Blaming the Mainstream Media for being dis-informed is like blaming McDonald's for being fat or Molson's for your drinking. It a common scapegoat, I understand, but the problem is elsewhere. The problem is in a population which, for various reasons, does not take the time to educate itself on our state of affairs.
Typically, the citizen forms an initial opinion -- most often it comes from the schools or news outlets or state propaganda or their own parent's learned stupidity -- and then seeks the narrative which gives it support: 'It is true because they said it is true, and they told me that they always tells me the truth.'
Let's consider WW II, for example. We all agree WWII was unavoidable. The diabolical Hitler, the Nazi movement and the rising Japanese militarism had to be stopped. Every sane person knows this, no?
So why has the western world's disregard for both the German people's dignity and the economic oppression we imposed on them following WW I been omitted from our common narrative? What role did that play? Could the west have done anything different to head-off WW II?
This part of history is effectively lost. It's as if it never happened. Suggesting we somehow contributed to the rise of Hitler or provoked the German citizenry is off our collective radar. 'Just look at what the Nazi's did!' -- and that's all we need to know.
To now explain what veritably happened cannot be easily done. Nor can it be accomplished in a news clip or a sound bite. It is this systemic reality that the corporate media uses with precision to shape the news, to give us the palatable narrative so desired over and over, until it becomes the only truth we know.
NB. Meanwhile the Bankers and high-capitalists were making too much money extorting Germany to act prudently and in the interests of the people -- much like they are today with the global ecological destruction being conducted under their watch.
The corporate media feeds on its designed need for concision, for the sound-bite or the discussion which neatly fits between commercials. In turn, this need for concision becomes our own. We tell ourselves we only need the 'facts' but neglect to add, 'only the facts which fit our narrative which makes sense of matters'. Ultimately this keeps the other side of the story, which would help overcome our national/cultural biases, from being heard. And without a well-informed public, democracy cannot exist.
Referencing the example one more, today there is no honest, public account as to whether WW II was truly unavoidable. And we don't much care. We know the truth and we all agree. And with this known truth we move forward without ever looking back.
But I do not blame the MSM for making a buck at our expense. We accept the economic paradigm which gives a right to capitalistic predatory practices. Buyer beware. 'It's only business, nothing personal', right? (Capitalism is the best form of economics, do we not all agree?)
It is this scenario, where we all allow biased-information to be accepted as truths, which is the tragedy of our broken democracy. According to the storyline, what our government did (in collusion with its Allies) to Germany after WWI is moot. We did nothing wrong. And the story marches on. We no more care today about our acts abroad than we did nearly a century ago. It's just now we no longer care about anything affecting our neighbours or even our own survival unless we see a buck in it.
Behind all of these published wars, a much larger and covert one carries on. It is the century-old struggle for control of our minds and our thoughts. And if our behaviour is the benchmark for success or failure, at this point the outcome doesn't look promising.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Questioning the Basis of AGW Denial
Do we not all know that the banking crowd will glom onto any vehicle, hijack any cause, to turn a buck? History is rife with evidence that the Empire, too, will piggyback a noble calling (like saving the African children to ouster a madman) as an excuse to invade en route to stealing the resources of other nations. Likewise, the money parasites will create Carbon Taxes and Credits and derivatives and the like to save us from Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). But as a fallout, others will point to this capitalist exploitation as a sure sign of the fraudulent existence of AGW in the first place. In reality, AGW is no more a scam than the very real exploitation of the African children.
Rather than read the history of global warming for themselves found HERE [put aside a month to do so], they prefer to see AGW as a underhanded plot. But this in itself makes little to no sense.
The premise is that the data supporting AGW is scientifically fraudulent. What this means is that ALL the data collected regarding Greenhouse Gases since the 1950s -- from Roger Revelle on, has been part and parcel of this banking and government conspiracy. And the bankers-governments involved continued funding this ongoing fraud until the mid 1990s when, at that point, they decided to cash out.
Isn't it far more likely that it wasn't until the mid-1990s, shortly after the BigOil denial campaign took off, that the issue of AGW was fiscally bankable with the public and so the bankers responded accordingly? And that the consistent and diversely collected data evidencing AGW via greenhouse gases since the 1950s is real, despite the hiccups of some recently overplayed emails?
Rather than read the history of global warming for themselves found HERE [put aside a month to do so], they prefer to see AGW as a underhanded plot. But this in itself makes little to no sense.
The premise is that the data supporting AGW is scientifically fraudulent. What this means is that ALL the data collected regarding Greenhouse Gases since the 1950s -- from Roger Revelle on, has been part and parcel of this banking and government conspiracy. And the bankers-governments involved continued funding this ongoing fraud until the mid 1990s when, at that point, they decided to cash out.
Isn't it far more likely that it wasn't until the mid-1990s, shortly after the BigOil denial campaign took off, that the issue of AGW was fiscally bankable with the public and so the bankers responded accordingly? And that the consistent and diversely collected data evidencing AGW via greenhouse gases since the 1950s is real, despite the hiccups of some recently overplayed emails?
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Stephen Harper, neither psycho nor insane
Still one must wonder what is sane about Mr Harper's world? There is little logically sound about his general reasoning. True enough, if one adopts any variety of Harper's well understood as erroneous premises, one may reach the same ridiculous conclusions.
Recall the revealing snipe Stephen Harper made early in his political career while delivering a controversial speech to a rightwing American think tank, the Counsel for National Policy:
So how widely dis-educated is Stephen Harper when it takes so little to get up to speed with the fundamental error of that view? From an on-line encyclopedia:
This is just one of many available examples of dumb positions held by Harper. Positions which, when examined, help anchor him to his ideological faiths on various fronts -- theological, scientific, economic, political, etc.
Stephen Harper is neither a thinker nor an educated man. He is well-schooled in the myths, old and new, which perpetuate the false hierarchies of select men over all others.
In short, Harper's mind has been "instructed with learned ignorance, and furnished with unlearned wisdom" (as coined by Bertrand Russell). And for our own democratic safety, we must steer clear of that lot.
Recall the revealing snipe Stephen Harper made early in his political career while delivering a controversial speech to a rightwing American think tank, the Counsel for National Policy:
In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.
So how widely dis-educated is Stephen Harper when it takes so little to get up to speed with the fundamental error of that view? From an on-line encyclopedia:
...Ideas such as the culture of poverty first promulgated by Oscar Lewis blamed poor people for perpetuating their condition through inappropriate values and “weak ego structures.” ... Blaming the victims (stigmatized and disadvantaged groups such as the poor) was shown to not only hide the effects of power and privilege but also to stifle recognition of a need to address social problems through sociopolitical change. ... Yet these explanations, which blamed specific populations for social pathology, merely replaced racial determinism with cultural determinism. (emphasis added)Social Pathology LINK
This is just one of many available examples of dumb positions held by Harper. Positions which, when examined, help anchor him to his ideological faiths on various fronts -- theological, scientific, economic, political, etc.
