This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Slave Nation - Nature or Nurture?
Slave Nation - Nature or Nurture?
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Considering that each Zero Hedge article has a shelf life measured in hours, there is the distinct possibility you might have missed some of my recent work. Along with the more visible aspects of Zero Hedge’s recent user interface update, now there is a place for the reader to view all of a contributing editor’s work in one location. Please visit my ZH ‘blog’ (here) and see what you may have missed.
It’s remarkable the extent to which we all engage in our daily ritualistic behavior and even more so how it is carefully hidden in plain sight and perfectly blended into all we call normal. Our rituals bring us great comfort and a false sense of security while also trapping us into narrow thinking and confirmation bias seeking. And best of all, at least for those who wish to control us, our rituals feed our normalcy bias and for the most part keep us sated and fulfilled. Sated, that is, until the flimsy façade and cheap material becomes thread bare and worn out and denial finally collapses as we stand chest deep in sea water.
But that doesn’t stop the great Manufacturing Consent machine. Nope, they just floor the throttle and peg the tachometer in the red, all in the pursuit of glorious green and an increasingly productive slave nation. Remember boys and girls, consumers are created for one purpose only and that purpose is to consume. So go ahead and eat your little hearts out, then harass mom and dad for the latest transformer or anorexic doll.
You’ve got to admire it for it is brilliantly simple. If they can control the advertising message that tells us what our rituals should be, then all that is left is to supply us with the material and the means. Voila, as if by magic we now have one consumer driven slave nation idling at the curb. Now all that’s left is to beat it like the wholly owned mules we are.
I was struck with this rather unpleasant thought when I visited one of my favorite web sites and pulled up the image below. Click the link (here) to see the original and just soak it all in for a minute or so. BTW take a peek at the second image in the series, a satellite view of Hurricane Irene consuming half of the USA’s East Coast. Looks to me like an economic storm is coming.
The two people sitting on the wooden stairs to nowhere in the middle of nothing but water is an iconic image if ever I saw one, not just because it represents the full force and fury of Hurricane Irene, but how appropriate it is in illustrating the present condition of the consumer nations. What exactly do we have left after several decades of frenzied spending and mindless consumption? I’ll tell you what we have left. We have our rituals and dogma, and soon enough not much more.
Let me reproduce the caption for this image that was posted in Boston.com’s excellent ‘The Big Picture’. “Billy Stinson comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage once stood on August 28, 2011 in Nags Head, N.C. The cottage, built in 1903 and destroyed by Hurricane Irene, was one of the first vacation cottages built on Albemarle Sound in Nags Head. Stinson has owned the home, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, since 1963. "We were pretending, just for a moment, that the cottage was still behind us and we were just sitting there watching the sunset," said Erin afterward. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)”
That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? All that is left for Billy and Erin is the ritual practice of sitting on the steps to watch the sunset before fully internalizing the massive and unwanted change in their lives. And the impulse to act out this ritual is incredibly strong. Look closely and you can see that Billy is soaked up to the middle of his chest, meaning he probably waded out into 4 foot deep sea water to sit on his steps one last time. The shadows in the photo hide Erin’s wet clothes, but it appears she is soaked as well. It isn’t just salmon who will overcome so much to return to their ritual place of birth or beginning.
For those who were evacuated from their homes and have returned to find damage (or not) and for those who rode out the storm and were or are still without power, the disrupted rituals of our lives come into stark contrast when viewed from the current reality. I was without power for nearly 48 hours and I can’t tell you how many times I turned right at the end of the hall into my now darkened home office to check my email or begin a new article, only to quickly back out of the now useless room full of dead electronic devices.
At one point I felt my home had turned hostile and was no longer the friendly and comfortable place I remembered it to be. Silly rabbit, it was me who was lost and out of sorts because my comforting rituals had been removed without my consent. My home had not changed, only me. Yet the impulse to return again and again was at times overwhelming, an urge I suspect is ‘felt’ in all animals and plants at one time or another. Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here. Though I suspect it is both. The new born baby doesn’t require much coaching to find mother’s nipple, regardless of whether those babies are people, pandas or PIIGS.
In fact the tendency for humans to be severely out of sorts and thoroughly disorientated is being exploited by the ruling elite during the current shock and awe economic rape and destruction. Funny how the wealthy elite prosper during good times and bad, how the card game seems rigged in their favor and the die are all loaded. It must be in their genes because it most certainly is in their pocketbooks, the product of a centuries long breeding program I am told. Although it is exceedingly obvious that secret knowledge and understanding is passed down from father to son and from mother to daughter. Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here.
So why do we always fall for the same stupid elite pet tricks time after time, then wade out chest deep to sit on the remains of our lives just to pretend and pantomime? Why do we hand over our sovereignty and inalienable rights for the privilege of being corn holed by the same people using the same methods they used the last time? How is it that we don’t learn at least as quickly as my old dog Rover, probably the dumbest mutt that ever lived? Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here.
Nature or Nurture
I was 21 and up to no good, sitting at the bar sucking on some suds and plying my illegal trade. Out of the blue the bartender gave me some unsolicited advice that most likely saved my life and the memory of it is etched into my brain. He was 30 years my senior and had seen everything in the book, one of those guys you just didn’t mess with if you had any smarts at all, something the drunks rarely possessed. He had always seemed indifferent to me and what I was doing, probably because I was fair and honest, a rarity in my trade. Plus I never caused him any grief and my tips were usually the best of the night. What wasn’t to like about me?
It was a slow weekday night and Jake used the excuse of serving up another beer to start the conversation. Or should I say lecture. He fixed me with one of those hard stares of his and then just flat out asked me.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I was genuinely surprised and equally confused by his question. I really had no idea what he was talking about and I said as much. He just stared back at me, his dark eyes boring in which made me increasingly uncomfortable. “So this is what the hot seat feels like,” I remember thinking to myself.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. And if you don’t you’re even stupider than I thought.”
I could feel my ears going red and I was getting hot under the collar. What did I do to deserve this? But of course I instantly knew what he was talking about, at least now that he had challenged me. At first I thought it was a shake down, so I reached into my pocket to pull out some bills. But Jake quickly reached across the bar and grabbed my arm.
“No, that’s not what I want.”
Now I was starting to freak out because it was clear this guy had my number and I had no way out. He released my arm and told me to wait while he served a new customer. It was the kind of order you didn’t ignore so I waited in quiet panic. But in those few minutes I quickly assessed my situation, then calmed down a bit when it dawned on me that if he intended me harm I would already be hurting. So if this wasn’t a shake down and all he wanted to do was talk, what could he possibly say to me other than to get the hell out of his place?
Much relieved and feeling my oats for being so smart, I relaxed and waited for Jake’s return. He must have sensed my changed demeanor because he quickly pounced and went straight for my jugular.
“Do you have any idea what you’re into? Or are you just so stupid you’re blind?”
How do you answer a question like that when the person asking can take you apart, then quickly move on to the next mess? I very wisely decided to say nothing and quickly swallowed my pride. You just don’t mess with Jake unless you have a death wish, and I most assuredly did not.
“This isn’t for you and you know it. Why don’t you just get out now before you live to regret it?”
In the year or so that I’d know Jake, never had I witnessed this side of him. Normally he was quiet, though he could get a bit animated when he wanted to close and was trying to push the drunks out the door. And when he was pissed off or trying to break up a fight, he became silent and the regulars knew to either back off or prepare to be bloodied. While I knew deep down inside exactly what he was telling me, for some reason I wanted to hear him say it. So I tempted fate and asked him to explain. His answer was short and to the point and all that I needed to hear.
“You lack the killer instinct bud.”
