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Guest Post: Culture Of Ignorance - Part I
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,
“Five percent of the people think;
ten percent of the people think they think;
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”
- Thomas Edison
The kabuki theater that passes for governance in Washington D.C. reveals the profound level of ignorance shrouding this Empire of Debt in its prolonged death throes. Ignorance of facts; ignorance of math; ignorance of history; ignorance of reality; and ignorance of how ignorant we’ve become as a nation, have set us up for an epic fall. It’s almost as if we relish wallowing in our ignorance like a fat lazy sow in a mud hole. The lords of the manor are able to retain their power, control and huge ill-gotten riches because the government educated serfs are too ignorant to recognize the self-evident contradictions in the propaganda they are inundated with by state controlled media on a daily basis.
“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession – their ignorance.” - Hendrik Willem van Loon
The levels of ignorance are multi-dimensional and diverse, crossing all educational, income, and professional ranks. The stench of ignorance has settled like Chinese toxic smog over our country, as various constituents have chosen comforting ignorance over disconcerting knowledge. The highly educated members, who constitute the ruling class in this country, purposefully ignore facts and truth because the retention and enhancement of their wealth and power are dependent upon them not understanding what they clearly have the knowledge to understand. The underclass wallow in their ignorance as their life choices, absence of concern for marriage or parenting, lack of interest in educating themselves, and hiding behind the cross of victimhood and blaming others for their own failings. Everyone is born ignorant and the path to awareness and knowledge is found in reading books. Rich and poor alike are free to read and educate themselves. The government, union teachers, and a village are not necessary to attain knowledge. It requires hard work and clinging to your willful ignorance to remain stupid.
The youth of the country consume themselves in techno-narcissistic triviality, barely looking up from their iGadgets long enough to make eye contact with other human beings. The toxic combination of government delivered public education, dumbed down socially engineered curriculum, taught by uninspired intellectually average union controlled teachers, to distracted, unmotivated, latchkey kids, has produced a generation of young people ignorant about history, basic mathematical concepts, and the ability or interest to read and write. They have been taught to feel rather than think critically. They have been programmed to believe rather than question and explore. Slogans and memes have replaced knowledge and understanding. They have been lured into inescapable student loan debt serfdom by the very same government that is handing them a $200 trillion entitlement bill and an economy built upon low paying service jobs that don’t require a college education, because the most highly educated members of society realized that outsourcing the higher paying production jobs to slave labor factories in Asia was great for the bottom line, their stock options and bonus pools.
Instead of being outraged and lashing out against this injustice, the medicated, daycare reared youth passively lose themselves in the inconsequentiality and shallowness of social media, reality TV, and the internet, while living in their parents’ basement. They have chosen the ignorance inflicted upon their brains by thousands of hours spent twittering, texting, facebooking, seeking out adorable cat videos on the internet, viewing racist rap singer imbeciles rent out sports stadiums to propose to vacuous big breasted sluts on reality cable TV shows, and sitting zombie-like for days with a controller in hand blowing up cities, killing whores, and murdering policemen using their new PS4 on their 65 inch HDTV, rather than gaining a true understanding of the world by reading Steinbeck, Huxley, and Orwell. Technology has reduced our ability to think and increased our ignorance.
“During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.” - Bernard M. Baruch
The youth have one thing going for them. They are still young and can awaken from their self-imposed stupor of ignorance. There are over 80 million millenials between the ages of 8 and 30 years old who need to start questioning the paradigm they are inheriting and critically examining the mendacious actions of their elders. The future of the country is in their hands, so I hope they put down those iGadgets and open their eyes before it is too late. We need many more patriots like Edward Snowden and far fewer twerking sluts like Miley Cyrus if we are to overcome the smog of apathy and ignorance blanketing our once sentient nation.
The ignorance of youth can be chalked up to inexperience, lack of wisdom, and immaturity. There is no excuse for the epic level of ignorance displayed by older generations over the last thirty years. Boomers and Generation X have charted the course of this ship of state for decades. Ship of fools is a more fitting description, as they have stimulated the entitlement mentality that has overwhelmed the fiscal resources of the country. Our welfare/warfare empire, built upon a Himalayan mountain of debt, enabled by a central bank owned by Wall Street, and perpetuated by swarms of corrupt bought off spineless politicians, is the ultimate testament to the seemingly limitless level of ignorance engulfing our civilization. The entitlement mindset permeates our culture from the richest to the poorest. Mega-corporations use their undue influence (bribes disguised as campaign contributions) to elect pliable candidates to office, hire lobbyists to write the laws and tax regulations governing their industries, and collude with the bankers and other titans of industry to harvest maximum profits from the increasingly barren fields of a formerly thriving land of milk and honey. By unleashing a torrent of unbridled greed, ransacking the countryside, and burning down the villages, the ruling class has planted the seeds of their own destruction.
When the underclass observes Wall Street bankers committing the crime of the century with no consequences for their actions, they learn a lesson. When billionaire banker/politicians like Jon Corzine can steal $1.2 billion directly from the accounts of farmers and ranchers and continue to live a life of luxury in one of his six mansions, they get the message. Wall Street bankers are allowed to commit fraud, reaping profits of $25 billion, and when they are caught red handed pay a $5 billion fine while admitting no guilt. No connected bankers have gone to jail for crashing the worldwide financial system, but teenage marijuana dealers are incarcerated for ten years in our corporate prison system. The message has been received loud and clear by the unwashed masses. Committing fraud and gaming the system is OK. Only suckers play by the rules anymore. A culture of lawlessness, greed, fraud, deceit, swindles and scams was fashioned by those in power. Reckless disregard for honesty, truthfulness, fair dealing, and treating others as you would like to be treated, has permeated the beliefs and behavior of our society.
The ever increasing number of people in the SNAP program along with abuses committed by retailers and recipients, the skyrocketing number of people faking their way into the SSDI program, billions of taxpayer dollars lost to Medicare fraud, billions more lost paying out earned income tax credit refunds based on non-existent children, public schools falsifying test scores, students cheating on SAT tests, credit card fraud on a grand scale, failure to report income and falsifying tax returns, and a myriad of other dodges and scams are just a reflection of a moral and cultural collapse. The dog eat dog mentality glorified by the media, with such despicable men as Dimon, Greenspan, Corzine, Clinton, Trump, Rubin, Bernanke and Bloomberg honored as pillars of society, has displaced honesty, compassion, humanity, shared sacrifice, and caring about our descendants. Self-interest, self-indulgence, and a narcissistic focus on what is in it for me today has led to an implosion of trust and an attitude of “who cares” about our fellow man, morality, right or wrong, and the fate of future generations. We ignored the warnings of our last President who displayed courageousness and truthfulness when speaking to the American people.