Stephen Harper is neither a thinker nor an educated man. He is well-schooled in the myths, old and new, which perpetuate the false hierarchies of select men over all others.
In short, Harper's mind has been "instructed with learned ignorance, and furnished with unlearned wisdom" (as coined by Bertrand Russell). And for our own democratic safety, we must steer clear of that lot.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The Truth is Front and Centre
It was necessary for the federal government to intervene in Air Canada's labour disputes because a shutdown at the country's largest airline at a peak travel time could take a toll on the economy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.
I see. The union can bargain against one of the most powerful businesses in the nation provided it doesn't substantively upset the business itself.
So this is it. The dual is on. Here's your pistol, Mr Labour, but, oh wait, I first need to remove your bullets.
OK, carry on.
Fair is fair, right?
Harper is a clown. Unfortunately he is a dangerous one as well. But what's even worse is the fact that most people will cling to the delusion that the system is going to be, or can be, fixed from within. They think they can still vote themselves a cure. Now that's mass delusion -- even worse than the individual disease that Harper suffers from.
If a fix was coming our way, if the interests of the population at large were the primary concern of government, then why is our society so far removed from such a result? We've had 145 years of this democracy, and still most people are left unfulfilled.
Meaningful human relationships are damn near non-existent, the environment is on the verge of sustainable collapse for all of humanity, our national policy now supports blowing up another country if it dare try to defend itself -- and still we carry on, participating with these criminals on their terms as to what constitutes political engagement. Does anyone sincerely believe this is the very best we can do?
Obviously the best minds are not making it into government or business, despite the rhetoric. The most dogmatic, brainwashed, socio-pathological and selfish, perhaps. But intelligence if nothing if it isn't tempered with intelligent behaviour, something we've been in short supply of for quite some time.
Why the crimes of state everywhere we look? Foreign. National. Regional. Is this all we can create in a land of golden opportunity after 145 years of our non-primitive ways? And we think this is OK? We are willing to accept this as good enough? Are we unable to stop the lunacy? Must we repeatedly elect and follow complete rejects representing the worse of people into office? Folks, these people are not leaders. They are opportunists.
The absolute truth is simple: our governance is so broken systemically that it cannot even try to make this world better for the people first and foremost, despite its paper obligation to serve the people.
Have we so little self-respect and confidence that we feel the necessity for all this?
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Animal Farm Utopia
I wonder when they'll want to privatize parliament, where corporations, including our "wealth creating foreign investors" could bid for the seats? ~ Ed Deak
That would be counter productive, Ed. As it is, governance has long been privatized. And its current illusion remains the perfect cover, convincing the deluded masses into thinking (or is it believing?) we live in a democracy. But how can things possibly be any other way? Where would 33 million well-informed and truly educated folks fit into the Canadian economic model?
I am not saying people are incapable of being happy under circumstances that are unnatural, for we are an adaptive lot. But the natural order of free-thinking, autonomous, self-directed individuals everywhere has long been compromised.
We collectively exchanged such positions in life for the security of a job (corporate-government-institutional-professional). We unwittingly traded our individual responsibility to safeguard our own natural freedom and liberty for the protection offered by others who claimed they will do our job for us.
At this juncture, short of a complete collapse which would bring with it a forced enlightenment, there is no going back. We are incapable of living 'free'. We have effectively become domesticated, one and all. Animal Farm Utopia.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Defining Left-Right Politics
As for understanding the Left-Right political debate, there are numerous models available. I don't think any of the ones I've been exposed have been comprehensive, so I created my own -- deficiencies and all.
My model is circular, lying horizontally like the equator. At the front-centre is the theoretical balance between state and private control. Here the state has full sovereignty and always enforces the 'social contract' for the benefit of all people, while the citizenry, the private sector, has the freedom to pursue its own ambitions and bloom with autonomy. As you move further to the left or to the right, there is a corresponding increase in state or private control, respectively. The extreme in either direction, at the back-centre, is where all power converges into the hands of either the state or private interests. Here, unabashedly, stands fascism.
My model is circular, lying horizontally like the equator. At the front-centre is the theoretical balance between state and private control. Here the state has full sovereignty and always enforces the 'social contract' for the benefit of all people, while the citizenry, the private sector, has the freedom to pursue its own ambitions and bloom with autonomy. As you move further to the left or to the right, there is a corresponding increase in state or private control, respectively. The extreme in either direction, at the back-centre, is where all power converges into the hands of either the state or private interests. Here, unabashedly, stands fascism.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Voting for What?
We lost control of our democracy the day borders started to be meaningless. When we allowed corporations to move capital across borders without any regard for the people, this started ~Skywalker on thetyee.ca
It's far more perverse than that, and it started long before 'corporations moving capital' became fashionable.
Clearly non-democratic or totalitarian acts can be highly localized and performed by individuals. Slavery is one such form, where one's work is usurped by another. Here one man is convinced it is in his best interest to accept the arrangement. That is the politics of one man over another.
And that formula is politics at large -- the marketing of ideas to convince the masses to accept a certain form of slavery in exchange for real and fraudulent benefits.
If one does not understand this simple truth, then he is bound to make all sorts of broad and absurd assertions like the necessity of voting simply because it is offered. At certain times, I can only wonder if he has any idea what he is voting for?
Monday, January 2, 2012
Ignorance, learned stupidity and a Happy New Year
From The Tyee, hollinm: "When he (PM Harper) starts giving himself more powers, banning opposition parties and outlawing the media then we can talk"
OK, let's talk.
Did you hear about Canada and the USA agreeing to the Beyond the Border Pact this past holiday season? Probably not considering it was signed without any democratic oversight or involvement.
This Pact formally makes Canada de facto a security state. Meanwhile our media remains effectively mute on this point. At best the Pact's been sold to the population as a way to streamline the transportation industry and to prevent that bastard child called Employment Insurance fraud from spawning. Still, it is hard to imagine that is worth a thousand-million dollars to anyone but the powers that be.
A couple other things one likely won't hear about the Pact is that it allows the authorities to chase bad guys into the reciprocating nation. On first blush, this might not alarm too many folks. But the more egregious offense comes to light when considering the recent American signing of section 1867 of the NDAA, which codifies the dismissal of habeas corpus amongst other legal safeguards. Today, the USA can apprehend and detain without trial anyone it deems a terrorist on a simple allegation. And now that includes you.
The Pact also agrees to a comprehensive exchange of information between the nations of everyone crossing the line. And in the USA, its border patrol systemically turns over all collected information to such bodies as the CIA, FBI, DEA, FEMA, Immigration and other investigative branches. So now each file will be considered in accordance with these various bureaus' visions about their specific security needs.
Further, the Pact allows the Prime Minister to hold a sort of Imperial-esque homecoming, one where he can call upon the US military to help suppress any domestic unrest, arguably even any peaceful dissent, against the Canadian state. This single fact alone should make us all take pause. Just consider why any Canadian government would feel it had the authority, let alone the democratic right, to enter such an agreement designed to oppress its own democratic forces?