And there it was. With a couple of blunt words and a few figurative flicks of his wrist with the Buck knife he kept strapped to his belt, Jake had sliced me from neck to nuts and laid me out on the bar to bleed, exposed to all the world and in particular to me. All my ugly self important pretentions and fanciful pretending, together with its supporting cast of lies, self deception and justifications, was laid bare in all its beautiful buffoonery. I was playing House of Barbie while the principal players were engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse. And Jake was telling me that I was in way past waist deep and the worst was yet to come.
While I wanted to believe that all would be well if I just played fair and didn’t fight; you know, by the rules (and you can bet that I carefully and deliberately constructed a false reality to convince myself that I was doing precisely that) Jake was busy cutting my illusion to ribbons and telling me to my face that at best I would be stranded on some wooden stairs in four feet of water, and he was betting I would be in the popsicle stick house when the Cat 5 roars ashore.
This was a crucial decision point for me. Better yet, this was one of those rare times when you get to see the end game before you’re in too deep and can’t back out. In effect Jake was telling me I didn’t have it in me. That I didn’t have what it takes to play with the big boys, those who either by nature or nurture wouldn’t bat an eye as they backed over my body for the third time. Jake wasn’t shining a light on anything I didn’t already know. On the contrary, he was informing me of something I’d been diligently trying to ignore, or better yet, paper over.
Sometimes angels take the form of beautiful winged nymphs and sometimes as grizzled old bartenders. I packed up and got the hell out of there, never to return to Jake’s place or any of my other usual haunts. Within 24 hours I had given my roommate 2 months’ rent to cover the lack of notice and any of the stuff I couldn’t jam into my car and I got the hell out of Dodge. The truth of his words was self evident and something only a true fool would ignore. Right there and then I decided that I had neither the nature nor the nurture and that the only sane decision was to totally and completely withdraw.
Decision Point
So how did Billy and Erin find themselves sitting on stairs to nowhere in four feet of salt water, watching the pretty sunset while pretending their lovely little cottage was still behind them? And how do we find ourselves once again corn holed by the same financial elites using the exact same method of lies, deceit and false promises which we gratefully lap up in order to support our own House of Barbie? Hey, I promise to play by the new rules so please, please, please deal me back into your rigged game. Nature or nurture? That’s the real question.
While there is no doubt that countless millions, the so-called working poor, have very little choice and must play or die, we do have a choice and we choose to play the game because we just know we will win. We’re smarter or faster or better or stronger or whatever little lie we can concoct in order to justify bellying back up to the bar for another hand of cards. We know the game is rigged and yet we still play, certain in our belief that out of all the millions of deluded fools we will win the Gold ring and safely retire with our prize. The rigged game itself is our comforting ritual which we all endlessly act out.
But wait, what’s that I hear? Is that a collective moan of piety, a self righteous cry from the peanut gallery complaining that the lying bastards have changed the rules of the game again, that now they get to keep even more of the pie while sticking you and me with the bill? Now that the elite have 80% of the chips on their side of the table and are demanding another 10%, now we complain that the game isn’t fair? Now? You mean they cheated us again? If I understand this correctly, we have rationalized and justified our own greed and self interest in order to elbow our way into the rigged game, only to complain about their egregious greed and self interest? You can’t make this shit up.
So what are our demands here? This must be a negotiation because it sure as hell ain’t a strike or a work stoppage. All of us non working poor peons and enablers are still trudging off to our office trading cubes or fiat factory floors, so there doesn’t seem to be much resistance here. So where exactly is our leverage? How does one negotiate with someone or something when the terms are hidden from view, all the cards aren’t on the table and there’s a gun to our head?
Oh, wait a minute, I get it now. We want to be unequal partners. So this isn’t a negotiation, is it? This is about the reordering of the conditions of our slavery because we don’t like the way things have progressed. We want to go back to the time when we were cut in for a bigger slice of the pie. This isn’t about overall social justice; this is about justice for us. If the working poor just so happen to make out in the deal, well then all the better. But they sure as hell ain’t getting anything out of my slice of the pie. No way in hell. Let them eat cake or get their old percentage cut from the man just like I’m trying to do.
