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Capitalism Must Die, Capitalist Alienation, Derrick Jensen, Eco-Apocolypse, Inverted Totalitarianism, Stephanie McMillan, The Ideological Domination of Capitalism
Stephanie McMillan
Stephanie is the award-winning creator of the comics “Minimum Security” and “Code Green.” Her books include “The Beginning of the American Fall,” “As the World Burns,” and “The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad.” She is an organizer for the anti-captialist/anti-imperialist group One Struggle (onestruggle.net), and works on the publication project Idees Nouvelles, Idees Proletariennes (koleksyon-inip.org). Her website is here.
I’ve made the book available to the left under “Notes and Documents” under Stephanie McMillan’s Capitalism Must Die.
“Feel free to download it and share it with others. I want it to be widely distributed and contribute to the fight against capitalism, so I’ve made it “pay anything or nothing” and used a Creative Commons license. I hope it is useful. We really need to bring the system down, or all could soon be lost.” – link
Interview conducted by Derrick Jensen:
Post Script:
I promised a better answer to the first comment Pfgetty2013 made to this post:
“No way are we going to give up capitalism, at least not until most of humanity, and much of the rest of the living world, has died. There simply isn’t another plan that makes sense to the people with the power, or to most of us peons.
Nice to think about though.”
This frame of mind is exemplar of how our current form of civilization – global capitalism(or capitalist industrial civilization, as I like to call it) – ideologically dominates its inhabitants. People cannot even begin to imagine a different way of living because they have been made dependent on the system through dispossession of alternative means of subsistence. The masses have truly been reduced to consumers who are taught not to question the system, but to be obedient and conforming.
The superstructure of global capitalism is supported and protected by its institutions and ideas:
1.) Governments and their legal systems administer and regulate the capitalist process.
2.) The military, police, prison complex, and surveillance apparatus serve to enforce the capitalist process.
3.) The consumer culture only allows pro-market solutions.
These three pillars of the capitalist superstructure are very sophisticated and persuasive in diverting and co-opting discontent into forms that reinforce capitalism’s own institutions. Elections, corporate-funded nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations(NGO’s), community-based organizations(CBO’s), corporate-funded think tanks, etc. reinforce the system of capitalist authority and the illusion of democracy. They make people feel they are making a difference, when in fact the participants are tightening the bonds of their own oppression. Capitalism has been very adept at separating the worker from their environment.
This is why many indigenous societies whose culture and land has been usurped by global capitalism say that they “must first decolonize their minds.”
Collapse of Industrial Civilization 
No way are we going to give up capitalism, at least not until most of humanity, and much of the rest of the living world, has died. There simply isn’t another plan that makes sense to the people with the power, or to most of us peons.
Nice to think about though.
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Before making imbecilic comments, you should watch both videos and read her book.
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Thanks for the kind words, Mike. But….
Too much hopium for me.
I’ve been seeing schemes for ending capitalism since Limits To Growth came out. Almost 45 years and nothing has budged.
Are you forgetting, Mike, that in 16 years runaway global warming is going to make life almost impossible for most people? 2030. McPherson.
And you think that well before that we will crush capitalism?
Whew!
I listen to her when I finish all I’ve got to do, but I’ve been very open to ideas for a very long time and never have seen much change.
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I’ll give a better answer in a few hours. Right now I’m tied up.
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OK Paul,
I have answered below and added my response as a post script to this blog entry.
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Resource Based Economics, better known as War Economy (in practice anyway). And we really do need to be at war: against the sociopaths who have turned our planet in to a capitalist/religious war zone. Kill zem all so that the rest of us can build a real civilization and begin exploring among the stars.
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It’s a pity about the brand-name bottled water on the table. It sends a very contradictory, one might even say hypocritical, message. Presumably the containers ended up in landfill (or drifting somewhere in an ocean) after the session. Even if they did get recycled it only added to the problem.
We are trapped in the toxic, termination-inducing capitalist system, and apparently there is no escape, nor even any way to slow down the spread of toxicity and madness. The worse matters get, the more opportunity there is for disaster capitalism to make profits. As water become less available the price will go up.
Yesterday I had a brief encounter with Andrew Little, list ‘Labour’ MP for the district (what a joke, National in disguise) and yet another of the numerous bought-and-paid-for liars that dominate the local scene. He bought a copy of ‘The Easy Way’ a couple of years ago when electioneering and I had considerable discussion with him about the three Es -energy, environment and economy- before he pulled the plug on discussion.
Once Andrew Little got has his snout in the public money trough everything about energy, the environment, and their impact on the economy and the future of the community and the planet, was all forgotten, and, as I said to him yesterday, he ‘doesn’t give a fuck’ about his children’s future.
As with all the slimy, spineless minions of the empire, he could not and would not debate anything, and ‘ran’ from the truth ran as fast as he could (got in his flash new car, paid for by the suckers he has duped and the rest of us, and drove off).
The military-industrial-financial complex has in place all the systems it needs to ensure it can continue to loot and pollute with impunity, and has its massive army of deluded slaves, saboteurs and opportunists who defend the system that is destroying their lives.
The combination of public ignorance, public apathy and political evil will take us all down, despite the best efforts of Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan (and everybody else) to raise awareness.
Nevertheless, keep doing what you do Mike. It helps keep us sane in a world gone mad.
.
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McMillan is all too aware of what you just commented on – the political apathy and nonexistent awareness of the masses to the system they are embedded in. So please, listen to her speak.
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Hi Kevin
I reacted with disgust when Andrew Little came out ( Showed his true hypocritical colours) when he said the Pike River Management were not to blame for the disaster. What a scumbag collaborationist! A schoolboy looking at the facts could tell you the management were culpable for manslaughter by neglect: they ignored warnings and proper procedures and their mine warning devices were inadequate. The system let them off scot free! http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/why-is-andrew-little-defending-pike.html http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scot-free
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And Derrick Jenson….love reading his books and hearing his interviews. But he pushes the idea of real resistance, the kind that requires a lot of bravery. Trouble is, he never does any of it. His plans for what we should do are a joke. Just a lot of talk.
It could be one day it will come to the point when there could be a real uprising. At this point I see only talk, no action.
Yeah, blow up a damn, or a cell phone tower. Have you seen him do any of it?
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Actually, that’s true. He advocates the violent take-down of industrialized civilization as the only way to save the planet and the human race.
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He just wants other people to do it and spend the jail time.
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You seem to become more clueless all the time, Paul. If you HAD read the books and listened to the talks the DGR strategy is explained very clearly and plainly.
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Pipe dream. At least I KNOW and admit and accept that the schemes I work for and support are not going to make any difference in the long run. You are still smokin’ something if you think we are going to end capitalism before our planet and human life goes to hell. I think the term Mike uses is “imbecilic”. Yeah, that’s it. Perfect. GULLIBLE, imbecilic! You trust in bullshit. Gotta admit some of that stuff had me going for awhile Ulvfugl. Then I grew up.
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Then I grew up.
Not if your comments on this blog are indication of your political insight and awareness. I know teenagers who are more mature and have a better understanding of how things work. I also know people who have values and principles which they are willing to die for. You’re just part of the problem. Useless and clueless, someone who sold out because it was the easiest thing to do. Never mind, go back to sleep, don’t let me disturb you.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The more insulting you get the funnier it seems.
Guess you just didn’t get enough of junior high school.
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I’m sure it is very amusing, from the perspective of an American dentist who doesn’t even understand how the politics of his own country works, let alone what’s going on on the rest of the planet. You don’t amuse me though. I find you rather disgusting.
Much of the blame for the horror that is unfolding can be laid at the feet of people just like you. You think that because you support Sierra Club and McKibben and keep goats that somehow you are virtuous, and you spout sanctimonious bullshit and smear Jensen, when you’ve obviously have NOT listened to what he says, or else very conveniently missed the bits where he explains the strategy. You are full of shit, Paul and readers here can make their own judgement, of your worth and stature compared to his.
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Strategy? That’s funny. Do you see the strategy working? The great Ulvfugl succumbs to hopium!
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If he did would he put it on youtube? Would you?
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NO actual dams (banksters, militant morons, reactors, et al) were harmed in the production of these videos, nor by any of the subsequent anal leakage.
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“The problem is not that poor countries cannot manage to drag themselves up the development ladder, the problem is that they are actively prevented from doing so. Beginning in the early 1980s, Western governments and financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF changed their development policy from one that was basically Keynesian to one that remains devotedly neoliberal, requiring radical market deregulation, fiscal austerity, and privatization in developing countries as a condition of receiving aid.
We were told that this neoliberal shock therapy – known as structural adjustment – would help stimulate the economies of poor countries. But exactly the opposite happened. Instead of helping poor countries develop, structural adjustment basically destroyed them. Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang has demonstrated that while developing countries enjoyed per capita income growth of more than 3% prior to the 1980s, structural adjustment cut it in half, down to 1.7%. When it was foisted on Sub-Saharan Africa, per capita income began to decline at a rate of 0.7% per year, and average GNP shrank by around 10%. As a result, the number of Africans living in basic poverty nearly doubled. It would be hard to overstate the degree of human suffering that these figures represent.
Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, estimates that developing countries have lost roughly $480 billion in potential GDP as a result of structural adjustment. Yet Western corporations have benefitted tremendously. It has forced open vast new consumer markets; it has made it easier to access cheap labor and raw materials; it has opened up avenues for capital flight and tax avoidance; it has created a lucrative market in foreign debt; and it has facilitated a massive transfer of public resources into private hands (the World Bank alone has privatized more than $2 trillion worth of assets in developing countries).
Poverty in the Global South is not just a static given; it is being actively created. And the striking thing is that these atrocities are being perpetrated under the cover of aid. In other words, not only does aid serve as a powerful rhetorical device that cloaks takers in the guise of givers, it also operates as a powerful tool in the global wealth extraction system.”
Aid in Reverse: How Poor Countries Develop Rich Countries
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Please see Walter Rodney’s book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, published 1972. Even the title of the work cited above would seem to owe something to Rodney. The economic relations in your cite or mine have been ongoing since the 16th century. When Rodney published in 1972 this line of analysis was possibly something new though it was much prefigured by Karl Marx and his followers.
Walter Rodney was distinguished as few historians are by CIA assasination.
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Your comment intrigued me to dig deeper:
…I had the historical luck and honor not only of having met Dr. Walter Rodney personally in Guyana, between 1977 and 1979, while I was lecturing at the University of Guyana; but also of having been working together with him in the anti-Apartheid struggle, and in his Working People’s Alliance (WPA); often, we held lectures together, condemning the racist, fascist Apartheid policies in my “homeland” South Africa. I remember that Rodney categorically abhorred all forms of capitalist and imperialist exploitation, domination, discrimination and alienation in both the metropolitan and “Third World” countries.
In fact, he permanently demonstrated that the revolutionary issue was not a “race struggle”, not a “white versus black” issue, but rather that it is an inexorable global class struggle. In his famous major work, comprising the last five centuries of African, Latin-American and Caribbean history, scientifically, he illustrated how by means of the transatlantic slave trade, the creation of the world market, and because of its “unequal exchange” (Samir Amin), how capitalist and imperialist Europe in geometric proportions progressively had “under-developed”, had pauperized Africa and therewith the rest of the colonial world.
He explained that “development” and “under-development” are two reciprocal, dialectical relations, two sides of the very same historical process, of the international division of labor, of the very same world market. Today, we would say, of Globalization, of Global Fascism…
…In 1974, six years after being banned from returning to Jamaica, Rodney, then already propagating working-class unity of the Caribbean peoples, decided to return to his native Guyana. Politically he organized his own “multi-racial” workers’ political party, the WPA, as alternative to the then so-called existing “socialist” and “communist” trends.
(See Franz J. T. Lee, The Evolution-Involution of “Co-Operative Socialism” in Guyana, 1930-1984. http://www.franz-lee.org/files/coopguy.html)
This declaration of workers’ class struggle, of going beyond capitalist reformist measures, beyond racism and bourgeois ideology, towards real, true socialist revolution, was too much for the USA, for the then already traditional neo-colonial bed-fellows, for Burnham and the CIA, who feared the coming into being of another Cuba in South America. What resulted thereafter Singh relates as follows:
“The year was 1979 and the Rodney-led ‘anti-Burnham dictatorship’ campaign was gaining momentum, across the country, particularly in Georgetown, where the crowds had started to dwarf those at public meetings of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC).
“Close colleagues of Rodney, among them two ‘comrades’ who had, at different periods, appeared as bodyguards, were shot to death in separate mysterious circumstances, with the police claiming self-defense against ‘armed’ men. Others were regularly beaten, harassed or forced out of employment, including the teaching and public services.”
Finally, as mentioned above already, on the night of June 13, 1980, came the horrendous crime; “a bag delivered by GDF officer Gregory Smith contained the powerful bomb that blew Rodney apart, cutting his body in virtually two halves and injuring his younger brother Donald, who was sitting in the driver’s seat of their parked car.”
The CIA always makes sure that “Dead Men Tell No Tales!”…
http://archives-2001-2012.cmaq.net/fr/node/21384.html
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Get rid of capitalism? Capitalism allows entrepreneurs to focus capital into economies-of-scale projects to which industrial man is connected. The capital deployed must earn a “profit” and all the joe average citizens must pay for the infrastructure, its operation, maintenance and a profit for the owners. “We build, you pay, we own” is the way it goes and then when it’s payed off, someone else swoops in and puts the project in debt again so that you can pay some more. The siphoning never ends. But at this point things are “locked-in” as Korowitz of Fiesta likes to say, in that the capitalist system enters a condition in which the siphon begins to choke on air and a mountain of debt awaits a spark to initiate the greatest inferno of imaginary wealth destruction in the history of this world. No one dares reform anything or put a banker in jail because the slightest perturbation could start the combustion.
If fossil fuels become unprofitable, then all of the infrastructure that uses them becomes worthless too. Returning to self-sufficiency won’t be like living in Hawaii with coffee, banana and coconut trees on your ten acre bungalow lot, hanging out on your hammock with a view of the ocean. No, the lapse of capitalism will mean the loss of the economies-of -scale fossil fuel metabolic activity that has made 95% of the world habitable by billions of people and in most places there is no self-sufficiency to be had. In addition, if enough people leave the system, the economies of scale won’t work and things collapse. If they stay, the system stays alive another few years or decade, sucks them dry of whatever wealth they had and then collapses. Should you leave now and be somewhat prepared or should you do the patriotic thing and let the system siphon away the rest of your wealth before it goes belly up. Most will find themselves penniless at a time when a capital investment in self-sufficiency is a matter of life and death.
Can you imagine the suffering that will occur once electric and gas service become unavailable or unaffordable and climate change, a meandering jet stream, and blocking highs whipsaw us between -20F in the winter and 125F in the summer for many weeks at a time? People will demand action, but it will be too late.
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“If fossil fuels become unprofitable, then all of the infrastructure that uses them becomes worthless too.” This is an astute point.
I am an avid reader of Gail Tverberg’s Finite World blog and she sees a paucity of capital investement as the most likely initial catalyst for collapse. Over the past decade or so the oil majors have increased capital investment by 180% for a return of only 14%. Shale oil and gas is very patchy in profitability and is reliant on low interest rates and high oil prices for its very existence.
However my feeling is that rather than a continuation of this gradual economic asphyxiation we are going to have a minsky moment in the financial markets, which could be sparked by the Chinese credit bubble, the emerging markets, the Euro, Japan – who knows. The central banks are not in a position to support another bail-out and there will be bank runs, capital controls and cashpoint failures across the globe. With faith in the banking system fatally undermined, international trade will seize up in very short order with cascading failures and supply-chain contagion as outlined by David Korowicz.
So, although collapse is already well underway and obviously so in many parts the world, I believe that there will be a very sudden acceleration and a point at which collapse becomes evident to almost all. This could happen at any time.
“Capital investment in self-sufficiency is a matter of life and death.” Indeed.
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…Chart below titled “Costly Quest” taken from a Wall Street Journal article published on 28 January, 2014 (behind paywall here, click for larger image):
This is a classic case of the Red Queen syndrome, under which Big Oil has to run ever faster purely in order to stand still; that is, ever more investment for the same level of production. (A previous post dealt with the Red Queen and shale gas here.)
The Red Queen can also be described another way: a decline in the energy return on investment (EROI), under which you have to put ever more energy into an extraction and production process just to get the same amount of energy out. – link
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Our global economy’s reliance on cheap oil and cheap credit make collapse a mathematical certainty and those graphs illustrate that the time-frame is very short indeed. Gail has been sounding the alarm in her most recent two posts. She knows the game is nearly up.
I’m lying in bed with my laptop right now in a quiet, rural corner of SE England, listening to the wind. My kids are tucked up with their hot water bottles. My belly is full, the lights are on… I am going to miss this.
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For a good bedtime story, read this:
http://energyskeptic.com/2013/cascading-failure-liebigs-law-collapse/
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An excellent summary. Our civilization is kind of an all or nothing deal – it works in all of its dazzling complexity or it barely works at all, and once lost can never be recovered. I can therefore only envision a startlingly rapid collapse once a watershed moment, such as a global banking failure, has passed.
How strange to live at the end of the oil age, at the very peak of the human experiment, and to be surrounded by so many people who are oblivious to the coming storm. I read articles about economic growth, asteroid mining and US oil independence and feel like I’m on Southampton dock in 1912 listening to passenger’s lauding the unsinkable Titanic.
The wind is getting stronger outside. Rail access to Devon and Cornwall has now been completely cut off, I understand.
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As I said, most of humanity will have died, or will be in the death throes, when capitalism is no longer reigning supreme.
Mike, that’s not imbecilic.
We will not have a golden post capitalistic era.
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From: Seeing Through the System: The Invisible Class Struggle in America by Gus Bagakis
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UhOh
Re your comment about conspiracy theories on the previous thread Mike, have you seen this ?
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Yes, conspiracy theories like that shouldn’t be posted here. Last warning for you too.
Bad Science Meets Conspiracy Theory in ‘Burning Snow’ Videos
Several videos have cropped up on YouTube documenting a “weird phenomenon” variously described as “burning snow,” “fake snow,” “chemical snow,” and “snow that won’t melt.” The videos show people holding cigarette lighters and blowtorches up to handfuls of snow and remarking on how the latter seemingly blackens and “burns like plastic” instead of melting, giving off a “chemical odor.”
As is the fashion these days, folks are resorting to conspiracy theories in lieu of science to explain the phenomenon, the result being one big Internet freak-out over supposed government-backed weather manipulation (“geo-engineering”), chemtrail fallout, nanobot invasions, and HAARP attacks (I even found one article using the term “false flag”).
On the other hand, there’s plain old, ordinary physics. If you take a blowtorch to snow (which is more air than water in the first place), some of the frozen H2O is simply going to evaporate. Ditto if you use a lighter, albeit on a smaller scale. What doesn’t immediately evaporate has to melt, but may not appear to be melting initially because, explains Metabunk.org founder Mick West, “the very loose fluffy structure of the snow wicks away the water, turning dry snow into wet snow, and eventually turning the snow into slush.” In cases where the snow seems to blacken and burn, the effect is caused by soot from the lighter. “The smell,” West adds, “is fumes from the lighter (also from incomplete combustion) and/or people briefly burning nearby objects like gloves” (detailed explanation continues).
Hate to spoil the fun, but Occam’s Razor wins the day.
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Surely the point about this video is that it is either a deliberate spoof or it is a clear demonstration of the scientific illiteracy that we often discuss.
DHMO: dihydrogen monoxide, deadly when inhaled in large quantities. Also know cause death when unprotected victims are exposed to large amounts of the substance at low temperatures (0 to 10oC), and can cause severe trauma or death when victims are exposed to large quantities above 70oC.
.
. .
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Here are five facts of life in 2014 that Marx’s analysis of capitalism correctly predicted more than a century ago:
1. The Great Recession (Capitalism’s Chaotic Nature)
The inherently chaotic, crisis-prone nature of capitalism was a key part of Marx’s writings. He argued that the relentless drive for profits would lead companies to mechanize their workplaces, producing more and more goods while squeezing workers’ wages until they could no longer purchase the products they created. Sure enough, modern historical events from the Great Depression to the dot-com bubble can be traced back to what Marx termed “fictitious capital” — financial instruments like stocks and credit-default swaps. We produce and produce until there is simply no one left to purchase our goods, no new markets, no new debts. The cycle is still playing out before our eyes: Broadly speaking, it’s what made the housing market crash in 2008. Decades of deepening inequality reduced incomes, which led more and more Americans to take on debt. When there were no subprime borrows left to scheme, the whole façade fell apart, just as Marx knew it would.
2. The iPhone 5S (Imaginary Appetites)
Marx warned that capitalism’s tendency to concentrate high value on essentially arbitrary products would, over time, lead to what he called “a contriving and ever-calculating subservience to inhuman, sophisticated, unnatural and imaginary appetites.” It’s a harsh but accurate way of describing contemporary America, where we enjoy incredible luxury and yet are driven by a constant need for more and more stuff to buy. Consider the iPhone 5S you may own. Is it really that much better than the iPhone 5 you had last year, or the iPhone 4S a year before that? Is it a real need, or an invented one? While Chinese families fall sick with cancer from our e-waste, megacorporations are creating entire advertising campaigns around the idea that we should destroy perfectly good products for no reason. If Marx could see this kind of thing, he’d nod in recognition.
3. The IMF (The Globalization of Capitalism)
Marx’s ideas about overproduction led him to predict what is now called globalization – the spread of capitalism across the planet in search of new markets. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe,” he wrote. “It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.” While this may seem like an obvious point now, Marx wrote those words in 1848, when globalization was over a century away. And he wasn’t just right about what ended up happening in the late 20th century – he was right about why it happened: The relentless search for new markets and cheap labor, as well as the incessant demand for more natural resources, are beasts that demand constant feeding.
4. Walmart (Monopoly)
The classical theory of economics assumed that competition was natural and therefore self-sustaining. Marx, however, argued that market power would actually be centralized in large monopoly firms as businesses increasingly preyed upon each other. This might have struck his 19th-century readers as odd: As Richard Hofstadter writes, “Americans came to take it for granted that property would be widely diffused, that economic and political power would decentralized.” It was only later, in the 20th century, that the trend Marx foresaw began to accelerate. Today, mom-and-pop shops have been replaced by monolithic big-box stores like Walmart, small community banks have been replaced by global banks like J.P. Morgan Chase and small famers have been replaced by the likes of Archer Daniels Midland. The tech world, too, is already becoming centralized, with big corporations sucking up start-ups as fast as they can. Politicians give lip service to what minimal small-business lobby remains and prosecute the most violent of antitrust abuses – but for the most part, we know big business is here to stay.
5. Low Wages, Big Profits (The Reserve Army of Industrial Labor)
Marx believed that wages would be held down by a “reserve army of labor,” which he explained simply using classical economic techniques: Capitalists wish to pay as little as possible for labor, and this is easiest to do when there are too many workers floating around. Thus, after a recession, using a Marxist analysis, we would predict that high unemployment would keep wages stagnant as profits soared, because workers are too scared of unemployment to quit their terrible, exploitative jobs. And what do you know? No less an authority than the Wall Street Journal warns, “Lately, the U.S. recovery has been displaying some Marxian traits. Corporate profits are on a tear, and rising productivity has allowed companies to grow without doing much to reduce the vast ranks of the unemployed.” That’s because workers are terrified to leave their jobs and therefore lack bargaining power. It’s no surprise that the best time for equitable growth is during times of “full employment,” when unemployment is low and workers can threaten to take another job.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-mcelwee/marx-was-right_b_4719324.html?utm_hp_ref=business
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The BBC’s Today programme is enjoying high ratings, and the Mail and Telegraph are, as usual, attacking the corporation as leftwing. Last month a single edition of the Radio 4 show was edited by the artist and musician PJ Harvey. What happened was illuminating.
Harvey’s guests caused panic from the moment she proposed the likes of Mark Curtis, a historian rarely heard on the BBC who chronicles the crimes of the British state; the lawyer Phil Shiner and the Guardian journalist Ian Cobain, who reveal how the British kidnap and torture; the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange; and myself.
There were weeks of absurd negotiation at Broadcasting House about ways of “countering” us and whether or not we could be allowed to speak without interruption from Today’s establishment choristers. What this brief insurrection demonstrated was the fear of a reckoning. The crimes of western states like Britain have made accessories of those in the media who suppress or minimise the carnage.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/02/07-7
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Added as a post script to the main blog post above:
I promised a better answer to the first comment Pfgetty2013 made:
“No way are we going to give up capitalism, at least not until most of humanity, and much of the rest of the living world, has died. There simply isn’t another plan that makes sense to the people with the power, or to most of us peons.
Nice to think about though.”
This frame of mind is exemplar of how our current form of civilization – global capitalism(or capitalist industrial civilization, as I like to call it) – ideologically dominates its inhabitants. People cannot even begin to imagine a different way of living because they have been made dependent on the system through dispossession of alternative means of subsistence. The masses have truly been reduced to consumers who are taught not to question the system, but to be obedient and conforming.
The superstructure of global capitalism is supported and protected by its institutions and ideas:
1.) Governments and their legal systems administer and regulate the capitalist process.
2.) The military, police, prison complex, and surveillance apparatus serve to enforce the capitalist process.
3.) The consumer culture only allows pro-market solutions.
These three pillars of the capitalist superstructure are very sophisticated and persuasive in diverting and co-opting discontent into forms that reinforce capitalism’s own institutions. Elections, corporate-funded nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations(NGO’s), community-based organizations(CBO’s), corporate-funded think tanks, etc. reinforce the system of capitalist authority and the illusion of democracy. They make people feel they are making a difference, when in fact the participants are tightening the bonds of their own oppression. Capitalism has been very adept at separating the worker from their environment.
This is why many indigenous societies whose culture and land has been usurped by global capitalism say that they “must first decolonize their minds.”
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No one who is informed disputes the narrative that global capitalism is corrupt, unjust, toxic, destructive, and deep down very evil.
Capitalism has such a stranglehold on industrial societies it cannot be removed It has its bought-and-paid-for liars in positions of decision-making at all levels of government and it owns the media that delivers the phony news and phony analysis to the masses. It knows how to manipulate the masses into planetary-destructive and self-destructive behaviours that generate profit.
Of the portion of society that is aware of the nature of the beast, the vast majority are trapped in the system by debt-slavery, fear, dependency, or simply the lack of alternatives. The system is geared to progressively removing the few alternatives that do exist. . .