“As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Me Generation has devolved into the Me Culture. While the masses have been mesmerized by their iGadgets, zombified by the boob tube, programmed to consume by the Madison Avenue propaganda machines, enslaved in chains of debt by the Wall Street plantation owners, and convinced by their fascist government keepers that phantom terrorists are hiding behind every bush, they surrendered their freedoms, liberties and sense of self-responsibility. There will always be evil men seeking to control and manipulate the ignorant and oblivious. A citizenry armed with knowledge, critical thinking skills, and moral integrity would not passively submit to the will of a corporate fascist oligarchy. Well educated, well informed citizens, capable of critical thinking are dangerous to rich men of evil intent. Obedient, universally ignorant, distracted, fearful, morally depraved slaves are what the owners of this country want. As the light of knowledge flickers and dies, we sink into the darkness of ignorance.
“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” – Samuel Adams
Cult of Ignorance
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” – Isaac Asimov
“While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group has also, as we shall see, interests antagonistic to those of all other groups. While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking on the subject becomes next to impossible.
In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of man to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.” – Henry Hazlitt
America’s cult of ignorance, combined with the selfish interests of various constituencies, the character weakness of the people elected to office, a lack of understanding or interest in basic mathematical concepts, and inability to comprehend the long term and unintended consequences of every piece of legislation, have brought the country to the brink of fiscal disaster. But still, the vast majority of Americans, including the supposed intellectuals and economic “experts”, are basking in their ignorance, as the stock market reaches a new high, the local GM dealer just gave them a 7 year $40,000 auto loan at 0% on that brand new Cadillac Escalade, Bank of America still hasn’t foreclosed on their McMansion two years after making their last mortgage payment, and they just received three pre-approved credit card notices from Capital One, American Express and Citicorp. As long as Bennie has our back printing $1 trillion new greenbacks per year, nothing can possibly go wrong. Our best and brightest economic minds are always right:
“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” – Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
“Many of the new financial products that have been created, with financial derivatives being the most notable, contribute economic value by unbundling risks and shifting them in a highly calibrated manner. Although these instruments cannot reduce the risk inherent in real assets, they can redistribute it in a way that induces more investment in real assets and, hence, engenders higher productivity and standards of living.” – Alan Greenspan – March 6, 2000
“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.” – Ben Bernanke – July 2005
The profound level of ignorance displayed by economists, politicians, business leaders, media personalities, and the average American, regarding the mathematically unsustainable path of our fiscal ship is perplexing to me on so many levels. If the Federal government was a family, the budget ceiling debate would be put into the following terms. Our household earns $28,000 per year, but we spend $38,000 per year and add $10,000 to our credit card balance, which stands at the limit of $170,000. In addition, we owe our neighbors $2 million we don’t have because we promised to pay if they voted for us as Treasurer of our homeowners association. We celebrate our good fortune of getting approved for another credit card with a $30,000 limit by increasing our spending to $39,000 per year. Intellectuals scorn such simplistic analogies by glibly pointing out that the family has a crazy uncle with a printing press in the basement and can pay-off the debt with his freshly printed dollars. And this is where the deliberate and calculated ignorance by the highly educated Ivy Leaguers regarding long term and unintended consequences is revealed. They ignore, manipulate, cover-up and obscure the facts because their wealth, power and influence depend upon them doing so. But ignorance doesn’t change the facts.
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley
Nothing exposes the ignorance of various factions within our society better than a debate about budgets, spending, and unfunded liabilities. This is where every party, group, special interest, and voting bloc ignore any and all facts that are contrary to their selfish interest. They only see what they want to see. The fallacies, errors, omissions and mistruths of their positions are inconsequential to people who only care about their short-term self-seeking interests. When I question the out of control spending on entitlements and our impossible to honor level of unfunded liabilities, those of a liberal persuasion lash out with accusations of hating the poor, starving children and throwing granny under the bus. Anyone suggesting we should slow our spending is branded a terrorist by the overwhelmingly liberal legacy media.
When I accuse Wall Street bankers of criminal fraud and ongoing manipulation of the financial markets, the CNBC loving apologists for these felons bellow about the market always being right. When I rail about the military industrial complex and our un-Constitutional invasions of other countries, the neo-cons come out in force blathering about the war on terror and imminent threats. When I point out the horrific results of our government run educational system and how mediocre union teachers are bankrupting our states and municipalities with their gold plated health and pension plans, I’m met with howls of outrage about the poor children. The common thread is that facts are ignored because each of their agendas requires ignorance on the part of their team’s fans.
The following chart of truth portrays an unsustainable path. Ignoring the facts will not change them. This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. It’s an American problem.
“There are men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run, they reply flippantly, as might the prodigal son of a warning father: “In the long run we are all dead.” And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams and the ripest wisdom.” – Henry Hazlitt
Henry Hazlitt may have written these words six decades ago, but they aptly describe Paul Krugman and the legions of Keynesian apostles whose bastardized interpretation of Keynes’ theory has led us to this fiscal cliff. How anyone can truly believe that borrowing to consume foreign produced goods versus saving and making job creating capital investments is a rational and sustainable economic policy is the height of ignorance. One look at this chart exposes the political party system as a sham. When it comes to the fiscal train wreck, set in motion thirty years ago, the ignorant media pundits peddle a narrative about politicians failing to compromise as the culprit in this derailment. Nothing could be further from the truth. Compromise is what has gotten us to this point. The Republicans compromised and allowed the Democrats to create a welfare state. The Democrats compromised and allowed the Republicans to create a warfare state. The Federal Reserve compromised their mandate of stable prices and preventing financial calamities by inflating away 95% of the dollar’s purchasing power in 100 years, while creating bubbles every five or so years, like clockwork. There are a myriad of facts related to the chart above that cannot be ignored:
- It took 192 years for the country to accumulate $1 trillion in debt. It has taken us 30 years to accumulate the next $16 trillion of debt. We now add $1 trillion of debt per year.
- If the Federal government was required to use GAAP accounting, the annual deficit would amount to $6.7 trillion per year.
