J.G. Ballard Interview

To truly appreciate the intellectual depth of this man, see this interview.

This was done in 2006. Well before anyone really had any hints of the impending financial crisis we are mired in. Yet look at these quotes:

'The danger is that consumerism will need something close to fascism in order to keep growing.'

Aren't we headed there? Yes.

And:

Because consumerism makes inherent demands, it has inherent needs, which can only be satisfied by pressing the accelerator down a little harder, moving a little faster, upping all the antes, and this could, you know… In order to keep spending and keep believing, we need to move into the area of the psychopathic. That's the fear.

Have you ever seen such thinking from an economist? From any pundit on CNBC? Yet after Ballard states it, there's an Aha! moment.