Capitalism has done a lot to rid the world of superstitious beliefs
and behaviours. But the rational paradigm is far from solid. If we
look at the irrational responses to the financial crisis we can see
that capitalism itself has replaced religion to a large extent as a
faith based belief system.
Part of this is cowardice on the part of the working/middle classes
believing that we need a powerful master in charge of things in spite
of the fact that the masters themselves are nothing better than
parasites and criminals.
But the knee jerk irrationality on the part of media, politicians, and
the general public is baffling in its acceptance of the worship of the
rich and powerful. The faith people have in a system that is
fundamentally flawed and on its last legs is something for social
psychologists to study for years to come.
Irrational cowards are in no short supply.
So far, the American taxpayer has handed over 300 billion to the rich
under the TARP program. Much more is coming. The belief is that if the
rich and powerful are well fed, they will feed the rest of us. Logic
that comes from the rich and powerful and filtered through CNN, CTV,
Fox etc.
Now Obama, a seemingly well meaning and intelligent man, is going to
continue to shovel massive amounts of tax dollars to the rich. In
other words, he is shoveling tax dollars into a black hole, never to
be seen again.
How can this all be explained?
Part of it has to do with the fact that it those very same rich and
powerful welfare recipients that are receiving the money are the ones
that are really at the helm of the American state. Obama might know
better but he also knows he'll wind up another dead Kennedy if he acts
as if he is the boss. Obama assures his betters that they have nothing
to worry about; that he believes that nationalization, if needed,
would only be a short term measure so the taxpayers can absorb the
losses. But when the season of profits mass profits returns, the very
wealthy can again collect the money. The rich collect, the workers
pay. Nothing new there.
In case you didn't notice, while this disaster is playing out, the
culprits are protected. The middle class and poor are not.
The upshot is, nothing has changed. The irrational and stupid neo
liberal thinking that has brought America and the rest of the world to
the brink and over the abyss is still entrenched against all logic and
rational thinking.
The middle classes in America, Canada, and the rest of the world will
bail out the rich. And what will the middle classes get in return?
There is no logic here. This is, as Deets coined it, the religion that
is America.
This blog is an archive of articles I've published in MWC News, Indymedia, and on Newsgroups.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Go Stimulate Yourself
The idea of stimulus is to put money in the pockets of consumers who will spend, creating demand for goods and services and as a result, stimulate the economy.
But America is a religion that worships the rich. They believe that wealth comes FROM the rich and 'trickles down' to the rest of us. They also believe that the rich know best and should be held in some paternal role in society.
These are irrational notions. Religious-like.
Stimulus bailouts to the rich are symptoms of that mentality. The rich are not going to spend any significant portion of that money. They will use it to secure, prop up, and increase the capital that they have.
It looked as if Obama was on the right track as far as stimulus goes with his homeowner affordability plan. But we can see now that it is just another gimmick to further bolster Fortress Twit Class.
The plan does nothing to decrease the principal on what people owe. With plunging house prices, many still owe more than their home is worth.
If you look at it, you can see that it is carefully designed to ensure that the money lenders carry none of the weight of the crisis whatsoever. It is just another scheme to move billions of tax dollars into the hands of America's elites.
The basic idea of Keynesian demand side economics is to give money to the average Joe so he can buy things. Henry Ford had the same idea. The stimulus packages have done the opposite. They have taken wealth from the average Joe (for a long, long time) and gave it directly to the very rich.
Why?
How is this supposed to help the economy?
The idiots trucked and shipped manufacturing jobs to where wages were cheap over the past 30 years to increase their profits. They are not patriotic Americans. They are moved only by wealth. They sold out America. They have done far greater damage than Bin Laden or a plane load of Bin Ladens could have done. They have been far more subversive than any communists, socialists, or anarchists could be. They have stole America's wealth and shipped it away - to themselves.
And now they are being paid large chunks of tax dollars for their efforts.
They have been eroding away the standard of living for decades and printing phony capital to make it look as if nothing is wrong. In one season, all the chickens have come home to roost. The big lie is over.
The most important lesson in all this is that the rate of profit generally decreases through time. One hundred years ago it was easy to make profit from a unit of labour. But now, capitalism has matured and for that reason, strategies that are obviously contrary to the citizens best interests are the only ones available to them.
Manufacturing is simply a necessary evil in the process of developing capital. If the capitalist can make capital without it, he certainly will.
And he certainly did in recent years. He did it through criminal leveraging and manipulation of other people's money. The phony housing bubble was the last kick at the can in efforts to pretend the American standard of living has mystical powers. It doesn't. Except maybe for the ultra rich who are still raking it in through stimulus packages and bailouts.
That well will also run dry.
Watch now for that class, with all its wealth, increase its control over the American state.
