Life is cheap here. People accept it or leave it with very little fanfare.
~ Ernesto Guevara commenting on the Bolivian peasantry, 1953
We have already looked at the plantation system and the way our current economic structure approximates it. Now I'd like to look at the natural world and the predator/prey relationship as a way of illustrating how things work in our society. So let's talk about herbivores and carnivores.
The herbivores are composed of the workers/consumers and the predators are the ruling class that prey off of them. Great big herds of herbivores roam the plains and forests, grazing on the fields of grass and browsing the branches of trees and shrubs. Their two primary means of defense against predators are either size or speed. The predators feast off the weakest and slowest, continuosly culling the herd. The predator prey ratio is held rather constant despite changes in population. The increase in the predator population is dependent on an increase in prey. The sytem depends on two main things: there is always a steady prey base for the predators and the prey base does not evolve new defenses that thwarts the predators. Although this is the natural order of an ecosystem in the natural world, it is not to be confused with being a natural order of human society. We have evolved past that!
In our society there will always be a prey base, those that can be sold things or made to work with the surplus value of their labor supplying the predators. So the system will not be evolved out of until the prey is able to develop new defenses. The development will include an increase in intelligence, in the same way that a certain species of omnivorous primate was able to climb to the top of the food chain. In order to develop that intelligence, we must apply ourselves and reject the torrent of cultural propaganda meant to reinforce and perpetuate the stats quo. If you have read this far, you are a suitable herbivore to begin evolving away from the predators. Kill your TV, develop your ability to question societal norms and economic realities versus the possibilities of a world with no one being preyed upon. Then you will have the predators on the run., screeching like jackals. Like they are in Bolivia these days. If it can happen there, we can do it here.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Calling Things by their Real Names: Hugo Chavez Speech to the U.N
What a shame we never hear the truth plainly spoken by our own media or elected officials. What a shame we have to import the truth unwillingly then have it drowned out in a wave of righteous lying indignation. What a shame that those same liars that are so upset to hear the truth have turned this country into the world's biggest whorehouse. What a shame so many want so much to believe those liars.
Oh man, this was good. Best thing I've heard since Dick Cheney was told to go f-ck himself down in Mississippi after Katrina. Here's a partial transcript:
I think that the first people who should read this book (Chomsky's "Hedgemony or Survival") are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. [crosses himself]
And it smells of sulfur still today.
Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe." As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.
They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?
The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace." That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes. But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.
I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless. Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches... But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world.
There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now? What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision. We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.
Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.
President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier. And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists. And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner. And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.
And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to. And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace. Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.
But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.
We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations. And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.
You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.
----------------------------
OK for all of you who want to faint at the sight of a world leader calling the President of The United States the devil...who else but the devil would try to justify a big moneymaking operation into Iraq as being a plan that JESUS put in his feeble mind?
My main beef with religious people is their unwillingness to question the dogma foisted on them, including the many perversions of Christian doctrine. Here's a hint for you weakminded types...if someone is using Jesus Christ as a tool for starting and maintaining hatred and war, then he is the very definition of the DEVIL.
There's still time to save your soul, but it's running out fast. Wake up or burn, suckers.
Oh man, this was good. Best thing I've heard since Dick Cheney was told to go f-ck himself down in Mississippi after Katrina. Here's a partial transcript:
I think that the first people who should read this book (Chomsky's "Hedgemony or Survival") are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. [crosses himself]
And it smells of sulfur still today.
Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe." As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.
They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?
The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace." That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes. But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.
I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless. Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches... But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world.
There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now? What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision. We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.
Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.
President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier. And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists. And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner. And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.
And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to. And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace. Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.
But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.
We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations. And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.
You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.
----------------------------
OK for all of you who want to faint at the sight of a world leader calling the President of The United States the devil...who else but the devil would try to justify a big moneymaking operation into Iraq as being a plan that JESUS put in his feeble mind?
My main beef with religious people is their unwillingness to question the dogma foisted on them, including the many perversions of Christian doctrine. Here's a hint for you weakminded types...if someone is using Jesus Christ as a tool for starting and maintaining hatred and war, then he is the very definition of the DEVIL.
There's still time to save your soul, but it's running out fast. Wake up or burn, suckers.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Hey Speaking of Anniversaries...
