Sunday, August 31, 2008
The Jewish Paradox
It is extremely tiring being called a Nazi because I disapprove of the Contemporary Jew doing exactly what the Nazis had been doing.
The Nazis thought they were the Master Race and therefore had right to kill anybody who came in the way.
And the Jews, probably learning more from the Nazis than they should have – a Stockholm Syndrome kind of thing no doubt, now do the same thing – killing anybody who stands in their way of their vision of a Greater Israel. What the Jews had originally complained of has become their own modus operandi. The Jews said that they ‘would never forget’, and they haven’t, apparently having made of the Nazis’ behavior toward them something of an Instruction Manual on how they would subsequently behave toward everyone else. Sort of a ‘genocide them before they genocide us’ kind of thing.
It’s sad that America helps them out to such an extent – as a tiny little country they never would have been able to do it all on their own, and they would have had to arrive at a Peace Deal by now. But with the Help of America, thank God, they’ll never have to make Peace with anybody. You see, it’s the Protestant Vision that by enabling the Jews to re-establish Israel, the Last Battle will be provoked – Armageddon – and then, just as prophesized, Jesus will make his Second Coming, the Righteous will be Raptured… blah, blah, blah. What it comes down to is that the Americans who are in power actually have no intention toward Peace, despite what they say, but are doing everything in their power to provoke War. Indeed, giving the State of Israel 5 billion dollars every year to remain in a constant state of War. That 5 billion dollars basically underwrites their whole Economy. Peace would in fact bankrupt them. When you hear on the news that either Washington or Tel Aviv is moving toward establishing Peace with the Palestinians, that it is really against all of their historic interests and motivations, and probably only a prelude to some scheme for embarrassing the Palestinians before ratcheting up the War Machine to even more strenuous intensities and expenses.
Anyway, I’m the guy who is for Peace and against victimizing a relatively helpless minority (for although much is made of the threat of ‘Terror’, it’s a danger that has only killed or harmed .0000000001% of the targeted population, putting ‘Terrorism’ largely in the column of being nearly all ‘bark’ and not hardly any ‘bite’. One is more likely to win the lottery than to be harmed by Terrorists. Indeed, much is made of so little only to justify the Perpetual War that American Protestantism still believes will bring them their Armageddon and their Rapture. But perhaps they should be reminded, that the State of Israel was re-established in 1949, more than a half century ago, more than a generation ago, and that there have been already rather a few full blown Wars, and Armageddon has not happened yet. How long do they expect their tardy God to put things off? Yes, its already been 2000 years, so how much longer could it be?
Really, the American Protestants should consider the possibility that Armageddon and the Second Coming had already happeneded, with the Destruction of Jerusalem in the year 71 A.D. It honestly fit all the Prophetic Descriptions. Armies marched on Jerusalem from every corner. Then it could very well have happened that all the Genuine Christians of the day were Raptured and lifted up into Heaven. The bitter pill for Modern Protestants to swallow, though, is that they are now part of the Population of the Reprobate – the Children of the Damned. Ooooops. You know, somebody had to be. If so many damned people were to be left behind, well, one can’t expect that they should all just shrivel up and die. Life would go on, and it did. Also, these Protestants should take it as a hint that the Christian Church that ‘survived’ really was not part of the Real Church at all, not the Jews that Jesus had taught, but Greeks who followed the Teaching of Paul who had been an actual Persecutor of the Real Messianic Church that Jesus had established. It’s really all in the Book of Acts, if one reads it from that slant.
The best that these Protestants should hope for, or pray for, is a New Dispensation – enough of trying to milk the old Prophecies. They should review the more recent Events in Religious History. There had been all the Appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but the Protestants at their best and most Charitable, ignore Her. Now that the Protestants are allied with the Anti-Abortion Catholics on the Extreme Religious Right, they try to be un-provoking to their new Political Partners, but when assured there are no Catholics in the room they still continue to refer to the Mother of their Lord Jesus Christ as “the Whore of Babylon”… anything to re-justify their violence and hatred during what they call the Reformation, when they killed half the Catholics in Europe in order to confiscate Church lands, and set up rebellious little Nation States outside of purviews of Christian Civilization. However, they probably would not like the New Marian Prophecies anyway, as they are largely along the lines of bemoaning the Fall of Christian Civilization (Catholicism as it had been in its Glory Day), and the rise of Barbarism (everything Protestant, with its twin vehicles for Corruption – Capitalism and Democracy).
Okay, okay, you get the message – they are all Bad Guys. They either realize it and don’t care, or they are in complete denial about it, resting in their Faith that God somehow smoothes over the Moral Difficulties involved in having other Peoples suffer so that a few Chosen Jews and Protestants can live as Masters of the World and the Sole Inheritors of Heaven. In any case, it is necessary to deflect the blame from themselves to any who oppose them. Like the Jews before them they need to rise up and cut down even their own Prophets if they should happen to broach uncomfortable topics of conversation.
So I am the Bad Guy for insisting upon a modicum of morality. It’s sad when the good guys are now called Nazis or are seriously compared to the Nazis. They should consider that if it should be true, then how bad would that make everybody else?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Freedom of Speech minus Secrecy
Freedom of Speech minus Secrecy
Its odd that Americans still speak of Freedom of Speech. Now their Government places every embarrassing piece of information into some National Security Classification. Almost every Government Worker, Contractor, or member of the Military cannot discuss anything that has to do with anything because it is Classified. Indeed, it has caused quite a paradox of perceptions as Reporters are beginning to realize that ANY information released from the Government must certainly be contrived up lies, because if anything about it were actually True, it would have been Classified.
Private Information is no better. Every large Corporation now instructs their employees about all information available to them being “Company Private”.
Now, nearly nobody goes to jail for violating National Security Classifications or Company Private Guidelines; however, people are fired and they cannot ever again find comparable work. Everyone’s gainful employment largely depends upon keeping everything about their official capacities secret.
The Courts are also involved. One would think that Freedom of Speech would at least be respected by the Third Branch of Government. But now it is the most common of procedures for Judges to swear all parties to total secrecy and absolute News blackouts. Then there are Judgments issued on the condition that Secrecy remain perpetual. Official Government Agencies deliberately place constraints on Speech and don’t have a second thought about it.
Now, shouldn’t we all wonder how a Democracy is supposed to work if nobody knows anything? Democracy has become Government by Guess.
Yes, yes, Secrecy serves so many causes. If the Government and the Companies and the Courts did not see some advantage in maintaining Secrecy, they would not be so insistent upon the violation of Liberal Principles. However, they are only thinking of Themselves, aren’t they? If we were to think of the Greater Public Good, then would not all the advantages be in Freedom of Information. Even in regards to the Military, the great bulk of information now being classified is of no use to the Enemy – give the complete plans of an F-22 Fighter Jet to Turban Headed Terrorist in Afghanistan and he’ll probably use it for toilet paper. It is all about Political Control. Its all about covering up EVERYTHING. With Corporations it is all about Liability. With the Courts it is about hiding the fact that the Judges are ruling in favor of Wealth and Privilege – the other boys at the Country Club.
I forget where I read it, but the argument was made that when so many American’s came back from World War Two, having had close looks at how the Nazies and the Russians had done business, the convenience and utility of it all was much too tempting. Dictatorial Secrecy was imposed, publicly, privately and in the Courts. And nobody complained. I guess maybe nobody knew what was happening anyway. It was all kept secret.
Its odd that Americans still speak of Freedom of Speech. Now their Government places every embarrassing piece of information into some National Security Classification. Almost every Government Worker, Contractor, or member of the Military cannot discuss anything that has to do with anything because it is Classified. Indeed, it has caused quite a paradox of perceptions as Reporters are beginning to realize that ANY information released from the Government must certainly be contrived up lies, because if anything about it were actually True, it would have been Classified.
Private Information is no better. Every large Corporation now instructs their employees about all information available to them being “Company Private”.
Now, nearly nobody goes to jail for violating National Security Classifications or Company Private Guidelines; however, people are fired and they cannot ever again find comparable work. Everyone’s gainful employment largely depends upon keeping everything about their official capacities secret.
The Courts are also involved. One would think that Freedom of Speech would at least be respected by the Third Branch of Government. But now it is the most common of procedures for Judges to swear all parties to total secrecy and absolute News blackouts. Then there are Judgments issued on the condition that Secrecy remain perpetual. Official Government Agencies deliberately place constraints on Speech and don’t have a second thought about it.
Now, shouldn’t we all wonder how a Democracy is supposed to work if nobody knows anything? Democracy has become Government by Guess.