Does Canadian democracy only exist if one complies with state? More often of late, this democracy falls dangerously short when one asks to invoke one's fundamental freedoms or democratic rights. It seems that when one's civil rights are most needed, the rights don't count. Who can forget the Toronto G-20 fiasco with its agent provocateurs, its enforcement of wholly fictional laws, its billion dollar budget largely used to train and spend on militarizing the police, and its 1100+ arrests securing a whopping 24 convictions?
Let's also reflect on Canada's unlawful warring adventures under the cover of NATO so we can march lock-step with the leader of the US killing machine.
Mix in some of the torture allegations, now virtually facts, levelled against the government lead by the Conservative Party of Canada and Stephen Harper since 2006.
Add a dash of the easily forgotten double prorogation of Parliament by Harper, actions clearly in contravention of the spirit of the law, (used solely to avoid the constituents' democracy in its representative form) and to retain its death grip on power.
Need I mention the CPC's de-funding of other political parties and of the largely propagandizing CBC, the national broadcaster (ironically a rag that is little more than a stenographer for the status quo in the first place)?
I wonder, are you getting the picture?
The acts of the Canadian state against the people are long and ongoing. Certainly this Harper-led Canadian government is worse than the last. But if we do not respond intelligently, if we refuse to see what the larger geopolitical picture is and how it has an immediate impact on our domestic politics with weak leadership, the next Prime Minister will be even worse.
The evidence of the Canadian government centralizing power in the last number of decades is vast. And without paying too much attention to the collective importance of these individual pieces of legislation and the like, we tend to miss what is really happening right before our very eyes. So now, more than ever, the affairs of government and power are demanding we each seek a more comprehensive explanation than the very restricted one disseminated by the usual sources, We need to re-discover our political history. We need to trace back through time to see how we have got caught up in such an entanglement, one where absolutely everything is commodified. Everything considered valuable to the people whom appraise such matters, that is. To make meaning of it all, this Gordian Knot of propaganda and state showmanship must be unravelled.
For these reasons, when Murray Dobbin says in The Tyee:
No prime minister in Canadian history has come to power with such a ruthless determination to implement an agenda so at odds with the interests of the country and the values of its citizens,
I must take some exception. Most Canadians believe their propaganda. Most Canadians remain enticed by the national rhetoric massaged daily by the tentacles of the corporate media. Who can accurately say what Canadian values or interests are any more? I believe, in short, 'the truth is in the pudding'. And the sniff test tells me our pudding has turned.
For example, I suspect that if Canadians were asked, "Should the prison population be used as a free or very cheap work-force to help pay for inmate incarceration?", the majority would resoundingly say 'Yes'.
Case closed.
Or maybe not. For if the question were posed, "Should we grant the prison population jobs from the labour pool, leaving an equivalent number of innocent people unemployed?", I suspect this time the majority would resoundingly say "No".
And that, folks, is but a simple example of how politics and propaganda work hand-in-hand to shape the discussion we are directed to see.
Canadians, predominantly through the mis-guided leadership of government, have such a poor understanding about political matters that the majority will agree to support just about anything. Anything except, perhaps,the excesses of state which actually impose upon them personally. A fraudulent banking system oppressing everyone but the elite simply goes unrecognized. In fact it's been off the collective radar now for more than three generations.
And there is the rub. Being 'effected personally' is only comprehended relative to other persons very nearby; not to the unknown and certainly not to the unseen, statistically the other 7 billion inhabitants of the planet. And until we see the matrix of humanity and start behaving with that in mind, we will continue marching in the wrong direction.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Noodlemaid
noun /ˈno͞odl-mād/
Definition of NOODLEMAID
1 : an unethically ambitious person
2 : a servant to power
Examples of NOODLEMAID
* He's just another noodlemaid trying to make a sale.
* That MP noodlemaid will support any bill tabled to secure a cabinet post.
* If you feel compelled to join the Party, you must be a noodlemaid.
Origin of NOODLEMAID
Contemporary English
First Known Use: 21st Century
Definition of NOODLEMAID
1 : an unethically ambitious person
2 : a servant to power
Examples of NOODLEMAID
* He's just another noodlemaid trying to make a sale.
* That MP noodlemaid will support any bill tabled to secure a cabinet post.
* If you feel compelled to join the Party, you must be a noodlemaid.
Origin of NOODLEMAID
Contemporary English
First Known Use: 21st Century
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Political Dogma, the Canadian Cult
In our schools and through the media, we are taught about our nation on the premise that our political body is legitimate. Its administration may be corrupted, but the underpinnings remain. We still fundamentally believe we live in a certain type of democracy where the government works with Canadians in mind, and those elected are our chosen people for this public service. But does the reality align with the theory?
To me, when I examine theory and fact, when I try to make sense of what I hear with what I see, they seem at odds with one another. I wonder, what's wrong?
So simple logic suggests may be useful to re-examine the basic premises of our thinking, namely political legitimacy. If politics is not legitimate, what is it? It appears upon a comprehensive analysis, or even a cursory one made with clarity, that politics in no more than a propaganda campaign perpetuated by our cultural dogma.
This political campaign invariably remains true to its goal, persuading the people to accept abuses of state power. And the people in state offices are the most faithful, the most ardent believers (I call them victims), of the campaign wars prior. And like many deeply religious faithful, the deeply political faithful feel a calling to the priesthood. They take on the message and, rarely straying from its piety, proselytize it to the people and the following generations.
In their quest to become admirable servants of the faith, the priests and priestesses lecture us from their campaign trail. They tell us that their political piety is true, that their sect is best, and that they deserve to be seen as the Right Honourable, Yes, they claim, they are acting in the interests of all, and hopefully with our blessing.
What makes these political priests and priestesses so convincing is that they do, in fact, truly believe. They believe in their hearts the dogma, that politics is in service for the people and the nation, and that everything is on the up-and-up -- despite the dissonance, despite the facts pointing elsewhere.
Their followers, the political congregation, taught similarly, believe the message (more or less). And together they perpetuate the fables of yesteryear.
Now doesn't this framework of understanding make sense of the facts and the world around us significantly better than the one we are led to believe?
To me, when I examine theory and fact, when I try to make sense of what I hear with what I see, they seem at odds with one another. I wonder, what's wrong?
So simple logic suggests may be useful to re-examine the basic premises of our thinking, namely political legitimacy. If politics is not legitimate, what is it? It appears upon a comprehensive analysis, or even a cursory one made with clarity, that politics in no more than a propaganda campaign perpetuated by our cultural dogma.
This political campaign invariably remains true to its goal, persuading the people to accept abuses of state power. And the people in state offices are the most faithful, the most ardent believers (I call them victims), of the campaign wars prior. And like many deeply religious faithful, the deeply political faithful feel a calling to the priesthood. They take on the message and, rarely straying from its piety, proselytize it to the people and the following generations.
In their quest to become admirable servants of the faith, the priests and priestesses lecture us from their campaign trail. They tell us that their political piety is true, that their sect is best, and that they deserve to be seen as the Right Honourable, Yes, they claim, they are acting in the interests of all, and hopefully with our blessing.