But America is a religion that worships the rich. They believe that wealth comes FROM the rich and 'trickles down' to the rest of us. They also believe that the rich know best and should be held in some paternal role in society.
These are irrational notions. Religious-like.
Stimulus bailouts to the rich are symptoms of that mentality. The rich are not going to spend any significant portion of that money. They will use it to secure, prop up, and increase the capital that they have.
It looked as if Obama was on the right track as far as stimulus goes with his homeowner affordability plan. But we can see now that it is just another gimmick to further bolster Fortress Twit Class.
The plan does nothing to decrease the principal on what people owe. With plunging house prices, many still owe more than their home is worth.
If you look at it, you can see that it is carefully designed to ensure that the money lenders carry none of the weight of the crisis whatsoever. It is just another scheme to move billions of tax dollars into the hands of America's elites.
The basic idea of Keynesian demand side economics is to give money to the average Joe so he can buy things. Henry Ford had the same idea. The stimulus packages have done the opposite. They have taken wealth from the average Joe (for a long, long time) and gave it directly to the very rich.
Why?
How is this supposed to help the economy?
The idiots trucked and shipped manufacturing jobs to where wages were cheap over the past 30 years to increase their profits. They are not patriotic Americans. They are moved only by wealth. They sold out America. They have done far greater damage than Bin Laden or a plane load of Bin Ladens could have done. They have been far more subversive than any communists, socialists, or anarchists could be. They have stole America's wealth and shipped it away - to themselves.
And now they are being paid large chunks of tax dollars for their efforts.
They have been eroding away the standard of living for decades and printing phony capital to make it look as if nothing is wrong. In one season, all the chickens have come home to roost. The big lie is over.
The most important lesson in all this is that the rate of profit generally decreases through time. One hundred years ago it was easy to make profit from a unit of labour. But now, capitalism has matured and for that reason, strategies that are obviously contrary to the citizens best interests are the only ones available to them.
Manufacturing is simply a necessary evil in the process of developing capital. If the capitalist can make capital without it, he certainly will.
And he certainly did in recent years. He did it through criminal leveraging and manipulation of other people's money. The phony housing bubble was the last kick at the can in efforts to pretend the American standard of living has mystical powers. It doesn't. Except maybe for the ultra rich who are still raking it in through stimulus packages and bailouts.
That well will also run dry.
Watch now for that class, with all its wealth, increase its control over the American state.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The New Terrorists
There will be a new terrorist threat emerge in the next few years. And that threat will be you.
The new Director of National Intelligence for the USA, Dennis Blair, recently testified in front of a senate committee on intelligence. He said that the threats that are inherent with economic catastrophe are the major threat to state security. He might be right.
Previous to this, it was Al Queda or Muslim terrorists that made top billing as terrorist threats. But the paranoid keepers of the state apparatus seems to be casting a malevolent gaze toward the lot of us.
Blair is concerned about the security of places like Iceland, Ireland, as well as former second world (Eastern European) or present third world countries. He is also worried about the stability of what was thought of as first world countries and especially, the USA.
This report (linked below) indicates the developing state of paranoia that will emerge in the coming years within the security functionaries for the American state.
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB890.pdf
The report suggests that the resources that are employed abroad may be needed to take care of domestic security.
These are dark clouds but at the moment they are on the horizon. The American state will prepare itself to stem social upheavals associated with the turbulence financial insecurity that is coming.
Prior to 9-11 there were anti-capitalist protests in Seattle, in Quebec and other places. This was unique. Anti-capitalist protests in the USA were unseen since the dirty thirties. This was alarming to state security functionaries and their employers. 9-11 happened and the protests disappeared like magic. There was now a new mood in the USA.
9/11 has been used to excuse legislation that has placed rot under basic freedoms that were birthed by the Magna Carta almost 1000 years ago. These notions include such basics as the right to representation, to be charged with a crime, and to actually commit a crime before an arrest is made. The road has been paved with the Patriot Act and other similar types of legislation to an era of fascist type repression of the population.
If you believed that the USA and capitalism are natural bastions of freedom and democracy, you can't be blamed. The prosperity ensured by American plundering of resources from all over the planet as well as the voodoo practiced by Alan Greenspan and others provided an environment of what appeared to be natural security. We lived large under the umbrella of American hegemony. But America and the capitalist world are about to hit reality and the party that we all have enjoyed for many decades is just about over. It's time to sober up.
America will respond to threats to its security (read: the security of the upper classes/ American or not) with brute force. What Blair is saying and what is said in the report (linked above) are our first wisps of a coming ugly age of political repression and violence within the USA and other (post) industrialized countries (such as Canada).
