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The Powerful Feast Upon A Global House Divided
The Powerful Feast Upon A Global House Divided
By
Cognitive Dissonance
For several thousand years the rich and powerful have wielded the most effective tool know to man to control their servant populations, that of divide and conquer via mind control and social engineering. This underlying manipulation is always present as an integral part of the financial system and overall social conditioning and it usually expresses itself in the form of personal jealousy, greed and fear among the plebs. However, every three or four generations the big guns are brought to bear by the elite to strip the productive class of nearly all their social and monetary gains.
In the past this has been accomplished through various major and minor “financial panics’ as they were called in the 1800’s and depressions or recessions as they are called today. Or as the elite prefer to call the process, a reallocation and rebalancing of financial assets back to their rightful owners. And when on occasion even this fails to tame the herd or steal all a people’s wealth the rules of the game are changed, usually through massive social disruption caused by widespread and prolonged war. Once we hamsters are thoroughly disenfranchised and reprogrammed, often by fighting among ourselves over any remaining crumbs, we are set back down on our endless exercise wheel of futility to begin the process all over again.
Assuming the average Zero Hedge (ZH) reader truly understands this big picture view of the world, I find it curious that many in the ZH comment section are applauding the Egyptian resistance when they previously denigrated the European protests and rioting. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears as if one group of people who have been defrauded, lied to and robbed are more worthy of our support than the other. Ultimately the difference between these two groups is not freedom verses oppression but simply the freedom to choose (or lack thereof) the model and color of our own personal hamster wheel. I sense in some of my fellow ZH plebs a superior attitude and possibly even abject jealousy regarding the actual people participating in one nation’s uprising over another instead of recognizing the similarity of the basic social resistance messages. If we would just step back from our self interested pursuits and naval gazing for a moment we might possibly see this for what it really is, an inalienable truth. We are being divided and turned upon one another and we are helping the powers that be accomplish this. Sadly the methods used are quite transparent and as old as the hills.
Our general support of the poorer Egyptians over the better off Europeans implies that the Egyptian protestors are more pure and genuine and thus worthy of our intellectual benevolence. Of course the overpaid and under worked Europeans are not deserving of the right to protest and push back against their masters. How dare those lazy good for nothing Europeans react angrily to the wholesale theft of their nation’s wealth and the austerity measures slapped in place to pay off the bills the Ponzi masters ran up while engineering financial fraud.
We shouldn’t begrudge our masters for taking their generous cut off the top for decades before the game turned into vapor and the real wealth floated away into numbered bank accounts, QE2++ inflated stock prices, off shore factories and (increasingly) stolen precious metals. After all, they earned it the old fashioned way and the slaves were cut in for a small taste. Since it’s all those generous social benefits that are pushing the financial system into the abyss and not the wholesale global financial fraud, the European slaves have nothing to complain about. Let the masters eat their cake in peace for crying out loud.
It’s almost as if we here on ZH are declaring that toiling away in the service of our various capitalist Gods for fifty or sixty hours a week for ‘real’ slave wages, disappearing fringe benefits in lieu of actual wage increases and with a pittance of vacation time actually taken, is considered the ultimate in piety to our higher powers aka the financial and social elites. Don’t we gloriously ‘free’ Americans just love to proclaim to the world that this is ‘the only way’ to monetary salvation aka consumer nirvana.
And yet somehow we believe that even though the average Egyptian is doing essentially the same thing (only they’re earning actual slave wages) that this alone supposedly endows them (and only them) with the inherent right to attempt to throw off the chains that bind. Alas, if you get past the dramatically different living standards, both Egypt and Europe are protesting the same thing, meaning official complicity in the public financing of governmental and private fraud, theft and corruption.
Pray tell what the attitude will be among us when Americans finally take to the streets. Will we make fun of anyone who shows enough balls to actually gather together and push back against the Ponzi machine? Unfortunately, despite the fact that we claim to be aware of the propaganda and manipulation machine, how we react to the protests often depends upon how the mainstream media frames the protesters combined with our own lovingly nurtured prejudices and biases. The end result of this psychological cocktail often inflames or endears the observer (meaning you and me) to what we’re seeing on the boob tube. How easily controlled and manipulated even the supposedly aware Zero Hedge flock appears to be.
