With the sudden return to warm (air conditioner warm) temperatures in the Southeast, we enter the Summer of ’07.
It’s a scary time. Just like the Summer of ’67 was a scary time for the suburban homeowners who went through it. Or the Summer of ’31 was for the farmers and workers who went through that. (Images from Kirwanesque.)
As we approach a generational crisis, the summer before the crisis election comes to take on a haunted quality. Its events tend to represent the whole of the excess which led up to it. In the initial crisis election, it is the events of this summer that are rejected. Later, as the new Thesis runs its course, it will be the whole decade, all its cheerleaders, and all their followers who will be rejected.
It’s silly to talk about what we can expect from this summer, because at the heart of these events will be the unexpected. But here is what we know is coming:
Crime. Despite having the highest incarceration rate in
the world, U.S. crime is rising again. The spike began two years ago,
after relative quiescence during the Clinton years and the early years
of this century.- Storms. We got lucky last year. The sub-tropical weather
pattern literally reversed, so Atlantic hurricanes were blown out to
sea and several storms hit Mexico, drenching Arizona. There is no
reason to believe we’ll be that lucky again. - Poverty. The foreclosure wave is beginning to rise.
Literally millions of sub-prime loans are re-adjusting to the market,
and those people will be tossed out this summer. That’s a wave of
homelessness equal to that of Katrina, only spread throughout the
country. - War. Iraq (and possibly Iran) will be the back beat to all
this, as Vietnam was a generation ago. If Bush is going to attack the
latter, he will do it in the next few months, and Iran seems eager
(their leaders are as unpopular as he is, propped up by the same war
rhetoric).
Like I said, these are the things we expect. I have barely mentioned
the real problems, the War Against Oil, the health care crisis, the
destruction of civil liberties, the trade and budget deficits. The unexpected. Expect the unexpected.
Put on your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy flight.