I think we saw an example of the stranglehold when Bush and Paulson announced to the American people that unless the American people provided hundreds of millions of dollars (an ill-defined number that Paulson made up) for the Wall St banksters to dish out to their mates ‘the US economy would collapse and it would be necessary to impose martial law’.
The aspects I find fascinating are the near-complete lack of thinking by most people,and the degree of mental contortion many people are prepared to go through to defend the system that has enslaved them (and will destroy them).
Several months ago I had a severe disagreement with the new director of the local ‘environment centre’ after he told me his strategy would be to work with businesses to bring about incremental change. WTF?
Some of us have been discussing the truly awful council that was voted into office in October. The fact that people continually vote for awful people with records of failure indicates how little hope there is. And the betrayal we have witnessed by out new mayor confirms hopeless our situation is.
It’s the same everywhere, of course, because the globalised system demands and feeds on continuous failure to address anything of significance.
I’d love to be proven wring, of course, and to see some significant movement away from the neo-despotism that characterises modern times.
.
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And here is the big point, Kevin and Mike and Ulvfugl……
As Kevin said:
“The aspects I find fascinating are the near-complete lack of thinking by most people,and the degree of mental contortion many people are prepared to go through to defend the system that has enslaved them (and will destroy them).”
We have got maybe a couple decades left (you all admit that and realize that so let’s not forget it.)
How can you even dream that all these people, 7 billion humans, are going o change their minds and work for a new system that throws out all they know?
I think you guys have got to go out and meet “normal” people. You all must be isolated from real people. Come into my dental office and listen to what people talk about in there.
I just spent all day marching in Raleigh in Moral March with up to 50,000 other people pushing for voters rights, better education, environmental justice, women’s rights, etc. Great fun.
I bet not more than a hundred of them would seriously sacrifice anything in their lives to bring down capitalism.
We are stuck with capitalism, I’m afraid….hate to burst your bubble. Runaway climate change is on the horizon. Most people want to make money and buy lots of shit and watch football and don’t want to hear about academic stuff or science.
I thought this site was supposed to be about people facing REALITY.
What happened?
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My response below.
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What you are discussing here is simply what Marxists call “false consciousness”. The bibliography and intellectual history of the concept is extensive. No need to attempt to analyze all this da capo.
I think you want to read Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach. In spite of the title it is one of the early short works and is perfectly easy to read. Out of all the bibliography my preferred modern gloss is that of Guy Debord. (Someone here quoted Vaneighem recently, that was ghost-written by Debord.) And please, Marx is not doctrine or dogma, it is just an available analytic tool.
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You can fuck the planet and fuck the next generation’s future (and that is particularly the case for Australia) but you can’t say fuck.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/wtf-australian-police-raise-fines-for-swearing-to-500-in-new-south-wales-9116636.html
I have noticed how the ‘leaders’ of ‘civilised societies’ are becoming increasingly pathetic. and contemptible.
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Kevin,
I hate to tell you this but without changing the superstructure of global capitalism, all your efforts are for naught. Governments exist to serve capitalist interests first and foremost. Capitalism cannot be reformed into a sustainable or socially conscious system, and “there is no escaping from our need to destroy it.” This system will take down the planet, as evidenced by the endless failed earth summits, greenwashing, and fossil fuel burning. The government officials you are pleading to are merely slaves to the system.
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Mcmillan uses the phrase “the superstructure of global capitalism”, but I have called it “The Superorganism of Capitalist Industrial Civilization“.
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Yes Mike, I know. My efforts are not to reform capitalism at the local level but to expose the hypocrisy and lies of people with names and addresses who live in the community and have been destroying it in the name of opportunism and profit.
The list is getting pretty long at this stage, and includes two previous mayors, the previous and extant CEO, numerous council officers past and present, and the vast majority of councillors past and present.
Our situation is rather like the Obama phenomenon: ‘change you can believe in’ immediately morphs into protection of vested interest. The big difference is that the people orchestrating the destruction of New Plymouth are still available for face to face exposure at the moment.
The barbed wire and security cameras arrived at the port several years ago and are gradually taking over the city, as the elites seek to protect themselves from the masses. The elites problem is, barbed wire, security cameras and empty commercial premises are not a good look for a ‘vibrant tourist hub’.
“there is no escaping from our need to destroy it.” Although that is true, to attempt to destroy capitalism or anything associated with capitalism immediately gives the system the pretext to lock you up for a long time or kill you.
.
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@kevin:
“there is no escaping from our need to destroy it.” Although that is true, to attempt to destroy capitalism or anything associated with capitalism immediately gives the system the pretext to lock you up for a long time or kill you.”
REALITY seeps back into this blog. Thanks Kevin.
The very few who seriously could damage the global capitalist system will be a target for the increasingly effective and huge anti-terrorist systems.
What do you think 9/11 was all about, anyway?
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Let’s not hint at 9/11 conspiracy theories again.
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I am increasingly of the opinion that the battle to defeat rampant industrial capitalism was fought and lost about 130 years before I was born -at the time of the Luddites.
Gaia’s revenge: we’ve had very cool damp days interspersed with a few warm sunny days, and now we have vicious winds (again). Not the traditional NZ summer at all, but presumably just a taste of what is to come.
There haven’t been many climate chaos victims here yet; mostly still victims of fossil fuel addiction, suicide, obesity and cancers which are symptomatic of the broken society and the fossil fuel addiction. .
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Yes……there may have been a slim chance to defeat capitalism in days past.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell now.
It doesn’t matter how many books I read or YouTube interviews with Jenson I watch, it is not going to change that fact that capitalism in all its glory will be with us as we tumble over the cliff into catastrophe and extinction.
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Oh what fun, the erudite Mr Getty is providing us all with a education.
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You want so badly to criticize what I’ve said and show that I am wrong, but you can’t. It kills you that you agree with me, but don’t have the guts to admit it.
I did not deserve having my statement about the end of capitalism called imbecilic, and you know it. But because I disagree with you about environmental groups (and actually I don’t) you cannot bring yourself to give me an affirmative nod.
This is funny to watch.
Childish really. I guess we are all just children, emotionally, even as we age.
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But, although we cannot defeat capitalism, I applaud your efforts to expose the bastards and give them hell.
Corruption is endemic, everywhere, along with unfortunate compromise and hypocrisy. Too many targets to choose from.
I’ll pick a few and fight them just to make myself feel better, and irritate the worst of them. No perfect campaigns against these evil people, and few successes….but, what the hell….
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Oh, yes, I’m sure you’ll be a beacon of hope and heroism for us all to rally around won’t you, Paul, standing up there on the barricades with your dentist’s drill in your hand, signing checks for MckIbben. You’ll make us all feel so proud to have known you. Yuck.
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I thought the post script I added made it abundantly clear that organizations like 350.org are simply diversionary outlets for the masses, allowing the system to continue doing what it is doing — destroying the biosphere.
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From nearly 30 years of activism, McMillan learned that:
1.) In overall society and thus in any open gathering, the default majority does not grasp the system’s unreformable structure or identify it as an enemy; thus they will not oppose it in any fundamental sense. Liberal and reformist ideas will tend to overwhelm the more radical ones (i.e. the ones that would actually change things).
2.) Individual radicals have little power and can only exert collective influence within the dominant majority through organizing themselves.
3.) Radical groups that want to gain power for real change must maintain their organizations to withstand the ebbs and flows of mass struggle.
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I thought the post script I added made it abundantly clear that organizations like 350.org are simply diversionary outlets for the masses, allowing the system to continue doing what it is doing — destroying the biosphere.
I agree, and by supporting such groups, you support the system.
Someone I knew very well, a close relative, worked for probably the largest pyramid sales organisation in the world – everyone knows the name, I’ll not mention it to avoid any risk of litigation. I learned a lot. It’s not identical to how capitalism works but there’s a common component.
That particular corporate selling pyramid has to keep growing, funnelling money up to the top, and sending the products down to the sales people, who are rewarded if they recruit new sales people, thus growing the pyramid.
The actual product, various domestic and household cleaning stuff, is almost worthless, it’s purchased in enormous quantities, packaged in huge volumes on industrial scales, and then the mark up to the final consumer is several hundred percent. Really, the whole business has nothing to do with the product, it could be anything. It’s all about recruiting new people who have to PAY to join.
It’s that payment that is the real key, because when a new person signs up, they send money into the pyramid and everybody in it gets a little, but the guy at the top gets a bit from everybody that’s in the pyramid, so he sits at the top getting filthy rich, doing nothing, once he’s set the thing up and delegated all the administrative machinery.
The problem is, eventually, everybody in a particular are, or country, that is likely to join, will have joined. Then the money stops flowing and the pyramid crashes.
This has been known since the first Ponzi scheme (check google) which is why these things are illegal in many places. But his one is legal because it sells these crappy cleaning products and pretends it’s a legit business.
So when it’s used up it’s market in USA, it has to find new ones in other countries, which it has been doing. And it finds new angles and new products and different ways to get around the rules and so forth.
The reason why I mention this, Capitalism is sort of like this. It has reached the end of it’s early easy stages. It’s flooded all the easy markets with consumer goods and it’s cut down all the old growth forests and mined all the coal that was easy to reach, etc.
So then you get Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism, where it begins to eat itself.
Because the pyramid can’t grow any more, and because it doesn’t want to die, obviously, it is forced to eat it’s own sales team, so to speak, it’s own children.
So you get the sort of insanity that there is in China, where there a hundreds of cities that someone has been paid to build, that lie empty. This makes perfect sense under a capitalist logic. Now, someone else can be paid to demolish them. A profit will have been made both during construction and during demolition.
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As McMillan points out, capitalism is about constantly breaking through limitations. Once the American market became saturated, the system started an intense period of privatization of the commons, union busting, the rolling back of rights workers fought and died for(such as pensions, education, health care, and welfare), speculative capitalization, foreign land grabbing, wars, etc. in order to continue the process of accumulation by dispossession. The current day is dominated by financialization of the American economy whereby the process of producing a product is bypassed and money is simply being used to generate more money; fictitious (toxic) values are created through credit, speculation and arbitrage.
Once the current system collapses, the capitalist elite will use that opportunity to reorganize the system so as to set off a new round of capital accumulation from the wreckage that is left. How many more of these rinse and repeat cycles the Earth and humanity can endure is questionable, but as long as global capitalism remains the dominant socio-economic system, there can be no other outcome. I’m sure if slave labor were the only remaining energy source available, then the capitalists would exploit it.
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Yes, and finding new things to commodify, as they have done for water.
They study is intensively, like mice in a lab, every single activity, under the microscope. So if a girl pauses to look at her nails, they think ‘Why is she doing that?’ and analyse the motivation and exploit the time, as an opportunity to market a new intervention into her existence.
So next tine she sees tv or a magazine she find herself identifying with some fucking tv celebrity who looks at her fingernails and decides she needs to purchase some ridiculous synthetic product that’ll make her more attractive to me or get her a better job or whatever.
They’ll look at the sector of the population that Getty falls into, and they see the concern for environmental issues and the concern family and community and the amount of disposable income, etc, and they’ll tailor an organisation exactly matched to divert and neutralise that sector, so that it doesn’t interfere with their activities and actually contributes to their profits.
As I said, i worked for a nature conservation ‘charity’. They took on a retired bank manager as a financial advisor. Lo and behold, at the committee meeting he began to talk about how we might begin to think about turning some of our conservation reserves towards making some money.
You know, the idea had been since fucking 1932, or whenever the thing was set up, to buy these areas, and then to leave them alone, protected from any interference.
And then this creepy fucker, under the influence of Reagan and Thatcher, wheedles his way in, and wants to find ways of extracting a profit. After all, what else is the world, nature, ANYTHING, for ? Except to make money from ?
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And it was so easy for that fucker James Watt to do what he did because of the ignorance of the general population and because the people smart enough to know what is going on, like Ulvfugl,,sit on their asses and do nothing because thy won’t join a group active in fighting the bastards because they see evil intent in everything any group does.
I’m glad we have had some groups like the Sierra Club to fight some of the fights and occasionally win, even though these groups are often compromised in many ways. I intend to fight along with them and fight the bastards, keeping at bay my cynicism so I can work for what I believe are good outcomes.
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like Ulvfugl,,sit on their asses and do nothing because thy won’t join a group active in fighting the bastards
You don’t know anything about my life and what I do or what I have done, and I’m not going to justify myself to the like of you, Paul.
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I’m sure if you told us i could slice you up pretty quickly. Best to keep all that to yourself.
But I do know this….you are, like all of us, part of the problem of our collapsing world, living an unsustainable lifestyle, sucking on the tit of capitalism. Some way, somehow. I know it.
You don’t need to explain.
At least Jenson admits he is also part of the problem. I respect him for that.
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I’m sure if you told us i could slice you up pretty quickly. Best to keep all that to yourself.
But I do know this….you are, like all of us, part of the problem of our collapsing world, living an unsustainable lifestyle, sucking on the tit of capitalism. Some way, somehow. I know it.
You don’t need to explain.
At least Jenson admits he is also part of the problem. I respect him for that.
Well, actually, I’m almost wholly not. I’ve been designing my lifestyle for decades and I don’t like hypocrisy. I think it’s just impossible for a cowardly person like you to imagine that there might be someone who has integrity who would prefer to die rather than compromise. So again, fuck you.
But if I moved my present arrangement into a country where the regime was not capitalist, say, if it was socialist, anarcho-syndicalist or any number of other systems, I could slot right in no problem. The few needs that I have do not depend on anything that is inherently capitalist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset-based_egalitarianism
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Yes, what’s her name, Blythe Masters at JP Morgan,? from Oxford Uni, who invented those derivatives, financial instruments, so that JPM and Deutsche Bank have liabilities hundreds of times the annual GDP of Germany, and it’s all ‘imaginary’, it doesn’t actually exist in any substantial sense at all, it’s a theoretical claim upon a claim upon a claim upon a claim, like an invisible house of cards, that extends upwards for hundreds of feet into the air, that only bankers can see with their special glasses… and they gamble on whether it’ll get bigger or whether it’ll collapse, and take out insurance to cover their risks, and the higher it rises, the more excited they get, because the chances of getting very, very rich, or losing everything, are so great…
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What is clear is that we have people on this site so critical of others, almost everybody, because of their acquiescence to the capitalist system, and yet everybody on this site, I am sure, feeds the system voluntarily every day, by what you eat, your transportation, your computers, your heat and maybe AC, your health care, your books, your mail, your tv maybe, your vacations, eating out, your schooling, your clothes, your lighting, your water, your cooking, and on and on.
The only people not feeding the system are those few souls on earth still living in a true hunter-gatherer state, and most of them now are being bombarded by the system and are succumbing.
Pointing fingers is a low energy activity with no need for sacrifice or compromise or concern about how it is to walk in other people’s shoes, or that maybe these people have some legitimate reasons for how they act and live. We have people on this site that have their views so cemented and are so sure of how the world should be from their perspective that any deviation from this view must be satanic, evil, the curse of the world.
There are people on this site who would have learned a lot from listening to the speakers yesterday at the Moral March in Raleigh.
Nah. They wouldn’t have learned. They know it all.
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Well, fuck you. Some of us don’t need your patronising lectures. I have not had a car or a tv any of that shit for decade and more, I can hardly remember when I was last in a fucking car. I don’t need any moral marches to be told how to live, thank you very much, Paul. Perhaps you ought to look in the mirror.
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I know I am, like everyone, including you, are the problem. We all live lifestyles that are incongruent with a sustainable planet. We all feed somewhat from the capitalist tit. Some admit it. I do. Some live a fantasy that they are special. I won’t mention about whom I am thinking.
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Paul.
You said: “I think you guys have got to go out and meet “normal” people. You all must be isolated from real people.”
Both ulvfugl and Mike have accused you of making imbecilic statements, and now I must join them.
I have spent more than 40 years interacting with ‘real people’, in management positions, as a teacher, as a tutor, as a campaigner, as a promoter of books, as a member of committees, as a challenger of government and council bullshit, as a player of bridge, as a musician, and as a dancer etc. Every time I walk or cycle to town (usually several times a week) I interact with ‘real people’. Even when I am not in direct conversation with ‘normal’ people I overhear their conversations. I can assure you I am not stuck in some kind of ivory tower, with a computer as an appendage.
It has only been as a result of pushing the boundaries far further than most people are prepared to go that I have uncovered the real nature of the people that are around me. That process takes a lot of time and energy. Hence my current state of exhaustion and exasperation.
For example, when I say: “The police are corrupt and lie in court,,” that is not a theoretical statement or a bit of hyperbole I just made up. It is on the basis of direct experience. When I say: “I initiated Guy McPherson’s tour of New Zealand, and took him and Sheila to meet real people when he was staying with me in NP,” you can be certain it is true.
The important point is that none of it has made any significant difference. Council officers continue to lie, councillor continue to vote for dysfunction, Ordinary people continue to ignore dire warnings.
So, facts are not important. What is important is the psychology of denial. And understanding that still does not facilitate any kind of breakthrough, any kind of shift in consciousness, I’m afraid.
(I agree with you about 9/11, even if Mike doesn’t.)
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The interesting point is that you agree with me that the general population is far too unconcerned or dense or lazy to ever be convinced to fight the good fight against capitalism and bring in another way to live. You are one in particular that I was not referring to.
For Mike to say that it is imbecilic for me to say that we will not see the end of capitalism until we are in the throes of planetary breakdown is, well, imbecilic, if one agrees with McPherson and the opinion of you and me about the minds and motivation of the general population.
Sorry if you felt slighted by my comment. I thought from my other replies in which I agreed with you and applauded your fighting that you would have realized I did not mean to include you.
I also see you and me as different from others here in that you feel the need to go out and fight the bastards. I do too. Ulvfugl insults me for it. But while agree that it s generally hopeless to to fight back, that in the long run we won’t change where we are eventually headed, still I feel it is a fight worth fighting. It is a moral issue. Global warming is a moral issue. There are those who purposely lie to the people about the causes, or deny its reality, and it is for greed. And I want to fight the bastards who do that. I’ll support many kinds of activities that the bastards oppose, just to irritate and aggravate them. I think you do too.
Yesterday I marched in Raleigh with a huge group of people who are against the insanity of the tea partiers in control of our state. It was called the Moral March. It was a diverse group, and on many issues I’m sure we don’t all agree. But we marched together to fight the bastards, compromising a bit for the bigger fight. For me the big fight is to get people to understand at least that global warming is bringing devastation to our society and the real bastards are those who are lying to us. It is a moral fight. I’m glad I’m in it. I get insulted here because of it. I crossed some line and the people in this blog are too inflexible in their thinking at this point to excuse any crossing like that. Now, no matter what I say, I get disagreement or insults, even when fully mouthing exactly what has been said over and over here. Not a very open or friendly group, but oh,well…..there just are not many sites about collapse, and there is a lot to learn here.
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There are those who purposely lie to the people about the causes, or deny its reality, and it is for greed. And I want to fight the bastards who do that.
I insult you, because, after I point out the utter stupidity of your remarks you insult me, and here you go again, doing it all over AGAIN. You want to fight the bastards who lie to the people and you take this high moral position, all self-righteous and posturing and yet your analysis is RUBBISH you have no thought out principled position, you have no foundation upon which to stand, and you showed that very clearly, a few threads back when you asked US what WE wanted.
The FACT that you do not understand the objection against supporting McKibben and now your stupid remarks re Jensen !
McKibben LIES TO THE PEOPLE AND DENIES THE REALITY.
You are so fucking parochial, this is about the whole planet not just your state and windpower. People like you are as much a part of the problem as the Kochs !
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And you believe somehow the world’s impoverished and unwashed and uneducated will listen to the likes of you and Jenson and bring down the capitalist system, and all of this before the planet bakes away? And you call ME “fucking parochial”. You. swallow the bullshit and actually believe there is hope in changing the world’s economic system while the world’s financial institutions, the corporate media, the pentagon, all the people who actually like their lives and their jobs and are incredibly busy raising kids and going to church and taking care of the elderly and the stuff that the people I know do, and the CIA and swat teams all over the world, all sit by and watch as Jenson and Ulvfugl allies take over. Whew. I never thought people on this site fell to believing such fantasies! My god, Ulvfugl. Get your facts straight. Don’t you remember jumping on me about not understanding the basics of the message from McPherson….which of course I fully understand?…..16 years is not a lot of time. Do you understand what you are saying must happen before your new world comes about? I guess because your little theory and strategy comes from people you feel are fully part of a class of people worthy of your awesome intelligence, you believe any crap from them that fills your emotional needs of some kind of hope for a world in which you will be happy. This is all crazy, and I need to bring you back to reality, back to the real world.
Do you realize that any groups big enough to really make big changes will be filled with people you will disagree with on some points and ideas, which will turn on your hatred and insults, and you could not possibly be a part of any of it?
Huge groups of people always include people with diverse ideas and somewhat different dreams and different methods of how to accomplish what they are set up to do. It takes compromise, compassion, flexibility, and common politeness. Don’t plan on being a part of any group that could even possibly change the world. No big group would want you.
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I know you are a stupid person of limited intelligence, Paul, and I’ve tried to explain stuff to you and it’s proved impossible to get through to you.
All the above is directed towards a straw man. I’m not going to waste time such rubbish. You are an imbecile.
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You have had a life filled with too much emotional trauma. I’m apparently a target. If it helps you to relieve your PTSD on me, then I’m glad I can help you.
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http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/the-elephant-in-room.html
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Fascinating history of the industrial capitalists in America’s pioneer days when the railroad was constructed to disembowel the rest of the country:
“Type of the modern! emblem of motion and power! pulse of the continent!” Walt Whitman sang in praise of the railroad. When he published those lines in 1876, the vast network that connected West to East was being widely hailed as the muscular marvel of the industrial age. It sped the bounty of farms and factories across the land, spawned hundreds of towns and cities along its routes, pioneered in marketing and managerial organization, and employed a huge and growing labor force. The men who created and ran the transcontinentals – Leland Stanford, Collis P Huntington, Jay Gould, Mark Hopkins, Charles Francis Adams Junior, among others – were as famous in their era as such high-tech moguls as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are today. Their entrepreneurial daring did much to transform the United States into a prosperous, developed nation.
Richard White will have none of it. “Transcontinental railroads”, he asserts in Railroaded, “were a Gilded Age extravagance that rent holes in the political, social and environmental fabric of the nation, creating railroads as mismanaged and corrupt as they were long”. This is a bold indictment, but White supports it convincingly with lavish detail and prose that swivels easily from denunciation to irony.
To gain an edge on their corporate rivals, railroad owners built expensive lines into drought-prone areas that had few settlers and little prospect of attracting more. To finance their risky endeavors, they routinely bribed politicians and borrowed money they could not pay back – while publishing mendacious financial reports. To insure friendly coverage, railroad executives bankrolled local newspapers and arranged to kill or delay the publication of stories that might damage their interests. At the helm of a dangerous industry where workplace accidents were common, they resisted installing air brakes and other devices that would have sharply reduced the toll of maimings and deaths. “The Northern Pacific”, White says, “banned unnecessary whistle blowing on the Sabbath and profane language any day, but it slaughtered workers day in and day out”.
A distinguished historian of the West who teaches at Stanford, White draws some of his most damning evidence from the private papers of the corporate moguls themselves. Away from their publicists, they come across as men whose characters were as flawed – and as captivating – as their industry. Collis P Huntington of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific lines had the soul of a miser. In 1890, a train pulling his private car hit a young hotel worker as she walked along the tracks in rural Missouri. Huntington initially offered to pay for her medical care. But she died after a botched amputation. And when the doctors and undertaker submitted their bills, he abruptly changed his mind. The millionaire grumbled that he “could not possibly protect [him]self from swindle so long as [he] manifested a willingness to show substantial sympathy”. In total, the expenses came to $622. “Huntington would not have looked twice if these had been costs of lobbying”, White observes.
In contrast, Charles Francis Adams Junior, the head of the Union Pacific, regarded himself as a genteel intellectual. The grandson and great-grandson of presidents was merely dabbling, temporarily, in the biggest industry in the land, which he vowed to reform. Adams scorned the venality of his fellow railroad bosses. “Our method of doing business is founded upon lying, cheating and stealing – all bad things”, he remarked. But such high-mindedness did not prevent Adams from playing the game as ruthlessly as his competitors, albeit not as effectively. When the Union Pacific neared bankruptcy in 1890, Adams had to resign his post. On his way out, he ridiculed the looks and clothes of Jay Gould, his more cunning successor.
White seems to take particular pleasure in belittling the image of the man who founded the well-endowed university that currently employs him. Californians liked Leland Stanford well enough to elect him governor. Later, the State Legislature graced him with a seat in the United States Senate. But Stanford’s partners in the railroad business considered him to be a lazy and incompetent fool. “He could do it”, Mark Hopkins wrote about some corporate task, “but not without more mental effort than is agreeable to him”. Stanford, Collis Huntington added, “has never made any money, but has had a good deal made for him and knows no more of its value when he gets it than he does of the way in which it was obtained”.
White’s scathing narrative is often reminiscent of older histories and novels about the Gilded Age that pit clever, if immoral, “robber barons” against a public that grew increasingly alarmed about the extent of their power and ill-gotten wealth. The Octopus, Frank Norris’s 1901 novel about the Southern Pacific, is a classic example.
But White calls Huntington and his ilk “men in octopus suits”. He views them as ninteenth-century equivalents of the profit-mad, short-sighted financiers who recently undermined economies on both sides of the Atlantic. Both transcontinental railroad managers then and the Wall Street bankers in our time ran “highly leveraged operations” that “depended on continued borrowing to meet their obligations”. Both groups made it rich because they had powerful enablers in Washington. In the 1870s and 1890s, when panicked investors dumped the heavily watered stock in their railroad portfolios, the market collapsed, and long depressions ensued. We seem to have escaped the same fate – with an assist from “socialist” government bailouts and stimuli.
Federal largess was hardly absent during the Gilded Age. True, the government was not in the habit of rescuing mismanaged corporations nor, for that matter, of offering aid to ordinary Americans who lost jobs and homes when the economy collapsed. Grover Cleveland, the Democrat who sat in the White House during the depression of the 1890s, intoned, “Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people”. Yet, in 1894, Cleveland’s attorney general, Richard Olney, rushed to court to bust a national strike by railroad workers who were expressing solidarity with a walkout by employees of the Pullman sleeping car company. With a federal injunction in hand, Cleveland ordered thousands of American troops to break the strike and arrest its leaders. At the time, the attorney general was on the payroll of at least one major railroad company.