Aside from the geographic location, economic maturity and methods used in The Middle East, The Far East, Asia, Europe, Africa, The Americas etc, I see little difference between the various figure head leaders and their suckling and supportive elites in their effort to rape rob and steal from the masses that populate the countries they rule. Aside from the fairy tale belief that the world’s leaders wish to make life better for the downtrodden and disadvantaged, I find every country’s cabal has a single purpose in life. And that is (for the most part) self enrichment, personal comfort and power exponentially compounded.
That being said, would someone kindly explain to me why we jeer those who fill the streets in Europe yet we cheer the Egyptians for doing precisely the same thing for essentially the same reasons? I guess it’s only OK to revolt from your masters when you’re already groveling in the dirt and live in a terror filled world called the police state. But it’s not OK if you already own a flat screen TV and you presently (but not for long) receive 6 weeks paid vacation, state paid child care and the police state is carefully hidden. It sounds like the better kept house slaves have no right to revolt, but the beaten, exploited and worn down field slaves do. Forgive me if I’m missing something in the translation here, but isn’t the unifying theme and operative word among both classes of people “slave”?
Why is it that we can’t seem to understand that an economic system can be created where everyone doesn’t need to work sixty hours a week in order to survive. We passed the point of increased productivity decades ago where we no longer need to be chained to a desk or assembly line in order to live and live well. The fact that we still are chained speaks volumes to how effectively the system is drained of its fundamental wealth one B(L)S politically expedient lie at a time. We remain chained because it remains the elite’s best method of mind control.
Real wages over the last 30 years have seriously declined while the elite’s wealth has skyrocketed, particularly when you recognize that where one spouse could comfortably provide for the family of four thirty years ago it now takes two wage slaves toiling away to support the same sized family, an often overlooked part of the “real” wage equation. The system is being (and has been) systematically bled, even destroyed, in order to enrich the few. In its place illusionary wealth called ‘credit’ has been extended to keep us deaf, dumb and blind while even more tightly bound to our intellectually customized hamster wheels.
We all seem to be experiencing a massive Cognitive Dissonance of the truly self destructive kind and it’s the most obvious indication yet that we all suffer from a terminal case of Stockholm Syndrome combined with victim-perpetrator bonding similar to battered spouse syndrome or families of the addicted. Our world has been systematically looted by a small cabal of financial and political elites over the last 30 plus years and arguably for millennium. And whether we wish to admit it or not, we haven’t put up much of a stink because we were given a small seat at the table and a few extra servings of moldy bread and watered down rum.
As long as ‘we the abused’ were compensated enough to dull the pain we allowed the abuse to continue. Repeatedly beat me about the head, then give me a dirty rag to stop the bleeding and I’ll kiss the masters feet and be eternally grateful. Now that we the abused are being dealt out of the Ponzi card game, but the abuse itself is being ratcheted up, only now do we cry foul. “Hey, where’s my dirty rag?” Worse, we are increasingly angry with our fellow wage slaves who are relatively better off (those SOB house slaves have two dirty rags, imagine that) but who are finally attacking their abusers while we are not.
Incredibly we claim the rebellious are selfish, lazy and over indulged. We condemn those uppity house (wage) slaves for reaching beyond their station in life because they aren’t satisfied with their more flexible chains and increased beatings. The truly conditioned mind, the mind of the house broken and kept slave, can never see beyond the reach of his or her own chains. The real world ends where potential freedom begins, all because we are too busy tending to our narrow belief system which demarks the extent of our reality and existence.
This is our true hamster wheel within which we are locked into the illusory, but all consuming pursuit of money, itself a state of mind and a symbol of our acceptance of the status quo every time we use it. This tool of enslavement called fiat ‘money’ has been cleverly equated to freedom, but is actually the ultimate form of bondage. I owe, I owe, so off to work I miserably go. The company store is still there, only remodeled and restocked with QE powered iGags dipped in hope and change. Yum, finger licking good!
To gaze upon another placated mind living the better life is infuriating and immediate tension and division is created by our own jealousy and greed. Natural allies are divided by the ruling elite who create intentional shortages and artificial differences. This doesn’t happen by accident or ‘nature’, but by manipulation and conditioning. The global masters have vast experience cultivating their human crop and managing their plantations. Can’t we see that by not supporting our fellow abused when they fight back, regardless of their ideological, financial or physical condition in relation to our own, we are directly supporting our own abusers financially, emotionally and intellectually?
