Flying the Nation's Flag upside down is considered by most to be The Universal Sign of Distress. As an American, if you don't find the state of our union to be distressful by now, I doubt I can change your mind. I find plenty to be distressed about today and don't just operate on faith that "it'll all work out". It's time for action.
The "flag thing" still pisses you off though? You're all riled by it and offended? Then let me save you some time and angst: Move-on to somewhere else online (or off). I'm not your kinda guy. If you are so parochial that you can't get past my treatment of the flag, then surely most of what I have to say you'll only regard as heresy. I doubt I can help you and I'm pretty sure I've considered and dismissed all of your arguments already and I don't have time to waste either. We'll only argue and I'm not here to argue. Let's not.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Primer One: Justifying this Protest
Some who happen upon this blog will seemingly be on the same page with me and won't object to many of the broad generalizations used here in this short justification for my protest. But odds are, others will outright disagree with many of my observations and viewpoints or, at least need more specifics and examples that lead me to my conclusions. If you are looking for that greater level of detail, justification and "deep background", I urge you to continue working through a number of posts to follow this first Primer and ask that you just keep an open mind for awhile. If you desire the change that I do as well, the solutions and efforts will, if nothing else, take some time and thoughtfulness. Walking away from this without giving it your full consideration very likely means that we've lost you as a soldier in this fight. After surviving this first Primer, for more detail and justification, move on to the next sequentially numbered Primers. But, if I don't lose your support in this effort after the first two Primers, you may also elect to begin making the small changes that I will also be posting about attempting myself as this blog and protest develops. This is a long-term project but I think we'll all find that just a few minutes of our attention every so often can yield powerful results if the movement grows in size. Many of the biggest changes in our world originated with a handful of us who simply kept on keeping on. For now, here goes the big sweeping picture and substantial leaps in my logical argument:
We're all "consumers". And really, to most of those in the centers of power and commerce, that is our only purpose and value to them. Our "utility" and role in their view of how they seem to want this world to operate. In some ways, we are viewed no differently than a herd of farm animals to be managed and controlled and, ultimately, harvested for our economic value. Sure, we're not sent to slaughter-houses. No, that would be wasteful. We're much more valuable being kept busy working on the mundane minutiae of this system that primarily produces enormous wealth for the Land Barons at the top. We frantically work and produce and those way above us actually profit the most from our labors. They pay us after taking their cut and then we turn-around and spend all we've made--and more--to buy what we need and think we need to survive another day to work again. It is, I've found, the ironic Tyranny of Capitalism. We've been molded into such addicted consumers that we can't seem to get enough with what we legitimately earn so they create complex financial scams and contractual relationships wherey we can borrow and consume even more than we earn. And we're told this system can perpetuate indefinately when any simple understanding of economics and life on a planet of limited size and resources tells you logically that it must end somewhere. Nevermind we're lulled by the incessant commercialization of every part of our lives, that is a worry for another day or someone other than you.
They worship at the altar of an Idealized Utopian world of "Free Market" Economic Competition. So the theory goes. The reality is far different. The tactics they use to prevail as "winners" in this Darwinian competition are anything but those of a truly "Free Market" when other tactics are deemed more expedient to achieving their ends. They see no intellectual dishonesty in abandoning their "Free Market Principles" at the drop of an ignorant consumers' wallet to win that round in the game they enjoy so much. How do they keep score? Money and ostentatious displays of "wealth". "He who dies with the most toys wins!" And none of them seem to find it ironic that the same folks who most often claim that Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection is "just a theory" (and should only be taught along side the New Testament or some bastardized version of it hidden as "science") have lobbied so consistently for the creation of this giant Social Darwinian Competition!
Have I totally lost you? I'll try to occasionally post specific examples from the news of our day. If and when I can find US media willing to tell the stories and expose the lies and corruptness. I'm frankly disappointed that I've waited so many years now to begin this blog where I could have been building a much deeper dossier of examples damning them at every level. But instead of going back and reliving those appalling stories from all these years, I can count on these modern-day Robber Barons to never disappoint. A diligent occasional search of the less popular and obscure media in this Country can find weekly examples of just how corrupt the "leaders" of this Nation have become. Leaders, that's a hoot. Even us "voters" have been turned-into nothing but mindless consumers of bogus campaign advertising and media propaganda that we use as justification for whichever deceitful crook we decide to vote for come the next "election". Most of us vote for our Representatives with no more sophistication now than what we used to choose a Student Body President in High School. Popularity contests is all these are between talking-heads that are bought, paid for and bought-off by the huge monied interests who have now successfully captured the system. Their Grand Prize...
You know I could go on and on. Maybe you could as well. I think the first time I had a blinding moment of clarity about this was in the days immediately after Sepetember 11th, 2001. First our President stood in the Rose Garden and uttered the shocking words. Then he was followed day after day by the various Cabinet Members all too eagerly invited to come on the mainstream media outlets to repeat over and over the same message: 'Go on about your daily lives. Go to your jobs and places of work and worship. Take your family out to the Mall to go shopping. Take them out for dinner.' The first time I heard it, I just sat silent with my mouth truly agape as I stared at the television screen in disbelief. Then as the words memorized by all of them were repeated like instructions to young schoolchildren over and over for days and even weeks, I got angry. I began changing my behaviours then but nowhere to the extent I am about to now, these years later.
For an example I randomly came-across just this week that serves as another illustration of my premise here, go to my post about our Department of Agriculture and Mad Cow Disease. Like I said, we can all probably find examples upon examples. But going on an on and ranting and railing is not what I want to do here at this blog. We all know there are plenty of places and venues for that already. I'm ready for change. Much more than I've made to date.
For me, the struggle has been determining what more I could do besides the small futilities like talking to fellow citizens, calling my Elected Representatives' offices and making silly small campaign donations to candidates that don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning against the candidates getting the corrupt unregulated bribes (oh, sorry, I meant, "Campaign Donations"). And that is where I've been stuck now for more years than I care to even admit to myself. I've made some changes in my priorities and, in particular, in my planning for the future. But I sure haven't seen the results in our world even this many years later. My efforts have been inadequate to date. Meanwhile the solution I will propose here has been at hand and I've even spoken of it at times without realizing that even I had been successfully lulled into the functional consumer coma that sedates so many of us. Not any more for me. How 'bout you?
There are many of you way ahead of me already. All I can say is that I thank you for your efforts in this regard, I'm jealous that you were ahead of me on this curve and now, I'm joining you. Finally. I apologize for my absence until now. