On schadenfreude

After calling for this longer than most, James Howard Kunstler takes a victory lap. I suppose he’s entitled, what with him basically making systemic crises his life’s work. Still, like most Jeremiahs, he’s none too pleasant about it. While everybody likes seeing his theories realized, there’s something unseemly about the glee with which he lays it down.

I saw Kunstler speak once, at my alma mater, on the worthy subject of community restoration. Of course, he spent maybe 10% of his allotted time on livable communities and about 90% on the hell that is modern American life. Personally, I’m sympathetic to his message — especially after spending a year and a half in the PRC — but it’s hard to imagine a more unsympathetic messenger.

I guess I’m not convinced that Kunstler isn’t more interested in seeing the wicked receive their comeuppance than in witnessing the realization of his agragrian hopes for America. Of course, if all his predictions really do come to pass, we won’t be living in a Jeffersonian republic but in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. In which case, Kunstler would be some random character off to the side grumbling “Toldja this would happen…stupid bastards…Tina Turner can’t act” etc.