The Perversion of the Notion of Freedom

Deconstructing the Right's fetish with the notion of "freedom" is an exercise of the absurd.  Hoi polloi  are white knuckled with a fear that their "freedom" is somehow being taken away.  But how can they be so easily taken?  The use of the notion of "freedom" is so bizarre that it cannot stand.

Freedom?  As if some poor bastard died in a war for your freedom?  Or was it for your government, that tells you that you have freedom?  Ah, yes.  When did we forget so suddenly that government cannot bestow freedom on men, only take that freedom away.

Know Your Enemy

"Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy, wah hey. . . "

-Green Day

Well, do you?  It appears that hoi polloi does not.  There he is, though.  Right there in front of you.  On every idiot box in every deli and car wash and doctor's waiting room from sea to shining sea.  That reincarnation of the Tin Man is dead-set on taking back the country and keeping you in chains.

But the dissonance never ceases.  His running mate proclaims that "government" is preventing social mobility.  If it weren't such a contrapositive of the actual facts, it could be funny.  But the masses bow down to their enriched slaver and kowtow to his purportedly having been "successful."

How can it even be a close election?  The idea that the government of the world's sole and only hyperpower can be run like some vacuous company?  Who in the fuck came up with that nonsense and started peddling it?  Well, the answer to that question may lead you to some sense of who really is your enemy.

Because it's not the one who makes the same money as you.  And it's not the one that counts success as realizing a political vision.  It's the one whose sole purpose in his sickeningly overfocused crusade has been to take power and continually amalgamate power for the privileged, the enriched, the reprised aristocracy, the neo-feudalism, in essence, landing you on a prison planet.

Haven't we been here before?  Wasn't enough blood draped upon the unforgiving guillotine not so long ago? Weren't the real founding fathers loading their long rifles and sharpening their knives under torchlight to try to chip a piece off of entrenched privilege?  Wasn't gentility once visible to those who served it all their slave-worn lives?

How do you help those defend their meager labors when they cannot understand that they're slaves?  How do you seize the land when those who should be doing the seizing commiserate with their captors?

How do you get them to know their enemy?

To Have and Have Not

"I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after."

-Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not


Yes, make no mistake about it, not for a second, this is the first election in a generation, perhaps in the history of this nation, between the haves and the have-nots.  That is just what it is.

In this corner, the defending champion, born to a single mother, of mixed race, who worked hard to gain entrance to Harvard Law School, where he was editor of its prestigious Harvard Law Review.  Then back to the community where he became a self-styled "community organizer," which was later maligned by his opponents, then into local and state-wide government.  Born with little or nothing, of modest means, he has attained much.  He has not.

And, in the other corner, the challenger, born to a father who was the Governor or Michigan, who matriculated in boarding school, notoriously pinning down and cutting the long hair off of a homosexual class mate, who then also ventured to Harvard, and then Wall Street.  His money is offshore, purportedly in a "blind trust," and it is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions, yet he only pays a 15% tax rate on his income.  Born from the governor's mansion and using his family capital to succeed on Wall Street, he has.

And the electorate, brought to you for your amusement, also falls into the haves and the have-nots.  Make no mistake about it, the systemic destruction of the Middle Class over the past three decades has left a chasm in the heart of America.  That wunderkind of retirement planning - the 401k - has whisked off the extra savings of millions upon millions of Americans now for decades.  What little they could set aside to escape the Iron Law of Wages they so willingly donated to Wall Street, instead of developing their own businesses on Main Street, or even investing in real estate.

Only the iniquitous fact of the matter is that the have-nots in the electorate only serve to support their own systemic destruction and enslavement.  When confronted with high crimes and misdemeanors waged by the monied classes -- the haves -- the poor have-nots respond with a fusillade of grievances ranging from complaints about the legalization of abortion to bizarre conspiracy theories about the Black President.  It is the perfect system -- the slavers have enslaved the have-nots using nothing more than the Slave Morality (that's Nietzsche) and its penchant for small-minded "family values" at the expense of its own welfare.

Death By Austerity

The elections in France dealt a blow to the ubiquitous and bizarre belief that the way to improve the world economy is by ceasing governmental spending.  Only a handful of economists with access to media have decried this folly, and Paul Krugman of the New York Times and Joseph Stieglitz of the Independent come to mind.  But no one has, as of yet, connected the dots as to how we came to worship at the altar of austerity.  Because when you begin to connect the dots, you see who it is that is being sacrificed on the altar and being sentenced to death by austerity.

The Global elite (let's call them) who own most of the world's capital didn't get where they are by accident.  And they didn't get where they are on their own and without intense and meticulous coordination with their other fellow Global elites.  They understand that power abhors a vacuum, and that they had not just some mutual interests - but the most important mutual interests of all.  They together seek to preserve and aggrandize their wealth.  Although this is rarely noticed, and even more rarely actually spoken, it makes perfect sense.  And there is no need or reason to blame them for this.  It is borne of economic necessity.  It is what anyone would be perfectly expected to do.

Pension funds, the 401k, retirement accounts and other wealth all began being diverted into the financial markets.  It was automated, tax-deferred, and absolutely tailored for those with the most power in the markets to control the wealth of everyone else.  It was like an intravenous tie in to the life blood of the regular folks, the peons, the workers, the 99% (let's call them) hoi polloi -- those who did not constitute part of the Global elite.

Any money that hoi polloi could set aside and that would potentially give them the escape velocity necessary to escape the Iron Law of Wages would go right directly into the hands and control of those who needed most to enforce the Iron Law of Wages.  It was a beautiful and brilliant plan, and it has worked in spades.

And, interestingly, over the past decade or so, after all of the excess wealth from the hoi polloi has been skimmed and stored for good keeping in the financial markets, they have flattened out.  Years go by and no one has made any money.  Much of the marginal amounts that have accrued are sucked out by parasite money and fund managers.  They manage the capital that has been now transferred from the hoi polloi to the power of the Global elite.  And the Global elite know better than to share this with their less fortunate fellows.  They know that they want to keep it there and suck as much out of it as possible, further aggrandizing themselves and solidifying their hegemony of wealth.


Meanwhile, the financial markets take from higher education the "most brilliant minds" to figure out new and ever-more innovative ways to "create wealth" at the expense of the hoi polloi and to benefit Global elites.  It is a race to concoct new and ever more scintillating games to make the casino appealing to the fools who can least afford to pay.  And the fools who can least afford it are the ones so desperately determined to win at the casino, providing cover to their own slave masters.  They are the cause of their own slavery, so little do they even know.

So enter austerity.  That is the brightest shining lie of all.  Once you have the hoi polloi gaming away their only hope at the financial markets casino, and once you have depleted their pathetic additions en masse, then you take the money and run.  What about those who have just been robbed?  What do you tell them?  That's easy.  You blame it on the government.  You convince them that it was the government and its social services that brought about their loss of money.  You do this despite the fact that it was the government who took the tax it had received from the hoi polloi to issue bailouts to the corporations supporting the Global elite.

But you have to do a good job using the media.  Use some ideology.  Throw in some vitriol and make sure you have the highest paid, best actors hired to sell it to hoi polloi.  But don't worry, they will eat it up with a knife and fork.  They will listen to you tell them, "We report, you decide," when, in fact, the decision has already been made.  It was already made a very long time ago.  You just need for them to back up their little non-decision with their little bit of money.  You can't leave them anything, and they're happy to give it to you.

Because the government has got to cut back.  It has got to stop spending so much money.  It must cease providing social services (to hoi polloi) and begin paying that money instead to the Global elite.  This is the systematic dismantling of the social net -- indeed, the dismantling of hoi polloi's whole society.  Because hoi polloi are the only ones who really need anything from the government.  All that the Global elite require is a police force and military to keep the hoi polloi working, from taking anything, and in its proper place.

So you have hoi polloi now blaming the government.  The same government that provides hoi polloi with social services, but don't tell them that.  Make them think that there is an army of freeloaders taking from them and using the government.  That way they will gladly do away with what little bit they get back from the whole rigged system.

Hoi polloi gladly, gratefully, places its head on the altar of austerity, and the Global elite bring down into a long, slow death.

Your Lying Eyes

"Who are you going to believe -- me, or your lying eyes?"

-Groucho Marx

"Any escape might help to smooth the unattractive truth,
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe the restless dreams of youth."

-Rush, Subdivisions

"This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."

-F. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

So let's start with a basic and undeniable set of premises:

1.  There is a limited amount of wealth in the world; and
2.  There is an ever-expanding number of people in the world to possess that wealth.

Then you come to an undeniable set of conclusions:

1.  Those who do not have wealth will have to acquire it from those who do; and
2.  Those who have wealth will seek to aggrandize and protect it from those who do not.

It is game theory.  Call it the unattractive truth.  And the rest is just mythology, a fancy and fanciful lie.  All of the other ideologies and sloganeering theories and economic models and governmental systems are just noise, something to distract you from what is right there for all to see.  All of the slogans and values and capitalisms and communisms and "self-made men" and economic systems are just a clear bright shining lie.  There are those who have.  And then there are those who have not.  And they will inevitably, forever be in conflict.  Just accept it.

Because once you have accepted this truth, then you can appreciate the difficulty presented to you in your situation:  If you don't have wealth, and you desire it, you must come up with a way to accumulate it, and your time is limited to just this life time.  You see, most of the wealthy weren't limited to just this lifetime to accumulate it because they made it the old fashioned way, they inherited it.

And once you have accepted this truth, you are better prepared to deal with it.  You can see through all of the ideologies and sloganeering theories with economic models and "self-made" men inheriting sunshine and better living nonsense.  You are better prepared to deal with it, instead of wasting your life laboring, as did Sisyphus, pushing a rock up a hill incessantly, thinking that just one more time ought to do it, only to see then the false summit, and yet another hill behind it, and yet another rock to push.

And once you have accepted this truth, you can transcend it.  Wait one second.  "How do I transcend it?," you may ask.  How do I go about undoing this game board that has been put in place for millenia or longer, and that is reinforced not just by laws, governmental and extra-governmental institutions, but by all of those who still believe the lie, who still buy into the mythology, who will remain forever locked in their Sysiphean struggle?

And once you have answered that existential question, my friend, you are most of the way there.

Some of the Time

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

-Abraham Lincoln

"When a man's an empty kettle,
He should be on his mettle,
And yet I'm torn apart.
Just because I'm presumin'
That I could be kinda human
If I only had a heart."

-The Tin Man, The Wizard of Oz

So forget those that are fooled all of the time. You cannot save them. The only hope lies with those who are not fooled. And the problem lies with the fact that they are not fooled only some of the time.

Watching the bread and circuses take place is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, I suppose, in that we are witness to a pivotal moment in history. The massive amalgamation of wealth and power and the chronic diminution in the commonwealth available to all is a power play of epic proportions. And a curse, I suppose, in that you may be one of those who is not fooled all of the time.

But you can only see through the facade, indeed, perhaps, can only bear seeing through the facade, some of the time. So you must act quickly.

The G.O.P. is actually running a former Wall Street man himself as their candidate for president. As if the decades-long theft of America's wealth, and the eviction of her people from their homes, was not enough. Somehow -- somehow -- they actually convince them that one of the very culprits in their undoing is to be their savior.

Yet that is where we are. And the millions pouring into and poisoning the campaign finance apparatus cannot seem to give the tin man a heart. It is an extraordinary and incredible irony of epic proportions that they fail. 

You couldn't make this stuff up.

History Will Teach Us Nothing

If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant past
Security in human systems we're told will always always last
Emotions are the sail and blind faith is the mast
Without a breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast


If God is dead and an actor plays his part
His words of fear will find their way to a place in your heart
Without the voice of reason every faith is its own curse
Without freedom from the past things can only get worse


Sooner or later just like the world first day
Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away
Sooner or later just like the world first day
Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away
Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away


History will teach us nothing
History will teach us nothing


Our written history is a catalogue of crime
The sordid and the powerful, the architects of time
The mother of invention, the oppression of the mild
The constant fear of scarcity, aggression as its child


Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later


Convince an enemy, convince him that he's wrong
Is to win a bloodless battle where victory is long
A simple act of faith
In reason over might
To blow up his children will only prove him right
History will teach us nothing


Sooner or later the world first day
Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away
Sooner or later the world first day
Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away
Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away


History will teach us nothing
History will teach us nothing


Know you human rights
Be what you come here for
Know your human rights
Be what you come here for
Know your human rights
Be what you come here for
Know your human rights
Be what you come here for


Sting

Automated and Amalgamated

"And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

-Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, May 28, 1816

“The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.”

-Albert Einstein

“It is the tendency of the social burdens to crush out the middle class, and to force society into an organization of only two classes, one at each social extreme.”

-William Graham Sumner


We are witnessing the simultaneous amalgamation of capital across the globe and the automation of daily life of each person.  It is an evolution speeding its way into a revolution.  In the U.S., the politics have become wholly devoted to masking the amalgamation of wealth and power in a tiny elite.  The massive wealth disparity between the ultra rich and regular individuals has grown into a chasm.  This has been sustained up until now by the widely disseminated myth that one could reach the pinnacle of wealth; in essence, the two were interchangeable.  One could become the other.


But as the avenues upward have been detoured time and time again, reality begins to set in.  The opportunity to set up shop in the town square is gone, displaced by the big boxes, who cannot even pay its local workers enough to get by and leaving them seeking public assistance for health care, once again, on the backs of the taxpayer.  In effect, the government and taxpayers subsidize the big box stores.  But that's not all.  They also buy their goods from China and India, adding insult to injury in hiring non-Americans and supporting their economies, and sheltering profits offshore, out of the reach of American taxes.  The opportunity promised to immigrants for generations died in the shadow of Wal-Mart.  


Everything has become automated.  Want to open up a bank like George Bailey, American hero?  That is gone too.  It takes too much, and only the amalgamated capital can meet the regulatory burden.  There is no such thing as a bank startup.  It has been gone for decades.  Your only bet is to go to work as an automaton, a robot serving the little people that come to bank at their automated banking branch.


Amalgamated capital demands its corporate welfare.  The subsidy provided goes beyond even their failure to pay sufficient wages.  Even though they refuse to pay enough wages or benefits to keep their American employees off the public dole, they escape even having to pay their share of taxes to the public dole.  Regular Americans have to support their workers, and they support non-American workers.  All in all, amalgamated capital lives on the backs of Americans while enriching foreign workers and a very small tiny, tax-evading elite.


Welcome to the Monkey House.