Without A Revolution, Americans Are History

[Encephalon]

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

F*ck. I think you're right. Unfortunately, Blasto, I don't think there is anywhere safe to run long-term. Post-economic Apocalyptic reality-fuck is on the way, and stacking up canned goods in the mountains is not going to cut it if it's really going to happen. Stash away some good heroin to o.d. on as you go 'comfortably numb' on your way out of the earth plane.

[TheWhiteRabbit]

Yeah, woah Blasto. I would say try to not think about it but I know enough that you wouldnt like that.

I dont know yeah what Song said or "chase the dragon" that something something grape bubblegum. only a different strength. Or instead maybe delotid. They dont even give gunshot wound victims delotid. You wont feel anything.

 

You know, maybe that is the sign you are supposed to invent something to overcome some disaster? Course then again remember im nuts,

Edited August 17, 2010 by TheWhiteRabbit

[voidisyinyang]

I've ripped people in here more than once for posting subject matter that seems entirely superfluous to the study of Taoism. Flowery quotes and melifluous language by one Swami after another just doesn't do it for me, so if people take me to task for posting irrelevent material, I guess I have it coming. My only defense is that I ultimately see Taoist principles being applied to whatever sustainable form of nationhood America ultimately evolves into. Whether it's health care, land use theory, or food production, Taoist principles, consciously or unconsciously, will prevail if we manage to get our act together. This article argues that we simply have to end foreign wars or risk going down harder than the Roman Empire. So, my tenous connection between Taoism and this article could take the "War and Nation Building" theme.

 

August 16, 2010

 

“Without A Revolution, Americans Are History.”

By Paul Craig Roberts

 

The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times Column, Welcome to the Recovery.

 

As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear on many occasions, an appearance of recovery was created by over-counting employment and undercounting inflation. Warnings by Williams, Gerald Celente, and myself have gone unheeded, but our warnings recently had echoes from Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff and from David Stockman, who excoriated the Republican Party for becoming big-spending Democrats.

 

It is encouraging to see a bit of realization that, this time, Washington cannot spend the economy out of recession. The deficits are already too large for the dollar to survive as reserve currency, and deficit spending cannot put Americans back to work in jobs that have been moved offshore.

 

However, the solutions offered by those who are beginning to recognize that there is a problem are discouraging. Kotlikoff thinks the solution is massive Social Security and Medicare cuts or massive tax increases or hyperinflation to destroy the massive debts.

 

Perhaps economists lack imagination, or perhaps they don’t want to be cut off from Wall Street and corporate subsidies, but Social Security and Medicare are insufficient at their present levels, especially considering the erosion of private pensions by the dot com, derivative and real estate bubbles. Cuts in Social Security and Medicare, for which people have paid 15% of their earnings all their life, would result in starvation and deaths from curable diseases.

 

Tax increases make even less sense. It is widely acknowledged that the majority of households cannot survive on one job. Both husband and wife work and often one of the partners has two jobs in order to make ends meet. Raising taxes makes it harder to make ends meet—thus more foreclosures, more food stamps, more homelessness. What kind of economist or humane person thinks this is a solution?

 

Ah, but we will tax the rich. The usual idiocy. The rich have enough money. They will simply stop earning.

 

Let’s get real. Here is what the government is likely to do. Once the Washington idiots realize that the dollar is at risk and that they can no longer finance their wars by borrowing abroad, the government will either levy a tax on private pensions on the grounds that the pensions have accumulated tax-deferred, or the government will require pension fund managers to purchase Treasury debt with our pensions. This will buy the government a bit more time while pension accounts are loaded up with worthless paper.

 

The last Bush budget deficit (2008) was in the $400-500 billion range, about the size of the Chinese, Japanese, and OPEC trade surpluses with the US. Traditionally, these trade surpluses have been recycled to the US and finance the federal budget deficit. In 2009 and 2010 the federal deficit jumped to $1,400 billion, a back-to-back trillion dollar increase. There are not sufficient trade surpluses to finance a deficit this large. From where comes the money?

 

The answer is from individuals fleeing the stock market into "safe" Treasury bonds and from the bankster bailout, not so much the TARP money as the Federal Reserve’s exchange of bank reserves for questionable financial paper such as subprime derivatives. The banks used their excess reserves to purchase Treasury debt.

 

These financing maneuvers are one-time tricks. Once people have fled stocks, that movement into Treasuries is over. The opposition to the bankster bailout likely precludes another. So where does the money come from the next time?

 

The Treasury was able to unload a lot of debt thanks to "the Greek crisis," which the New York banksters and hedge funds multiplied into "the euro crisis." The financial press served as a financing arm for the US Treasury by creating panic about European debt and the euro. Central banks and individuals who had taken refuge from the dollar in euros were panicked out of their euros, and they rushed into dollars by purchasing US Treasury debt.

