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Blunderov
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virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« on: 2004-10-04 18:22:40 » |
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[Blunderov] I hope it is not too indulgent of me to post this entire,
and rather long, article but it is very powerful writing and things have
been a bit quiet lately...
It presents, IMV, some cogent arguments suggesting that American
Capitalism is quickly approaching a critical mass. (What IS to be done
about that deficit?)
He strongly repudiates the ultra-capitalist maxim (some might say holy
cow) that an unbridled free market is the best and fairest means of
distributing scarce resources and services yet devised by man.
"Something better change". (The Stranglers)
Best Regards.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6997.htm
Eternal Darkness of the American Mind
Our government is as much a terrorist as those in Beslam, Bali, New York
and Madrid. It is time we stop thinking ourselves the enlightened
culture we are not. It is time to stop a hypocrisy that seems to
validate the atrocities we commit while castigating those made against
us.
Manuel Valenzuelas
10/02/04 "ICH" -- The prevalent and continued decline of the Empire’s
mind can be attributed to the evolving degeneration of American
capitalism, through the inherent evils it espouses, its subjugation and
control of human nature, and its consequences on a society entangled and
indeed dependent on the very mechanisms of exploitation of self,
addiction to materialism and the pandemic of greed. This latest stage of
capitalism, the most sinister to arise from the realm of human
conscious, has replaced once nobler, controllable, equal and just
instruments. It is simply the erosion of capitalism, after having
flourishing in previous stages of development, into a phase that has
mutated beyond the control of humans and into a realm of damaging and
malevolent repression and exploitation.
Thriving off of human nature, feeding and growing from its ability to
dominate our animal instincts, our wants, needs and desires, capitalism
as we know it today has become an unrelenting disease, jumping from host
to host, contaminating a society that, more and more, lives in utter
disconnect from a greater world community and that allows itself to be
manipulated, dumbed down and owned by elite capitalists whose control
over our lives grows more discernible every day. It is capitalism on
steroids, a bulging muscled beast that has succeeded in mutating
American society, transforming our culture to one whose assembly lines
of human procreation manufacture millions of consumers, producers,
worker bees, soldier ants and growing generations of unthinking
automatons.
American capitalism in the first decade of the 21st century is the
inevitable result of an economic form of governance whose stages have,
over the last two centuries, and with exponentially-increasing
dominance, power and control over our society, created a vicious cycle
of evolving degeneration that today runs amok, destroying the
environment and planet, human health and intelligence, individual
thought and free-thinking minds, democracy and a once grand societal
experiment of equality, justice and freedom. It is American capitalism,
then, that now lives off of human exploitation and ignorance, breathing
in and usurping our energy, exhaling poisons that blacken our eyes and
minds while enveloping the Empire’s horizons with a darkness that
infects us with its various forms of disease that are making our
society, culture and way of life the nightmares of yesterday’s slaves
and the controlled programs hardwired into tomorrow’s automatons.
The Light that brings forth Darkness
The darkness that has encircled the Empire and its people has over the
last fifty years grown thanks to the continued evolution of the
television monitor and the ever-expanding media tentacles of the
corporate world. The TV has become the single biggest tool for the
corporate beast, having morphed in the last few decades into the
apparatus by which consumerism, materialism, belief in fantasy, mental
manipulation, love of the almighty dollar and the virus of greed are
extracted and exploited from the masses, thus enriching the corporate
beast with both the treasure and the controlled, easily manipulated mind
of the American populace.
As the popularity of the television media has grown over the years and
with Americans watching more and more hours of the instruments of
fantasy, propaganda and brainwashing fostered by the corporate
Leviathan, the collective American mind has dissipated in power and
intellect, over the last few decades degenerating and becoming instead a
sponge readily accepting and believing anything and everything implanted
into it by the monitor – the axis by which everything in our home
revolves around – that now serves as its brain.
The television, that glowing light now reigning as the center of our
homes, robbing us of analytical minds and healthy bodies, that invention
celebrated and adored, has become the single biggest weapon the
corporate capitalists have to dominate, control and program us. It lies
as the great culprit in the continued regression of the American mind
and erosion of intellect, the further dominance by corporations of our
daily lives, the decay and festering ignorance of our youth, the
indifference to world affairs and apathy to the plight of the peoples of
the globe, the unconcern towards government politics, accountability and
transparency, the growth of our world renowned amnesia and
short-attention spans, and the increased conditioning of and appetite
for violence, death and destruction.