- The fiscal gap of unfunded future liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and government pensions is $200 trillion.
- Using realistic growth assumptions adds another $6 trillion of state and local government unfunded pension benefits to the equation.
- The Federal government has increased their annual spending from $1.8 trillion during Bill Clinton’s last year in office to $3.8 trillion today, a 110% increase. The population has increased by 12% over that same time frame, and real GDP has advanced by 25% since 2000.
- Defense spending has increased from $358 billion in 2000 to $831 billion today, despite the fact that no country on earth can challenge us militarily.
- The average Baby Boomer will receive $300,000 more than they contributed to Social Security and Medicare over their lifetime. Over 10,000 Boomers per day will turn 65 for the next 17 years.
- The Social Security lockbox is filled with IOUs. The funds collected from paychecks over the last 80 years were spent by Congress on wars of choice, bridges to nowhere, and thousands of other vote buying ventures.
- A normalization of interest rates to long-term averages would double or triple the interest on the national debt and increase our annual deficits by at least 30%.
- Obamacare and the unintended consequences of Obamacare will add tens of trillions to our national debt. The initial budget projections for Medicare and Medicaid showed only a modest financial impact on the financial situation of the country. How did that work out?
- Entitlement spending in 2003 was $1.3 trillion. Entitlement spending in 2008 was $1.7 trillion. Entitlement spending in 2013 was $2.2 trillion. Entitlement spending in 2018 will be $2.8 trillion, as these programs are on automatic pilot.
When you consider the facts in a rational manner, without vitriolic denials, bitter accusations, acrimonious blame, and rejection of the entire premise, you come to the conclusion that we’ve passed the point of no return. Decades of bad choices, bad leadership, bad men in important positions, bad education, bad governance, and bad citizenship have led to bad times. But very few people, across all socio-economic classes, have any interest in understanding the facts or making the tough choices required to save future generations from a life of squalor. We willfully choose to ignore the facts.
“Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.” – Aldous Huxley
Our degraded and ignorant society is incapable of comprehending their dire circumstances or acting for the common good of the country. We are a nation on the take. Greed really is good. Everyone needs to play the game. From the top floor corporate CEO suite to the decaying urban wastelands, we have chosen comforting ignorance to uncomfortable knowledge. Our warped form of democracy enriches the few at the top, while dispensing enough subsistence payments to the lower classes to keep them from revolting, while enslaving the middle class in debt and convincing them it’s really wealth. Mencken understood the pathetic impulses of the American populace decades before we reached our point of no return.
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” – H.L. Mencken
The only way a democracy can survive is if the population is knowledgeable, vigilant, skeptical, educated, individually responsible, self-reliant, moral, capable of critical thinking and willing to accept the consequences of their actions. A nation of takers, fakers and blamers will not last long. We’ve degenerated into a nation of knowledge hating book burners. Our culture of ignorance will lead to the destruction of our culture and the ignorant masses will wonder what happened.
“But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can’t last.” – Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
In Part Two of this examination about our culture of ignorance I’ll explore the roles of technology, family breakdown, government, and propaganda in creating the ignorance that is consuming our system like a mutant parasite. If you are seeking a happy ending, I suggest looking elsewhere.
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Part 2 following your local sports and weather
Having read the teaser, bravo.
Ignorance is not limited to our society. Sorry to break it to you. This is a good example of ignored realities though.
Yes, its just a part of the human condition. Every time it keeps cropping up even though we think its been 'fixed' many years ago (this time around).
"The youth of the country consume themselves in techno-narcissistic triviality, barely looking up from their iGadgets long enough to make eye contact with other human beings."
How the fuck dare you Jim you fucking baby boomer! This is not our fault and certainly the baby boomer generation is not Awake and aware.
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Stephen Hawking
illusion of knowledge = arrogance of willfully ignorant
plenty of them in America.
Why is Little Red Riding Hood's youthful narcissistic triviality and ignorance a bad thing? I'm sure the Big Bad Wolf would rather bugger one of her generation than a sagging baby-boomer who never grew up and still exhibits narcissistic triviality and ignorance.
OK, that´s it! Moar gold, moar guns, moar supplies once I get home. Vampyroteuthis is right though, lots of stupid and immoral f**ks in Peru and everywhere else I have had a chance to carefully look into (Italy, whoa...).
It´s up to each of us.
Long live Zero Hedge, may she burn her message brightly into our long night to come...
As brightly as a flaming Tesla model S !!!
Vampyroteuthys worte, "Ignorance is not limited to our society. Sorry to break it to you. This is a good example of ignored realities though."
So...That is your excuse for our Society's continuance in ignorance? Bravo. Great choice.
Maybe if you were not ignorant then you would know that the United States has slipped in academic performance, Graduation Rates, General Knowledge, Knowledge in Math and Science when compared to all other Industrialized Nations.
Yet why shall I confuse you with the facts?
Ignorance is much, much easier, right?
So who is ignoring reality?
So you are saying ignorance IS limited to the US?
Obviously not. What I am writing is that Ignorance is growing at a faster rate in the United States than in the other Industrialized Nations.
Stop attempting to put words in my writings. You cannot infer that from my original post.
"Maybe if you were not ignorant then you would know that the United States has slipped in academic performance, Graduation Rates, General Knowledge, Knowledge in Math and Science when compared to all other Industrialized Nations."
You are calling a poster ignorant for stating what is undeniably true. You can make your point without being a fuck, or can you? I come to this site for the free exchange of ideas but attacking people for no reason is an attempt to shut them up. This what we see in the public discourse and why decent people will not get involved in the conversation.
Yes, I noticed. I notice that "their" best students cheat on the standardized tests. I wouldn't believe a word they or the UN say without confirmation. We are overun with immigrants with bad attitudes. They brought the stupid and indigent with them. How utterly charmng...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15sxhl_dozens-indicted-in-biggest-cheating-scandal-in-u-s-history_news
Sorry to confuse you with the facts. Please provide documentation and empirical evidence that the Foreign Students Tests were tampered with.
Thanks.
http://www.zerohedge.com/node/475531
They lie about everything. Academia is a LZ. You'll see. DYOH.
Ignorance is carefully cultivated by our overlords. There is no upside to the masses understanding how they are being fleeced. That is why ignorance thrives and understanding withers.
because most people are vapid and weak thus chooses to be willfully ignorant.