We’ve already had the reading of the charges against the financial elite and their henchmen. So we basically understand their alleged transgressions, though there are so many layers to this 10 dimensional chess board that I doubt anyone other than those at the top really know what’s going on and who’s screwing whom. But assuming that we know just enough to be dangerous to ourselves and those around us, what’s the plan man? Because if you think about it for a minute or so there must be fifty ways to leave your master. Unless, that is, you really don’t want to leave and instead, you just want your old deal with the devil back.
You see I’ve been asking a trick question since the beginning, this nature or nurture query. I’ve been distracting you with useless information and the false hope that if you could just answer the question you could figure it all out and win the Gold ring. It has nothing to do with nature or nurture and everything to do with whether we have it in us or not. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are playing a game of Barbie when in fact we are bit players, slaves if we really want to be honest, to the high stakes game of keeps where we get to keep what we are told we can keep.
Our underlying incentive to remain captive slaves, carefully hidden from view under the false promise of a system of laws meted out by the scrupulously just, but blessedly blind, lady with the scale, comes from the implied threat of violence if we don’t do as we are told. That’s it, it’s really not more complicated than that, no fancy whistles or bells or complicated playbooks to learn, though the ‘rules of the game’ is the Golden lure that keeps us all enthralled and thoroughly hooked.
The so called capitalist economic system is nothing more than a system of slave on slave competition for the betterment of the master and to the detriment of the slave. The goal is to take more blood from your fellow slave that you spill, and the incentive is to avoid being shot or imprisoned by the guard slaves who ring the arena, all of which is draped with “Democracy is Freedom” banners for our emotional and intellectual self delusion. The best and most productive slaves are those who keep themselves and we are most certainly the supreme slave nation.
The leverage used against us is provided by us, our extorted, connived and wide eyed willing participation in this macabre dance of servitude. Our slave quarters are just nice enough, what with central heat and A/C, running hot and cold water and a TV in every room feeding us 500 ritualistic propaganda channels that only the really stupid slaves would want to run for the hills and save themselves. These conditions aren’t really that bad considering. So what if the master is demanding two more pounds of flesh. If I fight real good and I’m smarter than the average slave, it won’t be my flesh that’s taken and I might just come out of this OK.
And you know what, if those conditions are good enough for you and me, if we are OK with being a slave, then fine. Let’s all just do our master’s bidding to receive our pieces of eight, then watch our cable TV to our heart’s content. Just don’t give me any bullshit about how unfair the game is and how the cheating has gotten out of hand because it is you and me who are powering our own slavery. And it is you and me who can stop it all today by just withdrawing and walking away.
The self evident truth is that at this point we don’t have it in us because walking away just might cause us all some pain, at least temporarily. And our ritual training tells us that pain relief is just another piece of eight away. So we capitulate long before we begin. Every time I hear someone bellow in self righteous tones about truth and justice and The American Way, then demand someone else step up and free our asses, all we are doing is proving my point, that we are slaves who regularly demonstrate our slave mentality by asking permission to pee on our own graves.
Slaves do as they are told. Slaves ask for permission. Slaves are seen, but not heard. Those with the slave mentality ask their masters for their leave even when the door is wide open and the coast is clear. Most importantly, slaves delude themselves into thinking that slavery is better than the alternative. Then they convince themselves that the only alternative is certain death if they resist. The best and most productive plantation slaves are those who keep themselves.
As a nation of individual slaves we are getting real close to our own Jake moment, that point when all our lies and justifications will be exposed for us to see. Will we have it in us to do what we need to do? Will we have our epiphany, that moment of clarity recovering alcoholics speak of when they realize they have used every lie, deception and ruse to avoid the truth, that they and they alone are the source of their problems? Personally I think we have it in us, but only after we shed our own emperor’s clothes and stand naked to the world and to ourselves.