 

This movement from euros to dollars weakened the alternative reserve currency to the dollar, halted the dollar’s decline, and financed the massive US budget deficit a while longer.

 

Possibly the game can be replayed with Spanish debt, Irish debt, and whatever unlucky country swept in by the thoughtless expansion of the European Union.

 

But when no countries remain that can be destabilized by Wall Street investment banksters and hedge funds, what then finances the US budget deficit?

 

The only remaining financier is the Federal Reserve. When Treasury bonds brought to auction do not sell, the Federal Reserve must purchase them. The Federal Reserve purchases the bonds by creating new demand deposits, or checking accounts, for the Treasury. As the Treasury spends the proceeds of the new debt sales, the US money supply expands by the amount of the Federal Reserve’s purchase of Treasury debt.

 

Do goods and services expand by the same amount? Imports will increase as US jobs have been offshored and given to foreigners, thus worsening the trade deficit. When the Federal Reserve purchases the Treasury’s new debt issues, the money supply will increase by more than the supply of domestically produced goods and services. Prices are likely to rise.

 

How high will they rise? The longer money is created in order that government can pay its bills, the more likely hyperinflation will be the result.

 

The economy has not recovered. By the end of this year it will be obvious that the collapsing economy means a larger than $1.4 trillion budget deficit to finance. Will it be $2 trillion? Higher?

 

Whatever the size, the rest of the world will see that the dollar is being printed in such quantities that it cannot serve as reserve currency. At that point wholesale dumping of dollars will result as foreign central banks try to unload a worthless currency.

 

The collapse of the dollar will drive up the prices of imports and offshored goods on which Americans are dependent. Wal-Mart shoppers will think they have mistakenly gone into Neiman Marcus.

 

Domestic prices will also explode as a growing money supply chases the supply of goods and services still made in America by Americans.

 

The dollar as reserve currency cannot survive the conflagration. When the dollar goes the US cannot finance its trade deficit. Therefore, imports will fall sharply, thus adding to domestic inflation and, as the US is energy import-dependent, there will be transportation disruptions that will disrupt work and grocery store deliveries.

 

Panic will be the order of the day.

 

Will farms will be raided? Will those trapped in cities resort to riots and looting?

 

Is this the likely future that "our" government and "our patriotic" corporations have created for us?

 

To borrow from Lenin, "What can be done?"

 

Here is what can be done. The wars, which benefit no one but the military-security complex and Israel’s territorial expansion, can be immediately ended. This would reduce the US budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars per year. More hundreds of billions of dollars could be saved by cutting the rest of the military budget, which in its present size, exceeds the budgets of all the serious military powers on earth combined.

 

US military spending reflects the unaffordable and unattainable crazed neoconservative goal of US Empire and world hegemony. What fool in Washington thinks that China is going to finance US hegemony over China?

 

The only way that the US will again have an economy is by bringing back the offshored jobs. The loss of these jobs impoverished Americans while producing over-sized gains for Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate executives. These jobs can be brought home where they belong by taxing corporations according to where value is added to their product. If value is added to their goods and services in China, corporations would have a high tax rate. If value is added to their goods and services in the US, corporations would have a low tax rate.

 

This change in corporate taxation would offset the cheap foreign labor that has sucked jobs out of America, and it would rebuild the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society.

 

If the wars are not immediately stopped and the jobs brought back to America, the US is relegated to the trash bin of history.

 

Obviously, the corporations and Wall Street would use their financial power and campaign contributions to block any legislation that would reduce short-term earnings and bonuses by bringing jobs back to Americans. Americans have no greater enemies than Wall Street and the corporations and their prostitutes in Congress and the White House.

 

The neocons allied with Israel, who control both parties and much of the media, are strung out on the ecstasy of Empire.

 

The United States and the welfare of its 300 million people cannot be restored unless the neocons, Wall Street, the corporations, and their servile slaves in Congress and the White House can be defeated.

 

Without a revolution, Americans are history.

 

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

 

Yeah that's a brilliant column -- Paul Craig Roberts just keeps hitting the truth one line after another.

 

The corporate tax on value added based on location is a fascinating idea -- essentially tax evasion by corporations is the norm while the working class at taxed at 30 percent -- often higher than the super rich.

 

Anyway the issue is technology is in control -- so that the technology makes the off-shore move by corporations so easy, using computers, automation, etc. Even in China automation is the biggest threat to their sweatshop workforce. I just saw an article on NASA and GM collaborating to unleash a new robot workforce to replace even more U.S. workers.

 

Technology is the big taboo in our culture -- and Paul Craig Roberts leaves it untouched. Workers are being replaced by machines -- productivity is sky-rocketing but jobs are being cut -- labor costs are the biggest threat to wall street.

