Obama signed a new “JOBS” bill this week. And, wow! What a WHOPPER it is!!
This law gives the all-clear signal to any start-up company that wishes to raise money in the public markets. It pretty much nullifies significant regulatory and reporting requirements for the first five years on these new start-ups, particularly tech companies that are seeking to raise capital by selling stock to investors. You can brush-up on this boner by reading Matt Taibbi’s article in this week’s Rolling Stone.
What is becoming painfully evident with each new signature is that Emperor Obama is really no more than a low-level functionary of Wall Street, various other organized gangs, and their paid lobbyists; and that he couldn’t give a damn about regular people. Yet, what we must remember now is that this entire charade is just a kabuki dance in preparation for the big letdown, the unfolding collapse. Rather than being upset when our money becomes worthless paper, our fear-mongering leader is getting us to throw the money away on fake business ventures and puffery, on Wall Street schemes, international resource wars and other such nonsense. This way we won’t have any money to worry about when the big chill sets in permanently.
HELL! You might be better off investing in George Zimmerman’s future, today’s indictment notwithstanding. That’s right, Trayvon Martin’s shooter is now providing you investment options, soliciting support from the general public on his new website seeking survival maintenance funding and legal financing. Wait! You said what? You are telling me that his legal counsel just withdrew from the case after they learned that George himself called the Special Prosecutor’s office directly, and further that he gave an exclusive interview to Sean Hannity of FOX news without so much as notifying counsel.
So, did George kill that young man in self-defense (as he claims) or was it just a ploy to locate his fifteen minutes of fame, secure a big bankroll, and curry favor with white supremacists? That’s right, he already has the backing of the National Socialist Movement here in the homeland. They have been down there in Florida, patrolling the streets of Sanford as they claim – just to make sure there is no backlash on decent white folk in the area. Funny isn’t it; because George isn’t exactly a Christian white guy. He’s more of a Peruvian (Hispanic according to US Census) Jew rather than a poster-boy for the Aryan Brotherhood. Somebody ought to notify the militia on patrol in Sanford about this, I guess. And we should probably let the black community in on that secret as well, don’t ya’ know.
Anyway, such activity is eerily reminiscent of the nighttime patrols and raids that the Fuhrer conducted back in the day in Germany and Poland; or, perhaps, like the purges executed by Stalin in the good old days of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, it is not that much different than the “raid first, ask questions later” tactics exercised by US commandos in the field in Afghanistan where you can find women and children waiting huddled outside their homes in the dark as U.S. Special Ops forces search inside their one room dwellings for hidden insurgents (a.k.a. terrorists). Go figure.
I would suggest that the spectacle fulminating down in Sanford is right on target with the overall trajectory of Empire, as if GPS guided. Certainly, the laws are already on the books as we have witnessed over the past several months, and citizens will soon find it hard to hide from the patrols, the monitoring, the censorship, the constant presence of Big Brother, the stalking, the anticipated nighttime raids by homeland security, renegade banditos, or self-appointed and armed militias just out wondering the streets.
Maybe one day you will forget to renew your required health insurance policy and be picked up by Federal Marshals to serve time in a state work camp for the infraction. Perhaps your website will be targeted by DHS Internet censors because you have been stirring up controversy online. They will close you down and round-up you and your comrades for conspiracy to engage in free speech. Or, maybe you will be out demonstrating (OMG) in the streets of your State Capital in relative proximity to a declared Federal safe-house, i.e., a building “restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance” where diplomats or other political dignitaries may be assembled behind Secret Service screens. This might well qualify as an outright act of terrorism. Did I just hear the words: “indefinite detention,” as they haul you away to an offshore black-box secret military prison for enhanced interrogation.
Perhaps you have been growing proscribed non-GMO tomato plants and corn stalks in your own outlawed, chemical-free, private home garden. Heavy fines and some jail time at a FEMA work camp might just be in order. Or maybe you purchased some unregulated prescription meds online from an off-shore manufacturing plant in South East Asia (secretly owned by J&J)… more fines and jail time may await you for dealing in contraband; and they will find you because they will be monitoring all Internet purchases.
