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Shut up & Grow Some Balls!!
Originally posted at http://www.capitalistexploits.at/
By: Chris Tell
Over the weekend I was watching a movie with my kids…”How to Train a Dragon”.
In the story, a tribe of Vikings live in a particularly inhospitable part of the world. They have some enemies…dragons in this case. Their homes are continuously destroyed and their cattle stolen by these fire-breathing beasts, but as the narrator, a little viking boy mentions at the outset of the film, "they have stubbornness issues”.
This reminded me of many people I’ve met...living miserably in admittedly inhospitable climes, while justifying sticking with the status quo. Why is this?
Why do people lament a system, yet cling to it fervently as if there are no options?
From sea to shining sea the majority of the populace is “educated” in State-run schooling systems. Every single one of these institutions and their governments parrot the same lame story, namely “We are the best country in the world, we have the best education system, we must sacrifice for the good of our country…blah, blah, blah.”Doesn't matter if you're in China, Canada, The USA or Venezuala. Same BS.
The problem with this "flawed" belief system is that it’s complete fiction.
This brain washing, when instilled at a tender young age, is how large swathes of the populace are brought up to think, and brought under control.
Hop on one of those pressurized tin cans that cart us across the oceans, and you'll see immediately that certain countries are far more hospitable than others. Some countries have better educational programs, some have higher literacy rates and some have lower levels of red tape and so forth. Clearly they cannot all be “the best”.
If we look back through history we see that large populations can and will move to places with friendlier climes if pressed to do so, for a myriad of reasons. America itself was founded by people escaping persecution and repression, and seeking a better life.
Unpatriotic bastards?
Some would argue that they were, based on the fact that they refused to abide by the doctrine of their British rulers. Mark and I would obviously disagree!
I touched on the subject of patriotism in a post entitled Military Minds, which drew a few vehement emails and unsubscribe’s.
Why patriotism is considered a virtue rather than a severe mental disorder is an unresolved mystery to me.
The political class love it of course…how else do you sell the concept that an individual should sacrifice his life, family and future, while raping, nuking and torturing fellow human beings, all for a political system that keeps bureaucrats in clover? Read any history book and tell me it isn't so.
Of course it's NEVER "sold" like that. Marketing/media/propaganda are all weapons in the same powerful arsenal, yet often bear little resemblance to reality. If the "sell" reflected the truth, nobody in their right mind would "buy" it.
Young Johnny in Oklahoma, fresh out of high school, armed with pimples and some political zest, full of grandiose perceptions of "his country's" place in the world, and possibly some religious fervour is never told he'll be coordinating drone strikes on innocent women and children whom he has never met before.
Lacking any smattering of critical thinking, which was never allowed to take root thanks to mind-numbing television programming, video games and an educational system that apparently teaches nothing other than to expect everything to be given to you on a silver platter (see our post on the Strawberry Generation), he's going to "fight for freedom"...he'll be a hero.
Is this resonating with anyone out there? It's been happening far longer than any of us have been alive, and will continue to happen.
How did we get here?
A subscriber of ours, and a regular correspondent recently sent Mark and I the info graphic below from an article on Zerohedge. It shows how Americans spend their time. Please indulge me.
In short, the average American spends over an hour and half a day watching television, and a whopping 6 minutes a day reading. That reading may well be Glamour, or People Magazine or some other such garbage.
Does this matter? Yes and no.
More importantly, should it matter to YOU...and what are YOU going to do about it?
The world has a ton of problems, they're everywhere. There is also no shortage of people doing stupid things. When someone complains to me about the state of the world, or the state of their country, town, or even household, my immediate thought is “does it matter to me, and what am I going to do about it, if anything?”
If there is nothing that I can do about the situation...then why worry about it? If on the other hand there is a reason for me to get involved, then I can and will.
If someone was to tell you that the Sentinelese people have decided to accept gay marriages, abortion, and outlaw the eating of strawberries you'd likely care less, right?
First, it doesn't affect you directly, and second, if it did we would likely be living in the Bay of Bengal, and we'd have the choice to opt out...if we liked strawberries that is.
Instead of lamenting whatever system or setup exists where you are at, you have the choice to either accept it, reject it, or to change it. If you cannot change it, and assuming you disagree with it, then you need to grow some balls and make your own change!
