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When Centralization Scales Beyond Our Control

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer of the Automatic Earth

When Centralization Scales Beyond Our Control

In an article about NATO exercises in Estonia, just 300 yards from the Russian border, Daniel McAdams at the Ron Paul Institute makes a point that I want to use to make a much broader point. Not the provide answers, though, just to provide questions. McAdams quotes the Guardian review of a book by George Sakwa:

NATO’s Russia Border Games

 

Russian military plane over international waters 25 miles from the UK coast is “real and present danger” to NATO. Yet… Yet yesterday US combat vehicles conducted a military parade and show of military force in Estonia just 300 yards – yards! – from the Russian border. That is just over 60 miles from downtown St. Petersburg. This is not a provocation, we are to believe. This is not a “real and present danger” to Russia. NATO is exempt from the rules it imposes on its enemies. In the Guardian’s review of a new book by Politics professor George Sakwa, the current fallout from a near quarter century of post-Cold War NATO policies is perfectly captured:

 

The hawks in the Clinton administration ignored all this, Bush abandoned the anti-ballistic missile treaty and put rockets close to Russia’s borders, and now a decade later, after Russia’s angry reaction to provocations in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine today, we have what Sakwa rightly calls a “fateful geographical paradox: that NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence”.

 

That line bears repeating: “NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”

Yes, that line bears repeating, but it bears much more than that: the line doesn’t go nearly far enough. Because NATO doesn’t only exist, it develops and changes. In fact, to justify its prolonged existence, NATO has turned from a force for peace into a warmonger. That way, the organization argues, consciously or not, it provides itself with a reason to exist. It now doesn’t just exist to manage the risks, it exists to create them. In doing so, NATO itself has become the biggest risk.

Regular readers will be well aware that I, like Ron Paul, have said many times that NATO should be dismantled (and not just NATO). Not only because it’s long outlived its original purpose, based in the Cold War, but because it increasingly attracts as leaders people who use ever more aggressive language for ever more elusive reasons. The latest in the series are new General Secretary Stoltenberg and General ‘Warhead’ Breedlove, both of whom seem hell bent on outdoing even Ukraine’s leadership pair of Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk when it comes to making unsubstantiated claims about Russia, and about the situation in Ukraine – and Eastern Europe – in a broader sense.

My thesis is that all supranational organizations will eventually attract a certain kind of people as their leaders, and that these are inevitably the last kind of people we should want in these positions. But in the absence of effective democratic oversight, they end up there anyway. Therefore, the only way to counter this mechanism is to dismantle and abandon the organizations, while we still can. Which is not a given, since they function like power pyramids, in which ever more active power flows to an ever smaller top, until they become ‘untouchable’ by the nations that founded them in the first place.

These organizations don’t just fail to meet their originally stated purpose, they become entities dangerous to those they were meant to serve. That’s true for NATO, for the IMF, the World Bank, and the EU. They all end up serving only their most powerful members, at the cost of the smaller and less powerful. Since there is no mechanism to prevent this from happening while they exist, we must dismantle them.

There’s a strong correlation with an example from the economic world, in which corporations were originally incorporated for a specific project (e.g. building a bridge), a specific budget and a specific duration. And look at corporations now: there is no time limit to their existence, they are free to buy political control over our societies across generations, and they have even been granted person’s rights, though persons die and corporations no longer do.

What is true for corporations is just as true for supranational organizations: it’s all about scale. They are all – well, mostly – founded by well-meaning people, but these people ignore – willingly or not – to set time, financial and legal limits to them. And that’s a surefire recipe for disaster. The IMF upon its inception had lofty ideals behind it. But look at the damage it’s done across the globe. The World Bank was intended to help fight poverty in poor nations, but, like the IMF, has become an instrument for the rich to control these nations and prey on them.

And NATO has been busy ever since the Berlin wall came down, to resurrect the Cold War, without which it knows it must fear for its continued existence. It’s a twin sister of the American military complex, which creates threats out of nowhere and fights wars that all end in disaster, creating chaos along the way that forms the reason, and the cradle, for the next theater of war.

I’ve said before that I’m somewhat hesitant to include the US in the list of supranational organizations that should be dismantled, but if the country, the union, can’t find a way to reform and refind itself, I don’t see much reason for it to live on. The concentrated power bastion in Washington simply does too much harm to too many people, both at home and abroad. Nobody should have that sort of power.

If you have an entity that comprises 300 million people, it’s inevitable that ‘rulers’ over that entity need to be curtailed and limited in their powers from the get-go, or things will go awfully wrong. In the US, arguably, that has long since started to happen. The solution – in theory – is real simple: decentralize power. The solution in practice is much less obvious, since the people in power won’t volunteer to give up what they’ve got. A critical mass has been reached from which it will be very hard to retreat.

