The Collapse

[pan]

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

Watch this

[littleoldme]

read it, scary as hell, but dead on. I've already started stock piling food water etc, hope it all doesn't float away. Maybe rubber rafts, you know, just in case.

[curt]

with any luck at all you would end up in Cuba but just to be on the safe side, I would say.....uhm.......think about moving to Montana soon. (just another one of my plays on Zappa music, not to be taken literally)

[pan]

Let's Make it Official: Your Life Isn't Worth Chicken Shit

[BO]

I simply can't fathom the narcissism that is behind our national character disorder. Where the hell did it come from? What happened to those feelings of guilt that used to guide people's actions? Where did people's sense of compassion go?

It ain't stupidity. It's that basic sense of connectedness with other human beings--let alone the planet-- that seems to be missing in a hell of a lot of people these days.

Bad policy can be fixed. But how do you fix a country that's full of soul-less zombies?

So sad.

[waldopaper]

Stonefruit's latest post has a marked "scholarly" tone... without the usual (helpful) embedded links, perhaps a form of shorthand to readers with a background in Philosophy and History.

A key quote, methinks, is this one: "The State still subsists in contemplation of law, until its sovereignty is completely extinguished by the final dissolution of the social tie, or by some other cause which puts an end to the being of the state.” (emphasis added) Maybe this comes from a speech concerning "Reconstruction" following the US Civil War. Maybe not... but it addresses the "glue" that holds a "State" together and it's relationship to "Rule of Law," which Stoney asserts is merely a matter of realpolitik convenience anyway. Compare this to Jeff Wells' latest post, the second part of "America ate my brain." The mythos, the "laws," even the expediency of holding together whatever it is the USA has become is dissolving... and we unhappy few "realists" know this by now. The shrewdest pigs and politicos know it too.

Community is dissolved... capital is sinking fast... that leaves coercion alone. We may be about to test (again) robber-baron Gould's maxim. that half the working class can be hired to kill the other half. In a culture where "solidarity" or altruism has been deliberately scrubbed from the public mind (whatever THAT is), our own brutal oppression of ourselves is virtually guaranteed, isn't it? Judging by the "laws" that are rolling like dysentery through the farce that passes for US "government," it will be forbidden to speak... even THINK of exercising counter-force, as this is "radical" and "extremist." Any other (than violent) method of getting around the greedheads is completely beyond their bullying porcine understanding... and that's the GOOD news.

Back to community and capital... a different kind of community, a different kind of capital. The community cannot be fixed, otherwise it will be disbursed (or imprisoned)... likewise the capital (or units of reciprocity) cannot be static because the porkies would take it by force. It may be one of the richest ironies in history that the model of the early "Christian" community may be the very thing that causes the Cristofascists to fall.

Follow the drinkin' gourd.

[curt]

the model of the early "Christian" community = coercion

they had no other choice but to look out for each other and stick together. Well, maybe yes. Time lacking, looks as if this Daniel may have to soon re-enter the lion's den. Plans for further coercion should be made...as soon as possible. Could be better than the twin-cam weekend out near Fulda this past weekend....without a doubt. I failed to attend. Saw a docu on the Adlon this p.m. What a place ! Didn't realize I had recently spoken with the boss until now.........hi, you ordered DSL ? We "connected" the place just before the grand re-opening. Another place I'll have to see before my springer is sprung. The bossman at the Adlon, by the way, is way cool for one with a doctorate. These things DO happen....every here and there ; coercion of the third kind ? perhaps

[waldopaper]

Went to post the following response on the tribe site to answer Stone's question about why multiple sites... and the site was down. Back on line at 5pm it says... it is 9pm where I am... 7pm where they are I would guess.

...the alternate site is because this one frequently goes haywire... and there are rumors of it going dark. Beyond that...there may be a model here to not only make a "situation" more uncontrollable as Braino says ... but also a sort of cyber multi-celled "underground railroad" as a model for one in physical space.

Brainsturb also refers to the quote: “good company is kept discussing good ideas—not people,” which is what's so fucking annoying about most "political" sites... has the same relation to "politic" that Hollywood gossip rags have to Cinematography. Still, I keep going back to the "impeachment" comments on SC noting that it has generated the most activity since the purge. As fantastic as it would be to see the snakes investigated under oath, it's just that: a fantasy. So are "elections," and if they were for real... it raises two nasty possibilities: 1. the fascists are rigging them as a distraction, or 2. the most horrible thought of all... over half the people in the US *really ARE* that fucking stupid. This stupidity is "necessary but not sufficient" to maintain what we think is "civilization,"
which is simply an over-centralized and unsustainable empire. In the classic sense, it is not civilization at all.