 

And so corporations as legal entities are just shell games -- corporations are constantly merging or using accounting fraud as ponzi schemes -- meanwhile the managers of the corporations are looting the corporate assets. There's literally just a few dozen individuals who are the most globally networked in running the economy via interlocking board of directors. Consider Kissinger on the China oil company board of directors -- in other words the global elite are destroying Earth quite literally. If things get real bad the global elite literally go underground into the FEMA cities -- as Dick Cheney did right after 911.

 

So Paul Craig Roberts is correct but he's not radical enough. Roberts does a great job in exposing the hypocrisy of the problem but the U.S. is a military empire -- so, as Noam Chomsky points out -- we rely on the military providing "veto power" over Japan and Germany's oil supply. By the U.S. using war to control oil then we control the domination of the U.S. dollar through petrodollars -- since we also force other countries to buy oil via U.S. corporations.

 

Those type of arrangements are not limited to the corporate structure but instead are arranged in secret with the global elite -- for example Iran was the main depositor for Rockefeller's ChaseManhattan bank -- so when Iran had its revolution, even though Iran's assets were frozen, there was still the lose of those petrodollars. So that's why Iran is "personal" for the elite -- it's not just about Israel -- it's about controlling the last vast oil supplies as Iran as 10 percent of the world's supply.

 

So in terms of technology Germany is attempting to switch from oil to solar, wind and whatever else -- mainly to free itself from the U.S. military veto-power over oil. Of course currently the export market to the U.S. makes Germany, Japan, China, etc. dependent on buying U.S. treasury notes -- but, as Roberts points out, soon the U.S. won't be able to buy many imports anyway.

 

Even Walmart will seem like Neiman Marcus indeed -- already the big megastores are donating their unsold food items to food shelves. Why? To stop a revolution!

 

http://www.washingtoninformer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3683:walmart-donates-money-food-to-end-hunger&catid=50:local&Itemid=113

 

The country’s dire financial situation has left 15.3 million Americans unemployed. Now, more than ever, Americans suffer from hunger and experience difficulty providing nutritious foods for their families.

 

Kevin Concannon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services noted that more Americans are looking to food banks and hunger relief organizations.

 

“Seventeen million households had difficulty putting food on the table in 2008, [the highest yearly figure] since 1995. Never before have the 60,000 food pantries and emergency shelters that provide food safety for Americans been [as] needed or important as they are today,” he said.

 

Walmart stores – including Sam’s Club stores – plan to donate 1.1 billion pounds of food, valued at $1.75 billion, to food banks. The retailer will also donate $250 million in grant monies to hunger relief organizations that include Meals on Wheels, a national organization that provides meals for senior citizens, and Share our Strength, a national organization that seeks to eliminate hunger among children.

 

And, of course, Walmart is pretending to be nice -- when in fact this food donation is of questionable quality yet a HUGE tax deduction:

 

http://thewritingonthewal.net/?p=10895

 

Assuming Wal-Mart’s donated food is valued at $1.75 billion, and their enhanced deduction is equal to half the donated food’s retail value, or $875 million, at a 35% tax rate, Wal-Mart could net a tax deduction of $306 million off their taxable income. Congress may have wanted to encourage donations, but it is the U.S. taxpayer who really loses this income.

Edited August 17, 2010 by drewhempel

[Marblehead]

Well, I am an apathetic optimist so I am going to just sit here and wait for things to get better.

 

Peace & Love!

[gendao]

Most of his article makes sense except for this part:

The only way that the US will again have an economy is by bringing back the offshored jobs. The loss of these jobs impoverished Americans while producing over-sized gains for Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate executives. These jobs can be brought home where they belong by taxing corporations according to where value is added to their product. If value is added to their goods and services in China, corporations would have a high tax rate. If value is added to their goods and services in the US, corporations would have a low tax rate.

The real way for the US to bring back offshored jobs is for Americans to work harder and smarter. Restimulate American ingenuity.

 

Some more creative ways to encourage this would be to stop suppressing free energy, streamline the product development legal process or even award some national prize money for such inventions. Imagine if we had spent some of the billions we've wasted on Zionist neocon wars holding national invention contests instead???

 

Punishing others for competitive success only enables further underperformance here. In the long run, it is doomed to fail (see Communism) due to the global free market. Eventually, any Americans who could afford it would get so tired of paying ridiculously high prices for inferior domestic products and services here that they would simply expatriate to other countries that offer higher values. This would cause a progressive brain/upper class drain eventually leaving a 3rd world slum behind..

 

Imagine you needed a new alternative health device. And one in China cost $300 USD there. But it would cost you $1000 USD to buy it here due to all the protectionist tariffs slapped on it. There is no domestic version or only a far pricier and inferior knock-off. How would you like dem apples?

 

The highest quality of life is attained by free access to the goods and services of the highest values (benefit/cost ratio). Depriving people of this choice will only reduce their quality of life.