I think it is more than that. People have lost their ability to be still. It is essential to be quiet and contemplative to absorb knowledge and cogitate a response or form an opinion. People today have the attention span of a gnat. I am not sure if this is a lack of intelligence. Perhaps this is true but I find people to be highly overstimulated. Put them in a room with no electronic stimulation and they will melt down. Add pharmaceuticals, poor diet and a stressful uncertain future and you have a modern American that's mentally a mess.
I was riding my horse deep in the backcountry the other day which I do to contemplate and reflect. I came across a young girl doing the same but she was texting on her phone. She barely noticed me as we crossed paths. I found the whole scene quite sad and hopeless.
Miffed;-)
"Whiskey please, neat. Mccallan....make it a double. Oh yeah, and a couple of Prozac."
".. by reading Steinbeck, Huxley, and Orwell. "
Yea but..is there an app for that?
:)
And the argument for the ignorance of the masses is beautify validated. Here endeth the lesson.
OK, I am depressed.
But ready for the upcoming default!!!
Half of this dumb fucking country believes in angels. Nuff said!
For sake of argument....a shit pile of theories starring witj the big bang or an all powerful entity creating everything? Seems the twist (newton) on occams razor argues the latter.
The Big Bang is the all powerful entity theory. The athiest crowd championed the Steady State Universe. They said the universe always existed. The Big Bang theory was first posited by a Belgan Jesuit priest and enthusasticly embraced by his boss the Pope.
The universe is an illusion, as are you and I. That is according to Holographic theory. You place your bets and take you chances when it comes to belief systems. With over 5200 separate deities worshiped on the planet today, who is right or are they all full of it?
TThe Big Bang theory has a purpose, People need a linear existance, the Big Bank provides a beginning. Whether there ever was a literal Big Bang doesn't matter, intellectually we have the beginning we crave!
* This message seems to get to the real point!*
* Special Message to the Market Oracles and Money Masters of the Universe
*
*
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=2019
> Part 2 following your local sports and weather
That'll be Prime Time TV - FAR to important / valuable to air info such as this. Prime Time is reserved for the "Important Things" Pop Stars, Football, Reality Programming and Soap Operas (along with Presidential Addresses, letting the Faithful know just how well things are progressing . . . . )
You'll probably have to record Part 2 since it'll be aired around 2 a.m., when "The Important Target Audiences" are tucked up in bed . . . . .
Like the IceBerg that sunk the Titanic
Hey Jim,
I love it, I agree, AND???
You write this because?
You hope to effect what change given your take on things?
I am now waiting for the collapse.
There is nothing else to do.
I'm no art critic,
but that pic of Yellen on the top left is not very flattering.
Yellen side boob!
Come on man, the mud at least covers her up. You want to see her fully nude?
You guys...
The pig could be a wonderful pet AND it could be tasty. Can you say that for Ms. Yellen?
Quit picking on the pig!
I was wondering what the fuck they were talking about. Bunch of sick bastards on zerohedge. Comparing Yellen to the pig. Poor pig will never be the same...
Ha ha ha! + $1350!
Yes, 5 years after 2008, the diagnoses, and the expectations of inevitable collapse, are well-established, the only variations being the particular assortments of financial/resource/ecological/societal ills addressed. The extent of fraud, and of its unencumbered operation, does continue to surprise, though. I see no appeal in rustic living and sense that 500 abandoned nuclear plants will redefine the "state of nature." Sometimes I like to play like maybe these perceptions are all wrong. Those intermissions don't last very long.
baaaaa baaaa
"...and blaming others for their own failings."
I haven't failed, but I blame the Fed for the fact that this country is about to fail and probably take me down with it.
Massive fail.
Corrective action? Now too late.
Nothing for it - but the wait. Fow what? When TSHTF!
The smart-n-savvy hire sociopaths to create believable bullshit for the dumbasses, which confuses the dumbasses, allowing the smart-n-savvy to feast off the dumbasses.
Government + bullshit = politics.
Morals + bullshit = religion.
Craft + bullshit = splatter art.
Bullshit adds value for those capable of creating it.
Bullshit, ask for it by name!
Without the bullshit, you don't have art, it's just a drawing.
Just like without the cooked books you don't have profit.
GAAP + Stock Market = Wealth
Actual Sales + Cost of Business = :(
Not to pick apart anything, but the debt graph shows Obama starting in 2010 around $13.5 trillion.
Or are we still attributing the first year of the Obama presidency to GWB?
Shouldn't --didn't the dimmicraps win the Houses in 2006 ?
You missed the point. Red team/blue team has no meaning. They all take credit for spending YOUR money where they see fit. Think of a Rapist saying over and over, I'm doing this for your own good.
The country really shouldn't have dressed like that.
And then swapping every 4 to 8 years to a new rapist who says "it was the other rapist who made this so bad" while raping with pleasure.
Obomber started where Bush Dos ended. The chart is correct IMO
It DOES NOT MATTER. A Presidential Administration is just a CONTINUATION of the PRECEDING PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION.
Red Team/Blue Team has NO MEANING. Obama Irresponsible Spending will have to be dealt with by his successor. George Bush's Irresponsible Spending had to be dealt with by Obama. Bill Clinton's Irresponsible Spending had to be dealt with by George W. Bush. Clinton had to deal with George HW Bush's IRRESPONSIBLE SPENDING who had to deal with Reagan's Irresponsible Spending, etc.
Obama is following the same Policies as Bush with some additional assaults on Liberty. Clinton was really bad concerning Liberty. But Bush eclipsed Climton. Boy did he!!! ET CETERA...ET CETERA...ET CETERA.
You can remain ignorant of this and be wrapped up into the Hegelian False Dilemma Paradigm if you choose. Enjoy your theater of DELUSION. That is your right.
Just because it is your right does not make it right. Sorry to confuse you with the Facts. It is not my "OPINION".
But Obama is worse, right?
Relatively he is. That is because he kept all of Bush's Policies and added to them. It has regressed to worse.
But compared to the next President, IF THERE IS ONE, he will appear as a Saint.
I really don't care what Political Party from which they originate. The Regression was started long ago and continues onward toward our Collapse.
There is no Political Solution.
Amen.
* "Global Financial Architecture and Economic Systems on Verge of Collapse"
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=4290
"There is no excuse for the epic level of ignorance displayed by older generations over the last thirty years."