At the end of his powerful book, crowded with telling details and shrewd observations about nearly every aspect of the world the railroad bosses made, White floats a counterfactual balloon: what if the steel lines that spanned the continent had been “built as demand required” instead of as part of a competitive dash that caused as much waste and hardship as progress? Slower, more rational development would have lessened the damage to the environment, given Native Americans a chance to adapt to conquest and perhaps saved thousands of lives. White advises, “We need to think about what did not happen in order to think historically”.
Such an alternative past would probably require a different country. The history of American capitalism is stuffed with tales of industries that overbuilt and overpromised and left bankruptcies and distressed ecosystems in their wake: gold and silver mining, oil drilling and nuclear power, to name a few. The railroad barons wielded more power than other businessmen in the Gilded Age. But their behavior revealed a trait they shared with many of their fellow citizens: too much was never enough.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-railroaded-by-richard-white.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
A review of Richard White’s Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America (W W Norton, 2011)
by Michael Kazin
The New York Times (July 15 2011)
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I don’t know much about it, but where’nt some of those outlaws that were so demonised, actually sort of ‘green’ because they saw the rape of the land by the robber barons ? Jesse James and that lot ?
South Wales was probably the first place in the world to be raped by industrial capitalism, a very beautiful place. A few people with the same mentality as the slave traders moved in and ripped off the coal and smelted the iron ore and copper and everything else, wrecked the landscape, imported masses of labour, they didn’t give damn about the harm they did, or how much suffering they caused, the number of people who died, all the injuries and disease and pollution, they just grabbed as much money as they could and left the mess for future generations.
That’s why socialism and communism were so strong in S Wales and why the National Health Service was started by S Wales politicians, they’d seen the misery and callousness that free market capitalists wreak for a century and wanted it stopped.
Trouble is, they take the money and run, and go and do the same thing to some other poor unsuspecting folk elsewhere and now they’ve done in to the whole planet.
People always fall for the same lies, they never learn.
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http://www.data-wales.co.uk/valley1.htm
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He’s been well conditioned by the economic system that has indoctrinated him, shaping the way he lives, thinks, and values everything — through the prism of money. The ideological hegemony of capitalism on the planet cannot be overstated.
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http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=BBC seven wonders of the industrial
The BBC episode on the construction of the railroad describes how materials were sold to the government at inflated prices, how political bribes oiled the wheels, how the railroad camps became dens of vice and exploitation, and how Chinese labour was imported to get the job done on the western section etc.
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That link didn’t perform as desired. BBC Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
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The same mentality applied during the construction of the Hoover Dam. (An episode of the same BBC series details this).
By the 1930s there was a vast pool of poor American white people to exploit, and dozens died from rock falls and carbon monoxide poisoning.
The intense desire to be able to quickly shift naval vessels from the Atlantic to the Pacific and open up trade were major factors in the US taking over the failed French project to build the Panama Canal (same series).
Whereas the French had attempted to dig their way across the isthmus using primitive equipment, the Americans blasted their way through using TNT, and shifted the blasted material with steam shovels and steam locomotives. Very impressive if you are into planetary destruction, and most people were (are).
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Charles Francis Adams Junior sounds like Warren Buffet, not as successful, yet just as hypocritical.
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Symptoms of capitalism…
Emotional Callousness
by Clifford Dean Scholz
I’m drinking a cup of coffee right now, having boiled the water with natural gas. I’m not exactly sure where the fuel I used comes from, but my guess is that natural gas from various sources gets marketed and distributed together.
Therefore as I enjoy my coffee this morning, people in shale gas states now may have combustible household tap water and carcinogenic bathroom showers as a thank you for my convenience.
One of the hazards of environmental inquiry is to see horrors like this hiding behind pretty much everything I do and much of what I own, right down to the cotton socks on my feet. My question today is: How did I get to be so callous about it? And what should be done?
My most recent answer to the first part of this quandary is this:
* Step One is to see that I was born into a culture in which emotional callousness is a fundamental coping strategy.
* Step Two is to notice that approaches to solving the basic problems of living, which would be unthinkable if we were not so callous, are then baked into successive generations of technology, social norms, and institutions.
* Step Three (and it’s a short one) is seeing that it’s nearly impossible for an individual to live in a culture thus designed without also becoming callous.
* Step Four puts the whole thing on wheels: as conditions get worse and nearly every aspect of our culture holds in its shadow some kind of hell, the motivators are in place for yet more callousness leading to yet greater violations of sensibility in a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
So that explains a lot about how we got where we are and why it’s so difficult to change: we’re living a callous morality, and we’re doing it on a global scale. Callous corporate ruthlessness has been part of the mix since these entities were first invented. Ships bearing cargoes of slaves, tea, and spices started the ball rolling, then coal, petroleum, tobacco and “unsafe-at-any-speed” car companies came to rule; when talking about profits before people, it’s nothing new.
Callous government has been with us even longer than callous corporations. Consequently, as these entities have come to dominate our lives, we have in response become callous as well. What’s also becoming apparent is that there are consequences to this trend, and that they are serious ones.
“It’s the law of the jungle! It’s a matter of survival!” I hear.
Yes, this is true. Cultures that are ruthlessly efficient in extracting resources and developing weapons have overrun and exterminated all others.
And now, I would argue, that game has played out. The idea that power naturally accrues to those who are most ruthless and myopic in the pursuit of their own short term gain, and that this is the best way to run human society, is about to hit a wall.
In the long run, callousness and consciousness do not support one another.
Although a certain toughness is required of everyone to meet the rigors of life, the tolerance for and even idealization of loss of feeling is not compatible with any sustainable form of human intelligence, since loss of feeling is a kind of loss of consciousness.
Because of this, callousness and power are also ultimately at odds with one another.
The emotional callousness currently endemic on the global corporate and political scene, as well as in our consumer culture, works a bit like leprosy. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not cause limbs to fall off. What happens is that the disease attacks the nerves, resulting in a loss of feeling.
Without the conscious feedback loop of feeling and physical sensation, nearly constant unintentional self-inflicted injuries result. Chronic infection and continuous scarring further the process, until disfigurement and deformity occur.
I would argue that emotional callousness does pretty much the same thing, and although the inner disfigurement is more easily hidden, at least among others who are similarly afflicted and who thus have difficulty feeling what’s going on, the consequences of it are visible everywhere. I believe we are fooling ourselves in the often unexamined belief that loss of the feeling sense and the inner connection to reality it can provide would have any better practical outcomes for effective action in the world than loss of physical sensation does for the human body.
Of course, an unfeeling approach seems to work so well at first. Then again, so perhaps does heroin. However, the complications that loss of feelings so efficiently eliminates are, in fact, information. Feelings are an irreplaceable mechanism for inner guidance and course correction.
To the extent that we allow ourselves to become callous, we lose the holistic perspective feelings would otherwise provide. So, while emotional callousness can be compared to a kind of numbness, it also results in a kind of blindness.
Either way, depending on the degree of the emotional impairment, nearly constant unintentional self-inflicted injuries result.
If my supposition is correct, it seems likely that the erosion and deformity of the emotional potential of humanity would generate other self-reinforcing feedback loops.
On an individual level, disfiguring inner pain often results in further retraction from the feeling sense that would reveal its true nature and extent. The typical judgment is that it is simply too much. On aggregate, social pressures mount not to feel much, since one person’s emotions are likely to trigger and thus reveal another’s. Fortunately, we have the distractions, drugs, and prisons to handle it, or we wait until body systems fail under the stress and then treat the problem in the form of diseases.
A rather reliable indicator of numbness is the level of stimulation required to generate a response. Here our culture seems to up the ante with every passing year.
News flash: Callousness, glamorized by many images in the media as strong and “macho,” is actually a form of cowardice.
To choose to be unfeeling on a consistent basis is to choose unconsciousness and death. When the people of a nation governed by democratic institutions embrace callousness as a coping strategy, that nation will be led by those who mirror this tendency.
In time, and often rather quickly, leaders who embody callousness as an ideal will destroy their nations. The law of leprous self-inflicted injury will work systemically to debilitate the nation and its capacity to respond effectively to emerging conditions.
This is exactly what we’re seeing…
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Yes, and for me the malaise is as much spiritual as ideological. Much spiritual practice in Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta et al is focussed on the eradication of psychological time. As Eckhart Tolle says, “I don’t look the past for an identity and I don’t look to the future for fulfilment.” The present is sacred.
Finance should be a simple metric, a means for measuring our relationship with our resource-base. Debt, derivatives, speculation – all of these are founded on the belief that tomorrow will be more profitable than today and that a greater fool is always around the corner. So they honour an egoic mental abstraction over the eternal moment of now and therefore necessarily carry the seeds of their own destruction. Man is playing God and that always ends in tears.
We missed the brunt of the storm. It was windy for sure but not terrifyingly so.
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Callousness. That is a great essay.
The Moral March in which I participated yesterday was a march to bring to the attention of the people in our state the deepening callousness that has come upon us over the years, particularly by the assholes in control now. It was a march against racism and for justice for the poor, for women, for LGBT, for better schools, for decent health care for all, for environmental justice…..
But most of all it was a march to open our eyes to how our system is becoming more cruel to the most disadvantaged and even to the natural world.
The march was organized by the NAACP and led mostly by religious leaders. I’m sure there would be great disagreement about abortion, gay rights, creationism, etc. But we marched together as one because there are higher issues here, and it might be put in just that one word: callousness.
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And it will not make any difference and you know that, and so why waste time on it and pretend that you’re being ‘righteous’.
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I’ve told you several times.
I am not righteous. Everyone has a different set of morals and ideas of what is right. I simply am trying my best to stand up for what I think is right. I also do a lot that sucks. All is a compromise. I have cars and travel and keep my too big house too warm and eat food produced in the worst of ways and on and on.
But there are some things that I do that I feel good about. And fighting via environmental groups, in a small way, is one of them.
I know that in the end the ecosystems of the world will be destroyed no matter what I do. Still, I think fighting the fossil fuel industry is the moral thing for me to do.
I feel that had we fought them and won fifty years ago, we could have maintained a livable planet, though I’m not so sure of that. I didn’t fight then. But the morality of the fight remains. And so, regardless of the diminishing chance of success, I still want to be part of the fight.
Yes, Mike, this stuff is a diversion. Big deal. I like the fight, and no harm comes from it, and it helps many to be part of the fight, and in the process many learn what they do not learn from our media or political leaders or their teachers: that global warming is the biggest issue man has ever faced, and that our lifestyles based on fossil fuels will bring about catastrophe. That is a big step for many and I like getting that information out to people.
And the only way to even aggravate the bastards of the fossil fuel industry is to work within huge groups of people, full of people with very diverse ideas and understanding. I don’t agree with all of what any large group does or stands for. But it is a compromise, because the goal, to stick it to the global corporations, is worth not having my way on everything.
The alternative is to be like you….not a very appealing thought.
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I like the fight, and no harm comes from it, and it helps many to be part of the fight,
But harm DOES come from it, because you’re so fucking confused you have no idea what you’re doing, and as far I’m concerned you’re on the WRONG SIDE doing more harm that good, you’re just one more useful idiot helping the enemy.
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The way you live, the way we all live, is the enemy. I think you have some growing up to do.
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Learn something from Brutus.
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Paul,
How can anyone have respect for someone who says this?:
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Why not? Paul asks. Is the question rhetorical? Do you really not know why not? I’ve been following the back and forth here on this thread as it went on. We are a small “community” of posters here (who knows who’s watching and not posting) so getting a sense of a person (if that is even possible in the virtual world as memories of Winston Smith learning he had been conned was traumatic to me as a youngster when i read 1984) comes from what they post.
I had remembered that comment being posted by Paul. It so affected me as I’ve heard or read similar things from others and I’ve begun to use that post as a story I tell sometimes as an example of good parenting. The sentiments behind the post disgusted and saddened me.
In the time since this post each time Paul posts here and at NBL I could only wonder about him. So he’s going out to save the world (by writing checks to Bill McK, marching and so forth). Actions that on their own could be commendable (and I’ve done them myself in years past), only then he’s bred a creature who by the fact of his job will not only be undoing the efforts of Paul (and others) and beyond that will be doing even greater destruction and insidious acts by being part of the machine that is committing great crimes against the planet, other species and their future offspring (remember family values). I got a visual of trying to bail out the Titanic with a thimble.
It was similar to another person posting about a Princeton Environmental professor (it was a women) whose offspring (in this case female) went off to a financial institution to become a hedge fund manager. It’s like the reversal of the sixties.
Parents insisting that their children who work for financial institutions are moral, ethical, and have clean hands. I come from that world; worked in it for over 25 years; came out with no money; a “soul” intact yet very worn and tattered from seeing behaviors so callous and uncaring regarding the world.
“Do all the things that I know are killing this world.” Huhh?? So, because we are at NTE it’s okay to allow our offspring to go off and rape and pillage what remains of the planet. I didn’t get it and still don’t to this day and probably never will. Wouldn’t and couldn’t Paul have encouraged his son to be more like Stephanie?
So, I just don’t get it. Paul hasn’t made much of an attempt to educate his son as he doesn’t want to ruin his good time. Yet hasn’t there been any conversation between the father and son in all the years the boy was growing up. Is there nothing of Paul in the boy, or is there nothing of Paul to be in the boy?
I watched that segment with Stephanie of the Earth at Risk conference months ago. Was impressed and saw the validity of what all the speakers had to say. Was saddened and distressed bythe potential of what Aric Mcbay (and what most of them said) only to find out that shortly after this event Aric split from DGR. So, I wondered if this group of leaders couldn’t find a way to work with each other how would any of this come about.
Doesn’t mean that Capitalism shouldn’t be brought down only how can we bring it down when “we” or the “leaders” can’t sustain themselves long enough to gain any traction. We’re (and I mean we here) are still our own worst enemies.
In all the years of watching Adam Curtis’s documentaries I’d somehow skipped The Mayfair Set; a fabulous exploration of how the financial system managed to regain control of the economy. This story is from the British side of the pond, but the same events have occurred in the USA..There are no clean hands at any financial institution.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward.
I think just the same as this.
Why Climate Change Denial Is Biggest Conservative Lie of All
Folks Who Backed Segregation Now Lead Earth to Disaster
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/192413/why-climate-change-denial-is-biggest-conservative/?p=all#ixzz2sp53estD
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Derrick Jensen reminds me of a Monty Python character, standing in front of the NYSE he says “Put down your stocks and bonds or I will release my attack rabbit.” Everyone walks by, just a another lunatic on the sidewalk. People will not quit capitalism, it gives them a reason to live, the anticipation of the next thing they’re going to buy releases dopamine into their brains for weeks or months or years at a time. It makes working in this suicide machine tolerable. It will be ugly when the stuff stops flowing and they’re forced to live in a stripped-down, disfigured environment. They work like little demons to save their money while passing a sizable chunk of it up to their masters. The masters perpetuate this and millions of minions strive to join their ranks, “Work hard, pay tribute and you shall be rewarded.” People like Buffet and Gates are worshiped as Gods, the paragons of the human race because they’ve “made it” big time and can “buy” anything they want. There’s so much dopamine oozing inside those little brains wanting to become like their capitalist heroes, that they can only ignore or step on any environmentalist that imperils their life long struggle for “success”. People are not motivated to live for the “natural future” when they’ve spent the last several hundred years struggling to escape from a “natural future”.
Of course all of this is “natural”, it’s just that cancer is natural too and its never ending quest for growth results in a state where everything falls to ground and reverts to precursor substances. The delicate environmental balance allowing for complex and evolving structures is shattered. If you’re going to destroy capitalism, you never say you’re going to destroy capitalism. Anyway, capitalism is guaranteed to destroy itself within a couple of decades. We’re into our last doubling of growth. It will happen fast.
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Perhaps you should try listening to Jensen discussing stuff with people, James.
http://prn.fm/category/archives/resistance-radio/
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I’d recommend listening to Jenson. I read or listen to all I can from him. He has a great way of putting our situation into words. And he is entertaining, even funny. But he has no workable solution. When I first began reading Jenson, I thought some strategy to bring about a planet saving world would emerge that was believable, but it never came. And won’t. Just another reason why I am so sure we are headed for collapse and extinction.
If you read Jenson, your ideas about the hopelessness of our situation will not change, but you will enjoy the reading.
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As I just wrote, Paul, you appear to be utterly confused and a total imbecile.
It’s not Jensen’s fault that you went to him with your idiotic quest looking for a planet saving solution and were disappointed, is it.
It’s because of people like YOU that we are all fucked, not because of people like HIM.
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Never went to him to find the solution. But he kept teasing that if we just did the right thing and had the balls to do so, we could win. But he just never came out with any solution, except to take down capitalism, as by blowing up dams and cell towers.
That’s alright….I still enjoy his books. I know there is no way for those enlightened about our situation to bring down capitalism. I am just startled that there are those here who really think it is going to happen.
And Ulvfugl, here is a truism that you must accept if you want to be so honest as you say you are:
We are fucked because of people like me, people like Jenson, people like you, and people like everyone else on this blog.
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Imbecile.. Really, I can’t think of anything else to say to you. If you have actually read Jensen and listened to the talks and the other DGR stuff and that’s your take away message, and your comments here over the last week, indeed, overall, illustrate the depth of your insight into life and this world, no, it’s not people like me, or Jensen, or everyone else on this blog. It’s people like you. That’s the fucking truism. Ignorant self-satisfied naive gullible Americans who think that McKibben is a hero.
You are the generation that had the power who watched while all this unrolled and let it happen.
Not only people like you, there are worse, but all that shit you just wrote about having to compromise, and all that deluded rubbish about how you are kidding yourself that you are ‘fighting the corporations’.
You know something, I’ve never compromised. If I had a son who said he was going to work in finance or whatever, I’d have said ‘Over my dead body’. I broke all connection with my family over these issues many years ago, same as McPherson did. The time when this mess could have been avoided, 30 years ago, YOU did nothing. Now it’s too late.
Yes, it’ll, be the end of all life on Earth, but it’ll happen because people like you ‘compromised’.
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Oh, what a sad, distorted life you live. And for all of that, you are still sucking the tit of capitalism, living unsustainably, and doing nothing to fight the bastards.
But I understand why you are so angry.
Wish I could help.
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But I’m not ‘sucking at the tit of capitalism’, am I. Not in any way AT ALL.
There are a handful of products that I use that come via the capitalist system, that’s true. But they could just as easily come from some other kind of system, they could be produced by worker owned coops, or by a socialist system, or whatever.
Do you even understand what capitalism is ? Probably not. You obviously have no idea what DGR is about and no idea what EF! was about and no idea what permaculture is about and no idea what McKibben is about, and you don’t seem to have learned anything since you’ve been on this blog.
My life is excellent and clear in every respect, I know of nobody who has a better quality life than I do. I fight every day, in all kinds of ways.
And what about my life style is unsustainable ? Very little. My ecological footprint is miniscule.
If I appear to be angry with you it’s because I come to this blog and instead of high minded, interesting and inspiring discussion I find you here posing as some sort of ‘green person’. You’re some sort of delusional liberal who thinks they are being progressive and fighting the Kochs.
It became clear when you asked what WE wanted, that YOU do not have a clue about ANY of the issues that this blog is about. Repeated idiot comments have become increasingly annoying.
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I think it is best I avoid your attacks. I learn nothing from them. You are a very odd person, and a sad and angry person. Had all of us over the last 100 years been like you, we would have been no better off, and would have lived much sadder, angrier lives.
I would like to learn from you, as everybody has something to teach others, but you are just simply too nasty and hateful to deal with. I understand you have had a tough life, but I have too. And the future is going to be very tough. I want to communicate with others who can lend a hand and help me negotiate this awesome and dangerous time in human and world history, but it makes no sense to have to deal with mean and insulting people like you. I will not engage in angry insulting discussions with you from now on. Attack as you like. I hope it helps you.
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Oh, stuff your infantile condescension. If you were going to learn you’d have learned by now. You are in no position to judge what sort of person I am. I’ve actually known some of the people who were in at the start of some of these the organisations, personally, that you’ve named dropped over these threads, and when petty clueless know-nothing clowns like you boast about how you’ve been out there demonstrating, while you knock Jensen, and then you start telling everyone on this forum about what a mean and insulting man I am…
I really don’t care whether you think it makes sense to YOU or not. You’ve shown the level of insight that you have, and the weak and shabby character that you are, for all the world to see.
I was going to say that Mike skewered you, but that’s not correct really, is it.
It was YOU that skewered YOURSELF. You showed what a creepy fuck you are in real life.
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[I know that sticking my toe in here is probably foolish, but…]
Yesterday I took the time to read McMillan’s informative and entertaining book. My intuitive (gut) reaction at the end was: one hundred- fifty years too late. I agree with the sentiments and I certainly agree that revolution is the only way for a chance at getting rid of the cancerous system called Capitalism. Then reality rears its ugly head and I am back in our own world.
I remember reading “1984” as a boy. As the book neared its end I was scandalized when it became apparent that the system would win in the end. What was this? No silver lining? No happy ending? I believe that Orwell was prescient when he showed us the destination at the end of the road humanity was traveling. I also believe that he was prescient when he showed us how ineffectual rebellion would be.
“Brave New World” left the same taste in my mouth. I have spent my entire life arguing against these two visions only to realize that they were true. I see no real argument with the reality that the Capitalist system is the prime cause of the situation in which we find ourselves. I see no one here arguing that position. Where the argument lies is the possibility of overthrowing that system in the time we have left. Not a chance.
Also I see no one advocating that we just give up. Will any of the actions which various people espouse be effective? Only personally. I can be accused of gross cynicism but I don’t think of myself as a cynic. What I am is a 70 year old cripple. I know that revolution is a young man’s game. I did my stuff in the sixties however naive those actions were.
I will support any action which ‘sticks it to the system of Capitalism’ by whatever means that I possess. However, I no longer naively believe that any thing that we do will make one whit of a difference. We will continue to divide ourselves along ideological, racial, tribal, national, religious, philosophical lines until we are left standing alone. It is at that point that we must see ourselves for what we are.
I now stand alone.
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We all a stand alone, Buz. Trees in a forest. No reason to feel lonely.
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I assume you meant ‘sticks it to the system of Capitalism’.
I’m sure it’s the spirit of seeking truth and organizing with like-minded individuals that keeps Mcmillan going.
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What we’ve been told by Getty is more or less a paraphrase of what we were told by Thatcher, ‘THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE’, TINA, ‘You can’t buck the market’, everybody loves capitalism because it gives them what they love, blahblahblah, and then I hear the same points being made that I heard when I first came on the internet in the 1990’s which I’d ALREADY read in print decades before in The Ecologist mag, and Getty claims he supported Greenpeace and EF! and still doesn’t get it ?
FFS, we KNOW all this stuff, we knew it 30 years ago, we knew it 100 years ago when reading Marx and Engels.
Americans, in general, are the most clueless, undereducated, politically naive people on the whole planet. You only have to look at the Occupy Movement and the 99% thing. The people who THINK they are the 99% are NOT. Even those people begging on the pavement are the 1%. on the global scale.
Vinay Gupta went into this. If you pan handle in the USA and can beg $100 a day, that puts you in the top 1% of the global 7 billion.
Kevin Anderson points out, it’s the people who are like HIM who ARE THE PROBLEM.
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And do you see great things happening in the places that have few in the 99%? I don’t. The people of the Middle East are not moving towards anything anybody would want. The Chinese and Indians are desperately jumping into capitalism, suffering all the way but somehow hopeful. Africa gets worse every year, and it seems most there would love to get more materialistic and capitalistic if only somebody would spend some capital there.
I agree with your words about Americans, but I don’t see people anywhere, in big numbers, moving to end capitalism to bring a better world. And if they begin to succeed, along will come covert and overt police and military action.
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Yet another strawman.
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You come across as such a despicably vile screeching primate, that the term ‘misery monkey’ hardly does you any justice. It’s sadly obvious that your mother never taught you to not take/throw your shit in public, nor have you learned how to wipe, albeit that this self-encrustation is likely now so innate (ntm immense, pungent) that’s it’s actually deliberate. Your excrecranial screed is well encapsulated by the saying, “Shit is a Weapon. Aim for the eyes (e.g. display screen)”. Surely, I’m far from the only viewer here who wishes you a ‘mighty’ Flush You.
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Glad you appreciate my contributions, kid. Would you like a tissue ? Are those real tears or is it snot ?
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swish swish swirl swirl glug glug
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Yes. Thanks Mike.
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buz painter sez: … took the time to read McMillan’s informative and entertaining book. My intuitive (gut) reaction at the end was: one hundred- fifty years too late … I see no real argument with the reality that the Capitalist system is the prime cause of the situation in which we find ourselves. I see no one here arguing that position. Where the argument lies is the possibility of overthrowing that system in the time we have left. Not a chance.
Some put the date we reached the point of no return at the end of feudalism (transitioning through mercantilism to capitalism). Others put it closer to the rise of the three Abrahamic religions over two millennia ago. Jared Diamond famously puts it around 13,000 years ago with the rise of agriculture. Establishing the precise jumping-off point may well be a fool’s errand, but there can be little doubt that end-stage capitalism sweeps away all other major changes and shifts in social organization for its sheer ability to destroy at scale. The flip side of that is that capitalism also creates quite a lot (including population).
I’m not tracking the arguments in the comments about who’s more right (or righteous) in their knowledge, analysis, and response. But I’ll agree that we have “not a chance” of overthrowing our current style of social organization and formulating a new one out of the remains. That’s just not our destiny. If one wishes to go down fighting and sacrificing, that’s OK with me. If one succumbs and instead carries water for those who knowingly do the most destruction (since we all do our parts), that’s not OK with me, but it’s understandable. The great mass who have no inkling of either possibility and are just getting through life, well, I’m still not quite sure how to think about them. They’re horses with blinders, which seems to me no way to live.
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I agree. Any date is somewhat arbitrary. That was just my ‘gut’ reaction.
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Biz painter: love this —
“Where the argument lies is the possibility of overthrowing that system in the time we have left. Not a chance.
Also I see no one advocating that we just give up. Will any of the actions which various people espouse be effective? Only personally. I can be accused of gross cynicism but I don’t think of myself as a cynic. What I am is a 70 year old cripple. I know that revolution is a young man’s game. I did my stuff in the sixties however naive those actions were.
I will support any action which ‘sticks it to the system of Capitalism’ by whatever means that I possess. However, I no longer naively believe that any thing that we do will make one whit of a difference. ”
I agree completely. I have just a few years and I’ll be at your age. I’ll stick it to the system as I can, but am old enough to know it won’t change a thing. Too bad. It would be great to have the possibility of winning as a goal. I’ll just have to be happy with the process.
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Thanks Brutus. This is beautiful:
“I’m not tracking the arguments in the comments about who’s more right (or righteous) in their knowledge, analysis, and response. But I’ll agree that we have “not a chance” of overthrowing our current style of social organization and formulating a new one out of the remains. That’s just not our destiny. If one wishes to go down fighting and sacrificing, that’s OK with me. If one succumbs and instead carries water for those who knowingly do the most destruction (since we all do our parts), that’s not OK with me, but it’s understandable. The great mass who have no inkling of either possibility and are just getting through life, well, I’m still not quite sure how to think about them. They’re horses with blinders, which seems to me no way to live.”
I completely,agree. It is well put, somewhat compassionate of the plight of others. No hopium. And not so critical of others.
A breath of fresh air.
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How many people regularly write comments on this site? Maybe about ten? So there are ten people that have enough concern to spend a little time sharing their thoughts and concerns about capitalism and the environment. Meanwhile all of the people that may have lived in the future are being herded into the planetary gas chamber to be snuffed out before they’re born. Humans are selfish bags of cells whose brains exist to do little more than to maximize their short-term gain.
Those of us that want to exist outside the growing tumor, a place where populations are controlled by the interaction of all species of the body, must sit and watch as the tumor grows, overtakes and destroys everything. It is the most pernicious type of tumor because it can evolve to gain nutrients and energy from myriad sources. Meanwhile the tumor cells love the temporary advantages they have obtained at the expense of the ecological body. “We are different, we are special”, is something you might hear from malignant cells if they could communicate. There is no doubt that this industrial cancer is very special, very unique and very deadly. Voluntary remission seems impossible. Chemotherapy, biotherapy, or radiation therapy could result in the rapid release of toxic radioactive, metabolic wastes that could kill the already damaged body. So what remains to be done but to try the voluntary remission route through communication like on this site – isn’t working. What remains as time grows short? We must remember that a 5% rate of economic tumor growth at this stage is quite different than a 5% growth rate fifty or one hundred years ago. I have as much control over the tumor growth in the ecosystem as I would have with Stage IV cancer in my own body. Start zapping it with chemo and radiation and die even faster. Dealing with one’s own death is difficult, but participating in the unwinding of a delightfully complex ecosystem for extremely short-term gain is rather disgraceful.
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My world is collapsing now, but hasn’t gotten to my doorstep yet. I can no longer see any of the workings of society being sustainable for much longer. All resources are in rapid decline: water, air quality, sea life, minerals, fossil fuels, the entire biosphere in sort of sink hole – which has just begun but widens each day – and will eventually include me.
As food shortages increase, so do civil disruption and anger. Governments will fall because the police and military are in the same sinking boat as the poor. Violence, disease, poverty, and desperation are building like a huge tide behind the weakening dam, the thinning veneer of civilization, “society” and the “rule of law.” When it reaches critical mass, the unleashed destructive force will be impossible to contain.
We document each day the infractions that destroy what once was. We used to be able to drink the water, now it’s poisonous with our pollution. People once danced in the rain and played in the snow – now you risk certain radiation over-exposure. Even the sunlight is too strong due to the ozone layer destruction. The ocean is throwing up it’s fish, mammals, turtles and starfish (among what’s left) all dying on the beaches from various pollutants – including sound pollution from sonar. When the ocean’s gone, can we be far behind? The rainforests are failing with continuing drought and are emitting CO2 rather than sequestering it. When the trees are gone, will we still want to live here? People used to cooperate, now we can’t agree on anything.
It would have been great had we done something about all of this – or even any small part of it – say 50 years ago. The warnings were clear – from population growth to chemical pollution’s effect on ecosystems – we should have listened and learned.
[Sure, some tiny meaningless handful of people changed their ways somewhat, but it’s practically impossible to escape when you’re born into the prison.] All that was pointed out by the seers, scientists and artists were just problems for which to find a solution or “work around.” Well, now, here we are. People are starting to clamor for geo-engineering as the only solution left!
What’s to be done but chronicle and observe. Be mindful and aware.
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I find it astounding that such a motley group of highly intelligent people are so confused as to the true, underlying nature of our present reality.
It wasn’t 200, 2,000 or 12,000 years ago that H.S. took a “wrong turn”. In actuality, it was a few billion years ago when the first organism ‘ate’ (killed, defeated) his neighbor, and found that it was “good to be king”.
Fast forward to today, and our closest living relatives experience the same, exact kind of competitive environment, and resulting effects, as yours truly:
—
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/clever-monkeys/monkeys-and-emotion/4244/
The life of a monkey is full of ups and downs … And the leader of a monkey troop, when deposed, will even exhibit signs of depression.
—
It’s not capitalism that creates our present political economy – it’s simply the label for the current form of competition & exploitation that has always existed. Capitalism only exists today because there were/are sufficient resources in which to enable this kind of system.
Remove the supporting resources & infrastructure, and the current framework of capitalism will cease to exist, but not the underlying motivations: control & power. This insatiable, natural driver will simply manifest itself in some new form(s), perhaps morphing components of capitalism, feudalism and slavery.
You can complain all you want about how this new system will also be unfair, cruel and inhumane, but the guy(s) with the guns who force others to do their bidding could not possibly give a sh!t. It’s either you or them, baby; once you understand core human/animal nature, the tendency/desire to complain, whine, bitch and moan tends to fade away.
What you are left with is hard, concrete reality.
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Beautiful analogy. One of the best I’ve heard.
One point….we here on this site may have an awareness of the malignant tumor and how it will all end, but we, to are part of the tumor, not outside it. We may WANT to live outside the tumor, but none of us can really now exist in what little the tumor has not engulfed.
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The above was a reply for James.
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I wish the analogy were only a superficial one, but when you study how complex adaptive systems arise and evolve, the key components and their roles and the manners in which their behaviors deviate, you can see man and his technology for what it really is, not God’s gift to the universe, but in its current form, something very malevolent. Life has always been competitive as have alpha males, but they had never been given the tools of self-annihilation until very recently, on a geological time scale.
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I feel the need to add to that, but actually you say it all, much better than I could. I was a biology major in college and I loved biology and evolution, and then one day felt the need to find an occupation that would pay the bills, and I left biology as an occupation. But I have always loved it. It now explains our situation better than economics or politics or history or anything else, and you have brought it into focus again. Keep talkin’.
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Chimps and Bonobos are our closest living relatives. You may understand the concrete reality of life and accept it, but you spend a lot of time whining, bitching and moaning about others whining, bitching and moaning. Maybe it’s that human tendency/desire thing.
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Fucking duh – the clip explores various kinds of apes, but loosely uses the term ‘monkey’ as conventional shorthand. But thanx for the heads up – LOL.
And no, the difference between my commentary and others is I have absolutely zero emotional attachment. You won’t find me writing letters, organizing rallies or protesting “the man”. Rather, I’m merely practicing my pitch to help wake up dreamers out of their collective stupor and get a handle on how this thing is gonna shake out.
Once an analyst, always an analyst. Or, to paraphrase George C Scott in Patton “The last great opportunity of a lifetime – an entire world at war, and I’m left out of it? God will not permit this to happen! I will be allowed to fulfill my destiny! His will be done.”
In other words, even the dimmest doomer can clearly & plainly see that the era of resource fueled capitalism is coming to an end. But what will take its place? This is what fascinates those who try to tease out trends and projections from the miasma of current information. Some is useful, but most is more than likely nothing more than misinformation conjured up as part of a rear guard action by the smart n’ savvy who aim to maintain their positions of influence and power in the next stage of human organization and governance.
But think, think! How is this gonna play out? Sh!ts gonna start getting real, and some people are still complaining over spilled milk? That was yesterday’s deal – old news pal. Today is today and tomorrow is tomorrow – knowing how this sucker is going to likely shake out will position those to help craft whatever society they think might be amenable to their suggestions – or not. You place your bets and you takes your chances.
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Keep talk in’ b9k9. I love it. You make a lot of sense to me.
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what will take its place? Death for most. As for the society that follows, I can only imagine it will not resemble today’s. There are too many variables to make accurate predictions, but using history as a guide suggests oppression and brutality and maybe total war. Doomers will spend lots of time talking about all the different scenarios until the bitter end, cause that’s what social monkeys do. I once did an experiment to see how long I could go without communication, no talking, no radio, no TV and no internet, I allowed myself books. I lasted 9 days and I caught my self talking aloud a number of times.
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I’ve sent an email to Stephanie to see if she’d be interested in doing a monthly cartoon here featuring this character of hers:
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These protests are really powerful! We forced A LOT of politicians to resign, brought down the local governments, burned their offices all across the country and made the Prime Minister of USK flee the country. We just have to be careful now, so this doesn’t get hijacked.
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California drought a ‘train wreck’ for Central Valley farms
David Perlman
Published 4:47 pm, Saturday, February 8, 2014
California’s great Central Valley aquifer and the rivers that feed it, already losing water in the changing climate, are now being drained because of the drought, leaving water levels at their lowest in nearly a decade.
Water experts say many farmers who depend on the huge water source beneath the valley for irrigation will have to resort to pumping water from ever deeper levels at greater costs, even as they plant crops on fewer and fewer acres as more of their land is gobbled up for development.
“The combination of climate change, growth and groundwater depletion spells a train wreck,” said James Famiglietti, a water resource expert and director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling at UC Irvine.
The aquifer holds water that runs into the valley from three great river systems – the Sacramento, the San Joaquin and the Tule Lake basins. It is the state’s major source of stored water and is primarily used for agriculture. But over the past two years, it has lost nearly 8 million acre-feet of the precious resource, Famiglietti’s research center reported last week.
“That’s equivalent to virtually all of California’s urban and household water use each year,” he said….
…As water has been sucked more deeply from the aquifer, it has caused severe new land subsidence in many parts of the valley, Famiglietti’s report notes. The shifting land has caused sidewalks in many small valley towns to crack and casings to buckle on the wells that are being dug for more pumping….
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Holmgren on Ecoshock
[audio src="http://www.ecoshock.net/downloads/ES_140205_Show.mp3" /]
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To Ulvfugl:
I think it is best I avoid your attacks. I learn nothing from them. You are a very odd person, and a sad and angry person. Had all of us over the last 100 years been like you, we would have been no better off, and would have lived much sadder, angrier lives.
I would like to learn from you, as everybody has something to teach others, but you are just simply too nasty and hateful to deal with. I understand you have had a tough life, but I have too. And the future is going to be very tough. I want to communicate with others who can lend a hand and help me negotiate this awesome and dangerous time in human and world history, but it makes no sense to have to deal with mean and insulting people like you. I will not engage in angry insulting discussions with you from now on. Attack as you like. I hope it helps you.
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@ pfgetty
Which takes us right back to square one, where this began.
Which was when you expressed your admiration and support for McKibben, and when I pricked your bubble and stated that he was a liar and a fraud, which is true you attacked and insulted me as being a very mean and nasty man for telling you the truth.
And now I’ve told you a few more truths about yourself, so I’m an even more mean and nasty man. And you’ve tried to make out that I’m a hypocrite and tried to smear me in various ways, but it hasn’t really worked for you, has it, so now you give up.
You are a very odd person, and a sad and angry person. Had all of us over the last 100 years been like you, we would have been no better off, and would have lived much sadder, angrier lives.
And YOU are in a position to make this ludicrous absurd judgement ?
An American ? The people who have managed to fuck up EVERYTHING ?
A naval officer, a dentist, a clueless person who has no idea what he is talking about, who says his family takes no notice of what he thinks, because, quite obviously, in their eyes, he represents nothing at all, because he stands for nothing at all.
That’s what has been revealed in this exchange here.
I don’t claim to be a nice man, and I am a very odd person, certainly, and I have been extremely sad, because I just spent fucking thirty or forty years working almost every hour of the night and day trying to avoid this fucking NTE thing, that I could see was going to happen, feeling increasing desperation and despair and anger and rage.
All the superb creatures, all the fabulous animals and birds, all the fantastic wonderful places, are going… there are no words to describe what that is. You can’t say it’s ‘sad’.
I’m well beyond sad and angry. And I’m well beyond being affected by fools like you in any way whatsoever. I just let the world see what you are.
Everybody from NBL who checks this blog already knows what I’m like. There’s not many things that I care about. I’ve written four essays for Mike and stated my position as honestly and openly as I could.
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Hi Ulvfugl
“All the superb creatures, all the fabulous animals and birds, all the fantastic wonderful places, are going… there are no words to describe what that is. You can’t say it’s ‘sad’.” I agree there. It’s the destruction of the wonder and beauty of it all that makes one despair, and the mindless heartless idiots who are wiping out the Tuna, the Whales, the Elephants, the Dolphins as part of the money,profit capitalist system.Heroes like Paul Watson of Seashepherd are deemed as terrorists by the same crazy system of madmen.
“And I’m well beyond being effected by fools like you in” Word should be affected a verb not effected which is a noun. 🙂
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Thanks for the correction, John. Mike, jump to it, delete ‘e’, insert ‘a’, or the sun will never rise again.
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It’s an adjective.
Effect is a noun.
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“Argentina is a country re-entering crisis territory it knows too well. The country has defaulted on its sovereign debt three times in the past 32 years and looks poised to do so again soon.
Its currency, the peso, devalued by more than 20% in January alone. Inflation is currently running at 25%. Argentina’s budget deficit is exploding, and, based on credit default swap rates, the market is placing an 85% chance of a sovereign default within the next five years.
Want to know what it’s like living through a currency collapse? Argentina is providing us with a real-time window.
So, we’ve invited Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre back onto the program to provide commentary on the events on the ground there. What is life like right now for the average Argentinian?”
More: http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/84705/ferfal-heres-what-looks-when-your-countrys-economy-collapses
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Comment from PMB moved down here (for legibility and space) in reference to this:
Why not? Paul asks. Is the question rhetorical? Do you really not know why not? I’ve been following the back and forth here on this thread as it went on. We are a small “community” of posters here (who knows who’s watching and not posting) so getting a sense of a person (if that is even possible in the virtual world as memories of Winston Smith learning he had been conned was traumatic to me as a youngster when i read 1984) comes from what they post.
I had remembered that comment being posted by Paul. It so affected me as I’ve heard or read similar things from others and I’ve begun to use that post as a story I tell sometimes as an example of good parenting. The sentiments behind the post disgusted and saddened me.
In the time since this post each time Paul posts here and at NBL I could only wonder about him. So he’s going out to save the world (by writing checks to Bill McK, marching and so forth). Actions that on their own could be commendable (and I’ve done them myself in years past), only then he’s bred a creature who by the fact of his job will not only be undoing the efforts of Paul (and others) and beyond that will be doing even greater destruction and insidious acts by being part of the machine that is committing great crimes against the planet, other species and their future offspring (remember family values). I got a visual of trying to bail out the Titanic with a thimble.
It was similar to another person posting about a Princeton Environmental professor (it was a women) whose offspring (in this case female) went off to a financial institution to become a hedge fund manager. It’s like the reversal of the sixties.
Parents insisting that their children who work for financial institutions are moral, ethical, and have clean hands. I come from that world; worked in it for over 25 years; came out with no money; a “soul” intact yet very worn and tattered from seeing behaviors so callous and uncaring regarding the world.
“Do all the things that I know are killing this world.” Huhh?? So, because we are at NTE it’s okay to allow our offspring to go off and rape and pillage what remains of the planet. I didn’t get it and still don’t to this day and probably never will. Wouldn’t and couldn’t Paul have encouraged his son to be more like Stephanie?
So, I just don’t get it. Paul hasn’t made much of an attempt to educate his son as he doesn’t want to ruin his good time. Yet hasn’t there been any conversation between the father and son in all the years the boy was growing up. Is there nothing of Paul in the boy, or is there nothing of Paul to be in the boy?
I watched that segment with Stephanie of the Earth at Risk conference months ago. Was impressed and saw the validity of what all the speakers had to say. Was saddened and distressed by the potential of what Aric Mcbay (and what most of them said) only to find out that shortly after this event Aric split from DGR. So, I wondered if this group of leaders couldn’t find a way to work with each other how would any of this come about.
Doesn’t mean that Capitalism shouldn’t be brought down only how can we bring it down when “we” or the “leaders” can’t sustain themselves long enough to gain any traction. We’re (and I mean we here) are still our own worst enemies.
In all the years of watching Adam Curtis’s documentaries I’d somehow skipped The Mayfair Set; a fabulous exploration of how the financial system managed to regain control of the economy. This story is from the British side of the pond, but the same events have occurred in the USA..There are no clean hands at any financial institution.
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Great comment, PMB. Great documentary. Starts in UK. The later ones end up with James Goldsmith taking the Robber Baron junk bond thing to USA.
You know, if this was 200 years ago, Paul would be telling us how cruel and evil slavery is and how much he is against it, and how he’s just congratulated his son on getting a top job running a sugar plantation in the West Indies, where the average life span of the slave is three years.
Where is the leadership, the moral guidance, the principle that says ‘This is right and that is wrong’ ?
This is the Great Horror. The worst thing that could possibly happen IS happening, unfolding before our eyes, and people don’t even fucking see it.
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What a disgusting post. I shouldn’t even reply. You are really a bastard to insult me and my son and my my relationship with him. You don’t know him, how since a little boy he has wanted to live in NY and work for a huge company, even as I’ve talked about the our degrading environment all these years.
Are you so schizoid that you don’t remember telling us you think the end of all is coming in a very few years no matter what we do? Do you not realize that you have never, ever agreed with me that it is the moral thing to do to go out and march and support environmental organizations, because it is all useless diversion and aids the destructive machine?
For sure…why not? According to you I do nothing right in my activities, and now my son does nothing right.
He is 25, his own man, and very strong willed. I cannot tell him,or force him to do what I think is right. He has his own ideas. Do you not realize that kids are not clones of their parents? They often find their own way by going in very different directions. Do you know about kids? My son is a good kid. I’m proud of him and his talents and his hard work and his drive. It is quite a happy thing to have a kid go though lots of turmoil and struggle and not end up on drugs or have other problems. And do you know how disturbing, gut wrenching, it is to know how your great kids that you love so much will have their lives shortened in such drastic, horrible ways in just a few years….maybe within ten. I want him to enjoy the little time he has, feel proud that he can accomplish things in the real world. He will not change the world for the worse even a tiny bit, just as you and others have ensured that I will not change the world for the better. It is time now for compassion for others, time to allow others to enjoy their time on earth, time to stop pointing fingers at others. Especially the young people.
Mike, you are a disgusting, mean bastard. You drive around in your car and poke at your computer full of fossil fuels and rare earth minerals and suck the tit of capitalism, and then criticize in the most insulting of ways others, for, of all things, how they raise their kids, kids that will live the most horrible lives imaginable, and die such sad deaths. They will not have the ability to do the things you have, no chances for that. But you are so much better. You are an ecohog, an enviropig, just like the rest of us. You do NOTHING to decrease the world of misery and destruction. You add to it. But you have the fucking balls to pull up old posts and humiliate me. I can’t stand,the thought of an asshole like you. Fuck you.
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You reveal yourself to the world, Paul. Mike doesn’t humiliate you, you humiliate yourself by showing us your own character.
The point is, we’re talking here about life on Earth and the lives of 7 billion or so people, all those men, women and children.
Your preoccupation with your personal concerns and your personal vanity, and your attempts to cover your lack of understanding of the issues are embarrassing to you, for sure.
I also think your misrepresentation of Jensen is quite offensive. But there we are.
What are you going to do now ?
Show us what you are really made of ?
That’s the problem isn’t it. You don’t have any actual principle upon which you’ll stand your ground.
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Nice to see this on NBL
Kinda sums up your situation, doesn’t it Paul.
https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/feelgood.jpg?w=529&h=467
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@Paul
Can’t understand the vitriolic attack against you. Seems almost tribal in nature. Congratulations to your son, hope he puts on his best button-down shirt and silk ties and saves some of his earnings. Stay out of iconic buildings, somebody doesn’t like those things. I used to be a member of the Cousteau Society way back when, send them twenty bucks now and then. He produced “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”, and even then his films depicted the destruction of the oceans, of course not nearly as bad then as today. It was a nice effort but didn’t have much effect. The technological monkey was unleashed, gaining momentum and wasn’t about to be returned to the jungle. Bin Laden et al. took out two icons of capitalism and that act did nothing but force government to stoke the GDP by cleaning up, establishing HS and rebuilding. No matter how big capitalist’s make the banquet room with their resource and energy extracting tools, it gets filled-up. Who’s fault is that? Surely it couldn’t be the “little man”, he’s being led by the nose by the capitalists, right? Wrong. He’s just behaving the way he behaved in a small tribal environment for many a hundred-thousand years or so. Climb the hierarchy, compete, garner resources, share excess with friends, copulate like crazy, bury the dead (unless you’re from New Guinea). Give that kind of organism the ability to systematically produce tools and unleash them on the environment along with insatiable behaviors and the self-terminating end result is guaranteed. Education is inadequate for man’s brain. Education focuses upon tool-making and information, process. I suppose we could try to make everyone feel guilty about their natural desires set down over long, long period of evolution, or give them substitute soma but appealing to their intellects will not have much affect.
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Paul,
Why are you angry? That was your original post. Don’t you think about what you write before posting? Why is it wrong of Mike to bring up something you wrote a few weeks ago? Don’t you stand by what you wrote? Don’t you understand what you are “saying”?
Maybe you can take a breath and then objectively read what you wrote. My opinions are based purely on the observations I’m making on the words you are writing.
Since Limits to Growth came out in 1972 and you chose to procreate in the end you are responsible for the life your offspring will suffer through. I’m saddened at the death we will be witnessing and the agony we’ll be going through, but as someone else said recently it’s already baked in the cake. Can’t undo it. Can’t just reverse it.
“Are you so schizoid that you don’t remember telling us you think the end of all is coming in a very few years no matter what we do? Do you not realize that you have never, ever agreed with me that it is the moral thing to do to go out and march and support environmental organizations, because it is all useless diversion and aids the destructive machine?”
I’m getting the impression that much of what you are communicating is putting you in two different places,I find myself very confused at trying to figure out exactly what you are communicating. kind of like cognitive dissonance.
Last month Roseanne was on Breaking the Set (the episode with Guy) and she talked about how women are responsible for sending their sons off to war and that they raise their sons could make a difference. I think father’s are just as responsible and in this case you’ve allowed your son to go off to a different type of war.
Your kid is not a cone of you, but he sure is a representative of the values you raised him with. It appears that you and your wife were no match against IC in raising kids.I believe you said you mostly keep your mouth shut at home.
“Since a little boy he has wanted to live in NY and work for a huge company, even as I’ve talked about the our degrading environment all these years.”
Well if what you’ve written is accurate, then this says much about the boy and what his values are. Any one for the Affluenza defense.
What are the exact ways your son wants to enjoy his life? Aren’t there other ways for him to enjoy life except by working for a huge financial institution? Why wouldn’t he find ways to enjoy life in a less extravagant way?
“It is time now for compassion for others, time to allow others to enjoy their time on earth, time to stop pointing fingers at others. Especially the young people.”
Okay so how should I show compassion for others? How should I allow them to enjoy their time on earth? I think holding people accountable for their actions is sorely lacking in our society. What do frame it as pointing fingers. Young people. Which young people? All young people.
“For sure…why not? According to you I do nothing right in my activities, and now my son does nothing right.”
Again, I ask “Why not?” Well, you’re the parent, your the one who breeds. There is a huge responsibility that comes with this act although from an outsiders perspective I don’t run into many parents who seem to have a clue what it means to raise a child. I can’t say with any certainty or paint such a wide brush that you do nothing right. I just find much to question regarding what you have shared.
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@ PMB
I think there’s a deeper moral issue here, re the boyhood ambition to ‘Go off and and…’
Boys (and girls) have all kinds of dreams about what they’d like to do in their life.
But the adults, the elders, the wise people of the household, the tribe, are supposed to offer guidance.
This sense of entitlement that it’s okay to pursue ANY goal just so long as it offers enjoyment of one’s time on Earth, is obviously completely insane and unacceptable.
What if what turns the young man on is drive-by shooting ? Or serial killing ?
But where’s the harm in working for a major financial corporation or whatever ?
Well, that’s the problem here. It’s not a victimless job, is it. Capitalism is brutal, vicious, and predatory and kills MILLIONS of people ALL THE TIME. Wrecks people’s lives, pollutes and destroys the environment. Handling the cash and the paperwork is just the clean end of the dirty business, where they wipe the blood off and hand the profits over to the bosses. There is no such thing as an innocent benign financial service. The only thing that comes close is a Credit Union.
Here’s the problem.
If Paul waved his son off to be a Mafia hit man, or a child trafficker, EVERYBODY would see the moral issue clearly enough, in black and white. Even Paul would be able to comprehend the ambiguity and hypocrisy and absurdity in his statement.
But it’s all, superficially, okay, because USA is one big mega business, one big plantation, and most of the killing, destruction and horror is done over the horizon.
Trouble is, Paul wants his son to be a good house negro, and get a nice cosy comfortable life with all the perks, and then he turns around to us and says, ‘Hey guys, how about we make some banners that say how much we want to be free’, and then when we kinda spit and swear, he’s surprised, shocked, and thinks we’re awful nasty and mean…
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There are two parts within the present global capitalist industrial system. The 1st part is what you talk about in the article, Mike – and yes, it is theoretically possible to get rid of it. To remove all the speculants and greedy bastards and insanely powerful yet also insanely corrupt “leaders” which world has. To do that in practice would be difficult to say the least. Old saying goes: “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. So you see, world has lots of powerful folks who are much corrupted, – and they won’t hesistate to use their power against any body which would try to remove them from the picture. To win against such a massive power, even greater power is needed. I am not saying it’s impossible – again, i am saying this would be difficult to say the least, and also, considering processes involved – it is something which can’t be done in a month, in a year, and i’m affraid, not even in a single decade. And we do not have much time – in fact, we’re already past the moment of no-return, as you probably know.