Edited August 17, 2010 by vortex

[voidisyinyang]

Most of his article makes sense except for this part:The real way for the US to bring back offshored jobs is for Americans to work harder and smarter.

 

Punishing others for competitive success only enables further underperformance here. In the long run, it is doomed to fail (see Communism) due to the global free market. Eventually, any Americans who could afford it would get so tired of paying ridiculously high prices for inferior domestic products and services here that they would simply expatriate to other countries that offer higher values.

 

Imagine you needed a new alternative health device. And one in China cost $300 USD there. But it would cost you $1000 USD to buy it here due to all the protectionist tariffs slapped on it. There is no domestic version or only a far pricier and inferior knock-off.

 

The highest quality of life is attained by free access to the goods and services of the highest values (benefit/cost ratio). Depriving people of this choice will only reduce their quality of life.

 

I recommend watching this economics lecture by Professor Richard Wolff --

 

http://www.linktv.org/programs/capitalism-hits-the-fan

 

In the 1950s, the economy was booming and America was flourishing. Wages were rising, and shopping malls had to be built to keep up with our mad desire to consume. Production and wages led to abundance. And when we couldn't afford to buy it, we started to borrow to get it. Capitalism ruled the world; we were living the American dream.

 

Now, after all those years of blissful prosperity, we suddenly find ourselves waking up in an economic twilight zone. What happened? Is this a normal bust, or is it what happens when "Capitalism Hits the Fan?"

 

To answer these questions, we turn to renowned economist Richard Wolff. Clearly and understandably, he explains the origins and scope of the economic meltdown we're in. Is it almost over? Or are there further catastrophes ahead? Find out in Capitalism Hits the Fan: Richard Wolff on the Economic Meltdown.

[ralis]

Most of his article makes sense except for this part:The real way for the US to bring back offshored jobs is for Americans to work harder and smarter. Restimulate American ingenuity.

 

Some more creative ways to encourage this would be to stop suppressing free energy, streamline the product development legal process or even award some national prize money for such inventions. Imagine if we had spent some of the billions we've wasted on Zionist neocon wars holding national invention contests instead???

 

Punishing others for competitive success only enables further underperformance here. In the long run, it is doomed to fail (see Communism) due to the global free market. Eventually, any Americans who could afford it would get so tired of paying ridiculously high prices for inferior domestic products and services here that they would simply expatriate to other countries that offer higher values. This would cause a progressive brain/upper class drain eventually leaving a 3rd world slum behind..

 

Imagine you needed a new alternative health device. And one in China cost $300 USD there. But it would cost you $1000 USD to buy it here due to all the protectionist tariffs slapped on it. There is no domestic version or only a far pricier and inferior knock-off. How would you like dem apples?

 

The highest quality of life is attained by free access to the goods and services of the highest values (benefit/cost ratio). Depriving people of this choice will only reduce their quality of life.

 

 

Exactly where are the jobs located for "Americans to work harder and smarter"? Tax breaks for corporations to manufacture overseas and virtually no tariffs to level the playing field in manufacturing are stripping the U.S. of real wealth! What about the increased use of H1-B visas to unfairly reduce the number of computer techs in exchange for cheap foreign labor. Bill Gates started that particular movement while at the same time hired temporary workers for years to escape paying benefits.

 

You always come up with some laissez faire ideology to justify corporate greed at the expense of people!

 

Supply side economics only increases corporate power!

 

ralis

Edited August 17, 2010 by ralis

[WallaMike]

This was a different blog than I expected, since I was unable to identify much of a discussion of Taoist principles in it. Of course, Taoism means different things to different people and so I suppose it could be argued otherwise.

 

However, in looking at America from my interpretation of certain basic aspects of Taoism, I would probably comment on balance and coming back to balance. America seems to be quite out of balance at this time, and I just don't mean its deficits. The culture seems to have changed to become more insular, rigid and intolerant. If being with the Tao means to "bend like the willow", not snap like the dry blade of grass, then we need to get back to the basics.

 

Second, my interpretation is that Taoism at the highest level means being one with the Tao and thus following the dictates of the Tao. This is a very high level of development, of which perhaps only a handful of Americans (or any nation) could actually qualify. Perhaps if a high number of our politicians were more Taoist in outlook, things would look up. However, presently our system is such that to become a politician, it seems to self-select for certain, may I say, negative traits?

 

Or third, I might say that from a non-dual Taoist point of view, it is all perfect as it is and so nothing has to be done.

 

However, not being among those handful of enlightened Taoists in the US, I just muddle along as best as I'm able. I don't think the answer is in hyperbole or bashing other groups, or "being number 1". I think that the best way we can help America, or the world for that matter, is for as many of us as possible to become as enlightened and highly developed as we are able. When we reach that critical number of about 15% of the population, then we will be able to finally tap the creativity to solve these problems that presently seem so unsolvable.