Yes, yes, Secrecy serves so many causes. If the Government and the Companies and the Courts did not see some advantage in maintaining Secrecy, they would not be so insistent upon the violation of Liberal Principles. However, they are only thinking of Themselves, aren’t they? If we were to think of the Greater Public Good, then would not all the advantages be in Freedom of Information. Even in regards to the Military, the great bulk of information now being classified is of no use to the Enemy – give the complete plans of an F-22 Fighter Jet to Turban Headed Terrorist in Afghanistan and he’ll probably use it for toilet paper. It is all about Political Control. Its all about covering up EVERYTHING. With Corporations it is all about Liability. With the Courts it is about hiding the fact that the Judges are ruling in favor of Wealth and Privilege – the other boys at the Country Club.
I forget where I read it, but the argument was made that when so many American’s came back from World War Two, having had close looks at how the Nazies and the Russians had done business, the convenience and utility of it all was much too tempting. Dictatorial Secrecy was imposed, publicly, privately and in the Courts. And nobody complained. I guess maybe nobody knew what was happening anyway. It was all kept secret.
Public Tyranny vs Private Tyranny
Public Tyranny vs Private Tyranny
Louis IVX was once asked how he could live with himself, being such a tyrant and all. He explained that he slept very well at night considering that as One Tyrant he saved the people from thousands of Petty Tyrants.
But the Kings were overthrown and now we live under the Regime of Thousands of Petty Tyrants who, of course, control the Media Propagandas convincing us that we are really very lucky to be enslaved on so many sides.
What brings this to mind is the Western Media’s coverage of the Chinese Olympics. We are treated to news which is supposed to shock of scandal that the Chinese Government had issued News Release Guidelines – instructing its Reporters and Media Coordinators of the type of thing that would be News and the kinds of things best left ignored. How Shameful that the Government should get involved in the News!
Well, what absolute Hypocrisy! Yes, in China is just so happens that the Government is the Entity that issues such orders. But is CNN, FOX, CBS or the BBC honestly going to pretend to tell us that NOBODY is issuing THEIR Reporters any such ‘Guidelines’. Are we supposed to believe that All Western Media is totally at the discretion of the Reporters themselves, that no story is ever quashed by some Editor somewhere in pursuant to some ‘policy directive’. We are to believe that the Billionaire Monopolists of the Western Media – Ted Turner and that Fat Bald Australian guy, oh, Rupert Murdick, and even Sung Mung Moon who apparently found that Controlling Public Opinion was even more fun than Playing Messiah (remember the “Moonies” back in the Seventies?) – are we to believe that these guys place no Political Filter upon what is being reported by THEIR Reporters – their hirelings, their slaves? They are NOT Government, certainly, but what assurances are there that they are not bad or worse? For instance, are we really served by all the efforts of the Private Media to stir up Wars and Insurrections? Makes great reading though, huh?
Then there arises the larger issues. The Republicans, the Libertarians, and the Tories, and the little Nazi-Like Parties throughout the World have argued that all Oppression and Inefficiency sources from Government and that without Government the World would naturally revert back to Eden again, pristine and perfect. But what happened when such Anti-Government policies were actually implemented. The Corporations went wild and now every single one of the Capitalist Democratic Economies is hanging on the very brink of collapse. You see, without Government, even those who had a vested interest in remaining Rich could not refrain from implementing schemes so extreme that of course they went over the top into the area of diminishing returns, blowing up in their faces. They behaved like children, that is, Absolutely Powerful Dictatorial children. In all this time where Private Capitalists reigned supreme with absolutely no Government oversight, HOW many workers were ‘downsized’, thrown to part-time employment, stripped of Health Coverage? Raped and Pillaged. If a Government were to so screw over people like this then it would be treated as a Scandal. But since people were only being screwed over by other people, the ones with Political Lobbyists, then it is all fine and dandy.
Honestly, would Louis the IVX, and his corps of professional Civil Bureaucrats really be much worse then this present Regime of Thousands of Petit Tyrants and all the Wild Corruptions we know about even despite the Blanket of Secrecy our own Capitalist Medias try to throw over the Top of it All? At least a Bureaucrat can be expected to have some Ideals. We can imagine how a Person brought up for Public Service might aspire to be genuinely helpful. But Rule by Corporate Mogul, which is what we have now? What can we expect from people who admit to their Greed as some kind of a virtue and pretend to have no other goal in life but to Win and make Losers of everybody else? Even if Government is potentially Corruptible – a Flower that wilts around the edges, it must be obvious that Capitalism is the Very Being and Nature of Corruption itself – an Orchid of stinking dead flesh! Yes, corruption in Government is shocking because it is NOT supposed to be there. But what would truly be amazing to us is Rule by these Capitalist Lobbyists if it were not found to be basically, deeply and intrinsically Corrupt, for what can we expect of people who never claimed to care about anything else besides making a Fast Buck.
Those who told us that Government was Bad omitted telling us that Private Schemers and Crooks would be so much more worse. Bring back Louis.
Louis IVX was once asked how he could live with himself, being such a tyrant and all. He explained that he slept very well at night considering that as One Tyrant he saved the people from thousands of Petty Tyrants.
But the Kings were overthrown and now we live under the Regime of Thousands of Petty Tyrants who, of course, control the Media Propagandas convincing us that we are really very lucky to be enslaved on so many sides.
What brings this to mind is the Western Media’s coverage of the Chinese Olympics. We are treated to news which is supposed to shock of scandal that the Chinese Government had issued News Release Guidelines – instructing its Reporters and Media Coordinators of the type of thing that would be News and the kinds of things best left ignored. How Shameful that the Government should get involved in the News!
Well, what absolute Hypocrisy! Yes, in China is just so happens that the Government is the Entity that issues such orders. But is CNN, FOX, CBS or the BBC honestly going to pretend to tell us that NOBODY is issuing THEIR Reporters any such ‘Guidelines’. Are we supposed to believe that All Western Media is totally at the discretion of the Reporters themselves, that no story is ever quashed by some Editor somewhere in pursuant to some ‘policy directive’. We are to believe that the Billionaire Monopolists of the Western Media – Ted Turner and that Fat Bald Australian guy, oh, Rupert Murdick, and even Sung Mung Moon who apparently found that Controlling Public Opinion was even more fun than Playing Messiah (remember the “Moonies” back in the Seventies?) – are we to believe that these guys place no Political Filter upon what is being reported by THEIR Reporters – their hirelings, their slaves? They are NOT Government, certainly, but what assurances are there that they are not bad or worse? For instance, are we really served by all the efforts of the Private Media to stir up Wars and Insurrections? Makes great reading though, huh?
Then there arises the larger issues. The Republicans, the Libertarians, and the Tories, and the little Nazi-Like Parties throughout the World have argued that all Oppression and Inefficiency sources from Government and that without Government the World would naturally revert back to Eden again, pristine and perfect. But what happened when such Anti-Government policies were actually implemented. The Corporations went wild and now every single one of the Capitalist Democratic Economies is hanging on the very brink of collapse. You see, without Government, even those who had a vested interest in remaining Rich could not refrain from implementing schemes so extreme that of course they went over the top into the area of diminishing returns, blowing up in their faces. They behaved like children, that is, Absolutely Powerful Dictatorial children. In all this time where Private Capitalists reigned supreme with absolutely no Government oversight, HOW many workers were ‘downsized’, thrown to part-time employment, stripped of Health Coverage? Raped and Pillaged. If a Government were to so screw over people like this then it would be treated as a Scandal. But since people were only being screwed over by other people, the ones with Political Lobbyists, then it is all fine and dandy.
Honestly, would Louis the IVX, and his corps of professional Civil Bureaucrats really be much worse then this present Regime of Thousands of Petit Tyrants and all the Wild Corruptions we know about even despite the Blanket of Secrecy our own Capitalist Medias try to throw over the Top of it All? At least a Bureaucrat can be expected to have some Ideals. We can imagine how a Person brought up for Public Service might aspire to be genuinely helpful. But Rule by Corporate Mogul, which is what we have now? What can we expect from people who admit to their Greed as some kind of a virtue and pretend to have no other goal in life but to Win and make Losers of everybody else? Even if Government is potentially Corruptible – a Flower that wilts around the edges, it must be obvious that Capitalism is the Very Being and Nature of Corruption itself – an Orchid of stinking dead flesh! Yes, corruption in Government is shocking because it is NOT supposed to be there. But what would truly be amazing to us is Rule by these Capitalist Lobbyists if it were not found to be basically, deeply and intrinsically Corrupt, for what can we expect of people who never claimed to care about anything else besides making a Fast Buck.
