“The Great Chain of Being” [Subservient]

~
If ever there were a clear case of ubiquitous déjà vu, it is The Great Chain of Being Subservient. Not in the sense of being subject to authority for the maintenance of social order balanced with individual liberty, but in the subjugation of one’s life, gifts, talents, and yearnings for the sake of money—whether for one’s own gain (or survival) or for the gain of an employer or master.

History has seen men, women, and children cycle through soul-crushing subjugations to every type of master—with reforms and revolutions mostly just empowering some new over-lord.

We pretend The Great Chain (vis-à-vis humans) was broken with democratic and industrial revolutions yet we seem to have merely extended the reach of a harsh, unmerciful over-lord—debt. An over-lord, extant from ages past, loved by the market-place, oft fed by inadequate wages, and now bloated with manufactured desires.

Why do we, too often, sacrifice gifts, talents, dreams, soul, and integrity to over-lords like debt, pay-checks, perks, bonuses, loyalties, prestige, possessions, security, etc.? Perhaps the chief cause is Fear, as in “What will become of me if I leave my soul-depleting employment?” How long before oppressions and stress manifest in mental illness?¹ Can one prosper in doing what nourishes the soul?

Haven’t we endured long enough the dogmas of competitive capitalism? Don’t we have enough evidence that cooperative capitalism is the more sure means to widespread prosperity and to the pursuit of happiness for the majority? Why is our excess (if we have any) locked in investment reserves (managed by financiers) instead of “kick starting”² projects WE deem worthy?

Thankfully, more and more activists are challenging the discredited ideologies of omniscient markets and global glorifications. Until we reject the false extremes of “free-market competition,” self-interest, and profit-primacy, The Great Chain of Being Subservient will persist in its various manifestations from the most elite HyPEs (Highy Paid Employees) to the working poor to the involuntary unemployed.

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1. http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/12/20/the-high-cost-of-workplace-mental-health/
2. http://www.kickstarter.com/

See also http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/12/lucky-you-lucky-them.html

Thoughts sparked in part from studying The Great Courses “Foundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western World,” with Professor Robert Bucholz; from David C. Korten books; and from Yes! magazine.

Which Hand? — Invisible? or Learned?

~
Adam Smith’s invisible hand (in its present, contorted multinational condition):

By preferring the support of [global] to that of [domestic] industry, [the multinational] intends only [its] own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce [and branding] may be of the greatest value, [it] intends only [its] own gain, and [it] is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of [its revealed] intention. Nor is it always the worse for the [political] society that it was no [transparent] part of it. By pursuing [its] own interest [it] frequently promotes that of [its Highly Paid Employees, i.e., HyPEs] more effectually than when [it] really intends to promote it [for its shareholders and VIFriends]. I have never known much good done by those who affected to [manufacture globally] for the public good [of poor nations/peoples]. It is an affectation, indeed, not very [un]common among [modern corporate PR] merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it [because Ayn R. and Milton F. have done such a persuasive job through idea-branding and bull-sales].

What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual [small business owner or state], it is evident, can, in [their] local situation, judge much better than any [big lender, IMF or World Bank] can .... The [Financial behemoth that] should attempt to direct private people [or sovereign nations] in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load [itself] with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no [profit-obsessed] council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a [global corporation] which had folly and presumption enough to fancy [itself] fit to exercise it.¹

ON THE OTHER HAND:

Learned Hand ² (1872 – 1961), U.S. Judge and judicial philosopher; and the lower-court judge most quoted³ by legal scholars and SCOTUS:

What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty:

▪ is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right;
▪ is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women;
▪ is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias;
▪ remembers that not even a sparrow falls to the earth unheeded;
▪ is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind the lesson that it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.⁴

In the déjà vu recyclings of this world, which hand are we presently holding? Or are we (and our various nation states) being choked by hands which have become more than visible?

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1. Original 1776 quote found in Adam Smith’s, The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 2 “Of Restraints Upon the Importation From Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home”
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand
3. For some of those quotes, see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Learned_Hand
4. This portion of his speech (21 May 1944 in Central Park, New York City) can be found under the section “World War II” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand . This author has amended the original printed layout of the speech.

Broken Pillars

Author: A. Sobkowski
ruins of a Roman Temple
from Wikimedia Commons
Creative Commons Attribution/Share-alike license

In the Great Courses^®, Foundations of Western Civilization II series, Professor Robert Bucholz reminds us in the very first lecture, that “Above all, European culture produced certain ideas that have become pillars of our culture:

1. ‘All men are created equal.’
2. ‘No taxation without representation.’
3. ‘The people united can never be defeated.’
4. A free press.
5. Limited government.
6. Innocence until proof of guilt.
7. Judgment by a jury of peers.”

Prof. Bucholz does not ask this question, but this writer does. Why are these foundational pillars of our democracy so transparently broken in this sophisticated 21st Century? Consider:

▪ [Faux*-]Citizens United that entrenched even further the plutocracy of a corrupted system wherein corporate power and wealth make a mockery of equality.

▪ Plutocratic corporations that complain of unfair tax rates, yet seldom pay the rate and seldom suffer significant consequence, leaving the middle and lower classes to take up the tax-slack in a corrupted government in which real citizens have only faux representation.

▪ Corporate HyPEs (Highly Paid Employees) who beat the media drums of culture and social war against any who dispute the legitimacy of illegitimate reign—dividing citizens into divisive camps of beloved propagandites and reviled fact-finders.

▪ A press caught in the spin of false witness, half-truths, mammon-mongering, pandering, fear-baiting, ratings wars, and Murdoching. Where is press freedom when ad dollars kill stories, ideology trumps analysis, job security buys soul, and profit reigns supreme?

▪ Where limited government means—“too weak” to control the excesses, crimes, and corruptions of multinationals, but unlimited enough to bail out avarice; subsidize corporate profits; grant massive favors; and then to pass the costs to the people.

▪ When proof of guilt is in the mind of the Chief Beholder; when habeas corpus means to bring the body secretly to Guantanamo (et other secret places); where guilt is presumed and thereafter “confirmed” via torture.

▪ Where a “jury of peers” means authoritarian elites in secret, hearsay- or speculation-driven sessions. Where fair trials are precluded by national security claims and rights exclusions, though sometimes (preferably?) pre-empted by assassination. By what low road have we come to openly cheering assassination and defending torture in the “land of the [formerly] free”?

The pillars are shattered and broken, folks! Another déjà vu!

The only hope to rebuild and restore them is in a united, informed citizenry—rejecting the abuses and propaganda of the far right and the far left and the 14th Amendment-based person-hood of corporations. And to ask ourselves at every step: Can we ever rebuild if we fail to honor, in every instance, the virtues of those pillars (especially in relation to perceived opponents or enemies)?