What makes these political priests and priestesses so convincing is that they do, in fact, truly believe. They believe in their hearts the dogma, that politics is in service for the people and the nation, and that everything is on the up-and-up -- despite the dissonance, despite the facts pointing elsewhere.
Their followers, the political congregation, taught similarly, believe the message (more or less). And together they perpetuate the fables of yesteryear.
Now doesn't this framework of understanding make sense of the facts and the world around us significantly better than the one we are led to believe?
Monday, October 17, 2011
OWS etc.
NOW it is coming on like a revelation that governments are in bed with corporations and all is not well?
The entire state is founded on corruption and crime. Warfare and theft of lands from, dare I say, sovereign nations is a fundamental economic policy of our capitalist state. Every single day the economic sanctions of capitalism are killing off people around the globe and little is recognized here in Canada. And then there is the torture and the genocide and the use of nuclear and chemical weapons, a few of the more obvious vulgarities of our nation we barely concern ourselves about.
Our government is not legitimate, not in any conscionable sense. It's legitimacy is derived through force, at the end of a barrel of a gun. You do as the government tells you, or it crudely steals your property or throws your body in jail. It matters not whether you are right in the most just sense of the word.
So what do we do to make it all run, this machination of criminality parading itself as legitimate government? We pompously herd ourselves down to the polls and endorse the regime. And we turn over a portion of our earnings each year which continue funding its economic and barbaric crimes. For this is what we, the 'good citizen' does, do we not?
It matters not in our society to be accountable to something more than an imposed Constitution contorted hither and yon to serve the purpose of the state, or to something more than books of fable which have long lost their essence in our times.
We don't seek to think clearly, concisely or honestly with ourselves. We don't desire to dig too deeply inside lest we find out what we are all about. Our participation with the government through our vote and our labour makes us complicit in the crimes of state, it does not absolve us from those very crimes,
If we believe that we are more than farm animals, that we were not born simply to satisfy the greedy needs of the government farmer know as state. then we need to individually start acting like more than animals. We need to lead through our humanity. Only then can we live freely and be a good neighbor.
~ Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
The entire state is founded on corruption and crime. Warfare and theft of lands from, dare I say, sovereign nations is a fundamental economic policy of our capitalist state. Every single day the economic sanctions of capitalism are killing off people around the globe and little is recognized here in Canada. And then there is the torture and the genocide and the use of nuclear and chemical weapons, a few of the more obvious vulgarities of our nation we barely concern ourselves about.
Our government is not legitimate, not in any conscionable sense. It's legitimacy is derived through force, at the end of a barrel of a gun. You do as the government tells you, or it crudely steals your property or throws your body in jail. It matters not whether you are right in the most just sense of the word.
So what do we do to make it all run, this machination of criminality parading itself as legitimate government? We pompously herd ourselves down to the polls and endorse the regime. And we turn over a portion of our earnings each year which continue funding its economic and barbaric crimes. For this is what we, the 'good citizen' does, do we not?
It matters not in our society to be accountable to something more than an imposed Constitution contorted hither and yon to serve the purpose of the state, or to something more than books of fable which have long lost their essence in our times.
We don't seek to think clearly, concisely or honestly with ourselves. We don't desire to dig too deeply inside lest we find out what we are all about. Our participation with the government through our vote and our labour makes us complicit in the crimes of state, it does not absolve us from those very crimes,
If we believe that we are more than farm animals, that we were not born simply to satisfy the greedy needs of the government farmer know as state. then we need to individually start acting like more than animals. We need to lead through our humanity. Only then can we live freely and be a good neighbor.
It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated.
~ Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Does Ideology Matter?
Once show, only a blind microcephalic could not see the failing ideology where 'business interests are paramount' for exactly what it is: Fascism.
The state message, the propaganda of conservatism many have consumed and now believe -- the breeding ground where half-baked thinking intentionally mutates our lexicon so a corporation is de facto a person, where the national interest is interchangeable with the business interest, and where freedom can only be achieved when we have unfettered freedom for business -- here, where these muddied waters of the mind become the messiah, lays the neo-conservative ideology.
Ideology serves a purpose. It helps to learn exactly what that purpose is and what it means, where it has come from, how it has has grown and where it is going. It's seriously disturbing to think how anyone can champion such an neo-conservative ideology once understood.
Ideology is everything. Start here and choose: people or business? Despite the rhetoric heard and taught, they do not march in unison. How hard is it to understand business interests would be overwhelmingly elated if their workforce toiled for free?
I am not going to convince anyone of this truism and do not even try, I simply point it out. We all have to have the courage to confront the genesis of this assault against our thinking for ourselves.
The answer we should seek yet cannot see is simple:
ALL PEOPLE MATTER
not just the self-described 'successful' ones who, equally self-described, 'earned' their 'just' rewards.
Good luck. We are all in this together.
The state message, the propaganda of conservatism many have consumed and now believe -- the breeding ground where half-baked thinking intentionally mutates our lexicon so a corporation is de facto a person, where the national interest is interchangeable with the business interest, and where freedom can only be achieved when we have unfettered freedom for business -- here, where these muddied waters of the mind become the messiah, lays the neo-conservative ideology.
Ideology serves a purpose. It helps to learn exactly what that purpose is and what it means, where it has come from, how it has has grown and where it is going. It's seriously disturbing to think how anyone can champion such an neo-conservative ideology once understood.
Ideology is everything. Start here and choose: people or business? Despite the rhetoric heard and taught, they do not march in unison. How hard is it to understand business interests would be overwhelmingly elated if their workforce toiled for free?
I am not going to convince anyone of this truism and do not even try, I simply point it out. We all have to have the courage to confront the genesis of this assault against our thinking for ourselves.
The answer we should seek yet cannot see is simple:
ALL PEOPLE MATTER
not just the self-described 'successful' ones who, equally self-described, 'earned' their 'just' rewards.
Good luck. We are all in this together.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The Gravediggers
The work of conservatism is our Canadian national agenda. I suspect every reader of this blog is a 99%er. Take note. We are all being robbed ruthlessly, systematically, and without human concern by the corporate powers entrenched within state. We need to unite.
Here we are fighting ourselves, bickering about whether a BC teacher should make what an Ontarian teacher makes; whether the Greek people are lazy socialists; whether the NDP is better or worse than the CPC; etc.
The facts are simple. We just need to look. The government is in no way, shape or form representative of the people at large. It operates on a for private-profit ideology that is inhumane and cruel to people everywhere, preferring to target people of colour in other locales so we do not see its crimes so clearly. But do not kid yourself that it will not fire the guns it already has aimed at you. If you do, you are woefully naive.
Canada is one of the world's top-ten military suppliers, yet we audaciously call ourselves peace keepers. Why not warmongers? And make no mistake, we are a warmongering nation. Every single dollar spend on the military-industrial complex is a dollar diverted from the human needs that benefit us all - school, food, housing, the arts, health care, the aged, athletics, etc.