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JD
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #1 on: 2004-10-06 06:37:14 » |
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Thanks for posting this B, but for the love of Nkosi, are the ANC
poisoning peoples milk over there with com my fellow
I sincerely hope you do not have any personal attachment to this article
because I would like to denounce it.
It is in my opinion a rough restatement of utterly discredited standard
issue Marxist / Situationist polemics. Admittedly the florid language is
impressive, as are the claims. Pity about the fact that so many of those
claims are unsupported and the arguments as erroneous as when they first
appeared in their original form in Das Kapital.
Limbic rating: UTTER BUNK
JD
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf Of
Blunderov
Sent: 04 October 2004 23:23
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
[Blunderov] I hope it is not too indulgent of me to post this entire, and
rather long, article but it is very powerful writing and things have been a
bit quiet lately...
It presents, IMV, some cogent arguments suggesting that American Capitalism
is quickly approaching a critical mass. (What IS to be done about that
deficit?)
He strongly repudiates the ultra-capitalist maxim (some might say holy
cow) that an unbridled free market is the best and fairest means of
distributing scarce resources and services yet devised by man.
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Blunderov
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #2 on: 2004-10-06 13:59:58 » |
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Jonathan Davis
Sent: 06 October 2004 12:37 PM
Thanks for posting this B, but for the love of Nkosi, are the ANC
poisoning peoples milk over there with com my fellow
I sincerely hope you do not have any personal attachment to this article
because I would like to denounce it.
It is in my opinion a rough restatement of utterly discredited standard
issue Marxist / Situationist polemics. Admittedly the florid language is
impressive, as are the claims. Pity about the fact that so many of those
claims are unsupported and the arguments as erroneous as when they first
appeared in their original form in Das Kapital.
Limbic rating: UTTER BUNK
[Blunderov] Feel free to debunk old friend. Sadly, the SA Communist
Party still sees fit hide behind the skirts of the ANC - an increasingly
improbable alliance which is understandably showing signs of strain -
otherwise I might join. (I am more an arm chair philosophical communist
than a practical one. Truth to tell, the only movement that will ever
engage my undivided attention is that of my own progression towards the
grave.)
Here is an ardently free market site that might interest you.
http://www.futurecasts.com/Default1.html
(It is interesting in more ways than just from the free market POV.)
Here I repeatedly met the assertion that 'the free market is the most
efficient means yet devised for the fairest distribution of goods and
services". If this is true, it seems to me a sad indictment of human
ingenuity.
In particular, it is American capitalism that is criticised in the
article. Time will tell whether American ultra-capitalism is really
sustainable. For the moment it seems fairly obvious to me that it
results in more and more goods and services being distributed to fewer
and fewer people. Not a good sign.
Here in SA (to cut a long opinion short) it is seems questionable that
1st world economic dogma is entirely appropriate in a country where the
unemployment rate is 45%. With no social security or dole either.
Generally, there seems so much evidence to the contrary in the world
that I have to wonder whether 'capitalism' is truly the Holy Grail. Of
course there are no Utopias - but is this really the best we can do?
Best Regards.
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JD
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #3 on: 2004-10-07 07:38:25 » |
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf Of
Blunderov
Sent: 06 October 2004 19:00
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
SNIP
Generally, there seems so much evidence to the contrary in the world that I
have to wonder whether 'capitalism' is truly the Holy Grail. Of course there
are no Utopias - but is this really the best we can do?
[Jonathan 2]
Hi B,
I am sorry to say that I am no supporter of radical capitalism any more so
than I am a supporter of radical anti-capitalism.
As sad as it may sound to many, I am a standard issue Third Way Blairite in
my economic thinking.
The free market is not the most efficient means yet devised for the fairest
distribution of goods and services because of the simple fact that the free
market gives rise to forces which extinguish that free market because they
want to freeze the market in the configuration that suits the current
beneficiaries.
By its very nature unbridled capitalism is suicidal - wealth and power pool
and where it does so, interested parties seek to maintain that status quo
and destroy real competition thus keeping their wealth and power pooled.
This is neither a free market nor proper capitalism.
That is why the state's regulation and 'resetting the bar' is so valuable.
The state can temper the excesses of capitalism, redistribute some of the
wealth according to consensus and finally protect capitalism from itself by
enforcing genuine free and fair trade not a closed faux-capitalist market
dominated by corporate racketeers and cheats.