But the second part of the system is much more important that the 1st. This second part is people’s needs.
Please, do not EVER forget: industrial revolution was possible ONLY beacuse capitalism enabled means to make the indutrial revolution (Marx). There is no other known way to do large-scale industries other than capitalism. Even USSR was doing its own indutrial revolution (in 1930s) via capitalism – the only difference is, much of the soviet capitalism was the state’s, not individuals’ one.
And what exactly industrial revolutions were serving? Greed of the few? Yes, much. Also, strong desire for more power (and thus to get means to get it), which few folks had? Yes, that also. But in the same time, all those industrial revolutions served needs of the people quite much. Much of capitalists’ capital comes exactly from exchanging “products” made by capitalists for money which people pay for those products. And while some products are certainly not exactly essential, – some others surely are. Like, food, shelter, medicines, etc. And of course, lower price for those is what critically important for many, if not most, of humans now alive – and ones who lived in the past, as well.
If i am not mistaken, ~70% of world population – more than 4 billions, – watched some of last summer olympic games on TV. This means more than 80% (possibly more than 95%) of world population have access to a TV.
This means they all use electricity.
Which in turn means that majority of the world population is now dependant on electricity supply – not for TV shows, of course, but for either cooking, or heating, or illumination, or maintaining personal notes (electronic devices instead of doing it on paper), – or all of these in the same time (and other things for some of people).
Majority of world’s population, therefore, is losing skills, devices, locations and other thigns which are needed to do those same things without electricity – since currently there is no needed for those “old way” methods.
Thus, an industrial product – in this example, abundant electricity supply on a world-wide scale – becomes very required for most of mankind to survive. You probably heard about some details of what happens when there are massive, sudden, un-expected and long enough black-outs.
This was just one example. How many of us are able to simply survive while _completely_ outside of industrial civilization (means, no tools, no clothes, no items whatsoever made by it)?
Furthermore, the indutrial civilization, by killing natural world and changing environments, often makes “the old way” impossible even if there are some people who know how to live without capitalism. Forest communities of Amazon can’t do much if the forest is cut, can they. Same thing if the forest dies due to drought, caused by GHGs, which were emitted by industries worldwide. Same thing if the forest gets poisonous because of either local or even global (possibly in the future) deadly levels of toxic substances (by the way, Nausicaa is one good motion picture about it). Etc.
So in the end, both things are true: yes, much of present capitalistic features and relations are to get rid of, and it must be done; however, some other features and relations – are essential for most of mankind. This is what my mind tells me when i try to assess the situation honestly, calmly, rationally and carefully.
And the minority – people who CAN in practice live without any capitalism, – is being reduced very quickly now (because of all the above factors i decribed here and yet some others i didn’t have time to mention – like entertainment, species’ extinction, soil degradation due to intensive farming, massively increasing fluctuations of weather all around the globe, desertification, nitrogen and phospour cycles’ disruption (already starting and apparently inevitable to develop in full), to briefly name some of those.
So make no mistake: any call for dismantling ALL capitalistic relations, – is in fact a call to genocide most of mankind. No less. Tell that to the lady who wrote that book next time you meet her, may be?
P.S. Sorry for typoes. I type this in a great hurry. ><
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Yes, virtually everyone uses the products of capitalism, and thereby supports it. Most people, virtually all, get their money to survive by working for companies or government all tied to the capitalist system. Even people with their own businesses are tied to the need to serve people who work for the capitalist system. All of use electricity, computers, heat from fossil fuels, use public or private transportation, use refrigerators, cook food, and on and on, supporting the capitalist system.some people are too self absorbed about their own perfection to,admit they are like the others….all ecohogs, and, like Mike and BMP and Ulvfugl, they think they are different and viciously attack others.
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Please, do not EVER forget: industrial revolution was possible ONLY beacuse capitalism enabled means to make the indutrial revolution (Marx). There is no other known way to do large-scale industries other than capitalism. Even USSR was doing its own indutrial revolution (in 1930s) via capitalism – the only difference is, much of the soviet capitalism was the state’s, not individuals’ one.
This is nonsense. We’ve HAD the industrial revolution. We’re not worrying about how we can have an industrial revolution without fuckng capitalism. Who said that was the problem ?
Tnioli and Getty don’t a have a clue what capitalism is. The word is not actually a synonym for industrial civilisation, and there are different kinds of capitalism.
Are the economic systems of USA, UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the SAME ?
Of course not. Only people who are politically and economically illiterate would say they were.
Is the economic system of Russia now the same as that of the USA ? No. Is it the same as that of the USSR ? No. Is it the same as that of China ? No.
Did Chile have the same system under Allende as it did under Pinochet ?
Is Mondragon the same thing as Monsanto ?
There is no point at all in trying to have a discussion about capitalism with people who have no knowledge or understanding of the subject.
@ Getty
It’s quite clear what your scale of priorities is.
Top of the list comes your own feelings.
Next comes your son’s and whether he’s enjoying himself, regardless of what harm that may cause.
How do you think the rest of the people on the planet might feel towards a person like that ?
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It wasn’t nonsense. Marx was right. Privately owned means of production were the key to enable large-scale capital accumulation processes. Those processes, in turn, allowed numerous features to emerge, leading to appearance of world-wide industrial systems we have today. Wikipedia says that capitalism is, quote, “Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy” – i urge you to check the links right after that line in wikipedia and educate yourself, man. Otherwise you’d continue to cause laughter and/or sadness when people see you talking about different economic systems while responding to a message made about capitalism as a general method.
However, it’s possible you know all that without me aiding you, and contents of your comment originate not from confusion or lack of education, but from what Getty said. If this is the case, then please, stop writing.
Yet the third possibility is, you are trrying to protect others with your attempt to make my words to seem incorrect. I consider this as a possibility because i know that first, information can hurt, and second, i may be not aware about specific ways how what i said may critically hurt – but you may be, or, vice versa, i may be aware about how what i said (and WHERE and in which FORM and VOLUME i said that) can not be critically harmful to others – but you may be not aware about it. In any case, if what you said originates from desire to help other people or some other complex and generally beneficial to Gaia motives – then please don’t mind my mumbling and keep writing (alas you’d need the quality of your “truth” to be improved anyways, man; that’s 2 cents only, of course).
Take care.
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Aaaw, gawd, F.T, will you please stop trying to educate me about stuff when I already know far more about it than you do, we had all this before and you write page long essays as comments that are impossible to reply to. I know you mean well, and english is not your first language which leads to much confusion, frustration, and misunderstanding, but it gets us nowhere. Do you understand the difference between neoliberalism and capitalism ?
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Yes, i do. The latter is, i’d say, a set of political convictions, advocates of which are indeed very destructive – if allowed to implement corresponding policies on a large scale, – to the biosphere of Earth.
I also understand the article i was commenting was about, quote: “CAPITALISM MUST DIE! A basic introduction to capitalism: what it is, why it sucks, and how to crush it”. It didn’t say “how to crash neoliberalism”, it didn’t say “which parts of capitalism sucks, and which are critically important for survival of billions of humans”, nor did it say “we are using some terms in some unusual meaning”.
My english is not my native, and yes, things i write often lead to confusion, frustration and misunderstanding felt by many readers. Which is caused not only by my far-from-crystal-clear language skills, but also by highly complex ways of thinking my mind is taking. I was told by professional HR personnel that my IQ is, quote, “exceptionally high”. Not my fault, now is it?
I am as tired about this as you seem to be, sir. However, i am what i am. Can’t “stupidify” myself – and sure not willing to pretend being something else, too. And in my humble opinion, we all better put frustrations and irritations we feel aside, because if we cant’ do that – how on Earth can we hope, as a species, to live through all the trouble we already created, and going to create in near future?
Thank you for talking with me, ulvfuql. Good luck!
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Just to clarify: when i said “the latter”, i meant neo-liberalism. It’s the latter in terms of time it appeared in our discussion.
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One thing that capitalism does is to destroy communities and extended families.
Human beings are seen as commodities.
Breaking soceity into individuals has many advantages, they are much more vulnerable and less secure, and everybody must buy their own tv, cooker, fridge, washing machine, etc, whereas in a group, these appliances can be shared, and groups are less easily intimidated.
So anti-capitalists have tried to find models that might work that could rebuild community. One such.
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Thanks for the excellent post Mike. The discussions, comments, links and engagement that follow your articles are always interesting and thought-provoking. Also – I found the Walter Rodney’s book (How Europe Underdeveloped Africa) which I’m going to read. http://www.blackherbals.com/walter_rodney.pdf
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Interesting and horrifying comments from an astute teacher named Jim Eberle:
Though we are in ENSO neutral conditions at present, the Jet Stream has been in a persistent La Nina configuration since December. I believe that this is due to a strengthening of the Hadley Cells, and that this is to be expected in a warmer world. A stronger pacific Hadley Cell would strengthen the Trade Winds, driving warm equatorial waters westward, causing upwelling of cold water along the coast of Peru and Equador. This sets the stage for a La Nina and the consequent persistent ridge along the west coast. It does not bode well for California either.
The Hadley Cells tend to strengthen every summer and weaken every winter. Their centers also tend to shift northward in the summer. Therefore, they go through a natural seasonal fluctuation. In a warmer world, phenomena that tend to be stronger in summer should retain their strength for a longer period of the year. I discussed this once with a climatologist at the CIA who agreed with my assessment. The most ominous consequence of this will be a poleward migration of the subtropical desert zones. Their central axis may shift from 25 degrees latitude to 30 degrees latitude in the next few decades…
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An example of an ethical person who has the balls to stand their ground in a shit world of fake and hypocritical people:
Original links:
http://dumbbabysounds.tumblr.com/post/73779296352/superhero
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Points for humor…
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Ah, that’s great Mike – I saw a blurb about this great man on a Sixty Minutes segment once and he instantly became my hero. This is exactly the ethics, attitude and conscience a great leader should have. More like him, please!
My brother, when he was much younger, once took a pickup truckload of used shoes to a really remote, dirt poor area in Mexico. It was raining so hard in the mountains that he had to cross to get where he needed to go, that he had to pull over. It just so happened he pulled in to the front yard of a scrub farmer. The farmer and his wife instantly took him in and fed him without question. My brother only spoke a smattering of Spanish, but offered the farmer shoes for his bare feet. The farmer said the people in the valley needed them more and refused the shoes – since he actually had a pair and showed them to him: it was an old pair with the fronts cut off so that his bare toes protruded. They laughed and laughed. The next morning when he was about to leave, the farmer gave him a couple bushels of peaches right off the tree in his front yard to bring down to his neighbors in the valley. There are really kind and generous people in the world, but they aren’t the ones with large bank accounts and don’t live in giant mansions.
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Message from DK:
…My particular interest is in examining the inflection points along our 400 year history of capitalism, as this mess did not happen overnight. What were the key events, the irreversible turning points, the seemingly benign choices and selections that we as a society made that cemented our pathway to destruction.
And to the same end, what were the false narratives that were hoisted up along the way to explain these choices when the dam of credibility began to crack, when cognitive dissonance reached a crescendo that could no longer be ignored?
So I guess you might say it’s a post mortem of sorts, in giving up any hope for ourselves, perhaps it’s interesting to chart the errant historical path of our destruction, point by (significant) point.
It might well be a series of articles as this is ambitious, perhaps encompassing several writers.
I am working on an essay along these lines that discusses the false narrative of our financial and monetary system as being the primary cause of the collapse of capitalism, this one examines the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and points out the profound intellectual errors that modern conservatives, and particularly libertarians make when invoking this event as causality.
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80,000 March in North Carolina Proudly Pushing Back Against Radical Right Agenda
Largest protest in the South since Selma in ’65.
http://www.alternet.org/activism/80000-march-north-carolina-proudly-pushing-back-against-radical-right-agenda
Great march. Great people.
Ulvfugl and Xraymike, and PMB call all 80,000 of these people twits and stupid. Diversionary tactic, Xraymike says. Some have kids, which is an evil thing according to PMB.
People like Xraymike and Ulvfugl have better things to do, like pointing fingers at all the other people not up to their standards, people not smart enough to fight against the capitalist system, which XRaymike and Ulfugl will take down, somehow, within 16 years.
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“Global warming has not “paused.” Climate change has not hit a “speed bump.” The planet’s temperature is not remaining steady and it certainly isn’t cooling. Earth, especially its ocean, are heating up… and rapidly.
Those are the findings and the consensus of the global scientific community. And a new study shows that the detectable slowdown of global surface temperature increases over the last fifteen years—a trend that climate change denialists have seized on to foment doubt among the general public—is, in fact, the result of a terrifying phenomenon in which the planet’s deep oceans are increasingly absorbing the world’s excess carbon, offering a false sense of temperature stability when the reality is very much the opposite.
The new study, conducted by U.S. and Australian scientists and presented in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that unusually powerful trade winds in the Pacific Ocean have contributed to pushing the warmer ocean waters to greater depths, creating an illusion of a warming plateau on the surface.
As the Guardian reports:
The findings should provide fresh certainty about the reasons behind the warming hiatus, which has been claimed by critics of mainstream climate science as evidence that the models are flawed and predictions of rising temperatures have been exaggerated.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) addressed the warming pause issue in its 2013 climate report, pointing out that the Earth is going through a solar minimum and that more than 90% of the world’s extra heat is being soaked up by the oceans, rather than lingering on the surface.
According to the study, acceleration of Pacific trade winds has been twice as strong in the past 20 years compared with the prior 80 years and suggests the surface warming “hiatus” could “persist for much of the present decade if the trade wind trends continue.” However, warn the scientists, when the winds return to their long-term average speeds, rapid surface temperature warming will resume and the consequences could be dire.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/10
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OK Paul. Time for you to stop cursing people here. I don’t believe anyone here cursed you except for Ulvfugl. I had to block several of your last messages which really only prove that you are very angry and unwilling(or unable) to understand the arguments put forth by other people.
Time to put you on ice.
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It seems a little incongruous to bring up anything Paul said after that, but here is an important point that needs to be reaffirmed.
Paul said: ‘…..the capitalist system, which XRaymike and Ulfugl will take down, somehow, within 16 years.’
Actually, industrial capitalism is industrial capitalism’s worst enemy, and industrial capitalism will take itself down, almost certainly in less than 16 years, simply because the present form of capitalism is utterly dependent on cheap and readily available fossil fuel energy to generate economic expansion: everything I have read and seen over a period of many years indicates the net energy Hubbert’s Peak crisis will occur between 2016 and 2018.
And, of course, there is the matter of climate chaos (caused by industrial capitalism) pounding away at infrastructure of industrial capitalism at an ever faster rate.
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If anyone bothers, and I don’t see any reason why they should, there is no suggestion anywhere in any of MY comments that ‘the capitalist system will be taken down within 16 years’ blahblah.
Let’s get something clear. This is not about whether I am angry or sad, or whether Getty is a good father or an imbecile. The petty emotions of one human being out of 7+ billion, and all the living organisms on Earth have got to be the very LAST thing on the scale of what actually matters.
Whether or not anything can be done AT ALL is an open question.
B9K9, whose view I respect and listen to, although I think he is mistaken, argues that we are locked into this mess and may as well just make the best of it. Many other smart people share that take.
There are too many angles to cover in this comment, but what I want to say is that the more insight and understanding we can get into the exact nature of our predicament, the BETTER.
I am all in favour of taking action. But first, before acting, it is necessary to understand the situation, so that the action is appropriate. Idiotic foolish action that makes matter worse is what we see happening all the time.
The acrimony between myself and Getty was triggered because I see this blog as a place where people should be told the truth, in so far as that is possible.
Stephanie McMillan cites the meeting where the radicals and liberals show up, and after a while all the minority, the radicals, leave. I understand that dynamic very well, it’s very familiar, it’s been happening to me all of my life.
People like me, as Paul said, are ‘very odd’. I’m out numbered, about 6 million to one.
That means I have a difficult time. It’s much easier to go with the greenwash. That’s what it’s for.
Someone tries to start a revolution and the fucking Rockefellers move in and rebrand it and call it 350,org and all the useful idiots fall for the trick and run over to get the free t shirts and their free can of coke, and that’s the end of THAT revolution.
And I try and explain that to the useful idiot and they are so fucking into narcissism that they defend themselves by arguing that they really LIKE coke, and every can they buy donates 5 cents to a wildlife charity, and on the weekend they’ll all be marching in support of more windmills, blahblah.
And this has been happening now, ever since the sixties, when people marched against nuclear bombs, and the fucking liberals have never learned EVER and never achieved ANYTHING in fifty years. What’s changed ? NOTHING AT ALL.
THEY have abdicated all responsibility. For bring up their children, for being mature adults, for being educated responsible people, for taking care of the planet. But they sure care about their feelings.
The best book ever written on money, economics and capitalism, is Graeber’s.
You can listen as a free audio or pdf in the links at the bottom.
Unfortunately, he’s clueless about biology, ecology, climate, etc, so you have to know that separately and then bolt it on to his panoramic depiction from history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_first_5000_Years
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Kevin, it is true the industrial world economy could collapse within 16 years. But as it does, humanity will be going through a collapse of the systems that keep them alive. Global warming will be making everything even worse, year by year. Violence will be rampant. Hardly a time to bring in a better system. The system Will just be survival of groups here and there, and after a few more years maybe extinction. So any dream of a better economic system being put into place seems to me pure hopeful fantasy.
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Seems to me you are saying we should all give up and keep the current ecocidal system in place. No need to try and change. All ideas are stillborn. Relish the last meal while it lasts. That’s the perfect rational for those wanting to keep their privileged place in this rotten system.
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Well, this post certainly got things stirred up! The message: don’t fiddle around with the thorny branches, get in under there & cut it at the roots. Australia will make its last car in 2017, Three cheers: they kill & maim thousands, & serve to suck most into debt. It has long been observed in nature that too many of any one species in a given area opens it up for attack by other species, e. g, Fungi & beetles attack plants. Why should we humans be exempt? Regarding the Money-go-round, imaginary wealth can only buy imaginary goods & services; let them implode; let them take millions with them; even the most severe totalitarian dystopia cannot survive on an imaginary economy, no matter how many fearful slaves it has to exploit. All shall starve & die, if plague or weather do not get them before that. One could go about, assassinating this CEO & that Magnate, but to no avail, for they are but the fruit a of noxious bramble. To cut it out, roots & all, will take a cataclysm. I might not survive such a thing, but I would be glad to see it happen. I, too, have no car, no TV; know how to gather food, make bread from scratch, & so forth. I would miss the company of my present circle, yet, if I were able to pass on my accumulated knowledge & skills, I should be content. The Solar System has a few surprises up its sleeve for us, be prepared for anything.
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“Though definitions vary, in 2013 the IMF found that when “post-tax” externalities like carbon emissions, effects on health and resource scarcity were considered, global subsidies of fossil fuels rose to “$1.9 trillion worldwide – the equivalent of 2.5 percent of global GDP, or 8 percent of government revenues.” Estimates for renewable subsidies top out at a comparably measly 88 billion dollars globally.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/10
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To PFGetty: I’m having a difficult time feeling sorry for you. There is no need for me to pile on or make a point-by-point analysis. We agree on lots and disagree on some, just like everyone else. But you’ve made yourself the subject of the debate willingly and really misunderstand the nature of online fora if you expect others to treat you nicely. Utopian dream. I’m none too pleased that others have gone for the jugular, either, but I see it happen plenty, which is why I don’t reveal personal details. That’s not cowardice; it’s prudence. So I recommend you take a break, never again make yourself the subject of debate, and thereby avoid being the object of ridicule. It’s not about being right or wrong anymore. No one has that cornered.
FWIW, I love the news about the president of Uruguay. He seems well grounded. Though I’ve only seen a little bit of him, so does the new mayor of NYC, Bill de Blasio, though he’s operating at the apex of industrial civilization. Others have tried to capture the straight talk meme but have only managed to brand it.
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Hi Brutus.
That’s not cowardice; it’s prudence.
That’s quite an interesting point. Has come up a few times. I actually don’t mind throwing myself into the flames. Paul Chefurka said we’re all hiding. I said I’m NOT.
NSA and GCHQ have been reading every word I’ve written for 15 years. Who am I supposed to be hiding FROM ? Who am I supposed to be AFRAID of ? I’m a man, a human being, speaking to everyone out there.
On the other hand, I’ve been accused of being on an ego trip. Well, I’m a loud mouthed blablabla whatever they’ve called me, psychopath sociopath lunatic, etc etc.
If I’m not upsetting everybody then I’m doing something wrong.
The way I see it, everything is so totally fucked up, it ALL needs to be changed.
What Jensen and McMillan said. Start by decolonising your head. That means looking at every thought. Should this thought be re-evaluated and revised and changed into some other thought ?
If it seems that I’m all about ‘me’ there’s a whole lot of people like a pack of wolves, hyaenas, a bunch of vultures, following me all the time, who jump on me and let me know, hahaha.
I think it’s always a risk. Like in showbiz, people start to believe they are special and believe the publicity, because it’s a crazy world where people WANT to put you on a pedestal and make you a god. I think it happened to Ran Prieur, when he began writing blog posts ‘100 things you want to know about me’. I mean, who gives a fuck about the lump on his neck or what he eats for breakfast on thursdays.
S. Copeland, drummer for the Police wrote an amazing piece, years ago, about how weird people get when you become famous, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even people you’ve known for years suddenly change how they relate to you.
That’s why President of Uruguay is so unusual and remarkable. Mostly as soon as people get power and status they want to flaunt it.
Btw, Getty said I’m Mike’s attack dog. I’m not Mike’s anything. I write on my own behalf.
You said I went for the jugular, I think. I tried to be fair. I can be much nastier. The dispute arose several threads back, over the McKibben thing. Trying to explain my point, which I can back with solid evidence, and being fobbed off by Getty with nonsense, got personal.
It’s up to Mike to decide what’s acceptable here and what’s not. If people want to throw personal stuff at me, I have no objection. If Mike censures me, that’s fine, he’s the referee. I’ll abide by his rules.
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Fair lot here to which I must respond. Whereas I do go on with blog posts, I try to keep comments quite brief.
Regarding online identity, I’m no naïf. I recognize that puncturing my assumed name is as simple as tracking a handful of IP addresses I use, but your typical end-user doesn’t see those. I’m quite certain there’s a file on me, but I’m harmless. More importantly, I’d rather my employer not read what I write. You see, I have a life to live still and am not in possession of any special information (e.g., Snowden) that would require I expose and exile myself. Out of conscience, I’ve adopted a set of limitations that makes sense to me, but I’m not a hermit or a pariah. I struggle daily with my energy use and participation in various institutions of modern life, but I’m under no illusion that anything I do matters a whit or that solutions, however partial, are available to which I might subscribe. It’s all subject to constant reevaluation, too.
Regarding celebrity, I’m sure you’ve read what I’ve written on my own blog about those whose celebrity became their ruin. Quite literally, woe be unto me should I ever develop a readership that feeds my ego with effusive praise like those of, say, Ran Prieur or James Howard Kunstler. For that same reason, I’ve never praised xraymike publicly, who lets me blog here; others cover that area amply.
Regarding your own contributions, I respect truth-telling amid all the disinformation, misinformation, and misinterpretation of information. Sometimes you’re inelegant and spiteful, but selfishly, since it’s not directed at me (yet), I tend to laugh because cutting through all the B.S. and illusions has some value. It’s decolonizing one’s head, as you said. (I worry sometimes that critics who say doomers fetishize the absolute worst case scenarios might indeed have my number, but then, what could possibly be worse that what’s actually going on now?) The personal attacks flowing various directions are needless overkill to making your real points, but it’s quite easy to get sucked into personalities (just like celebrity), including one’s own. But I don’t get to choose how you write or relate. I can do that for myself only.
And finally, no one is anyone’s attack dog. I skim over most of that ugliness when it comes up. I’ve been through round after round of it when some world event disturbs our psyches (which are interconnected, I might point out). That we few are now all disturbed prospectively, waiting for the shoe to drop, is a curiosity, I think. How we respond reveals our characters. I’d like to hold my head up with some dignity while I can.
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@ Brutus
Regarding your own contributions, I respect truth-telling amid all the disinformation, misinformation, and misinterpretation of information……But I don’t get to choose how you write or relate. I can do that for myself only.
I see you as a highly intelligent and well educated fellow and we’ve had some stimulating exchanges. I may well appear inelegant, spiteful, selfish. Everybody has their criticism of me. I actually have quite a tight code by which I operate. I’m all in favour of respect for everyone and solidarity with brothers and sisters and all that.
But in practice, respect is earned, and if someone wants to fight with me, that’s fine, but then they shouldn’t complain if they get hurt, or lose. I’ll try and help anybody understand and answer any questions on any subjects as best I can. I don’t like bullshit. I’m in no mood to be told what’s what by clueless people who have no insight or understanding and who have not paid their dues. I know my stuff and I know it really well, and I learned it the hard way.
music…
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Prophetic words…
Mujica blasted consumerism and called for political heads to rule the globalized world
In a fiery speech before the UN General Assembly, Uruguayan president Jose Mujica criticized consumerism and waste, electronic surveillance which ‘poisons’ relations among nations, called for a true globalization and blasted individual greed which has “far outstripped the superior greed of the human specie”…
…Mujica pointed out that “we have flattened the true jungles and implanted those of cement” and recalled that what really transcend are “love, friendship, solidarity and the family” and thus what must be determinant “is life and not accumulation”, the direct consequence of rampant consumerism…
…Likewise Mujica called on the assembly to understand that the indigents of the world “are not from Africa or Latinamerica, they belong to the whole of humanity, of the overall total of the specie, and an example of the failure of the succumbed politics.
And with a more philosophical and ethical emphasis, Mujica admitted, “Yes a better world with a better humanity is possible. However our main duty right now is to save human life”.
Mujica who presented himself ‘as a man who had come from the south’, over and over attacked consumerism, accumulation in a globalized society which “does not care about the human being or life”…
…“I come from the south and with the duty to struggle for a large motherland for all and for Colombia to find its path to peace. With the command of fighting for tolerance” said Mujica who at the same time regretted ‘humanity has sacrificed the old immaterial gods” while the temple is taken over by ‘God market’.
“It all seems we were born to consume, consume and consume and when we can’t, we are loaded with frustration, with poverty and self exclusion”.
