Guest Post: Social Innovation Will Be More Important Than Technological Innovation

Tyler Durden's picture




Submitted by  Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

Social Innovation Will Be More Important Than Technological Innovation

Technological innovations can be helpful, but they won't solve our fundamental problems. For that, we will need social innovations.

The explosive rise and global impact of technological innovation has persuaded us that technology is the ultimate solution to all our problems. This assumption is rarely questioned; it has become like the air, unseen and unexamined.

The solution to the coming energy dislocation between supply and demand is technology: alternative energy, innovations in deep-oil recovery, etc.

The solutions to our epidemics of declining public health (diabesity etc.) is more and better medical technology--more stents, more diagnostics, more medications, etc.

The solutions to our problems in education is more technology: a laptop for every student, etc.

The solution to a no-growth, jobless "recovery" is more technology.

All this boils down to a cargo-cult in which a better battery, a better software package and a better diagnostic tool will enable us to avoid any changes in our lifestyle and culture, which is based on three basic principles:

1. Ever-rising consumption of goods and services

2. Ever-rising levels of credit/debt to fuel that consumption

3. Ever-rising complexity on a systemic, structural level

The notion that technological innovation is intrinsically incapable of "fixing" our problems is not just alien to our collective mindset, it is essentially sacreligious. In the current cargo-cult of technology worship, the basic assumption is better engineering can solve every problem.

This includes social engineering, of course--"nudging" the populace to modify their behavior as deemed appropriate by the Central State, and punishing whatever populace veers away from the chosen path.

Thus we have two powerful cargo-cults influencing the American economy, society and government: the Keynesian "monetary easing," borrow-and-spend your way to permanent prosperity Cult of the Fed and its Keynesian priesthood, and the cult of technological innovation as the fount of all solutions.

The idea that both these cults are the equivalent of the Mayan priesthoods which oversaw the decline and implosion of the Mayan Empire is not just an outlier--it is heresy of the first order.

Ironically, perhaps, it is glaringly obvious that both cults will fail because they do not understand the problems and are automatically applying tools that cannot possibly fix what is broken: the three basic principles undergirding the American economy and society are crumbling, though that devolution is mostly hidden from view.

Frequent contributor Harun I. recently commented on the fundamental blindness of classical economics and engineering, both social and technological:

You wrote: "Here is the ugly truth about the Savior State, welfare state, social welfare state, or whatever you choose to call the Central State: The Savior State displaces and destroys community and social capital. By making individuals dependent on the Central State for free money, free food, free housing, etc., then the State has taken over the natural function of community."

 

Brilliant!

 

Something I have noticed is that you are the only blogger who discusses the psychological effects of the current policies -- which are complete failures. Most people, especially young adolescents and young adults are desperately trying to express their independence and grow. The current system of protecting welfare state and monetary system status quo fiefdoms paradoxically depends on their physical participation while ignoring their psychological and emotional needs.

 

The natural process of individuation is being subverted and its deleterious effects are bubbling to the surface.

 

Indeed, true wealth is found in vibrant community. Vibrant community exists when the people in the community contribute (probably the most important ingredient in high self-esteem is self-efficacy), and have a sense of social responsibility. More simply, vibrant community exists when its participants feel they matter.

 

Current policies, however altruistic its adherents and defenders may be, promote polarization (class warfare), and, most importantly, among those at the margin, especially in the young, poor mental health, which spills over in predictably unpredictable behavior.

 

In short, current policies are anti-community and pro-sociopathic.

 

Note to economists and social engineers: there is no algorithm that can express or replicate the heartfelt warmth and the bonds that are created and strengthened when a community voluntarily reaches out to help each other during difficult times.

 

Note to big box corporations: I, and probably many more Americans miss the local bakery, butcher, clothier, grocer, etc. It was never just about stuff. It was more about stopping in and shooting the breeze over coffee, your kids playing on the same teams, it was and is about genuine mutual interest, the emotional context. They not only knew your name but knew you and you knew them. It's about the personal relationship. It's about community.

 

A group of people without the ingredients of community is known as a mob.

 

At some point I think we will come to realize that the reasons for a societal collapse are much deeper and more complex than people not buying enough Ford F-150's or assuming sufficient (whatever that means) debt. This is a deeply flawed argument.

 

The laws of Thermodynamics tell us that we may control the rate of reaction of between finite resources but we cannot make more. If we do not expand beyond the bounds of earth it is inevitable that we will go backward as resources dwindle, but this need not be done so fearfully or chaotically.

 

Everything human begins and ends in the mind. Wealth and poverty, both relative terms, are neither measure nor predictor of love and decency.

 

I believe your background in philosophy better suits you to this discussion than many of the other bloggers out there. Most of them are basically quants and are predilected to thinking everything is solvable through an equation. But you seem to understand that human interaction is much more subtle and cannot be neatly packaged into a finite equation. If it is an equation at all, its variables change every few fractions of a second.