I understand this essay may be considered harsh or even derogatory to some. But to be frank I’m tired of using words that won’t disturb the placated mind. Rarely do we grow when we are not deeply disturbed or strenuously challenged. It’s time to grow up folks. It’s time to recognize that the enemy of my enemy is my friend and that anyone resisting the global financial elite in any country for any reason is fighting our battles for and with us.
Anyone pushing back against tyranny, financial slavery and the process of publically financing and socializing private debt is fighting the same abusive power elite that we should be. Instead of squabbling over the dwindling crumbs on the floor it’s time to pull our head out of our posterior and understand that either we fight the abusers together or we will surely be abused separately.
02-09-2011
Cognitive Dissonance
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"...would someone kindly explain to me why we jeer those who fill the streets in Europe yet we cheer the Egyptians for doing precisely the same thing for essentially the same reasons?"
I've got your answer right here, courtesy of Jefferson...
"Scenes are now to take place as will open the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandoned to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers." --Thomas Jefferson 1814
How much does physical abuse play an issue in the sentiment towards the protesters in different countries?
Just for grins, read the book "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin or "Secrets of the Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins. Those should get your blood pressure up. Really, take the time!
Possible solution: Stop going to work and stop paying bills (banks...). Pick a major corporation (DuPont, GM, Ford, GE, etc.) and don't buy anything from them. Result, banks and major corps become like a "corpse".
Will this result in no pain? No...but doing nothing gets nothing done, right? People sticking together gets things done...
Great essay CD, as is always the case! I do pass the links around to get the word out.
liked your piece, coggy. i like that last picture, cause i can see a female hand included. honest when i found out what woman have to endure in egypt, with female mutilation. i honestly stopped being emotionally involved in the protests. now i see what the american society does in regards to mutilation of the male with circumcision. i never thought about no choice is given to the male baby in america. how in the heck did it get this far. i just have been living in the dark ages, b.c.ZH.
the elites really are pitiful people. their kids have huge mental problems. it is a mess. i am almost certain, karma catches up with them. they are scared to die.
From John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of Education:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue6.htm
Jacques Ellul, whose book Propaganda is a reflection on the phenomenon, warned us that prosperous children are more susceptible than others to the effects of schooling because they are promised more lifelong comfort and security for yielding wholly:
Critical judgment disappears altogether, for in no way can there ever be collective critical judgment....The individual can no longer judge for himself because he inescapably relates his thoughts to the entire complex of values and prejudices established by propaganda. With regard to political situations, he is given ready-made value judgments invested with the power of the truth by...the word of experts.
The new dumbness is particularly deadly to middle- and upper-middle-class kids already made shallow by multiple pressures to conform imposed by the outside world on their usually lightly rooted parents. When they come of age, they are certain they must know something because their degrees and licenses say they do. They remain so convinced until an unexpectedly brutal divorce, a corporate downsizing in midlife, or panic attacks of meaninglessness upset the precarious balance of their incomplete humanity, their stillborn adult lives. Alan Bullock, the English historian, said Evil was a state of incompetence. If true, our school adventure has filled the twentieth century with evil.
Ellul puts it this way:
The individual has no chance to exercise his judgment either on principal questions or on their implication; this leads to the atrophy of a faculty not comfortably exercised under [the best of] conditions...Once personal judgment and critical faculties have disappeared or have atrophied, they will not simply reappear when propaganda is suppressed...years of intellectual and spiritual education would be needed to restore such faculties. The propagandee, if deprived of one propaganda, will immediately adopt another, this will spare him the agony of finding himself vis a vis some event without a ready-made opinion.Once the best children are broken to such a system, they disintegrate morally, becoming dependent on group approval. A National Merit Scholar in my own family once wrote that her dream was to be "a small part in a great machine." It broke my heart. What kids dumbed down by schooling can’t do is to think for themselves or ever be at rest for very long without feeling crazy; stupefied boys and girls reveal dependence in many ways easily exploitable by their knowledgeable elders.
The sins of the fathers (and mothers) shall be visited upon the children.
It is tragic for these kids, given that they are indeed children when conditioned, just like the future fanatics who attend madrasahs. Sadly, however, they are most likely genetically predisposed to accept the conditioning. That's a tough nut to crack.
At the same time, there are millions of kids who are not similarly burdened yet are equally well-endowed for success who are understandably unable to overcome the obstacles that the other kids and their progenitors have erected and fanatically defended over generations.