This is also the 33rd anniversary of the U.S. government-inspired slaughter in Chile, where democracy was crushed and 3,000 people were rounded up, tortured and murdered.
Yeah, we've been spreading our own special brand of goodwill around the world for a long time now.
Read all about it.
Yeah, we've been spreading our own special brand of goodwill around the world for a long time now.
Read all about it.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Fermi's Paradox Answered
I am in the vast minority. I am one of those people that finds reality more interesting than fantasy. If everyone were like me, Hollywood and the cult of celebrity would not exist. Instead scientists would be celebrities and we would have cured most diseases, developed a susatainable economy and be exploring the universe. Well...once we finally sobered up. ;) But seriously, I think I have the answer to Fermi's Paradox, which asks why there are no aliens colonizing Earth. It follows that if there were other planets that harbored life that evolved to the point where they could master interplanetary space travel, then one such civilization would have reached Earth by now. There are several assumptions here, one is that interplanetary space travel is possible. We suppose it is, although we have not attempted it yet. Think about why that is... Then you will have the answer, too.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Creeping Fascism
I bring you the stately matron named Christendom, returning bedraggled, besmirched, and dishonored, from pirate raids in Kiao-Chou, Manchuria, South Africa, and the Phillipines, with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and towel, but hide the looking glass.
~ Mark Twain
Does anyone recall the scary days right after September 11, 2001? No I don't mean anthrax scary...I mean worse...when criticism of the United States, God and the Republican Party was strictly verboten. There was heavy censorship of anything that questioned the natural order of things, namely that Jesus Christ would get vengeance on Mohammed in the big sand box. I remember all the shiny gas-guzzling SUVs toting big flags, then brightly colored decals (made in Chinese prisons) and asking how stoopid could some folk be? They didn't see it coming. 3 buck a gallon gas. The attack on civil liberties, which has been non-stop. The diversion into Iraq. The decals have faded, bleached by the sun and the letdown of a quick high followed by a quicker withdrawal into reality. You been had, people, you been took. Bamboozled. I sensed it immediately, not because I am clairvoyant, but because I saw it all before. I knew where the media was being lead, willingly, complicitly. Most of all, I knew that the righteous warlords would get PAID in big stacks of pure blood money. Yes sir, a quick infusion right into their icy cold veins. And the worst part was that I couldn't call them on it. No one could or your words would disappear right off the page as if they, and you...never existed. I've studied enough history to know that these things go in cycles. I was there in 1991 when the same thing happened with Poppy taking down his doublecrossing drug runner buddy in Panama and then Oil War Numero Uno. I was there when Raygun atoned for all the dead marines in Lebanon by gangbanging a tiny island that neither he or his voting bloc could find on a map. Going back further in the same tragic history there was Nixon bombing the entrails outta SE Asia all through Christmas and Chanukah 1972 and beyond. There were so many lies ringing and echoing further back to the Red Menace, the Rosenbergs, McCarthy's lists of names, but most of all, the cowardice of the people to stand up to creeping fascism. What a tremendous let down, when you see what you thought was a free society crumble so quickly through fear and nationalistic hysteria. You would never think it was that fragile until you watch it fall. And it continues to fall little by little, brick by brick, even though the censorship loosened up slowly during 2002 as it become obvious that the struggle was taking an obvious detour to (quite literally) take care of business in Iraq. The criticism is there now, mostly uncensored. But so are the stealth prisons and the disappeared and the watch lists and the NSA data mining and the quid pro quo of the telecommunications companies. Freedom isn't free, it is a constant struggle against against opportunists, nationalists and believers in the supernatural. The fight against global capitalistic extremists will continue.