‘Once it reaches a certain threshold, the process of institutionalization becomes counterproductive’

Those are the words from a man I’ve been thinking about for quite a while, when pondering these issues, 20th century philosopher/priest Ivan Illich, whose criticism of ‘institutionalization’, mostly published in the 1970?s from Latin America, was largely inspired by, and directed at, the Catholic Church, not coincidentally the world’s – by far – earliest truly multinational corporation. Illich basically asserted that institutions tend to monopolize parts of societies that they should leave alone, because they belong to the people, and are essential to their well-being. From Wikipedia’s entry on Illich:

[e]lite professional groups . . . have come to exert a ‘radical monopoly’ on such basic human activities as health, agriculture, home-building, and learning, leading to a ‘war on subsistence’ that robs peasant societies of their vital skills and know-how. The result of much economic development is very often not human flourishing but ‘modernized poverty,’ dependency, and an out-of-control system in which the humans become worn-down mechanical parts.”

 

[2] Illich proposed that we should “invert the present deep structure of tools” in order to “give people tools that guarantee their right to work with independent efficiency.”[14]

Schools should not be able to declare themselves the only valuable source of education, nor hospitals that of health care. To Illich, the fact that he did see them do this anyway, meant people were being robbed of their freedom to learn, and to heal. In the same vein, NATO should not have a monopoly on defending us from ‘evil’ enemies, because it will create that evil just to justify its own apparatus, in the process robbing people of the ability to judge what is evil and what is not.

‘[I]nstitutions create the needs and control their satisfaction, and, by so doing, turn the human being and her or his creativity into objects’

And that of course moves us real close to what I said about supranational organizations and multinationals, and to what Sakwa said: “NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”. It shirks close to the Completion Backward Principle, in which first a need and a market is created and only then the product that fills that need.

My perhaps favorite Illich quote, which with a little imagination is one on one applicable to the entire institutionalization issue, is this:

Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby “schooled” to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is “schooled” to accept service in place of value.

 

Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavour are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.

I never liked the education system I grew up in, any more than I like supranational institutions (it just took me a while to figure out the connection). High school was fine, because it was a breeze. But university was like running into a wall, multiple times. I just never had the idea that these people had anything I wanted. Just perhaps a degree that would have given me a ‘better’ job. But to go through 4-5-6 years of something I absolutely didn’t want, or saw the use of, seemed to be far too high a price to pay. This was way after Illich wrote what he did, though I didn’t read it until even much later again, but when I did, I still had a feeling of redemption, of: I’m not the only one who saw what I did.

And of course people will say that I’m an idiot to throw away a university degree when so many others would kill to have one. That all, however, proves Illich’s point, and it leads back to the same issue: universities have a monopoly on learning, which means people learn less and less, they only ‘learn’ to be cogs in a machine. And if you don’t get the degree, than no well-paying job for you. And that’s exactly what Illich says. It makes for societies of unhappy people, who can’t even provide for themselves, as all their ancestors could, because all they’ve learned is to be that cog.

I wanted to bring Ivan Illich into the discussion about NATO we’ve been having for a long time, with Ron Paul and myself saying it should be banned and its pieces ritually incinerated, because Illich makes the idea far more accessible that this is all part of a much larger pattern. That is to say, we tend towards centralization at all levels, mostly at first – seemingly – innocently, but soon with control moving beyond our perception.

Who controls NATO, or the IMF? I’m sure you understand it’s not you. Still, when an organization exhibits aggressive behavior in your name, or lends out your money in your name, you should at all times feel that you are in control, through those you elect to represent you. Well, do you? Or are you merely thinking: that’s too far away from me?

Organizations, like so many things in life, don’t scale up well, if at all. Beyond a certain critical mass, they become counterproductive, as Illich states. They become predators on their own creators. That goes as much for NATO, IMF and EU as it does for schools and hospitals.

Modern societies appear to create more and more institutions – and great swathes of the way we live our lives become institutionalized. ‘This process undermines people – it diminishes their confidence in themselves, and in their capacity to solve problems… It kills convivial relationships. Finally it colonizes life like a parasite or a cancer that kills creativity’ (Finger and Asún 2001: 10).

 

Experts and an expert culture always call for more experts. Experts also have a tendency to cartelize themselves by creating ‘institutional barricades’ – for example proclaiming themselves gatekeepers, as well as self-selecting themselves. Finally, experts control knowledge production, as they decide what valid and legitimate knowledge is, and how its acquisition is sanctioned.

 

Schooling – the production of knowledge, the marketing of knowledge, which is what the school amounts to, draws society into the trap of thinking that knowledge is hygienic, pure, respectable, deodorized, produced by human heads and amassed in stock….

 

[B]y making school compulsory, [people] are schooled to believe that the self-taught individual is to be discriminated against; that learning and the growth of cognitive capacity, require a process of consumption of services presented in an industrial, a planned, a professional form;… that learning is a thing rather than an activity. A thing that can be amassed and measured, the possession of which is a measure of the productivity of the individual within the society. That is, of his social value.