Thank you, Harun. Yes, technological innovation can help solve some specific problems. But to believe that all problems can be distilled down to a technical solution is quasi-religious and ultimately self-destructive. For example, the skyrocketing cost of healthcare (sickcare) "innovations" will bankrupt the nation within this decade. That is not the view of some fringe, it is the conclusion dictated by the data. Meanwhile, the health of the populace arguably declines every year even as spending driven by technological innovation leaps up by hundreds of billions of dollars.

I will be addressing some of the intrinsic limitations in the "engineering/tech is always the answer" mindset/religion in the next week, for it seems self-evident that while technological innovations could smooth the transition to a new economy and social order, the mere faith in technology is insufficient. We need new models for understanding our situation, and social innovations to match the technological innovations that are already in the works.

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Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:32 | 1611804 Gandalf6900
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armageddon bitchez

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:46 | 1611852 spiral_eyes
Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:48 | 1611859 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

They were sponsored by the US.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:58 | 1611881 Ahmeexnal
Ahmeexnal's picture

By the US and the Vatican.

 

Gold taking a beating. CME will announce new margin hikes in the next hours.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:25 | 1611968 JohnG
JohnG's picture

Most likely after the close.  IB called it a few days ago, pretty consistent.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:48 | 1612218 Léonard
Léonard's picture

By the US and the Vatican.

 

IDIOT. Hitler was a paganist against the Church and Christianism.

"The Fuhrer is deeply religous, though completely anti-Christian. He views Christianity as a symptom of decay. Rightly so. It is a branch of the Jewish race... Both [Judaism and Christianity] have no point of contact to the animal element, and thus, in the end, they will be destroyed." (Goebbels)

The only monotheist religion he liked was...guess what... Islam of course ! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler%27s_religious_views#Islam_and_...

Many Europeans were victims of the barbaric behaviors of his muslims divisions, the SS Mohamed.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:16 | 1612331 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

<

Catholicism is paganist as well. Jesus of Nazareth was just a patsy for their (immensely successful) plan for world denomination. Hitler was also just a patsy for the Zionists and their also immensely successful plan for world denomination in the 21st century. Birds of a feather. . .

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 19:36 | 1613410 Bendromeda Strain
Bendromeda Strain's picture

World denomination? Apparently a fool and his Internet aren't soon parted...

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 19:50 | 1613440 Ranger4564
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Joke coming.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 18:57 | 1613337 45north
45north's picture

very good Léonard, a quote from Goebbels showing the nature of Hitler's religion.

Your direct quote is quite unlike imagined history which serves to validate imagined values.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 19:52 | 1613445 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

I'm sure the point was not that Hitler liked the US or Christianity.  I'm sure the point was that he was used / constructed by the US / Vatican to perform their dirty deeds.  Capiche?

Tue, 08/30/2011 - 03:45 | 1614082 Pizza spaghetti...
Pizza spaghetti and mandolino's picture

The Vatican sponsored Hitler ? Are you indeed sure ? Have you ever heard of the papal encyclica "Mit Brennender Sorge", the only one in German and not in Latin in the history of the Church? If you wish to know who originally financed the the National Socialist Party check for this book: "Sidney Warburg". It's the testimony (probably written by the son of Paul Warburg, the architect of the FED, since Sidney Warburg is a pen name) of how the money went from Wall Street to Hitler. Someone who really knew the behind the scenes story, von Papen, testified that indeed the book tells the true origin  flows and banking channels to the Nazi party.

By the way, where did you get your history, at Disneyland?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:46 | 1612463 robobbob
robobbob's picture

....and Dutch Royal Shell, and Prince Berhard, and Lady Astor, and the Cliveden Set

After the war, there was a lot of distancing and burying facts, but Hitler received alot of foreign assistance. He was an international project.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:51 | 1612484 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

He was seen by many on the right to be a counterweight to Stalin...

Talk about blow-back... in spades, with a cherry on top.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:03 | 1611902 Oh regional Indian
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The rot is inside us. The cleanse begins with us.

Technological innovation is embedded/woven into the matric/fabric of who we are collectively. To seperate it into social/technical etc. is a narrow, limiting view.

Any real change needs to come from deep within our collective and individual selves as a totality. Anything less will just die on the vine or add to the madness...

http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/an-older-piece-pertinent/

V

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:28 | 1612141 Manthong
Manthong's picture

The cleansing will begin with an economic and social high colonic administered with a cosmic fire hose.

It will be deep and thorough.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 16:07 | 1612745 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Ori,

You be full of holisitc wisdom and oriental mysticism.  Whereas the west is full of hands on reductionist philosophy, cutting the Gordian knot, not untying it. Only the French revolution went to a holistic model of society in its own way fed on rational 'enlightenment' : finding a compromise between personal freedom, social cohesion (fraternity) and social justice (equality).

Very difficult exercise as history teaches us. The Anglosaxon model was simpler : personal freedom uber alles, leading to Pure Oligarchy play. It HAS to be a limited club in any society where 'personal freedom' is religion. Simple as that. The pyramid is a natural consequence. 