Just as there was a phony economy based on nothing but capital, there is also a real economy based on production, use value, and work. And similarly, just as there is a state apparatus that is based in the security of the extremely wealthy and powerful, there is also real security concerns for the men, women, and children that need food, medicine, and the vital necessities to survive.
These are two very different worlds. The former will eat you if you have sustenance for them and does not care about you if you don't. The latter is the the real world of everyday life we live in.
If a war between the two occurs, we have no choice but to win.
The new Director of National Intelligence for the USA, Dennis Blair, recently testified in front of a senate committee on intelligence. He said that the threats that are inherent with economic catastrophe are the major threat to state security. He might be right.
Previous to this, it was Al Queda or Muslim terrorists that made top billing as terrorist threats. But the paranoid keepers of the state apparatus seems to be casting a malevolent gaze toward the lot of us.
Blair is concerned about the security of places like Iceland, Ireland, as well as former second world (Eastern European) or present third world countries. He is also worried about the stability of what was thought of as first world countries and especially, the USA.
This report (linked below) indicates the developing state of paranoia that will emerge in the coming years within the security functionaries for the American state.
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB890.pdf
The report suggests that the resources that are employed abroad may be needed to take care of domestic security.
These are dark clouds but at the moment they are on the horizon. The American state will prepare itself to stem social upheavals associated with the turbulence financial insecurity that is coming.
Prior to 9-11 there were anti-capitalist protests in Seattle, in Quebec and other places. This was unique. Anti-capitalist protests in the USA were unseen since the dirty thirties. This was alarming to state security functionaries and their employers. 9-11 happened and the protests disappeared like magic. There was now a new mood in the USA.
9/11 has been used to excuse legislation that has placed rot under basic freedoms that were birthed by the Magna Carta almost 1000 years ago. These notions include such basics as the right to representation, to be charged with a crime, and to actually commit a crime before an arrest is made. The road has been paved with the Patriot Act and other similar types of legislation to an era of fascist type repression of the population.
If you believed that the USA and capitalism are natural bastions of freedom and democracy, you can't be blamed. The prosperity ensured by American plundering of resources from all over the planet as well as the voodoo practiced by Alan Greenspan and others provided an environment of what appeared to be natural security. We lived large under the umbrella of American hegemony. But America and the capitalist world are about to hit reality and the party that we all have enjoyed for many decades is just about over. It's time to sober up.
America will respond to threats to its security (read: the security of the upper classes/ American or not) with brute force. What Blair is saying and what is said in the report (linked above) are our first wisps of a coming ugly age of political repression and violence within the USA and other (post) industrialized countries (such as Canada).
Just as there was a phony economy based on nothing but capital, there is also a real economy based on production, use value, and work. And similarly, just as there is a state apparatus that is based in the security of the extremely wealthy and powerful, there is also real security concerns for the men, women, and children that need food, medicine, and the vital necessities to survive.
These are two very different worlds. The former will eat you if you have sustenance for them and does not care about you if you don't. The latter is the the real world of everyday life we live in.
If a war between the two occurs, we have no choice but to win.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
The Times They are A-Changin
This isn't simply a natural down end of a business cycle. This is the real McCoy. These are the times most of us have only read about.
There will be a lot of unfortunate and ugly side effects of this economic disaster. It is argued that this crisis is more like 1914 then 1929 in some ways. Hopefully, the response won't come in the form of a major world war. But it might.
Then there will be some lesser but still nasty effects.
Early on we will see increased provincialist thinking and initiatives. Politicians will be begging private industry to invest in 'our' location. And if you do, you won't have to pay taxes, you will be subsidized, we will make your lives comfortable with kick-backs, prostitutes, and all the caviar you can eat. Don't worry about regulations or standards. You can do as you please in my hometown - you are the King.
Begging from the same thieves and criminals that are out to steal all they can is perhaps the most bizarre spectacle in history. In the future, when historians and social scientists look at this time, they will be amazed at how hoodwinked whole populations could be. The very same people that have sold us out and ran with massive profits will be the people that the victims will be begging to; Come back and exploit us some more.
This all has to do with the erroneous assumption that wealth emanates from the ultra rich. A forgivable assumption within the context of the extent of brainwashing that has occurred throughout the cold war and the fact that it was up to the whims of investors to say where a plant or an industry will be built. The psychologist Skinner would be fascinated by this attitude - like a pigeon pecking a key for food.
There is also a more fuzzy logic that is based on the reality that capitalism has the immense power to remove whole populations from miserable feudal existence to modern and comfortable lives. While capitalism has tremendous power and while capitalism is certainly the most radical and changing movement humanity has seen, it carries with it its own seeds of destruction and it also carries more inequality and violence than any other movement in history, including religion; and that's quite a stretch.