It’s a trap we’ve set for ourselves, and over which we’ve now long lost control. Technology seems to make the world ‘smaller’, and to increase our control, but in effect it ends up doing the opposite. It makes us dumber, since we are now only cogs in a machine that others control, and over which we have no oversight. If the machine gets orders to go to war, the cogs will have to obey. That’s our world today, and that’s what the NATO issue teaches us. NATO is our Frankenstein. And if we don’t stop it now, it will end up coming after us.

 

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Sat, 02/28/2015 - 11:51 | 5839386 GMadScientist
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Mmmmm....entangling alliances. What could go wrong?

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:56 | 5839551 Ignatius
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Thread hijack.  Breaking: composite photo of Nemstov's alleged killer released:

https://twitter.com/theanonnation/status/571506316268609536

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:17 | 5839835 Headbanger
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If Vlad had a son?

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:25 | 5839862 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

I would not advise travel to Mother Russia any time soon, Comrade;)

Too Funny.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 16:25 | 5840282 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

The Cult of Putin will not like that link.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:56 | 5839553 Burt Gummer
Burt Gummer's picture

Centralization is wealth.

Independence is slavery.

Poverty is non existant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yloaBw80fV4

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:15 | 5839824 Headbanger
Headbanger's picture

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE..

COMPLY..

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:27 | 5839867 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

OMFG  ZH is going small gov Libertarian?

  Wonders will never cease.

for the record:  GOVERNMENT IS EVIL

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:55 | 5840204 Carpenter1
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"Cursed are those who add house to house, until the farmer has no place to farm and becomes a slave in his own lands." 

-God

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 23:37 | 5841516 one_hundred
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my co-worker's mom makes $87 an hour on the laptop . She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay check was $15653 just working on the laptop for a few hours. try this website... www.globe-report.com

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 11:56 | 5839397 Ignatius
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That line bears repeating: “NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”

Suitable for framing.  True for most agencies be they police, FBI, CIA, DHS, etc..

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:15 | 5839442 flacon
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Same goes for central banks. 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:16 | 5839444 CH1
CH1's picture

The same goes for the state itself.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:29 | 5839475 jal
jal's picture

Same goes for all the "Isms". (capitalism etc)

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:03 | 5839583 Anusocracy
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Nonsense. Voluntaryism wouldn't. Free market capitalism without government wouldn't.

It would only apply to systems based on monopoly control.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:12 | 5839622 2handband
2handband's picture

Uh-huh. Capitalism is going to lead to monopolys every single fucking time. Unless, of course, you can propose a method for preventing wealth from being leveraged into power.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:35 | 5839707 TungstenBars
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All roads point to monarchies/plutocracies etc. It's human nature.

Evry now and then a good revolution is needed to level the playing field for a while. 

That is the reality of the human race.

 

I faintly rememebr a quote about "every now and then the tree of libery needs to be watered by blood of tyrants and patriots"

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 22:31 | 5840117 oudinot
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A strong Monarchy can be much better than oligarchies.  Monarchies can keep the Nobles down politically, economically and represent the 'people' in a more fair manner.

The Magna Carta, which is mythically acclaimed to have been a beginning of democracy, was actually a reactionary document.  King John  II in 1215, dead broke, reluctantly signed the Magna Carta; which  although limiting  the King's power it added much more power to the nobles, barons who suppressed , enclosed the English citizens who rapidly became serfs; the English people were better off with the powerful King.

In Iran Pahlavi, , the King of Kings, the Shah from 1941-1979 westernized Iran, took much of the Mullah's lands away from them and gave the land  to the people, exiled the Grand Ayatollah; the Shah was better for the people because he took much power away from the nobles, both secular and spiritual.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:46 | 5839934 CH1
CH1's picture

Capitalism is going to lead to monopolys every single fucking time.

Ughh, back to the same old shit.

It all depends on how you define capitalism. My capitalism - uncoerced exchange - destroys monolpolies. Your definition may vary.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 18:14 | 5840552 Abaco
Abaco's picture

That is an empty statment.  By mentioning capitalism you imply that this is a fate unique to capitalism. Why not for socialism also?  No doubt you would say that it wouldn't happen under socialism because there wouldbe laws to prevent it. Wiich could also be the case for Capitalism. How do you propose to prevent powere from being levereaged into wealth?

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:36 | 5839490 Groundhog Day
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Tired of these articles, write about solutions. We all know it's a disaster

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:04 | 5840037 CH1
CH1's picture

Solution: Stop obeying them!

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:41 | 5840180 zhandax
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Momentum has long since carried us past the less painful solutions.  The only solution remaining is that found at the bottom of the cliff.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 11:56 | 5839400 escapeefromOZ
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  The lobby groups and hidden powers have taken over the EU and NATO . 