 

Was it Einstein who first said that you can't solve a problem at the level that the problem is created at? This is why these seemingly "logical" arguments of "decrease the deficit", "increase the stimulus","decrease our dependence on oil", etc, go no where, since they are rooted in the same mind set that is creating the problem. We've become afraid and competitive, two tendencies not compatible with optimum creative problem solving.

 

Thus, I think if we loosened up our death grip on our ethnocentric "isms" and more of us looked inside to the stillness and emptiness of Tao, then perhaps out of emptiness and infinite potential could come the solutions to these immensely complicated problems. Well, that's my take on it; go figure.

[voidisyinyang]

 

Punishing others for competitive success

 

http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0602

 

U.S.-Owned High Tech Jabil Factory in China Runs Like Minimum Security Prison Producing for Whirlpool, GE, HP

 

* Cruel and Inhuman Treatment at Jabil

o Standing 12 Hours a Day

o Management's Philosophy is to Break the Workers

o Complaints of Constant Stress and Anxiety

o Even Lower Level Managers Crack under the Constant Pressure

o Managers and Security Guards Patrol the Shop Floor like Police

 

* Grueling 12-hour shifts, seven days a week are the norm

o Even lunch and supper "breaks" are no real breaks at all

o One bathroom break in an eight-hour shift

 

* No Right to Know

 

* Pitting Temps against Full Time Workers

 

http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0034

 

 

China's Youth Meet Microsoft

KYE Factory in China Produces for Microsoft and other U.S. Companies

"We are like prisoners... We do not have a life, only work."

 

-Teenaged Microsoft Worker

Edited August 18, 2010 by drewhempel

[Birch]

"we can help America, or the world for that matter,"

 

I'd call for "helping America at home" first. The world (for all that it matters) can certainly wait (IMO).

 

In fact,from a pseudo-Taoist POV, lest "America" (whoever she is now) attempts to change the world (it cannot be done per TTC!) I wonder if she weren't be best off just leaving it all alone. What's the "fish-frying" verse of TTC?

 

Anyway, I don't see many other countries attempting such feats - oh wait, yeh, Italy sort of tried it a while back (no offense to any Italians present) - oh wait, also "The Greeks" (no offense to Greeks present) - oh wait, also "The British" - some nasty messes there! (No offense to the British present)

 

In fact, as someone pointed out to me the other day "The world" is actually right in my face. It is my family and friends, my coworkers and my lovers. My enemies (and my ex-lovers, this is not hard to see ;-)) My children. My food. My ideas. Myself Oh...bugger.

[Encephalon]

This was a different blog than I expected, since I was unable to identify much of a discussion of Taoist principles in it. Of course, Taoism means different things to different people and so I suppose it could be argued otherwise.

 

However, in looking at America from my interpretation of certain basic aspects of Taoism, I would probably comment on balance and coming back to balance. America seems to be quite out of balance at this time, and I just don't mean its deficits. The culture seems to have changed to become more insular, rigid and intolerant. If being with the Tao means to "bend like the willow", not snap like the dry blade of grass, then we need to get back to the basics.

 

Second, my interpretation is that Taoism at the highest level means being one with the Tao and thus following the dictates of the Tao. This is a very high level of development, of which perhaps only a handful of Americans (or any nation) could actually qualify. Perhaps if a high number of our politicians were more Taoist in outlook, things would look up. However, presently our system is such that to become a politician, it seems to self-select for certain, may I say, negative traits?

 

Or third, I might say that from a non-dual Taoist point of view, it is all perfect as it is and so nothing has to be done.

 

However, not being among those handful of enlightened Taoists in the US, I just muddle along as best as I'm able. I don't think the answer is in hyperbole or bashing other groups, or "being number 1". I think that the best way we can help America, or the world for that matter, is for as many of us as possible to become as enlightened and highly developed as we are able. When we reach that critical number of about 15% of the population, then we will be able to finally tap the creativity to solve these problems that presently seem so unsolvable.

 

Was it Einstein who first said that you can't solve a problem at the level that the problem is created at? This is why these seemingly "logical" arguments of "decrease the deficit", "increase the stimulus","decrease our dependence on oil", etc, go no where, since they are rooted in the same mind set that is creating the problem. We've become afraid and competitive, two tendencies not compatible with optimum creative problem solving.

 

Thus, I think if we loosened up our death grip on our ethnocentric "isms" and more of us looked inside to the stillness and emptiness of Tao, then perhaps out of emptiness and infinite potential could come the solutions to these immensely complicated problems. Well, that's my take on it; go figure.

 

Gassho. This is precisely the quality of feedback I so often crave from this board, since I cannot often participate in the LA Buddhist/Taoist community without endless automobile commuting.