Yes, there is an "excuse" of sorts. They have been brainwashed from a failed educational system and the state controlled MSM their entire lives. Most people have never been exposed to things posted here on ZH. The real awakening, in some ways, is just beginning.
Re: Yes, there is an "excuse" of sorts.
The older generation is also living off the fruits of the ponzi they created.
Nobody is going to cut their own scams for the benefit of people they don't care about. Plus, when you live for 60+ years, and see with your own eyes that debt is wonderful, it's really kinda tough to suddenly stop creating more debt.
Everybody loves spending free money, it's the best kinda money there is.
NOT a REALmerican writes,"Everybody loves spending free money, it's the best kinda money there is."
Honest Money is the best money that there is. Honest Money is not corrupt in its genesis. Thus it is not subject to corruption.
Only those whom revel in being dishonest and in sin will consider the Ponzi Scheme Currency to be "...the best kinda money there is."
I understand exactly where you are at by the line that you uttered.
I think he meant that's how the majority see it.
I think that's the case too.
Disagree. Anyone can wake up. The internet is irrelevant, it's also an excuse in itself, in fact the internet is the major source of falsehood. lies and distraction today. It's always been about individual choice and application of mind on the internet. Just as it's always been up to individuals to allow development of the mind to run its full course, no matter what, and it always will be.
People were waking up in Greece 2,600 years ago, by candle light, and ever since. Same in Asia, so it has nothing to do with technology or 'progress'. But even if it did, the boomers had more high-technology available, in better circumstances, for longer than anyone ever has. So there's no excuse for the culture of ignorance, or the extreme permissiveness that has enabled it.
But whatever, the damage is done, excuses are irrelevant at this point.
Frankly I think that could not be any more an illusion of current progressive outlook, and a breathtakingly shallow sentimental belief that arduous times will lead us to refinement and a rush of development within humanity.
You're going to be terribly disappointed B_of_P, prevailing conditions are not what conduces it, but perhaps total-desperation and bleak despair could interrupt the cacophony of distractions, so that the young don't fall quite so easily into the stupor of arrested-development that currently and laughably passes itself off as ... 'The Developed World'.
If this actually were a developed world of humans we would not be in this situation - at all - Q.E.D.
Huh? I never said a word about the internet.
I interpreted this as referring to the internet's role, as zh is only on the internet:
Apologies if that was not your meaning. It read that way though.
The real problem is that we are now ignorant of ignorance, and thats bad !!!
Shit there isn't enough digital ink to document or time to read about the ignorance in this country.
Edit : I am sitting patiently in my tree stand waiting as I'm reading this piece.
Doc, tree stand is for deer, not pigs !!!
I am sending you a ten point buck.
Don't blow the shot.
Bon appitite!
Remember Doc, you can't eat the antlers.
Geez Doc, sorry for starting that Flame Fest !!!
There was no fucking surplus, ever.
Details, details, details.
And the people insist on re-arranging deck chairs on the Titantic
Yeah, that really pissed me off. This piece nailed alot, but then the writer goes and displays the EXACT type of lazy thinking, failure to read, and lack of research that he complains about. Multiple pages about ignorance, then the guy tattoos "IDIOT" across his own forehead. And why? Because he swallowed doctored numbers from the completely useless OMB and/or CBO whole. They don't track the debt, the Treasury does and OMB/CBO just distorts reality to suit their Executive and Legislative paymasters.
US Dept of the Treasury Bureau of the Public Debt data at the link below- just how the fuck does a deficit every single year constitute a surplus??? The fiscal year ends every September 30, in what alternate universe does the math he claims actually work?
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/mspd.htm
Nice job, dumbass. (Not you of course Remus but the guy who wrote the piece).
Come on! We don't want to destroy people's hope now do we?
There is little that is worse than a false hope. It leads people to make irrational and unsound choices.
Lyndon Baines Johnson's last budget was a SURPLUS which Richard Nixon inherited in 1969. We were still technically on a "Gold Standard".
Furthermore the Clinton "Surplus" Budgets were historically recorded as that. Of course they were "revised".
(Actually I would not mind $30 Billion Deficits too much at this point. Would you?)
At least the Government was on a better path at reigning in IRRESPONSIBLE SPENDING during the Clinton Years. The Markets were doing well and we were at Full Employment and crusing. That is what happens when Government stops IRRESPONSIBLE SPENDING.
The Private Sector can do the Borrowing on the LIMITED AMOUNTS of Capital available. Since Government is borrowing less then Private Individuals can borrow more. When Government borrows to finance its wars and other UNPRODUCTIVE activities it RESTRICTS the amount of Capital that Private Borrowers have.
Dick "Deficits Don't Matter" Cheney began to borrow heavily to finance Neo-Con Empire Expansion. This reduced available Capital for Private Ventures to repair Infrastructure or modernizing the Manufacturing Base. Because of excessive Government Borrowing the Companies Offshored during the Bush Years to save costs. More modern manufacturing facilities existed in Asia.
Thus we get the Crisis of 2008.
So this is a result of the Bush Years. OF COURSE OBAMA HAS ACCELERATED IT and has made it much worse taking us across the threshold of the Point of No Return.
But if you think that Obama is bad just wait until his successor...if we do not collapse before that. That one will be a Monster that will make Obama appear as a Saint instead of the Satan that he is.
There is no Political Solution. Your faith is misplaced if you believe otherwise.
We must end the Neo-con empire expansions, raise minimum wage to $15 hr, and hit Wall Street with 0.1% transaction tax. What I'm suggesting it is an end-all-cure, but movements to promote private borrowing, growth, and job creation.
Debt should be paired with assets, not revenue and deficit.
Basically, the chart looks scary, but is meaningless.
Our problems are bad enough. No need for overdramatization.
#justsaying
What you spend minus what you earned is how much debt you took on. Comparing that to how much debt you have accumulated is more than reasonable.
Snap, ss, medicare, depreciating jets, and aid to Egypt don't constitute assets. Sorry this isn't gaap and we are not including goodwill.
What assests?
He just means the debt that by agreement is not called debt. But seriously, if we ignore the FIRE sector pap, the US does still have hard material resources, which are real assets, that would make most country's mouth water. The country itself is far from worn-out, or 'spent'. Its population is the liability, that fucked-up the un-fuck-up-able.
I guess it wasn't fool-proof.
Same everywhere Mate!