I did not vote for the unelected buffoons that impose criminal policies on Greece and the rest of Europe . I did not vote for coup de'tat in Ukraine nor colored revolutions , nor sending troops to support wars for oil or regime changes all over the world . EU and NATO Fu.... OFF 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 11:59 | 5839408 GuusjA
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Netwerk @MinPres: "Waar Nederland nu meer dan ooit behoefte aan heeft, is duidelijkheid en stabiliteit”.

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/02/28/rutte-op-campagne-we-blijven-de-inge...

Dat kan natuurlijk heel gemakkelijk door Stichting Met Elkaar een budget te geven, zodat ze de 'Logica van de 1' legaal kunnen uitrollen.

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/amerikaanse-politici-ruzien-over-fin...

Het ministerie, dat na de aanslagen in Washington en New York van 11 september 2001 werd opgericht, weet niets van de 3e SpinozaGolf en daarom doet onze @MinPres een oproep om ook in de Tweede Kamer te gaan waarheiddelen!.

http://www.dagelijksestandaard.nl/2015/02/rutte-roept-oppositie-op-laten...

Als je weet wat er speelt in het netwerk van WitteGejT en dit toetst aan de 'Logica van de 1' dan kun je snel en adequaat de @RaadvanState informeren over de evolutie van de werkelijkheid. Het is dan aan het personeel van hotel GradjA om dit te spinnen naar de politieke lejders van hun voorkeur.

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/02/27/groenlinks-laat-mensen-in-bijstand-b...

Analyse van de werking van het systeem 'Liegen om te Leven': “Een jarenlange tendens van wantrouwen en repressie heeft geleid tot een oerwoud aan strengere regels, verplichtingen en boetes. Dat beleid helpt mensen niet aan een eenduidige intuïtie en daarom willen wij een onvoorwaardelijk basisinkomen zodat ieder mens in vrijheid kan beslissen hoe hij wil participeren in het systeem 'Leven en Laten Leven'. Alleen door oprecht waarheiddelen gaan mensen weer geloven in hun eigen kunnen en initiatief.”

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 21:51 | 5841231 zhandax
zhandax's picture

Dude, if you think anything any government does is for the benefit of the people, you need to throw your TV in the lake.  It is for entertainment, not news.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 11:57 | 5839402 forputin
forputin's picture

Who controls our great Czar Putin?

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:05 | 5839421 GMadScientist
GMadScientist's picture

The Russian people. if they know what's good for them.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:06 | 5839423 philosophers bone
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Miss the .

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:12 | 5839436 Niall Of The Ni...
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The Russian people who duly elected him their president and support him with 80+% approval ratings. They remain free to choose another leader at the next election, of course. The fact that no bankster puppet has much chance of unseating him just goes to demonstrate how free of foreign influence Russian elections are. 

Contrast the political systems of most of the rest of Europe, where nobody who might take the side of the people in disputes against foreign bankers has any chance at real power.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:53 | 5839763 forputin
forputin's picture

Any real opposition gets jailed or killed.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:29 | 5839875 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

and Comrade Leader Putin counts the votes.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:04 | 5840014 TungstenBars
TungstenBars's picture

"real opposition", like who?

 

The only ones killed are western assets with little to no political backing and are hated by most Russians. Meanwhile, the actual leading opposition in Russia is neither getting killed nor claiming that Putin is a dictator. 

Nemstov was like the Santorum of Russia..perhaps even less than that. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_of_Russia_–_People%27s_Freedom_Party

 

If someone made a party today it could have the same number of supporters in a week as the "Freedom" Party 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 20:50 | 5841064 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

In Europe, sure. Golden Dawn come to mind.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:24 | 5839458 TungstenBars
TungstenBars's picture

Not the Russian Jewish oligarchs of the 90s....therefore according to your kind Putin must be a dictator.

 

 

P.S. You need a new job.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:33 | 5839487 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Putin is far better than any of the psychopathic pieces of shit you would support.

How about listing a few of your faves and why you worship them?

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:00 | 5839575 centerline
centerline's picture

Troll statement of the thread right there Mr. buttholecracy.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:22 | 5839649 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Not a government troll like you or any kind of troll.

The emotional thinking of ingroup obeisance means little to me.

But I would like to thank you and your ilk for being the creators of "buttholecracy". The world wouldn't be the shithole it is without assholes like you.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:28 | 5839873 centerline
centerline's picture

My bad.  That is true.  Paid trolls are little more clever.  Only everyday idiots go straight down these sorts of rabbit holes.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:31 | 5839694 TungstenBars
TungstenBars's picture

List who you prefer to run Russia. List actual names. 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:30 | 5839880 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Boris Alotofcrap.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 17:27 | 5840430 Arnold
Arnold's picture

I'll bet Benny would step up and do well there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:03 | 5839417 Fun Facts
Fun Facts's picture

Something to do with this:

"The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” – David Rockefeller, Memoirs

and this....