08-31-2011
Cognitive Dissonance
Special thanks to Zero Hedge's Dagny Taggart for the penetrating conversations that always lead to inspiration.
- advertisements -
Been reading much Rand recently? The rugged individual going it alone will not work, nor will blaming welfare. Most people have a implicit feeling that things are not as they should be, and are becoming increasingly well versed in the game. While I agree with several of your points, I think there is a tendency at ZH to say if only such and such component of the system could be fixed, or why are they so blind to this point, then all would be well. The whole system is fucked and its existence is unjustifiable. We confront it or not. Choosing self-imposed exile with the chosen few, while a nice idea in theory, is completely pointless. When things go wrong where do you think 'they' will go?
And its not even that 'they' are that strong. Look at London.
Confront! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2quzv4u9gA&feature=related
Working within the system only strengthens the system. Furthermore, you lend your tacit if not explicit support. Furthermore, to work within the system requires you conform to the methods of the system, which only strengthen the predators and lend them more legitimacy. It doesn't work and can't work. The reason the problems are so intractable is because so many try to work within the system... and thereby strengthen its power over everyone. If everyone simply refused, it would vanish in no time. The only problem is, few walk away, mostly because they've destroyed their intellect by accepting and internalizing endless lies for a lifetime.
You said it, "the whole system" is an absolute, complete, utter fraud and scam. The only way to get past it, is to get past it (don't support it, refuse to feed it, become independent of it).
Yes, it will NOT be easy, and in fact the species may well cease to exist because it refuses to take the simple step that IS getting past it. The producers in the USSR created less and less and less over time, and eventually it simply collapsed, and ceased to exist. This can happen again with the USSA. Of course, then people need to insist that no replacement be created, which also may be unlikely. But if they'd taken one evil empire down (the USSR), then another (the USSA), then maybe, just maybe, people would give "none of the above" a try (meaning, no federal government).
BTW, if people only have an IMPLICIT feeling that things are not as they should be, then the game is already over. Whenever people are so clueless as to only have an implicit feeling when the evidence is so blatant, in our faces, and overwhelming, then the next tyrrant wannabe will step in, tell everyone he is the new ruler, and replace the current federal goons with his new federal goons... then hire all the old federal goons into his organizations with newly minted... fiat.
The current system CANNOT be fixed. It must be abolished and replaced with NOTHING. The move towards ZERO government must become the new trend. The trend for over 100 years has been towards inserting government in every nook and every cranny of every last aspect of life. The trend for the next 100 years must be towards REMOVING government from every nook and every cranny of every last aspect of life. Otherwise earth shall become a PERMANENT slave planet, enforced by technologies already developed, and continuing to be developed.
We need to CRASH the current system, then exterminate all the predators who furthered that system, then never allow that to happen again. The predators are few but powerful. The parasites are many but clueless sheeple who just sit around and do nothing. The producers are few, but focused on production, not avoiding or exterminating the predators. The only possibility for positive change is for the producers to refuse to feed the predators, bring down their system, then exterminate them wholesale. All of them. Otherwise, kiss the species goodbye, because the predators will never give up, and they are now on the verge of having enough technology to make it stick... forever. And that will be the end of mankind.
So you are a farmer then?
No, but I'm working towards being able to grow enough to feed myself and a few collaborators. Though I greatly respect farmers (and gardeners, and everyone who produces real goods and does not steal or defraud), I'm working on new technological solutions. Thus I try to collaborate with honest, ethical, diligent people with talents in already developed fields like efficient, small-scale production of natural, healthy food. I wish I had time to do everything.
Tenma13
You are right on one thing, the criminals have fewer places to hide.
The leverage used against us is provided by us.
That is the message I've been trying to get across for some time now.
The whole show depends on theft of credit and breach of fiduciary duty.
There is an old maxim of law that goes like this: He who sleeps on his rights, has none.
Equity aids the vigilant.
We are the ignorant enablers of our own foolish servitude.
I do like your posts CD.
