US Frontier Mythology Is Alive and Dangerous

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 31, 2009 8:33 AM CDT

(Newser) – Sarah Palin took to the national stage in August 2008, and two weeks later Lehman Brothers collapsed. That's a helpful metaphor, writes Naomi Klein in the Guardian, who sees the former Alaska governor as "the last clear expression of capitalism-as-usual before everything went south." The financial crisis should have voided Palin's belief that Americans can exploit the world as they please—and yet the bailout, "the greatest heist in monetary history," is pushing us back into Palin's world.

Palin's appeal to conservatives was "the lie that perpetual, unending growth is possible on our finite planet," an illusion with roots in both the Bible and the American frontier spirit. Now the economic system that underlies the message of "Drill, baby, drill" is wobbling, but the government is propping it up—with disastrous consequences. "Capitalism can survive this crisis," Klein writes. "But the world can't survive another capitalist comeback."

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (2)]

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin jokes with a picnic goers as she serves burgers at the governor's picnic in Anchorage, Alaska Saturday, July 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gives the state of the state address to a joint session of the Senate and House in the Capitol in Juneau, Alaska on in this Thursday Jan. 22, 2009 photo. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)

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Palin was saying that there are no such things as consequences, or real-world deficits. Because there will always be another frontier, another bubble, another Alaska. Tomorrow will never come. - Naomi Klein

This is the most comforting and dangerous lie: that perpetual, unending growth is possible on our finite planet. And we have to remember that this message was incredibly popular in those first two weeks, before Lehman collapsed. -

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 8 comments

jagerhans

Aug 16, 2009 3:15 AM CDT

modern days' capitalists live ad make businesses like if they don't care at all about the future of their sons and of the whole world. as a communist they make me regret henry ford, and if you take a minute to remember what kind of a nazist asshole was henry , you can understand how much i despise modern enterpreneurs. a stupid master is a worser scourge than a malignant one because the latter at least takes a break from evilness each now and then, but the stupid never stop being such.

Silverbow7

Jul 31, 2009 4:38 AM CDT

So long and thanks for all the fish...

barthy

Jul 31, 2009 3:57 AM CDT

"I don't question our existence, I just question our modern needs" ev.

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ecology • capitalism • Lehman Brothers • bailout • Sarah Palin • Wall Street bailout • drilling

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