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[Atlas]

A timely review of this political structure:

http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/Structure3.htm


I particularly like the term "consensual cospiracy" referring to those who know something is wrong but do nothing to stop it.

[denise]

Thanks for the link.

d

[guest of Japan]

That website is obviously written by people with communist leanings. It's definition of fascism is no better or worse than defining communism based on Stalin's USSR.

Fascism is simply the belief that better government can be done by an enlightened few. In general fascism supports a capitalist economic system which is under strict control by the government.

If you want to look at a clearer model of fascism you look at Mussolini's Italy, before it came under German pressure.

The means of achieving an idea should not be confused with the idea itself.

[Atlas]

Arigato Guest,

I agree that this article isn't strongly academic, but it does raise some interesting correlations. Now, I don't believe any race, for example, is systematically and overtly discriminated against in terms of government policy (in America). And another good point raised is that no government fully operationalizes the ideals of any particular political structure or philosophy.

Further, maybe there should be a distinction between a country and the policies of any particular administration. But what caught my attention about this article was the apparent state of republican thought prior to the rise of fascism. In psychology it's called a Latitude of Acceptability (or slippery slope logic), incrementally easing one into a broader change. You don't throw crabs into boiling water, you put them in cold water and raise the heat. When administrations start mucking with the constitution, I feel like that crab.

Actually I am leery of anybody who espouses strong political convictions, especially to push agendas for fun and profit, just as I am leery of those who force people to be ignorant, dogmatic suckers.

When a beggar wants to exploit a person's generosity, and in a way, dehumanizes or objectifies that person--when he or she gains from generosity but has no such giving view of humanity themselves--why should someone give to them? Why should someone accept guilt for having and not giving? They above all people should have generous hearts, but I see so many misers. I don't give to those beggars who try to exploit me, who come to my table as I am eating, begging and hamming up the pathos. I'm not stupid. I do give to the musicians and old people who are genuinely needy. But mutilate yourself, chase your kid after me, stand in my way, grab my arm, tug my clothing, interrupt me and beg, nada. Meiyou la. Zip. My point is, it's the 21st Century and most people still seem to want to exploit other people, particularly of other countries, and can't even see this road is a DEAD END for the human race. From people on the streets to Presidents, et al. They have no right to destroy our hopes for a more civilized, humane world free of greed and destruction and fcking armed conflict against each other. (What is this, neanderthal times?) These fcking idiots are killing everything, including our future. Now we are supposed to be afraid of terror, and so we have played right into the terrorists' hands. Not me. As someone said, you may decide how I die, but you won't decide how I live.

Why do people like Christ and Ghandi and John Lennon get murdered? I mean, what's up with that? Is it the Illuminati or something? Orwell's concluding explanation of the Big Brother society was pretty damning (I think it was quoted in Farenheit 911).

Bush got so many votes because he offered every household a $300 tax check. That was good enough reason for many people. Even with the stormclouds of war on the horizon. Seriously, what's wrong with people? Reason is the greatest power on Earth, and we squander it. It will be our Goetheian damnation.

[guest of Japan]

[Atlas]

[Manasketa]

Now, before I launch into my response, I want you to realise that I agree with you about all the facts mentioned in this post (and most of the opinions too). It's a little hard not to see reality if you take just a little time to open your eyes...

However, perhaps it would be good to look at why the "aristocracy" behaves the way it does. If nothing else, it may help us understand why things are the way they are and where they are going. And maybe, just maybe, we'd be able to see a path towards future (effective) progress, rather than bsing everyone.

Most people with whom I've discussed this think that this administration's (and this whole System's) attitude is rooted in plain old f ing greed and power mania. For my part, I think that, while that may be partly true, the puppeteers feel that what they are doing is essential to their own survival. This is especially true for the past fifty years, since the effects of the population boom began to really show.

--When Titanic sinks, and you're on one of the life boats while thousands are freezing and/or drowning, what do you do? Do you row away, pushing others back into their watery graves, or sink your life boat trying to get every one aboard?--


In either case, as things stand now, I'm really not looking forward to the next twenty years.

[moonraven]

If the Mayan prophecies turn out to be correct--you won't have to look at 20 more years, only 8. I am banking on that, as what I've seen so far of this century has been a nightmare....

[Manasketa]

Did you read that somewhere? I'd like to take a look. I like reading prophecies: they are usually logical reasonings with the logic removed. Cloaked with symbolisms, as it were. Interesting read, if nothing else.

I don't know about 8 though. Seems too specific. Even for a prophecy.

[moonraven]

Could be only 7--some folks believe that the conversion from the Mayan to Gregorian calendar comes out at Dec. 24, 2011--not December 19, 2012. Check in Internet. There are a number of books about the prophecies, too. The Hopis of Arizona have the same prophecies and same approximate date. Probably the most interesting book on the subject--written by Frank Waters in the 1970s--may be out of print now: MEXICO MYSTIQUE, THE COMING SIXTH WORLD OF CONSCIOUSNESS. I knew Frank a bit--he was my grandparents' age--and he's no longer with us. He was an optimist--thought that there would be a significant change of consciousness before the crucial date. I see pockets of new consciousness--but the overall picture doesn't look like anything but the same old dog eat dog stuff written exponentially.

[Manasketa]

I know exactly what you mean about "pockets of new consciousness". I grew up in close proximity to one: it, for the most part, died away (Many of them gave up, and took up playing with stocks, and found their happiness in buying new things; others died; I think there are maybe two or three of us left). I am fully aware of the pressures on these "pockets" -mass media, government-based institutions (schools, especially).

It's so hard to wake people up when they enjoy dreaming.
"There is no impossibility in dreams -only impotence" Simone Weil

[moonraven]

I'm afraid the mass of people I am talking about are asleep, but they aren't dreaming. They are simply unconscious.

[Atlas]

Thanks everyone for your good replies to my rant.

my opinions:
- That the future is written, whether possible or not, doesn't absolve us from the responsiblility of our choices--creating options and taking actions.

- There are such things as self-fulfilling prophecies too.

Manasketa wrote:

[Manasketa]

Atlas: "I'm not ready to abandon ship just yet, nor use that threat as a justification for the plain old-fashioned gimmes. "

Good. Neither am I.
However, what I meant when I wrote my original post was that, no matter what our views may be, we're not the ones in the boats making the decision to row away or to sacrifice ourselves. The ones who DO have that responsability are the Big Men who control the government, who charge the media with the task of making us forget how screwd we are, who lead the race between multinationals. They have the decision. We are the ones in the water, pleading.


Atlas: "So, we can sit idly by in spectator hypnosis or we can really try to solve some problems instead of waiting for big business to solve them for us. "

I agree. We may be stuck in the water, helpless, but we are nevertheless responsible for ourselves. Taking charge of our person and being aware of things as they really are is a beginning. To counter mass media, there must be an alternative media. And not just an alternative media --that exists already, but the alternative outlets are largely unknown to the general public. There must be a mass-alternative media, one with independent funding and that is immune (or resistant) to commercial pressures.

Is this possible? I don't know. If anyone can achieve this, though, let them be canonized.

[moonraven]

You're right that most of alternative media is too low under the radar to be accessible. For that reason, Hugo Chavez is trying to create a high-profile non-commercial television network in South America--so far Argentina has jumped on the bandwagon. Chavez wants to go head to head with CNN to counter the imperialist/big business propaganda.