"There are none so blind as those who will not see!" - and if their income depends on turning Nelson's "Blind Eye", rest assured they will. When it finally collapses (sooner than they think) it'll be the well-worn complaint of "we never saw that coming" or "who could have predicted THAT!!"
Just like the run-up to 2008, Bear Stearns, Lehman, AIG . . . . . "No one could have known"
Excellent quotes. They make me feel a little better.
But the parading of ignorance BY OUR HIGHEST NATIONAL ELECTED LEADERS is still something of a new thang.
The ignorance and fantasies of our POTUS and his lack of manners towards the opposition are unprecedented, AFAIK. The one-sidedness and willfull blindness of the "legitimate" press aka MSM is unprecedented. A population edumacated "not to judge" and to elect an obvious pretender like Zero, is unprecedented. To even have such a cipher as a candidate for POTUS by a major party is unprecedented, he makes fat stoner snake oil salesman Algore look intelligent. Worst of all - maybe he *was* the better candidate each time, much as it turns my stomach to even consider that.
Finally, just because we survived a lot of fools in the past does not guaranty that we can survive this one now. But it does provide a little bit of confidence, and at least points out how we seem to have beat the odds in the past so if we fall now, well hey, we had a good run.
Re: A population edumacated "not to judge" and to elect an obvious pretender like Zero, is unprecedented.
Everybody thinks their own favorite Team's sociopaths are better than the sociopaths they don't like.
Then each group of dumbasses starts making lists about why their own favorite Team of sociopaths is better than the Team they don't like.
Then each group of dumbasses starts fighting with each other over the bullshit created by their sociopaths.
Did you notice this article was talking about 60+ years of bullshit created by sociopaths and given to hopeless dumbass true-beleivers who actually DID believe the bullshit.
Does anybody EVER review the list of bullshit they actually believed in?
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
HL Mencken
I Write Code wrote, "They make me feel a little better."
Did you even read the article? IT IS NOT ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS.
IT IS ABOUT FACTS AND KNOWLEDGE.
Now you make me has a sad.
So Jim, any thoughts on 9/11, or do you still swallow the official story?
SmokeyQuinn:
Your level of 9-11 Ignorance is multidimensional and diverse.
The stench, your 9-11 Ignorance, has settled like toxic smog over all your writing, as you chose comforting ignorance over disconcerting knowledge about 9-11 Truth.
Like most other highly educated wannabe members, who constitute the ruling class of the United States of Assassination, you purposefully ignore 9-11 Scientific Facts and 9-11 Truth because the retention and enhancement of your ego is dependent upon not understanding what you clearly have the knowledge to understand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21pPpYw_axQ
Good on you for always pointing this out about this guy Quinn of the controlled opposition.
9-11 Is the Litmus Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21pPpYw_axQ
you gonna go back in time to change it?
Or back in time to warn everyone of the lies to follow?
Or how about we worry about what we can fix?
Damn fine article Quinn. I believe the red lights and sirens must be going off at Pierre's house about now...
Patience
The rewards of knowledge and clear thinking will come.
Soon all we will hear is "what just happened'? from the mouths of the pundits.
A small group who understood will not have to say anything.
Patience.
What rewards? We might live a little better in dismal circumstances? It will be really bad for us and even worse for them? Is that a reward?
No. There is no reward. We will just suffer a little less in the long run.
The funny thing is that we suffer now in dread of what is to happen. We can extrapolate the future events and see the outcome with our knowledge while they go merrily about their way, blissfully unaware.
I see no reward at all...today...or tommorrow. I see a World of Pain today and tommorrow.
OT...Tell me Doctor...How much Insulin does a person need to inject IM to ensure Death? I cannot find an LD-50 on it.
Sounds painful. Might I suggest IV morphine. IM morphine will burn like a bitch. IM insulin will probably cause a lot of pain too.
And then an accident dropping all the rods together at Fukushima will happen so our patience will end up being a giant global joke & we'll be the punch line.
When Yellen gets the keys to the LiquidiCopter, she gonna make it rain up in here. I'm not worried.
Time to go watch Ow, My Ballz! This article uses too many big faggy words, anyway.
Nice name. If somehow someone from the Bush family can co-pilot we can maybe call it the Fool-me-Twice-mobile.
"ignorance of reality; ignorance of facts; ignorance of math, and ignorance of how ignorant we have become"-=--I thought he was talking about George Washington's mindless panic about the non-existent radiation from Fukushima.
Lol. The troll is weak within you. Try harder.
This is the way every (!) exponential growth ends in nature:
http://www.greatchange.org/images/footnotes-overshoot-st_matthew.gif
Resulting in extinction or a sawtooth cycle if everything goes well.
I have hope.
Although we live in a system that tends to reward those least principled, and where those infected, partially infect everyone else, I have noticed that because their character flaws have become so obvious, many others are becoming better people by taking pride in not being like them.
The Tea Parties and OWS may not have realized it, but before they were co-opted, they were rebelling against the character devolution of the people, and were unprecedented in recent history. More recently, President Obama, backed by the crony media, was hours away from attacking Syria in another progressive interventionist act of aggression designed to cause countries to borrow more money, but then the Tea Partiers, occupiers, conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, independents, socialists, and libertarians came together and said NO! Obama and his progressive cronies stumbled and backed off when confronted with this unprecedented assertion of character.
It is never to late for anyone to become the person he wants to be. To once again embrace the Soul of Humanity requires little more than a decision.
I am reminded of the epiphany of one of the characters in the movie Slow Burn (2000). He was a criminal and a simpleton, but he instantly transcended every character in the movie when rebuked the beautiful woman who offered him herself and a treasure in diamonds if he would kill the other criminal who always bullied him and who deserved to die anyway, but he told her, “No! I’m never letting anyone else talk me into doing something that I know is wrong!”
though it seems we owe Oba's turnaround on Syria to Putin capitalizing on a Kerry gaffe.
Also known as the greatest Cockblock eva!
Oh, I didn't really mean it, I was just saying rhetorically that if they want peace they should agree to remove the chemical weapons, that was not an offer on the table, it was a throw-away line ... blah blah. Hilarious, one of the choicest moments of the entire farce of US power-cred evaporation and associated simpering. People a generation from now need to see what that bastard said.
Yep as the conversation I had the other morning with some old timers while getting coffee. One guy off hand quotes Jim Morrison about no one here gets out alive. It ain't about getting alive but getting out with your soul intact.
This is an example of IGNORANCE to the facts.
