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)

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.