Those who told us that Government was Bad omitted telling us that Private Schemers and Crooks would be so much more worse. Bring back Louis.
Russian to War
Russian to War
It had to happen sooner or later. All the Old Timers are gone who remembered not only World War Two but also World War One which really was the absolute proximate cause for the Second World War. I think without a shadow of a doubt that future historians will not make the same distinction we do between World War One and World War Two, but will see the intervening cessation of hostilities much as a truce, also as there had been truces during the Hundred Years War. The obvious factor is that the same line-up and allies and enemies went at each other again. The two conflicts had not been separated by even a complete generation – more than a few soldiers were able bodied men for both Wars. Future Historians will gloss over discussions of what ‘caused’ what has been called World War Two as so much short-sighted silliness, as it will be obvious to the larger view made impartial by Time that the cause of World War Two had been World War One. It is the causes for that First War that are important to us.
But if one listens to the Political Propagandizing currently being presented to us all, it is along the lines of instructing us that World War Two was inevitable and that it was absolutely necessary to stop Hitler… leaving us to infer that it is equally necessary now that Putin of Russia be stopped. No one reminds us of the millions who had to die to teach Hitler his lesson, and not just in battle. There was the bombings, but far worse but mostly forgotten (for that very reason I suppose) were the Food Embargos enforced by America and Britain that assured that even if Hitler had not put large segments of the population in camps, where, by the way, food was for a long time rationed before it inevitably ran out, that millions of deaths would have occurred nonetheless. Millions of people cannot live without food. Starving a Continent to teach Hitler a lesson would have had its Holocaust one way or another no matter how it came down. We are told of Gas Chambers but really, most people had starved to death… and it was Roosevelt and Churchill behind all that. Anyway, all of that aside, it is difficult to comprehend the ignorance behind anybodies serious wish that we should have another World War Two – that we should measure how ‘Glorious’ our Generation is entitled to be by what proportion of dead it leaves on battlefields that might well have been avoided.
Besides, as much as this present Generation of Politicians look back in nostalgic awe of World War Two as a Righteous and Necessary War, the comparison to any situation we have today with Russia simply does not apply. What really draws a parallel is the wildly tragic blunders that lead up to World War One – a War that had a thousand causes but not a single hint of any reason that could justify the subsequent losses and disastrous results, yes, including World War Two. More than 30 million people died in World War One, and the subsequent instabilities set up a resurge in the conflict a mere 15 years later which took another 30 million. Yes, apart from the Propaganda that tells us again and again that there were only 6 million deaths that really mattered, the rest of the dead should be measured too, even if they were not the “Chosen People”. For every Jew that died in the Holocaust, ten ordinary people died too… but no Propaganda is served by Remembering them. While everyone else was encourage to Forget and go on and Live in Peace, the Propaganda Machine decided to remember this One Fraction of the Deaths in order to justify a War Machine that has destabilized World Politics ever since. Because of a European Holocaust that everyone suffered, they alone have the right to murder and enslave Palestinians. The Logic of Propaganda is wonderful.
World War One was instigated by a bunch of openly Imperialistic Democracies that had to talk tough and act tough to please their constituencies. If it had all been still under Kings who utilized professional diplomatic bureaucracies, then there would have been a Convention held in Paris or Vienna and the competing Imperial Powers would simply have sliced up the World Map like a big pizza pie. There would have been no Huge European Civil War, no collapse of Civilization (and, yes, Civilization DID collapse… just listen to the music), and the rest of the World would have been brought up to speed a whole lot faster than it did. A Cooperative Network of Imperial Powers ruling the World, as opposed to two horribly destructive World Wars, would have been a much better package for all concerned. Instead what we had was an escalating game of push and shove from which no politician could dare back down, resulting in Wars and then the Revolutions which perhaps killed and destroyed more than even the Wars had done. Europe has not yet gained back even half of what it had lost with that misguided conflict. Only America benefited by this European Suicide.
But it is all about to start again. That new little foreign President that the French got to rule over themselves (what? The French know enough about their own national character not to elect another Frenchman… Napoleon wasn’t French either now that I think about it) – when he is not poking his new Super-Model wife, he’s out drumming up a War against Russia. Just minutes ago in History the French themselves had refused to join NATO, not wishing to be pulled into an American driven War. Now France wishes to provoke a War by insisting that NATO effectively invade the Former Soviet Union, annexing what was until only just recently an integral part of what we understood as ‘Russia’.
Even the new German Girl, with her political ear to the ground, has come out thumping for War, perhaps with the intuition that Peace with the Germans had only been something of a momentary fad, that Defeat has left a lasting bad taste in their mouths and that they are ready to go again. Doing so well now after having lost two Big Wars, I suppose they think that losing one more might make things even better.
As for the Americans, apart from their Propaganda, they really did not fight in the Big Wars, not like everyone else did. Indeed, the Americans even had to contrive a few disastrous battles just in order to sustain enough losses so that they could pound the Treaty Tables afterwards pretending as much vehemence as the other Partners in War who had lost millions where America had only lost thousands. Indeed, the real fact of the Wars for America was that they were the ultimate Arms Supplier, draining the World’s Gold while hanging back from any real combat until the outcome of the Wars had already been decided.
But does America think that it could now instigate a new World War with Russia and remain equally untouched? America can’t even manage to comfortably deal with the relatively primitive pastoralists of Iraq and Afghanistan. Fighting these shepherds has lead America to the verge of Bankruptcy. Is any of America’s Intelligence Community telling any of their reckless Politicians that Russia has scores of Armored Divisions, a competitive Air Force, a huge blue water Navy. What of those Midget War Mongers in France and Germany? How many Armored Divisions can France and Germany commit? Russia still has enough Mig Airplanes to darken the sky. France and Germany can barely mount an air show.
Yes, I suppose everybody thinks that if everyone talks tough and in unison, then Russia will back down. Really? But who is more likely to back down? It is not Russia that is on the verge of Bankruptcy. Russia had its big problems and is now on the other side of them. America is barely able to keep afloat on its swiftly sinking dollar, and Europe makes no secret of depending on America… watch the European Exchanges as they mirror Wall Street day after day, even with amplified swings… when America sniffles Europe catches cold, and when America skins its knee Europe hemorrhages blood. Honestly, of what does Russia have to be afraid? Even if America with its few European auxiliaries were to launch a devastating attack on Russia’s Military and Economic infrastructure, everyone knows that America and its Little Friends have no stomach for occupying Russia. As said previously, America has its hands full dealing with tiny defeated little Peoples. Even if America were to knock the Russian Giant down to the ground, certainly they no longer harbor any delusions about being able to keep It down.
And why shouldn’t America and Europe back down. America has its United States. Now Europe even has its Union. Why is it that Russia is the only World Power that can’t pull together the Peoples and Nations within its Natural Boundaries. Besides, it’s the right and best thing. Larger Political and Economic Jurisdictions do better than small City States. The only people who benefit from these little C.I.A. Client Republics are the Little Gangs that usurp power and become the Little Kings of the Mountain… the local Fat Hogs. Yes, yes, the Propaganda says that Democracy gives people Self-Representation, but really? Who Nominates these Client Candidates? These Politicians who step forward to run for Public Office, who’s paying them to do it? Then there is the matter of the Losers within these Democracies – the 49% of the Public that can be entirely ignored if their Candidates are voted down. For Democracy to be really representative, they should gather together all those who cast losing votes and shoot them, so that it can actually be true to say that the People, the survivors anyway, are represented by the Government that they did indeed vote for. I would say I am just kidding, but in some Democracies it is almost that serious – that Elections are so violent because the Results decide the fate of complete Demographic Segments of Society which will certainly be marginalized politically and economically should their Candidate or Party lose. Anyway, I can hardly believe that the Propagandists really believe in their own Propaganda to such an extreme extent, as they must be so well acquainted with all of the underlying Corruption, that even if it has made them wildly wealthy, they must be cynical and jaded enough from the Suffering they see themselves imposing on others to realize that their Scam isn’t worth another Devastating World War. After all, just how naughty are the Russians being? Taking charge of a Former State that is about to commit Treason is hardly the same thing as attacking some really Free and Independent Republic. If Abraham Lincoln was justified in America’s own Civil War, where Rebellious Independent Republics were invaded and brought back to Statehood and Union, then why does not Putin deserve the same latitude? If Lincoln could burn his Georgia…?
