It always disturbs me when despite the annual call to buy nothing, by and large people seem never to heard of the concept. Takes me back to Nader’s early days as an activist, when he tried to organize a one-day boycott of the Long Island Railroad–there goes Long Island again–in response to an appalling fare-hike, and nobody was willing to strike, preferring instead to piss and moan about the fare increase.

I’m hoping that Obama can somehow hold the country together just enough to get us over the hump that conceals from us the apocalyptic future that you describe.