The more complex the collective ambition the closer it is to the ideal; but the more difficult it is to realise. The existential paradox of man as I see it! "To be or not to be"...so sweetly said, it sums it up so universally and yet so pithily.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 19:58 | 1613459 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

That's actually why you need the Automation along with the social re-engineering, as the author is likely aware of.  But, cleansing alone won't do sqwat, whereas automation will go a long way, as long as it's directed to providing for the masses.  In the end, the only way to achieve equity within society is through automation, because we've forgotten than commerce was the aim of the game and decided ridiculously that profit was the aim. Shame on everyone.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:04 | 1612073 piceridu
Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:09 | 1612093 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

A link from July 2010.... Where are all these investigations that were promised?

BTW, an op-ed piece is not mainstream journalism. Crawl back into your den of ignorance..

Maybe what is really happening is that Obama is simply minding the store while the Fascists disassemble the last bastions against complete domination by corporate interests...  Yeah, now that's a true Socialist of the Marxist school for you....

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:57 | 1611880 Azannoth
Azannoth's picture
The Town of Allopath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97N18BTyj4w&feature=player_embedded

A funny video explaining pretty much everything what's wrong with human society.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:10 | 1611925 EnglishMajor
EnglishMajor's picture

Fuck armageddon...Apocalypse Now!

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:35 | 1612172 Citxmech
Citxmech's picture

Somewhere, Joseph Tainter just shed a tear. . .

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:35 | 1612414 poor fella
poor fella's picture

And Malthus winked *

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 16:36 | 1612845 morkov
morkov's picture

you will not a address that issue, because you miss a very basic assumption. Marx said that Production is a social act. as long as we are a mob, there is no social dimension to your argument. the argument for "free social society" is flawed from it's outset. how do you solve that?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:43 | 1611805 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Baloney...

The author starts from sure observations but fails (unsurprisingly) to put them into context.

Class warfare is essential to US Americanism. Class warfare is the heart.

That big lumb called middle class, taking on the upper class, promising the lower class promises never to be met... That is the heart of the US.

Additionnally, controversy sells in US citizenism. US citizens always try to monetize every single conflict they can. With the intended consequences that once monetized, removing a conflict also withdraws the money associated with from the 'community'

The US has made their social engineering, leading to a world of discord, dispute, antagonism, a world that feeds on conflicts that can not be forgotten because US citizens live off those conflicts.

US citizens love to picture themselves as innovative. Alas for them, the quality of their propaganda gives them in every time: one pony trick people with no vision, with no imagination. People addicted to theft, copy cats whose only deed is to live in the biggest market in the world, allowing them to benefit the most from economy of scale to spread their low, uninspired, shitty propaganda.

That is the US since its inception and it wont change till the US disappears.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:00 | 1611889 eureka
eureka's picture

Certsinly seems that you are very correct.

It remains to be seen if U.S. citizens will at some late point wake up and re-create a COMMUNITY based on community spirit - i.e. sharing and helping and contributing, rather than taking and sticking it and gambling.

Awakening would be beautiful - but like you, I don't expect it - mostly because there is no leadership in that direction - and unlike the I'm-cool-isolationist creed, community does need leadership.

Tue, 08/30/2011 - 01:19 | 1613995 Think for yourself
Think for yourself's picture

Contrary to you, I expect the awakening, for many reasons.
Even putting aside mysticisms like the mayan calendar (not the shallow doomer view but rather the exponential, phased evolution of consciousness interpretation), one should quite easily observe that times of upheavals are very conducive to it.

The instability either breaks old patterns and conditionnings or render them obsolete; chaos, matrix of unrealized possibilities, encourages one to devise and apply new solutions.

Those that let themselves be driven by their instincts, by their dusty old patterns, will either at some point realize that the results no longer match the expected effects - in a harmful sense - or will end up destroying themselves. On the other hand, those who refuse death - stagnation - and wisely choose to actualize themselves will realize the benefits of consciously redefining themselves in constant adaptation to a fluctuating environment.

The good news is, this will happen, because there is no actual need for leadership in that direction (let me say in passing that I disagree with you, leadership is actually against that direction, although that is another matter entirely) as self-realization only depends on the internal integration of yourself as your own leader.

And by that time the community-level problem already will not be one anymore, because there will be more than enough bottom-up leadership to organically shape the community - and reject, as a well-oiled immune system should, those selfish leaders who would continue to apply the old paradigms to the community in the detriment of the whole.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:00 | 1611892 Vergeltung
Vergeltung's picture

I don't think it's possible to stuff more fail into that post.

 

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:17 | 1611943 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Yet you managed in your own.

Isnt life wonderful in this US driven world? Just ask and you are given.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:16 | 1612088 RKDS
RKDS's picture

He's got a point, though.  Too many Americans just don't think.