On the other hand, maybe there will be some privately-organized militia out ‘patrolling’ the neighborhood after the electricity fails in your part of town. Perhaps they are hungry and need some gas for their Hummer. They see some candle light radiating from your window, and smell a hint of bar-be-que meats cooking out behind the house… Anyway, James Kuntsler knows the ending to these scenarios a lot better than I do. Suffice it to say, I do not think our collective future looks all that rosy.
However, I do think that relatively small groups of individuals have the potential to develop the sorts of modest (almost invisible) communities in out-of-the-way locations to help them through the social, political, economic and ecological upheaval that even now haunts our every move. Ironically enough, civilized individuals across the globe are already making changes in that direction. Even some in the USA have taken the plunge. From Maine to Colorado, and New Mexico to Oregon, folks I know personally are changing the way they live and with whom they associate. In many instances, and pretty much “off-grid,” they are turning back to older more primitive (simpler) ways – some pastoral, some horticulture, some foraging, and even some hunting. What we know is that such practices enlivened our species for at least two hundred thousand years of modern human prehistory, and more than two million years in the prehistory of our genus.
Yet, what may be even more axial is not just recovering the practices of material sustenance, but rediscovering the psychodynamics that helped in the maturation of those primitive forebears and in the maintenance of such long-term symbiotic relationships with surrounding nature, with other tribes, and other species. What were the life cycle events that led to such mature relations of reciprocity between the individual and the tribe, the individual and nature, the tribe and its ecosystem, as well as relations between and among tribes? If we can recover and reconstitute the generative conditions under which such psychodynamics developed – “that ethos of small-group tribal counsel with its advisory leadership, hospitality, and tolerance toward outsiders, perception of nature as a sacred language, and the quality of mentorship by which the young are coached” – maybe then we will find the means of maintaining a civil, but uncivilized, approach to a post-collapse society. (Shepard, Nature and Madness, p. 13)
How difficult it is today, in the midst of all this urban drama and spectacle, in a sprawling wasteland of tens or hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of anonymous citizens, to develop a sense of openness towards the Other – that alterity we find looking back at us in nature or in the eyes of a stranger. When we can recover that experience of wonder, that openness to the other – an otherness that reflects the alterity inhering within each of us – then perhaps we will be capable of living sanely in a post-collapse world. But if you glance around just now at what is happening in Sanford, Florida and in Washington, D.C., or almost anywhere else around the globe today, you may realize just how far away we are psychologically from that possibility, and how deeply we are still entranced by all the madness.
kulturCritic 
Your penultimate paragraph points to something good you hope/expect to come out of the unraveling of industrial civilization — not just a return to the land but a restyled social organization giving rise to recovery of a lost and forgotten psychodynamic. In a sense, it’s “if you build it, they will come.” Yours is a hopeful perspective I wish I could share. Whether or not realistic, I don’t think we will be building anything worthwhile (new Instagram billionaires notwithstanding) in the coming decades and maybe even centuries, nor will those weeds sprouting through the cracks of broken civilization be enough to drive us through the bottleneck. Rather, it will be about loss on a scale we can scarcely fathom. Admittedly, this is exactly the sort of Chicken Little doomsaying other find easy to dismiss, but then, the sky did fall all around Fukishima, didn’t it?
Just once, I try to project a way through the fog, and whack, I get hit. Brutus, I don’t doubt your cynicism. You are speaking with the cynic par excellence. But, I do state that it is highly unlikely we can see through the madness anytime soon, and I say quite definitively there is going to be general chaos in any event, although some may find a small “hole” to crawl into and wait out the conclusion. Thanks for your typically penetrating reply. sandy
Their gods know i am a cynic too. However, i seek ‘solutions’ (been done this road before with my fellow poster Malthus) outside the mainstream, Shepard, elsewhere…within my own noggin and on-the-ground (in the air, below ground) experience and experimentation. All these others do have certain goodies to offer this ‘cynic,’ even the insane mainstream (if for no other reason than to ignore or delete them), but i remain more confident in my own creative options, extant confidence and possibilities than what has come before. And if i fail? Failure offers new views, and definitely more opportunities. This has nothing whatsoever to do with ego (for those who might think this). It has everything to do with doing something other than chit-chatting until it all comes a-tumbling down in ways we’d all find rather discomforting, which it may well do (and this cynic realizes it’s a-tumbling as we engage the other here). It won’t be, of that i’m fairly confident, with endless words, but by actually getting our damn hands–and minds–dirtier than we ever have. Solutions? Trashing the entire box of the ‘thinking outside it’ (saving and employing a few of the tools that would take too long to make by hand), not allowing its existence in mind, body or soul. For
me that entails every creative facet imaginable…and then going further. By refusing to admit defeat from those who either live defeat in their day-to-day lives and beliefs, and
those who want me as a voluntary slave. Want an entire book? Patience, though it might not be a book book of yore. Good thoughts have come from both you blokes. Now…for all of us, do something with these wondrous minds. Don’t say it can’t be done. To the best within the human spirit ,may be within YOU. i’ll be back.