~ Mark Twain
Does anyone recall the scary days right after September 11, 2001? No I don't mean anthrax scary...I mean worse...when criticism of the United States, God and the Republican Party was strictly verboten. There was heavy censorship of anything that questioned the natural order of things, namely that Jesus Christ would get vengeance on Mohammed in the big sand box. I remember all the shiny gas-guzzling SUVs toting big flags, then brightly colored decals (made in Chinese prisons) and asking how stoopid could some folk be? They didn't see it coming. 3 buck a gallon gas. The attack on civil liberties, which has been non-stop. The diversion into Iraq. The decals have faded, bleached by the sun and the letdown of a quick high followed by a quicker withdrawal into reality. You been had, people, you been took. Bamboozled. I sensed it immediately, not because I am clairvoyant, but because I saw it all before. I knew where the media was being lead, willingly, complicitly. Most of all, I knew that the righteous warlords would get PAID in big stacks of pure blood money. Yes sir, a quick infusion right into their icy cold veins. And the worst part was that I couldn't call them on it. No one could or your words would disappear right off the page as if they, and you...never existed. I've studied enough history to know that these things go in cycles. I was there in 1991 when the same thing happened with Poppy taking down his doublecrossing drug runner buddy in Panama and then Oil War Numero Uno. I was there when Raygun atoned for all the dead marines in Lebanon by gangbanging a tiny island that neither he or his voting bloc could find on a map. Going back further in the same tragic history there was Nixon bombing the entrails outta SE Asia all through Christmas and Chanukah 1972 and beyond. There were so many lies ringing and echoing further back to the Red Menace, the Rosenbergs, McCarthy's lists of names, but most of all, the cowardice of the people to stand up to creeping fascism. What a tremendous let down, when you see what you thought was a free society crumble so quickly through fear and nationalistic hysteria. You would never think it was that fragile until you watch it fall. And it continues to fall little by little, brick by brick, even though the censorship loosened up slowly during 2002 as it become obvious that the struggle was taking an obvious detour to (quite literally) take care of business in Iraq. The criticism is there now, mostly uncensored. But so are the stealth prisons and the disappeared and the watch lists and the NSA data mining and the quid pro quo of the telecommunications companies. Freedom isn't free, it is a constant struggle against against opportunists, nationalists and believers in the supernatural. The fight against global capitalistic extremists will continue.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Off the Plantation
"I freed thousands of slaves in my life and I could have freed thousands more, had they known they were slaves".
- Harriet Tubman
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!
-KRS-ONE
The society of the U.S.A is remarkably similar to the plantation system. A very small minority of the population owns a large majority of the wealth and sets policy for the rest of the people to live and die by. Along with these modern planatation owners there are the latter day equivalents of the rest of the system: the wait staff and mammies living in the Big House. Most of them like their position and will work hard to retain their place of priviledge. The overseers who relish the use of force to keep the fieldhands in check. They see this excercise as validation of their superiority, when in fact it is a symptom of a deeper pathology. Finally, we have the large majority composed of field hands, who are given just enough table scraps, kept just exhausted enough, and threatened with enough violence/promised eternal salvation to prevent a large scale insurrection. It is a tenuous balance, but the glue that holds it together is the economic dependency of all involved, backed up by the threat of violence. But the system is doomed, as all unsustainable systems are. It is only a matter of time before declining natural resources result in the the standard of living reaching critical mass and a mass exodus off/collapse of the plantation. There will be a revolution and the new equilibrium will be established. But this revolution is less likely to resemble the American Revolution of 1776 and more likely to resemble the French Revolution of 1789. Payback is a muffa and overseers/collaborating house servants get cut no slack.
- Harriet Tubman
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!
-KRS-ONE
The society of the U.S.A is remarkably similar to the plantation system. A very small minority of the population owns a large majority of the wealth and sets policy for the rest of the people to live and die by. Along with these modern planatation owners there are the latter day equivalents of the rest of the system: the wait staff and mammies living in the Big House. Most of them like their position and will work hard to retain their place of priviledge. The overseers who relish the use of force to keep the fieldhands in check. They see this excercise as validation of their superiority, when in fact it is a symptom of a deeper pathology. Finally, we have the large majority composed of field hands, who are given just enough table scraps, kept just exhausted enough, and threatened with enough violence/promised eternal salvation to prevent a large scale insurrection. It is a tenuous balance, but the glue that holds it together is the economic dependency of all involved, backed up by the threat of violence. But the system is doomed, as all unsustainable systems are. It is only a matter of time before declining natural resources result in the the standard of living reaching critical mass and a mass exodus off/collapse of the plantation. There will be a revolution and the new equilibrium will be established. But this revolution is less likely to resemble the American Revolution of 1776 and more likely to resemble the French Revolution of 1789. Payback is a muffa and overseers/collaborating house servants get cut no slack.
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