We're told that working hard is a virtue in America and many lament that the unemployed are worthless bums.  When workers go on strike, like recently with Verizon, they are demonized for laziness and greed.  Of course, in taking up sides against people who work, we are endorsing a ruling class that produces nothing and demands ever more for it.

I live in a rural area and it's common for conservatives here to joke that urban liberals think beef comes from a freezer and milk from a box.  It is just as obvious to me that dozens of machinists, welders, and engineers, not the executive board of GM, built my Pontiacs.  Yet, who is the bad guy in the GM bankruptcy?  Workers.  And who deserves all of the rewards of success at Verizon?  The management who proved barely able to maintain basic service without the strikers.

And we wonder why this country is sinking?  We lie to ourselves and we lie to each other constantly.  Everyone wants luxury without responsibility, to seek rewards without merit, to reap dividends without investment.  How about we start believing what we say and trying to be who we pretend to be?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:20 | 1612116 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

The rural conservative types have their own blindness... Where does the all the money come from to pay for roads, power lines, phone systems etc....

Too many myopic people out there....

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:42 | 1612415 RKDS
RKDS's picture

I read through Atlas Shrugged when Beck and friends were flogging it but there's one assertion that I think alot of people really misinterpret and that's the disappearance of the industrialists and how it relates to modern day economics.

In the book and in real life, most industry leaders just aren't John Galt, but there are many who resemble Orren Boyle and James Taggart.  The story depicts a world that is falling apart and Rand wants to steer us into blaming government for driving the industrialists away.  What's not said is how much of the suffering was due to the practices of those who _didn't_ disappear.  Those warm bodies and excuse makers and government tools easily did as much damage as anyone in Galt's Gulch.

If fools like Fiorina and Immelt disappeared tomorrow, companies that survived the short-term cash crunch might actually be alot healthier even if they couldn't buy favors from government.  They could finally hire Americans or make infrastructure investments or do anything else that was neglected in pursuit of attracting top "leadership."

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:55 | 1612492 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

There are no more industrialists in this country...

Just a bunch of socio-paths doing regulatory arbitrage and financial slight of hand....

Orwell would be laughing if he knew Immelt was a top advisor (Chair of some committee, IIRC) to the President on "Job creation".... How many factories and jobs has Immelt exported??

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:19 | 1612583 RKDS
RKDS's picture

The sick part is that GE has been exporting American jobs for years but it's only become an issue with conservative crowds since they crawled into bed with Obama.  That angle doesn't get brought up very often because some of those jobs are/were union and war might break out between the anti-Obama and anti-worker factions.  I find more and more that I took the police state backdrop of 1984 too literally.  It's the cognitive dissonance that's going to get us, liberal and conservative alike.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:27 | 1612628 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

1984 but, as Huxley noted, we will amuse ourselves to death by distraction...These guys were so *fucking* prescient.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 22:08 | 1613749 WebWeasel
WebWeasel's picture

We're on the tail end of Huxley. We will see the full Orwell soon enough.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:02 | 1612067 Lednbrass
Lednbrass's picture

Out of curiosity, how much time have you actually spent in the US?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:27 | 1612138 EvlTheCat
EvlTheCat's picture

What I find absolutely ludicrous with all of your posts
is that you are no more a solution to the problem then the author. Funny that.

I do not disagree with you in this particular post but
you never, ever, ever, offer solutions. You are as guilty of perpetuating the status quo as every politician and American citizen. Funny that.

Lumping everyone into a single category is the easy way out when your goal is to simply find fault. It is pure laziness of thought. It encompasses no imagination, innovation or balance. Any one idiot can criticize. See I am doing it now!

Addressing societal problems has to be done with a body of willing participants. It takes leadership and personal sacrifice. It takes understanding that our current bureaucracies around the world are mired in educational, technological, and economic stagnation.

Personal balance is needed. Each individual taking responsibility for their successes and failures. And the success and failures of their families. Promoting a strong local government and a reduced national government.

There are very few cultures left on this earth who are not chained to oil, and this is not necessarily out of good conscience. It would be interesting to see if you could actually boast of coming from one. Considering you are sitting behind a computer to cast your aspersions, I highly doubt it.

Do you honestly think when the U.S.A. is dethroned/destroyed the next set of bureaucracies left to take over will be benevolent benefactors? If you do, please name the one, so we can at least debate your personal preference.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:01 | 1612271 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Why blame people for treating US citizens as US citizens wish to be treated?

Lumping US citizens into one category? Yes. But on US demand. The US is an undivided nation. US terminology. US desire. US want. Is it that hard to admit?

This remark shows once again the profoundly imbalanced US citizen nature.

They demand to be treated as a single unit. And when one does that, one is blamed for that.

And this is not human nature. It is specific to the sub set of humanity called US citizens. Some other humans are able to accept that when they demand to be treated in a way, they might be treated in that way.

Giving a solution?

Okay, again: this is a US world order. US citizens are in charge. They are the cause of the current world status.