I’m not in competition to win the cynic sweepstakes (too many contenders), but among the (remaining) regulars here, I suspect I may be the worst fatalist. For better or worse, nearly everything I say comes from that perspective, and it should be clear by now that my comments are geared toward seeking understanding rather than seeking solutions. If I’m making a nuisance of myself by offering “yes, but …” comments when our host appears to prefer “yes, and …” then I’ll confine myself to far more modest participation. I’ve only once indulged in a personal attack or whacked at anyone, though I clearly disagree at times (less often than it may appear). Disagreement is a good thing, IMO, especially if it helps to sharpen our perceptions and thinking and is mostly without rancor.
I will admit, though, that jangled nerves, hurt feelings, and misinterpreted remarks leading to an amplified sense of victimization are only to be expected and in fact are likely to get much worse as day-to-day stresses mount. It’s not my intent to worsen the dread and horror everyone is feeling on the eve of disaster but to acknowledge them honestly.
Brutus: i never assumed otherwise your honest intentions. As re: ‘solutions,’ i addressed my interpretation of the word which isn’t the generally-accepted version–the mostly indoctrinated one, in response to Malthus a few blogs back (don’t recall which one at the moment). Domesticated, scientific reductionist ‘solutions’ (note: reductionist here) aren’t mine to employ for to me they are not solutions at all, only placing us farther down the rat-hole. Mine are, again, experiential/experimental without need of mathematical models or statistical analysis. i’d be more than happy to enter into such a discussion in more detail outside the temporal constraints that i’ve chosen (and mentioned elsewhere in postings) of primal plant breeding (which touches just about all aspects of solutions) and other creative realms. i’d love you to stick with this blog, just as i try to with my limited digital delivery system (small). Best
Brutus: “…my comments are geared toward seeking understanding rather than seeking solutions…”
I like this perspective. At this late stage, I think there are probably no solutions worth pursuing. However, there are responses that can be made, either individually or collectively. These responses will not “solve” the crises, or stop the unraveling of empire, but they may prove efficacious and meaningful for those individuals and communities that undertake them. I think this is what Sandy is pointing to when he points to his friends moving off-grid, growing their own food, etc.
Brutus, I’ve never thought of you as particularly cynical–that word to me is too sharp-edged. Realist, perhaps, is a better fit. In the year or I’ve been reading kC, I’ve found your thinking remarkably clear. Your voice has a clarity that cuts through distractions, as well as an absence of judgment–a sense of non-attachment. I sense you speak as you perceive, with no hidden agenda. I always see things a little differently because of what you write.
“If I’m making a nuisance of myself by offering “yes, but …” comments when our host appears to prefer “yes, and …” then I’ll confine myself to far more modest participation.”
Brutus, you are being overly-sensitive now. I never suggested you were a nuisance. I always enjoy your comments, as I said above. Communicating online is akin to talking with a wall. There are no physical cues or other sense of presence that allow us to have a complete feeling of the intention of the ‘speaker.’ In that light, one should always take the most forgiving interpretation of the words on the screen. It is not as effective as being together in dialogue, but it is all we have now. Just keep doing what you do Brutus. I enjoy it, immensely! sandy
Brutus, I probably wouldn’t be pulled into responding to many of these articles without your finely articulated posts early on each of them. Sure we’re all armchair cynics these days, and I’m guilty of Zarathustran serendipity all the same… As for collapse and solutions, my feeling is that there is no true preparation or solution, but only more understanding. I don’t know if we can get around the fact that we are in population overshoot and many people will die in one way or another… however black swans abound in times of uncertainty, maybe we’ll all end up being off-gridded by a solar storm and be left holding the bag right then and there?