“The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.” Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952

They've been working on it for a long time.

“Three hundred men, each of whom knows all the others, govern the fate of the European continent, and they elect their successors from their entourage.” Walter Rathenau WIENER FREIE PRESSE, December 24, 1912

"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.” Benjamin Disraeli 1844

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:22 | 5839455 Miss Expectations
Miss Expectations's picture

"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."  J. Edgar Hoover

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:43 | 5839511 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

A person is handicapped by their genetic makeup.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:47 | 5839527 centerline
centerline's picture

I heard that giving everyone a trophy just for showing up makes it all better.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:50 | 5839540 UselessEater
UselessEater's picture

A decent read 'Technocracy Rising' by Patrick Wood who worked with Anthony Sutton on a few publications.

"After researching, writing and speaking about globalization for almost 40 years now, I was alarmed when I discovered a few years ago that the endgame is Technocracy - not Socialism, Communism, or Fascism. The evidence of this is all around us but unless you can connect the dots correctly, you will never see the whole nefarious plan. This is why I wrote Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation"

http://www.augustforecast.com/

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:26 | 5839466 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Three hundred? Hardly. It's probably closer to 30,000.

They don't all know each other or ever gather in one place. (And no, they're not all or even mostly of Jewish ancestry. None at all regard Holy Writ as anything but prolefeed.)

To be fair to them, they are, with few exceptions, extremely intelligent and hardworking---they wouldn't have held on to power long were they not. Had they used their gifts for good, most would undoubtedly have been a credit to any civilized society.

As it is, they regard civilized society as nothing but a tool for their own goals of wealth and power. And if you're not one of them, they do not care if you live or die.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:58 | 5839562 CCanuck
CCanuck's picture

Niall,

You sound apologetic for these psychopaths. They do gather, Builderburg, tri-lateral commission, etc...etc, and they tend to gather as leaders or highly touted representatives of certain faiths.

 

"To be fair to them, they are, with few exceptions, extremely intelligent and hardworking"

Why the fuck would I want to be fair to them? Is there anything intelligent about what they do? The have no clue what hard work is! Thats what they use you and me for!

They are fucking coward cunts that in your words ....

"regard civilized society as nothing but a tool for their own goals of wealth and power. And if you're not one of them, they do not care if you live or die."

Why do you praise them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:34 | 5839704 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

I'm not praising them. I just don't see the point of underestimating them.

And yes, they have their little clubs. Not all of them are members of all the clubs.

And if you really think they're doing the bidding of the Elders of Zion, consider how people whose loyalty to the Jewish nation like Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman are second in their demonology only to Putin. Our masters have no gods but money---and if a second Holocaust would help line their pockets, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:35 | 5839879 commoncourtesy
commoncourtesy's picture

Apologies: double post

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:20 | 5839451 litemine
litemine's picture

Just wait until the TPP comes into place. Then Coporations will dictate to Countries there wants and desires.

This too is the Unelected that will control our Lives including forcing GMO's down our throats even though we may want to to pick alternate choices.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

They fight saying GMO's are good, kind of like the many years Tobacco companies told use smoking wasn't bad for you.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:26 | 5839468 trader1
trader1's picture

off topic:

 

(Reuters) - Greece's leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused Spain and Portugal on Saturday of leading a conservative conspiracy to topple his anti-austerity government, saying they feared their own radical forces before elections this year.

Tsipras also rejected criticism that Athens had staged a climbdown to secure an extension of its financial lifeline from the euro zone, saying anger among German conservatives showed that his government had won concessions.

Greeks have directed much of their fury about years of austerity dictated by international creditors at Germany, the biggest contributor to their country's 240-billion-euro bailout.

But in a speech to his Syriza party, Tsipras turned on Madrid and Lisbon, accusing them of taking a hard line in negotiations which led to the euro zone extending the bailout program last week for four months.

"We found opposing us an axis of powers ... led by the governments of Spain and Portugal which for obvious political reasons attempted to lead the entire negotiations to the brink," said Tsipras, who won an election on Jan. 25.

"Their plan was and is to wear down, topple or bring our government to unconditional surrender before our work begins to bear fruit and before the Greek example affects other countries," he said, adding: "And mainly before the elections in Spain."

Spain's new anti-establishment Podemos movement has topped some opinion polls, making it a serious threat to the conservative People's Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in an election which must be held by the end of this year.

  

Rajoy went to Athens less than a fortnight before the Greek election to warn voters against believing the "impossible" promises of Syriza. His appeal fell on deaf ears and voters swept the previous conservative premier from power.

Portugal will also have elections after the summer but no anti-austerity force as potent as Syriza or Podemos has so far emerged there.