Oh, there I am talking about facts of life and common sense. Always always always we must keep in mind that we live in Mindless and Corrupt Democracies. In that case if a totally devastating War could possibly be launched out of excesses of overblown Public Patriotism, whipped up by super-interested Propaganda Machines, so that a mere handful of the Super Rich can double the value of their stock portfolios, then we all should probably be very afraid.
This Young Generation of Idiots who know nothing of the turn of the Last Century that lead up to all the bloody excesses of the Deadliest One Hundred Years in Human History – ordinarily I would ask them to read a few books to get some insight into it all. But I guess they don’t need to. They are now living it. They are the Fools of 1914 all over again.
It had to happen sooner or later. All the Old Timers are gone who remembered not only World War Two but also World War One which really was the absolute proximate cause for the Second World War. I think without a shadow of a doubt that future historians will not make the same distinction we do between World War One and World War Two, but will see the intervening cessation of hostilities much as a truce, also as there had been truces during the Hundred Years War. The obvious factor is that the same line-up and allies and enemies went at each other again. The two conflicts had not been separated by even a complete generation – more than a few soldiers were able bodied men for both Wars. Future Historians will gloss over discussions of what ‘caused’ what has been called World War Two as so much short-sighted silliness, as it will be obvious to the larger view made impartial by Time that the cause of World War Two had been World War One. It is the causes for that First War that are important to us.
But if one listens to the Political Propagandizing currently being presented to us all, it is along the lines of instructing us that World War Two was inevitable and that it was absolutely necessary to stop Hitler… leaving us to infer that it is equally necessary now that Putin of Russia be stopped. No one reminds us of the millions who had to die to teach Hitler his lesson, and not just in battle. There was the bombings, but far worse but mostly forgotten (for that very reason I suppose) were the Food Embargos enforced by America and Britain that assured that even if Hitler had not put large segments of the population in camps, where, by the way, food was for a long time rationed before it inevitably ran out, that millions of deaths would have occurred nonetheless. Millions of people cannot live without food. Starving a Continent to teach Hitler a lesson would have had its Holocaust one way or another no matter how it came down. We are told of Gas Chambers but really, most people had starved to death… and it was Roosevelt and Churchill behind all that. Anyway, all of that aside, it is difficult to comprehend the ignorance behind anybodies serious wish that we should have another World War Two – that we should measure how ‘Glorious’ our Generation is entitled to be by what proportion of dead it leaves on battlefields that might well have been avoided.
Besides, as much as this present Generation of Politicians look back in nostalgic awe of World War Two as a Righteous and Necessary War, the comparison to any situation we have today with Russia simply does not apply. What really draws a parallel is the wildly tragic blunders that lead up to World War One – a War that had a thousand causes but not a single hint of any reason that could justify the subsequent losses and disastrous results, yes, including World War Two. More than 30 million people died in World War One, and the subsequent instabilities set up a resurge in the conflict a mere 15 years later which took another 30 million. Yes, apart from the Propaganda that tells us again and again that there were only 6 million deaths that really mattered, the rest of the dead should be measured too, even if they were not the “Chosen People”. For every Jew that died in the Holocaust, ten ordinary people died too… but no Propaganda is served by Remembering them. While everyone else was encourage to Forget and go on and Live in Peace, the Propaganda Machine decided to remember this One Fraction of the Deaths in order to justify a War Machine that has destabilized World Politics ever since. Because of a European Holocaust that everyone suffered, they alone have the right to murder and enslave Palestinians. The Logic of Propaganda is wonderful.
World War One was instigated by a bunch of openly Imperialistic Democracies that had to talk tough and act tough to please their constituencies. If it had all been still under Kings who utilized professional diplomatic bureaucracies, then there would have been a Convention held in Paris or Vienna and the competing Imperial Powers would simply have sliced up the World Map like a big pizza pie. There would have been no Huge European Civil War, no collapse of Civilization (and, yes, Civilization DID collapse… just listen to the music), and the rest of the World would have been brought up to speed a whole lot faster than it did. A Cooperative Network of Imperial Powers ruling the World, as opposed to two horribly destructive World Wars, would have been a much better package for all concerned. Instead what we had was an escalating game of push and shove from which no politician could dare back down, resulting in Wars and then the Revolutions which perhaps killed and destroyed more than even the Wars had done. Europe has not yet gained back even half of what it had lost with that misguided conflict. Only America benefited by this European Suicide.
But it is all about to start again. That new little foreign President that the French got to rule over themselves (what? The French know enough about their own national character not to elect another Frenchman… Napoleon wasn’t French either now that I think about it) – when he is not poking his new Super-Model wife, he’s out drumming up a War against Russia. Just minutes ago in History the French themselves had refused to join NATO, not wishing to be pulled into an American driven War. Now France wishes to provoke a War by insisting that NATO effectively invade the Former Soviet Union, annexing what was until only just recently an integral part of what we understood as ‘Russia’.
Even the new German Girl, with her political ear to the ground, has come out thumping for War, perhaps with the intuition that Peace with the Germans had only been something of a momentary fad, that Defeat has left a lasting bad taste in their mouths and that they are ready to go again. Doing so well now after having lost two Big Wars, I suppose they think that losing one more might make things even better.
As for the Americans, apart from their Propaganda, they really did not fight in the Big Wars, not like everyone else did. Indeed, the Americans even had to contrive a few disastrous battles just in order to sustain enough losses so that they could pound the Treaty Tables afterwards pretending as much vehemence as the other Partners in War who had lost millions where America had only lost thousands. Indeed, the real fact of the Wars for America was that they were the ultimate Arms Supplier, draining the World’s Gold while hanging back from any real combat until the outcome of the Wars had already been decided.
But does America think that it could now instigate a new World War with Russia and remain equally untouched? America can’t even manage to comfortably deal with the relatively primitive pastoralists of Iraq and Afghanistan. Fighting these shepherds has lead America to the verge of Bankruptcy. Is any of America’s Intelligence Community telling any of their reckless Politicians that Russia has scores of Armored Divisions, a competitive Air Force, a huge blue water Navy. What of those Midget War Mongers in France and Germany? How many Armored Divisions can France and Germany commit? Russia still has enough Mig Airplanes to darken the sky. France and Germany can barely mount an air show.
Yes, I suppose everybody thinks that if everyone talks tough and in unison, then Russia will back down. Really? But who is more likely to back down? It is not Russia that is on the verge of Bankruptcy. Russia had its big problems and is now on the other side of them. America is barely able to keep afloat on its swiftly sinking dollar, and Europe makes no secret of depending on America… watch the European Exchanges as they mirror Wall Street day after day, even with amplified swings… when America sniffles Europe catches cold, and when America skins its knee Europe hemorrhages blood. Honestly, of what does Russia have to be afraid? Even if America with its few European auxiliaries were to launch a devastating attack on Russia’s Military and Economic infrastructure, everyone knows that America and its Little Friends have no stomach for occupying Russia. As said previously, America has its hands full dealing with tiny defeated little Peoples. Even if America were to knock the Russian Giant down to the ground, certainly they no longer harbor any delusions about being able to keep It down.
And why shouldn’t America and Europe back down. America has its United States. Now Europe even has its Union. Why is it that Russia is the only World Power that can’t pull together the Peoples and Nations within its Natural Boundaries. Besides, it’s the right and best thing. Larger Political and Economic Jurisdictions do better than small City States. The only people who benefit from these little C.I.A. Client Republics are the Little Gangs that usurp power and become the Little Kings of the Mountain… the local Fat Hogs. Yes, yes, the Propaganda says that Democracy gives people Self-Representation, but really? Who Nominates these Client Candidates? These Politicians who step forward to run for Public Office, who’s paying them to do it? Then there is the matter of the Losers within these Democracies – the 49% of the Public that can be entirely ignored if their Candidates are voted down. For Democracy to be really representative, they should gather together all those who cast losing votes and shoot them, so that it can actually be true to say that the People, the survivors anyway, are represented by the Government that they did indeed vote for. I would say I am just kidding, but in some Democracies it is almost that serious – that Elections are so violent because the Results decide the fate of complete Demographic Segments of Society which will certainly be marginalized politically and economically should their Candidate or Party lose. Anyway, I can hardly believe that the Propagandists really believe in their own Propaganda to such an extreme extent, as they must be so well acquainted with all of the underlying Corruption, that even if it has made them wildly wealthy, they must be cynical and jaded enough from the Suffering they see themselves imposing on others to realize that their Scam isn’t worth another Devastating World War. After all, just how naughty are the Russians being? Taking charge of a Former State that is about to commit Treason is hardly the same thing as attacking some really Free and Independent Republic. If Abraham Lincoln was justified in America’s own Civil War, where Rebellious Independent Republics were invaded and brought back to Statehood and Union, then why does not Putin deserve the same latitude? If Lincoln could burn his Georgia…?