“Funny isn’t it; because George isn’t exactly a Christian white guy. He’s more of a Peruvian (Hispanic according to US Census) Jew rather than a poster-boy for the Aryan Nation.”
From The WaPo:
“In Manassas, where Zimmerman lived in the 1980s and 1990s with his parents and two siblings, neighbors tended to define the family based on their spiritual profile. “Very Catholic . . . very religious,” their neighbor Jim Rudzenski recalled Thursday. The children attended All Saints Catholic School on Stonewall Road through the eighth grade before going to Osbourn High School. George became an altar server and evening receptionist at All Saints Catholic Church. The Zimmermans “were known and respected in the community for their dedication and service,” said Robert Cilinski, pastor of All Saints Catholic Church.”
Well, then, RG… I stand corrected: my understanding is that he is part Peruvian (mother, perhaps Catholic) and that his father is a retired Va. Magistrate (Jewish as I understood) and evidently George was indoctrinated in the Roman Catholic tradition. There appears to be other racial elements in his heritage as well, like most of us. BTW: George self identifies as Latino. Sure glad we cleared that up; and if his father is not or was not Jewish, it really does not alter my basic position, because he still does not fit the bill for membership in the club I was referencing.
A disturbing tactic of this and other similar “clubs” has been to redefine the terms of membership, so they can gain more support. For example, my understanding is that the BNP in Britain is now allowing (European) Jewish members, to better stoke hatred against the UK’s (largely South Asian) Muslim population. Global demographics have changed a great deal since the 1930s, and so has the definition of “White”. And of course, the disturbing thing about irrational hatred is that is irrational, and as such its objects may shift for little or no reasons whatsoever…
It is an interesting observation, Ziran. Yet, it almost seems to me that within the irrationality there lies a hidden (sick) rationality in these movements, an impecable logic of domination, not unlike Nationalism (which of course is what NS was all about). Now, it seems to be gathering steam as an anti-Muslim movement, to combat the apparent push of Islam in its own presumed dreams of world domination. Where it all ends is probably not good. As our fatalist, Brutus, would probably agree. It will not end well. What do you think, Ziran?
I agree, both about the sick rationality (the Holocaust of WW II was nothing if not an expression of instrumental reason at its most calculating and horrific), and the likelihood of this not ending well.
Definitely correct on that one… instrumental reason at its most calculating!!
Agreed. Clarification was in response to some rather virulent anti-semitism (not here) travelling the web.His religion or lack thererof is peripheral to the conversastion.
Absolutely correct, RG! And, in any event, I think his motivations for attacking the kid were racially confused. The psychology of his attack remains to be sorted out. Don’t you think?
The armed Zimmermans of this World, frightened, confused, subsurvient but aspiring to authority, indoctrinated from birth with ill-defined grievances; together with those who would use them to achieve personal power are those most to be feared as social order
disintegrates.
Manipulators and the manipulated: Well said, RG.
Sounds accurate. Others have this vision of the future, too, though it’s played for laughs:
Played for laughs? Man, I found it way too scary because of how close it comes to reality.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes harbor thoughts about such a spree. Whenever it happens in reality, the media quickly close ranks and label the offender a nutcase, but mark my words, someone will capture the public’s thirst for violent justice and become a folk hero à la Robin Hood. Won’t be me, though. I’m more likely to lie down and let TPTB steamroll me.
I don’t know Brutus; I think you might surprise yourself on this issue.
Yeah, she’s right… that is some scary shit, Brutus. Is that movie for real?
RG – I could not have stated this more clearly and succinctly, nor more powerfully myself. Thank you for this addition to the conversation. sandy
We are all in big trouble, big trouble..
More people more problems, more insanity, more greed, more lying leaders, I could go on forever, more, more, more. Take me back before agriculture, take me back before domestication of animals and humans. Take me back to paradise. Please. The only answer I have is to keep building my trimaran to cruise the miles, and miles of uninhabited coasts and Islands, hunting and gathering as I go. Good post Sandy as usual.