In an interview published before Tsipras made his speech, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho denied that Portugal had taken a hard line in negotiations on the Greek deal at the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers.

"There may have been a political intention to create this idea, but it is not true," he told the Expresso weekly newspaper.

Passos Coelho aligned himself with euro zone governments which have called for policies to promote economic growth but without trying to walk away from austerity as in Greece.

 

"We were on the same side as the French government, with the Italian and Irish governments. I think it's bad to stigmatize southern European countries," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/28/us-eurozone-greece-idUSKBN0LW0...

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:48 | 5839534 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Tsipras is just another moron who believes his failed ideas are better than all the other failed ideas.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:00 | 5839563 Pullmyfinger
Pullmyfinger's picture

Have you had a CAT scan lately? You might want to have that looked into. They say a troll's brain is significantly smaller than a human's.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:29 | 5839478 sam site
sam site's picture

Great article.  You're one of the few that seem to realize that college knowledge is mostly useless.  As an engineer I realized early on that I was ill prepared for the technical world I was thrusted into.

We should be training our students in the tools of innovation.  Free market education is the only way to force educators to provide useful, practical knowledge to innovators in making marketable products.

You're also right about institutionalized healthcare.  The average moron in America has been brainwashed into believing that disease is caused by germs randomly attacking humans. 

This poison delivery system by our hidden parasitic rulers - called vaccines are based on this common myth.  In reality it's a polluted internal environment by mercury, fluoride ect that suppresses natural immunity that protects us from diseases.

The ignorant sheeple aren't going to know what hit them when the dollar devalues and they are going to die like flies and get just what they deserve.  As John Wayne said, "Life's tough, it's even tougher when you're stupid".

 

 

 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:36 | 5839489 barry2001
barry2001's picture

If you are into drones check out this site : http://pickyourdrone.com/

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:45 | 5839522 centerline
centerline's picture

Stop spamming ZH you pinhead.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:44 | 5839515 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

"Who controls NATO, or the IMF?"

The Rothschilds.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:44 | 5839516 centerline
centerline's picture

Good luck with that planned decentralization theme.  When organizations get as big as NATO, as the EU, as the US government... heck, as big as just agencies in the US government... they don't willingly dismantle themselves for the greater good.  They grow, distort, and generally screw everyone right to the end.

Take a quick gander at the historical population chart of the world - make sure the timeline goes back a few hundred years at least.  Then take a quick look at bacterial growth (petri dish).  Draw your own conclusions from there (and don't bother talking about Moore's law either unless your going to include it's evil twin, the Hubbert Curve).

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 18:15 | 5840554 samsara
samsara's picture

You hit it CL. A drop in population by at least 50+% is required for any meaningful change.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:44 | 5839518 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

See United Nations.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:02 | 5839924 commoncourtesy
commoncourtesy's picture

The Rockefeller & Rothchild families are two of the most powerful families in the world. Check-out who donated land in New York on which the UN headquarters are built.

http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/brotherhoodpart2.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 12:45 | 5839520 trader1
trader1's picture

All great corporations love centralization = more profits = higher dividends to shareholders

 

 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:19 | 5839564 Die Weiße Rose
Die Weiße Rose's picture

Power corrupts and ultimate Power corrupts completely.

NATO as well as IMF and socalled "United Nations" are all run

by the Weapons Slaves and Drug - dealing Pimps and Whores.

USA tries to control the whole world and like any Empire this will all come tumbling down.

In this world you need money just to survive -

money is power- because almost everyone is corrupt !

and anyone can be bought - for the right price.

the system is fucked and to stay alive you have to game the system in some form.

This makes you part of the whole conspiracy and if you are silent,

you are complicit in this crime against humanity - by being silent you become complicit in all this corruption!

Vietnam War, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan ,the pay-offs to fascist military regimes like the one in Egypt,

the war crimes of Israel in Gaza and Golan heights - the list goes on.....

we don't live in freedom - speak your mind too freely and you will be called a terrorist

by the ones who are scared to lose power and control over the sheep consumers of the daily media - garbage .

fuck the powerhungry warmongers and vultures, fuck wallstreet and the corrupt politicians and lobby-groups!

Fuck the whole system of this so-called liberal western democracy and fucked up Central-bankrupt economy.

Its all just totally fucked up... but of course we all know that, but we choose to be deaf , dumb and blind,

so this is what we have become - suicidal manic depressive slaves running to an early grave.

Deaf, dumb and blind sheep following deaf dumb and blind sheep.

WR;)

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 13:17 | 5839634 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

putin: fuel for bomber = $5K

nato: $50B response

#WINNING!