The world, as my young daughter tells me...is a HUMASSIVE place. The truth is that life exists beyond the narrow confines most people so easily limit their view to.
Mark and I believe that the best opportunities to actually effect some change are by putting our capital to work in small, growing frontier markets. Attempting to affect change in societies which are moving in the wrong direction amounts to swimming upstream. We shouldn't lament the breakdown of certain markets, we need to be aware of it and adjust accordingly. In doing so we are taking action, even if that action is saying, "I'm not playing in this sandpit anymore".
Consider the following:
- Germany - that stalwart of European economic growth has enjoyed, on average, a whopping 1.4% GDP gain year over year, during the last TEN years.
- USA - The world leader? A GDP growth rate of 1.7% for 2012.
- United Kingdom - The once great land of the Queen, 1.25% for 2012.
- Libya - a growth rate of 22% for 2012.
- Mongolia - a growth rate of 15% for 2012.
- Myanmar - a growth rate of 7-8% in 2012.
The flip side is that the Frontier Markets where Mark and I prefer to operate are places where small amounts of capital can, and do, change lives - literally - both for us as investors, but more importantly for those entrepreneurs who are growing businesses which impact their societies...bringing goods, services and wealth to their people.
As far as "not playing in the lamenting sandpit" goes, we have found our own personal Shangri-La, a place where we can grow our own food, harvest our own rainwater (try that in Oregon), have little or nothing to do with bureaucrats, enjoy inexpensive living, warm sunshine on our faces year-round and be marveled every day by some of the most spectacular beauty and the happiest people we've encountered - bar none.
What is this marvelous place? For us it's Fiji.
- Chris
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
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Ok, Mr/Mrs/Miss Author.
Unfortunately, you yourself have proved to be that classic contradiction through your actions.
"Shut up and Grow some Balls"
Oh, I forgot, you grew some balls and made some money from your Western Society AND ran away. Where to? Fiji?
It goes like this. "If you leave the land that you once came from and then condem the people of that land without any real participation, shows you are spineless. Especially, when you are spewing such levels of crap and tying it to those levels of realities."
I still wish you the best for you and yours in Fiji, while to start of like what you did? You gave up that right, when you left along with making such claims.
Pens,
Ps. There is a cultural revolution that has started within our many, different and shared western societies. You better hope it does take hold, because if we loose, that ugly storm will be coming your way.
There is a saying. "Assumptions are the mother of all farkups"
You Sir don't know me from Adam and are assuming many things which you have no knowledge about.
I'm not condemning anyone to anything. On the contrary you're free to do as you please, thats my point. You condemn yourself to whatever it is you choose for your life and I for mine. Don't put words in my mouth. As for Fiji...it is MY choice and I could give a rats sack if anyone else agrees or disagrees. It is my decision to make based on the knowledge I have and if you have something valuable to add to adult discourse then I welcome it but if you're to ridicule without any knowledge then you're failing to add value to anyone including yourself.
Your last statement sounds like a statement from one who has never lived in and experienced multiple countries and cultures....but then I shouldn't make assumptions should I?
What garbage. People working two jobs to make ends meet have plenty of balls, how about some accountability motherfucker?
People working two jobs to make ends meet have plenty of balls
Yeah, until you present them with new ideas.... then they turn into terrified children.
Unfortunately, ideas don't feed you unless you can actually protect your IP from the corporate machine. Sorry, did you have a fucking point? What do you have against holding people accountable, at all levels of society? Sad, I thought for sure you would be for accountability.
Yupp. Too true.
This post has been nit picked .... and berated .... but as is stated .... most even on here have no balls.... be safe and secure in your mind ... but in are you acturally safe and secure???
I too am taking my presence to wherever in the world I am more welcome ... will it be perfect .... NO this plant is not called heaven. But my talents ... and capital will be lost to one area and a gained in another area....
The thinking ... the productive .... the freedom loving .... self reliant individuals are doing their best to exit the evolving socialist tyranical welfare warfare state.
Grow some balls ... open your mind so you can see reality ... don't be a part of a problem ... be part of the solution ....
We only go around once in this world ....Think and observe what is really happening... then make a few good decisions ...
Waaaa...... Booo Hooo ! GO ALREADY !