Capitalism as it is today is not, in my view, the best we can do at all.
If you want to have your economic thinking rocked, please please please read
what I consider to be one of the best and most hope inspiring books on
economics and social development that I have ever read:
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails
Everywhere Else By Hernando De Soto
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552999237/
The book is not flawless (what book on economic and theory is?), but none
the less it is superb.
Fond regards
Jonathan
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Blunderov
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #4 on: 2004-10-07 09:22:25 » |
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Jonathan Davis
Sent: 07 October 2004 01:38 PM
SNIP
Generally, there seems so much evidence to the contrary in the world
that I
have to wonder whether 'capitalism' is truly the Holy Grail. Of course
there
are no Utopias - but is this really the best we can do?
[Jonathan 2]
I am sorry to say that I am no supporter of radical capitalism any more
so
than I am a supporter of radical anti-capitalism.
As sad as it may sound to many, I am a standard issue Third Way Blairite
in
my economic thinking.
The free market is not the most efficient means yet devised for the
fairest
distribution of goods and services because of the simple fact that the
free
market gives rise to forces which extinguish that free market because
they
want to freeze the market in the configuration that suits the current
beneficiaries.
By its very nature unbridled capitalism is suicidal - wealth and power
pool
and where it does so, interested parties seek to maintain that status
quo
and destroy real competition thus keeping their wealth and power pooled.
This is neither a free market nor proper capitalism.
That is why the state's regulation and 'resetting the bar' is so
valuable.
The state can temper the excesses of capitalism, redistribute some of
the
wealth according to consensus and finally protect capitalism from itself
by
enforcing genuine free and fair trade not a closed faux-capitalist
market
dominated by corporate racketeers and cheats.
Capitalism as it is today is not, in my view, the best we can do at all.
If you want to have your economic thinking rocked, please please please
read
what I consider to be one of the best and most hope inspiring books on
economics and social development that I have ever read:
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails
Everywhere Else By Hernando De Soto
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552999237/
The book is not flawless (what book on economic and theory is?), but
nonetheless it is superb.
[Blunderov] Yes, I think we are on the same wavelength here. Thank you
for your recommendation; I have never ordered anything through Amazon
before but this seems like a good place to start! I look forward to
reading it very much.
Has anyone else perhaps read it?
Best Regards
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Re:virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #5 on: 2004-10-07 10:55:49 » |
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Quote from: Blunderov on 2004-10-04 18:22:40
[Blunderov] I hope it is not too indulgent of me to post this entire,
and rather long, article but it is very powerful writing and things have
been a bit quiet lately...
It presents, IMV, some cogent arguments suggesting that American
Capitalism is quickly approaching a critical mass. (What IS to be done
about that deficit?)
He strongly repudiates the ultra-capitalist maxim (some might say holy
cow) that an unbridled free market is the best and fairest means of
distributing scarce resources and services yet devised by man.
"Something better change". (The Stranglers)
Best Regards.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6997.htm
Eternal Darkness of the American Mind
Our government is as much a terrorist as those in Beslam, Bali, New York
and Madrid. It is time we stop thinking ourselves the enlightened
culture we are not. It is time to stop a hypocrisy that seems to
validate the atrocities we commit while castigating those made against
us.
Manuel Valenzuelas
10/02/04 "ICH" -- The prevalent and continued decline of the Empire’s
mind can be attributed to the evolving degeneration of American
capitalism, through the inherent evils it espouses, its subjugation and
control of human nature, and its consequences on a society entangled and
indeed dependent on the very mechanisms of exploitation of self,
addiction to materialism and the pandemic of greed. This latest stage of
capitalism, the most sinister to arise from the realm of human
conscious, has replaced once nobler, controllable, equal and just
instruments. It is simply the erosion of capitalism, after having
flourishing in previous stages of development, into a phase that has
mutated beyond the control of humans and into a realm of damaging and
malevolent repression and exploitation.
Thriving off of human nature, feeding and growing from its ability to
dominate our animal instincts, our wants, needs and desires, capitalism
as we know it today has become an unrelenting disease, jumping from host
to host, contaminating a society that, more and more, lives in utter
disconnect from a greater world community and that allows itself to be
manipulated, dumbed down and owned by elite capitalists whose control
over our lives grows more discernible every day. It is capitalism on
steroids, a bulging muscled beast that has succeeded in mutating
American society, transforming our culture to one whose assembly lines
of human procreation manufacture millions of consumers, producers,
worker bees, soldier ants and growing generations of unthinking
automatons.