That doesn't mean the kids of the elite can't be "saved" or that the effort shouldn't be made. I would argue that, given their "disadvantages" with respect to wising up, the most clear and powerful guidance society can provide them would be to send their parents to prison where they belong.
Happily, this would serve everybody's best interests.
I don’t see the children of the elite as being the primary focus of that passage. The "prosperous children" and "middle- and upper-middle-class kids" mentioned is more referring to the wannabe-elite house slaves who enjoy special status and extra privileges. This sub-class of slave, which can include people with relatively high incomes and corner offices, plays a crucial role in maintaining the existing social order.
I see. The sycophant class. The prison guards yearning for the Warden's chair.
Glad to see that BBC World News now call our Egyptian friends "anti government protesters" rather than "pro democracy protesters".
CD says it like Alexander Dumas : all for one, one for all...What we now need is world wide audaciousness, more audacious rebelion against the Ponzi masters. The cookie will crumble under its own inertia. But we have to be prepared to get out of harm's way of it's toxic fallout; then repair on a sustainable basis locally, globally. Brave new world.
It may all be a pipe dream, but then we are human. All we have is our lives and our dreams. Say it with a loud shout. Before the scream comes back to haunt you/us on tsunami basis.
My main point of disagreement would be that whilst many of the strikes in Europe are to promote certain narrow special interests the uprising in Egypy was against their corrupt system in general.
Most of the strikes and protests in Europe are reactionary and in favour of the status quo or a supposed golden age past, by contrast the protests in Egypt are strikingly revolutionary. The last time I saw protests like these was during the fall of the Soviet Union and I was similarly heartened and uplifted by those.
Sadly, the legitimate protesters are being co-opted by the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad and others. This is not a movement towards democracy, but rather towards another despotic regime, this time under shariah law. We've seen how well that's worked out for the "people" in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, etc. There is no history of democracy in the ME, except in Israel, and anyone who thinks this will be different is deluding himself. "Technology can be among the most powerful weapons in the dictator’s armory. Propaganda, the suppression of the truth, particularly in democratic societies, will bring upon an age of enslavement where instead of yokes and chains, people in celebrated “free” societies like America will be bound by the soft restraints of ignorance, incuriousness, distraction and irrationality."
–Aldous Huxley
no idea why you have quotes around "people" when referencing the humans that live in "Syria, Lebanon, etc." - I'll pass on that bar noticing it, and agree that the ME has been more tribal oriented than "democratic" nationstate model introduced in last century's "great game" of the UK/European invaders. . .
Israel is a trojan-horse in the ME, designed to keep a foothold on the resources there, and I don't mean human resources - the humans are fully expendable, in case you hadn't noticed.
read up on the Great Game, the New Great Game, Balfour Declaration & the League of Nations, oooh, I could go on. . .
the Egyptian people are just humans trying to get out from under the yoke of global servitude, much like most of us.
it tough being down under when you get back from work , check out ZH and you've missed the scraps and find they've all finished.
if anyone is still out there please reply to this post and i'll call you a troll c@#t.
As for the article - self indulgent but well meant, my dad writes similar fare in his embarassing memoirs. They were an eye-opener....
CogDis,
'O.K., where do we and where should we go from here?' That's the thought that ruminates and rumbles within my rock littered skull.
It's a great thing that you elucidate the problem so concisely.
Cog Dis...you seem to be asking for more than realization, but begging for a call to action, accompanied by something different, perhaps down an avenue less traveled.
Consider groups of people in certain societal positions that can be reached in an effective way, and provided the right message, can make a difference;
Never a peak out of any of them! Yet.
I am considering purchasing a email list and spamming thousands of them myself with content from The Great Global Debt Prison by G Bruno, as well as a few other of my fav's who have written so eloquently about usury. I'm a hairs away from going into Saddleback Church in Lake Forest CA with a membership of 20 some odd thousand and not leaving until I get through the church leaders thick skulls (along with a few other mega-churches).
This idea may quite possibly suck, so if any ZH'r out there reading this feels motivated to reply with unconstructive comments or critique (yet have no divergent ideas to suggest) I will literally jump through the computer (like Horace Pinker) and kick your ass!
I feel like taking action... action more than I have by de-vesting in the system with Au & Ag, more than firing my bank, more than becoming self-sufficient. In fact, I am going to. Anyone else?
as someone who has spent years outside the system that most people are mind-locked inside of, I understand your zeal to try & change mass-minds. . . if you genuinely believe that "religion" has changed anything in amrka in your lifetime, well, off you go! spam 'em!