Fact. The Al Qaeda Rebels, that we were arming with NATO Weapons, to help the Free Syrian Army to overthrow the Assad Regime, in the Middle of September, BEGAN ATTACKING THE FREE SYRIAN ARMY.
This event WAS NOT REPORTED in the Main Stream News. I first learned of it Two weeks ago when talking to a Iraqi Liquor Strore Clerk. He told me that it was widely reported back in Iraq. His friend told him over the phone.
So obviously I had to verify it.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/17/al-qaeda-clash-with-free-syrian-army-a-new-stage-of-opposition-split.html
It would be suicide to support Split Forces attempting to unseat a regime...unless...IT WAS PLANNED THAT WAY.
You see...As long as Syria is in turmoil that Pipeline will not be built. Perhaps we told Al Qaeda to do that so we let them fight a Proxy War for Americans???
Is that a possibility?
LMAO
Great article. +5. You know he's right. All you have to do is look around to see it. Hell, everyone who attacks ZH is a perfect example of it.
My dad is a smart man but coming of age in the 60's and living thru the greatest boom of all times (the fifty year post war boom) has made him a complete believer in government, debt, and that progress will continue unabated.
The contraction in real standards of living and real not nominal wealth is going to be a real bitch. Pray for Something to save us, fusion energy or zero point energy or a deux ex machina. Lol.
WW2 flipped an entire generation into unflappable loyalty to the federal government, prior to that it was quite the opposite.
That is not entirely accurate, is it?
Military Indoctrination, BRAINWASHING, during Boot Camp during World War II flipped most of a Generation into loyalty to the Federal Government. Victory in that War crystalized it.
Economic Depressions have the affect of creating Civil Unrest. When you and your family are going hungry while the fat cats on Wall Street and in the Beltway continue to live it up...AT YOUR EXPENSE...it does cause some to resent that they are being ruled over.
That is what happened in the 1930s. That is what is happening now, today.
Interesting. I'm in my 60's too and even worked for the federal government but have long ago come to the same conclusions as Quinn, except that I never managed to formulate my thoughts as eloquently as he has. More on my accolades for Jim: http://goldandfinance.blogspot.ca/2013/10/culture-of-ignorance.html
That generation simply could not lose. You had to be a complete moron to not achieve a reasonble chunk of wealth in that era.
The solar-photosynthesis hijack is a start.
The first stage is siphoning off electrons.
Neat trick but you can't starve the leaf or it will die & so does the energy extraction.
The real key is reversing it: if we can generate electricity from fuels, from tidal energy & from hydro-dams and funnel it INTO photosynthesis using the same trickery we can grow crops in the dark & any time of year IF we can keep them warm.
THAT will be a game changer.
Then again we got Fukushima. That is a game ENDER.
Mr James Quinn! wow! what an incisive, blistering, dead on piece of writing! Oh man. There you have it.
The propaganda has been so succesfull that even thise piece contains lies beacause what are called unfunded liabilities for Social Security in this piece are in reality funded. US army is one big unfunded liablity which is hardly ever touched upon. It's always about attacking the socially weak in the states so imbedded in the non-culture.
Listen too: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts on KWN – 27 October 2013 – AUDIO http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2013/10/27_Dr._Paul_Craig_Roberts.html
Yeah, we actually have the 200 Trillion to pay for all of that /sarcasm. You're stupid.
Even the few that are fully awake can't agree on what the alternative civilisation will be, making it impossible for people to rally around a common cause. Even if this system crashed some psyco would fill the power vacuum and replace the current boot pressing down on our heads with his. We're all fucked. Defeatist I know but thousands of years of history says the plebs never win, it ain't getting any better.
There's been a couple of times in South America and even America itself sort-of won. Except the First Nations indigenous people were mostly wiped out to do it. They didn't win so I guess it's a question of perspective.
Change is slow and messy. The acid spit and vitriol of this article of course generalizes, but I think ignores the fact that there IS change. I can look at myself, and realize that yes, finally, at 57, I grew up! I don't need that new gadget, I bought a cheaper car, and gave up on real-estate (Toronto prices are up 20% in the last 2-3 years). I enjoy my job that produces useful electrical equipment for utilities (I consider electricity to be a useful real product not too misused). My nieces and nephews seem to have quite different values (less interest in McMansions and Escalades - more in interaction with different cultures, travel, environment).
Yes, I too do not understand how one can "game" the system and not have a conscience. But then I too have worked for psychopaths over the years and had difficulty understanding that people lie all the time (I can't). The Pollyanna in me hopes that since all the developed world seems to be in a similar place, and the developing world has their own set of problems, that rather than a catastrophic end of the world collapse, the world economy will just suffer a prolonged smelly fart and settle into something more equitable and reasonable.
I keep my circle small, with those I love (and who love back) and at the end of the day, that is the most important thing. Who the person is is much more important than what they have. I am a rich man at this point, no matter what happens.
Etobicoke, Don Mills, Scarberia, Mississauga, Borington?
Church street actually until I move into an apartment on Rosedale Valley Rd. (Have done Mississauga twice and St Lawrence Market once). Work in Markham.
holy crap that's an expensive area, was even years ago when I had a visit there.
Lies and corruption. I was born into them, and I became them. I barely saw the truth in time. But what good is revelation when it is merely ornamental, dead flowers on my casket?
But the steak is juicy.
The Matrix tells me it is.
Eat up! gnom-gnom
If elected I promise to nationalize the federal reserve, zero the national debt. let's kill the bank and open their books. Who's with me?
(crickets)
Ok. How about if I throw in zeroing the debts our allies owe to these sharps?
Hn. Who likes free money? Who wants free sex?
Can I have a pony? Vermin Supreme promised a pony.
You gotta beat his offerings.
Righteous Anger and Indignation +100, Dr. Quinn Big Medicine Man. Had to laugh a couple of times as the stooges on the other side of these facts are so uh ignorant and self serving....It would be hilarious if it wasn't the truth. As it stands beyond comprehension and logic but a true testament to the Thomas Edison and Huxley quotes.
Heaven Help us for we are lost and perhaps doomed....
Whoa! That debt chart compared to revenues should be front and center on Drudge and taught in every school!
They say a picture is worth 10,000 words. It was never truer.