I don't see that any but the unruly sheep will perceive this ( or rather acknowledge it to themselves) until reality forces it on them. That day is not far off.
I agree. But we still do have a choice, just not any comfortable ones. We either expose ourselves to the coming storm or it will expose us.
That being true, I still have great belief in the ability of humans to adapt when faced with a existential crisis.
I do as well. The question is when, not if in my view. My last sentence of the article.
You remember that old poem about the revolution not being televised?
The point of that was that you can't "televise" anything that happens within an individual human "spirit."
It's really all about each individual. The realization has been repeated for at least 2,600 years.
Eventually enough of us will cop to it to change our societies.
Unfortunately I think it will take the coming collapse to awaken the bulk of humanity. I have no hope they can stand the nudity without it being forced upon them by stark reality.
Unfortunately I think it will take the coming collapse to awaken the bulk of humanity. I have no hope they can stand the nudity without it being forced upon them by stark reality.
Unfortunately, by the time the bulk of humanity wakes up, a lot of them won't be on the green side. Look at Syria the past few weeks or some of the other MENA nations currently experiencing their blue pill withdrawls...
DaddyO
Far too long. I got bored. 1,000 words or less please.
think Jersey Shore is on. Off you go.
Whazzamatta; run out of Ritalin?
Psychopathocracy.
What would it mean to be free but still have a 300 million soul republic...
What would it mean to be free in a globally interconnected economy....
What would the free middle class household provide to justify income 5 times the global average....
What would the free CEO....
doesn't need to be justified--just use force-- as in tax law --or any kind threat--- ( nice little shop you have here--want to keep it? just have the money ready every friday--Joe will be by to pick it up) to be free you must bust kneecaps--simple truth that nobody wants to hear--
The big guy never has to justify or play fair or follow rules or be nice-!! Its called life and its all around you-- some are free-others are not--
Nietzsche is nice here. The need to use force is still a level of enslavement. The Ubermench does not cop out and need to lean on rules or force at all. In a world where every man and woman is of this mindset, there is no need for rules because everyone is living not in the spirit of revenge (which is why you use force, Nietzsche says this is a waste of time, revenge will not change what has happened) but with the understanding that all of life moves in cycles, rebirth, life, and destruction. You do as you please, but what you are pleased to do will not be about deliberately hurting others (that is a need for revenge, which is futile), it will be about living life to its fullest. These ideas are obviously not perfect, but they serve for me as a useful frame to unhinge me from my taken for granted assumptions about things. Disengagement can become key, at times.
There is an answer and a bunch of dudes in tibet already figured this out. You might want to google 'buddhism.'
Pardon the interruption, CD.
Tibet? No, that’s that renegade province now unhappily reunited with the Motherland.
Buddhism is an Indian invention (as are the key tenets of almost every religion on Earth), though they eventually exported it so that others could use it. Tibet is just one place where it was embraced. It simply did not provide the Indians with anywhere near enough gods, so like manufacturing jobs in America, they thought they were better off letting it go. Hinduism filled the void by providing millions of gods. Bollywood fills any remaining gaps (I kind of worship Bipasha Basu).
Incidentally, the only godless Buddhism is the one practiced by Western converts, who claim it is a “philosophy”. I haven’t met a Buddhist in the Buddhist world who doesn’t have a god of some sort who is prayed to regularly. There’s chants and ceremonies and offerings and icon worship, as well as self-proclaimed authority figures who tell followers they have all the answers to everything, such as “better luck next time”. In other words, in practice and in reality it has all the hallmarks of a religion, and its teachings are followed by its adherents no more than the teachings of any other religion are followed by their adherents.
More to the point of CD's missive---and trying to tie in your comment---most of us seem to have some need to follow something, since uncertainty is too discomforting. We need to believe there's a pilot in the cockpit and that existence is not just some random event. We'll even take malevolence, just so long as somebody or something is in charge. Once we embrace a theology of some sort, which can be a real religion or a political ideology, we tend to take along with it whatever excess baggage is handed us. It's just easier than going it alone.