You have a very stereotypical Hollywood view of the meaning of the word patriot and you should not project it on everyone else.
Patriotsism is not a mental disorder involving raping, nuking and torturing. The latter phenomena is something else that often pressumes to wear the badge of patriotism. Devotion to one's country does not automatically equate with psychopathic behavior or blind devotion.
You have a very stereotypical Hollywood view of the meaning of the word patriot and you should not project it on everyone else.
Broke my heart to ding you, Banzai. But...
"Patriotism" is a magical talisman. It (in most uses) signifies the worhip of a collective - devotion to an imaginary grouping and the overlords that own it.
Ask a Patriot what exactly he has read of Jefferson or Adams. The answer will more than likely be "not much." Patriotism is a shortcut to cheap, false self-esteem.
People who go around bragging that they are patriots are usually something else. And like all words, the term "patriot" is context sensitive. A zenophobe, for example, means something quite different when he says "I am a patriot."
Spot on... so funny to see on this article how many people who claimed to be "'against the system", but using the meaning of the words defined by the system. Newspeak in other words. I live in an Eastern Europe country, I'm from the Western part. I behave here like a patriot : I don't try to impose my culture, I buy as much as I can local product, I try to contribute posititvely to the society with my individual behaviour. But those people will portay me hanging a flag in my yard, saying how much I hate this or that country. Protecting a culture and people around, this is what it is about patriotism. First is your family, then the people around you. Sounds so natural, and has nothing to do with xenophobia or I don't know what.
It may not have meant the negative stereotypes in 1776, but it sure as hell does now. I take a very dim view of anyone from any nation that starts spouting off jingoistic bullshit to start the "Us and them" paradigm which by definition is the purpose of such words.
If you mean the love of the land that fed and nurtured you for which you feel personal attachment, then we're in agreement, but there's little evidence of that from people who call themselves patriots - a key word used as an excuse for xenophobia, hate and paranoia of auslanders. These flag waving animals live by treating their homes as toxic dumps and positively encourage the destruction of natural beauty as long as it lines their pockets, while pouring disdain on the "hippies and activists" trying to save a little of it for future generations.
I have decided that I am not going to standby and watch them pollute the rest of the river with their jingoistic bullshit and their patriotic emblems and uniforms.
It's all a propaganda exercise and I have decided that turning it back on them is a very effective way to counter the 35% who still believe or regurgitate the party line that Snowden is a traitor.
He is not a traitor. He is a patriot and the traitors are all sitting in Vichy DC. He can wear red, white and blue and they can emblazon themselves with a red and yellow hammer and sickle or a black swastika.
And in the Canadian Version.
"Figgin' eh Will."
Pens,
+1000
Here here! Well said mate.
He is not a traitor. He is a patriot and the traitors are all sitting in Vichy DC. He can wear red, white and blue and they can emblazon themselves with a red and yellow hammer and sickle or a black swastika.
And thus you restored me to up-arrows. :)
Rock on.
You surprise me WB. Your country of birth is an accident of circumstance and you can find your devotion is not reciprocated. Ask Ed Snowden. Or ask me, I grew up in Zimbabwe before it was independent. And the devotion that binds you to others can make all of you carry out actions you later regret. A few days ago, the crowd at a Brazilian amateur football match descended on and decapitated the referee. That's the power of devotion for you. Were those people thinking? No.
Pardon?
How on earth do you draw the Brazil thing to what does on within OUR shared and different western societies? Play your fear card on somebody else.
An accident? Hey, you yourself are an accident when a woman met a man and made you. Spare me your reverse racist crap by trying to belittle our immediate worlds.
Zimbabwe Independent? You need to wake up. The social experiment is very much applied in your immediate world.
NEXT.
Country means many things. For some narrow minded people it is limited to a football club.
I grew up in a place. That place is a community which consists of many people. Some of them are family most of them are not. However, we have a commonality other than kinship. Its called our culture. That culture includes many facets, some political many others not. Not all of them are to be savored. The sum of those, good and bad equate with my notion of country. My world view is not limited to some Westphalian ideology concerning the concept of a "nation state."