Oh, there I am talking about facts of life and common sense. Always always always we must keep in mind that we live in Mindless and Corrupt Democracies. In that case if a totally devastating War could possibly be launched out of excesses of overblown Public Patriotism, whipped up by super-interested Propaganda Machines, so that a mere handful of the Super Rich can double the value of their stock portfolios, then we all should probably be very afraid.
This Young Generation of Idiots who know nothing of the turn of the Last Century that lead up to all the bloody excesses of the Deadliest One Hundred Years in Human History – ordinarily I would ask them to read a few books to get some insight into it all. But I guess they don’t need to. They are now living it. They are the Fools of 1914 all over again.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Georgia Russia and America
Democracy can be so insidious. Let’s look at the History of Georgian Democracy. The Soviet Union collapsed and the American Spy Services installed a Pro-American Regime. People who could be bought cheap were bought cheap and everyone else was pushed out of the way. There is something about Democracy that most people ignore. Yes, everyone votes, but who is it that nominates? Who picks the people that finally get voted for. There we have the first corruptions.
Is Georgia’s government corrupt? Well, we know the Regime did not get on top because of its brains. The Little Midget on the World Stage, the President of Georgia has been boasting East and West that he is America’s Ally, the New Israel. Honestly, does he even know what that means? In Israel they get 5 billions dollars a year from America, a percentage of which is laundered through salaries and donated back to American Politicians to continue to support Israel and keep the Money Flow going. Georgia has no where near even the beginning of such a Lobbying apparatus. There is not a single American Politicians that will get a nickel less for their next campaign if Georgia were to completely disappear from the face of the Earth, America’s Ally or not. That Little Midget of a Georgian President would know that if he would glance at a newspaper.
Besides, despite all of the American Bluster in the face of the Russian Invasion, the American State Department has time and time again insisted that NATO was not assembled as an Anti-Russian Army. After decades of insisting that they were not Russia’s Enemy, the American’s would be most embarrassed liars to change their tone now, at the first excuse to attack Russia.
Besides, Bush is planning to attack Iran. McCain and Obama are both out to intensify the War in Afghanistan, and neither has ruled out widening the War into a full scale invasion of Pakistan. Simply put, America has not the least little bit left over for instigating World War III against the Russians. The Russians know this. That little Weenie in Georgia should have known it before he started killed Russian Soldiers and harassing Citizens holding Russian Passports.
Could Russia have restrained itself. Well, not really. America simply was not stopping its policy of NATO-izing first every Eastern European Country that had been in the Soviet Sphere, but then going on to Americanize even former Soviet States. Russia had warned that that would be going too far. Now, the best time to act is BEFORE an Ex-Soviet State is NATO-ized. Once a Country becomes a NATO Member it becomes difficult NOT to go to War should it be invaded. But Georgia is not yet a NATO Member. Georgia is not yet really an Ally.
And this does bring up the larger matter that American’s and European’s should consider… all NATO Members. Do they REALLY want to launch World War III because the American’s were overselling NATO, apparently for no better reason than to mock and ridicule Russia on the World Stage, showing how Capitalist Democracy can roll up everything that Russia had lost.
Honestly, France and Germany, who really have no say at all in NATO policy should simply pull out and as quickly as possible or be pulled into World War III because America is in an Election Cycle and nobody could politically afford to look weak and back down.
Marx was wrong. It is not Capitalism that will cause the Collapse of Civilization. It will be Democracy, mindless retarded Democracy.
Is Georgia’s government corrupt? Well, we know the Regime did not get on top because of its brains. The Little Midget on the World Stage, the President of Georgia has been boasting East and West that he is America’s Ally, the New Israel. Honestly, does he even know what that means? In Israel they get 5 billions dollars a year from America, a percentage of which is laundered through salaries and donated back to American Politicians to continue to support Israel and keep the Money Flow going. Georgia has no where near even the beginning of such a Lobbying apparatus. There is not a single American Politicians that will get a nickel less for their next campaign if Georgia were to completely disappear from the face of the Earth, America’s Ally or not. That Little Midget of a Georgian President would know that if he would glance at a newspaper.
Besides, despite all of the American Bluster in the face of the Russian Invasion, the American State Department has time and time again insisted that NATO was not assembled as an Anti-Russian Army. After decades of insisting that they were not Russia’s Enemy, the American’s would be most embarrassed liars to change their tone now, at the first excuse to attack Russia.
Besides, Bush is planning to attack Iran. McCain and Obama are both out to intensify the War in Afghanistan, and neither has ruled out widening the War into a full scale invasion of Pakistan. Simply put, America has not the least little bit left over for instigating World War III against the Russians. The Russians know this. That little Weenie in Georgia should have known it before he started killed Russian Soldiers and harassing Citizens holding Russian Passports.
Could Russia have restrained itself. Well, not really. America simply was not stopping its policy of NATO-izing first every Eastern European Country that had been in the Soviet Sphere, but then going on to Americanize even former Soviet States. Russia had warned that that would be going too far. Now, the best time to act is BEFORE an Ex-Soviet State is NATO-ized. Once a Country becomes a NATO Member it becomes difficult NOT to go to War should it be invaded. But Georgia is not yet a NATO Member. Georgia is not yet really an Ally.
And this does bring up the larger matter that American’s and European’s should consider… all NATO Members. Do they REALLY want to launch World War III because the American’s were overselling NATO, apparently for no better reason than to mock and ridicule Russia on the World Stage, showing how Capitalist Democracy can roll up everything that Russia had lost.
Honestly, France and Germany, who really have no say at all in NATO policy should simply pull out and as quickly as possible or be pulled into World War III because America is in an Election Cycle and nobody could politically afford to look weak and back down.
Marx was wrong. It is not Capitalism that will cause the Collapse of Civilization. It will be Democracy, mindless retarded Democracy.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Capitalism vs. Civilization
Capitalism vs. Civilization
Here’s a quick example: the rise of primitive Rap Music. Capitalist Music Producers could sell real music – trained professional singers with professionally orchestrated instrumental music, but they choose to sell sexist cussing and swearing with a background of synthetic percussion. You see, in either case they can only get about the same price for either product. The Quality product would of course cost more to produce. Finding somebody who will cuss and swear in rhymes, well, that’s almost free. Like the Colonel said to Elvis, “I can find a kid on any street corner who can do what you do”… and at least Elvis could play guitar. As far as Rap Music goes, the Ghetto is teaming with young men who can cuss in rhyme. Talent is guaranteed to be cheap, and Capitalism will be predisposed to give us as little as possible for what we are willing to spend.
Yes, Capitalism argues that it is only providing for demand, and if we wanted Quality then it would provide Quality. Yes, if only that were true. However, from my own life experience I know perfectly well that Capitalism does all it can do to Shape Tastes. Very little Propaganda is Political. Most is commercial – they call it advertising in most cases, but the shaping of Public Taste is done at many levels. Now, think about almost the entire 20th Century and you will see one solid trend, if anything, and that is that Quality and Established Culture in the Arts, of almost anything bought and sold, was portrayed as elitist, pretentious – basically ‘uncool’… to use one of their low-quality phrases. Tastes were deliberately dummed down, so that product could be churned out cheaper… so that nearly all returns could go directly to the Producers. Not only would Talent be kept as cheap as possible, but also Production. Simple things are easier and cheaper to produce than complex things, while, again, the asking price is the same.
We can track the Decline of our Musical Example. Big Bands replaced Orchestras. Impromptu off-the-cuff Jazz replaced composed and orchestrated music. Swing Bands replaced Big Bands. Then Rock and Roll replaced Bands. For a while Disco replaced even the small rock and roll bands. Now Rap has replaced Rock and Roll, and there are no musicians… just noise technicians – spitters and scratchers. Look at the credits on any CD made today. Then find a record made 40 years ago. Music used to be an Industry that employed a lot of people for a living wage. A hundred years ago Musicians formed a sizeable Profession, several percent of the population were Professional Musicians, and a good percentage of them were even respectable – not reduced to playing down to the moronic tastes of idiot kids in drugged out clubs, but actually playing the best music ever conceived. That’s been wiped out except in Socialist Societies that continue to try to keep such things alive; however, it is almost a futile gesture, remembering that the talent pool has been so much constricted. When 3% of Society were trained musicians, then the Very Best were the very best of Very Many. Now, only a tiny fraction of people ever study music, and it is likely that the best of that tiny fraction might not be very good at all. There’s not been a decent concerto written in 50 years. Some years the Chopin Award is not given because nobody who shows up for the competition is deemed worthy to even compete for it. We are on the verge of pronouncing Music a dead Art.