I'd get the other things on your list sorted first, or at least simultaneously - I've found working towards self-sufficiency a far more satisfying base to argue from, and it's a full-time "job" with obvious benefits - examples can be great teachers, where preaching often falls on deaf ears.
good luck - sincerely.
.
MLK and the African-American civil rights movement comes to mind for me as an example of a successful movement that arose from the churches of America.
yes, I can agree that MLK and African-American congregations rallied through their churches; it was the core religious beliefs that I was referencing.
there are many church-goers who are supportive of their local communities, and do many charitable works - it's the ones who want to establish rules and laws that apply to non-believers that I have zero time for.
I think targeting churces is a first rate strategy. The problem we now face is fundamentally a moral problem and their communities are expressly devoted to same. Church may be the only place in our society where the masses actually listen to speeches/sermons.
Execute your plan.
'It's a great thing that you elucidate the problem so concisely.'
CD concise? You cheeky fucker taking the piss - not nice to laugh at old geezers.
Your post is a rambling hotch potch of nonsense - you think church leaders are influential? they are there to promote the status quo - i can only assume you are puffing on a crack pipe lying in a bed of your own excrement.
Cog, I am simply amazed that the dialog hasn't reached the standard set last year. Dialog, debate, and at times, supremely hot tempers rolled on threads, often with 500, 1,000 or more comments. Some of it simply, stupendously, vicious with deeply entrenched views & emotion engaging in massive exercises of collective bloodletting. I have read & participated in plenty of 'em.
Ultimately, the cancer that is globalized ponzinomics and its unwinding will make a call on every society. It is plainly obvious there are many folks committed in making every attempt to fracture society and play upon those fractured shards, for whatever reason. The bottom line is that the mass & momentum of the global situation entire is beyond stopping. There may be an occasional lull, but its a done deal. We're just waiting to see how the chapters finish unfolding and the different story lines maturate. In this I hear you attempting to remind folks of this classic slogan from Paris, May 1968 --
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié ne font que se creuser un tombeau - Those who make revolutions half way only dig their own graves.
Good to remember, Miles. This should be the motto for the movement.
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié ne font que se creuser un tombeau - Those who make revolutions half way only dig their own graves.
Perhaps its translation into Egyptian Arabic would be of some help. Is Suleiman any different? A new dictator for the old one?
It's all the same
Only the names have changed
Everyday it seems
We're wasting away
- Bon Jovi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKqW5o4idt8
Still, this has remained stuck Rocky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OVD0_YJnU
While the musical spark to tinder from Tunisia is making its way into western awareness ... From Hamanda Ben Aoun, aka El General Cheers to a Fight Clubber STANDING and spittin' it as he knows it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeGlJ7OouR0
thankyou for a great piece and offering the first crucial step to dealing with an elitist class fully supported by elitist politicians worldwide: they are the enemy and we must ALL unite on this principle and demand they start working for us and punish those who act illegally; otherwise, divided and conquered we shall be!
You made some thoughtful good points CD. I pretty much agree with WB7's entry (#948440) but have a concern from Bartanist's post, do you know if censorship is being practiced on ZH?
By the way, what a weird string.
I know of no censorship being practiced on ZH. On a few occasions a post of mine has disappeared and even come back. For those who have been here since the beginning, these things happen and they have happened in the past. Don't know why but I suspect it is computer server related, poorly written code, something, a bad sector on a hard drive, whatever.
I do know that occasionally, very occasionally, someone will get kicked off of ZH for being a total asshole of the mega kind. But even then I know of 2 people who were kicked off and then let back on under their old ID. Someone is paranoid. Glitches do happen when running a blog on a shoestring.
for the record, the weekend of the "gifford shooting" the trollage was severe, and a multiple-poster complained of some posts being "deleted" - a Tyler replied on-thread that some of the posts were not allowed through because they were so offensive - given what was left onthread, one can only imagine. . .
Thanks for the reply.
Actually that's called editing, not censorship.
Tyler should be able to determine who is allowed to post what. This is his gig not a public commons.