How grateful we should be for the many unsung, relatively unknown activists who are in the trenches, already at work in various aspects of restoration. Fifteen have been profiled in the recent issue of Yes! Magazine.**

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* Author's contention: Every corporation is a faux-person and thus a faux-citizen despite the alleged 1886 SCOTUS ruling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood
** Winter 2010: for other positive works see, http://www.yesmagazine.org/

Confession of a Dupe Dealer

(va: To dupers and dupees everywhere)

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin
at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Public Domain: Author, Karora

On odd occasions, one can encounter contrition in the red-white-&-blue, balloon-strewn ballroom of 6-AM, post-convention chaos. That’s where I encountered PR. He was alone, seated in Thinker repose, a damp hanky drying upon his knee. He’d had a dream, he said. Maybe more like a vision. If he publically confessed, he said, there was some unspecified chance he could clear the inside edge of outer darkness. Infinitely better than achieving the nucleus, he’d been told. Thus, he’d descended from his sky-suite to make confession. Not a “public” soul was anywhere in sight. He was grateful I had come, he said. Did I think I could be considered public enough? I said I didn’t know, but perhaps we could try. (I didn’t tell him I was there to recycle the balloons. He never asked.)

He wanted his confession recorded, he said. Maybe that would make it public enough. I turned on my phone recorder. He spoke:

▪ I preached that repeating a fabrication often enough made it sound true. It does, but it’s still a lie.
▪ I claimed that crafted words would cover a multitude of sins. I was wrong.
▪ I crafted lies to malign the strengths of opponents. Such was inexcusably wrong.
▪ I thought selling colleagues my right words would be smart. It wasn’t. They sounded scripted and mindless when juxtaposed.
▪ I sponsored lies to counter worse lies. I severely offended truth.
▪ I thought pointing fingers would deflect judgment. It doesn’t.
▪ I claimed that free/unregulated markets were fair. They’re not. They never have been. They always become regulated by tyrannies of some form or other.
▪ I said unregulated markets would control greed, excess, and inefficiency through competition. It was a lie.
▪ I said profit seekers could be trusted to self-regulate. They can’t.
▪ I said invasive redistribution of wealth was wrong. I was right. Except I was wrong about the historical and persisting direction of flow.
▪ I said employees would be honestly and fairly compensated in the competitive profit system. It was mostly a lie.
▪ I disparaged the time, talents, knowledge, skills, and labor of workers as the purest form of wealth (excepting, of course, when considering the upper-crust). I was wrong to foster that demoralizing corruption.
▪ I said corporations were like people. I was wrong.
▪ I said corporations were the job creators. I was less than half-right.
▪ I claimed money did not compromise democracy—that it lubricated it. Another lie.
▪ I promoted that extremism in defense of liberty was no vice. I was extremely wrong.
▪ I said riches were God’s reward. I was wrong. They are His toughest test.
▪ I claimed socialism/communism was our worst enemy. I was wrong. We capital dupers are.
▪ … … … [etc., until—]
▪ In short, I have been a dupe dealer all my life—a 1st-class duper. Actually a super-duper. I’ve taught and scripted thousands of other dupers. I have, with my crafted words, created millions of dupees. I told myself it was justified. It was for a good cause. It was in defense of God, country, and free-markets. It turned out to be the precise opposite.
▪ I was shown an even more skilled super-duper. I was shocked. I’d been a dupee, too! OK, OK, I wasn’t really shocked. I kinda knew all along. I just didn’t want to admit—I really enjoyed being a super-duper. It fulfilled all three of the Big Temptations. It was incredibly rewarding. I was warned about that, too—about confession and then recidivism.
▪ I’m very conflicted. If this really goes public, what will become of me?
▪ Anyway, it’s all just déjà vu, from what I saw.
▪ Dupers and dupees everywhere.
▪ Hearing and hearing not. Seeing and seeing not. I read that somewhere once. I wonder where that was?

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Thanks to Calvin Trillin for sparking this title idea with “Confessions of a Dupe” from With All Disrespect: More Uncivil Liberties by Calvin Trillin © 1985, p. 80.

Multi-National Finals

~
If you are a corporation (or CEO, CAO, CFO, banker, shareholder, etc., etc.) your exam is titled, Multi-National Finals and is 98% the same as the National Finals (recently released—October 21, 2011). Like the National Finals exam, it is open book (or books, as the case may be). The only difference is question 15. So after completing the relevant 19 National Finals questions, please proceed to this substitute question? Remember, examinees have 7 options:

A= YES
B= NO
C= Maybe
D= I don’t remember
E= I take the American Fifth
F= I’d rather go-to-hell than tell (Caveat emptor: this may constitute a technical redundancy.)
X= The shareholders made me (or so I am told)

Have you EVER:

15: dropped an Econ-bomb on local^[1] economies or employees VIA

i) exit strategies? _______
ii) externalized costs? _______
iii) employee lay-offs, firings, rollbacks, cuts, etc., etc.? _______
iv) employee pension heists? ______________
v) exploitation of human suffering, needs, and desperation? _______
vi) excessive salaries/bonuses/perks/etc. to HyPEs (Highly Paid Employees)? _______
vii) endless tax-breaks, -holidays, -shelters, etc.? _______
viii) excessive, unsound leveraging? _______
ix) enhanced quarterly reports? _______
x) Enron-imaged, accounting? _______
xi) egregious polluting, hazardous and/or addictive products, etc.? _______
xii) extractive investment exceeding productive investment? _______
xiii) exploitation of public lands and/or resources for private profit? _______
xiv) extractive corporate raiding? _______
xv) erroneous rumors to enhance share value? _______
xvi) erroneous rumors to eradicate competitors? _______
xvii) exacting, crushing loans? _______
xviii) enticing Ponzi schemes? _______
xix) economic hit-men? _______
xx) etc. (your confession here)? _______

Note: The National Finals is a free exam whereas this Multi-National Final has a mandatory fee assessment to be determined upon completion using a (trade-secret) algorithm of your answers combined with a for-profit equation. (Good luck. You may need it!)

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[1] Includes nation states since you are probably a global giant or an accessory to one.

National Finals

~
A short, multiple-choice exam for Nations, their presidents, prime ministers, kings, rulers, magistrates, electees, appointees, dictators, usurpers, etc., AND their lawyers, advisers, employees, go-fers, and sycophants. Examinees have 7 options:

A= YES
B= NO
C= Maybe
D= I don’t remember
E= I take the American Fifth
F= I’d rather go-to-hell than tell (Caveat emptor: this may constitute a technical redundancy.)
X= My employer made me^[1]

PLEASE ANSWER HONESTLY—even if it goes against your nature!