Every war waged results in civilians accounting for 90% of the deaths. War distills down to war against children, its most vulnerable victims. And yet we Canadians turn a blind eye by patriotically 'supporting our troops', by voting for the madmen who send them off to slaughter and murder the children of far off lands. Can it get more shameful than that?
We need a revolution of thought, not more refinement, more tinkering, more re-wiring of the destructive time-bomb about to detonate. Our government talks about threats to our nation, our need for security, and how it will protect us. But when it says 'us', it means the interests of corporatists. Anything the corporate bosses demand, they get. If it does not come immediately, then as soon as the government has the nerve to provide it against the desires of the people, gambling it can still wring a bit more from the people without revolt. That is the only check on government conduct -- take all it can without sparking insurrection.
The people can all rot in hell as far as the government is concerned. Even the very soldiers it hires to fight its wars, to participate in the global crime-wave, are thrown in the trash. But this has always been the case. Sadly moms and dads are still proudly enlisting their children to be killers. How perverted is our thought that allows this to happen?
The very most government offers is to placate us with token words of concern backed with the return of some nominal amount of monies it 'legally' robbed prior (with threats of state looming everywhere if you do not abide). For what good has government ever provided for the people on its own initiative?
Government play for keeps, and violence, if needed, is always on the table. Canada (irrespective of political stripe) has been involved in one war crime after another lately, directly or otherwise. And STILL we march to the polls, giving our support with a beguiling, useless vote. A vote offered only to keep us believing the charade of its democracy.
We, and I speak most specifically about the middle and upper class, but not 1%ers, need to get our act together and see how we are the roadblock preventing the survivalist and systematic reforms this nation, this world, demands.
We -- the lawyers, the police, the army, the teachers, the doctors, the engineers, the ferry workers, the bureaucrats, the middle management, etc -- facilitate its crimes against ourselves everywhere. We are its guardsmen.
We accept its valueless bribes of flat screen TVs; of over-sized, decorative homes; of shiny new gas-burning vehicles of all sizes and makes; of the properly tagged and iconized clothing, and countless other worthless pieces of consumerist greed, masking as success, as payment in full for our consent to its horrors. It's disgusting, and we need to fundamentally change our way of thinking before we destroy ourselves.
The corporate sociopathic pursuit of profit is destroying the planet, and destroying humanity. Why are millions of people dieing from hunger, undetonated land mines left as trash after the invasions, warfare, exposure, or from poisons in our environment? Why are we facing a shortage of what we all really need and want only to allow the destruction to be financed?
There is an uprising coming. The middle class is feeling the noose tighten as the dream of home ownership dies, and the guarantee of a successful job on the back of a university education evaporate. And a few (far too few at this time) of the upper class are seeing the problems of uncontrolled and uncontrollable state as well. Soon, whenever it finally sinks in, we will all gladly join the homeless, the working poor, the under-educated, the Indians, the destitute, the people who have always borne the brunt of capitalist folly.
We must all start now and join the ever-bubbling insurrection against this sham called government and take charge of our own humanity, of our destiny as peoples sharing a planet. The government you elect (regardless of Party) is the hangman. It directs the spectacle of crime as the shadow of socio-pathological corporations, not as representatives of human beings or guided by the citizen's desires.
We are severely delusional culture, but our humanity remains inside. We must let our humanity reign over our world, not the dogma of madmen in bed with lunatics. We are the gravediggers created by the horror show called capitalist democracy. It's high time we got busy.
Here we are fighting ourselves, bickering about whether a BC teacher should make what an Ontarian teacher makes; whether the Greek people are lazy socialists; whether the NDP is better or worse than the CPC; etc.
The facts are simple. We just need to look. The government is in no way, shape or form representative of the people at large. It operates on a for private-profit ideology that is inhumane and cruel to people everywhere, preferring to target people of colour in other locales so we do not see its crimes so clearly. But do not kid yourself that it will not fire the guns it already has aimed at you. If you do, you are woefully naive.
Canada is one of the world's top-ten military suppliers, yet we audaciously call ourselves peace keepers. Why not warmongers? And make no mistake, we are a warmongering nation. Every single dollar spend on the military-industrial complex is a dollar diverted from the human needs that benefit us all - school, food, housing, the arts, health care, the aged, athletics, etc.
Every war waged results in civilians accounting for 90% of the deaths. War distills down to war against children, its most vulnerable victims. And yet we Canadians turn a blind eye by patriotically 'supporting our troops', by voting for the madmen who send them off to slaughter and murder the children of far off lands. Can it get more shameful than that?
We need a revolution of thought, not more refinement, more tinkering, more re-wiring of the destructive time-bomb about to detonate. Our government talks about threats to our nation, our need for security, and how it will protect us. But when it says 'us', it means the interests of corporatists. Anything the corporate bosses demand, they get. If it does not come immediately, then as soon as the government has the nerve to provide it against the desires of the people, gambling it can still wring a bit more from the people without revolt. That is the only check on government conduct -- take all it can without sparking insurrection.
The people can all rot in hell as far as the government is concerned. Even the very soldiers it hires to fight its wars, to participate in the global crime-wave, are thrown in the trash. But this has always been the case. Sadly moms and dads are still proudly enlisting their children to be killers. How perverted is our thought that allows this to happen?
The very most government offers is to placate us with token words of concern backed with the return of some nominal amount of monies it 'legally' robbed prior (with threats of state looming everywhere if you do not abide). For what good has government ever provided for the people on its own initiative?
Government play for keeps, and violence, if needed, is always on the table. Canada (irrespective of political stripe) has been involved in one war crime after another lately, directly or otherwise. And STILL we march to the polls, giving our support with a beguiling, useless vote. A vote offered only to keep us believing the charade of its democracy.
We, and I speak most specifically about the middle and upper class, but not 1%ers, need to get our act together and see how we are the roadblock preventing the survivalist and systematic reforms this nation, this world, demands.
We -- the lawyers, the police, the army, the teachers, the doctors, the engineers, the ferry workers, the bureaucrats, the middle management, etc -- facilitate its crimes against ourselves everywhere. We are its guardsmen.
We accept its valueless bribes of flat screen TVs; of over-sized, decorative homes; of shiny new gas-burning vehicles of all sizes and makes; of the properly tagged and iconized clothing, and countless other worthless pieces of consumerist greed, masking as success, as payment in full for our consent to its horrors. It's disgusting, and we need to fundamentally change our way of thinking before we destroy ourselves.
The corporate sociopathic pursuit of profit is destroying the planet, and destroying humanity. Why are millions of people dieing from hunger, undetonated land mines left as trash after the invasions, warfare, exposure, or from poisons in our environment? Why are we facing a shortage of what we all really need and want only to allow the destruction to be financed?
There is an uprising coming. The middle class is feeling the noose tighten as the dream of home ownership dies, and the guarantee of a successful job on the back of a university education evaporate. And a few (far too few at this time) of the upper class are seeing the problems of uncontrolled and uncontrollable state as well. Soon, whenever it finally sinks in, we will all gladly join the homeless, the working poor, the under-educated, the Indians, the destitute, the people who have always borne the brunt of capitalist folly.