Literature also cultivated a Coolness, substituting an uneducated style for the Snotty Didactic University Style… again, maybe it is only a coincidence that the more primitive styles are less costly to produce. Hemingway made a career out of convincing the Public that anything written beyond the reach of a sixth grader was artificial. Well, duh. And since Hemingway little has been written much worth reading. You see, the Art in Artificial was what made literature worth the trouble. Now we have plots and pornography that anybody can understand, even dropouts. And its all on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
People are willing partners in the conspiracy to have themselves dummed down. Give Easy Ignorance an excuse to feel superior to arduously acquired Culture, and the dummies will grab it up like Free Beer.
Yes, there is the argument that a dummed down Culture is accessible to everybody but an elaborate and Educated Culture would have to be Selective and Elitist. Well, yes, but only if it were predetermined that most people would be deprived of a higher education. Yes, in America it is Public Policy to require Education only up to the age of 16. Then only High School Educations are provided for, and after that students must fend for themselves. That’s all a matter of Public Policy which could certainly be changed. Higher Education would lead to Higher Salaries which would amass more Tax Revenues – it would pay for itself. One argument against it is that it would attack the Class Privilege that now deliberately aims at limiting the access to Higher Education. The other argument against it is that the Ruling Party has found that lesser educated people vote for the Ruling Party – no Politician is going to mess with a Social Formula that brought him into power to begin with. No matter how much they speak of ‘change’, it is the Status Quo that brought them their success, and we can expect that they will do little to kill the goose that laid their golden egg, so to speak. Anyway, it follows that the Culture would be Dummed Down so that the Victims of this Policy of Class Privilege and Manipulated Voting will perhaps not notice their victimization – if the Culture of the Common Man is the only thing they see, then they will not feel as though they are being deprived of anything. And the stratagem has largely worked – the great majority of people feel as content as pigs in mud.
Also we need to consider that in Cultural Matters, formal education may have very little to do with anything. Look at the Cultural Climate that supported the Big Bands or High Literature. Kids grew up with such things and became educated up to its level by their exposure to it. People acquired their High Tastes on their own. It was something of a trick for the Producers to convince people of High Taste to be ashamed of their Elitism and Artificiality, but such is the power of Social Stigma used as a weapon by those only interested in The Profit Motive.
Well, Music and Literature are only examples. Every Capitalist Producer of anything has a financial interest in keeping his costs as low as possible, his own organization as small as possible. and so also has an interest in keeping popular tastes as low and as simplistic as possible. In matters of Taste, this has proved to have been easy for them. Manufactured Goods present a different problem, and one where American Capitalism has fallen into its most obvious areas of failure. Stuff has to work right and last a long time without breaking down. It is almost impossible to convince even the most susceptible imbeciles that broken and poorly performing manufactured goods are ‘cooler’ than working and reliable manufactured goods (Harley Davidson Motorcycles being a notable exception).
In Manufacturing the Trend toward dummed down simplicity and stripped down Production Teams works against a Quality that is almost necessary. The Profit Motive, it’s surprising to say, works against Manufacturers. Simply look at the success that the Authoritarian and Socialist Regimes have had in manufacturing. They are better at coordinating necessarily large Organizations. Russia beat Germany in WWII simply by producing more tanks, more weapons. Then the Far East’s success in the Automotive and Electronics Markets were not about stripping down their Production Facilities but about coordinating their entire National Capacities. For them it was about National Efforts to Win the Peace, when in America it was only about isolated attempts at augmenting the private profits of relatively few people.
Then there is the matter throughout the West of Private Companies and even Governments being infiltrated by Secret Societies, to the effect that Job Placement and Promotions are being conducted by the Secret Societies for the benefit of the Secret Societies. Engineering Firms, Manufacturers, almost any sizeable company is no longer assured that the Best People are being utilized, not when their Human Resource Offices have been taken over by Secret Societies. America, and even Western Europe cannot compete in the Auto or Electronics Markets when their Chief Engineers know nothing about Engineering but get their Big Offices because they are 32 Degree Masons. The Success of Asia may be attributed to nothing more than the fact that they have not YET been infiltrated by Masons.
Oh, and then the West has another problem with divided loyalties – the Company vs. the Unions dynamic. It must be extremely difficult for any worker to feel loyalty to a company, and to support its efforts toward Quality Control, when that Company so openly attacks his interests every few years, in order to give the Worker the worst contract possible. Its all very loud and its all very public. Workers and Company become bitter enemies, and all the ill feelings and grudges are barely forgotten when it becomes Contract Time again. How can one expect any Decent Product to emerge from such a bitter and vengeful process? But nearly every product from either America or Europe might as well be stamped with a Logo that says “Made With Hate and Distrust”. Yet it is the Business Model that America is trying to foist on the rest of the World… so that everybody can be as Happy!?
It should be noted that Government has very little to do with any of the above mentioned problems. This comes as a surprise to us, after the 20th Century which tried so hard to convince us that any problem anywhere was probably traceable to some Government Interference into the Saintly Affairs of kindly and well meaning Private Individuals. But, really, when the real Threat is understood, then we find that Government is not the Problem at all – “1984” and “Brave New World” were completely wrong about what the real Future Threat would be. Indeed, a Strong Government, independent and superior to Business and Private Interests would be Civilization’s only Hope. Just think about it for a moment, the difference in motivations between working for The Public Interest and the selfish and personal considerations of the Profit Motive. A quick look at History will show that the Old Government Bureaucracies and the Universities had a decent record in regards to the Public Interest. The Modern Regimes in the Far East also are not doing so badly in terms of their Public Interest. Certainly even a Mixed Record in regards to The Public Interest is better than any degree of success with what amounts to a cannibalistic and predatory Profit Motive. Screwing over People to get their money for the least possible trouble does not advance Civilization, but as we have seen it operate in America, Civilization is destroyed, first in fits and starts, but ultimately, completely.
Here’s a quick example: the rise of primitive Rap Music. Capitalist Music Producers could sell real music – trained professional singers with professionally orchestrated instrumental music, but they choose to sell sexist cussing and swearing with a background of synthetic percussion. You see, in either case they can only get about the same price for either product. The Quality product would of course cost more to produce. Finding somebody who will cuss and swear in rhymes, well, that’s almost free. Like the Colonel said to Elvis, “I can find a kid on any street corner who can do what you do”… and at least Elvis could play guitar. As far as Rap Music goes, the Ghetto is teaming with young men who can cuss in rhyme. Talent is guaranteed to be cheap, and Capitalism will be predisposed to give us as little as possible for what we are willing to spend.
Yes, Capitalism argues that it is only providing for demand, and if we wanted Quality then it would provide Quality. Yes, if only that were true. However, from my own life experience I know perfectly well that Capitalism does all it can do to Shape Tastes. Very little Propaganda is Political. Most is commercial – they call it advertising in most cases, but the shaping of Public Taste is done at many levels. Now, think about almost the entire 20th Century and you will see one solid trend, if anything, and that is that Quality and Established Culture in the Arts, of almost anything bought and sold, was portrayed as elitist, pretentious – basically ‘uncool’… to use one of their low-quality phrases. Tastes were deliberately dummed down, so that product could be churned out cheaper… so that nearly all returns could go directly to the Producers. Not only would Talent be kept as cheap as possible, but also Production. Simple things are easier and cheaper to produce than complex things, while, again, the asking price is the same.
We can track the Decline of our Musical Example. Big Bands replaced Orchestras. Impromptu off-the-cuff Jazz replaced composed and orchestrated music. Swing Bands replaced Big Bands. Then Rock and Roll replaced Bands. For a while Disco replaced even the small rock and roll bands. Now Rap has replaced Rock and Roll, and there are no musicians… just noise technicians – spitters and scratchers. Look at the credits on any CD made today. Then find a record made 40 years ago. Music used to be an Industry that employed a lot of people for a living wage. A hundred years ago Musicians formed a sizeable Profession, several percent of the population were Professional Musicians, and a good percentage of them were even respectable – not reduced to playing down to the moronic tastes of idiot kids in drugged out clubs, but actually playing the best music ever conceived. That’s been wiped out except in Socialist Societies that continue to try to keep such things alive; however, it is almost a futile gesture, remembering that the talent pool has been so much constricted. When 3% of Society were trained musicians, then the Very Best were the very best of Very Many. Now, only a tiny fraction of people ever study music, and it is likely that the best of that tiny fraction might not be very good at all. There’s not been a decent concerto written in 50 years. Some years the Chopin Award is not given because nobody who shows up for the competition is deemed worthy to even compete for it. We are on the verge of pronouncing Music a dead Art.