"Civilization" will not fall, any more than the Roman Empire "fell." It will simply break into more manageable parts. Note the mercenaries and the kapos in this documentary preying on their peers... some of them do not even need any kind of bullshit rationalization. Note the pious and "religious" position of the prison-for-profit whacks at Whackenhut. This is not civility... it is barbarity, even beyond the crude and misleading "law of the jungle." We have become fragile interdependent creatures... and to dither about some fictional gossip-rag "political system" while the web of energy, food, water and wisdom that keeps us all alive visibly deteriorates is some sort of madness!

We form multiple traffic points that the web of life may continue.

[BO]

Time for a word from our sponsors:

Howard Beale is told to get with 'the program'.

From the movie 'Network'...

[pan]

A friend of ours, 38 years old, is passionate about animal rights, recycling, the whole bit. She goes to PETA conventions and on more that one occassion has carried on in my ballet class about the latest outrage perpetuated by Congress. She's vegetarian going vegan and is very active in animal rescue.

She just told me that she voted for Bush in 2004 because her husband is a doctor and Edwards was vicious in his lawsuits against doctors prior to entering the Senate.

A boyhood friend sent out videos of Ted Nugent claiming that the moral equation was based upon being able to blow anyone away who threatened you....and then he cited xianity in his most pious, I'm wearing a suit and speaking in low tones so I really am not a raving lunatic way. The man who sent this out is one of the most gentle, loving individuals I know yet he has totally bought into the fascist freeper bullshit (I got his email forwarded to another friend as he and I no longer share anything remotely political due to our directly opposite beliefs)

Both of these individuals have masters degrees, are intelligent and reasonable human beings. They care about others. Yet....one voted for Bush/Cheney in order to support her husband and another is absolutely convinced that the GOP extremists are the salvation of America against the mongrel horde.

[waldopaper]

Looks like the elements of Capital and Coercion are battling for the Community "resources." Capital has no need... as long as it can keep wage slaves... nor does Coercion as long as they have plenty of expensive, high-tech war toys. Eventually, Capital learns that you can't hire enough mercenaries, pay them enough, or arm them well enough when enough people are at the point where they believe they have nothing to lose.

The SC comments are getting closer to the mark. This one says it all:

Do What?

This movie ends with the exhortation to Do Something. I don't think there is one impoverished or middle class American alive who doesn't want to do something.

Do what? Vote? We do. Write Congress? We do. Trim our budgets and buy only what we need? We do.

Any suggestions?

That's kinda where we (RBC) got stuck, aint it? Kill the pigs? Been done. General Strike? Won't happen. Either one would work... but the pigs are definitely anticipating option one. General Strike has been done too... even in the US (although this part of our history has been suppressed for obvious reasons). The headline is so typically USan... a "war on greed." Right.

The ones (like me) who rabble for a strike are unemployed anyway. And the ones who clamor for violence usually a) get blown away with the first shots, or, much more common... b) slink away when the clash turns bloody. So there's your Nugent fan... thumping the drum... and the Doctor's wife, "voting" her pocketbook while she still has one. Suggestions?

I wish I knew... but I'm really burned out on the "yazbut" game. I do believe that Community, Coercion and Capital are "natural" forces that will find some kind of equilibrium on their own (if the monkeys involved can't see them). If I were to "suggest" anything, it would be rethinking the nature of each element. Sadly, only Coercion is getting enough analysis and experimentation. Classically, a more numerous force is using the combination of lighter, cheaper weapons and ideology to deal with a less numerous more heavily-armed mercenary force.

If only Capital and Community could get the same...

[waldopaper]

Wow. Has the clue-train arrived at SC?

Okay, Tell Me Again..

...Why Ralph Nader is an asshole because he said there was no difference between Democrats and Republicans. C'mon, I wanna hear it again. ... And I'm supposed to just shut the fuck up and get behind a Hillary or Obama candidacy?? Shit on that plan! The Republicans are a gang of vicious serial killers and the Democrats are their dim-witted accomplices.

Heh! "Shit on that plan," indeed! So is it... a) the clue-train arriving, or b) the usual grumpy suspects are showing up as alts and aint being shut-the-fuck-upped because c) JT is so desperate for clicks and eyeballs he quit fucking with the content? Is shake-the-pom-poms finally dead and we can drive a stake through its fucking heart? What ever happened to Colloidal Spittoon??

Somehow, this relates to the Ted Rall question on the tribe site. I spent way-too-many hours conjuring content for SC... I did free work... I got free exposure... figured it was even... but noooooo. Gatekeeper-boy had to fuck with the content. Similar to my former day-gig. I got "paid" for passing out credit-hours to "college students." The REAL motivation was a lab environment for memetics in literature and composition... but noooo. The bosses had to "standardize" the content. Well...

Shit on that plan.

[BO]

...and the 10% that get it will remain unrepresented. That'd be the 10% that recognize that the US is now a fascist state.

So, why vote? There is no viable third party.

Yep, the clue train has arrived. But, there just ain't enough passengers yet to make a difference.