We must all start now and join the ever-bubbling insurrection against this sham called government and take charge of our own humanity, of our destiny as peoples sharing a planet. The government you elect (regardless of Party) is the hangman. It directs the spectacle of crime as the shadow of socio-pathological corporations, not as representatives of human beings or guided by the citizen's desires.
We are severely delusional culture, but our humanity remains inside. We must let our humanity reign over our world, not the dogma of madmen in bed with lunatics. We are the gravediggers created by the horror show called capitalist democracy. It's high time we got busy.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Mark Your Ballot with an "X"
It's not as ironic as one might think. Just as the illiterate sign off with an "X", Canadians, a politically illiterate lot, do the same on election day. Entering a contract of further governance by a system grounded on sociopathic economics (all viable parties willingly operate within the same economically driven political paradigm), the voter dutifully marks the ballot with an "X". Seen this way, voting cannot bring us change; it can only provide more of the same. And isn't that exactly what we have been witnessing the last century or more?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Democracy is not a Right
Why are we still squabbling about electoral reform when a majority of Canadians already want it? ~ from Politics Respun
To answer such a question, let us first consider the controlling elite and the Canadian version of democracy. Specifically, the rulers have always made their subjects beg, grovel or revolt before offering a loosening of the democratic strings. And this increased shift toward democracy always comes with a price.
For example, women wanted a vote? OK, fine. But it meant women were now going to have to enter the workforce, become overtaxed, and allow the family unit to suffer in her absence. The two-income family, now doubly taxed to bankroll government, was the price paid for women to be granted their fundamental ‘right’ to vote. This is the magnanimous treatment of the Canadian government toward its free subjects. Yet this factual perspective of Canadian women's suffrage is interestingly absent from our public school texts.
So each time I read about new ways to tally the votes or those voting for, let alone championing, a political Party — a top-down organization that forces its employees, your 'elected' representatives, to comply; an organization that serves the capitalist paradigm and its superstars long before the people — I know nothing is going to change without a price.
Unfortunately, the social collective seems unable to reach, let alone accept, some simple truths about state power. Power begets power. As state power progressively builds up its authority and coercive might, it cuts off legitimate discourse with the people. Eventually the encroachments of the state over the people becomes intolerable. At this time the people discover they have drifted well beyond the threshold of a peaceful solution. They must now fight for their basic inalienable rights. The revolutionary march begins. History is littered with this social pattern and Canadians are not immune from it if we refuse to learn from the past.
We are headed politically in the wrong direction. Varying our course a few degrees or changing our speed is not going to solve the systemic problems we face. We need to fundamentally change our understanding of government and politics. But first we must come to know our role within these bodies: our role as the legitimating force to all acts of state, both good and evil. Blind reliance on the state's propagandized message of our liberal democracy (in words alone) is not just insufficient but extremely detrimental to a better life for all.
As Emma Goldman said a century or so ago, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal”. Cynical, yes, but all too true. We either set up a legitimate peoples democratic government, based on the rule of law and decided by the people, or we endure what has been imposed on us.
So far we are enduring and, admittedly, it is far less than what most others endure. Nonetheless, this situation is shameful and an embarrassment to Canadians, particularly when one comes to understand that we suffer less simply because others unseen suffer more.
To answer such a question, let us first consider the controlling elite and the Canadian version of democracy. Specifically, the rulers have always made their subjects beg, grovel or revolt before offering a loosening of the democratic strings. And this increased shift toward democracy always comes with a price.
For example, women wanted a vote? OK, fine. But it meant women were now going to have to enter the workforce, become overtaxed, and allow the family unit to suffer in her absence. The two-income family, now doubly taxed to bankroll government, was the price paid for women to be granted their fundamental ‘right’ to vote. This is the magnanimous treatment of the Canadian government toward its free subjects. Yet this factual perspective of Canadian women's suffrage is interestingly absent from our public school texts.
So each time I read about new ways to tally the votes or those voting for, let alone championing, a political Party — a top-down organization that forces its employees, your 'elected' representatives, to comply; an organization that serves the capitalist paradigm and its superstars long before the people — I know nothing is going to change without a price.
Unfortunately, the social collective seems unable to reach, let alone accept, some simple truths about state power. Power begets power. As state power progressively builds up its authority and coercive might, it cuts off legitimate discourse with the people. Eventually the encroachments of the state over the people becomes intolerable. At this time the people discover they have drifted well beyond the threshold of a peaceful solution. They must now fight for their basic inalienable rights. The revolutionary march begins. History is littered with this social pattern and Canadians are not immune from it if we refuse to learn from the past.
We are headed politically in the wrong direction. Varying our course a few degrees or changing our speed is not going to solve the systemic problems we face. We need to fundamentally change our understanding of government and politics. But first we must come to know our role within these bodies: our role as the legitimating force to all acts of state, both good and evil. Blind reliance on the state's propagandized message of our liberal democracy (in words alone) is not just insufficient but extremely detrimental to a better life for all.
As Emma Goldman said a century or so ago, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal”. Cynical, yes, but all too true. We either set up a legitimate peoples democratic government, based on the rule of law and decided by the people, or we endure what has been imposed on us.
So far we are enduring and, admittedly, it is far less than what most others endure. Nonetheless, this situation is shameful and an embarrassment to Canadians, particularly when one comes to understand that we suffer less simply because others unseen suffer more.
Monday, November 29, 2010
The Paper Scam
Look, we are screwed. I know that. I think you know that, too. Us regular folks understand when we are getting the gears. We feel the Warden's force, supported by those comfortable with authority or who know their place (a hard habit to kick considering the violent opposition), proving once more that might is right. It has been this way forever.
I am not without blame, mind you. I suspect that this neanderthal philosophy of might has had a pretty easy go at imposing itself upon the likes of pacifists or compassionate progressives uncomfortable with the coerced imposition of any man over another. You know, those guilty of succumbing to their various threats, like me.
This deep disdain for the use of might turns me toward reason instead. Along the way I’ve learned that reasoning with a single person is tough at times, but it is the disarmed fool who thinks he can reason with society. Although we may be rational animals, above all, we are emotional ones. With emotion comes conviction of purpose. And only those in control of the message can instill the necessary fear and hate and patriotic fervor into our minds which compel us to ignorantly obey their orders.
One such order, for example, followed the recent global, financial meltdown. While real people are losing their jobs, homes, pensions, and savings; while entire nations are going bankrupt and grovelling for the mercy of the IMF; and while there is no end to this pain in sight, we are commanded to throw obscene amounts of money into saving the sacred Banking Institutions. For an economy, so it is claimed, cannot exist without them.
Now a sane person might just wonder how Banks became the heart of the economy? Just what are Banks producing that breaths life itself into the economy? The answer: Super-Paper.
It began when the Quants created a sublime piece of Paper that represented hundreds of other pieces of ordinary paper. As the Financial Advisors sold this Super-Paper, word got out that the Quants had other colours of Super-Paper, too. Super-Paper sales skyrocketed! Before long all the savvy weekend investors like Jane D-cup or Joe Sixpack, looking for a deal, bought Super-Paper. Beautifully packaged and embossed with the golden Triple A seal, Super-Paper's investment value was too good to be true.