Literature also cultivated a Coolness, substituting an uneducated style for the Snotty Didactic University Style… again, maybe it is only a coincidence that the more primitive styles are less costly to produce. Hemingway made a career out of convincing the Public that anything written beyond the reach of a sixth grader was artificial. Well, duh. And since Hemingway little has been written much worth reading. You see, the Art in Artificial was what made literature worth the trouble. Now we have plots and pornography that anybody can understand, even dropouts. And its all on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
People are willing partners in the conspiracy to have themselves dummed down. Give Easy Ignorance an excuse to feel superior to arduously acquired Culture, and the dummies will grab it up like Free Beer.
Yes, there is the argument that a dummed down Culture is accessible to everybody but an elaborate and Educated Culture would have to be Selective and Elitist. Well, yes, but only if it were predetermined that most people would be deprived of a higher education. Yes, in America it is Public Policy to require Education only up to the age of 16. Then only High School Educations are provided for, and after that students must fend for themselves. That’s all a matter of Public Policy which could certainly be changed. Higher Education would lead to Higher Salaries which would amass more Tax Revenues – it would pay for itself. One argument against it is that it would attack the Class Privilege that now deliberately aims at limiting the access to Higher Education. The other argument against it is that the Ruling Party has found that lesser educated people vote for the Ruling Party – no Politician is going to mess with a Social Formula that brought him into power to begin with. No matter how much they speak of ‘change’, it is the Status Quo that brought them their success, and we can expect that they will do little to kill the goose that laid their golden egg, so to speak. Anyway, it follows that the Culture would be Dummed Down so that the Victims of this Policy of Class Privilege and Manipulated Voting will perhaps not notice their victimization – if the Culture of the Common Man is the only thing they see, then they will not feel as though they are being deprived of anything. And the stratagem has largely worked – the great majority of people feel as content as pigs in mud.
Also we need to consider that in Cultural Matters, formal education may have very little to do with anything. Look at the Cultural Climate that supported the Big Bands or High Literature. Kids grew up with such things and became educated up to its level by their exposure to it. People acquired their High Tastes on their own. It was something of a trick for the Producers to convince people of High Taste to be ashamed of their Elitism and Artificiality, but such is the power of Social Stigma used as a weapon by those only interested in The Profit Motive.
Well, Music and Literature are only examples. Every Capitalist Producer of anything has a financial interest in keeping his costs as low as possible, his own organization as small as possible. and so also has an interest in keeping popular tastes as low and as simplistic as possible. In matters of Taste, this has proved to have been easy for them. Manufactured Goods present a different problem, and one where American Capitalism has fallen into its most obvious areas of failure. Stuff has to work right and last a long time without breaking down. It is almost impossible to convince even the most susceptible imbeciles that broken and poorly performing manufactured goods are ‘cooler’ than working and reliable manufactured goods (Harley Davidson Motorcycles being a notable exception).
In Manufacturing the Trend toward dummed down simplicity and stripped down Production Teams works against a Quality that is almost necessary. The Profit Motive, it’s surprising to say, works against Manufacturers. Simply look at the success that the Authoritarian and Socialist Regimes have had in manufacturing. They are better at coordinating necessarily large Organizations. Russia beat Germany in WWII simply by producing more tanks, more weapons. Then the Far East’s success in the Automotive and Electronics Markets were not about stripping down their Production Facilities but about coordinating their entire National Capacities. For them it was about National Efforts to Win the Peace, when in America it was only about isolated attempts at augmenting the private profits of relatively few people.
Then there is the matter throughout the West of Private Companies and even Governments being infiltrated by Secret Societies, to the effect that Job Placement and Promotions are being conducted by the Secret Societies for the benefit of the Secret Societies. Engineering Firms, Manufacturers, almost any sizeable company is no longer assured that the Best People are being utilized, not when their Human Resource Offices have been taken over by Secret Societies. America, and even Western Europe cannot compete in the Auto or Electronics Markets when their Chief Engineers know nothing about Engineering but get their Big Offices because they are 32 Degree Masons. The Success of Asia may be attributed to nothing more than the fact that they have not YET been infiltrated by Masons.
Oh, and then the West has another problem with divided loyalties – the Company vs. the Unions dynamic. It must be extremely difficult for any worker to feel loyalty to a company, and to support its efforts toward Quality Control, when that Company so openly attacks his interests every few years, in order to give the Worker the worst contract possible. Its all very loud and its all very public. Workers and Company become bitter enemies, and all the ill feelings and grudges are barely forgotten when it becomes Contract Time again. How can one expect any Decent Product to emerge from such a bitter and vengeful process? But nearly every product from either America or Europe might as well be stamped with a Logo that says “Made With Hate and Distrust”. Yet it is the Business Model that America is trying to foist on the rest of the World… so that everybody can be as Happy!?
It should be noted that Government has very little to do with any of the above mentioned problems. This comes as a surprise to us, after the 20th Century which tried so hard to convince us that any problem anywhere was probably traceable to some Government Interference into the Saintly Affairs of kindly and well meaning Private Individuals. But, really, when the real Threat is understood, then we find that Government is not the Problem at all – “1984” and “Brave New World” were completely wrong about what the real Future Threat would be. Indeed, a Strong Government, independent and superior to Business and Private Interests would be Civilization’s only Hope. Just think about it for a moment, the difference in motivations between working for The Public Interest and the selfish and personal considerations of the Profit Motive. A quick look at History will show that the Old Government Bureaucracies and the Universities had a decent record in regards to the Public Interest. The Modern Regimes in the Far East also are not doing so badly in terms of their Public Interest. Certainly even a Mixed Record in regards to The Public Interest is better than any degree of success with what amounts to a cannibalistic and predatory Profit Motive. Screwing over People to get their money for the least possible trouble does not advance Civilization, but as we have seen it operate in America, Civilization is destroyed, first in fits and starts, but ultimately, completely.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The Columbian Rescue Beyond Corruption
I really did not see it coming. It was so integral to Latin American Culture that one could expect nothing to be done that was at all vulnerable to corruption, disloyalty or betrayal. One could expect one set of soldiers or policemen to be taking money to give away secret plans; expect another set to give up secrets because they have friends and family among the enemies and criminals; and a third set who gives up their trust because they fear reprisal and are under the compulsion of threats. I had thought that American dollars provided to Latin American regimes was largely poured down the drain… again, into the pockets of the Corrupt.
Then came word that a complex long term operation had been pulled off apparently without a hitch. It was a project that could have been completely spoiled had the least hint gotten out. Indeed, there had been some betrayals, but it was from the Revolutionary FARC side of it. Again, let me emphasize that where Religious Morality is shunned, there remains no Morality. While people in neutral situations still may know the difference between Right and Wrong, whenever tensions and pressures are ratcheted up people do what is personally convenient. Without God watching, NOBODY is watching and people, while comforting themselves that they still KNOW the difference between right and wrong, will do what makes their life easier and more convenient. Who would know? In the case of Columbia, this time, The Revolutionary FARC proved vulnerable to Modern Amoral Materialistic Pressures. But the Government Side had somehow rallied.
It would be interesting to know how they, the Columbians, did it. How were so many operatives kept so uncharacteristically honest? I don’t think that it is a new Cultural Milieu… there are still so many signs of Corruption elsewhere – the Anti-Drug De-Forestation Flights that cost Americans billions of dollars to Fund, largely target swaths of neutral forest as there is simply too much money floating around to persuade the Targeting Offices and the Flight Crews not to drop their loads on perfectly good coca plants. Satellite data coming in shows that there is MORE acreage being planted with drug crops than ever before – upwards of 20% more. No, Corruption is still a major cultural contributor in the social and political and economic dynamics of Latin America.
