I watched part of Rebel Without a Cause on TCM the other night, and it struck me as a ridiculous movie. What did these white middle class teens in 1950's L.A. really have to complain about? A free country during peacetime? A booming economy? All the food they could eat? Their own automobiles? Plenty to see and do? Access to the world's cultural resources?
Anne Frank, a teenager who had real grievances about her life if anyone ever did, would have gladly exchanged her problems for theirs.
Yet the CT'ers' contrived grievances about the Federal Reserve System, fiat money, depopulation plots, etc., make them sound just as petty and foolish. Sure, the economy needs some work, and we have wasteful conflicts and occupations in some Asian countries. But on the whole we have it pretty good in early 21st Century America, if people would just put things into perspective, take full advantage of their opportunities and not get caught up in infeasible fantasies like a Ron Paul presidency, the Venus Project, secessionist state movements, libertarian seasteading or taking the next starship to Pandora. Why waste your life worrying about conspiracies which don't exist, when you can build things with your life that can exist?