Have you EVER:

1. lied? __________
2. taken a bribe? __________
3. deliberately destroyed important documents? __________
4. favored a financial donor’s agenda? __________
5. misused government revenues? __________
6. abused others from a position of power/prestige? __________
7. turned a blind eye to the crimes of “friends” or colleagues? __________
8. interfered in a judicial case? __________
9. twisted/manipulated facts, statistics, text, pictures, videos, etc. __________
10. succumbed to insider trading? __________
11. ignored/denied a conflict of interest? __________
12. mis-/discounted/manipulated election results? __________
13. broken any law for personal, family, or collegial benefit? __________
14. deliberately dropped a bomb on civilians? __________
15. deliberately dropped an A or H bomb? __________
16. injured or killed innocent people and called it collateral damage? __________
17. instigated/fomented rebellion against elected officials in other nations? __________
18. believed you were appointed by God to micro-manage the people? __________
19. played the harlot (in déjà vu of Ezekiel 16:28^[2])? __________
20. told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? __________

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[1] In this case, please read

http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/07/to-loyalists-everywhere.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/01/proliferation-of-masters.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/01/vc-beware-spokesman.html

[2] Old Testament Ezekiel 16:28: Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians [et al.], because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

An Observation

If experience and observation attest that our physical & social worlds are composed of opposites, as in

light – dark	wet – dry
hot – cold	in - out
high – low	fast – slow
smooth - rough	open – closed
moving - still	order - chaos
truth – error	give - take
action – reaction	infinite - finite
positive - negative	inductive - deductive
dilation – contraction	inspiration – expiration
matter - antimatter	attraction - repulsion
optimism - pessimism	many - few
seeing – blind	hearing – deaf
health – sickness	pleasure – pain
hope - despair	virtue - vice
peace - war	etc.- etc. (ad infinitum)

why do some scientists reject a cosmos comprised of opposites:

- inhomogeneous AND homogeneous patterns (as in clusters/super-clusters AND smooth background);
- progression/evolution AND regression/decay (as in some things forever aggregating/improving and others coming apart at the seams (and in-between)?

IF infinity is real and applies to truth, order, justice, and all things of good report, maybe we could dispense with the worm-holes, black-holes, and sink-holes of “What’s the point?”

AND speaking of “points:”

How long can the assumptions of the BIG BANG (et al.) keep banging up against observation without popping like the old geocentric bubble? How long till CERTAIN scientists lose their certainty? How long till peer review is exposed for what it frequently is—peer pressure to conform to vested theories and assumptions—cocooned in authoritarianism? “Déjà vu, all over again!” as the Yogi said.

HOWEVER, there is also that other déjà vu where worthy theories survive, order reasserts itself, enlightenment travels, and where infinity is the manifest opposite of BANG BANG, you’re dead and gone and pointless.*

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Author’s caveat and disclosure: one thing I feel fairly certain about is the possibility that I could be wrong about pretty much everything! (Our knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and discernment are so limited.) But in my quest for “what is real,” (and trans-real?!) some things make more observable AND spiritual sense than others, even: “To infinity and beyond!”**

* Paraphrase of American theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg
** Buzz Lightyear

P-Con 002 ~ Not to Worry

(P-Con = sketch-stories exploring the déjà vu of Power, Publicity, PR, Profit, & Propoganda Concerns.)

All quotes following this P-Con sketch-story are from Angels Don’t Play This Haarp: Advances in Tesla Technology by Dr. Nick Begich and Jeane Manning © 1995, 2002 Earth Press, Anchorage, Alaska. This HAARP U.S. government/corporate partnership story is a classic (déjà vu) P-Con. It's time to give ear to concerned scientists like S₂.

The HAARP [High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program] system is a tool, a radio frequency transmitter and broadcasting system of immense power. … “The heart of the program will be the development of a unique ionospheric heating capability to conduct the pioneering experiments required to adequately assess the potential of exploiting ionospheric enhancement technology for DoD (Dept. of Defense) purposes” (119).

My main objection to HAARP is that they intend to dump electromagnetic radiation into the upper atmosphere at very high power levels. … One way to visualize this power level is that a 10-billion watt generator, running continuously for one hour, would deliver a quantity of energy equal to that of a Hiroshima-size atomic bomb” (p. 109: physicist, Dr. Richard Williams).

[Adam] Trombly [American astrophysicist] pointed out a similarity between the decision to pulse several gigawatts into the ionosphere (HAARP) without knowing what will happen, and the first atomic weapon testing. Years after that test, physicist Robert Oppenheimer admitted that the scientists had not known what would happen when they set off the bomb – if the chain reaction was going to stop or keep on going” (p. 81).

Those big time experimenters admit that they don’t know what will happen when they push ionospheric heating experiments into the next level of effects. They seem to be excited about the macho adventure of passing the next “threshold of effects” in the ionosphere, and do not hesitate to pump gigawatts of power up there and intentionally accelerate particles in the ionosphere to “relativistic” speeds – nearly the speed of light (p. 76).

Dr. Phillip Callahan, an expert on radio systems/electronics as well as biology: …“They don’t know a hill of beans about the ionosphere! There’s nothing wrong with studying Mother Nature and then copying her. But they’re trying to jam up the system, that’s the problem. … Nobody’s studying [biological effects]; they just sit there and say ‘there’s no harm in it’. Out of sight, out of mind” (pp. 184-5).

Dr. Robert Becker: “the military establishment still believes that the survival of the military organism is worth the sacrifice of the lives and health of large segments of the American population” (p. 188).

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See also: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/02/technology-servant-or-master.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/01/proliferation-of-masters.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/01/vc-beware-spokesman.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/07/to-loyalists-everywhere.html

Some Scientific Truths! More or Less*

(*Gleaned from CERTAIN scientists who shall remain unnamed in memory of Schrödinger’s unnamed cat.^[1])

 If certain scientists assume that something is possibly probable—it is MORE than possibly probable—IT IS (unless, of course, that something happens to be God).
 If certain scientists assume something is improbable—it is MORE than improbable—IT IS NOT (as in God)—with the ONE possible exception being our improbable Universe which has been put to the “pinch” test and passed (more or less).
 Assumptions do not need testing; only hypotheses and theories do (more or less).
 Assumed sets of laws result in all sorts of Possibles and Probables with a unified field and/or theory possibly probable in the near future (or past or present, if you believe in imaginary numbers).
 If certain quantum scientists predict something, it will appear (somewhere); and since John the Revelator was not a quantum scientist, there is no cause to worry. (Corollary: If one is looking for something, one will possibly/probably find it, UNLESS, AGAIN, OF COURSE, that something should happen to be God—BECAUSE God is both impossible AND improbable, without exception.)
 Catastrophism was impossibly improbable for certain scientists until comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was observed doing something possibly probable in July 1994. Now, certain scientists are gradually reconsidering. (Random thought: What if John the Revelator was scribing for an undercover, cosmic/quantum scientist?)
 Being unable to satisfactorily explain our mysterious universe, certain [verbose and lactose-intolerant?] scientists have taken to creating their own.
 Multi-universes (sometimes called The Landscape) have been created by certain scientists (sometimes out of nothing) to explain the inexplicable and bear witness of the unobservable. This is not to say alternate universes/dimensions don’t exit—just that science can’t see them—only think, infer, and talk about them as a way to create assumptions and/or explore persistent mysteries.
 If science has enough alternate universes, imaginary numbers, and time, everything will eventually be explainable (though perhaps not observable).
 The supernatural is too unnatural—HOWEVER quantum superposition ^[2] is an amazingly mysterious (believable) departure from the norm.
 To CERTAIN scientists, it IS absolutely true that there is NO absolute truth. And that’s the absolute truth.

