the publisher …
“Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work – but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified in this brilliant volume, which The Economist hailed as “a prodigious achievement.”
“Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans’ changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures – whether they be PTA, church, or political parties – have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
“Like defining works from the past, such as The Lonely Crowd and The Affluent Society, and like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan, Putnam’s Bowling Alone has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can do.”