Amen Multhus.
Thanks Multhus. Yes, there is way too much of everything now, not the least of which is would-be psychopathic leaders. BTW, what is a trimaran?
Hey Sandy, here is the Wikipedia definition and a little of its history. “A trimaran is a multihulled boat consisting of a main hull (vaka) and two smaller outrigger hulls (amas), attached to the main hull with lateral struts (akas). The design and names for the trimaran components are derived from the original proa constructed by native Pacific Islanders. If you go to Wikipedia and check out Trimaran there is a great photo of a 90 foot racing trimaran. Most though run somewhere around 30 to 60 feet. One thing nice about them is they can be run in fairly shallow waters and are faster than mono hull sail boats. Although most have sails and rely on wind there are those now that are designed with solar and eclectric motors with propelers and so no fuel is needed as in sail with solar for electric needs. Another example would be the movie Water World with Kevin Costner. His boat was a trimaran.
Of course; yes, I see it plainly in my mind. And it reminds me of the Russian word “troika” – the buggy/cart pulled by three horses, the lead and two companions.
Check out the 90’s Kostner movie ‘Waterworld’. It was a wierd post-apocalyptic movie that featured a very sophisticated tri as one of its ‘heroes’.
I was more engaged with Mad Max and those shenanigans. But, I do remember the “tri” in the adverts.
Cynics beware! Collapse doesn’t happen until it happens to you, yes? Are there not many people around the world who are not already experiencing environmental, political, economic, and social collapse? Though I believe most Americans are not prepared for immediate collapse, I think it is impossible to predict events in the future (even the near future) while I surrender that whatever happens will effect different people in different ways. I am not convinced there are any “holes” to crawl into as we are not cockaroaches, but there most likely are the metaphorical (and geographic) hornets-nests (Florida comes to mind at the moment) — and if I was in Florida I would probably be seasteading, preparing my catch of sea-squirrel.
Well stated, Cpopblog. Great imagery and you are correct about Florida… I lived there, and drove a cab in Miami-FtLauderdale, for 8 years. LOL, sandy
Essentially, and i’ll definitely take the flack here, what i think i’m hearing from most of the posters, as to how and why we’ve gotten ‘here’ and their reasons is: we’re doomed, no way out, ‘solutions’ are nonexistent. OK, so, if there are problems and reasons then why aren’t there ‘solutions’ though they may not be at all comfortable or comforting ones.
On one level, a collapse of civilization as we know it, is a solution, albeit not necessarily a desired one. However, i cannot accept this doomer stance either. There are some things i admit i love about civ, such as the creative arts and indoor plumbing. But they come with consequences when abused, and therein is my conundrum with civilizations in general, esp. this insane one hellbent on laying the planet uninhabitable.
So, my question becomes: why are we following THEIR scripts and denying means to overcome the dilemma(s)? Where are OUR scripts, or has it become too scary to fathom our own? Or, the way i think about it: Maybe OUR scripts lie between THEIR frames…for me, this life as presented by THEM is a simulation, mine isn’t.
Maybe an analogy might help here. Let’s call it the “If i had a dollar for every…” In all my decades in the music ‘industry’ (which it is), i lost track of all the ‘positive’ naysayers in the A & R departments of major and minor record companies and publishers, and independents, who, in a condensed version, said of many of my songs, something along the lines as: “You definitely have talent, there’s no doubt there…” then, the infamous BUT…”but, if you could just cast your writing according to [fad of the moment, more like so and so, listen to…so and so…blah, blah]…In otherwords,compose not as yourself but as others compose. THEIR ‘solutions’ were to create like others, where if i had a particular problem to handle, say a melodic or harmonic one, i could easily step outside the entrenched standard harmonic structures of my contemporaries and come up with an ‘unusual’ solution, one that worked, one that NO ONE ELSE could have come up with. Why? Because i wasn’t following THEIR scripts, i was composing BETWEEN THEIR FRAMES!
Hence, i refuse to accept the fatalist position, the proposition that there are no ‘solutions’ to the mess we’ve ALL made. For that reason, i live most of my life, between the frames.
And, what if we all came up with our own creative ‘solutions,’ and think more about what lies between the frames instead of merely abiding by THEIR scripts and claiming defeat?