But in that one particular Police/Military Operation they managed to keep Corruption completely frozen out. All of Latin America needs to go to School on how this was accomplished. Perhaps Anglo Protestant America also. With all the Crime in Latin America being denominated in American Dollars, one can’t help but to think that there may be some little bit of American Police Corruption contributing to the collective trouble. In fact I wonder of cases where Hispanic Personnel have taken on key responsibilities in America. If this same cultural mix on the Other Side of the Border is so prone to Corruption, then what is it on the American Side of the Line that is supposed to keep these people Honest? If it is NOT a concern, then that makes us all wonder whether the Broader Law Enforcement Culture simply does not look at Corruption as a problem, but more like a fringe benefit available to everybody who gets a Badge and a Free Mason Pin. Maybe the ONLY people who are being arrested are the one’s that have not been making their pay offs, or they are busting only new criminal operations popping up as competition to the Old Established Criminal Operations that have their Partners in Law Enforcement. After all, one NEVER sees these Criminals being interviewed on TV or in the Newspapers. If the Criminals have any pertinent observations concerning the honesty of American Law Enforcement Institutions, its all being successfully muffled. America enjoys Freedom of the Press, but it maybe very coincidental that the American Press only shows one Viewpoint, and that Viewpoint is from the vantage point of the Institutionalized Powers. Cops are interviewed on TV. Soldiers are interviewed. Criminals and ‘Terrorists’ are never within a mile of a microphone. As a matter of fact, even when we are told that certain very famous Terrorists have released statement, we are not given the text, but must trust our Freedom Loving Reporters when they assure us it was all just mad ranting and gibberish. Oh, and prior to the run-up to the Iraq Invasion we were not given more than 5 words in a row of anything a Certain Iraqi Dictator had been saying in his own defense. Oh, and now, even with Iranians Politicians traveling in the West, we are not given transcripts of any speeches, but are only given certain old clips of snippets of ‘crazy talk’ and our Freedom Loving Reporters assure us that everything these Enemy Politicians have to say is mad ranting and gibberish. We are all Free to know that nothing our Enemies have to say is worth hearing. Anyway, the applicable point here is that our Freedom Loving Press may be isolating us from any view of Bad News or any Perspective that may show that Corruption is not a uniquely Latin Problem.
Then, considering the Structures of Morality, it would be difficult to conclude that America would not have a BIG problem with Corruption. After all, Protestant Culture freely disseminates the viewpoint that All Sins are Forgiven. If all Sins are Forgiven, how does this not make Corruption a huge Opportunity? Corruption can make one rich, AND it’s forgiven! Then why not? Then, if one thinks one is an Elect of God (that is, if one is a Presbyterian) then one would see it as almost an Entitlement – the Poor are damned as everybody knows (well, every Presbyterian knows). If one is Saved then one needs to demonstrate that Status of Election with a Certain Standard of Living. God’s Rewards to his Elect on Earth are not subtle. And one must remember that people really believe this stuff – that unless they reach a certain level of Conspicuous Consumption then their Eternal Salvation may be seriously in doubt. To these Mainstream Presbyterians, Corruption may be their only perceived Avenue toward Religious Salvation. Now, opposed to these almost Moral Incentives to participate in Corruption, what is there that is supposed to keep people honest. There is the Fear of getting Caught, but this may be within a Community that has all tacitly agreed among each other to ‘look the other way’. Cops are like school children in their insistence on not tattling on each other.
Anyway… back to Columbia – yes, even after the most cynical reflections, there remains this Most Important Surprise that the Columbians did manage a huge complex long drawn out operation without the slightest bit of Corruption. They deserve the greatest and clearest and most unqualified Congratulations. Indeed, the rest of us should be a bit worried. With such brilliant and powerful Integrity, who could possibly stop such a Team? Remember what Joseph Stalin once said, “With ten completely loyal men I could conquer the World”.
Well, it looks like Columbia has found its “10 Loyal Men”. The Rest of the World needs to stand back and see what they can do next.
Then came word that a complex long term operation had been pulled off apparently without a hitch. It was a project that could have been completely spoiled had the least hint gotten out. Indeed, there had been some betrayals, but it was from the Revolutionary FARC side of it. Again, let me emphasize that where Religious Morality is shunned, there remains no Morality. While people in neutral situations still may know the difference between Right and Wrong, whenever tensions and pressures are ratcheted up people do what is personally convenient. Without God watching, NOBODY is watching and people, while comforting themselves that they still KNOW the difference between right and wrong, will do what makes their life easier and more convenient. Who would know? In the case of Columbia, this time, The Revolutionary FARC proved vulnerable to Modern Amoral Materialistic Pressures. But the Government Side had somehow rallied.
It would be interesting to know how they, the Columbians, did it. How were so many operatives kept so uncharacteristically honest? I don’t think that it is a new Cultural Milieu… there are still so many signs of Corruption elsewhere – the Anti-Drug De-Forestation Flights that cost Americans billions of dollars to Fund, largely target swaths of neutral forest as there is simply too much money floating around to persuade the Targeting Offices and the Flight Crews not to drop their loads on perfectly good coca plants. Satellite data coming in shows that there is MORE acreage being planted with drug crops than ever before – upwards of 20% more. No, Corruption is still a major cultural contributor in the social and political and economic dynamics of Latin America.
But in that one particular Police/Military Operation they managed to keep Corruption completely frozen out. All of Latin America needs to go to School on how this was accomplished. Perhaps Anglo Protestant America also. With all the Crime in Latin America being denominated in American Dollars, one can’t help but to think that there may be some little bit of American Police Corruption contributing to the collective trouble. In fact I wonder of cases where Hispanic Personnel have taken on key responsibilities in America. If this same cultural mix on the Other Side of the Border is so prone to Corruption, then what is it on the American Side of the Line that is supposed to keep these people Honest? If it is NOT a concern, then that makes us all wonder whether the Broader Law Enforcement Culture simply does not look at Corruption as a problem, but more like a fringe benefit available to everybody who gets a Badge and a Free Mason Pin. Maybe the ONLY people who are being arrested are the one’s that have not been making their pay offs, or they are busting only new criminal operations popping up as competition to the Old Established Criminal Operations that have their Partners in Law Enforcement. After all, one NEVER sees these Criminals being interviewed on TV or in the Newspapers. If the Criminals have any pertinent observations concerning the honesty of American Law Enforcement Institutions, its all being successfully muffled. America enjoys Freedom of the Press, but it maybe very coincidental that the American Press only shows one Viewpoint, and that Viewpoint is from the vantage point of the Institutionalized Powers. Cops are interviewed on TV. Soldiers are interviewed. Criminals and ‘Terrorists’ are never within a mile of a microphone. As a matter of fact, even when we are told that certain very famous Terrorists have released statement, we are not given the text, but must trust our Freedom Loving Reporters when they assure us it was all just mad ranting and gibberish. Oh, and prior to the run-up to the Iraq Invasion we were not given more than 5 words in a row of anything a Certain Iraqi Dictator had been saying in his own defense. Oh, and now, even with Iranians Politicians traveling in the West, we are not given transcripts of any speeches, but are only given certain old clips of snippets of ‘crazy talk’ and our Freedom Loving Reporters assure us that everything these Enemy Politicians have to say is mad ranting and gibberish. We are all Free to know that nothing our Enemies have to say is worth hearing. Anyway, the applicable point here is that our Freedom Loving Press may be isolating us from any view of Bad News or any Perspective that may show that Corruption is not a uniquely Latin Problem.
Then, considering the Structures of Morality, it would be difficult to conclude that America would not have a BIG problem with Corruption. After all, Protestant Culture freely disseminates the viewpoint that All Sins are Forgiven. If all Sins are Forgiven, how does this not make Corruption a huge Opportunity? Corruption can make one rich, AND it’s forgiven! Then why not? Then, if one thinks one is an Elect of God (that is, if one is a Presbyterian) then one would see it as almost an Entitlement – the Poor are damned as everybody knows (well, every Presbyterian knows). If one is Saved then one needs to demonstrate that Status of Election with a Certain Standard of Living. God’s Rewards to his Elect on Earth are not subtle. And one must remember that people really believe this stuff – that unless they reach a certain level of Conspicuous Consumption then their Eternal Salvation may be seriously in doubt. To these Mainstream Presbyterians, Corruption may be their only perceived Avenue toward Religious Salvation. Now, opposed to these almost Moral Incentives to participate in Corruption, what is there that is supposed to keep people honest. There is the Fear of getting Caught, but this may be within a Community that has all tacitly agreed among each other to ‘look the other way’. Cops are like school children in their insistence on not tattling on each other.
Anyway… back to Columbia – yes, even after the most cynical reflections, there remains this Most Important Surprise that the Columbians did manage a huge complex long drawn out operation without the slightest bit of Corruption. They deserve the greatest and clearest and most unqualified Congratulations. Indeed, the rest of us should be a bit worried. With such brilliant and powerful Integrity, who could possibly stop such a Team? Remember what Joseph Stalin once said, “With ten completely loyal men I could conquer the World”.
Well, it looks like Columbia has found its “10 Loyal Men”. The Rest of the World needs to stand back and see what they can do next.
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