The Collapse

[pan]

OK, I'm an idiot - how do you upload video?

Watch this

[Mouse]

"...with all the rhetoric I hear, it seems like they're trolling for assassins." Max Blumenthal

[littleoldme]

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20101005/EU.Hungary.Sl...

[pan]

Russell Means Revolution and American Indians: “Marxism is as Alien to My Culture as Capitalism”

Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. Traditionally, American Indians have always attempted to be the best people they could. Part of that spiritual process was and is to give away wealth, to discard wealth in order not to gain. Material gain is an indicator of false status among traditional people, while it is “proof that the system works” to Europeans. Clearly, there are two completely opposing views at issue here, and Marxism is very far over to the other side from the American Indian view. But let’s look at a major implication of this; it is not merely an intellectual debate.

The European materialist tradition of despiritualizing the universe is very similar to the mental process which goes into dehumanizing another person. And who seems most expert at dehumanizing other people? And why? Soldiers who have seen a lot of combat learn to do this to the enemy before going back into combat. Murderers do it before going out to commit murder. Nazi SS guards did it to concentration camp inmates. Cops do it. Corporation leaders do it to the workers they send into uranium mines and steel mills. Politicians do it to everyone in sight. And what the process has in common for each group doing the dehumanizing is that it makes it all right to kill and otherwise destroy other people. One of the Christian commandments says, “Thou shalt not kill,” at least not humans, so the trick is to mentally convert the victims into nonhumans. Then you can proclaim violation of your own commandment as a virtue.

In terms of the despiritualization of the universe, the mental process works so that it becomes virtuous to destroy the planet. Terms like progress and development are used as cover words here, the way victory and freedom are used to justify butchery in the dehumanization process. For example, a real-estate speculator may refer to “developing” a parcel of ground by opening a gravel quarry; development here means total, permanent destruction, with the earth itself removed. But European logic has gained a few tons of gravel with which more land can be “developed” through the construction of road beds. Ultimately, the whole universe is open–in the European view–to this sort of insanity.

Most important here, perhaps, is the fact that Europeans feel no sense of loss in all this. After all, their philosophers have despiritualized reality, so there is no satisfaction (for them) to be gained in simply observing the wonder of a mountain or a lake or a people in being. No, satisfaction is measured in terms of gaining material. So the mountain becomes gravel, and the lake becomes coolant for a factory, and the people are rounded up for processing through the indoctrination mills Europeans like to call schools.

Complete speech found here

[Cal]

Interesting - thanks Bo. I am thinking about it in terms of many african tribe cultures too ... big problem with Africa of course, is not really the Africans. It is the way despots & henchment really manage to get the hang of capitalism & screw the rest of their countrymen.

[pan]

Bageant's latest Algorithms and Red Wine touches on some of the same themes

I’m gonna take a wild shot here and say that understanding and liberation, come through self-discipline and self-denial, and that it’s nearly impossible for Americans to practice self-discipline. They cannot imagine why self-discipline, and a more ascetic life, becoming less dependent on the faceless machinery of algorithm driven virtual money, is necessarily liberating.

If there can be a solution at this late stage, and most thinking people seriously doubt there can be a “solution” in the way we have always thought of solutions, it begins with powering down everything we consider to be the economy and our survival. That and population reduction, which nobody wants to discuss in actionable terms. Worse yet, there is no state sanctioned, organized entry level for people who want to power down from the horrific machinery of money. There are too many financial, military and corporate and governmental forces that don’t want to see us power down (because it would spell their death), but rather power up even more. That’s called “a recovery.”

P.S. I don't mind at all being mistaken for BO :-)

[Cal]

Gosh how did I get the name wrong!! Worrying to find oneself having distinctly 'senior' moments.

Joe Bageant always gets me thinking. I've been working on the 'powering down' in recent months. I can only manage it in little tiny steps. The world just isn't geared that way - as he says - 'they' don't want to see us power down. And I'm surprised at how much of my ingrained thinking isn't geared that way either ... imbibed a lot of shit before I was awake enough to start questioning it all.

[BO]

"P.S. I don't mind at all being mistaken for BO :-)"

Thought I was gonna get credit for that indian post. Busted again.

[littleoldme]

lol

[BO]

Chris Hedges, as usual, nails it with his new book, "Death of the Liberal Class." Neo-feudalism, moral nihilism, christian fascism: three themes that we've mentioned over and over here, are all mentioned in his thesis. Not that an awareness of the basis for the collapse makes experiencing it any better, but It's still comforting to find someone who validates your point of view so completely. Hearing him speak is like listening to a much-smarter version of myself. ;-)

[BO]

And in this segment, our hero, Chris Hedges fends off two corporate media/policy hacks who try to convince us that everything is hunky dory. Just then, a discussion of the Iraq war causes Chris to unveil his claws as he slices and dices the corporate hacks. It was like watching Bruce Banner become the Hulk. Better than any football game...

[pan]

Amidst the whole derivative/housing market collapse/mortgage scandal I tend to forget how "free trade" has, in one generation, completely inverted the balance of trade for the US - going from major manufacturer/exporter to major consumer/importer.

"Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why"
by Ian Fletcher

[littleoldme]

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-technology/20101117/US.Cyber.T...

So does anyone think our government has been up to it's usual shenanigans again? Or even more likely our Jewish friends?