Anyone suggesting we should slow our spending is branded a terrorist by the overwhelmingly liberal legacy media.
i quit reading right here (which means i allowed the slam on teachers to pass)...this guy is pissed and so am i...but let's point our anger at the culprits...not our hard working teachers (which isn't to say they're all perfect, but they make too easy of a target).
anyone who thinks the media is "liberal" has their head deeply buried in their ass...our media is bought...it's not a liberal/conservative issue...that's all.
Arguing with a Fool is like mud-wrestling with a pig.
After a while you begin to realize that the pig is enjoying himself.
For the fuking googolith time, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT A FAMILY!!! Quit spreading your ignorance.
This is all easily remedied. You print 200 trillion. Presto. Problem solved.
And gold $200,000.00. But who's counting.
Is there a part 2?
"...wallowing in our ignorance like a fat lazy sow..."
ZH already discussed Dianne FINESWINE's lies three articles ago.
I don't know much about advanced mathematics...
Arithmetic is pretty easy though.
We got too many - signs. And a bunch of them are hiding as + signs.
This ain't too good.
Your friend,
Forrest Gump
Watch less TV
Unbank
Never vote for another Democrat or Republican again
Reduce debt
Save, consume only if you have too
STARVE THE BEAST
The is no debt limit right now so it's tiime for Obama's unlimited spending on his unlimited credit card.
No doubt inspired by Wallymart.
If Walmart can suspend all EBT limits then Obama & congress can suspend all debt limits.
In part two, the author blows his alter ego's brains out.
Right through his cheek.
and/or good post.
Sir.
The first thing apparent is that the world and the people in it are often quite wrong. That is as far as most of us ever got.The usual outcome is it stays that way.
But, there is a solution. You will have to find it for yourself. I'm not telling. Isn't there something in the Bible about casting pearls before swine?
Maybe the guy on the flaming table will tell you before his balls heat up and explode.
"You can ignore reality but, you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality." (Ayn Rand)
My father used to say to me "one way or another you're going to figure it out". Talking about this with a colleague of mine, his friend's father used to say "you will find that 95% of all your problems that you encounter in life are a result of your own decisions and actions."
My hope is that the youth take the time to observe the economic chaos and somehow put it together that by and large they've been screwed. I think they will have to figure it out on their own just like we had to. Yet part of me also recognizes that simply letting the ignorance and entitlements play out is probably the least cost efficient means of establishing an economic reset. Either event will not be pretty, however, at least some process of enlightenment will have occurred and a rebirth of a commitment to ideas, purpose, responsibility, and freedom and a wholesale permanent rejection of the welfare warfare state.
This guy is right on. I think there might be some awakening among the citizenry, but still not enough to bring about any real change. "Our culture of ignorance will lead to the destruction of our culture and the ignorant masses will wonder what happened."
I wish it wasn't true, but from my perspective, it is. I don't want to be a negative Nancy, but I don't see how things could ever improve. It's not hard to see what is coming - confiscation of the meager savings of the middle class, higher taxes and an expanding police state. It ain't looking so good. The 2014 election will be interesting. I somehow have a feeling that it will be the highest number of incumbents ever re-elected back into the congress. The masses love their oligarchs. If an economic crash ever comes, these will be the people who will end up in the FEMA camps.
I see only two likely scenarios:
The most unlikely scenario would be that the sheep figure out who the wolves are, band together and drive them out of the pasture. This would require some effort and would interfere with football and Breaking Bad reruns. Most will probably settle for the Obamaphone and obey.
This was a terrific post Jim. I would add to your remarks that if a person has not independently consciously decided, by onset of puberty that they're going to think things through for themselves, then I suspect they never will come back to that point later in life. The distraction and peer-group pressure goes up exponentially from there, and the curiosity at that point is undercut and trammeled by ready-made ideas and 'explanations' that they are expected and actually required to accept, as pseudo-'principles' of convention. If they don't have a burning curiosity or fascination with the world or hunger to learn about real things, that encourages them to think honestly and clearly, simply in order to understand, rather than sucking up pat-ideas, it just won't occur later.
That's the moment when Govt really seeks to influence people the most with destructive Govt propaganda, and social/pop-media blah-blahs dominate, and financial ambition arises to cloud all motive and motivation to acquire the requisite minimum 'stuff', and to help them get laid, party more, and think far less.
Examining things carefully, within a society of mostly dumb-dumbs is isolating, secretive, odd, bookish, suspicious, worthless, so it takes a bloody-minded attitude, to individual or collective disapproval, to go against that flow. I'm not really surprised almost no one ever does it.
But it is surprising that almost everyone will settle so easily and cheaply for understanding as little about real things as possible, and to instead expend all mental space, time and what passes for attention, taking in dissonant distractive fictions, producing the state of arrested inner-development, that you described, and its inevitable effects and implications.
What could possibly go wrong?
Only almost everything.
The driving mechanism of the Culture of Ignorance is the triumph of lies backed by violence.
Brilliant article
We all know collapse is coming - but what does it look like?
If you've got a few hours suggest you read this research - if you have only an hour read from page 56 http://www.feasta.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Trade-Off1.pdf
"Marla" hit it out of the park with this one. She shut her shop down, but Jim had a copy of the post in his blog.
It Is Past Time To Kill “Just One Child” (But It Is Probably Too Late and You Don’t Have The Guts)"When you consider the facts in a rational manner, without vitriolic denials, bitter accusations, acrimonious blame, and rejection of the entire premise, you come to the conclusion that we’ve passed the point of no return."
This is the issue, we do not have enough people who think rationally. I think most people hear the word Economics and they instantly turn their brains off and go to another set of thoughts..
I am on facebook, mostly I post articles from this site trying to warn my "friends" of the coming disaster and who the real criminals are (the fed and bankers). They argue on and on over gay this or gay that.. whatever!!! ... and a whole host of other social issues, and I always post something like the following: "is this going to matter if you don't have a job, place to live or know where your next meal is coming from? If not, then why argue? There are a lot bigger problems issues we should be discussing". Most of my friends think I am psycho. I am tempted to post this one too, but I think most of my friends have blocked me. :)
On another note, as Dr. Bonzo posted:
This is all easily remedied. You print 200 trillion. Presto. Problem solved.
And gold $200,000.00. But who's counting.
I am tempted to get into some long term dollar contracts, ie real estate contracts which are dollar based. If gold ever got close to even just 10K I would be able to pay them off almost instantly, and if it got the 200K, well then..
Anyway.. my very conservative fiscal stance won't allow me to do that, at least not at this time.