Definitively worship worthy.
Interesting thought. My first instinct was to refute you. But after some careful thought even those who claim they have no "beliefs" believe in something....that they have no belief. And this acts as a stabliizing and centering force for them. Even those who clain they do not believe in a God or religion believe in something else.....say Science.
As I have written before it is our belief that makes reality real.
next time you're gonna say something profound; try not to juxtapose it against something so mesmerizingly beautiful...janus likes -- janus already forgot what you were talking about...what's your name again?
Thank you CD, for another thoughtful and thought provoking presentation.
As I visit ZH with addictive regularity, I sometimes wonder how many of the most
colorful complainers are still banking with the TBTF's, still flying commercial
airlines, still eating at chain restaurants, still watching TV.
IMO, stepping away can begin with just the first tiny steps.
The change to patterning can be easier if done incrementally.
The pull of inertia is not that bad once you get off your ass.
The ultimate enslaving lie we choose to believe is that it is too (insert whatever adjective you wish here) to change so why even try. As I have told a friend before, when trapped inside a small room with a large dead elephant, the only way out is to eat said elephant one bite at the time. We might as well start now.
Just make sure you have plenty of hot sauce on hand. :)
CD, I like you.. I'm a youngish man (early thirties) and I have difficulty sympathizing with the boomers and their plight. I don't know that you are a boomer, but you often call yourself an old man, so I think of you in those terms. When I talk to most of the older people that I have met in life, they are clueless about anythng that was not directly related to their profession or on the television. As a kid, I was always told to look for the wisdom in the old folks; but, whenever I would venture discussion with members of this group about meaningful topics, I invariably found myself sorely disappointed.
You are right about the existence of a coherent financial elite, and I agree that the agenda of their rule is to preserve and/or enhance the degree of control. Slavery is a tough word, but it is apt to describe the plight of many. I am with you in understanding that the blame for this condition is a two way street. Thusly, what is the point of concern in the fates of those who were too lazy to read the writing on the wall?
Freedom is riskier, has no handouts, and requires hard work. In my opinion, this is why Americans long for the yoke. Further, who are you and I to judge the quality of life for those who would prefer to believe the lies (presumably, because it requires less energy and honesty than critical thought)? And if that discernment which enables a man to think about his situation is removed, how can he even lament his condition?
It's true that the squeeze is on, and that certain classes of society will be relabelled and resorted to fit the needs of the central planners... My thought is this: the implosion of the old system creates opportunity for those who hedged accordingly; can't we be thankful for the opportunity instead of being angry about the sheep getting sheared? I have put in plenty of time trying to help those whom I care about to understand their plight; most people just don't care.
The truth is that the majority of Americans have been rendered so useless that freedom would be a death sentence. The small percentage of us who act according to "barbaric" values will probably be rewarded with an upward move in the pyramid (provided we don't mark ourselves as enemies to the status quo). Haven't you thought about all that you could get done with serfs at your disposal?
Am I a psychopath for perceiving justice in the endgame?
The Russkies had that saying- Trust, but Verify.
In this country, it is Don't Trust and it is Illegal to Verify.
Justice is the Laws' missing cousin.
Ummmm....it was Pres. Reagan who made that statement with regard to an inspection and verification program of the Russians dismantling their nukes.
+++
yes, you should seek the counsel of the old -- the VERY, VERY old...all of them dead and in living print.
for more thoughts on the irony of freedom, see doestoevsky's "the grand inquisitor"; it's a chapter from the bros. karamazonv; but, even as an individual chapter, it is still a watershed in the development of western, liberal thought.
freud called doestoevsky the godfather of psychology; you can call him friend.
you and i are in a similar head space, my friend; only, my rage is further advanced.
come with me,
janus
I am ashamed to admit that all I ever read of Dostoevsky was Crime and Punishment. After I did (about 10 years ago) I raved to my folks about how it was like "a psychological study before psychology". My shame is that I haven't since returned to that source of wonder. My reading is far too digital as of late- and my imagination suffers for it.