 

The way I connect Taoism with this subject matter is by unraveling the political and cultural themes of American life, which I define as consumer culture (I don't give much credence to American political mythology.) Americans had the dubious honor of being guinea pigs in the world's first domestic consumer market. We've been bombarded with commercial advertising since the late 1800s, and the technology has only gotten more sophisticated, more pernicious. If the capitalists' wet dream is to turn the world's resources into pure liquid capital, a vast consumer culture is the fastest way to do that, and toward that end, the process has performed admirably. We consumers have treated our masters well.

 

Unfortunately, consumerism just about kills every authentic human impulse we have and obliterates creativity and imagination, including the spiritual impulse. Indeed, David Loy suggests that globalization (global consumerism) IS religious, in that it elevates the gratification of the instincts to a sacrament.

 

I know I run the risk of being a hopeless romantic but Jeffersonian democracy and the agrarian ideal could conceivably be resurrected if the citizenry could ever break free of the tractor beam of Fox News and Glenn Beck. I see the historical accounts of ancient Taoist villages providing an intriguing template for a post-industrial model that in many ways is (was) as American as apple pie.

[voidisyinyang]

Gassho. This is precisely the quality of feedback I so often crave from this board, since I cannot often participate in the LA Buddhist/Taoist community without endless automobile commuting.

 

The way I connect Taoism with this subject matter is by unraveling the political and cultural themes of American life, which I define as consumer culture (I don't give much credence to American political mythology.) Americans had the dubious honor of being guinea pigs in the world's first domestic consumer market. We've been bombarded with commercial advertising since the late 1800s, and the technology has only gotten more sophisticated, more pernicious. If the capitalists' wet dream is to turn the world's resources into pure liquid capital, a vast consumer culture is the fastest way to do that, and toward that end, the process has performed admirably. We consumers have treated our masters well.

 

Unfortunately, consumerism just about kills every authentic human impulse we have and obliterates creativity and imagination, including the spiritual impulse. Indeed, David Loy suggests that globalization (global consumerism) IS religious, in that it elevates the gratification of the instincts to a sacrament.

 

I know I run the risk of being a hopeless romantic but Jeffersonian democracy and the agrarian ideal could conceivably be resurrected if the citizenry could ever break free of the tractor beam of Fox News and Glenn Beck. I see the historical accounts of ancient Taoist villages providing an intriguing template for a post-industrial model that in many ways is (was) as American as apple pie.

 

 

Hey blasto -- Seattle just passed a new "urban farming" law so that people can have up to 5 chickens in their house!

 

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/421809_urbanag15.html

[3bob]

Most of the human forces and or names that seem to be behind a lot of this stuff are nothing more than pawns, pawns to the dark spirit of malice and hunger for power;

that dark spirit has no real root and will fail, and although some great harms are done to the Earth and to many Beings they will not be broken for such harms shall be resisted and undone by those rooted in the truth of the Way. Also, there really is no checking out and kissing your butt goodbye but there is a great reckoning in which we will reap what we have sown! (Taoist or anyone else for that matter)

 

Om

Edited August 18, 2010 by 3bob

[Martial Development]

...As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear on many occasions, an appearance of recovery was created by over-counting employment and undercounting inflation. Warnings by Williams, Gerald Celente, and myself have gone unheeded, but our warnings recently had echoes from Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff and from David Stockman, who excoriated the Republican Party for becoming big-spending Democrats...

 

Writers such as Paul Craig Roberts need to redefine success, IMO. When the people who are willing to listen are able to listen, then you have accomplished everything you can as a messenger. You will never achieve universal recognition and acceptance. This kind of message will never appear on the front page of the newspaper--that space is reserved for the self-serving story that "nobody could have seen this coming".

 

There is no point in debating with wolves on the virtue of eating sheep. Or with the sheep for that matter!

 

Someone recommended the documentary Collapse a few weeks ago, on this forum. I finally got it from Netflix today--it was quite cogent, if short on solutions.

[voidisyinyang]

Writers such as Paul Craig Roberts need to redefine success, IMO. When the people who are willing to listen are able to listen, then you have accomplished everything you can as a messenger. You will never achieve universal recognition and acceptance. This kind of message will never appear on the front page of the newspaper--that space is reserved for the self-serving story that "nobody could have seen this coming".

 

There is no point in debating with wolves on the virtue of eating sheep. Or with the sheep for that matter!

 

Someone recommended the documentary Collapse a few weeks ago, on this forum. I finally got it from Netflix today--it was quite cogent, if short on solutions.

 

So you getting some chickens Chris? Yeah that was me posting Collapse -- here's the NY Times op-ed Ruppert posted on his blog:

 

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/should-this-be-the-last-generation/?hp

[TheWhiteRabbit]

Blasto is right guys.

If you wait 55 years before it is completely proven that Blasto is right it will be too late.

If you act now, it may be too premature.

Rather than an "It could be" bunch of political rhetoric sobbing over how some have soured things I believe he is right on the money.