As for those things I don't like, I have dedicated myself to the pursuit of correcting them, doing whatever I can with whatever modest means I have. Notice I say pursuit and not cause. Cause implies a desire to inflict an ideology on others. I have no such motivation. I am a believer in the principle of live and let live. People with a cause are often susceptible to to the end game of killing in the name of an idea. But in in basic terms, I just don't like watching ordinary people getting fucked every which way by the elitists.
The political situation is obviously not always in accord with the founding principles which embody our collective consent to be governed. I am in agreement with the founding principles of the United States. However, those are not a gift from God and I have always been warned they are a struggle to protect and/or fully realise, as the current period sadly demonstrates.
Mr Snowden has very substantial public support. He obviously understands the struggle and has the courage to make very substantial sacrifices in furtherance. The fucking parasites can revoke his fucking passport and hound him to the ends of the earth. As far as I am concerned they are war criminals and statist vermin and he, not them, is my fellow American.
There is something else I have in common with him. I am unwilling to just walk away and say I don't give a flying fuck about my "country", as my daily endeavors on and off this website adequately demonstrate.
And I am saying this as someone who also considers himself a good citizen of the globe and knows very well where and how to move up country if and when it should become necessary.
Maybe a better way to look at it is: Tyranny is built on cynicism, cynicism is based on fear, and fear is both the cause and effect of human incorporation. Fear is a natural instinct; how civilization responds to it will define our success as a species. It's kinda important. We should think about how and why we incorporate them. The key is in the *charters* we sanction. The US Constitution (a public charter) worked OK up to a point: Wall St. corporate charters – not so good. We can fix that if we expose cynics for the cowards that they are call for a constitutional amendment like this:
28th Amendment (The Constitutional Emergency Amendment)
Corporations are not persons and shall be granted only those rights and privileges that Congress deems necessary for the well-being of the People. Congress shall provide legislation defining the terms and conditions of corporate charters according to their purpose; which shall include, but are not limited to:
1, prohibitions against any corporation;
a, owning another corporation,
b, becoming economically indispensable or monopolistic, or
c, otherwise distorting the general economy;
2, prohibitions against any form of intervention in the affairs of government by means of;
a, congressional lobbying
b, electoral sponsorship or advocacy
c, educational sponsorship or publication
d, media news reporting
3, provisions for;
a, the auditing of standardized, current, and transparent account books
b, closing the FRB and the establishment of state-owned banks
c, civil and criminal penalties to be suffered by corporate executives et al for violation of the terms of a corporate charter.
Optional: (or possible 29th amendment)
The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is hereby repealed and Congress shall re-write the U.S. Code to reflect the changes embodied herein.
(While we're at it, we could also repeal the 17th amendment)
It's so much easier (and so common here on ZH) to avoid responsibility with cynicism than to take responsibility for at least your own little part of society. It's harder yet to stand up for human dignity in a culture that's been brainwashed to think the individual is incapable of valid opinions; cynicism. If the world's populations are doomed to mind-control by corporate propaganda monopolies, why not define propaganda as cultural cynicism and outlaw it. Cynicism would be treason in a truly free society; but we'll never have a truly free society until we understand the psychological dynamics of incorporation. Your political cartoons are most effective in regard to exposing it. That's true patriotism. Thank you and keep it up !
WB we probably don't disagree all that much, but I am either more cynical or less altruistic than you.
It's not any easy thing to be more cynical than me. ;-)
Look at it this way. If we don't stand our ground where the fuck are we all going to wind up? A gulag, that's where. I am not willing to go there. And I am not going to surrender my personal affinities with others for the benefit of a bunch of bloodsuckers, who BTW have no dedication to national identity other than as a tool to achieve their own nefarious ends.
Cheers,
Pens,
"Westphalian ideology" Yeah, baby! I'm so glad you brought that up, WB7. I caught that disease a long time back and went looking for pretty girls who like to be shagged in Volkswagen vans. I found one, and we invented "shag carpet" in all the National Parks. What a blast that was.
Don't get me wrong--I married her first. I'm not the kind of guy who'll put just anything on my shag carpet.
+1
For restating the obvious...
Look at it this way. If we don't stand our ground where the fuck are we all going to wind up? -- williambanzai7
"Devotion to your country" is a very different thing from "devotion to your government". Devotion to country can find its highest expression in holding the government to account for its crimes and misdemeanors.