Thanks, CD. Good stuff as usual. Many worthy comments have been generated. One of them, somewhat indirectly, pointed out a possible source of the disdain for the European unrest being an unconscious guilt. They were complaining publicly, and we are not. The "pampered" Europeans are but a short step away from the social organization of the U. S. -- at least just a stone's throw from where we were heading. The current political atmosphere is pointing its bony finger at that visage and crying foul. I suppose we can thank the Europeans for that, if nothing else.
damn st8t Rock ; ) the whole way
CD, your article is profound. It is too bad some are so myopic that they refuse to find any goodness in it.
I have noticed that a good percentage of comments come from people who subscribe to the dog-eat-dog philosophy. Are their minds so broken that they cannot see any alternative? My heart is heavy everytime I read a post that generally says "That's the way the world works...I'm gonna fight to get mine and fuck the rest of you."
I wish they would just pay attention, particularly to these two lines you wrote: "Natural allies are divided by the ruling elite who create intentional shortages and artificial differences. This doesn’t happen by accident or ‘nature’, but by manipulation and conditioning." I will continue to cling to my convictions that humanity has progressed, for better or for worse, through cooperation, empathy, compassion, courage, morality, and a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves, not God really, but something more pure. A greater social ideal. I think I remember reading in one of your previous posts that the only way we can move forward is to admit our part in this sick slave-master system. We have elected the wrong people, we have not been vigilant to keep them accountable and we have withdrawn from our civic duties. As a result, the power-hungry sociopaths have filled this void and have figured out how to placate us while they consume more and more and more.
CD, thank you for getting this message out. I know that you will be getting a lot of crap for it, but it needs to be said. Indeed it is time to grow up.
seriously good points made well MilleniumJane.
I think you've correctly highlighted the immaturity inherent in what is largely the "average amrkn" profile - more for me, stuff you! it's a top down philosophy (military adventures in resource stealing, fiat money, etc.), and for those who have spent substantial time outside of this country, it's easier to spot - BIGGER, MOAR, NOW - it's the rallying cry of a 2 year old - gimme! I want! - one who cannot fathom why it can't have what it wants immediately, and whose govt has fed this story for decades.
and no, it's not everyone, but it IS an overall motif, one that prevents empathy, even awareness, of others in the world, beyond a cursory "donation" to "the poor". . .
"time to grow up" - couldn't agree more!
By reading this, you would guess that the world was in retrograde motion, and everyone was a serf being ground into the dust. Instead, look around and you will note the enormous progress that has been brought about by ingenuity and hard work. I am not referring to a just a year here or there, but over centuries. I fail to see how these nebulous "Elites" are at fault when quality of life has never been better. In the fields of medicine, education, the arts, and basic food and shelter, we as a species have never had it so cozy. First the Western world achieved this, and now it is filtering out to the rest of the teeming billions. Yes, right now there are issues with unemployment and commodity price spikes, but it is preferable to starvation, plagues, or world wars as previous generations have known.
The ONLY thing that can be said with absolute certainty: "Change is coming!" Bank on it.
CD, normally you have dead on insights, but I have to disagree on a great number of points on this one.
The unfolding world events are more of a Rorschach ink blot. You speak as if people "know" the inside scoop. That ZH has a definitive grasp of the inner workings of the world. There is much more truthiness at ZH, but what is really happening? Everyone talks about the "banks". The "elites". Okay, I understand the concept, but those are not actionable facts. I have asked repeatedly the simple question, who? A bank is a building. You cannot arrest a building. "Elite" what is that? a man with a yacht and few houses? I'm sure many on ZH fit that sterotype who have nothing to do with the evil empire. Perhaps Jews, surely anyone jewish must be in on it. but somehow that guy who does my accounting just doesn't seem like a criminal mastermind, and it must not pay as much as I'ld think it would. So, without any names, without any organizational charts, we wave our hands and pound our fists in anger at them? Much of what you are feeling at watching world events has to do more with you, than the events themselves.
How do you even know who to root for? Allow me to expose myself to all sorts of criticism and present a story. shortened form.
A late spring snowstorm blows a baby bird from its nest. Chirping and screeching, it will surely die in the cold. An old cow hearing the bird and understanding its plight, drops a steaming pile of shit onto the bird, and then wanders off. Distracted by the disgusting and unfamiliar, the bird ignores the life saving warmth, and chirps maddeningly. Except now this is heard by a cat. The cat promptly comes over, pulls the bird out of the shit, brushes him off. the bird excitedly starts to thank the cat for saving him, but the cat promptly eats him.
