Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Fear Factor

Greetings good citizen,

I am hesitant to raise the subject because Blogger’s stats tracking are, er, ‘spotty’ at best but yesterday my little window on our civilization experienced a ‘personal best’.

Attention/curiosity has been growing in recent weeks (so yesterday’s ‘spike’ isn’t totally out of character.)

Anyway, thanks for sharing this site (and my decidedly twisted observations) with your friends.

That said, let us proceed with the ‘business’ of these humble pages, which are intended to provide you with something to think about rather than the much simpler objective of telling you what to think.

While there is no shortage of people complaining about the path our civilization is on, it is somewhat futile to point out we’ve been here before (many times.)

It is even more futile to point out that the only thing that has been done about the deeply entrenched crap, crud and corrosion is the hitting of the reset switch, followed by a hearty rendition of ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss!’.

And after a couple of decades of things ‘appearing’ to get better, we find ourselves right back where we started (again.)

The ‘true’ purpose of this site is to promote a sustainable alternative to the ‘perpetual expansion’ of predatory capitalism.

And, as we have witnessed ourselves (repeatedly,) if capitalism stops expanding, it immediately ‘collapses’.

Which is where we’re at today.

No irony should be lost on the fact that the only thing preventing our collapse into barbarism is socialism, the much despised ‘alternative’ to (more for me) capitalism.

Yet the corporate owned media continues to pretend that capitalism is alive, well and holding up the sinking ship of humanity.

Which is to ask ‘how much horse-shit are you willing to shovel before you realize there IS no pony under the pile?’

Speaking of ‘horse-pucky’ we have this insightful piece that sheds some light on a decidedly twisted philosophy we have come to know as ‘Libertarianism’:

From the fertile source of marginal utility value calculus the Austrians thus constructed a pristine moral and metaphysical system. But in doing so – like all metaphysicians – they allowed their imaginations to run away with them. They never noticed the point at which they crossed that fateful line; that line that separates our attempts to represent the world accurately and dispassionately to ourselves from our attempts to create a fantasy world in which we can live. The Austrians had, at first, attempted to use their imaginations to explain the world around them and, in doing so, had fallen into a dream world of their own creation.

And so the foundations of the political cult we call libertarianism were firmly in place. It is an ingenious creation which even came to include what CG Jung and other mythologists might call a central ‘archetypal’ or mythic figure. Even more specifically, what the Austrians have done is insert into their narrative what the great American mythologist Joseph Campbell called the ‘monomyth’. The monomyth is a recurrent theme in mythologies from all over the world. It is essentially a ‘hero myth’ and, as Campbell argues, can be located in most major religious narratives (Christ, Buddha etc.). In this the Austrians provided the libertarian religion with their very own version of the monomyth.

That most libertarians are ignorant of the source of their beliefs – just as most of them are not very conversant with economic theory generally, their protestations to the contrary notwithstanding – only adds a sociological dimension to their cult. Their cult forms a hierarchy where those who are closer to the Grand Truth are supposed to know more than those who are less conversant. Those who are less conversant then scrutinize the Great Texts – which are largely taken to be Holy Writ – until they can advance up the priestly ranks.

If you want to go fishing in Yves’s Archives you will find a rather shocking article describing the foundations of ‘Libertarian paradise’ (better know to you as Hell of Earth.)

Why bother kicking ‘fringe’ Libertarians in the shins?

Because the Libertarians have taken over the Republican Party, good citizen. That’s why they have suddenly become so ‘radical’.

Some of you are too young to remember but ‘back in the day’ you could find ‘common ground’ with an ‘old-time conservative’. Today this is not possible because Libertarians view non-libertarians as an ‘inferior species’.

Maybe it’s just me but once you start down that road it becomes pretty obvious that YOU are the one who is a few fries shy of a Happy Meal!

Libertarianism, like its ‘soul-mate’ Capitalism is centered on ‘private property’.

A Simple Plan is centered on individual sovereignty, that we all have an equal right to the bounty of this planet. (something that can't be achieved if the so-called 'owner' refuses to part with your share...or wants/commands more than it's worth!)

Bizarrely, Libertarians equate property ownership with self-ownership. They can own property BECAUSE they ‘own’ themselves.

This involves a certain degree of mental gymnastics, but that is always the case when it comes to justifying bullshit.

Tell the homeless that they ‘own’ themselves and they’ll respond with the most famous of observations ’nothing from nothing leaves nothing’…an equation the Libertarians choose to blame on the victim.

Native Americans didn’t believe in property ownership (and their civilization thrived for a hundred thousand years!)

Conversely, capitalism’s personal best is Rome’s 400 year stretch…(and the price in blood was horrendous just to get that far!)

Looks to me like the property-less native Americans were on to something.

So don’t ‘fear’ A Simple plan because it hasn’t been tried (in recent memory.)

It is a proven successful concept that flourished for a lot longer than predatory capitalism has been around!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

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