“We are proposing a life of waste and squandering which in reality is a regressive bill. A civilization against simplicity, against society, against all nature cycles, and even worse a civilization against freedom which means having free time to enjoy human relations and only transcendent: love, friendship, adventure, solidarity and family”.
“The little man of our days, faithfully every day to his job, to his office, consuming, consuming, spending with plastic, with credit, with instalments, hoping for vacations and never enjoying true life, and when he dies, with his funeral service in instalments, he is replaced by another little man with the same mind-frame”.
Mujica said the world desperately needs global legislation that respects the achievements and advances of science, and with science and the art of politics, the world should be ruled, ‘not by the cusp of finance which promotes accumulation and credit for more accumulation’.
“And this will go on with wars and fanatics, and fundamentalists, until maybe nature calls on us into order and makes our civilization unviable”…
…Finally the Uruguayan leader said that “the species should have a government for the whole of humanity above individualisms and that it struggles for the recreation of political heads, because as things are “instead of governing globalization, globalization is ruling over us, which is also evidence of the failure or lack of politics”….
Capitalism increased our culture of selfishness: José Mujica
(with english subtitles)
1-29-2014
Note to Paul: Whenever you have calmed down, I’ll uncensor you. Just let me know in the comments section. Otherwise, you could just give us the big middle finger and forget about this site… Up to you.
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I must say that McMillan’s screed sure touched some nerves. It even Motivated me to stick my head in here (which I usually don’t. You all do fine without me) Taking quick stock of myself I have to say that I have considered myself a closet revolutionary most of my adult life. Aside from the somewhat lame stuff I participated in during the late sixties and early seventies nothing much came of it.
My feeling is: If we are going out anyway, why not go down in flames? This thought has made me do some personal inventory to see what I have left that will disrupt the big C or at least annoy them. We’ll see. It might be good for some laughs.
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ulvfugl wrote:
‘…. the more insight and understanding we can get into the exact nature of our predicament, the BETTER….
….I see this blog as a place where people should be told the truth, in so far as that is possible.’
Yes. For me it’s all about discovering and speaking the truth, in a world dominated by liars.
We’ve seen the cartoon: Inconvenient truth -no takers; Comforting lies -a long queue. When people in the latter queue start to die in sufficient numbers we may see some change.
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Email from a reader:
It’s been very dismaying for me to check in this morning and see the nasty kind of sniping in the more recent comments. More of that competing over purity shit, as if we weren’t all hopelessly entwined in a system of evil. Why does this temptation constantly snag people who should know better? I certainly don’t envy you having to moderate while not losing people. I always enjoy uv…’s comments but he really does cross the line way too often. What does he hope to gain by alienating people who try and find a little mental comfort online when everyone in meat world works so hard on denial? Is the community of the partially aware just too big for him?
I don’t doubt pfgetty has all kinds of inner conflict over his son and his life choices, but seriously people, empirical evidence has shown for a VERY long time that parents don’t raise their kids, it’s their social circle that does that. And what parents really get to choose that circle? Paul has written about the hideous social environment he lives in. What sort of freak would his son have had to be NOT to grow up chasing what he is now chasing, futile and meaningless as it is? I think that comment that caused such an uproar may have been more a sort of hopeless recognition of things, not a defense as such. I read it back at the time he posted it and yes it gave me pause as well. I’m a judgmental SOB, but I also am an uncle and a son and I know all too well just how little the adults really have to say about what the youngsters end up doing. (My dad is a fascist fundamentalist who spent his work life as part of military intelligence, most likely as part of Gladio, yet I turned out as a gay commie atheist lol.) I see Paul as trying to make the best of his situation, which to me includes being the parent of someone willingly and even perhaps militantly deluded. That must be painful as hell. Why shun him from a place where he can be open about what keeps him lonely?
In real life I am extremely blunt and even my friends call me caustic, but they also value that they always know where I’m coming from. Online it’s a different story entirely, I am extremely anxious not to be so blunt, it’s just too easy to be misunderstood or give offense in this restricted medium. And when these things happen, I’m far from distant about it; I get extremely agitated and worry about fixing things. I don’t understand how people can be so ugly online as if it were risk free.
In that light, I’d rather not have my essay on ignorance be published lol, too easy to target as immoral and cowardly or whatever. Which of course it is in many senses. Its merely me being honest about how hard and lonely it is to not exist in denial at least some of the time. But I would be pretty upset if people decided to transfer their frustration onto me, even if criticisms would be quite valid.
I just finished reading Jorg Friedrich’s ‘The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”, excellent and sober reading. His chapter on denial and why it is a rational choice should be required reading by all doomers/collapsarians. It explains a lot. If I get up the courage and energy, I’ll try to write a brief summary of it and post it as a comment or send it to you. But you should read the book anyway for yourself. I got the library to purchase a copy, makes me happy now that others can read it too.
Keep up the writing, especially the critique of capitalism. It has long disturbed and disappointed me that there seems to be so very little overlap between the educated marxists that I know and the educated environmentalists that I know (or read). Without exception, the marxists I know in real life are as deluded about our actual planetary situation as the most avid capitalists around us. Tragic. It may be that it is the environmentalists who will have to expand on their knowledge base first and ‘recruit’ the reds. Won’t make a difference really, not here at least, but it opens the eyes to options, especially for the younger and braver in the periphery.
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Interesting comment.
I always enjoy uv…’s comments but he really does cross the line way too often. What does he hope to gain by alienating people who try and find a little mental comfort online when everyone in meat world works so hard on denial? Is the community of the partially aware just too big for him?
Which line is that ?
I’m not circumscribed by ANY lines. I’m not here to fit anybody’s expectations.
I’m not TRYING to gain anything. I don’t care whether people find comfort. I’m not a nanny or a therapist.
Paul trying to smear me by making out that I am hypocritical, that I’m just as much a supporter of capitalism as everyone else, blahblah.
This was so wide of the mark in so many ways, that it deserved the response that it got.
First it has nothing to do with the topic, it’s just ad hom following on from the previous thread. Sure almost everyone is a victim of capitalism one way or another, even if only through climate change if you live in the Amazon and have never contacted the dominant global culture yet. Point I just made, of someone WANTS a fight, then fight, but don’t complain if you get hurt. Getty is yelling about how unfair it is that his feelings are bruised. Well poor old Getty. Has anybody noticed this is virtual reality, and no bones actually get broken. Ffs, some of you people are so fucked up and out of touch with the real world it’s beyond belief.
Btw I agree re many old time Marxists who don’t have a clue about the environment, climate, etc.
Here’s Jensen and Hedges talking about McKibben
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“I’m not circumscribed by ANY lines. I’m not here to fit anybody’s expectations.”
C’mon u, do you hear yourself? Are these statements not the epitome of the hubristic capitalist mindset that has brought us to the brink? The very types of attitudes that bring calamity to individuals and collectives? Isn’t the resistance to recognizing lines and limitations exactly the problem?!?
We are all here to find comfort. Otherwise we’d have way better things to do than spend time bemoaning the fate of the earth online. We sure as hell aren’t changing anything, nor could we, nor will we. We are irrelevant and useless in a fundamental way when it comes to the big picture. We each individually have to wrestle with the ethical implications of that understanding and make decisions about what we do anyway. Activism, volunteerism, Deep Green Resistance, writing books, blogs, comments, planting flowers, whatever it is. Or nothing at all, perhaps nothing more than lurking here and reading the words of others. So fucking what? I’m glad Kevin works so hard in his town in NZ. I’m glad ulvfugi writes what he does 99% of the time at NBL (you are the reason I even spent time lurking there reading posts at all), I’m glad pgetty marches in his neck of Amerikkka. Nobody gets to assume the burden of ranking what we do or announcing the scores.
I feel no shame in seeking comfort with a few like minded people on the intertubes. Its a nice break from porn. And yeah, people here sometimes say all kinds of shit that might rub me the wrong way, or come across as clueless or hypocritical. So fucking what? Unless its relevant to the topic at hand, or provides a way of examining yet more ways we are shaped and distorted by capitalism, let it go. ‘Fighting’ online isn’t fighting, its just spewing ugly words that are meant to make someone feel bad, nothing more. When we are limited to language, what we CAN do is debate, which isn’t fighting at all. Debate is fantastic, but there are rules and limitations and lines and structures in the world of debate. Respect them. If what we want to say is hot and personal and we can’t let it go, buy the other person a plane ticket and take it to the bar and let the fists fly, have someone tape it and post it so we can watch; otherwise step away from the keyboard and take a walk or have a wank. You’ll feel better.
You know what they can’t do in hunter gatherer societies? Act like assholes, make claims about not being subject to lines and expectations, and disregard the feelings of others. People were under constant surveillance by their peers, gossip was all there was to do and necessary for social cohesion. You played by the rules and when you stepped out of line, you went through the socially constructed forms of humility required to set things right. Or else. Anybody with pretensions got schooled fast, or they were killed or exiled, which meant pretty much the same thing. People who became worthy of respect and acted as ‘leaders’ of a sort were those who showed the most skill in forms of social intelligence and empathy, not those who claimed special ability or superiority. Dictatorship of the many. Community as discipline, individually and collectively. Oppressive, modest, and secure, all at the same time.
Much of what happens in these forums (as well as the vast majority of online life in general) is Exhibit A as to why exactly WE WILL NOT BE THE ONES that create something better. Too fucked up, fundamentally and terminally. No redemption on the horizon, certainly not among those who think they are part of a ‘transition’.
If all we get to do here is imagine other paths not taken in history, or fantasize about what forms society might take among whatever remnants of humanity inhabit this brutalized earth, why not try to police ourselves, kill the belligerent sociopaths that capitalism has created inside each of us. There are plenty of targets for righteous rage and savage dissection all around us, no need to turn it towards each other in a pointless way. Its tedious and embarrassing. If people seem incapable of self policing, then some good old fashioned shaming and shunning should be considered and repentance required.
Enough ranting. Baking a cake at the moment, going to eat some now and then watch old Game of Thrones.
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Hahaha, well, thanks, Eric, but I think you’re missing the point of what I meant.
Btw, I don’t watch porn, or Game of Thrones, or partake of any of the stuff that you depict.
Are these statements not the epitome of the hubristic capitalist mindset that has brought us to the brink? The very types of attitudes that bring calamity to individuals and collectives? Isn’t the resistance to recognizing lines and limitations exactly the problem?!?
No, quite the opposite. First you have to get FREE from the dominant prevailing cultural paradigm. That’s what I meant by decolonising your mind.
I can’t speak for Jensen or McMillan, I can only speak for myself, but there’s plenty of others who have spoken about this, e.g. T McKenna ‘Culture is not your friend’ etc.
I did it via zen buddhism, which I see as a teaching which teaches how to de-condition yourself, and get free from religion and ideology, what I prefer to call belief systems, because I think that embraces ALL of ’em, including science.
Of course, zen buddhism (which is actually a child of buddhism and taoism) is also a belief system, but I see it as being a very unusual belief system, in that it’s goal is liberation from belief systems.
So, you get free from social conditioning, from indoctrination, from ‘being normal’.
It takes quite a long time. That’s one of the problems. We don’t have ‘quite a long time’ anymore. Maybe ayahuasca is a more effective route. Maybe people just have to muddle along. Point is to wake up. Get free from the zombified infantile state.
People then expect some weird ‘enlightement’ or some weird ‘sainthood’ or some other ‘special’ person to emerge. That’s another load of rubbish.
You ‘expect’ ME to fit some criterion that you hold. Why ?
You are satisfied or disatisified if I don’t match your expectation. But I’m not on this planet to match ANYTHING, or to suit ANYBODY.
Look, I’m out of the mainstream dominant culture. But even if this was your traditional hunter gatherer soceity that you’ve read all about in the books that you’ve studied, you’re quite correct, I’d not be living in the village, they’d never tolerate me, I’d be five miles out, in a cave, and people would speak of me in hushed tones, because they be a bit scared of me, they’d visit me for special serious stuff, when there was problems, when they were in difficulty, when they needed to decide something that they couldn’t handle.
But nobody would really like me, because I’m the crazy shaman guy, who has some strange power that they don’t understand, that they respect and honour and treat with some reverence, but they don’t want it in their casual every day relaxed loves, do they, cause it’s too heavy and spooky and serious, it’s for special occasions, like the Pythean Oracle, or whatever.
There’s no place for that role in modern soceity. Where you gonna go for your guidance on the time of turmoil and tribulation ? Hahaha
You think I’m not capable of policing myself ? Look, I’ve got more self discipline than you can possibly comprehend. I think you have no idea. This is Mike’s show. He does the policing.
I don’t see any of this as being about fantasies about alternative possibilities. I see it about educating people, so they get insight and understanding, as to the real nature of our predicament.
Whether we actually do anything to change things, or what might happen in the future or any other speculation is something completely different.
Let us analyse and discuss and understand. I do happen to know an awful lot about this stuff because I’ve been involved with it for much of my life, so I’m happy to contribute whatever i can say that might be useful or helpful.
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This is spooky:
https://mobile.twitter.com/MarketWatch/status/433292343773773824/photo/1?screen_name=MarketWatch
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It is indeed. The Minsky Moment is nearly upon us. Please consider keeping some hard cash at home. It will be useful in the short-term.
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But there are lessons here for radical movements much more widely.
To what extent are our choices of tactics informed by our own desires to appear radical or daring, rather than an assessment of their effectiveness? What happens when activist “lifestyles” alienate those who are politically sympathetic but socially “mainstream”?
Some of the more specific issues also expose the dynamics of the Israeli Zionist mainstream, and provide a useful counter to narratives which separate the actions of the Israeli state or the army from “ordinary Israelis.”
“We’re all responsible”
One contributor clearly states, “To me, Israeli citizens are the ones to point the finger at; they are the ones who elected these politicians … they … are the ones who do not revolt against racism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing … despite this powerful indoctrination, we are all responsible for our actions.”
Personal accounts contradict the idea that activists have to be “red-diaper babies” or social loners. Many are “normal” people who, whether through slow processes of radicalization or “road-to-Damascus” incidents, have faced up to the inconsistencies on which their privileged positions depend.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/can-occupiers-struggle-alongside-occupied/13137
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I’ve been reading, thinking and processing all day. Much food for thought and I’ve been working on what I want to say as I was part of the interchange involving Paul that went on here. I’m trying to compose a thorough and well thought out response.
In the meantime i did want to say that U got the main thrust of what I was attempting to address (in my own rambling way). Our (elders, parents, etc) responsibility and need to guide our youth even in the midst of IC and collapse. The verdict of the Texas Affluenza case hit me hard. There is no accountability here. And I wonder if the same outcome would have been reached if the defendant’s background was vastly different?
Then I compare this young man to Stephanie and I have to look into my own soul. We have failed the young in so many ways. I keep thinking that we owe them something more (for the time remaining) than what we have left them.
My feelings and mood were captured very well in the piece “Exploding the Myth About Why We Can Change” from Survival Acres. This piece focuses on why we won’t change even when things get really bad. I can’t argue with his conclusions. It made it clear to me more than ever why all my efforts resulted in the outcome (complete failure) they did and why I am filled with despair.
Another piece which had a profound effect on me was linked to a few weeks ago on RobinWesternra’s site by Thomas Sheridan. I’d never heard of Sheridan and looked at his site afterwards. Came away confused by his other writings.
Nevertheless, I loved the piece he wrote on Obsessive Debunking Disorder and am looking into the books he referenced. Last I understood about the left brain/right brain functions were along the lines of Betty Edwards. It seems there has been much more work in that area that leads to the importance of both sides of the brain working with each other.
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2014/01/debunking-debunkers.html
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This whole interchange has me thinking about my relationship with my own son. The discussion that he and I had some years ago is what stunned me into confusion.
My son is very intelligent, mild mannered, empathetic and completely deluded. When I asked him why he thought he was here, he answered: I’m on vacation. I’ve already done everything that I needed to do in former lives. Now I’m just hanging out.
I asked if he didn’t feel some need to engage with the rest of humanity in making this a better place for the generations which may follow and his answer was: I’d rather work on my comic collection. (He is a new grandfather and his main interests in life are his comics and movies. Damn!)
The question which I ask myself is how have I failed him?
_________
Much of what has been said here by various posters resonates with me. In real life I come across to those around me much as the big U does in the inter-waves. I am blunt, abrasive, opinionated, aggressive, and ‘Right’. My wife tells me often that I lapse into lecture mode at the drop of a hat. She can ask me what time it is and I will answer with some esoterica about the invention of the clock and how our concept of time has evolved through the centuries.
Strangely enough I find that my behavior and attitude changes when I interact online. I try to be respectful of others and attempt to see things from alternate points of view. I don’t become offended by what others say and censor my emotional reactions. That is somewhat different than what I commonly see on the internet. Because of the anonymity many see it as an opportunity to play at alternate personalities for awhile and resort to juvenile bullying (not that anyone here does that of course).
I have often wondered what it would be like to have all of us misfits in the same room to probe the deep questions which we all find so critical. I know that we all feel deeply their importance because we’re here.
In the end, whatever the cost in bruised egos offended sensibilities, I find the discussion valuable and enlightening. It is good for at least some of us to involve ourselves in a journey of our ‘peers’ because, at least in my own case I have generally no one to talk to about what is coming down on us like a hammer (however invisible that hammer is to others).
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Over on NBL forum I started a thread about Horses. One of the authors, forget which, quotes a story. Observing wild horse behaviour. Young horses have to be taught how to behave. The survival of the herd is more important than any one individual. A mare whose son will not ‘listen’ drives him away from the herd. This is the most frightening thing, because his instincts tell him to stay with the herd for safety. She keeps driving him away. He keeps trying to turn and go back, but his mother keeps on driving him away, for 12 MILES, scaring the SHIT out of him, before she’ll let him go back. She’s telling him, that unless he obeys and conforms to the rules, he is going to be banished and that’ll mean he’ll forfeit the safety of the herd and be eaten by a lion or whatever and so it’s basically a death sentence. He doesn’t know about the lion, but he knows about the fear.
Now, we are some crazy species of primate. When we are simple small groups of hunter gatherers we probably knew similar ways to discipline our wild monkey children and things were fairly straightforward.
Once you scale up to mega-tribes and the modern State, invented in recent centuries, which takes over responsibility for education, away from parents and local communities, the whole thing changes.
Maybe what’s happened, now we have a mess. Bernays/Hitler and even before that, way back in Prussia, the idea was to take the kids from the parents, indoctrinate them, make a nationalist tribe that would cohere to fight other states. That began because Prussia was beaten by Napoleon. Lot of that thinking went to USA. Lot of that thinking goes right back to ancient Sparta.
The Spartan system was a ruthless military class and subordinate slave class.
That’s what you’ve got in USA. An underclass which is dumbed down, confused, fed on crap, exploited in every way. And an elite class, that isn’t bound by the laws that are applied to the underclass. The slave class in Sparta were subjected to random terror and violence, just to keep them in a constant state of insecurity.
How much of this has been deliberate conscious policy, how much just chaotic fuck up, is sort of hard to tell. John Taylor Gatto.
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I know where the British Empire sprang from, the idea came from John Dee, Elizabeth Ist’s wizard, and then got fleshed out from the Roman and Greek classics as they got retrieved. And the origins of the American Empire are fairly clear, the ideas of the Founding Fathers are quite well documented, I suppose you guys are fortunate, we all are, that they didn’t try to mimic the Aztec model, hahaha, but I’ve never discovered why the Prussians decided to follow the Spartan model.
I mean, if you want to set up a new system, why would you choose one of the most brutal and sadistic examples ever known, to emulate ? Why would you hate your own kinsmen so much that you’d want to inflict something like that on them ? I don’t know whose idea it was, but it lead to WW1 and then that same insanity lead to WW2 and that same insanity got taken to USA and gave us much of the insanity we have today.
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Kinsmen? The serfs/tenants were Slavs. Simple as that.
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Oh, great, thanks so much, can you educate me more on that please ?
Slavs = slaves, yes ? Am I correct it was response to shock of defeat by French ?
So where did the idea originate ? Any good sources you can point me to, save time ?
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I’m not a German historian. At all. I’ll give you generalities off the top of my head and it might be useful to you or not. And I’ll be just as pleased if you show me where I’m wrong.
My first response was just to the notion that Prussians did horrible Spartan shit to their kinsmen. The cannon fodder was Polish and Lithuanian. In western areas of Prussia there would have been German ethnics as peasants and as recruits. Still fucking peasants. Not family. The Eastern Marches of Prussia, the most military part of Prussia, were a parodic two class system where class reflected ethnicity, period.
The Prussian military system is usually referred back to Frederick the Great. Did the French ever defeat him? I don’t know that they did but you can educate me. Fred died in 1786, before the French Revolution. Napoleon was still a boy on Corsica. Any brief read about Frederick II makes him kind of a monster by current standards but he was a big hero all through the 19th century and Herr Hitler adored him.
You might be interested in walking Prussian history back to the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights. That will take you to founding myth/history of Viking raiders and piracy. There are black magic legends around the Teutonic Knights, from the little I don’t know about it I’ve always thought that was just based on Norse violence subduing the peasants, putting the fear of God in them quick.
Sure, Slav and slave are cognates. Had to re-type with the capitalization to avoid confusion. It’s my impression, not my erudite and certain knowledge, that Prussian military brutality was just racism visited on the nearest available untermenschen. Which would have been the Polish and Lithuanian tenants.
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Thanks so much, JCW, I appreciate that help.
Maybe it goes way back, this is very KKK-ish,
Free Mason-ish, aryan supremacy, all that.
Any free man “of pure bred German stock”[6] and of good character could become a judge. The new candidate was given secret information and identification symbols. The “knowing one” (German: Wissende) had to keep his knowledge secret, even from his closest family (“vor Weib und Kind, vor Sand und Wind”). Lay judges had to give formal warnings to known troublemakers, issue warrants, and take part in executions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehm
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Whatever else about the chaos and complexity of our cultural situation I can’t argue with your conclusions big U. We can nit pick many of the details, but the fact remains that we as a species have always had a major hand in digging the pit of our own despair. Now what?
What has been in the back of my mind for some time, but which has come to the front in recent days is the amount of time I spend researching, reading, surfing the net, trying to ‘educate’ myself in various disciplines wondering of what practical use any of it actually has in my life. Yet I keep opening that issue of Science like it is a drug to which I am chained. I guess I’ll just have to find time to piss occasionally.
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I love that phrase: digging the pit of our own despair. I warn that I’m gonna steal it and use it somewhere.
buz painter sez: … time I spend researching, reading, surfing the net, trying to ‘educate’ myself in various disciplines wondering of what practical use any of it actually has in my life.
This calls to mind the debate between professional and liberal arts styles of education. The former is remorselessly practical, whereas the latter is modestly impractical. One leads, often as not, to lots of money; the other leads to knowledge, understanding, and perhaps wisdom. It’s pretty obvious which is currently enjoying the favor of those seeking education.
If we orient ourselves around the notion of a life worth living, however, or the examined life, the rewards of educating oneself are intrinsic. Some might object that such an orientation is pure snobbery and elitism, which may be partially true. OTOH, big piles of money possess none of the beauty of a well-turned phrase, a flash of insight, or even clear, sober foreknowledge of doom. Rather, fortunes are merely crass, and their owners themselves become equally crass at some point.
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@ buzz, PMB, Brutus, J.C.W.
I’ll try and write something for you, I can’t reply here, thanks for the inspiration and stimulation, may take me a couple of weeks, I’ll let you know.
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I’ve given up writing, too many cans of worms, too long, turned into something else, I’ll have to try a different approach, but I thought you might like this from the comment here.
..these were the guys who refused to carry out universal conscription in pre-1914 Germany, because it would have forced them to dilute the aristocratic character of the office corps.
http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/who_needs_world_war_i
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They cheat and steal and lie because they can.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/11/barclays-hikes-bonuses-profits-slide
Barclays condemned over £2.4bn bonuses
Payouts up 10% despite profits fall and job cuts
Bank’s boss says he cannot control market-led pay
Jill Treanor
The Guardian, Tuesday 11 February 2014 20.28 GMT
Barclays Bank
Barclays has made £5.2bn profit in 2013, lower than in 2012. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
Barclays faced condemnation on Tuesday after announcing a 10% rise in bonus payouts despite a dramatic fall in profits and plans to cut 12,000 jobs this year.
The bank’s new boss, Antony Jenkins, came under intense pressure after being accused of failing on promises made only a year ago to clamp down on pay and change the culture of the bank after its £290m fine for rigging Libor.
The TUC accused the bank of “sticking two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain”, while the Unite union was furious at further cuts at the retail bank, which could harm customer service.
But the harshest words came from the Institute of Directors, whose corporate governance director Roger Barker asked “for whom is this institution being run?” after the bank paid out £2.4bn in bonuses but just £860m in dividends to shareholders. The bank disputes that figure, but refused to say exactly how much it is paying out to shareholders, which has been complicated by last year’s £5.8bn rights issue, forced upon Barclays by the Bank of England to boost its financial strength.
The main investor body, the Association British of Insurers, refused to respond to Barker’s accusation that investors were “supine” in failing to control pay at Barclays.
The position of the bank’s chair of remuneration committee Sir John Sutherland – appointed to the role only 18 months ago – was also questioned. Sunderland is entering his 10th year on the board, after which he is technically no longer deemed independent.
The total bonus pay for 2013 is £2.4bn – up from £2.2bn a year ago. Within that, the investment bankers enjoyed bonuses of £1.6bn compared with £1.4bn a year ago, even though their division suffered a loss in the fourth quarter and its annual profits tumbled 37%. Profits across the group, which also includes high street banking, Barclaycard and operations in Africa, fell 32% to £5.2bn.
On a statutory basis – including accounting quirks and other one-off items – the profits were higher, at £2.9bn.
Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: “Barclays has stuck two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain by announcing another multibillion-pound bonus pool.” Labour said its bonus tax should be reintroduced.
Jenkins, who has waived his own £2.7m bonus, insisted he had the support of shareholders for the higher bonuses, which had to be paid because he had no control over market-led pay. He also insisted the bank was acting within the “spirit and letter” of the law by paying monthly “allowances” to key staff who might otherwise face pay cuts as a result of the new EU cap on bonuses, which will limit payouts next year to 100% of salary, or 200% if shareholders approve.
“We employ people from Singapore to San Francisco. We compete in global markets for talent. If we are to act in the best interests of our shareholders we have to make sure we have the best people in the firm,” Jenkins said.
