Two Abstract Positive Reasons--
- To distance oneself from the taint of American war crimes. What that means and how to explain it can best be explored if one can sleep peacefully in a peaceful country.
- To distance oneself from the bloat of American materialism and corrupt popular culture. See Alexander Solzhenitsyn's writing, or those of Pope John Paul II on western culture.
more below
Three Concrete Negative Reasons--
- To distance oneself from the huge risk of catastrophic terrorist attack, especially in Washington and New York and a few other cities like Houston, which will probably be nuclear. The Bush regime has been the boy who cried wolf for selfish advantage too many times, so people don't believe terror threats any more. But read the facts. I've written two diaries on this. What I fear is not so much the immediate attack. It is the economic collapse, the chaos and violence, and the fascist crackdown that will certainly follow. You don't necessarily need a nuclear or other huge attack for the next Bin Laden attack to generate huge effects. As I keep saying, people should listen to what Bin Laden SAYS. He means it.
- To distance oneself from socioeconomic collapse, which follows from Bush's policies, even if there are no more terror attacks. There have been many terrifying diaries on this. I worry that the bearish fringe has been always with us, and maybe things are more resilient than I fear. But I'm 50 years old, read very widely, and have run several businesses. I smell doom on the near horizon. I don't want to be wiped out. I don't want to lose everything I've worked for for decades. Today I was driving around in Montgomery County, Maryland, where every second vehicle is an SUV larger than a house in some countries, and my anger settled for awhile into a mode of compassion. These are my fellow citizens, and most of them are good people, and they are really going to be in for a shock.
- To escape the risk of political persecution, torture, disappearance and death at the hands of a lawless, fascist government. This risk may seem a little attenuated at the moment, but as regular readers here know, the great danger has already arrived. Statistically, this is the least of the problems. But it is potentially the worst.
So am I really going to move my family to Canada?
Today's prediction: Yes, 80 percent. We're flying up this weekend to check out some properties.
Do I plan to renounce U.S. citizenship? At the moment, hell no.
Does this analysis make me a "coward"? I'm still fuming at a Steve Gilliard blog item making that argument a few weeks back. My answer: hell no. More to come, perhaps, if I actually move.
I've been in shock since the election, and not posting very much. Not sure why I'm posting this tonight. Well, yeah--there are a lot of very smart and admirable people here, much more on the ball than me recently. I'm really eager for feedback and challenge, not just agreement. Thank you!