It is theirs to find a solution or they have to step down. Once again, this shows another trait in the US citizen eternal nature: they want other people to clean their mess while staying those who mess things up.

Nobody would offer a solution in such context.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:23 | 1612365 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

I forgot one point.

The US world order is one of depletion of resources. Any world order coming after that huge waste, that consuming for the sake of consuming, will have hard times. Because success requires means. And the US world order will live a scorched earth. People coming after the US world, no matter how virtuous they are, will have a hard time because of systemic destruction of resources happening under the US world order.

Now, the question is about powers that could disthrone the US while resources are still abundant, well, the question is not properly formulated:

the question should be: what power could fuck it up as much as the US? I admit a fistful of contenders exist but they will have to work hard to match the US impressive achievements.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:24 | 1612614 EvlTheCat
EvlTheCat's picture

You offer no solutions to the problem because you cannot envision a world in balance with nature.  You offer no solutions because you would rather point fingers.  You offer no solutions because you believe in futility.

My solution is to lead by example.  I hold no illusions of leading a nation out of depravity and collective ignorance.  But I do not waste my life shaking my fist and screaming at the wall.  I have to much to accomplish.

You bore me!  I am going to work on my solar oven.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:03 | 1612512 EvlTheCat
EvlTheCat's picture

As always you offer nothing but closed minded rethoric.

Some Americans are searching for ways to help themselves by studying world opinions and ideas.  Wisdom comes from an overall balanced view of the problems you create and the techniques you use to solve them.  We have world problems, therefore, the only way to have a balanced opinion is to see if others have contemplated a solution from another point of view; Non-American.  I may use an opinion or I may disguard it, based on the wisdom used to arive at the solution.  Luckly this site is not comprised of just AnAnynomouses.

All of your arguments use little logic, but are calculated to arrive at a biased conclusion.  Resent or disgust with Americans. Personally I never expected much from you.  It was apparent from our very first discussion you have little to offer.  I just enjoy "bullying" you!

Just remember I did not finger point my way out of having a meaningful conversation you did, but then again it would not be the first time.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:33 | 1611807 DefiantSurf
DefiantSurf's picture

so social innovation is advanced brainwashing?

Tell the masses to go to hell but make them happy to take the trip?

 

Priceless

 

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:34 | 1611809 mynhair
mynhair's picture

Social innovation?  WTF?  Who makes this shit up?

Kan I haz marginz hikz nowz?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:41 | 1611840 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Noez.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:48 | 1611856 PaperBugsBurn
PaperBugsBurn's picture

You stupid fucker. The guy is right on the ball except you won't be giben a chance. You think they deindustrialized you stupid motherfuckers, left your bordees wide open while destroyung all neighboring societies with their Prohibition violence, drugged you and cheapened your culture, made a monstrosity out of your educational system just to turn around and let you become a threat to them again? Ha! Wealthy, educated, empowered middle classes are a threat to oligarchy, morons.

False flag nuke ur asses is what's up.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:55 | 1611867 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Yep one morning soon, 'BOOM'...all your 401Ks and pensions and accounts are belong to us.

People who think a 30 year planned deindustirialization, flood of illegals most of them criminals, #1 product in america Zoloft, drugs use rampant, school system a joke producing retards....and people believe now there will be some kind of 'comeback' Phoenix rise from the ashes for the middle class credit consumer? 

It was all a planned takedown, and soon will be totaly complete.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:07 | 1611906 Ahmeexnal
Ahmeexnal's picture

The sheeple are herded into blaming the "illegals".   Yes, the "illegals" made you live beyond your means. They are also responsible for your addiction to drugs. They are also responsible for your low IQ.  They are also responsible for your falling hair and your erectile disfunction.

Yes most of the "illegals" are criminals. Their crime is making your foot and lifestyle a lot cheaper than it should really be if they were paid a true honest wage for their work. Their crime is being deluded into slavery for the benefit of a crumbling empire.

The mere concept of "illegals" is a disgrace.

Enjoy your "legality". It won't last long. When the soil you stand on is sold to the rightful slant eyed new owners, you will be hunted down just the same way those "illegals" you look down on.

Fucktards will be fucktards.

As long as they can look down on someone else and delegate their blame, sheeple will never open their eyes.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:19 | 1611927 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

OH really 'illegals' is a disgraceful concept found only here in america....well lets see you put your money where your big mouth is, try going to any other country in the world without any documentation and see what happens to you! In most places, it will get you killed, in most others, arrest and deportation. Oh BTW Im not an american Im a NZ national, here laughing at your defense of your own planned destruction. 

NEXT!

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:20 | 1611951 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

US citizenism is a state of mind before anything else.

US citizens'ancestors were themselves illegal immigrants.

And the evidence of US citizenism being a state of mind? A NZ citizen might also share the same US citizenish state of mind, denying that NZ ancestors were also illegal immigrants.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:22 | 1611958 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Same as basically any other place on earth, certainly Europe.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:27 | 1611975 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Again this old drivel. And US citizens think of themselves as innovators. If so, how does it come they fail to renew their propaganda?