The Europeans have cause to rise up, but to what end? Were they storming the Bastille? Breaking the chains of bondage? demanding the end of fractional banking, compounding interest, or fiat to the moon?
No, they were upset that their cut of the action was being lowered. They were not "freedom" fighters looking to change a corrupt system. They are servants of the system and not liking certain rule changes being handed to them. They were not bringing down the system, just trying to turn it back more in their favor. others in their midsts do have grander designs in mind. designs that involve repression, subjugation, and imposing their ideals of utopia.
And what of Egypt? A corrupt dictator, doing the bidding of imperialists. a bought man helping the bankers? And he is being challenged by whom? Freedom seeking libertarians? maybe some of them. but behind those yearning to be free, are forces of exploitation and repression just as real as those they are challenging.
What we are witnessing is the end of the unstable equalibrium that has held the world together for some time. It is unraveling. While many hope that this is an opportunity for the birth of hope and a new paradigm for humanity, at great risk they are overlooking the evils that have been long held in check by other great evils. the same evils cursed at here at ZH.
CD, you look out at those crowds and you are seeing the hope that you want to be there. and it is there. but there are also fascists. and communists. globalist agents. and petty criminals and opportunists. little dictators yearning to grow.
The enemy of my enemy makes a nice slogan. but its not always true. Each of the events you are seeing have been set off by the common shock waves of the imploding world system. but that does not make them brothers in arms. they must be viewed individually.
Ask yourself, what does the man on the Greek or Egyptian street have in common with the communists? Or Islamofascists? or straight up fascists for that matter? Are they looking to improve the world for all, just turn the current system to their favor, or build their own repressive regime more to their liking?
TPTB created this chaos. they are managing its decline, and looking to shape its aftermath. In some games, several sides deserve to lose. And without a scorecard, how are you sure you know which ones to cheer for?
Us has been secretly supporting Egyptian opposition groups
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289698/Egypt-protests-secret-US-document-discloses-support-for-protesters.html
until recently, el Baradei was member of the International Crises Group working with Soros and Zbig
http://www.libertariantoday.com/2011/01/is-elbaradei-new-egyptian-front-man-for.html
Wael Ghonim, Google employee, is claiming to be responsible for creating the spark that set off the demonstrations. Google-builder of the most insidious surveillance network on earth. The same Google who is working hand and glove with the US government?
and just what is the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services? what are their ties to the AFL/CIO and world communist groups?
And this doesn't even touch on the Muslim Brotherhood.
At the least, the TPTB are managing the Egyptian riots. They may even be an orchestrated event.
Expect to see worldwide poor, repressed, unhappy people being pushed forward as dupes and cannon fodder by a seedy network of communists, anarchists, fascist, religious fanatics and provocateurs.
and don't think America is immune to this. Before committing to anything, know your so called friends, as well as your enemies.
Alas, if you get past the dramatically different living standards, both Egypt and Europe are protesting the same thing, meaning official complicity in the public financing of governmental and private fraud, theft and corruption.
And if you get past the dramatically different sizes of their wallets you'll find that both Lloyd Blankfein and that guy living under the bridge want the same thing: mo money.
Come on CD, you can barely own property in Egypt or have enough personal liberty to swing a cat. Egypt is a huge country with a tremendous amount of what Hernando DeSoto calls "dead capital". All these people are asking for is the ability to engage in free enterprise. They aren't fighting to preserve the 30 hour work week they're fighting for the mechanisms that would allow them to build capital and a better life after putting in a 60 hour work week.
I can sympathize with young Greeks who feel chained down by a corrupt welfare state where even the most rudimentary aspects of life require a bribe or a hustle of someone close to state power.
But French kids taking to the streets over the prospect of not getting a guaranteed job for life right out of school...not so much.
I understand that there are good guys and bad guys in both situations but my point is Egypt doesn't have enough private debt, wealth or financing to shake a stick at (or confiscate or destroy).
Egyptians want to change the system so that they can create legitimate private capital and build wealth. Europe's problem is that they've downgraded the importance of private capital in favor of public entitlements to the point where it's started to create real systemic problems.
I warned CD this post would draw a shit storm and admire him for standing by his convictions.
I recognise that there are notable differences between the typical Egyptian "freedom fighter" and many Euro protesters.
I understand how there is a substantial amount of hypocrisy involved in Europe, particularly distasteful since the Europeans are always eager to lecture Americans before looking at themselves. To this day they seem to think this crisis is a purely American caused phenomena (duh what about the English, German and French Banks?).