American capitalism in the first decade of the 21st century is the
inevitable result of an economic form of governance whose stages have,
over the last two centuries, and with exponentially-increasing
dominance, power and control over our society, created a vicious cycle
of evolving degeneration that today runs amok, destroying the
environment and planet, human health and intelligence, individual
thought and free-thinking minds, democracy and a once grand societal
experiment of equality, justice and freedom. It is American capitalism,
then, that now lives off of human exploitation and ignorance, breathing
in and usurping our energy, exhaling poisons that blacken our eyes and
minds while enveloping the Empire’s horizons with a darkness that
infects us with its various forms of disease that are making our
society, culture and way of life the nightmares of yesterday’s slaves
and the controlled programs hardwired into tomorrow’s automatons.
The Light that brings forth Darkness
The darkness that has encircled the Empire and its people has over the
last fifty years grown thanks to the continued evolution of the
television monitor and the ever-expanding media tentacles of the
corporate world. The TV has become the single biggest tool for the
corporate beast, having morphed in the last few decades into the
apparatus by which consumerism, materialism, belief in fantasy, mental
manipulation, love of the almighty dollar and the virus of greed are
extracted and exploited from the masses, thus enriching the corporate
beast with both the treasure and the controlled, easily manipulated mind
of the American populace.
As the popularity of the television media has grown over the years and
with Americans watching more and more hours of the instruments of
fantasy, propaganda and brainwashing fostered by the corporate
Leviathan, the collective American mind has dissipated in power and
intellect, over the last few decades degenerating and becoming instead a
sponge readily accepting and believing anything and everything implanted
into it by the monitor – the axis by which everything in our home
revolves around – that now serves as its brain.
The television, that glowing light now reigning as the center of our
homes, robbing us of analytical minds and healthy bodies, that invention
celebrated and adored, has become the single biggest weapon the
corporate capitalists have to dominate, control and program us. It lies
as the great culprit in the continued regression of the American mind
and erosion of intellect, the further dominance by corporations of our
daily lives, the decay and festering ignorance of our youth, the
indifference to world affairs and apathy to the plight of the peoples of
the globe, the unconcern towards government politics, accountability and
transparency, the growth of our world renowned amnesia and
short-attention spans, and the increased conditioning of and appetite
for violence, death and destruction.
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I must agree with Jonathan. Utter Bunk. But wow! what overblown florid language!! On the other hand, Blunderov, YOUR mention of the deficit does ring true to this "down is up" mentality that has a complete ideological lock on the brain cells of the current political administration. Black is white, deficits don't matter, unemployment/joblessness is good, Saddam equals Osama and more deaths in Iraq equals progress. I'm sure that they will figure out a way to spin three straight months of bad leading economic indicators into proof that Nirvanna is just around the corner. I must chuckle a little at the hysterical pronouncement of an "eternal darkness", since as recently as a decade we DID seem to understand that balancing budgets mattered. Oh yeah, and greed is not a virus, any more than power, hunger, lust, or orgasms are. . . really poor use of the metaphor. And did the author actually use the phrase "run amok"?? LoL! I guess if nothing else, it is a bit of an entertaining if otherwise senseless read. Just the kind of stupidity that we Virians enjoy deflating. Thanks 
-Jake
Reason, Empathy, and Vision -- tools for healthy living.
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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Cassidy McGurk
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #6 on: 2004-10-07 15:14:37 » |
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On Thu, 2004-10-07 at 14:22, Blunderov wrote:
> [Blunderov] Yes, I think we are on the same wavelength here. Thank you
> for your recommendation; I have never ordered anything through Amazon
> before but this seems like a good place to start! I look forward to
> reading it very much.
>
> Has anyone else perhaps read it?
I haven't read the book but i did remember this review -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,366782,00.html
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Blunderov
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #8 on: 2004-10-07 19:08:35 » |
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[Blunderov] Please indulge this cross post - it does seem germane to the
thread. Seems that all the energy eggs are in the fusion basket unless
there are a lot more oil reserves than have so far been discovered.
Best Regards.
SANE Views
Vol.4, No.11, 1 October 2004
CASSANDRA OR CORNUCOPIA?