NO, Earth was populated from one point to spread into the rest. Meaning human beings advanced in human being empty spaces.

Second and most importantly, the concept of private property, illegal immigration were so much more elaborated when NZ was invaded than I dunno, 10,000 BC.

In the US world order, this knowledge is supposed to be the hallmark of civilized people over savage people. Savages do things but they are ignorant.

Civilized people, well, they know. They know private property, they know the rule of law etc...

US world order.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:34 | 1611991 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Yea whatever, unless youre in your home in Ethiopia writing to zerohedge I suggest you STFU with your 'native' claptrap.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:39 | 1612013 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Facts are facts. Illegal immigrants can acknowledge they are illegal immigrants. Though, this would compromize their assimilation in a US citizens society, that favours denial of such facts.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:59 | 1612242 pazmaker
pazmaker's picture

To Anonymous: facts are facts?   your post are some of the most opinionated ones on ZH, almost always lacking any backing of facts and only taking cheapshots at obviously a place you despise.

Illegal immigration is a problem in USA.  It is by far not the biggest problem but it is part of the problem not the solution.

Name me one country from were the majority of the illegal immigrants come from to the USA,  that allow free education for an illegal immigrant?  any illegal immigrant can go to school here in the USA for free(meaning K-12)

(in Mexico even a mexican citizen living in the usa who goes back to Mexico and does not have Matricula Consular for their US born child can not enroll their child in school.  Same goes for Ecuador and Venezuela and Honduras and el Salvador.)

There are many many more issues we could discuss about this, but why cast pearls before swine?

 

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:10 | 1612299 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

No.

There is a confusion between the necessity of backing up controversial claims and the simple statement of the most obvious facts(which needs no backing)

US citizens are hooked on power and wish that facts only come true if they, US citizens, want to believe the facts to be true.

I dont play that game, sorry to disappoint US citizens here.

I wont provide any backing to most obvious facts like US citizens ancestors were illegal immigrants.

Sorry if that it harms the comfort of the fabled past nurtured by US citizens.

If US citizens want to deny their ancestors were illegal immigrants, that is their problem. Mine is not to waste time on convincing duplicitous people as US citizens are who know their ancestors were illegal immigrants but simply do not want to admit because it would be self indiction.

To end with, illegal immigrants should be considered to be more American than legal migrants, once both gained their US citizens.

By ignoring borders, illegal immigrants do behave the US american way. They are true US citizens at heart.

Because ignoring borders to settle illegally on a territory, that is what you do when you want to become a US citizen. Always have been.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:13 | 1612315 pazmaker
pazmaker's picture

again your entire post is lacking any facts......  ohl well I guess you can go on living in your made up world!

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:19 | 1612339 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

No. My comment contains facts. They are not controversial claims that do not need backing. Once again, it is different.

That US citizens ancestors were illegal immigrants is a fact. It does not need backing because it is the mere statement of an obvious state of reality.

Feel free to deny that US citizens settled illegally on the territory named the US. It is your problem. Not mine.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:30 | 1612399 pazmaker
pazmaker's picture

no problems here mate,  no disillusions and contorted opinions that I try to push as facts.  Good day! Peace

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 16:47 | 1612882 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

Simple solution to the illegal alien problem.... Progressively higher fines for those employers hiring them, 3 strikes and a mandatory jail time...

Compare the cost of enforcing that to the boondoogle of fences and expansion of the police state (along with their unfunded benefits)...

You can cut some slack where the illegal had high enough quality fakes or stolen documentation...

Can't have that though, the system now relies upon that cheap illegal labor....

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 18:48 | 1613319 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Right, can't have that.  It would be treating the root of the problem instead of pruning its branches.   If there weren't so many folks who used the drugs that get smuggled in, there wouldn't be a reason to crack down on the producers all over the world.   It's not about the drug problem, it's about giving the US a reason to meddle in politics and economies all over the world.  Focus all that money on rehab here in the US might just help!  But, no, can't have that.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:10 | 1612302 YukonJake
YukonJake's picture

If you believe Illegal Immigrants are all here to work, then you haven't looked at the violent-crime statistics for the American Prison system.  Almost HALF of our prison system is filled with these leeches who come here because our retarded country lets people who pay no taxes vote to keep the hand-out going to welfare moms and crackhead dads.  A small percentage of illegals are here to work, but the majority are here with the goddamn hand out, just like the complete decay of western society exemplified by my 9-adults-living-in-the-same-little-house-all-collecting-welfare neighbors.

As long as moochers and "social justice" leeches continue to have the right to vote while footing 0.0000000% of the bill - this country will never have a long-term chance.

You obviously hate America, but I'll bet you're using a computer to post your garbage troll slop, and you probably use 50+ other household conveniences in a given day that were "invented" in America.