However, notwithstanding, I chose to stand with the angry European man on the street because what we are witnessing globally are the symptoms of the same corrupt disease of financialization. Yes, the Europeans should have restructured their social platform 20 years ago and the check has finally arrived in the mail.
But, our Banksta spawn moved to the City of London 20 years ago just in time to help push the European ponzi scheme into interstellar overdrive. I remember it well.
Why are we squabbling amongst ourselves when the enemy runs wild?
Fuck the Bangsta bitchez!!! (anybody disagree?)
I too remember the "Big Bang" in London, was living just cross the Thames from the City, and within two short years, watched a hellish amrkn-isation of people, mostly younger white males, in their "company suits" who got paid the most. . . then the bars 'n' lapdance parties moved in, & I left for Scotland where they still remember the two-fingered salute, and had much contempt for all things greedy.
didn't realise it then, the cancer was metastasizing rapidly, and we're here now to watch the death throes, eh.
Ah. So their way of thinking is determined by the origins.
Wel, well, well...
Lets review some facts:
Various data available prior to 2008 showed that a new generation of household would suffer insolvency troubles if they had to pay house prices corresponding to the US general environment: their work output was not deemed not enough to allow them in house ownership. So in other words, the US american dream would not work for them.
In 2007, I came to the conclusion that the US engineered this subprime crisis in order to allow US citizens into home ownership, avoiding social unrest.
In 2011, a book written by an Indian economist, offered a similar conclusion even though the Indian is less clearcut: the result might have been passive, as following the path of least resistance or active, with a crisis engineered to fill the US housing stock with homes US citizens could afford after a real estate bubble crash.
My opinion that the US sought actively this outcome relies on the US past. This way of doing is nothing new to the US, it is even a classical way to operate.
European countries: This recalled, I see no reason that they (and others) did not see it coming. They know the US and they perform the same tricks at times. As the US was acting to progress toward their goal of filling their housing stocks with affordable units, they had to react. React. A key word here.
Most of countries chose to play ball with the US, easening the credit facilities toward US citizens since housing is a major loan cause (and not buying scrap from the Chinese as some propagate on this site)
Were they wrong on that? Would they have done better without playing ball with the US? If you want to tell that the Europeans are hypocrits, you definitively have to show they did not adopt the most efficient way to protect themselves from what the US was creating. Good luck with that.
Has their method added to the trend? Absolutely. But without no better prospects and alternatives, hard to expect something else. Compelled decisions do exist.
You dont have to be a European or an Indian to understand that the US is at the core of the current crisis. All that is required is to face facts.
Even though, probably, the very fact of being a US citizen might make it hard to face facts, to come to the conclusion that the US engineered this crisis in order to avoid domestic unrest caused by their failing society model.
You mean, deflate wages and benefits while providing bad loans to be paid later by the same public whose wages are being deflated....which also allows more debt via home equity loans...all as cover for a permanent decrease in the 'actual' (non-debt) standard of living in the USA?
Brilliant!
What do you mean by wages deflation and benefits?
I think you missed the first point. The US general environment is constantly being bettered. It is not the wages that are being deflated (dont read this point as a total exclusion of wages deflation) but the work output and the valuation of the work output that can not keep up with the rate the US general environment is being bettered.
The other point: some US citizens were burnt in the process. No arguing over that but they (and the general movement) are allowing thousands of US citizens to go and fish for houses that should not have been built in the US (could not afford the entry price) and this at a large discount. It is happening now.
Mission accomplished: the housing stock has been populated with a large number of units that are now affordable to US citizens through bubble popping.
"I recognise that there are notable differences between the typical Egyptian "freedom fighter" and many Euro protesters."
the subtelest thing ive read on the net for....at least...5 yrs...more like 7.
Subtlety and understatement are an art just like satire and parody.
dub7 , That is why you are a Player Sir (al sejein and hakimullah) and I, a mere naive... ; )
He used the word "publically". Spelling is also an art.
the only part of your statement I'd disagree with is: "To this day they seem to think this crisis is a purely American caused phenomena".
for the most part...they seem to point the finger of blame towards the banksters (and rightly so) and they do not care much for granting the banksters any particular "nationality" (and rightly so) since banksters are more a species than a nationality.
Besides that point...I'm with ya.