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:18 | 5839836 Seychelles
Seychelles's picture

One of many insightful and true articles to be found on the Automatic Earth.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:27 | 5839868 q99x2
q99x2's picture

I'm pretty much in control of other people's money because the oligarchs pay me about 1800 every 12 weeks to study how 18th century young women learned about morality. Why they choose to spend taxes in this manner I do not know. The people that make these decisions are obviously insane and need to be hospitalized. Thanks everyone for educating the Q99X2. Kids were weird in the 18th century.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:36 | 5839899 raywolf
raywolf's picture

"They all end up serving only their most powerful members, at the cost of the smaller and less powerful"

a most accurate statement and descritpion and the daftest thing of all... much like the communist strucutre, even those at the top gain so little benefit (aside feeding some egoistic pride of the darkest nature), that the organisations serve only to inflict the very real human pain and suffering they claim to be against.

like most aspects of government, it ends up running on the stockholm syndrome, where the people in charge commit abuses and atrocities and then blame the victims for their actions.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 14:44 | 5839927 raywolf
raywolf's picture

"The solution – in theory – is real simple: decentralize power."

 

When you consider the level of technology and communications we have now, a completely decentralized system, of equal numbers of people, somewhere around 500k would be ideal, breaks the vice like grip of big government down.

In Switzerland there are 26 cantons and 8 million people, meaning about 300k people per region. Obviously larger urban centers can wield more power, but they can be broken down some more if needed.

None the less the Swiss system comes closest to creating some harmony and peace, and instead of admiring the wealth they created, the EU and US have been busy trying to pull it apart.

The towns and communities in Switzerland are in many ways more powerful than the cantons, who are more powerful that the federal government - AND THAT is they way it should be.

Top Down Government = Communism / Fascism / Socialism = Corruption, Monopoly, Power Mongering and Greed.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:36 | 5840165 Clesthenes
Clesthenes's picture

“The solution – in theory – is real simple: decentralize power.”

Let me add to this: you have rights to the extent that power is widely distributed.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:29 | 5840129 Clesthenes
Clesthenes's picture

NATO is “a twin sister of the American military complex, which creates threats out of nowhere and fights wars that all end in disaster…”

So, what’s the solution?  Should we resurrect lessons from American Founders… should we establish First-Amendment assemblies?  Such assemblies, don’t forget, were the engine that powered the American Revolution.  It is thru assemblies that men exercise sovereignty… regardless of whether they intend good or evil.  It is thru assemblies that demonically-deranged men and women rule the planet; and it is the absence of assemblies dominated by men of justice and reason that such tyranny is made possible.

 


 


Regardless of your complaint, the only historical example of success against tyrants has been efforts transacted thru assemblies.


 

 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:32 | 5840141 malek
malek's picture

Wow, a 6 star article!!!

Thanks for the outstanding Ivan Illich quotes, I had never heard of him before.

I just never had the idea that these [Universe] people had anything I wanted.
I got the same feeling after studying for 2 years... but I still did finish my masters degree. In the 2 decades since I have used maybe 2% of the "knowledge" I'd gained there.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:35 | 5840162 KingGenius
KingGenius's picture

My grandfather was educated up to a about 8th grade, yet he could find a job and work enough to support 5 kids comforably. The company he worked for was like a community where they took care of the employees. There weren't alot of college degrees back then, there didn't need to be either.

Minimum wage was around a dollar....or 4-5 silver quarters equaling around an ounce of silver. Would you work for an ounce an hour? That means minimum wage has gone up around 800% since the 60's, but you still can not support yourself, let alone a family on it.

If minimum wage remains constant, my grandkids will see around 35-40 FRN's an hour....wonder how much that will buy??

Wages aren't the problem, money is the problem. Anyone debating whether burger flippers get paid 8-9 an hour is a victim of disinformation. 1. It doesn't necessarily matter,why do you care, do you have stock in Mcdonalds? 2. You complain if they don't flip burgers and sit at home on EBT. So should they go into debt 25-50k to get an education in order to receive 12 an hour? Please.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 18:09 | 5840534 samsara
samsara's picture

You said minimum wage was a dollar. One silver dollar.

Ironically, 1 silver dollar today is $20. It hasn't really changed by real money terms.

BTW, my father was born 1900, and left school in the 8th grade and supported 6 kids very well.

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 15:43 | 5840183 gcjohns1971
gcjohns1971's picture

NATO stopped being useful in 1991.

But the fact is that NATO is one Brigade in Germany (1/40th of what was in Iraq), one multinational headauarters, and a collection of mutual defense agreements.

There is a vast amount of hyperbole in this article that the actual forces involved simply cannot support.

The militaries throughout Europe are the ones built by the local populations with an occasional 'dog and pony' show whose real battlefield is purely psychological.   Ten or fifteen APCs or tanks - or even 50 -in a region with nearly 600 million people is not a measurable military addition, and that is a fact.

