Taki
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That there’s cultural decay in a declining West is hardly worth arguing about. Nor can one deny that a powerless and increasingly cretinised citizenry has been brainwashed into a state of conformity comparable to domesticated animals, with their lives totally controlled by technology and non-elected bureaucrats. Even the super-rich are basically slaves. Bernie Ecclestone, a small man in many respects, may be a billionaire twice over, but he’s chained to his mobile or BlackBerry as he drives himself around these parts, oblivious to the fact he might get lost in a snowdrift at any moment.
Another neighbour has just bought his wife a $45-million G-5 to go along with her latest plastic surgery. A ghastly Saudi has carved his family tree outside his chalet — thank God, the tree is rather short and so ugly that even dogs won’t pee on it. And the poor little Greek boy has wasted three months of hard training by going on a week-long Karamazovian binge. The good news is that the rumours of the disgusting Roman Abramovich having bought in Gstaad are untrue, and thank God he remains with his disgusting entourage and family far away in St Barts. But back to cultural pessimism.
What everyone’s talking about in these here parts is — surprise, surprise — the euro. The latest frantic prop-up of the doomed currency has the morons seeing glimmers of hope and plunging into stocks, bonds and commodities, thus pushing prices higher. Then the bad news emerges and nervous investors dump their positions quicker than you can say sucker. Then the whole cycle begins all over again. Yet they continue to discuss it ad nauseam everywhere, driving sensitive souls like myself to the highest slopes in order to get away from these so-called geniuses of Wall Street.
The EU now claims to allow blocs to make changes in order to head off veto trouble. It is yet another ploy, another trick, another big lie, as cynical as the one that saw nations vote and vote again until the Lisbon treaty was approved. What they mean by less EU is that there will be more Germany and France regulating our lives. Can you imagine being told how to live by an egregious megalomaniac midget like Sarkozy and a German Frau?
More austerity measures will only fuel political and social tensions, and if you think this ain’t so, you’re whistling Dixie, as they say. Take it from Taki. This will be known as the Lost Decade, with southern Europe becoming more of a basket case, if that is possible. Global governance sounds like a big idea, but it is a sucker’s game played by conmen and would-be tinpot dictators with a small d. We are the cretins whose élite leaders think today’s issues are too complex for our tiny brains, and those who carry the burdens of governance cannot be expected to seek the consent of the governed. All one has to do is look at the diplomats around Geneva and Brussels with their limos and first-class air travel, not to mention extravagant salaries and expenses paid for by you know who. Not one of these bums has given up any of their material comforts, yet they demand austerity. When I read of a Greek mother begging for some insulin for her diabetic son because she was unable to pay for it — doctors have lucrative deals with drug manufacturers who insist on up-front payment — I came close to losing it.
The fat cats in Greece continue to get fatter, not a single crook has gone to jail, or even been charged, for that matter, yet the obese finance minister with the name of Venizelos — not his real name — a socialist, demands more sacrifices.
Greece will go down, as will Portugal and most likely Italy, then I hope Europe splinters and the euro goes the way of Haiti’s currency, whatever that is. Am I being too pessimistic, culturally, economically or otherwise? I don’t think so. Take Gstaad’s latest import, Madonna. Someone sat next to her at dinner and told me she was polite and pleasant. She even skies. Yet it’s people like her who made their reputation by using decadent images of sadomasochism in order to generate an antibourgeois self, extolling barbarisms, crudeness and anti-Christian attitudes. She deprecated and vilified most things bourgeois people hold sacred, made her millions and now can relax among us here in Gstaad enjoying our bourgeois comforts. And why not? Our society encourages people to invert deliberately what’s bad to good, so more power to people like Madonna, who has life by the tail and has done it all by her little old self.
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