Any devotion can be twisted into something unjust, even devotion to family. The only exception might be devotion to beer. I don't see how you can go wrong with that.
Personally I believe 'Devotion to Country' can be drilled down to a more essential truth: Devotion to Natural Law. This is why I am loyal to the Constitution - an enumeration of man's Natural Law - first and foremost. Thus I am loyal to private property (borders), civil liberty and guarding national treasures (currency, sovereignty...and yes, beer). In other words, a healthy 'Devotion to Country' is a result of Devotion to Natural Law.
Well said, Shell Game. And let me just point out that a proper understanding of Natural Law will lead inexorably to a devotion to beer. What could be more natural than water, barley, hops and yeast?
God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden because they went Clinton. What else could He do?
But then He had compassion on them, seeing how hard their lives were, so He showed them how to make beer. I don't remember the exact reference, but it's in there somewhere. In no time at all, Abraham showed up and Melchizedek came out to meet him with wine and bread. If I had a little more bread, I'd go out and buy some more beer. That's how Natural Law works. Well, that and the part about No Free Lunch.
No better metaphor for Liberty than Yeast's good work: beer. {raises one to Imminent Crucible}
What is patriotism ? The virtue that allows nations to rise and to fight international, nomad predators, such as banksters. To ensure a multipolar world. Because what other entity would be strong enough to kill the banks ? To fight globalization, when you drink wine from Australia while there is a vineyard at your doorstemp ? Definitely not your pigmees with dick stretchers.
You want to shout to the whole world that you don't belong to the system, but you get fooled by the same system using its own definition of patriotism and nationalism. You can find the true definition in the people who founded America (and got corrupted). Isolationism. Freedom. Minimum state. No tyranny. They made you gulp nationalism (and religion) caused all the wars and plagues of the world, while it is Moloch.
"Shut up & Grow Some Balls!!" ?????
Is that why the Author of this piece ran all the fuck away to FIJI?............RUN AWAY.....RUN AWAY........
Stand up! Grow some BALLS! And RUN AWAYYYYYY!!!
It takes balls to leave the familiar for something new.
Just ask your ancestors.
Especially when the locals seem more interested to grow some dicks lol.
What do those pygmies have on their dicks?
They're called "penis gourds". They keep the tsetse flies off.
I finally understand why they call them testis flies....
Woodpeckers.
nothing,,,they are just happy to see you, rsnoble
Stretchers...
DaddyO
What a bitter person...please stay in Figi.
Shit man, you were doing great and then blew it right at the end. Don’t you realize that once you get this all sorted out for yourself, the worst thing you can do is tell everyone else how and where you did it? Next thing you know a high rise condo full of retirees from New York will be sitting in your front yard instead of Boca Raton, Florida.
Just do the thought experiment of assuming the opposite. Suppose there was a country where no one was obligated to serve in the military, had no weapons of mass destruction, and had no pacts with greater imperial powers for their own defense. How long would the people of that country last in a world ruled totally by the aggressive use of force? Not long I'm afraid. The world order can tolerate a certain number of free riders, but everyone can't be a free rider. A nation of sheep will be eaten by the sharks, as they should be, for that is the law of nature in a world red in tooth and claw.
"sheep will be eaten by the sharks"
When you start finding sharks in the farm pond, something isn't quite right. You're drawing a false equivalency between "obligated to serve in the military" and "raping, nuking and torturing". What we have is a rogue government that really isn't a government at all but a giant crime syndicate/protection racket.
Those are the people who neet to FACE the aggressive use of force, instead of employing it to maintain the power of the Kleptocracy. We should not be defending them. Our soldiers need to tell the Pentagon what the chopper pilot said in Avatar: "I didn't sign up for this shit."
+1
I agree.
Our soldiers need to tell the Pentagon... "I didn't sign up for this shit." -- Imminent Crucible
And we need to tell "our" government neither do we...
Please, what a load of "citizen of the world" drivel.
Our only responsibilities to mankind, beyond our families, is to defend ourselves and produce for ourselves. Our connections to others come from our trade with them--they become dependent on us and we on them.
We can see this within the criminality of those of the rogue government and banksters, they have no connections to others because they do not produce but steal and so force is their only tool.