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[1] Explanation in brief: Schrödinger had a paradoxical thought about a cat, but never actually created a live one or triggered the demise of a dead one (insofar as we know). Had Schrödinger given a little more thought to the cat in his “Copenhagen” critique, it is highly probable he would have named the imagined tabby, Limbo. For greater detail on the unnamed cat, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition

Suggestion

~~
If Pluto^* could be demoted from its former status in our planetary system, perhaps we could demote plutocracy^** in our global, economic one.

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*   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto
** A system of government in which the rich rule; a ruling class of wealthy people.

Econ 012 ~ WorldCon (aka Global-ism)

Econocentric—Our current GODD

~
Not so long ago—say 400 years or so—the powers-that-were claimed the earth was the center of the universe—AS IN geocentric. [Update: it appears as of 2015 that the question has reopened.*] A newer version of these “good old dogma days” (GODD) has been with us now for over 100 years—AS IN econocentric—wherein money (under the wings of capitalism) has become the center and measure of all things. This déjà vu of GODD is in dire need of utter rejection. Here are three quotes from David C. Korten’s book, The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, to speed the process of awareness and action:

In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy and the market economy. For those of us who grew up believing that capitalism is the foundation of democracy and market freedom, it has been a rude awakening to realize that under capitalism, democracy is for sale to the highest bidder and the market is centrally planned by global megacorporations larger than most states (p. 1).

Life rather than money is the appropriate standard for evaluating economic choices and performance. Using money as a proxy measure of our wellbeing shifts our attention from life’s priorities to money’s priorities. We thus seek to maximize the returns to money rather than the returns to life. If we were to use life as our measure, it would lead us to ask which among a number of financially viable options will yield the highest anticipated contribution to improving our lives and the health of the planet. These, of course, become questions of values that cannot be reduced to simple numbers and therefore call for broadly participatory choice making (p. 156).

This poses a truly revolutionary idea for a species that spent much of the last hundred years tearing itself apart in the often violent struggles between those who called for the suppression of the individual in favor of community (communism) and those who rejected the obligations of community in favor of unrestrained individualism (capitalism). Life is telling us that these are both pathological extremes. In fact, life tells us, there is no conflict between community and individuality—indeed in a healthy living system they support and strengthen one another (pp. 116-7).

It’s all a matter of balance in a world that has become critically unbalanced by accepting and perpetuating a scheme that is as flawed as other abandoned  "knowledge." Perhaps it is time to raise our awareness of the many latter-day voices crying in the wilderness of GODD, urging us to wake up and smell the catastrophe.

--------------------/
* See: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2015/12/the-babylon-con.html

Fill in the Blanks!

In his book entitled, Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, John Ralston Saul profiles certain technocrats from the latter-half of the 20th Century whose devotion to systems and theories have led our "promising" civil society down the path to perpetual war, economic tyranny, and pernicious dogma. Now, in the first decades of the 21st Century, we seem inundated with hard-core, déjà vu clones of systems men and women—power brokers—who have finagled themselves into advisory roles at every level, and several, into the highest judicial office in the land, even SCOTUS. When the scales of justice, once again come into balance (through revolution or massive civil rejection of the dogmas and corruptions), the names of these system sycophants will fill the blanks, list upon list. Perhaps you can fill in a few from mere observation and analysis. (The indented quotes below are from Voltaire's Bastards:)

[_____] is the most perfect example of a technocrat holding great power while crippled by a personality cleanly divided between mechanical brilliance at one extreme and childlike idealism at the other, with absolutely no thread of common sense to link the two together (p.96).
… From his appointment in [____] he carefully avoided the technocrat’s inferiority in public affairs by staying out of sight [as much as possible] while quite naturally combining enormous political power without public responsibility. … [____] was obsessive about secrecy. He controlled information flows even within the government, thus excluding certain ministers. He was, by nature, a manipulator of men and structures (p.97).
… [_____] seemed to believe that by means of a determined legal, technical, and manipulative intervention, reality would be put back in its amateurish place (p.98).
… In the context of the technocratic mind, truth, like history and events, is what suits the interests of the system or the game plan of the man in charge. Truth is an intellectual abstraction, and a man like [____] felt himself in control of the definitions (p.108).
… Almost without exception they [____] are bullies. … Their abstract view of the machinery of human society prevents them from understanding the natural flow of events and from remembering when they themselves have erred and why (p.115).
… Instead they [____] seem actually to believe that their definitions of the world will become both real and permanent simply because they are the result of applied logic. When these formulae refuse to stick, the technocratic mind, rather than deal with failure simply wipes the slate clean and writes a new definition. They are, in that sense, slaves of dogma. At the same time they tend to avoid the maintenance of linear memory. An accurate picture of recent events would prevent the constant reorganizations which they use as a means of erasing the past and justifying current actions (p.116).

Many of these “blanks” are just modern courtesans who “fit the shoe” of Mikhail Lermontov’s poem from 1837 (Death of a Poet):

You, greedy crew that round the scepter crawl,
Butchers of freedom, genius, and renown!
Hid by the bulwark of the law, and all—
[Justice], truth and honour in your steps cast down!¹

When systems and theories trump human rights, perhaps it’s time for an anti-T² Party that rejects the fallacies and corruptions of both the right and the left.

-----------------/
1 As quoted at p. 100-101 of Saul’s, Voltaire’s Bastards. See an additional translation at http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/lermontov/death_of_poet.html
2. As in TYRANNY where multinationals manipulate governments, governments betray citizens, and where too many citizens will not look behind the PR and propaganda that is inexorably centralizing in the name of freedom and democracy, an even more egregious power concentration than what they have been indoctrinated to fear from the left.

See also: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/are-we-there-yet-at-t-point.html

“A Few Bad Apples”: A Mocumentary*

(*sprouted from an intended Documentary)

[In light of the talking heads that have surfaced recently from the constitutional shallows to take credit for the demise of Osama bin Laden, we disclose a(n aborted) simulation meant to explore in greater depth those constitutional shallows. Of course, one prefers not to mock others, but when “those others” continue to manifest escalating obtuseness about the torque perpetrated upon the American Constitution under their “righteous” watch, one has diminishing options. NOTE to obtusers: “mock-on.wrtr!” considers every person (even you) to have human rights whereas torture.gov does not. Who would not prefer the “lance” of a Jon(athan) Swift or Stewart to that of a Pol Pot or Pinochet^[1]? Unless of course, one is also obtuse about Pol Pot and Pinochet! Or likewise, if one believes that objectives justify any means! NOTE TWO: names have been amended for a purpose.]