Capitalism is and has been an effective mechanism with severe limitations and with plenty of ugly side effects. It has set the stage for a new era. But until we get there, we will be suffering 'interesting times'.
We can't remain underneath a system that is as wildly unpredictable and volatile as capitalism has become. If capitalism is to remain the primary historical force for humanity, it has to be tamed and stabilized. All human beings vital needs must be guaranteed. Food, medicine, housing and anything that is required to sustain a human body has to be guaranteed. It must be free of charge. The necessity of paying money for life's vital needs keeps us pinned under a very real form of slavery. You might have the choice of who your master is to an extent, but the compulsion to give your life to somebody that will feed your children remains. It is not freedom.
At the point where vital needs are guaranteed, all human beings will be stable and secure. If capitalist mechanisms are utilized to that end, so be it. If they are a hinderance, to hell with them.
To get there though, the time when capitalists actually run the state and hold power over the citizens has to end. It is time that the upper classes are stripped of their privilege and power. We have no choice and we will soon have no choice but to take control. Up to now its as if the children have been running the household; party now and party loud with no view of the consequences. The time has come for adults to take the sharpe things away from little Johnny.
Wealth after all, is not equal to capital or money. You can't be blamed if you equate the two under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Wealth is the computer in front of you, the desk it sits on, the stuff all around you. We can't stop building this stuff just because the privileged class isn't making something from the process. We can build a stable and sane society without the selfishness, criminality, and greed that we have had to endure up to now.
If you don't believe that, you should seriously consider the possibility that your mind has been programmed.
------------------------------------------------------
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
- Dob Dylan
There will be a lot of unfortunate and ugly side effects of this economic disaster. It is argued that this crisis is more like 1914 then 1929 in some ways. Hopefully, the response won't come in the form of a major world war. But it might.
Then there will be some lesser but still nasty effects.
Early on we will see increased provincialist thinking and initiatives. Politicians will be begging private industry to invest in 'our' location. And if you do, you won't have to pay taxes, you will be subsidized, we will make your lives comfortable with kick-backs, prostitutes, and all the caviar you can eat. Don't worry about regulations or standards. You can do as you please in my hometown - you are the King.
Begging from the same thieves and criminals that are out to steal all they can is perhaps the most bizarre spectacle in history. In the future, when historians and social scientists look at this time, they will be amazed at how hoodwinked whole populations could be. The very same people that have sold us out and ran with massive profits will be the people that the victims will be begging to; Come back and exploit us some more.
This all has to do with the erroneous assumption that wealth emanates from the ultra rich. A forgivable assumption within the context of the extent of brainwashing that has occurred throughout the cold war and the fact that it was up to the whims of investors to say where a plant or an industry will be built. The psychologist Skinner would be fascinated by this attitude - like a pigeon pecking a key for food.
There is also a more fuzzy logic that is based on the reality that capitalism has the immense power to remove whole populations from miserable feudal existence to modern and comfortable lives. While capitalism has tremendous power and while capitalism is certainly the most radical and changing movement humanity has seen, it carries with it its own seeds of destruction and it also carries more inequality and violence than any other movement in history, including religion; and that's quite a stretch.
Capitalism is and has been an effective mechanism with severe limitations and with plenty of ugly side effects. It has set the stage for a new era. But until we get there, we will be suffering 'interesting times'.
We can't remain underneath a system that is as wildly unpredictable and volatile as capitalism has become. If capitalism is to remain the primary historical force for humanity, it has to be tamed and stabilized. All human beings vital needs must be guaranteed. Food, medicine, housing and anything that is required to sustain a human body has to be guaranteed. It must be free of charge. The necessity of paying money for life's vital needs keeps us pinned under a very real form of slavery. You might have the choice of who your master is to an extent, but the compulsion to give your life to somebody that will feed your children remains. It is not freedom.
At the point where vital needs are guaranteed, all human beings will be stable and secure. If capitalist mechanisms are utilized to that end, so be it. If they are a hinderance, to hell with them.
To get there though, the time when capitalists actually run the state and hold power over the citizens has to end. It is time that the upper classes are stripped of their privilege and power. We have no choice and we will soon have no choice but to take control. Up to now its as if the children have been running the household; party now and party loud with no view of the consequences. The time has come for adults to take the sharpe things away from little Johnny.
Wealth after all, is not equal to capital or money. You can't be blamed if you equate the two under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Wealth is the computer in front of you, the desk it sits on, the stuff all around you. We can't stop building this stuff just because the privileged class isn't making something from the process. We can build a stable and sane society without the selfishness, criminality, and greed that we have had to endure up to now.
If you don't believe that, you should seriously consider the possibility that your mind has been programmed.
------------------------------------------------------
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
- Dob Dylan
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