Too many people around the world can't get past Stage 1 thinking... I see you suffer as well.

 

 

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:16 | 1612327 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Actually, the big founder of Science computers is a British subject, a guy named Turing. But who cares with facts in this US world order?

Ah, the point of this post. And the other half is of course negroes, who are not illegal immigrants but are negroes, which is another issue in the US.

Being an illegal immigrant/a negro, the path to jail in the US.

As to the decay of the West, the US is the main cause for it with its US citizenism.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:45 | 1612001 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Yea whatever, unless youre in your home in Ethiopia writing to zerohedge I suggest you STFU with your 'native' claptrap.

'US world order'....what are you going to do about it, keep crying? BTW, the US was established as a colony by king James, as a bankrupt corporation. Before you go running around saying people are ignorant of history, know your history.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 14:11 | 1612305 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

War of independence.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:35 | 1611813 ??
??'s picture

virtual eugenics

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:35 | 1611817 Caviar Emptor
Caviar Emptor's picture

Blue pill vs Red pill. Such a dilemma

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:45 | 1611850 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Isnt it funny that US citizens are unable of culture, that they have to rehash cultural references designed and thought by the US elite?

How funny how US citizens are so in their own system they cant detach from it and require to be spoon fed with cultural references they could not create by themselves, as they are unable of developing a culture on their own, without stealing from others?

That is the US citizens eternal nature.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:53 | 1611868 PaperBugsBurn
PaperBugsBurn's picture

Exactly. They also believe liberal is a bad word. Ignorant, stupid motherfuckers.

USA USA KKK KKK

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:03 | 1611876 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

'Liberal' is a word with no meaning...just a vague label. What does 'liberal' mean? Lets hear you define it.

KKK is just CIA, same as Black Panthers, Al CIAda, MLK, Farahkan...

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:21 | 1611956 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

KKK predated CIA by a few decades... Bu t who cares in this US driven world?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:31 | 1611962 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

LOL, you think there was only a govt 'intel agency' starting a few decades ago? Yea whatever. BTW theres a great 45 minute documentary on the govt formation of the KKK on youtube.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:32 | 1611988 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

And it has the anachrony to give the creation of KKK to CIA?

Possible in this US world order. Everything is possible when it comes to propaganda. In this US world order, US citizens have similar claims with Darwin and communism.
US citizens are notorious to be at odds with the past, because the past lends them a mirror and they do not like what they see in it.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:43 | 1612011 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Again this whiner, crying about the 'US world order'...well what are you going to do about it, cry some moar? BTW you seem to be the one at odds with the past, the US is a British colony, always has been. You want to bitch about the US? Then you need to file a grievance with the Crown.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 17:05 | 1612592 falak pema
falak pema's picture

The US is not a british colony since 1913, the year those who ran the money line of the world, the ROthchilds and the Warburgs, met with the new Oligarchs of the world at those days 'Necker Island' : the 'Rockerfellas' and the JP Morgans. Why did this occur?

To anybody who understands history like those who run the money line of the world since donkey years, the Roths and their ilk, they could see the Black Swans running amok in Nationalistic, imperialistic Europe; where the signs of Armageddon were all too clear in the rising tide of frustrated colonial ambitions. Those who had mothered the Pound sterling hegemony were eager to change horses in the context of this imminent european collapse; to foster a new child on the new continent federated by Abraham Lincoln at inordinate cost into one nation coast to coast; built on the new economic mantra, the assembly line industrial appoach, giving extraordinary competitive advantage to an empty, resource rich  continent full of young vibrant entrepreneurs. They founded the NEW pound, the alternative currency to the teetering old Pound, as Britannia would flounder as they had calculated in advance according to their sharp, proverbial banker's acumen. They guessed right as the day of the dollar had arrived and the FED, financial arm of the US oligarchs would reign supreme, inspite its temporary fall in 1930, thanks to FDR's continual role as Lincoln's Imperial but fair handed son. The corruption would set in after his demise, as inordinate power does that. And we know what transpired when the great generation's deeds spawned the 'uber alles', best and brightest US mantra. 

So your analysis is not true to history. The US was on it's own trajectory since 1913, as it had the new money, the USD, and an institution to print it nationwide to ensure world domination, à la Venice and its ducats, or à la Florence and its florin of bygone ages.

WHat is an interesting aside is the story of the Roths and how they became the Squid of the Brtitish imperial age. Their english banker son had a courrier pigeon service that told him before all others the fate of events of 18 June 1815, in an obscure place called Waterloo. While everybody was panicking next morning in London singing "sell, sell, sell' he was buying thanks to his courrier pigeons having learnt of the result and singing "buy, buy, buy!"

The mother of HFT trades was born that day. It made him king pin of the British Empire, the discrete banker of 'rule Britannia'. My point is that those who rule the world are the POWER kings, the sons of Alexander. Those who run the money line have since time immemorial been their servants UNTIL one of their own wore the mantle of Caesar as well. It happened during the Renaissance days as empires crumbled and the Medicis spawned a fleeting emperor Lorenzo the magnificent; it didn't last and they went back to being second string bankers and prelates. The sacred blood line is hard to earn and even harder to keep.