[Marblehead]

BTW China just passed Japan to the position of the strongest economy in the world, now in second place, right behind the US. It is estimated that if the trend continues, China will overtake the US sometime during the year 2013. The is, if the world doesn't end in 2012.

 

Peace & Love!

Edited August 18, 2010 by Marblehead

[goldisheavy]

http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0602

 

U.S.-Owned High Tech Jabil Factory in China Runs Like Minimum Security Prison Producing for Whirlpool, GE, HP

 

 

 

http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0034

 

 

China's Youth Meet Microsoft

KYE Factory in China Produces for Microsoft and other U.S. Companies

"We are like prisoners... We do not have a life, only work."

 

-Teenaged Microsoft Worker

 

I think we should help these slaves instead of competing with them. Competing with a slave is the road to hell.

 

I also agree with Blasto, although I think we should tax the rich as well as implement all the other measures. Really, the rich should be sent to re-education camps to be taught what is and isn't ethical and why not. If you're in a leadership position and you choose to employ slaves, you've sealed your fate.

Edited August 18, 2010 by goldisheavy

[Brian]

...

[voidisyinyang]

[Encephalon]

Excellent find, Blasto! I would disagree with one small detail, though.

 

The author repeatedly uses the phrase "neoconservative" or "neocon", presumably as a pejorative. The problem with this is that the "progressive"/"neoconservative" labels are merely that -- labels -- employed by politicians targeting one group of emotions, while labels like "patriot" and "commie" are employed by politicians targeting another group of emotions BUT both politicians using either families of labels are truly statists rather than being from either of the idealistic camps they claim to represent.

 

In an uneven but seemingly inexorable slope, since at least the late-1860s and especially since the 1950s, the differences between the two major parties in the US have become increasingly superficial and decreasingly substantial, until now we have reached the point where politicians can just switch back and forth based on polling data. The appearance of vitriolic differences, and the fact that most voters don't seem to recognize the theatrics, means that the two "sides" can take turns "being in charge" and self-righteously blaming each other for the problems while the statist political machine churns on.

 

What America really needs, I think, is a constitutional reset. This would include the elimination of the "standing army" (the Constitution didn't allow for one), the removal of the federal government from the role of participant/partner in commercial enterprise, the recognition of the limited & enumerated powers given to the federal government, the restoration of states' rights, the elimination of "human rights" for corporate entities, a renewed acknowledgment that spirituality is the cornerstone of the civil society (including the disassembly of the anti-spiritual/pro-statist federal Education Department), and the restoration of the "balance of power" between the three branches of government -- among others. Personally, I'd like to see a schedule established for the repeal of ALL Amendments to the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, along with a period of several years prior to their termination during which the individual states can choose to either re-ratify them in their existing language, or not.

 

My tie-in of this thread with Taoism would be thus: individual freedom, including free trade as an extension of one's willful control over one's own energy, is part of mankind's "natural way", as is greed, sloth & lust for power. The civil society is a conscious compromise, allowing for specialization, safety and "free time" but opening the door for tyranny & slavery to creep in as invited guests. The balance between these pros & cons is a fluid one but is also one which requires constant awareness because it is an artificial management of natural forces. The middle path is difficult to follow, and especially so when most of the followers aren't aware of either the existence of the path or the dangers of going too far into the weeds. The danger, as we are seeing now and as has been repeated over & over throughout history, is the creep of tyranny & slavery and then the collapse of the system. The collapse is never complete but is often devastating. From the ruins arises another civil society, re-founded on basic & natural principles. The collapse can be avoided or delayed by a conscious return to those basic & natural principles before it is "too late" (whatever that means). The results of either approach, however, are consistent with the Tao because, as with all things, water will find its own level.

 

I commend your grasp of our Constitution. I'd love to take an intro class on the subject someday. It's interesting that we both have suspicions about governmental institutions but seem to have acquired them from different trajectories. As I've been steeped in Chomsky, Zinn, and James Kunstler I have different ideas about the role of education in America; I pretty much see the Dept. of Ed. as charged with creating moderately educated and obedient factory workers (but that's another story). I also don't know what to think of States Rights. Whenever a Southerner starts in on the subject and lambasts the Bill of Rights in the same breath, the hairs on the back of my neck start vibrating. Somethin' tells me you ain't one of the good 'ol Southern boys. I also see the American Progressive movement in slightly more legitimate terms than our recent Neocon uprising. William Kristol has been wrong about Every Thing for over a decade now. His PNAC doc will go down as one of the most toxic ideas in history.

 

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

 

Thanks for posting. Hope you check out the "Resilient Communities" post. For a region-by-region forecast of the American crash, check out "The Long Emergency." The South doesn't fare well, but neither does the SW, or the NE.