A FEW BAD APPLES^[2]

Place: Gitmo interrogation room

Time: 8th Anniversary (more or less)

Scene: Black box room; large viewing screen—i.e., a whitish sheet draped to divide the room; 3 metal chairs face screen; the dented middle one is occupied by Rush Limpaugh, fresh-faced and attired in an orange jump-suit; he has been duct-taped in place; the other two chairs are empty; Donald Drumsfeld stands in a back corner—on one leg—at a desk elevated to the proper height by 2 flat stacks of metal chairs. A timing clock shows 6 hours, 3 minutes.

Voice from beyond the screen: “Mr. Limpaugh, in the interests of partial disclosure, you have been renditioned by Citizens against Torture and Hypocrisy (CaTaH for short) to screen a new documentary. Through a free and democratic process and a series of small participatory incentives, you were voted as the man most likely to resist information. CaTaH couldn’t afford renditions for our other guests, being Mr. Dick Chainee, who declined our invitation claiming a prior hunting engagement; and Mr. Karl Rover, who was voted as the man most likely to invent information, but who also declined, claiming he was in protracted, top-secret (Oops! Oh well!) negotiation for the Fix-job of Bill O’Really!. You may have noticed Mr. Drumsfeld in a back corner. He was not invited initially, but insisted on coming at his own expense to prove a standing-point. He has been allowed to remain on his express promise (which we remind him, was given in writing) that he NOT interfere in these proceedings.

“Now, we know Mr. L., that silence is not one of your strong suits, so we are sorry about the duct-tape. It will be removed at the end of the screening. Oh, and just so you know, we have double security on standby. We will begin without further delay.”

Documentary scenes (DS-x) flash upon the viewing screen:

DS-1) Video of Geo Bush: whacking brush and other Texas shrubs while muttering “I’ve bin had! I’ve bin had!” under his breath. [Several Secret Service hover in the scanty shade.] Suddenly GB exclaims (as the Texas sun caresses his boyish face): “I say, nobody whacks a Texas Bush with impunity. We’ll re-designate. If they ain’t entitled to rights, then we can’t do nothin’ wrong by ‘em. Right, boys. It’s brilliant sense and first-class history, if I don’t praise so myself.”

DS-2) Video of Dick Chainee: “We’ll have to work sort of the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, without any discussion, without any discussion, without any discussion, [tech hiccup is thumped into submission] using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies—if we’re going to be successful. That’s the world these folks operate in. And, uh, so it’s going to be vital for us to use any means, any means, any means, any means, any means [2nd tech hiccup corrected with a loud whack on the module] at our disposal basically to achieve our objectives.”^[3]

DS-3) Video of David S. Addingnone [running caption: DC’s DA: aka Dick Chainee’s Dark-side Advocate]. DsA hangs his long cape and 5-gallon black ‘n white cowboy hat in a secret closet. Sits down at his computer to redact his email and memos.

DS-4) Video montage of Jack Bauer extracting information on 24 while being cheered by several senior and semi-officials, including but not limited to Chertiff and that other guy, Feithful—all closely clustered in a windowless office. (Several are taking notes).

In his Gitmo corner, Donald Drumsfeld mutters: “Way to go, Jack-O. These CaTaH wimps should be conscripted to hell, fire ‘n damnation.”

(A deep sigh from beyond the screen!) Voice-over: “Excuse us Mr. D, but you did sign a contract, if you recall.”

Mr. D shifts his weight and mutters: “Duress vitiates, if you care to look it up.”

Voice-over: “Just so you know, Mr. D, three strikes and you’re outta here. OK.”

DS-5) Surveillance photo of former OLC Assistant A.G. Jay S. Bywybee signing “The Torture Memo” while holding his nose.

DS-6) Surveillance video of underling John Yoo-Hoo (while blowing his): “The working definition we find most apt is ‘equivalent to organ failure’.”

DS-7) Video of Cofvert Blackout rubbing his knuckles as caption scrolls: Former head of Counterterrorist Center and subsequent point-man says “Gloves off” BlueSky Memo. Additional caption: CB has serendipitous 2005 segue into vice chairmanship of Blackwater USA: State Dept’s biggest private security contractor, etc.

DS-8) Photos of Abu Ghraib (as seen by the public). More photos of American soldiers and detainees (not yet seen by the public and unlikely to be seen per Obamah Executive Order, but leaked to CaTaH for limited viewing rights after paying a $50.00 incentive).

In the corner, Donald Drumsfeld mutters: “A few bad apples!” He shifts to his other leg.

DS-9) Video of Rush Limpaugh in front of a large microphone (with righteous indignation) “These guys have been trained in making false allegations of torture. It’s all a ploy to discredit America and its values.”

DS-10) Scrolling text of The Torture Memo.

Orange-faced Rush squeezes his eyes tight shut. Voice-over begins to read the text aloud. Rush opens his eyes and pretends to read. Voice pauses then continues reading. Rush tries to tip his chair over, but it has been clipped to the floor. As he thrashes about, the documentary goes to pause. After a few minutes, things settle and the voice resumes reading hi-lighted portions.

DS-11) Photo of George Tenetloss [running caption: Former CIA Chief]: Classified memos scroll across his face.

DS-12) Grainy video of unknown persons burning videos and DVDs. Caption reads: CIA cleaning its drawers of interrogation films to make way for new blanks.

DS-13) Video of Condolee Rice [running caption: Former National Security Advisor & former Secretary of State]: “Whatever you think, Mr. President is far Right by me and extremely Right by America. And I cannot repeat enough, Sir, how your secret redefinition of torture has proved a brilliant strategy. I myself have covertly referenced it innumerable times; and I can assure you, Sir, that without it, we would have looked and sounded very, very, VERY bad—indeed and in fact. Yes, sir, Sir, redefinition was plain and simply masterful—and very comforting to the conscience, I might add. Yes, indeed.”

Rush Limpaugh feigns (?) respiratory distress. In shock and awful fury, Drumsfeld rushes to Rush’s side, thumps the detainee’s chest and blows air into his nose.^[4] (Rush’s mouth is not available re duct tape; supine rendition not possible either for the same reason). Rush’s eyes dilate in enhanced distress as he thrashes his head from side to side to avoid Drumsfeld’s yawning maw. Drumsfeld hollers and gesticulates at the screen. “Enough, already, you imbeciles! Can’t you see the man has had enough? Are you monsters? Have you no regard for HIS ‘n OUR CONSTITUTION?