The average bonus per member of staff, across the bank, is £17,000, up from £15,600. However, the average payout in the investment banking operation is £60,100, up from £54,500 – including payouts to low level and administrative staff. The bonuses to the highest paid staff will be revealed next month when the bank publishes its annual report. Last year, it handed more than £1m to 428 of its bankers.
Jenkins said 820 senior roles – or 10% – would be cut. He also disputed concerns about the impact of job cuts on customer service. Seven thousand of the 12,000 job cuts will be in the UK but not all in the high street.
“The reason why we’re doing this is not because we’re trying to deliver poorer customer service, actually quite the reverse. Customers can now do their banking when its convenient to them, not … us. Technology allows [us] to reduce headcount,” said Jenkins.
There was no programme for branch closures, he said, but conceded the 1,700-strong network was changing.
Vince Cable, the business secretary, said: “We need a responsible banking sector [that] rejects the bonus-fuelled culture of the past and puts the needs of consumers and businesses at the heart of what they do.”
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, said Barclays’ shareholders needed to ask if the pay was justified by the bank’s returns to shareholders.
Even the presentation to City analysts was dominated by questions about bonuses and the investment bank. “Analysts were “perplexed” and “disappointed” by the investment bank pay rises,” said independent analyst Louise Cooper.
A year ago, when Jenkins announced his plan to turn Barclays into the “go to” bank, the shares rose 9% to 327p. On Tuesday, they were the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100, ending nearly 4% lower at 264p. The dividend was held at 6.5p for the year.
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Published on Tuesday, February 11, 2014 by Common Dreams
‘XL Dissent’: Students Plan Mass Direct Action on Obama’s Doorstep
Youth-led day of civil disobedience will denounce Keystone XL pipeline and the president’s “all-of-the-above” fossil fuel energy strategy
– Jon Queally, staff writer
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/11-6
“We are young, awaiting a future fraught with uncertainty. This will not deter us from participating in an act of civil disobedience. Indeed it has compelled us to organize one.” —’XL Dissent’ manifesto
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AMY GOODMAN: Today, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power is set to hold a hearing on President Obama’s plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. EPA chief Gina McCarthy and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz are scheduled to testify about why the plan is necessary. Out of the 17 Republican members of the committee, 14 of them have publicly disputed the existence of climate change.
Bill McKibben, do you feel there have been advances in awareness of climate change? Talk about the activism you’re engaged in right now.
BILL McKIBBEN: I think what’s going on is the fight is sharpening, OK? People are getting engaged, and the fight over the Keystone pipeline is a good example. When we started this two years ago, everybody said, “Oh, it’s a done deal. You’ve got no chance.” But people all over the country stood up—this leaderless, sprawling, interesting movement.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/18/bill_mckibben_obama_can_salvage_his
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http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/11/the_sixth_extinction_elizabeth_kolbert_on
The Sixth Extinction: Elizabeth Kolbert on How Humans Are Causing Largest Die-Off Since Dinosaur Age
Video
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AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play for you a clip of Congressmember Paul Broun. He’s of Georgia, chair of the oversight and investigations for House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. This is video of him speaking in 2012 at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia.
REP. PAUL BROUN: I’ve come to understand that all that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology, Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior. You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I’ve found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Republican Congressmember Paul Broun of Georgia, denying climate change exists, coming up right now.
REP. PAUL BROUN: Now we hear all the time about global warming. Well, actually, we’ve had a flat line temperatures globally for the last eight years. Scientists all over this world say that the idea of human-induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax.
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might just go out & buy a copy of Pure Heroine
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Good for her. The system will ensure this stuff and this thinking doesn’t go viral. I’ve watched for ten years as a enormously important and shocking story has been essentially kept from the public. They can do it.
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Not sure what the truth is, but I just read this on a blog:
This article says it is posted under satire, sarcasm and snoofs. It didn’t happen. But I guess this is a smart way for this blogger to get their message to go viral. No censorship here however. Wouldn’t make sense for them to have all the cited sources for her speech, now would it.
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You may be right: http://www.mech.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/locateastaffmember He is not on this list, nor does his name appear anywhere else but in that. I shall dig a little deeper,in future,Thank You
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Have not had time to read it myself, but the following study was posted by Nate Hagens and the moniker he gave it was “The Rich are Dumber than the Poor.”
Click to access mangino14.pdf
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One must first assume that completing a college degree is realistically valuable in gaining awareness of the human condition. We have invested some energy here in proposing that the ‘education’ system is structured to turn out zombified slaves to the system. Why would it be any different for advanced degrees? The study resulted in real data. Now what does the data actually mean?
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This all falls in line with a blog post I did here:
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, we’re all capitalists. Today 7.2 billion. Soon 10 billon humans, all with a Capitalist Gene that says “me first, climate later.” Human nature. Basic psychology, evolutionary biology, brain science. When the chips are down, our instinctual, fight-or-flight gut reaction for self-preservation wins. Protect yourself, your family.
Yes, you may want a sustainable planet for future generations. Maybe you drive a hybrid. Recycle. Eat organic. Maybe you’re even on a crusade to save the planet or save civilization from eventual collapse. Save the environment from global-warming disasters: melting arctic glaciers, rain forests disappearing, urban smog, toxic pesticides, dying species, deserts killing farm lands, ozone burning, lost energy reserves, diseases, pandemics.
That’s capitalism at work. And we’re all capitalists. Soon we’ll pass a point of no return, with 10 billion on Planet Earth, unprepared, still demanding, burning energy, exhausting scarce resources, driven by our inner instinctual, me-first Capitalist Gene. Why? All warnings about climate change, global warming and environmental threats will never be as immediate and strong as our “daily bread” need, thirst and hunger pains, kids crying for a meal, a drink today.
More: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-our-capitalist-gene-is-pushing-us-to-destruction-2014-02-12
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Just one last note from an anonymous observer of this thread (bold emphasis mine):
I guess it surprises me, but maybe it shouldn’t, that there seems to be a need to explicitly remind people that: language is a social construct, thus blogging is a social construct; posting on blogs is a social action; social MEANS fucking social, with norms, rules, standards, and responsibilities, explicit and implicit. If people are too damaged and clueless to have some idea of when they’ve crossed the line (or that there are indeed lines), then it should be pointed out to them. Everybody will make mistakes, so no need for crucifixion, but there are ways to gently remind people to grow the fuck up. And if they can’t, they can go play somewhere else.
I certainly am not making a case for smarm or some sort of touchy feely Kumbaya way of communicating on the blog or in any forum. Fuck that lame oppressive pseudo-progressive bullshit. I just think there should be consequences for people who clearly move beyond debate and disclosure into trolling, when it’s about them and not about anything else. Insulting words and language, accusations that shut down discussion, claims of superiority and ownership of some so-called objective ranking system of purity or innocence, it’s all trolling. There are ways to disclose, ways to share opinions, ways to point out space for growth and learning in ourselves and others. They are created by the people who participate and anyone who isn’t autistic will pick on them after some time and observation. None of those involve insults and attacks.
Anarchy doesn’t mean freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want and in whatever way you want. That is sociopathic childish Randian libertarian bullshit. A particularly prevalent American disease, but clearly infections exist around the world. Capitalism may select for those people and reward them, but letting these types co-opt and tyrannize the few places created to escape/critique capitalism is ridiculous and stupid. Again, community and the social–even the virtual kind that mostly exists in the individual minds of those who participate–requires discipline and responsibility. It shouldn’t just fall to you to police things, it should be community action among the peers who take part that keeps things from spinning out of control.
Too many fucking wannabe gurus and shamans out there, too many opportunists and manipulators, too much nauseating New Age bullshit that pretends not to be about power and control when that is exactly what it is about. Especially among those who claim to be ‘outside’ mainstream culture and oh so superior to it. And way, way, way too much fucking shiny gold star on the forehead seeking, like we are in grade school. ‘Look at me, I mind melded with the True Earth Spirit, I only eat free range organic watercress and never masturbate, I’ve freed myself from all social evil and I want my gold star to prove that I’m better than you.’ And then way too much bland acquiescence to the great lie that selfishness (except for the proclaimed enlightened) is just human nature, it’s why we are doomed. It’s why the internet isn’t a nice place either, Boo Hoo. Nice little circle jerk of justification.
Empathy doesn’t imply childishness, weakness or vapid relativism where we all just wanna feel okay. It’s hard work, it’s a skill, it must be developed even if we usually are born with an innate ability for it. It’s much, much harder to do when we are not facing each other in the real world as mammals and after a lifetime of socialization among cannibals, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible or not worth striving for. Capitalism seeks to trap us in our cubicles and suburban wastelands and cars, self medicating and addicted, lonely and insane, consuming industrial products with fiat currency the only activity allowed. (And perhaps acting-out as vicious amoral Lone Rangers behind the superficial invisibility cloak of the internet, as long as capitalism isn’t threatened and only the little people get hurt, those fucking losers.) Learning HOW to be social as humans and not consumers or Facebook inventions may perhaps be the only resistance available to many of us.
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I suppose that’s aimed at me, is it ?
I’d give it more weight if it came from someone with the courage to speak in public.
Look, I’ve been doing this for a very long time now, since the mid nineties.
I guess it surprises me, but maybe it shouldn’t, that there seems to be a need to explicitly remind people that: language is a social construct, thus blogging is a social construct; posting on blogs is a social action; social MEANS fucking social, with norms, rules, standards, and responsibilities, explicit and implicit. If people are too damaged and clueless to have some idea of when they’ve crossed the line (or that there are indeed lines), then it should be pointed out to them. Everybody will make mistakes, so no need for crucifixion, but there are ways to gently remind people to grow the fuck up. And if they can’t, they can go play somewhere else.
There ARE no norms. Each group, that is more than ONE person, constructs them.
They evolve, according to whatever the people involved decide they will accept.
I’ve been on forums with no moderation that worked, I’ve been a moderator.
It’s much the same as human relations is the real world, e.g. anacyclosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacyclosis
I see this blog as a benign dictatorship. What Mike says IS the rules. No questions, no arguments, no discussions. You want to haggle and make an issue about something, you’re taken outside and shot. Fortunately, it’s virtual.
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Operating a blog must be a nightmare at times, which is one of the reasons I have never set one up.
There is a left-leaning (to use that rather stupid term) blog in NZ called The Standard which purports to promote discussion about important social issues. It does until someone like me asks obvious questions about the competence of Labour politicians and candidates to lead when they know next-to-nothing about anything that is important and won’t take the shit churned out by the numbskulls who operate the blog and blindly support ‘Labour’ candidates come hell or high water (plenty of that in England at the moment, another story altogether). Having been ‘banned’ I left them to their stupidity and haven’t missed banging my head against the walls of ignorance, manipulation and control.
One thing is certain: the world is full of fuckwits, and many of them have got themselves into positions of considerable authority. I recall a brief discussion with the local senior union representative (can’t remember his name) about the unsustainable nature of the present system and the fact that things were unravelling. His answer: encourage Japanese investors to put more money into NZ to promote economic growth and create jobs. I did point out to him that japan had been in terminal decline since 1990 and was in the early stages of collapse, but to no avail.
It’s much the same with the NZ Green Party. People living in other parts of the world might be looking to New Zealand, and the Green Party in particular, for leadership when it come to environmental matters. In practice, we endured several years of Jeanette Fitzsimon, Green leader, promoting international tourism as a sustainable component of the NZ economy, along with biofuels, and more recently had Russell Norman proposing a parliamentary enquiry into the loss of manufacturing jobs in NZ!
One interesting aspect worth thinking about is whether one person can be right and everyone else wrong. Copernicus, Galileo, Semmelweis and Einstein come to mind., yet we know Einstein was flawed.
We will get little thanks for opposing the idiotic notions of the masses or the corrupt and evil machinations of politicians. However, there is some kind of satisfaction in speaking the truth and watching collapse unfold much as we said it would.
. .
.
.
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There is no reason at all why this blog should or will become a nightmare for Mike, in fact we, I mean WE 🙂 will make certain that it does NOT.
One of the best and busiest blogs is Naked Capitalism. Yves Smith has a very clear policy. It is HER PRIVATE SPACE. She pays for the thing. If you post comments there, you accept HER rules. If you break HER rules, that’s not acceptable. Seems to work much better than any other blog or forum I’ve seen or been on.
The problem is if Mike gets heavy attacks that need tech support, like Guys was getting.
One interesting aspect worth thinking about is whether one person can be right and everyone else wrong. Copernicus, Galileo, Semmelweis and Einstein come to mind., yet we know Einstein was flawed.
Yes, very interesting. But I think with some of these issues the matters are complex, there is no simple right/wrong. For example if we look at history, you can tell the story of ‘what happened’ from an almost infinite number of perspectives. There is no right or wrong viewpoint. Doesn’t mean they are all of equal value or worth or quality.
Vinay Gupta posed an interesting question, How come that India,or the East in general, with so many brilliant minds and spiritual insights and great understanding of astronomy and mathematics and medicine, etc, at an early stage, never saw Darwin’s evolution ? They had all the animals and plants all around them, they were breeding them, why didn’t they see what Mendel saw, why didn’t the Chinese or Japanese see breeding of plants and animals and then Evolution, as Darwin and Wallace saw it ?
Why are the people in the West so blind to what the Indians and Tibetans and Chinese see ?
People wear cultural blinkers, which filter reality, that’s what I meant about zen. It’s a way to remove those blinkers. It’s a frightening thing to do. I believe we only perceive a tiny fraction of what surrounds us, really small, maybe half a percent or something.
Everything else gets filtered out. Everything gets labelled, so it’s not ‘as is’, it’s pre-packaged, canned and bar-coded with a name, a word, that makes it safe for consumption. Huxley’s Doors of Perception.
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The tax man cometh and I must prepare. I’ll be back in my hole next week.
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Published on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 by Common Dreams
‘No Country for Brave Journalists’: US Plummets in Press Freedom Rankings
Latest survey from Reporters Without Borders show ‘home of First Amendment’ now home to assaults on free press
– Jon Queally, staff writer
From the report:
In the United States, 9/11 spawned a major conflict between the imperatives of national security and the principles of the constitution’s First Amendment. This amendment enshrines every person’s right to inform and be informed. But the heritage of the 1776 constitution was shaken to its foundations during George W. Bush’s two terms as president by the way journalists were harassed and even imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources or surrender their files to federal judicial officials.
There has been little improvement in practice under Barack Obama. Rather than pursuing journalists, the emphasis has been on going after their sources, but often using the journalist to identify them. No fewer that eight individuals have been charged under the Espionage Act since Obama became president, compared with three during Bush’s two terms. While 2012 was in part the year of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 2013 will be remember for the National Security Agency computer specialist Edward Snowden, who exposed the mass surveillance methods developed by the US intelligence agencies.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/12
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I think of McKibben as a gateway drug. I read ‘End of Nature’ in ’89 as a young college student and it shook me and left me changed. At the time, I was a newly returned christian missionary attending a conservative private religious university, I only read The National Review, and I was as narrow as you can imagine in my outlook. But I was also in turmoil over events in central America and knew something wasn’t right about the world, or with my view of it, even if I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. His voice was one I didn’t know existed but I recognized its value immediately.
Was I ready at that time to read Derrick Jensen or Guy, if they had been around as options? Not remotely. I suspect that even today there are still many people for whom McKibben is their introduction to an environmental awareness, and that is a good thing. But yeah, moving on is also essential.
What is interesting to me in hindsight is that my initial exposure to Marx was direct and dramatic, no gateway drug at all. At about the same time I read McKibben, I read The Communist Manifesto. Looking for it at the college library was like standing up in church and asking the congregation if anybody had a copy of Debbie Does Dallas to lend me. I was shaking and deeply conflicted about it. But I’d seen it among the books in a professor’s library (a woman I greatly admired) and was surprised at how thin and small it was, something that could hardly shake my deep conservatively shaped testimony, right? Why not look the devil in the eye and formulate my devastating personal response.
I grew up in Europe, I went to high school in West Berlin when there was still a wall, the cold war shaped everything and everyone around me; communism was no abstraction even if I had no real idea what it was. I voted for Reagan my first eligible election, so shameful to admit even now. But I was like so many who truly believe (in what, it doesn’t really matter), I was quite sure my foundations were secure enough to be tested and I wanted to test them.
But the book was a body slam, a lightning bolt, a revelation. I simply could not get over how deeply it affected me. I read it multiple times, in secret of course, I still wasn’t ready to admit to anybody I knew that I had actually read it. Its power on me was religious, particularly because it spoke to the very religious issues that were of importance to me: justice, suffering, meaning, a higher calling.
I was never the same after. I never went through a gradual liberalization when it came to politics as I got older and wiser (that does seem to happen for some). I went from a confidence in one view to a sudden long period of chaos and confusion where I truly didn’t know what to believe. It was in that state that I lived through Iran Contra, the so called conservative backlash of the 80’s, american adventures overseas, the Death of the Liberal Class that Hedges describes (decades later).
The chaos and confusion did eventually coalesce into a deeply Red perspective. But if I hadn’t have been originally shaken, I would never have ended up spending the years in Latin America that I did, nor seen and learned there what I did (time in Brazil will make you so hard and callous you’re barely human, or it will making you a raging commie, not much in between). It exposed me to a world that I could not have seen otherwise, interpretations and understandings that would have been invisible to me, it shaped the entire course of my life since. Even though of course I never got to be part of any revolution lol, only the internal one in my own head.
I suppose some people could stumble upon Guy and be immediately struck by his message, but it seems far more common to me that people arrive at the sober and apocalyptic view of things in stages. In that sense, I don’t see McKibben as harmful or a dead end necessarily. In terms of Harm Reduction, he enables many people to look at where they are and make a move towards a better place. That is good, even if it is small and not nearly enough. But I wish everybody would read The Communist Manifesto, its still so stunningly relevant.
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I read ‘End of Nature’ in ’89 as a young college student and it shook me and left me changed.
I also read it when it was first published. The only shock was the universality of the impact of global warming, that forests were not going to be able to follow the thermoclines fast enough, with all the human obstacles in the way. Everything else I already knew from reading the Ecologist, to which I’d been subscribing forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ecologist
It was very well written and got a lot of publicity and I saw him as one of the heroes. It’s been downhill ever since. To watch the neoliberal corporate strategy re the tar sands work so well for them, and to watch McKibben cooperate with it has been one of the most disgusting and nauseating events of the last decade.
To watch Getty and all those who think like him, fall neatly into line so predictably has also been one of the most disappointing events of the last decade, one of the main reasons why NTE is guaranteed.
That phrase ‘Harm Reduction’. Look, there’s no such thing. It’s a bullet coming at your head.
Or let’s try and find another metaphor. It’s the end of civilisation and the death of billions of people.
STOP trying to put it into some acceptable language that skirts around the issue.
Wtf do you mean ‘harm reduction’ ? Harm to whom or what ?
Who or what do you think that McKibben and 350.org are actually intended to reduce harm to ?
It’s an investment by certain incredibly wealthy people, the 0.01%
Why do you think that they make that investment ?
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McKibben has brought the issue of global warming to many people who hadn’t hardly a clue, through rallies and Rolling Stone and interviews on msm. There are very few who can do that, and although he has said some things more hopeful than true, he has also shocked many by saying we will certainly have a different world in the future than one we know now, and, if we do not turn things around,could bring on a world incompatible with human civilization. That’s about as much as most people can take. They can move on further when they are ready.
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That’s about as much as most people can take. They can move on further when they are ready.
Who are you talking about Getty ? Yourself ? The people reading this blog ? 300 million Americans ? Most of 7 billion people alive ?
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Ah, capitalism:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/money-hasnt-gone-1-gone-01.html
The 1% Have Gotten CHUMP CHANGE Compared to the .1% … Who In Turn Have Gotten PEANUTS Compared to the .01%
Posted on February 12, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog
Wealth Has Gone to the .01% … Much More Than the 1%
Everyone knows that all of the economic growth has gone to the 1%:
[check out the graphs of comparative wealth gain]
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an aside (off topic):
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/this-very-complex-malware-has-been-spreading-since-2007-and-its-not-clear-where-it-came-from
hacking
This Very Complex Malware Has Been Spreading Since 2007, and It’s Not Clear Where It Came From
A surprisingly sophisticated malware named Careto has been infecting computers globally since at least 2007, a new report from security firm Kaspersky revealed today. While the virus, also known as The Mask, appears to have originated in a Spanish-speaking country—careto, a Spanish slang term for an ugly face, was found in the code—it’s so complex that it’s not clear the average hacker could have built it.
According to Kaspersky’s report, Careto is definitely aimed at power brokers—government and diplomatic targets, private companies (especially in the energy sector), research institutions, private equity firms, and activists—and 380 victims with over 1000 IP addresses in 31 countries have been found so far.
Aside from its targets, the truly notable thing about the virus is how flexible it is. The researchers write that it “includes an extremely sophisticated malware, a rootkit, a bootkit, 32- and 64-bit Windows versions, Mac OS X and Linux versions and possibly versions for Android and iPad/iPhone (Apple iOS).” Once a system is infected, Careto can access network traffic, log keystrokes, record Skype conversations, and hunt around for files—most notably PGP keys.
As you might expect based on the targets, finding sensitive data appears to be Careto’s specialty, “including
encryption keys, VPN configurations, SSH keys and RDP files,” the report states. “There are also several extensions being monitored that we have not been able to identify and could be related to custom military/government-level encryption tools.”
Kasperky’s researchers say the first Careto attack they uncovered was a spear phishing email campaign that used exploit websites that masked as subdomains of popular Spanish and international news websites, including the Washington Post and Politico. From there, Careto takes advantage of at least three different backdoors across Windows and OS X, with “traces” of others, including backdoors for Linux and mobile operating systems, noted but not confirmed by the researchers.
With a high-powered virus, the obvious question is where it came from. To that end, the answer seems fairly obvious, if extremely difficult to prove: Careto is quite possibly the work of a nation-state.
“Several reasons make us believe this could be a nation-state sponsored campaign. First of all, we observed a very high degree of professionalism in the operational procedures of the group behind this attack. From infrastructure management, shutdown of the operation, avoiding curious eyes through access rules and using wiping instead of deletion of log files,” Costin Raiu, the director of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team, said in a release.
“This level of operational security is not normal for cyber-criminal groups.”
It is, however, to be expected of state-sponsored attackers, who have the money to spend on sophisticated tools, and all the reasons in the world not to get caught. We all remember Stuxnet, which was likely created by a nation-state, as well as Duqu, which was the baddest on the block until Careto came around. But beyond knowing that someone official likely built Careto, it’s hard to tell where it came from—although Spanish-language viruses of this nature are apparently pretty rare. In any case, there’s one clear truth: the cyber-espionage sector is continually gathering steam.
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Compare Februaries on the curve:
http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/
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The increased evaporation and precipitation and the churning up of ocean surfaces by high winds might just slow the rate of accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, and substantially increase the rate of acidification of the oceans.
Either way, the next generation looks to be utterly screwed by the fossil fuel mob. .
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What I find amusing/bizarre/surreal/dismal about this piece of journalism is that Lord Stern (whatever ‘Lord’ means )usually someone born into privilege or who has been a lackey of the system) wrote a flawed report which is described as influential. Forgetting for the moment about the flawed aspects of the Stern Report, it was not the least bit influential. Indeed, the madness of rampant consumerism and totally unnecessary emissions has continued unabated (or actually increased in most locations) for another 7 years. Globally, emissions are far higher now than in 2006. And world population is up half-a-billion.
And there is the usual drivel about driving economic growth. .
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/13/storms-floods-climate-change-upon-us-lord-stern
UK storms and floods show climate change is upon us – Lord Stern
Author of influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change says wettest and hottest years on record mean world must take action now or face disaster
Nicholas Stern
The Guardian, Thursday 13 February 2014 18.42 GMT
Jump to comments (179)
satellite image uk storm
Satellite image shows scale of storm that hit the UK. Photograph: Neodass/University of Dundee/PA
The record rainfall and storm surges that have brought flooding across the UK is a clear sign that we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change.
Although many commentators have suggested that we are suffering from unprecedented extreme weather, there are powerful grounds for arguing that this is part of a trend.
Four of the five wettest years recorded in the UK have occurred from the year 2000 onwards. Over that same period, we have also had the seven warmest years.
That is not a coincidence. There is an increasing body of evidence that extreme daily rainfall rates are becoming more intense, in line with what is expected from fundamental physics, as the Met Office pointed out earlier this week. A warmer atmosphere holds more water. Add to this the increase in sea level, particularly along the English Channel, which is making storm surges bigger, and it is clear why the risk of flooding in the UK is rising.
But it is not just here that the impacts of climate change have been felt through extreme weather events over the past few months. Australia has just had its hottest year on record, during which it suffered record-breaking heatwaves and severe bushfires in many parts of the country. And there has been more extreme heat over the past few weeks.
Argentina had one of its worst heatwaves in late December, while parts of Brazil were struck by floods and landslides following record rainfall.
And very warm surface waters in the north-west Pacific during November fuelled Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall anywhere in the world, which killed more than 5,700 people in the Philippines.
This is a pattern of global change that it would be very unwise to ignore.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last September pointed to a changing pattern of extreme weather since 1950, with more heatwaves and downpours in many parts of the world, as the Earth has warmed by about 0.7C.
The IPCC has concluded from all of the available scientific evidence that it is 95% likely that most of the rise in global average temperature since the middle of the 20th century is due to emissions of greenhouse gases, deforestation and other human activities.
The upward trend in temperature is undeniable, despite the effects of natural variability in the climate which causes the rate of warming to temporarily accelerate or slow for short periods, as we have seen over the past 15 years.
If we do not cut emissions, we face even more devastating consequences, as unchecked they could raise global average temperature to 4C or more above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
This would be far above the threshold warming of 2C that countries have already agreed that it would be dangerous to breach. The average temperature has not been 2C above pre-industrial levels for about 115,000 years, when the ice-caps were smaller and global sea level was at least 5 metres higher than today.
The shift to such a world could cause mass migrations of hundreds of millions of people away from the worst-affected areas. That would lead to conflict and war, not peace and prosperity.
In fact, the risks are even bigger than I realised when I was working on the review of the economics of climate change for the UK government in 2006. Since then, annual greenhouse gas emissions have increased steeply and some of the impacts, such as the decline of Arctic sea ice, have started to happen much more quickly.
We also under-estimated the potential importance of strong feedbacks, such as the thawing of the permafrost to release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, as well as tipping points beyond which some changes in the climate may become effectively irreversible.