Relentless – brilliant recommendation…between the frames, what a way to conceive of the way out. But, that needs fleshing out to some degree, esp. with respect to plumbing and electricity. LOL. p.s. I was in the A&R business for a while as well. Actually I ran a small label, indie!
Thanks Sandy. And just how DID our ancestors of yore survive without indoor plumbing and electricity for the hundreds of thousands (millions) of years before the brilliance of all of US? The dastardly (sic) Derrick Jensen, when home, shits in the woods. When i’m at home and the electicity goes out and i don’t bother to turn on the generator, but NEED to compose something, i either pick up an acoustic guitar or just ‘flesh it out’ in my head and write it down on paper. A meager glance at living between the frames. 🙂 Perhaps we might all offer our own personal between the frames ideas…who knows, maybe we’ll write our own amazing scripts, our own Music Synaesthesia Sympatico Deliriouso, resonating with our heartsenses. Who cares if it becomes The Opera Verboten? Who cares if it has an undeniable humor frowned upon by ‘Them.’ They are not US!
Here’s a piece from The Shape of a Pocket by John Berger:
“Yet it can happen, suddenly, unexpectedly, and most frequently in the half-light-of-glimpses, that we catch sight of another visible order which intersects with ours and has nothing to do with it.”
“The speed of a cinema film is 25 frames per second. God knows how many frames per second flicker past in our daily perception. But it is as if, at the brief moments I’m talking about, suddenly and disconcertingly we see between two frames. We come upon a part of the visible which wasn’t destined for us. Perhaps it was destined for night-birds, reindeer, ferrets, eels, whales…”
“Our customary visible order is not the only one: it coexists with other orders. Stories of fairies, sprites, ogres were a human attempt to come to terms with this coexistence. Hunters are continually aware of it and so can read signs we do not see. Children feel it intuitively because they have the habit of hiding behind things. There they discover the interstices between different sets of the visible.”
I think that there are as many ways to slip between the frames as there are frames, and we each seek and discovery them in our own ways.
Interesting, there is a new work by physicist, Julian Barbour, The End of Time, where he suggests that time is an illusion and that all there is is an eternal present, and that the illusion of temporal flow is created by the (get this) stringing together of discrete instantaneous “frames” of experience, much the same way a motion-picture was created by the fast stringing together of individual photo frames from one instant to the next. Just saying.
Interesting.
Here is Berger’s description (2003): “The pocket in question is a small pocket of resistance. A pocket is formed when two or more people come together in agreement. The resistance is against the inhumanity of the New World Economic Order. The people coming together are the reader, me, and those the essays are about–Rembrandt, Paleolithic cave painters, a Romanian peasant, ancient Egyptians, an expert in the loneliness of a certain hotel bedroom, dogs at dusk, a man in a radio station. And unexpectedly, our exchanges strengthen each of us in our conviction that what is happening in the world today is wrong, and that what is often said about it is a lie. I’ve never written a book with a greater sense of urgency.”
Perhaps Berger and Barbour were reading each other. 😉 I’ll take a look at The End of Time. Thanks for making the connection.
~jc
The book can be a tough read… I tried… and could not finish. LOL
Yeah, I looked at the contents online. Definitely a library read. I think I’ll reread Berger first. 🙂
LOL 😉
In the words of Michael Ruppert, we find our place in the cracks between the Cartesian tyranny of 1s and 0s.
I agree on hand with your philosophy in general, but I don’t think its very fatalistic to say ‘we dun’ fukked up’ and then work from there. When I personally say there is no ‘solutions,’ I essentially mean that there is no easy solution. We are going to have to give up on some things, and there will most likely be widespread confusion and despair (not to mention diharrea and AIDS-like diseases.)
I want to believe that we can just ‘tune our mind’ to a different frequency and then be comfortable with what is about to happen, but that’s a little bit of magical thinking in my humble opinion, not to accuse you or anything.
@R “On one level, a collapse of civilization as we know it, is a solution…”
Bravo. Original. How can one “solve” a solution?