Rush’s torquing girth succeeds in rupturing the chair’s substandard^[5] leg-welding. Freed from restraints, the chair launches and the ensuing rear-ender propels the gesticulating Don into and through the viewing screen which cascades in billowing grace upon the pomp d’circumstance.

Sounds of a crash and [redacted] frustration are heard from the Voice-over shadows. Meanwhile two actors in Military Police costume scramble in unrehearsed confusion toward the undulating scene.

Frustrated Voice-over: “Well, you’ve done it, Mr. Rush. Our limited budget did not anticipate reconstruction costs, so you’re off the evidentiary hook, so to speak, though it appears a second water-board may be prudent considering Mr. D’s resuscitation deposits and our irritations. In any event, we will keep your first confessional and universal release on file for future reference. And we’re sorry to inform you, that since we didn’t anticipate your quasi-termination for several more hours, our rendition plane is still fundraising for fuel. In the meantime, you can enjoy some Gitmo soundtracks, which, considering your increased time exposure, may now exceed our original pain-threshold assessment. Sorry about that, but you sort of brought it on yourself, didn’t you? As they say, when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong profile, you get what’s on the pike, deserve it or not.”

Voice-over exits lugging the irreparably damaged projector.

The military actors don earplugs as a Gitmo soundtrack blasts into the black box. Lights fade to pitch black as Rush and Drumsfeld stiffen in shock and awe.

[All of which constitutes the aborted end of a never-to-be-acknowledged semi-simulation.]

--------------/
[1] Note: We have deliberately selected specimens from the far left and the far right of the torture.gov spectrum.
[2] First suggested working title: “Shock and Awful!”
[3] This is an accurate transcription of D.C.’s actual words from Meet the Press, Sep 16, 2001. In addition to other sources, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/themes/darkside.html ; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/etc/script.html
[4] A commendable reversal of attitude considering his previous declaration: “I don’t do detainees.” (Ref: Jane Mayer’s, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, p. 188)
[5] We highly recommend a congressional investigation into the Gitmo chair supplier (a well-known gov’t. contractor that we decline to name IF litigation is possibly pending). We believe there may be ample evidence of malfeasance because a concealed USPO (with paid-in-full notation) was later discovered in the mangled chair tubing. The PO was for 20,000 Gitmo metal chairs at $1,006.66 /chair. The chair price seems excessive considering the quality, the efficient market hypothesis, and considering we could only find 42 such chairs in the entire, semi-vacant (now used as storage) half of the once bustling Gitmo facility. DISCLOSURE: we managed to rent our Gitmo location for the day’s semi-simulation at less than half the price of one dented chair. (And there wasn’t even a supply and demand competitor! Would you believe!)

Back to Square 1601

~
Why 1601? Because those were the good old dogma days when “truth” had no obligation to conform to observed reality and measurement! Those were the days before the enlightenments of Galileo, Bacon, Locke, Newton, etc. Those were the days when the Church (or King or Baron or local aristocrat) spoke and “truth” reigned.

Now, in 2011 we begin a new cycle of good old dogma days for libertarians are announcing their run for POTUS. And what have they to offer? Plain and simple dogma espoused by the Church of the Laissez-faire (CLF).

None of the staunch members of the CLF seem the least bothered by the follies, fabrications, failings, and frauds of laissez-faire. Like the generally compliant masses of 1601, these latter-day devotees have received their wisdom from ivory-towered contemplations or pronouncements therefrom, and such is sufficient. No need to ponder, analyze, evaluate, understand, or actually consider the reality of:

▪ the inevitable concentrations of wealth and power in Big Business and the monied aristocracy under CLF dogma
▪ the inescapable greed and corruption that prevails when profit-motive runs rampant, unbalanced by other values
▪ warnings from founding fathers (and others) about monied aristocracy and concentrations of economic power
▪ the necessity of checks and balances upon any and every power
▪ ubiquitous, recycling booms and busts (which booms the few and busts the many)
▪ the fact that most share purchases contribute NOTHING to business capital—the prime purpose being to extract WEALTH after acquiring shares FROM other speculative shareholders—setting up the ultimate, ubiquitous MORAL HAZARD where those who contribute nothing, command corporate loyalty and mine the WEALTH produced by someone else’s LABOR¹
▪ the laissez-faire Chilean debacle (and every other mangled country where laissez-faire has been imposed—in the name of freedom!)
▪ what Adam Smith really said
▪ etc. 

Perhaps it is time for the Church of the Laissez-faire to have a little Baconian method and Newtonian observation applied. Perhaps it is time we quit being so gallingly complacent about the dogma that prosperity revolves around the self-interested global globe of laissez-faire. Shouldn’t we have learned a thing or two over the span of four centuries about self-serving, revolving dogma?

Next time you hear a POTUS applicant (or supposed pundit) serve up justification for laissez-faire dogma, take a page from the book of Galileo, Newton, and friends and ask: Does this reflect fact or prevailing fantasy?

Surely, it’s time for the challenge to escalate—let us put every dogma of the Church of the Laissez-faire into the cross-hairs of unflinching examination.²

-------------/
1. Reference: Marjorie Kelly's Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy, © 2001, 2003
2. Perhaps a beginning, fruitful inquiry could address the question: If a few bad apples dominate the top of the idea barrel, is spoilage speeded and exacerbated by Newtonian gravity? (Note: Revelations will follow here, in the coming week, concerning “A Few Bad Apples?”

Econ 011 ~ The “Right” Stuff (or NOT) ?

~

HOW TO SPOT A FAUX ROGUE*

(to the right and to the left)

* Rogue (as defined by some) is to BE everything “Washington, DC” is NOT; as in honest, true, chaste, virtuous, wise, free of undue influence, etc., etc.. Because John (as in McCain) and Sarah (as in Palin) have claimed (and/or unclaimed) rogue-status, they will, of course, find themselves more in the cross-hairs of this checklist, but do not be distracted by their self-appointment. ALL who claim special rogue-dispensation to save freedom, democracy, and the Constitution (as also in the TeaPartyExpress) should be check-listed (NOT black-listed as some politicians and pundits prefer for their opponents, but check-listed) so we can see that they are really not rogues, BUT just more of the SAME OL’ STUFF—as in SOS.

So, if your “rogue” favors in the main:

□ Big Business
□ Small Government†
□ Privatization (especially of public goods)
□ Upper-crust Tax cuts
□ Lax rules ‘n regulations
□ “Free” & global markets
□ PAC money
□ Donations
□ Rewards
□ Hand-me-ups
□ Credit
□ Defense spending
□ Soldiers
□ War
□ Guns
□ Cheap shots
□ Expensive accounts
□ Appearances
□ PR
□ Sound bites
□ Fawning Reporters/Interviewers, et al.
□ The power of right words‡
□ Enhanced interrogation
□ Redacted facts
□ Grizzly tactics
□ One-winged eagles
□ Dual-winged aircraft
□ God (with Pentagon backup)
□ Oil
□ Money &
□ Manifest Destiny

we regret to inform you that your rogue is a phony—as in SOS.