What we have experienced so far is surely small relative to what could happen in the future. We should remember that the last time global temperature was 5C different from today, the Earth was gripped by an ice age.
So the risks are immense and can only be sensibly managed by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which will require a new low-carbon industrial revolution.
History teaches us how quickly industrial transformations can occur through waves of technological development, such as the introduction of electricity, based on innovation and discovery.
We are already seeing low-carbon technologies being deployed across the world, but further progress will require investment and facing up to the real prices of energy, including the very damaging emissions from fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, the current pace of progress is not nearly quick enough, with many rich industrialised countries being slow to make the transition to cleaner and more efficient forms of economic growth.
The lack of vision and political will from the leaders of many developed countries is not just harming their long-term competitiveness, but is also endangering efforts to create international co-operation and reach a new agreement that should be signed in Paris in December 2015.
Delay is dangerous. Inaction could be justified only if we could have great confidence that the risks posed by climate change are small. But that is not what 200 years of climate science is telling us. The risks are huge.
Fortunately poorer countries, such as China, are showing leadership and demonstrating to the world how to invest in low-carbon growth.
The UK must continue to set an example to other countries. The 2008 Climate Change Act, which commits the UK to cut its emissions by at least 80% by 2050, is regarded around the world as a model for how politicians can create the kind of clear policy signal to the private sector which could generate billions of pounds of investment.
Weakening the Act would be a great mistake and would undermine a strong commitment made by all of the main political parties.
Squabbling and inconsistent messages from ministers, as well as uncertainty about the policies of possible future governments, are already eroding the confidence of businesses. Government-induced policy risk has become a serious deterrent to private investment.
Instead, the UK should work with the rest of the European Union to create a unified and much better functioning energy market and power grid structure. This would also increase energy security, lower costs and reduce emissions. What better way is there to bring Europe together?
The government will also have to ensure the country becomes more resilient to those impacts of climate change that cannot now be avoided, including by investing greater sums in flood defences.
It should resist calls from some politicians and parts of media to fund adaptation to climate change by cutting overseas aid. It would be deeply immoral to penalise the 1.2 billion people around the world who live in extreme poverty.
In fact, the UK should be increasing aid to poor countries to help them develop economically in a climate that is becoming more hostile largely because of past emissions by rich countries.
A much more sensible way to raise money would be to implement a strong price on greenhouse gas pollution across the economy, which would also help to reduce emissions.
It is essential that the government seizes this opportunity to foster the wave of low-carbon technological development and innovation that will drive economic growth and avoid the enormous risks of unmanaged climate change.
• Nicholas Stern is chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the LSE.
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Lords & Ladies: those who are entitled to sit in the House of Lords, which one may translate as the Senate.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords
Kevin Anderson pointed out the several serious UNDER estimates of what we can expect in the Stern report, which then get repeated by everybody else.
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Not forgetting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
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Sleep with a copy under my pillow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants'_Revolt nothing like a good rebellion to keep rulers mindful of their proper place. Unregulated Capitalism is as useless as unregulated anything else.
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The book: “Ringolevio” by Emmet Grogan got me thinking in alternative ways back in the day. I was there.
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ulvfugl: Do they not have the google in Wales? No junkies in the forgotten wastelands of the early industrial revolution? I thought you’d spent a lifetime in social activism, hard to believe you never came across the concept of Harm Reduction and what it entails. I supervised a needle exchange in the early 90’s, the approach has been around a long time even here in the reactionary nightmare that is Amerikkka, but is practically the norm in Europe.
Harm Reduction in this sense means: if you’re an SUV driving idiot who commutes 3 hours to work each way and always assumed that was normal and fine, maybe you read McKibben and decide to take the bus once a week instead so your obese Ritalin snarfing kids only have to suck in a ‘safer’ amount of CO2 down the line. Or maybe you spend 10 minutes researching a more fuel efficient vehicle you’ll purchase with your corporate earnings after you lay off some loser you supervise and get a raise in your paycheck for efficiency. Or maybe you’ll watch the corporate news on PBS once a month instead of the corporate news on Fox. because some small doubt has stirred within your dead soul. Is it a ‘solution’? Jeebus, are you fucking high?
McKibben is compromised. Duh. Did you expect anything different from someone who makes his living in the world of publishing and public speaking? Really? Who’s the delusion optimist here? Does denouncing him as Fallen and Faithless accomplish anything for anyone who stopped paying attention to him a long time ago? Do we each need to present a genealogical list of those who have influenced us in the past, with current and vicious denunciations of all those who have since betrayed our trust? And then critique each other’s list in some sort of orgy of cleansing and reeducation?
Since when did you get appointed Torquemada around these parts lol? When did it become required to provide constant written affirmation that ‘Yes, we are Doomed, its Inevitable and Sure, I Reaffirm my Commitment to that Doctrine with Each and Every Post I send out into the web, and I Denounce the Putrid Voices of the Apostates and Heretics, Relentlessly and with Vicious Righteousness, Amen!’ WTF?
It seems pretty obvious to me that documenting the Collapse is what we are here to do, plus commenting on how it unfolds in our particular niche of the planet. And what its like as a human being to live through it. Not sure why obsessing over the particulars of anyone’s Faith in that collapse makes much sense. It sure as hell doesn’t keep me awake at night shaking with anxiety, the possibility that oh no, someone who posts here (like that pathetic faithless dog pfgetty) might engage in a secret shameful moment of Hopium, that Evil Evil Evil drug. Why does it get you so hot and bothered?
When Mike, and only Mike, headlines in bold at the top of the page the appropriate Articles of Faith he requires of us, I will be quite happy to cut and paste them into each one of my posts, but until then I can’t be bothered to type that shit out every time.
And I con’t recall reading a post here where anybody asked you to wield your zen stick and do any whacking whenever you felt like it either. People who wanna play that hierarchical bullshit pay good money to join stupid retreats and do lame chores and ponder translated nonsense and wait for their legs to go numb while fantasizing about burgers and fries. No thank you. There was no consent form for mandatory enlightenment I remember signing in order to post here.
Don’t keep telling us how wise you are, man. Show us, just like the cliche says. Hard when its only words we can really engage in here and not actions as such I know, but restraint IS an action, kindness and the seeking of understanding CAN happen with language. I was a missionary once and an educator for much longer, I know something about conversion and how it works. You have a mega shitload to learn if educating is really what you claim to want to accomplish, let alone spiritual guidance or conversion.
I know you don’t watch porn or the filth of popular culture, but maybe you should lol, getting laid or drooling in front of the idiot box for a few hours might do you some good. Just saying’…
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Why didn’t you answer my question, Eric ?
Who or what do you think that McKibben and 350.org are actually intended to reduce harm to ?
It’s an investment by certain incredibly wealthy people, the 0.01%
Why do you think that they make that investment ?
Instead you give me this confused blast of ad hom blather.
Starting at the bottom, seeing as it’s in front of me.
I know you don’t watch porn or the filth of popular culture, but maybe you should lol, getting laid or drooling in front of the idiot box for a few hours might do you some good. Just saying’…
Might do me some good ? Look, you fool, I am completely happy, relaxed, at ease, I don’t need to be reduced to your level of infantile argument or the general level of infantile mentality, and it’s not going to happen.
You have a mega shitload to learn if educating is really what you claim to want to accomplish, let alone spiritual guidance or conversion.
I’m not the slightest bit interested in ‘educating’. If people want to learn THEY have to make the effort. I’m not the slightest bit interested in ‘spiritual guidance’. Fuck that. If someone asks me about something, I help them in any way I can. I’m not the slightest bit interested in converting anybody in any way, I think the idea is obnoxious. Says a lot about you that you suggest it.
It seems pretty obvious to me that documenting the Collapse is what we are here to do
Well.that’s YOU and your personal presumption, isn’t it. What’s that got to do with anyone else ?
Right. Back to the top.
There’s obviously a whole lot that you are assuming and a whole lot that you are totally clueless about.
The reason why this thread has so many comments is because it concerns Marxism and class struggle and capitalism, which has been the mainstream theatre of political strife for the last 150 years and more.
I’ve taken a particular stance in that struggle early on in my life and followed the strategies and debates and victories and defeats as the story has unfolded.
When anybody opens their mouth, or writes a comment, I can usually tell in moments whereabouts on the political spectrum they stand.
I asked YOU a fairly simple and direct question. You treat this space as an adult debating chamber and give me your reply, instead of all that crap.
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Sorry, I meant to write ‘Please’ not ‘You’ in that last line. I deleted a previous sentence and messed up.
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Mmmm, I guess I’ve had my baptism of spittle by the resident troll lol, a rite of passage of sorts, kinda cool;)
But feeding time is over now, so sorry I won’t be responding further, you’ll have to slobber on someone else for your scraps. If you ever ask me a question that makes sense, or say something worthwhile as you sometimes have in the past, I might pay attention. But no promises. I would have counted myself as mostly a big fan of yours before, not so much now. But seeing as your pearls of wisdom are wasted on a swine like me anyway, I’m sure you’ll live with the disappointment lol.
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It’s a straight forward direct question.
It was you who claimed it was ‘harm reduction’.
You try to squirm your way around the issue by pretending it has something to do with drug abuse. The analogy does not work.
Why don’t you answer it instead of trying to make out that I’m a troll, or seeking fans, neither of which is true. Why do you abdicate responsibility ?
Who or what do you think that McKibben and 350.org are actually intended to reduce harm to ?
It’s an investment by certain incredibly wealthy people, the 0.01%
Why do you think that they make that investment ?
We are considering extremely serious, grave, tragic matters here. I would like to know who is willing to take the responsibility of discussing them.
People who want to take centre stage but who are self-indulgent and have no insight need to be aware of their limitations. You, Getty, others, the anon email comment, try to fit me into stereotypical boxes that you can comprehend. It won’t work. I’m not a puritan. I’ve had more sex, drugs, R & R than you can imagine in your fantasies.
I am not a zen master trying to enrol converts. Anybody who knows anything about zen would know that’s not how it works.
If I have any agenda it is to represent the non-humans and to represent the poorest and the innocent who have no say.
One topic we’re talking about is the end of living things on this planet, and that most people, probably most readers here, have been, and are, just living their lives while this happens. And the main concern of some, is me, and my manners.
We’re talking about violent revolution, and the deaths or countless people. That’s not a subject suited to your juvenile LOL, eric.
I’m fine with all that, though, absurd though it be, because it let’s me see who is actually alive to what’s happening and who isn’t, who has been paying attention, and who hasn’t, who really cares and who doesn’t. I want to know what people’s values and priorities are. I want to know how much they understand about the way the machine works.
This is important. This is the greatest crisis that the human species has ever faced.
It’s rolling out, every minute, hour, day.
I’m not interested in people like you, eric, who think they need to watch porn and Game of Thrones and who can’t write a sensible adult reply to me.
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Thinking about all this intramural conflict. Some of it is cultural. Ulv is a Brit and is or has a history of being Left. I honestly don’t know what Brit politics is about anymore but historically it was about class. Class conflict. Class war. The guy on the other side of the class war was not your friend. Either he wanted you dead or he wanted you in chains.
This is America. We have no classes(!). We are all, all of us without exception, middle class. Class war is like bad breath. We are all on the same team. We all want to get along. Schoolkids get graded on “works and plays well with others” and many take that as the most important subject at school. We are pragmatic. We get things done. We are bipartisan and we are nonpartisan. The guy in the “opposition” party is likely a personal friend. You just have a few differences on matters that are not all that fucking serious. Because friendship comes first.
So Ulv notes the fact that McKibben takes Rockefeller money and instantly goes to McKibben is David Rockefeller’s house Negro. David Rockefeller of course is a ratfucking reptilian turd. Actually that’s not bad enough. Whatever adjectives I’ll think of quickly could not be bad enough.
This is America. It’s all relative, isn’t it. Rockefeller money is old money now. Matured a bit. Money has a sweeter stink when it gets old. And those nice old plutocrats don’t keep committing new crimes. The Rockefellers aren’t as bad as the Kochs, are they? Certainly they’re not as bad as the Waltons. I mean Alice Walton DUI hit-and-run commits homicide and just orders the judge to release her. The Rockefellers would use a lawyer and likely they would have a sober chauffeur. So Rockefellers are actually helping us out, giving us McKibben to introduce us to babystep environmentalism. And Mckibben himself, he’s once removed from that stinky money. He’s gaming senile old David R. Or something. Something nice. Think nice thoughts and you’ll be happy.
Personally I think the American way of thinking about conflict is infantile. Your overlords love American infantilism. Unfortunately when an outsider confronts Americans with sober reality, Americans do not have a lot of pre-existing models for that. Maybe we think of Darth Cheney and Manichaeanism. Maybe we think of late night TV preachers with sweat dripping off their nose. Maybe we think of that professor whose class you were warned not to take.
Don’t expect to see an end to these quarrels and misunderstandings. Right ’til the end of life on this planet I expect mealymouthed Americanism to plague us. If Ulv is there with a good (but very dry) joke, I’ll laugh.
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Hahaha… yes, laugh anyway, the joke can wait… I’m busy writing…
very insightful, too many to list. it gets worse, I’m Welsh, Cymru, means ‘comrades’, never was any class, the English… well, too many to list.. I think it gets worse, but I’m not clear without research, but maybe King George was the GOOD guy, he was trying to SAVE the Indians, it was the democratic English parliament and the US republic who were the BAD guys… and I think the Rockefellers hatched their plan for world domination before they even WENT to the USA, way back…
keep teaching me ! 🙂
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OK. One more bit of American cultural context concerning McKibben.
The guy teaches at Middlebury. Middlebury is not so much an institution of higher learning as it is an expensive and exclusive finishing school for wealthy spoiled brats. Not much learning happens there. All the students have vastly more wealth than their professors. The faculty is outranked by their students. The job of teaching at Middlebury is part nanny, part chaperone, part tourguide. Scholars don’t teach there. Persons with a modicum of self-respect do not teach there. To teach at Middlebury you must be very safe, very banal, very loyal. To teach at Middlebury you must be a good house Negro. Yawn.
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Wow. That speaks. You are treasure, J. C. W.
Btw, I would not call myself left or right anymore.
In the past I would, in USA terms, be looking from this sort of angle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman
However, given our predicament…
well, I must write, some more, and none of it has anything to do with anything…
until it does… 😉
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From Tomdispatch:
“Recently, I came across the following passage in Time of Illusion, Jonathan Schell’s 1976 classic about Nixon administration malfeasance. Schell wrote it with the nuclear issue in mind, but today it has an eerie resonance when it comes to climate change: “In the United States, unprecedented wealth and ease came to coexist with unprecedented danger, and a sumptuous feast of consumable goods was spread out in the shadow of universal death. Americans began to live as though on a luxuriously appointed death row, where one was free to enjoy every comfort but was uncertain from moment to moment when or if the death sentence might be carried out. The abundance was very much in the forefront of people’s attention, however, and the uncertainty very much in the background; and in the government as well as in the country at large the measureless questions posed by the new weapons were evaded.” ”
Tom
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Good article on Tomdispatch with Michael Klare:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175806/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_in_the_carbon_wars%2C_big_oil_is_winning/#more
Excerpt:
As oil and gas have proven unexpectedly abundant and affordable, major energy consumers are planning to rely on them more — and on renewable sources of energy less — to meet their future requirements. As a result, the promises we once heard of a substantial decline in fossil fuel use (along with a corresponding boom in renewables) are fading. According to the most recent projections from the U.S. Department of Energy, global fossil fuel consumption is expected to grow by an astonishing 40% by 2035, jumping from 440 to 615 quadrillion British thermal units.
While the combined share of total world energy that comes from fossil fuels will decline slightly — from 84% to 79% — they will still dominate the global energy marketplace for decades to come. Renewables, according to these projections, will continue to represent only a small fraction of the total. If this proves to be accurate, there can be only one plausible outcome: vastly increased carbon emissions leading to rising temperatures and the sort of catastrophic climate change scenarios that now seem almost impossible to imagine.
Think of it this way: in our world, the gravitational pull of carbon exerts itself every minute of every day, shaping the energy decisions of individuals, companies, institutions, and governments. This pull is leading to defeat in the global struggle to slow the advance of severe climate change and is reflected in three recent developments in the energy news: a declaration of surrender by BP, a major setback in the European Union, and a strategic end-run by Canadian tar sands companies.
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Oil and gas are actually on the way to unaffordable; finance is just hiding the reality. The 2035 world that Klare sees won’t happen; the marginal cost of extraction will nail the coffin of fossil fuel expansion shut. Of course, that’s not so great because the damage is done.
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Is it not wonderful,that a mere Rhetorical Flourish can take on the aura of Truth & Wisdom? I am sure that these fellows would follow a mouse into its hole, if they thought there was money in it. Let them eat smoke.
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Nasty ‘surprises’ ahead.
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/abrupt-climate-change_14.html
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Published on Thursday, February 13, 2014 by Common Dreams
Farmers Rise Up Against Agribusiness, Face Down Riot Police in Brazil
Nearly twenty thousand march for stronger reforms in ‘a country with one of the most unequal distributions of land in the world’
– Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/13-4
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Your eco-apocalypse reading assignment for today:
Click to access readings_session_9-11.pdf
Please read and comment.
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It seems like all of this was expressed thirty years ago and yet the cancer grew larger. Today the cancer continues to grow in in appetite and dimension and cannot be extricated from the tissues of the ecosystem. Humans have always had ethics, but a different ethic for family, other tribes, the environment and so on. If we are readily killing or starving other humans with our greed, then what hope do other species have or something as nebulous as “environment.”
Since humans are simply a sack of eukaryotic cells pressed into a particular shape by evolution, endowed with neurological, mental electro-chemical representations, most of which deviate greatly from reality, is it any wonder that primal motivations would prevail in establishing our suicidal course? We’re tribal competitive apes that got the executioners tools. Our hierarchical behavior served as a wonderful template for the establishment of an exalted priestly class weighed -down with planetary plunder.
Imagine a present day Mayan capitalist society where priests stand at the apex of a high pyramid, heads adorned with pompous regalia, an endless line of sacrificial humans climbing the steps to the high alter. Shivering victims are laid down upon the cold stone slab and held fast. One chief, named Forclosu raises his obsidian knife into the air and is about to strike when another chief named Medifuku stops him. In one swoop Medifuku plunges his knife into the frantic citizen. He reaches into the bloody cavity to exhume the beating heart within. He holds it high above his head and proclaims “Greed is good! He missed a payment!” and the crowd roars with approval as the body is pulled from the alter and thrown into the human waste heap. The high priests go home to their sumptuous mansions and give extra food to the toolmakers whose special talents and products give power to the food growing field slaves.
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Those extracts parallel much of what is written here.
For the vast majority of people there is no way out of the open prison that constitutes industrial civilisation (except through death).
It took me quite a while to work it out, having been born into captivity and kept distracted and misinformed by the system for much of my early life, but I believe I have it 99% correct now. As I see it, in general terms the purpose of government is::
a) to facilitate the looting-and-polluting of local regions and the planet as a whole in order that a small minority can acquire material wealth and enjoy themselves.
b) to facilitate the transfer of wealth from those lower in the hierarchical system to those near the top.
c) to keep the general populace uninformed and compliant.
d) to provide sufficient ‘trickle down’ for the misinformed and deluded masses to think they are not being exploited.
e) [more recently] to promote the agendas of transnational corporations, which are focused on complete control of populations and resources and maximisation of short-term profits.
The purpose of environmental laws is:
1. to facilitate the looting-and-polluting of local regions and the planet as a whole but to limit the impact of severe pollution in specific cases where that pollution would be detrimental to other planet-destroying money-making activities..
2. to provide the pretence that governments care about the welfare of the general populace. .
3. to provide looters and polluters with official mandates for looting and polluting, i.e. an environmental impact process having been gone through and ‘no significant impacts identified’, the activity of the looter-and-polluter is given the stamp of approval.
Under such a system it become inevitable that all politicians are, or quickly become, bought-and-paid-for professional liars and that all senior environment officers become lackeys to the system and therefore enemies of the people.
The entire political-economic system of western nations is geared to making everything that matters worse, so everything that matters gets worse. .. .
.
.
.
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I agree with this assessment; however, what ideology is at the root of it. Capitalism. The accumulation of money into fewer hands has corrupted all levers of government. Again I see the ideology of capitalism as the root cause of our demise. The so-called “free market” is the God most everyone worships. Everything exists to serve it, even as it sucks the life force out of the planet including our capacity to imagine alternative paths.
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I’m afraid any “-ism” would have the same result over time. Even dedicated anarchists would soon pool capital to accomplish some rapacious goal. The real problem is with tools and using them to eat the planet. As long as surplus can be created above and beyond the cost of the tools used (humans included) then the game goes on with externalities like CO2 dumped into the commons for future humans to deal with, if they can. Aren’t we a nice species? Feel good and be happy NOW means everything. Murdering extant humans NOW to gain wealth is accepted government policy and in some cases personal policy. How easy is it to murder all of those “would have been” humans far into the future? Very, very, easy because it feels good to eat their lunch.
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In the meantime, the monkeys keep coming up with new ideas of how to commit suicide.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129560.400-fire-in-the-hole-after-fracking-comes-coal.html?full=true#.Uv54S4WTbbo
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Did we not once collect dead wood for fires? It fuels heat & cooking; not much use for providing electricity, but the trees & shrubs that it comes from usually also provide fruit, sap for glue, medicines, & much more 😉 An end to Capitalism & its ills would necessitate a drastic change of lifestyle, but not one that is untried.
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I disagree.
It will be exactly one that is untried. Because the one humans tried – was only possible within relatively healthy parts of biosphere. This “healthy enough” biosphere, – and its regional manifestations being healthy enough ecosystems, – is not the case anymore in many regions of the world even today.
By the time industrial civilization would fail and collapse, – there will be very few places in the world which could provide said dead wood for fires, and fruit, and sap, and medicines, and much more.
Therefore, good chances are that you and me – and most other people then-alive, – won’t be able to to the drastic change of lifestyle you are talking about.
Instead, it’ll be very new lifestyle, never tried before: survival based on remains of industrial civilization plus on what little remains from natural ecosystems (if anything at all). This will be the synthesis of what few good remnants will be left – remnants of both natural biosphere and industrial civilization.
And even with such a synthesis, it won’t be enough for more than a few hundreds millions of humans to be able to live on (globally), i’m affraid. While old “collect dead wood for fires” lifestyle – with whole Earth having quite rich and substantially stable biosphere, – had a potential to feed few billions of people, indefinitely (provided modern knowledge about hygiene, infections and modern ecology would be applied, of course).
Oh, if only there would be REAL possibility to “get back to nature”! It’d be such a simple solution, indeed. But, as this very website informs us – there is already much harm done to nature, and there will certainly remain little of it by the time industrial civilization dies.
Sorry to disappoint, i am. But, happy to help – i hope i did.
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I cannot believe how insensitive everyone is to suffering.
Would someone please put Capitalism out of it’s misery?
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Paul Beckwith on infrastructure breakdown.
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When asked what could be done in the face of mounting infrastructure damage, Mr Iliketo Fucktheplanet, the Minister Propaganda and Sabotage, said, “The evidence is now irrefutable. We must extract fossil fuels as quickly as possible and burn them in order to create the wealth necessary to deal with climate change. Anyone who opposes fossil fuel extraction clearly wants to see ordinary people suffer, and is likely to have links to international terrorist organisations. The government will act quickly to ensure opposition to fossil fuel extraction incurs very severe penalties.”
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The phrase ” dumb yuppie” is an oxymoron. Yuppie: young, upwardly-mobile person, striving to reach his level of maximum incompetence.
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Wanna hear a joke?
http://news.yahoo.com/u-china-agree-climate-change-061650714.html
U.S., China agree to work on climate change
BWAH-HAAA-HAAAAAAAA-HA — AH-HA- AH HA– HAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAA
(‘choke, cough, sputter,’ catching my breath)
Oh, so NOW you want to “discuss” it and maybe spend another few years (they’ll allegedly put it together in 2015), coming to some “agreement” that’s of “course in line with business” . . . . yeah, that’ll work.
Let me be the first to point out (to John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart):
“IT’S TOO FUCKIN’ LATE, you clowns!”
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I prefer to think of politicians as criminals, rather than as clowns. Clowns entertain, usually in a fairly harmless manner; criminals cheat, lie, steal and kill, and continuously cause considerable harm.
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Kevin: I agree with your assessment (except you forgot the “psychopathic, anti-social, money-grubbing, selfish scumbags” in your description).
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Amazing. Sad. Unfortunate.
I mean, how can you guys put a same label on ALL the politicians? Sure, there are many who are all you say they are. But not all.
There are some who are exactly opposite in most, or sometimes all, of terms you used. Ones who don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t kill, who continuosly cause considerable good (not harm), are very logical and rational – and not psychopathic, who are social, not greedy, and not selfish. Extremely few – yes, may be. But then, there are lots of politicians “in between”, too.
Plus, “scumbags” is an insult, and in some countries (mine included), this is a criminal offense to insult somebody in mass media. Which this site may be considered to be, mind you. Plus, it’s simply not helping: i never heard about any problem solved by insults. You? 🙂
Some politicians successfully hide their good nature, though. Because indeed, the system does not stimulate honest, fair, good-natured people to take any positions of power. They have to comply with lots of wrong laws and regulations, too. But like one virtual doctor said, “someone else might have gotten it wrong”. I have no doubt that quite a number of fair and much capable people, who chose to try and learn to be diplomats, officials, leaders (possibly being from a “fitting” family to seek such a “job” in the 1st place, but anyways), – quite a number of such people, at some point, only “visibly” gave in for corruption; they seemingly complied, but they kept and keep doing whatever good they can otherwise – because, they know very well that if they would decide to quit this “rotten game” they got themselves into – someone else, who’d take their position, might have gotten it ALL wrong. Ok?
Also, i love this particular small dialogue from “Beutiful Mind”, and i think it applies here quite well, jentlemen:
”
John: You knew Oppenheimer?
Parcher: His project was under my supervision.
John: Which project? … That project.
Parcher: It’s not that simple.
John: Well, you ended the war.
Parcher: We incinerated over a hundred thousand people.
John: Well, great deeds come at great costs.
Parcher: Your conviction, as it turns out, is a luxury of those sitting on the sidelines, Mr. Nash.
”
Best regards.
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