Margaret Legum
If you really knew for sure that industrial society cannot survive
without using more and more energy; and that the geological limits to
conventional energy sources will make that impossible; and that no one
with the necessary power is planning for that situation, how would you
react?
Stop thinking about it? Look for other views? Fatalist acceptance?
Panic? Start growing food? More to the point, would you vote for a
political leadership that told you all that was true? And that in
consequence its government would immediately switch investment from
energy-intensive activities to energy saving, involving foreseeable
consumer sacrifice?
Suppose they told you that would mean huge price increases on private
transport, sporting events, the entertainment and leisure industries,
air travel, marketing and access to goods that have traveled across the
world - not to mention armaments and their delivery systems - all of
which guzzle fossil fuels. And that subsidies would be given for
renewable energy research and implementation. Individual buildings would
be fitted with solar panels; wind and water powered installations would
be placed in all communities; communities would be helped to grow food.
If you voted for such a party, you would almost certainly be in the
minority. The others would be telling you that is alarmist nonsense.
Cassandra has had a bad press over millennia. A figure of fun, she has
been opposed by the cornucopians of every generation. Today they
represent the dominant ideology that the earth is a permanent horn of
plenty. Mankind's technological ingenuity, combined with free market
forces, will ensure eternal availability of new cheap energy sources.
Jimmy Carter was the derided exception. He wrote in 1976 that the
geological realities mean we must fundamentally change our way of life -
either deliberately or perforce.
Here are some results of research brought together by Richard Heinberg,
Californian professor and author of The Party's Over', as well as
Options for Action for a Post-Carbon World and the ongoing Museletter -
who will be visiting South Africa early next year.
More important than when the last drop of oil runs out is when its
supply will peak. It peaks when the rate of extraction at any one site
starts to fall, and the 'net energy' declines - that is the ratio of
energy produced to that used in extraction. In the US oil production
peaked in 1970. Having been the leading oil exporter, the US now imports
60% of its needs; and the 'net energy' ratio averages about 1:1.
When world supplies peak, increasing imports is not an option. Globally
oil production will peak between 2006 and 2015 - depending on whether
there is a serious financial collapse, which would buy us some time.
What about other traditional energy sources? Natural gas is peaking
about now. In any case it is hard to transport around the world. Coal
is still plentiful at deeper and deeper levels. But mining it is a
miserable job, most of the associated skills have been lost, and it is
environmentally filthy: it ruins land, water, forests and water. Nuclear
energy has a low net energy yield, is expensive to decommission and
involves a seriously dangerous legacy for our children in the form of
waste disposal. Research on fusion absorbs billions of dollars annually
without bringing a breakthrough nearer.
Hydrogen has become the cornucopians' shared hope. The trouble is that
it is not itself an energy source, using more natural gas for its
production than it yields in terms of energy. Its advantages are
environmental and as a storage medium. It is not the answer to energy
depletion.
Then there are the renewable energy sources - wind, sun and water
generation. These avoid all the problems of the others. But they have a
drawback that may in the end prove a blessing in disguise: they do not
produce on the scale that can satisfy a national grid. That presents a
mindset challenge to current thinking about the global economy. It means
a fundamental decentralization of economic and political power. Human
scale economies might become the inevitable outcome of traditional
energy depletion.
The truth is that the unavoidable solution is a world that uses much
less energy. Not just fewer gas-guzzlers, but local organic agriculture
replacing industrial agriculture; and the end of the mass holiday
airline industry. That is what the scientists are telling us. It means a
different kind of economy globally. It means a radical shift in the
economic centers of gravity. If renewable energy works best locally,
economies will have to be more local.
How would it come about? Certainly not from the top, where too much is
invested in global control. It may follow a collapse in the financial
system, which is based on precisely the conditions that gave us the
Crash of the 1930s: over-production and under-consumption; an
international cancer of personal and institutional debt; and a politics
that over-privileges a small minority.
And yes, perhaps we should all begin now to grow our own food.
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romanov
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virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #9 on: 2004-10-07 22:16:30 » |
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Nice article. A little overwritten.
Personally I don't believe the current economic paradigm has run out of
steam just yet. I do believe it does exist on borrowed time. No empire,
economic or otherwise, lasts forever.
My reasons for this opinion? Fairly straightforward: The way the current
global financial system is structured prevents even the grossest fiscal
irresponsibility from causing a collapse in financial value in trading
markets. It does this with a very simple method: stripping wealth from
poorer countries.