----------------/
† Caveat: expressed support or favor almost NEVER translates into action—as in the Reagan years—as in promises for smaller government and deficit reduction—as in the difference between GOP actions in power and GOP words in campaigns and opposition. Small government seems to be but code for weak government vis-à-vis Big Business. There is also an increasing disparity between DEM actions in power and DEM words in campaigns and opposition, again related to the powers and persuasions of Big Business. They are both deeply corrupted.
 ‡ As in Mister Luntz.

Twelve Truths My Economist Never Told Me

~SMS~
1. Markets are rational—except when more frequently, they are not.

2. Moral hazard is to leverage your leverage.

3. There are stock puffers & stock prickers—and therein lies the grub.

4. Efficient Market Hypothesis is a congenital myth—somewhat like Santa Claus.^[1]

5. Oversupply and under-demand are the norm—except when less frequently, they are not.

6. Losing someone else’s money is less stressful than losing your own (aka: your Broker’s Credo).

7. There is ONLY ONE THING more tempting than a large, quick profit.^[2]

8. The “long shots of short-term” kill the goose & gander exponentially more often than the farm manager.

9. The daily SPANDEX comprises the rationale and ratings of money and market fluctuations elucidated by the former yet current Mr. Greenspan, and like-minders (herein dubbed spandexers).

10. Hedge funds are strongly regulated by temptation.

11. Insider-trading is a branch (perhaps a limb) of Quantum Mechanics. “It’s what happens when no one is looking” (or just as effective, when someone is looking the other way).^[3]

12. A self-regulating market is a “wild speculative paradox,”^[4] if proof is in the pudding (or lack thereof).^[5]

Freebie 13.^[6] It has been speculated that “broker” is derivative from the verb “to break.”

-------------/
[1] Santa Claus (sometimes pronounced Claws)—a fiction that receives highly-marketed credit for things this Mister Claus neither made nor paid for.
[2] No one yet knows what it is.
[3] Further out on that same limb someone would invariably find tax fraud—if someone were looking.
[4] Attributed to Alexander Hamilton, man on the US10$bill.
[5] Perhaps more accurately, the proof is in the déjà vu of markets and mania.
[6] As in a baker’s dozen.

Econ 010 ~ Then & Now

(Tea Party 1 : Tea Party 2)

To the offended: You may be adamantly against the recent stimulus packages and bailouts of Big Business (as proffered by GWB and BHO), but if you are a laissez-faire capitalist or corporate libertarian, you are a porter for economic tyranny (as in T-Party) whether you admit it or not. Why? Because that is the inevitable evolution of BOTH the far-right and the far-left as diagramed at http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2011/05/econ-011-right-stuff-or-not.html and http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/are-we-there-yet-at-t-point.html . Warning voices abound everywhere.

Growth Funds

(All indented quotes are found in Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor, © 1999, A Plume Book. You should read this book if you are an investor and/or speculator, or if you are financially related to one.)

Not only was the “vast fund of stupidity”* a growth industry in the 1800’s, its companion fund, cupidity, was not a whit behind. The prior manias¹ were dimly remembered, BUT this new century was unfolding as a unique and exceptional age BECAUSE the Railroad was unlike anything before. This time—THIS TIME—with the Railroad, “it was different.”²

Except of course, when it wasn’t.

Times (24 Oct. 1845): “A mighty bubble of wealth is blown before our eyes as empty, as transient, as contradictory to the laws of solid material, as confuted by every circumstance of actual condition, as any other bubble which man or child ever blew before.” (p. 140)

Journalist (1849): “All rule and order are upset by the general epidemic [of speculation], as in the Plague of London, when all ties of blood, honour, or friendship, were cast away.” (p. 139)

Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman, literary figure, & eventual UK-PM; as quoted in 1849): “[There was] commercial distress of unprecedented severity—private credit was paralysed, trade was more than dull, it was almost dead—and there was scarcely a private individual in this kingdom, ... , who was not smarting under the circumstances of commercial distress …” (p. 143)

Nation (1873): Anyone who stood on Wall Street or in the gallery of the stock Exchange last Thursday, or Friday, and Saturday, and saw the mad terror, we might almost say, brute terror … with which great crowds of men rushed to and fro trying to get rid of their property, almost begging people to take it from them at any price, could hardly avoid feeling that a new plague had been sent among men, that there was an impalpable, invisible force in the air, robbing them of their wits, of which philosophy had not yet dreamt.” (p. 185)

Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (author, 1869) “ … probably no representative body were ever more thoroughly venal, more shamelessly corrupt, or more hopelessly beyond the reach of public opinion, than are certain of those bodies which legislate for republican America in this latter half of the nineteenth century. (p. 177n)

Alexander Dana Noyes (1938 re 1880s): “[There were massive frauds accompanied by] individual wrongdoing, of a kind and on a scale for which even the lax financial morality of those days provided no precedent.” (p. 187)

Letter to the Times (12 Jul 1845): “There is not a single dabbler in scrip who does not steadfastly believe—first, that a crash sooner or later, is inevitable; and secondly, that he himself will escape it. When the luck turns, and the crack play is sauve qui peut, or devil take the hindmost, no one fancies that the last mail train from Panic station will leave him behind. In this, as in other respects, ‘Men deem all men mortal but themselves.’” (p. 136)

Times change, but human nature does not. And so the FUNDS grow.³ And the sinking sense of déjà vu prevails. THUS, woe is the world as bubbles float on with technology-assisted rapidity and with increasingly manic attempts to catch them before they burst!

----------/
* A quote from Cato's Letters, January 1721. See http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2011/03/vast-fund-of-stupidity-recycling.html

1. Reference: The Tulip Mania (1637), John Law’s Mississippi Bubble (1720), the South Sea Bubble (1720), the mining and canal crazes (1790s and beyond), and scores of lesser manias.
2. The four most expensive words in the English language are “this time it’s different.” (Attributed to Sir John Templeton and quoted in Chancellor’s book at page 191.)
3. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble for some of the many latter-day bubbles.

“Vast Fund of Stupidity [& Recycling Cupidity]”?!

(All indented quotes are found in Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor, © 1999, A Plume Book, pp. 59, 67, 67, 69, 76, 77, 92.)

In memory of the birth of the South Sea Company (in 1711 – 300 years ago), Deja Vu Times recycles a few comments/quotes from the “bubble-bath” of 1720. These words from the 1700s are also recycled in memory of the many bubble-baths since and in expectation of The Great Bath (TGB) to come (sooner than later), if we don’t renounce this Vast Fund (and all its fundamentalists).

Cato’s Letters, January 1721: “There must certainly be a vast Fund of Stupidity in Human Nature, else Men would not be caught as they are, a thousand times over, by the same Snare; and while they yet remember their past Misfortunes, go on to court and encourage the Causes to which they are owing, and which will again produce them.”