[voidisyinyang]

I commend your grasp of our Constitution. I'd love to take an intro class on the subject someday. It's interesting that we both have suspicions about governmental institutions but seem to have acquired them from different trajectories. As I've been steeped in Chomsky, Zinn, and James Kunstler I have different ideas about the role of education in America; I pretty much see the Dept. of Ed. as charged with creating moderately educated and obedient factory workers (but that's another story). I also don't know what to think of States Rights. Whenever a Southerner starts in on the subject and lambasts the Bill of Rights in the same breath, the hairs on the back of my neck start vibrating. Somethin' tells me you ain't one of the good 'ol Southern boys. I also see the American Progressive movement in slightly more legitimate terms than our recent Neocon uprising. William Kristol has been wrong about Every Thing for over a decade now. His PNAC doc will go down as one of the most toxic ideas in history.

 

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

 

Thanks for posting. Hope you check out the "Resilient Communities" post. For a region-by-region forecast of the American crash, check out "The Long Emergency." The South doesn't fare well, but neither does the SW, or the NE.

 

Actually my dad is big on the neocon scene -- he went to NYU law school and was invited to join one of those Ayn Rand neocon think tanks back in the late 1950s -- and then he's buddies with a law professor who studied with neocon guru at the University of Chicago -- Leo Strauss.

 

Anyway I'm a radical progressive -- having been arrested 7 times for civil disobedience, and working 20 years at activist nonprofits, etc.

 

So my dad is buddies with a federal judge who just retired a few years ago due to health reasons -- so I went to dinner with this judge the night before he was to sit in a closed door administrative hearing to rule on a case -- this is a regional federal district case.

 

The judge, of course, had his mind made up already and my employer had an amicus curae to the case -- so there was probably some law against these connections meeting beforehand... still my dad wanted me to tell the judge about when I protested against Al Gore (as I'm radical progressive and their neocons)....

 

Well so the ruling of the case was against family farm protection laws which state you have to live on your farm to own it -- to keep corporations from having verticalization and market monopolies of farming -- distribution, etc. The main issue being Cargill taking over farms -- and Monsanto, etc.

 

Anyway of course the judge ruled in favor of Cargill and in a single ruling overturned several states having laws to protect family farms. He made his ruling based on the U.S. constitution -- namely the Commerce Clause.

 

The Commerce Clause is the great ruling elite sneak attack in the U.S. Constitution. My dad is part of the Federalist law society which is another neocon stronghold for lawyers -- anyway if you go back to the Federalists they were big on having a central bank with a strong federal military, the basic neocon supply side economics agenda.

 

It's definitely a religion -- David Loy is great on this -- as is Professor David F. Noble who wrote an awesome expose on Western science as religion as well -- "The Religion of Technology" -- and his latest book I haven't read yet but have heard him talk about -- it's about how economics is based on religion. The "hidden hand" of the market being the force of God, etc.

[Brian]

...

[voidisyinyang]

This is simply not true, Drew! I think you would enjoy reading the Federalist Papers -- much of what we have been taught about "the Founding Fathers" (since the 1840s or so, really) has been really skewed. The idea of a federal military was soundly rejected as a threat to the survival of the republic (with states having independent militias and a federal navy being something of an afterthought (the marine corps coming into existence shortly thereafter in response to Muslim jihadists, but that's a topic for a different thread)) while the central bank was also rejected (although soon brought along as "a good idea" by future leaders, failed, was brought back, failed again, etc.) Both the Federalists and Anti-Federalists strongly believed in a minimalistic federal government with tremendously limited authority and with sovereign states. The commerce clause has been abused for nearly 200 years by statists from both sides of the right/left imaginary line and the framers of the Declaration & Constitution wouldn't recognize the mess we've created!

 

The federal courts were especially suspect in the eyes of the framers because they clearly identified and wrote about the risk posed by judicial powers run amok, as they warned about the danger inherent in the idea of this country being turned into a democracy.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Party

 

The United States' only Federalist president was John Adams; although George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, he remained an independent his entire presidency.[1]....

 

The Federalist policies called for a national bank and the Jay Treaty to build good relations with Britain. Their political opponents, the Democratic-Republicans, headed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, denounced most of the Federalist polices, especially the bank, and vehemently attacked the Jay Treaty as a sell-out of republican values to the British monarchy. The Treaty passed, and indeed the Federalists won most of the major legislative battles in the 1790s. They held a strong base in urban New England. The Republicans, with their base in the rural south, won the hard-fought election of 1800; the Federalists never returned to power....

 

The rebellion evaporated in late 1794 as Washington approached, personally leading the army (only two sitting Presidents have directly led American military forces, Washington during the whiskey rebellion and Madison in an attempt to save the White House during the war of 1812 ). The rebels dispersed and there was no fighting. Federalists were relieved that the new government proved capable of overcoming rebellion, while Republicans, with Gallatin their new hero, argued there never was a real rebellion and the whole episode was manipulated in order to accustom Americans to a standing army.

Edited August 18, 2010 by drewhempel