Meanwhile, as each financial quarter passed, the Banks continued to maximize profits and chase market share. 'Thank you Super-Paper!' echoed down Wall Street, up Bay Street, and beyond. And with these record incomes, Banks rewarded their CEOs more perversely than ever. Orchestrating over the entire Super-Paper economy was tough work, they said, so the millions and billions in bonuses were most deserved.
But things that cannot go on forever, don't. And this financial hoax was no different. That's right, Super-Paper was only ever just p-a-p-e-r. It was the illusion that became reality. In the end, we are told no one saw it coming and, even worse, no one is responsible. Do you believe it?
So here is what I make of it all. We are the new civil defence force, that public army which President Obama promised to deliver to the world. And like all good soldiers, we obey our orders. Not so long ago in Nuremberg the Nazi defence was ‘I was just following orders’. Today, filled with propaganda and sold a world view, the Capitalist defence is ‘I was just doing my job’. This time a trial making us accountable is unlikely. And we have certainly shown no desire to account for ourselves. Instead, we have shamefully avoided that burden, leaving it for posterity.
In the interim, as democratic capitalism flounders, as the ecological pressures force us to retreat despite our adamant denials, and as the totalitarian forces strengthen, what will the economic evolution design? How long now until the dog catches its tail as capitalism and communism unite? Will our Economic Descent Into Barbarism brings us Fascism?
(This may be continued)
I am not without blame, mind you. I suspect that this neanderthal philosophy of might has had a pretty easy go at imposing itself upon the likes of pacifists or compassionate progressives uncomfortable with the coerced imposition of any man over another. You know, those guilty of succumbing to their various threats, like me.
This deep disdain for the use of might turns me toward reason instead. Along the way I’ve learned that reasoning with a single person is tough at times, but it is the disarmed fool who thinks he can reason with society. Although we may be rational animals, above all, we are emotional ones. With emotion comes conviction of purpose. And only those in control of the message can instill the necessary fear and hate and patriotic fervor into our minds which compel us to ignorantly obey their orders.
One such order, for example, followed the recent global, financial meltdown. While real people are losing their jobs, homes, pensions, and savings; while entire nations are going bankrupt and grovelling for the mercy of the IMF; and while there is no end to this pain in sight, we are commanded to throw obscene amounts of money into saving the sacred Banking Institutions. For an economy, so it is claimed, cannot exist without them.
Now a sane person might just wonder how Banks became the heart of the economy? Just what are Banks producing that breaths life itself into the economy? The answer: Super-Paper.
It began when the Quants created a sublime piece of Paper that represented hundreds of other pieces of ordinary paper. As the Financial Advisors sold this Super-Paper, word got out that the Quants had other colours of Super-Paper, too. Super-Paper sales skyrocketed! Before long all the savvy weekend investors like Jane D-cup or Joe Sixpack, looking for a deal, bought Super-Paper. Beautifully packaged and embossed with the golden Triple A seal, Super-Paper's investment value was too good to be true.
Meanwhile, as each financial quarter passed, the Banks continued to maximize profits and chase market share. 'Thank you Super-Paper!' echoed down Wall Street, up Bay Street, and beyond. And with these record incomes, Banks rewarded their CEOs more perversely than ever. Orchestrating over the entire Super-Paper economy was tough work, they said, so the millions and billions in bonuses were most deserved.
But things that cannot go on forever, don't. And this financial hoax was no different. That's right, Super-Paper was only ever just p-a-p-e-r. It was the illusion that became reality. In the end, we are told no one saw it coming and, even worse, no one is responsible. Do you believe it?
So here is what I make of it all. We are the new civil defence force, that public army which President Obama promised to deliver to the world. And like all good soldiers, we obey our orders. Not so long ago in Nuremberg the Nazi defence was ‘I was just following orders’. Today, filled with propaganda and sold a world view, the Capitalist defence is ‘I was just doing my job’. This time a trial making us accountable is unlikely. And we have certainly shown no desire to account for ourselves. Instead, we have shamefully avoided that burden, leaving it for posterity.
In the interim, as democratic capitalism flounders, as the ecological pressures force us to retreat despite our adamant denials, and as the totalitarian forces strengthen, what will the economic evolution design? How long now until the dog catches its tail as capitalism and communism unite? Will our Economic Descent Into Barbarism brings us Fascism?
(This may be continued)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Gordon Retires His Mittens
"After considerable soul searching and discussion with my family I've decided to ask the BC Liberal Party executive to hold a leadership convention at the earliest possible date to select a new leader," Gordon Campbell said at a press conference recently in Vancouver.
"It's time for a new person to lead the province. Debates on policy issues have become overshadowed by the public's dislike for me personally," he said. "When that happens it's time for a change."
Do not for a moment forget the entire BC Liberal party was in cahoots with Gordon Campbell. They all joined in, kept their heads down and faithfully, like Pavlov's dog, nodded in agreement to every crime committed against the people of British Columbia.
Things will not, and simply cannot, change by rebranding the party leadership. At best a new twist to the methodology will be introduced to continue the exploitation of BC resources and her people. Good riddance Gordon, but unfortunately the rest of the Liberal gang has been left behind.
Let's just listen to the spin: soul searching; new leadership; blessed for the opportunity; and my all-time favourite, the timeless thanks for the public service offered by all the politicians prostrating themselves before their retiring King. Inside, hidden from the light, party-backed politicians are all brothers-in-arms, corrupted by their corporate paymasters. This is precisely why things are not going to change in BC even with Carol James and the New Democratic Party.
Campbell's farewell is all spectacle. The rhetoric is thick. The propagandized message is clear. Be thankful we have these Gordon Campbells, these Carol Jameses, these humble public servants who forfeit their life efforts for our cause. It reverberates throughout the media and it rings down the halls of the Legislative building. These sacrificial lambs, near and far, offer praise and thanks for the years of public service. It reminds me of the Emmy Awards and that pathetic, self-congratulatory lot.
If we read between the lines of what Gordon Campbell said in his good-bye, it sounds like this:
"After considerable souls searching" and innumerable consultations with my accountant and business alliances about what lays ahead for me in the various corporate institutions I will now be formally employed ... It's time for a new person to lead this province, for I have done all I can to open the legislative avenues for my corporate brethren, allowing them unfettered control of most the resources and infrastructure of the province, thus availing them to maximum profits ... They have all paid a price for my 26 years of public service by keeping my Party coffers flush and the media messages stoked; and for their investment in this not so clandestine enterprise, I have obeyed their directions and repaid them ten-fold and more ... I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to serve in this position, for there are few jobs offered a man with scant more than an ethical void in his heart, greed pumping through his veins, deception on his lips and with the social consciousness of a child the opportunity to screw over 4 million residents and help plunder one of the planet's richest areas for personal gain -- and then walk away unjustly enriched by his peers with their many thanks for his public service. BC Is The Best Place On Earth!