Anonymous Insider (circa 1720): “’Twas his [John Blunt, leading schemer’s] avow’d Maxim, a thousand time repeated, That the advancing by all means of the price of stock, was the only way to promote the good of the company. [And his second maxim:] the more confusion the better: People must not know what they do, which will make them the more eager to come into our measures: the execution of the Scheme is our business; the Eyes of all Europe are upon us.”

Sir Isaac Newton (who lost £20,000 in South Sea investment): “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people.”

Alexander Pope: “I am really piqued at the stocks, which put a stop at present, to all trade and all friendship, and I fear all honour too.” // “… [give no heed to] this miserable mercenary Period; and turn yourself, in a just Contempt of these Sons of Mammon, to the Contemplation of Books, Gardens, and Marriage.”

Edward Harley (whose brother Robert was a former British Tory minister & co-founder of the South Sea Company in 1711): “… the demon stock jobbing is the genius of this place. This fills all hearts, tongues, and thoughts, and nothing is so like bedlam as the present humour which has seized all parties … and all sects. No one is satisfied with even exorbitant gains, but everyone thirsts for more, and all this is founded upon a machine of paper credit supported only by imagination …”

Jonathan Swift: “I have enquired of some that have come from London, what is the religion there? They tell me it is South Sea stock; what is the policy of England? the answer is the same; what is the trade? South Sea still; and what is the business? nothing but South Sea.”

Adam Anderson (former cashier of the South Sea Company): “… may [1720] serve for a perpetual memento to the legislators and ministers of our own nation, never to leave it in the power of any, hereafter, to hoodwink mankind into so shameful and baneful an imposition on the credulity of the people, thereby diverted from their lawful industry.”

How many more “South Sea” tsunamis and false profits can our irrationality and folly endure?

------------------/
See also:
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/panglossary.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-long-till-we-get-it.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/02/free-fall.html

P-Con 001 ~ Enough & To Spare (Or Not) !

(P-Con = sketch-stories exploring the déjà vu of Power, Publicity, PR, & Propoganda Concerns.)

This sketch-story was inspired while watching "Donald Trump's Golf War" documentary, aired on "The Passionate Eye" - CBC News Network, Sunday, March 20, 2011; available for ONLY a limited time at http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2011/golfwar/

Econ 009 ~ Church of the Laissez-faire

~

http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/ten-dictates-practicalities-of-laissez.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/06/yes-we-get-it.html

ECON 008 ~ "Give & Take"

~  (Laissez-faire style) ~

Adam Smith: The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens. The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it. (The Wealth of Nations, p. 287-8—I.XI.III)

----
Related posts:
Wealth Redistribution: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2008/10/wealth-redistribution.html
Beyond the Mark: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/12/beyond-mark_14.html
Who ate my cheese? http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/05/who-ate-my-cheese.html

ECON 007 ~ "Mine" Shafts

~

--------------/
Adam Smith: When masters combine together in order to reduce the wages of their workmen, they commonly enter into a private bond or agreement not to give more than a certain wage under a certain penalty. Were the workmen to enter into a contrary combination of the same kind, not to accept of a certain wage under a certain penalty, the law would punish them very severely; and if it dealt impartially, it would treat the masters in the same manner. (The Wealth of Nations, p. 164—I.X.I)





--------------/
Related posts: Who ate my cheese? http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/05/who-ate-my-cheese.html
Beyond the Mark: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/12/beyond-mark_14.html
Wealth Redistribution: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2008/10/wealth-redistribution.html

ECON 006 ~ Graphic Proof

~

If you really want the "right" side-up of GOP deficit records, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms and also check out the links to government and other sites. The Ten Trillion Dollar Question: Is 30 years of data not enough to prove that deficit reduction is a promise devoid of substance or intention?

ECON 005 ~ "A Person"*

(*with proxy claims for equal human rights! Goes way beyond a "board" game.)

Note: (All ECON sketches may be used pursuant to the Creative Commons License noted herein.)

ECON 004 ~ Bill of "Goods"

~

Reference: 1) http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2011/01/are-we-serfing-yet.html
2) http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/04/vc-bill-of-goods.html

ECON 003 ~ Capital Manifesto

~

ECON 002 ~ Handwriting on the Wall

~

Are we serfing, yet?

~~~
So many of my acquaintances are panicked by government power (with some considerable justification), yet blasé (to the extreme) regarding the corporate giants who massage the backs and egos of elected officials. Giants who supply-line election and PAC coffers; giants who demand and receive favors; giants who even write legislation.

Does it not seem strange that the top four* (and many others) of “The Power 50” profiled by Newsweek magazine (Nov. 8, 2010, pp. 34+) are the trusted voices of millions for everything pro-big-business and anti-government? With all the déjà vu of money corrupting truth, perspective, memory, and motive shouldn’t we be a little more inclined to fact-check these voices? To question the Calvanist view that accumulation of money manifests merit and God’s favor? To review what God has to say about vast accretions of money and power? To remember that the first Boston Tea Party was as much, if not more, a rebellion against the massive, powerful, corrupting, monied, monopolistic, transnational East India Company (owner of the tea)? The British government, shoulder to shoulder, with the East Indian Company was muscling this huge corporate behemoth upon new-world, small entrepreneurs, putting many out of business. Maybe if we gave as much time to factual history as to Criminal Minds and Desperate Housewives, we would encounter a wider vision than that of faux-defenders of freedom and democracy via deregulated, big business and finance. Maybe we would encounter words of warning like:

Thomas Jefferson ~ 1816: I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.**

Judge Edward G. Ryan, Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge, 1873: [There] is looming up a new and dark power … the enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economical conquests only, but for political power. … The question will arise and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine, which shall rule—wealth or man [sic]; which shall lead—money or intellect; who shall fill public stations—educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital. ….**

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*Top 4: 1) Rush Limbaugh, $58.7 million; 2) Glenn Beck, $33 million; 3) Sean Hannity, $22 million; and 4) Bill O’Reilly, $20 million; all right-wing voices who lament forever the massive, overwhelming power of the left. (Could that be Jon Stewart at #5!)

**As quoted in Unequal Protection by Thom Hartman pp. 103 and 94. © 2010.

ECON 001 ~ The (In)Visible Hand($)

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Note 1: Because symbols and pictures can sometimes be more direct than words, I have undertaken to sketch some thoughts and observations of the current state of dire affairs between Big Business, big government, small politics, and the beleaguered citizen (formerly “a person with equal rights”). Hopefully over time my rough art will improve. Where abbreviations in the sketches are not provided, some aids to deciphering (and pondering) may be found in the posts that share labels or in references noted below the sketch. For example: Refererence: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/10/crimes-against-people.html

Note 2: All ECON sketches may be used pursuant to the Creative Commons License noted herein.