Today's world is no different. Reaganomics has given temporarily inordinate powers to the Medicis of this age : the WS shills from GS. Now the day of reckoning is fast approaching as Caesar's true sons will reclaim their mantle back.

Both in EU and in US of A. But in dire, game changing, paradigm redefining age, where we will see turmoil as during the 15 th century. 

So the lame duck analysis where the sons of GW's colonial republic pretend they are still sons of the British crown is like the corn dog lady who says that Irene is God's punishment on the current US administration. Savonarole is still lurking in the aisles of Washington, obscurantism his fire and brimstone word!

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:42 | 1612017 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

'US driven world'....youre retarded, the US has only ever been a Crown colony since the start. You got a gripe with the US? Then you need to go talk to the queen.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:45 | 1612031 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

The Queen of the US? Who is that? The US middle class?

World dominated by England ended a few decades ago.

Now is the time of the US world order, Pax Americana as US citizens love to call it (only Pax for US citizens of course, the others live in fear of being bombed, abducted for torture and pray not to sit on resources because US citizens are coming to get them)

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:51 | 1612035 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

This guy REALLY doesnt know the US from the 1600's was ALWAYS a Crown Colony? Wow. You really DONT know the US was established as a 'bankrupt corporation' by King James under the British Tea Company? OMG! 

Who collects the tax money? The queen. Who just signed off on Social Security reshuffling? The queen. I mean, DUH?

Hey keep lecturing about the 'US World Order' though, its hillarious, but in your spare time you really need to research into ACTUAL history.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:58 | 1612259 pazmaker
pazmaker's picture

Sheep,  I think it is quite obvious he is a troll.  If anything every defined a troll on here it is anonymous.

Probavly not worth responding too.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:53 | 1612045 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

OH that all ended 'a few decades ago' and now the assclown Obama 'runs the world'...yeaaaaaa sure.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:38 | 1611826 RSloane
RSloane's picture

"In short, current policies are anti-community and pro-sociopathic."

Exactly.

 

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:10 | 1611926 Dane Bramage
Dane Bramage's picture

+1   & the author is not nearly alone in his observations of how the State destroys community.  This, I would think, is common knowledge among liberty-minded folk.    This effect is by design and is yet another one of the planks from the communist manifesto implemented.  

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within"

I suppose that is the bright side of the pending collapse; a resurgence of community. (at least one can hope).

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 13:28 | 1612144 Shell Game
Shell Game's picture

This, I would think, is common knowledge among liberty-minded folk.

You are absolutely right and well said. Liberty loving people uphold a vibrant community spirit.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:39 | 1611831 DefiantSurf
DefiantSurf's picture

For fucks sake, this shit is just not that hard, you have to actually produce something for people to have jobs, you have to back your currency with something more than "faith", pontificating ideology does not solve the problem, in fact it exacerbates it.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:46 | 1612033 Yohimbo
Yohimbo's picture

silly caveman, cant your semian brain realize that this is a new paradigm where the paper is backed by people sitting around having a latte and discussing / debating things like Fiction novels, gender issues and TV shows.

I live near a university, and recently ! saw 23 full size garbage dumpsters FULL of boxes in which came chinese made futons, TVs, stereos, tables, desks, dildos, sunglasses, coffee makers etc. etc.   Now all those new products can be used in sitting around by students deep in theoretical disccusions and conjectures that go nowhere.

What is this "produce something" thing you mention?

PS where the fuck did all the money come from to buy the junk that came in all those boxes? Services? Maybe but I suspect it came from the remains of the savings put away by the ww2 generation, or the sale of their tangible assets.

excuse me Im going to go vomit now.

 

 

 

 

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:40 | 1611835 snowball777
snowball777's picture

Conservation and dietary changes...good luck selling that to the American sheeple, CHS.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:46 | 1611845 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Not with McDeathburger being the #1 stock and #1 employer in america!

3X meals per day at the drive thru window, see now Escalades are NEEDED just to seat the family of 4 avg weight 3,500 pounds. Need extra heavy axles and tranny coolers for that load!

BTW McD's, BK, Wendys, all now accept EBT cards...rock on fat with a side of fat nation...good luck with the 'dietary changes' lol that will be a bitch for them to suddenly switch to tree bark.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 20:28 | 1613527 snowball777
snowball777's picture

Donner, party of 26...25...24... ;)

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 20:36 | 1613543 ToddGak
ToddGak's picture

Yesterday the wife and I stopped to get lunch.  At the table next to us were three ladies, none of whom were less than 100 lbs overweight.  The three of them were sitting there cackling at their inside jokes, blissfully unaware of their horrible state of health as they ate themselves into a stupor.  This is what America has become in 2011: fat, stupid, lazy and manic.

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