I am on my way to grab a paper copy of the Bros. tonight. Thanks for the guidance-
See you on the other side
i will be here for as long as tyler allows.
you follow no one, i am your peer.
but i will be a resource for you whenever you ask.
yes, disconnect as much as possible. participate here (really, there isn't another place for young men like you and i) but, otherwise, strengthen your personal relationships; remember love and life is service; and read, read, read. then digest and think.
there is a new world on the other side of this mess. our generation will reign therein. we must do it right this time.
the bros. k will change your life.
i look forward to the discussion (it's been at least ten years since i read it, but i remember every single aspect of it -- i lived in it...i am Ivan, i am demitri, i am aloysha, i am the father and, finally, i am stinking smerdekov -- you'll see).
invictus,
janus
+ 100
Been feeling the same way for a while lads and totally agree with ye. If folk don't wanna know then, feck em. Responsibilty at the end of the day rests firmly on your own shoulders and extends no farther than your own reach. Screw the rest of them, enjoy life and hedge accordingly.
My rage is no more
Pappa
papacass,
i respect you. but, understand, i am young and have an immense appetite for destruction; tptb make me hungry like the wolf.
i must be sated.
janus
I skimmed this but what illegal trade was the guy plying?
Those folks sitting on the stairs are today's seniors and baby boomers getting the rest of their lives f***ed by Hope & Change. 47% of seniors 60 and over voted for him and 50+% of 45 to 60 did as well. nice job dumb fvkkks. Keep watching TV serfs.
You were screwed whoever you voted for.
Freddie,15:44,
Got the percentages of 18-45 yr olds?,put those up also.
Then we can call names.
for background watch the Hustler / ( Paul N)
Thanks. I think I got it. I remember him getting his fingers busted. Steve McQueen in Cincinnati Kid got beaten up as well.
The world we knew is gone.
The familiar patterns that gave us comfort are gone.
The holidays and rememberances, the long conversations that began in one year and continued in another, are gone.
Faces we knew. Are gone.
Our needs are different. The answers we have are to other questions no longer asked. The questions others will ask us now have no ready answer, and all the reasons for things are changed.
However the rules of life did not change. Rather the rules went away, taking familiarity with them. They will be replaced with new rules or no rules at all.
Prepare to live the life that comes with the morning sun.
For the world we knew is gone.
-= the fyrebird=-
The world we knew was an illusion, marketed to us as the American dream and boy, did we buy it in bulk.
I'll take two gross of everything ya got to sell. Will you take my Visa card over the phone? We may need to split the purchase between 4 cards. Is that OK?
If it's good for the USA, then it's good for you too, my friend. Step aboard.
you can't be free when you are your own slaver ---every where you go you're there--
Think I'll go out and bust a few kneecaps-free myself up --you know, like that. When asked the question "what gives you the right to cross my rivers on my bridges" you argue the point--you have accepted the premise--that he owns the rivers and bridges---suckers.
Yes, perfectly coherent in verbal contract law yet blind to its existence..300+ million products of a "free" public education.
It only hurts when I rub shoulders with cult'ured society and read articles like these.
That was powerful stuff. Some folks get out of the game, and some play until they roll snake eyes, then the game plays on without them.
Jake opened my eyes to the imminent snake eyes coming round the bend. Thankfully I heeded the warning. Few ever do.
Right now: CNBS trotting out Abby Joseph Cohen, sees S&P at 1400+ next year.
CNBS talk about Eurozone "cloud being lifted." Are you fucking kidding me?
Keep watching TV serf. Your viewership and millions of others put them in charge and makes you a slave.
+100% Programming
TheAntiTerrorist on The Devil's Eye Part 1 of 3 (1,086 likes, 10 dislikes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5LW07FTJbI
appropos