Oh, and did I mention, New Democratic Party leader Carole James thanked Gordon Campbell for his years of public service. Seriously. Can this possibly be sincere?
Keeping true to form, Ms James then goes one better and tries to sell us, "there's still some work to do over the next little while to show people there's a positive alternative". I hear an echo. Ahh, it's the age-old party promise, the political bribe they all offer: We won't stick it to you nearly as badly as the last guys. Trust us. We work for you.
But we know better. Vote Independent.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Cut Your Chain With Party Politics
If we remain defiant enough to keep voting for candidates associated with any political party, then we have no one but ourselves to blame.
As long as we do not want to be represented in government, we will continue to buy into the conventional wisdom of supporting one of the strong parties. This means you vote for a candidate representing the party rather than you or your area. Your representation is dead in the water the moment you mark the ballot.
A party demands adherence to the party line. Your chosen party member, fraudulently claiming to represent you, now just nods his or her head in agreement with the party leader. The party leader takes direction from party backers with pull, the corporate community. We are left with corporate-democracy, or corporatism.
In effect, every four years the electorate willingly votes away being represented in government. Though we have democracy, at least in form, we just refuse to understand how we can effectively participate in it:
Vote for an honest independent candidate from your district, or consider your vote in full support of corporatism.
It is that simple.
Change must come from below. We are that below. Change how we vote and democracy will be returned. We, the people, are a force to be reckoned with but only if unleashed. As soon as we cut the chain with party politics, we all walk free.
As long as we do not want to be represented in government, we will continue to buy into the conventional wisdom of supporting one of the strong parties. This means you vote for a candidate representing the party rather than you or your area. Your representation is dead in the water the moment you mark the ballot.
A party demands adherence to the party line. Your chosen party member, fraudulently claiming to represent you, now just nods his or her head in agreement with the party leader. The party leader takes direction from party backers with pull, the corporate community. We are left with corporate-democracy, or corporatism.
In effect, every four years the electorate willingly votes away being represented in government. Though we have democracy, at least in form, we just refuse to understand how we can effectively participate in it:
Vote for an honest independent candidate from your district, or consider your vote in full support of corporatism.
It is that simple.
Change must come from below. We are that below. Change how we vote and democracy will be returned. We, the people, are a force to be reckoned with but only if unleashed. As soon as we cut the chain with party politics, we all walk free.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
In the Land of the Wilfully Blind
“There is a third possibility … an immediate Second World War-type mobilization to deal with the systemic [ecological] crises.” ~ Stephen Elliott-Buckley
I foresee a war too, but more along the lines of the revolutionary ilk. A quiet revolution is certainly not going to rise up from the dead understanding of our brain-numbed populace. That slow burning pipedream of mine is pretty much extinguished. With the inflationary population boom and our collective wisdom approaching zero, the only war erupting will be after all hell breaks loose. And, I dare say, not a moment sooner.
As products of our environment, namely our arrogant western culture which reaps most of the planetary rewards on the coattails of criminal governance, we have lost our ability to foresee even imminent peril. Without vision, there is no need to act. And that is exactly what we do: nothing. Maybe we never have had such ability. I have hope, but zero faith, we ever will.
My point is a simple one: Our style of governance and institutions of power reward, in the truest sense, the pathological type of person; in accepting this truth, the only way we can bring about the necessary, radical change to stop this pathological madness must be through a radical act. As the late Howard Zinn famously stated, “our problems are not with civil disobedience; our problems are with civil obedience”.
With no disrespect intended to those who have suffered from the senseless 9/11 tragedy, consider how a plane load of innocent folks, all in imminent danger, were brought to their graves. Far outnumbering their captors, they were overpowered by a few religious zealots with box-cutters. The hostages, with heads full of cultural propaganda, were rendered impotent. Right until the horrible end they hoped there would be a way out of their predicament -- even if they did absolutely nothing. The worst could not possibly happen.
We westerners do not have the mental fortitude to rise up against our captors, be they hijackers or our government. We stupefyingly hope we will be offered a way out not matter how dire the situation. We deceive ourselves into thinking the solution lay in government; and if not there, then in our technological prowess. In most any other realm, this is known as wishful thinking. Unfortunately, our Christian theological background has laid a strong foundation for such fantasies.
Long understood, those with enough power always act independently. They don't need to seek consent from others. The Empire does not ask if it can proceed. It doesn't consult the people before murdering millions for corporate gain. Yet simple arithmetic suggests the people have the power, if numbers mean anything at all in a democracy. How is it we have been so well-trained that this reality is impossible for us to see?
As Ayn Rand astutely noted, “the hardest thing to do is to convince people of what is glaringly obvious which they do not want to see”. What is obvious is that we have learned to enjoy being governed by others. There is no other plausible explanation.
I foresee a war too, but more along the lines of the revolutionary ilk. A quiet revolution is certainly not going to rise up from the dead understanding of our brain-numbed populace. That slow burning pipedream of mine is pretty much extinguished. With the inflationary population boom and our collective wisdom approaching zero, the only war erupting will be after all hell breaks loose. And, I dare say, not a moment sooner.
As products of our environment, namely our arrogant western culture which reaps most of the planetary rewards on the coattails of criminal governance, we have lost our ability to foresee even imminent peril. Without vision, there is no need to act. And that is exactly what we do: nothing. Maybe we never have had such ability. I have hope, but zero faith, we ever will.
My point is a simple one: Our style of governance and institutions of power reward, in the truest sense, the pathological type of person; in accepting this truth, the only way we can bring about the necessary, radical change to stop this pathological madness must be through a radical act. As the late Howard Zinn famously stated, “our problems are not with civil disobedience; our problems are with civil obedience”.
With no disrespect intended to those who have suffered from the senseless 9/11 tragedy, consider how a plane load of innocent folks, all in imminent danger, were brought to their graves. Far outnumbering their captors, they were overpowered by a few religious zealots with box-cutters. The hostages, with heads full of cultural propaganda, were rendered impotent. Right until the horrible end they hoped there would be a way out of their predicament -- even if they did absolutely nothing. The worst could not possibly happen.
We westerners do not have the mental fortitude to rise up against our captors, be they hijackers or our government. We stupefyingly hope we will be offered a way out not matter how dire the situation. We deceive ourselves into thinking the solution lay in government; and if not there, then in our technological prowess. In most any other realm, this is known as wishful thinking. Unfortunately, our Christian theological background has laid a strong foundation for such fantasies.
Long understood, those with enough power always act independently. They don't need to seek consent from others. The Empire does not ask if it can proceed. It doesn't consult the people before murdering millions for corporate gain. Yet simple arithmetic suggests the people have the power, if numbers mean anything at all in a democracy. How is it we have been so well-trained that this reality is impossible for us to see?
As Ayn Rand astutely noted, “the hardest thing to do is to convince people of what is glaringly obvious which they do not want to see”. What is obvious is that we have learned to enjoy being governed by others. There is no other plausible explanation.
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