After WWII, the current world financial system was put in place (under the
alias of helping to rebuild war-ravaged countries). This was (wrongly)
attributed to Keynes (hence 'keynesian' economics) but in actuality the
current system was the brainchild of a man named Harry Dexter White. Keynes
actually came up with a radically different system, that I'll post more
about at a future date.
Essentially the US used its post-war clout to structure the world financial
system to its own advantage. Through a combination of loan repayments, the
use of the US dollar as the world standard of currency, and protectionism
(on western countries part, not the poorer countries) wealth is designed to
flow from poorer countries to richer ones.
This has meant that for almost three generations, the USA has had a massive
economic buffer against debt defaults, devaluation and shrinking markets.
The influx of foreign assets into the western economies has acted as a
buffer on financial markets, allowing successive US governments to run
massive deficits for political, economic and military gain. During the Cold
War, this was used to out-defence budget the Soviet empire into submission.
Since the end of the Cold War, this has been used for the
political/financial gain of the particular subset of the US ruling elite in
power at the time, but mainly has been done for the benefit of corporations,
with massive deregulation the result across the board.
As the current fiscal irresponsiblity of Bush&Co shows, the US can maintain
a massive, trillion dollar deficit and still stave off the hyper-inflation,
currency devaluation and general economic chaos that would follow in another
country were it to behave as the US does.
Were it not for this buffer, the economic policies of the US for the past
forty years would have been unsustainable, not just the last four.
A side effect of this system is that a belief in a manifest economic destiny
exists in the US, and deficits are seen as a nuisance, not a disaster. This
is something that may well prove deadly in the future. Moreover, another
side-effect is the universal dislike/hatred felt by many in the developing
world towards the west in general and the US in particular.
As long as the current financial system persists, we'll see no re-run of the
Wall Street Crash. But I wouldn't celebrate just yet. The signs are there of
what might yet bring down the current system.
As has been pointed out here, it is capitalism's own success that threatens
it with destruction. As an elite forms in any market due to successes, it
inevitably attempts to use its resources to prevent the market from
functioning properly. Regulation, enforced by the state, is the only
antidote for this. Market and state are thereby interdependent. The ongoing
and increasing corporatisation (some might say corruption) of the US
political system threatens this.
The real danger however, is not the US, but the rest of the world. It may,
simply, get together and decide not to play the US's game anymore. A massive
debt default on the part of the discontented developing world, or a decision
by Japan, China and the other major players to switch to the increasingly
influential Euro could spell the end of the current paradigm. The jitters
the IMF and world bank are currently showing (and a sudden willingness to
discuss repayment schedules) may well be proof they are aware of this. The
trigger may end up being the peaking of oil prices sometime within the next
fifteen years.
My own feeling is that the statue may well have feet of clay. Without the
buffer in place, the US is just another nation. Fiscal responsibility would
be forced upon it, as would a drastic setback in its military, economic and
political clout across the globe. My personal hope is that a new, more
sustainable global system can be found before this happens. Chaos is the
only alternative.
romanov
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Blunderov
Archon
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
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RE: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #10 on: 2004-10-08 01:53:02 » |
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mark daniel robinson
Sent: 08 October 2004 04:17 AM
<snip.
Personally I don't believe the current economic paradigm has run out of
steam just yet. I do believe it does exist on borrowed time. No empire,
economic or otherwise, lasts forever.</snip>
[Blunderov] Thanks for a most cogent analysis. Here where I live, there
is a growing resentment about the way the UN is still structured to
preserve the advantage that the West enjoyed at the end of WW2. An
African 'parliament' has just been inaugurated. Let us hope that it
turns out to be something more than the mutual admiration club for
dictators that was the OAU.
Best Regards.
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simul
Adept
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I am a lama.
 
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Re: virus: RE: virus 'Eternal Darkness of the American Mind'
« Reply #11 on: 2004-10-26 13:03:42 » |
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: the free market gives rise to
: forces which extinguish that free
: market
True.
Likewise, government-run markets gives rise to forces that exploit and eventually bankrupt those markets.
So, what about faith-based markets? No votes, no money, just people producing products and performing services in order to make the world a better place for everyone. What happens to these markets?
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First, read Bruce Sterling's "Distraction", and then read http://electionmethods.org.
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