Sandy,
I read the Rollingstone article you linked to. It appears this legislative sausage with the cynical title of a ‘Jobs bill’ is in keeping with the times — funneling the wealth of the masses upwards to the Plutocrats, but that’s Capitalism, aka the current buzzword, Crony Capitalism…same thing. I suppose this will go on for as long as there is a dollar of real wealth to plunder and a stock of the Earth’s natural capital to exploit. The rentier capitalists consider the buying of legislation as hard work, deserving of the financial windfall it brings to them. If anything, this Obama Jobs bill should tell you that our current system is locked into a kamikaze path of self-destruction.
Kamikaze- yes xray, that is a good encapsulating summary. Although, I doubt those capitalists recognize the mission. LOL
That’s the problem. Consumer Capitalism is too deeply indoctrinated into our culture/mindset. This ship is fatally flawed.
I like Chris Hedges, but a critique of his views on anarchism makes good points:
You Can’t “Grow The Movement” By Dissing The Kids: On Chris Hedges And Occupy
On anarchism, I personally used to be a hardcore convert from minarchism (founding fatherism) to anarchism, and was pretty adamant about it. But after a few years of further thought and research, I’ve come to think that human beings are inherently communal and deeply connected by a spiritual substrate in that context. So I’m on a hand an anti-statist, but on the other hand I do not think anarchism is a solid philosophy in that it contains too much in its current context. I simply think we can remove the coercion of the state from the equation, and whatever type of freedom comes after that is acceptable. I do not believe in a fully operational anarchistic ‘free-market’ objectivist type of ideal – I think that implies a predatory/exploitative mode of mandatory capitalism that elevates the self at the cost of all externalities.
Are you from the west side of the Atlantic?. In Europe anarchism is mostly thought of as being anti-capitalist.
I like this…
It appears self-contradictory to me how one voluntarily flocks to the institutional hierarchy of the Church or State (for example) and still calls oneself an anarchist. I am not sure that anarchy is compatible with any hierarchical ideology, but neither do I believe that it requires complete license (freedom).
I also like Chris, but he has too much vested in the system, and too much faith that it can be reborn.
it’s only natural, any organism will try to maximize it’s chances for survival, enter group dynamics, and it becomes a question of protecting the collective, for the greater good of course, a noble impulse too easily co-opted by the modern industrial state.
when everything is weighed in the balance, when ones life is no longer ones own? call it what you want, mass stockholm syndrome, zombieland. at first you think you can’t take it, then you realize the pain don’t matter, it tells you you are still alive…………………
i hear tallahasse is nice this time of year.
And the profiling just continues…..
rentier capitalists, shootings on the street, commodity speculation, a population educed to tenant status (the reverse of the aforementioned capitalists), and socialism is a dirty word? all the pols swear allegiance to the almighty dollar, what’s to be done? perhaps it’s time for a “free market”
solution.
just divide the country up into zones, which of course will require internal passports, no problem, we have the security apparatus in place (and the apparatchiks to run it), then when resources get scarce? each zone can send champions into an arena to compete for allotments of food, fuel, medicine, all the conveniences of modern life, the losers can starve. might even make a good book, or movie. another case of art imitating life? or is it the other way around?
Let the games begin, huh derek!! LOL
Sandy,
This really nasty decline that we are going to face is going to be quick and sudden. This zimmerman mess is very puzzling. My opinion is that the hornets nest is a real humdinger and will provoke a rodney king/reginald denny event.
I think the era of mass race-events in Amerika is over, and this is just a mainstream media distraction and a ploy for ratings, as evidenced by the NBC editing of the 911 tapes, and by how they won’t shut up about the case when tons of other more clear cases of racial violence happen on a regular basis.
Or maybe Alex Jones is right and this is just a ploy to take away more of our 2nd Amendment rights and to repeal ‘stand your ground’ laws which would prevent the police state of having full power over us in the case of a crackdown…
Distraction and ploy and foreshadowing (a prolepsis) of what is to come.
Livin’ in th arctic..the rabbits..when they overpopulated the willows created a toxin in the bark.
You want to give me a bit more to go on here, Kenuk? I’m not sure where you’re headed.
Are you saying that the Earth will find her own balance?
One way or another She always does. Gaia is responding in innumerable seen and unseen ways to redress the imbalances created by our wayward species. In the long run She will prevail.