And who doesnt want missiles that could shoot down a nuke headed their way?  Saying that selling such missiles creates a NATO threat to Russia is EXACTLY the same as claiming that buying army surplus body armor turns individuals into soldiers under US control.  

More precisely it is saying that Russia's security depends on her ability to nuke europe.   Is Russia prepared to accept the exact same justification for Europe to nuclearly arm itself?

The fact is that people invested a lot to design these antiballistic missiles under 'star wars', expecting the government to buy them...and that didnt happen.   What did you expect them to do? Why is this more surprising than Russia's own military sales?

The fact is that everyones justifications on both sides are coherent only if you preemptively identify them as thieves and murderers.    Now you know what hides behind the smiles, suits, and complementary coverage.

Too many want a world safe for theft.  In their hubris they never understand that such a world is also safe for those who would rob them...and they are getting both the world they want and the one they deserve.  Those two worlds are one and the same.

 

 

 

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 16:30 | 5840293 Consumer Farm
Consumer Farm's picture

‘NATO’s broken promises bring world closer to global war’ 5min25s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtuySE-PlGA&list=UUpwvZwUam-URkxB7g4USKpg

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 17:52 | 5840491 zaqqazaq
zaqqazaq's picture

The article starts discussing NATO, IMF, etc but ends with a discussion about a much wider issue - the direction of human civilization. You got stuck with NATO. I believe the author would like to see a world without powers (Russia included) able to inflict planetary scale distruction. Scale down centralized power for all countries would decrease the risk of total anihilation. If this paradigm is utopian or not it's a different story but the facts are worrisome because the scale-up and centralization seems to accelerate in the last few decades (globalization).

Sat, 02/28/2015 - 17:37 | 5840446 zaqqazaq
zaqqazaq's picture

Excellent article!. Before Ivan Illich it was a rather obscure thinker that addressed the scale and centralization issue: Leopold Kohr. He desrves a lot more credit than currently given.

There are also lectures on this topic (published as e-book on Kobo cost $1.03): The Wisdom of Leopold Kohr by Ivan Illich, Hildegarde Hannum

 

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 01:18 | 5841705 honestann
honestann's picture

Russia:  The appropriate reaction to aggressive moves by USSA and NATO near your border is... to load up Cuba with boatloads of nuclear missles.  Then you have something to bargain with, to convince the neocons to back off your border in exchange for ditto.  That is, assuming the neocons don't want to start a nuclear war, which it certainly appears they may want to do, to hide the total collapse of the USSA and west that is coming very soon to a planet you live upon.

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 04:37 | 5841790 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Here is an article corresponding to this ZH Article. Deals with suicide, Divorce, Job loss, meaning of work, men, women...

Why do so many middle-aged men feel so lost?
Caught between baby-boomers and Generation Y, today’s middle-aged men increasingly see themselves as lost souls.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/mens-health/11425655/Why-do-so-man...

Also:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11434946/Not-living-the-drea...

5. Junior Investment Banker

OK, it is the first step on the road to big bucks but the start of this particularly journey is harder, more stressful and more boring than anyone tells you. Perhaps you expect to spend a few weeks doing the photocopying and then move on to making deals. Wrong: the reality is you’ll be doing the grunt work of those above you for years. What is more, your life will no longer be your own. You will be at their beck and call and nothing will be more important than work: 90-hour weeks are the norm. Relationships are destroyed and bankers often wind up socialising only with other bankers because no-one else understands the demands placed on them. The money is good but it doesn’t feel that way because pay is relative and those above you are paid five times as much. Finally, where once the whole Master of the Universe thing was considered quite cool, now people are now more likely to see you as a blood-sucking leech. Unsurprisingly, many would be bankers conclude that the non-financial price to be paid for the eventual riches the job promises is too high.

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 05:40 | 5841925 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

technically, excellent "sophism", by Raul. but the fault line is here:

"Who controls NATO, or the IMF? I’m sure you understand it’s not you. Still, when an organization exhibits aggressive behavior in your name, or lends out your money in your name, you should at all times feel that you are in control, through those you elect to represent you. Well, do you? Or are you merely thinking: that’s too far away from me? Organizations, like so many things in life, don’t scale up well, if at all. Beyond a certain critical mass, they become counterproductive, as Illich states. They become predators on their own creators. That goes as much for NATO, IMF and EU as it does for schools and hospitals."

completely correct, organizations have many issues with scale, and many orgs should change, when scaled up. take the family: who lives in familial "socialism" with their cousins of the sixth grade? school systems and hospital systems have many issues with centralization

but NATO, the EU and the IMF? Raul, you know they are alliances, or, better, orgs based on alliances and treaties. in other words, you could dismantle the orgs, and still "do it" with other ways

Raul, imperial behaviour is imperial behaviour. As the Greek teach us, there is "good" imperial behaviour and "bad" imperial behaviour. You could as well ask "do you feel in control of the armed forces of your country?"

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