Still in the hole
The world is going to hell in a hand basket, still, time to get back to this blog and chronicle some of this stuff....
As I look over the thoughts expressed back then, I note that my observations were generally correct. What is fascinating is that our capitalist society has shifted the incentive from money to the work itself, which is becoming a rare commodity. This is the sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head and it is causing immense stress to families. But instead of the New Working Class joining together in solidarity (as the old working class did), it is falling apart, because over the past decades it has been thoroughly propagandized by an Incredible Bullshit Machine (IBM) of quasi-philosophy that says, for no apparent reason, that "You are the master of your life and whatever bad things happen to you, it's because of you." This is the reverse side of the me-me-me coin.
 |
| Bangladesh, a symbol of a crushing market system |
Do "they" care? The leaders of our degenerating society? No they don't: I even interviewed the CEO of a company (a big, international company), who told me without any sense of shame, that the Recession was an opportunity to chuck people out and increase revenues by streamlining business and rehiring some on a freelance basis.
I know about freelancing: the money they pay is the only barrier to calling it a form of slavery. There is no loyalty, no sense of commitment, nothing. You might as well be a piece of software, replaceable and to be ignited when you need it regardless of your own needs.
Some sketched points
1) The rich have more than survived the recession, and unlike most people, they have thrived. Thrive and survive, and drive everyone else under. Now that real estate prices in the USA and in parts of Europe are nice and low again, they can use all that wealth to pick up the booty, not much different from those who despoiled the dead.... But the dead on the battlefields are at least protected, minimally, by the Hague convention (Article 16, I believe) .... The families and individuals who lost their homes, their jobs, their hope, on the other hand, are being ask to do the Christian thing and shut up, so the banks can keep moving the money up the food chain. Wouldn't want a Mr Adelson or Blankfein to have trouble finding a few million to buy up some cheap waterfront properties for a private beach...
2) Barack Obama has been president for over four years and after showing some genuinely bad judgment (see point 1) by hiring the very people who tanked the economy to clean up the mess, managed to win the election a second time more by default than by his qualities. The Romney/Ryan ticket was a strange one, especially with the GOP swamped in beyond-paranoid posturing, driven by a crowd that can only be described as tinfoilist. Limbaugh ranting and being coarse and vulgar (real family values guy), Beck meandering in and out of paranoid hallucinations while selling gold for some company, Coulter wandering around with her little box of earth, just in case dawn breaks, Palin making an ever greater fool of herself, Bachmann, Santorum, Hannity, the whole troop of odd fellows.... just unbelievable and only possible thanks to the Internet.
 |
| The the lunatic fringe hits its stride |
The rich, too, showed surprising bad judgment and worse yet, bad taste. But then again, to make billions does not necessarily require brains. It requires unscrupulousness, and that's it. Every billionaire or millionaire has essentially put aside any thought of sustainability, of generosity, kindness, and made money. It's Chapter One, Line One of every road to riches. And they are no longer interested in creating jobs, they are interested in sucking more and more money out of the economy so that when the People finally rise up (that is, when they finally get their noses out of their iPhones, Smartphones, computers and all the other pornography we are being fed with), they will at least have a few islands to take refuge on.
3) Much to the delight of the Ur-capitalists, Europe seems to be dissembling. For a while, Moody's and Standard and Poor, companies that no one other than the glorified accountants making up the business class even knew about, were grading anything that moved on the Old Continent, turning the neoliberally oriented ministers and prime ministers and presidents and other pols white with fear. They ran about in panic trying to shore up finances by, once again, grabbing from the less fortunate or the middle class, and passing the money upward. Today, no one knows about all that stuff anymore. It was the circus side of the bread and circuses...
 |
| Bottomfeeding, the free market game
|
In fact, no one can tell the truth in the west or east. The truth is: Our world has become a giant money machine. Dig crap out of the crust, process it, sell it to people who have been made dependent on it. Or appropriate natural needs and start selling them. You need it? You buy it. Mr Brabeck of Nestlé, and other wheels in the industry, would like this system applied to water…. It already is, basically, but that is a complicated discussion. Cities are growing, because of the fake hope of earnings there, they are cramped and dirty places, huge bedrooms for the paid slaves of our labor system, and yet absolutely necessary. We are becoming more and more dependent.
A chatty note to young readers: Do you realize, that texting was free of charge at the start?
These are interesting times, very interesting. Today, industries and businesses are apparently just around to make money for the fat cats and throw people out... So maybe we'll see a new revolution at some time in the next 5-10 years.... Mind you, having cashed in our freedom and privacy with the internet, the chances of a successful reform of the current system has worn thin. I must congratulate Jaron Lanier for coming around and seeing in the past five years or so what many had seen before. I am definitely going out to buy his book even though
Just imagine, Google knows who I am, and that is really spooky.