Ain’t that the truth. Even the scientists (god-bless their stupid souls) are beginning to agree with us.
This is an archaic story, how everything here is alive and intertwined; and our pre-civilized forbears knew this well; but we forgot all of that until the scientists figured it out again. Go figure!
Sandy,
the only thing worse than the distraction is the outright liars that tend to be in state capitals and local county seats. BTW, just heard from a medicare official that yes OBama is planning death panels…Health care turned on its head huh… perhaps obama care is just one tool to cull the population,
John, Look, he is just the waterboy for those who really run the country; and they want to extract as much $ from us as they can, before they kill us. That is plainly evident.
“Perhaps your website will be targeted by DHS Internet censors because you have been stirring up controversy online. They will close you down and round-up you and your comrades for conspiracy to engage in free speech.”
Seems like the Brits are moving right along this censorship corridor:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/201241373429356249.html
Sandy and all you kulturCritics,
DA here, back for a moment. Promise you I won’t linger long. Checked out for a few months to check out “what condition my condition was in.” My story: I suspected I was a raging alcoholic, and I certainly exhibited all the classic signs. I won’t go into all that here, as most who have frequented these boards for any amount have time have almost certainly come to heir own conclusions. As well they should.
Anyway, fucking personal journey and all that shit. Bottom line: Hate to disappoint you fellow idealists, but I’ve found nothing new to report from the bottom of the well. My “personal journey” lead me to such fucking ground breaking insights as the medical-insurance complex’s “cure” for high blood pressure (170/100) is/are prescriptions that make you stark-raving fucking PSYCHOTIC almost overnight (I’ve almost, and may yet, lose my job at a place that is CERTIFIABLY psychotic).
Bottom line? Who’s kidding whom? Alcoholism? Pick your poison! I now view “alcoholism” as an ALTOGETHER healthy coping and adjustment mechanism in response to what is NO DOUBT a creeping, insidious, and totally corrupting CAPITALISM!
THE HORROR! THE HORROR!
BTW, all you guys/gals are the best. I look back at some of my historical/hysterical shit and wonder why you guys ever put up with me in the first place. That said, I’m no doubt now no better, just different (maybe, slightly). Ain’t we all.
We’re all perfect. We’re all fucked to the core.
DA
DA – welcome back!!! I hope you stick around for some of the fun. Couple of very good new voices have joined in the discussion, and I am still trying to pump out meaningful stuff every week… although some may disagree with the value or quality.
Alcoholism in moderation (LOL) is fine; I do it all the time. The trick is not to let it control you. It must be a mutually rewarding experience for both you and the alcohol (LOL). And beer? Well, in Siberia that doesn’t count as alcohol at all!! If it is not 40 proof or greater it is not a problem.
And yes we are pretty much fucked, to use the vernacular. But, the key is to not let them take you down personally. Just get positioned to watch their whole experiment explode. And you know better than anyone (ex-military, right?) to keep your head down.
And watch the cholesterol and HBP meds; its a real racket those docs have going on; and their prescriptions can kill you and your stash.
my very best, my friend, sandy
@DA “wonder why you guys ever put up with me in the first place.”
Someone had to burn the midnight candle. You did a good job 😉
Hey DA, was pleasantly surprised to see you back–I actually did a double-take to make sure it was you. No work at all to ‘put up’ with you–even in a rant, you say more than most people I know. & btw, we all cope as we can to deal with whatever we’re living until we can come out into the light again. Glad you haven’t lost your bite. 😉
Sandy,
The reason why I don’t drink anymore is that reality is far scarier than being drunk. Most of my friends who drink say that they try to escape reality……
Ah yes, reality!
John I understand
I am beginning to think that Trayvon’s biggest crime was that he was on foot. Anyone walking in America today is suspect. If you are older than fifteen years and do not own a driver’s license, a car, and drive, you are immediately persona non grata, a suspect, a criminal, a terrorist.
More monitoring of the populace, my friends!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/254152/senate_passes_bill_requiring_black_boxes_in_all_new_cars.html#tk.nl_wbx_h_crawl1
Tales from Greece: Faces through photos of Greece in crisis: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/portraits-of-greece-in-crisis/100285/
Thanks, JC. Great story in the pix.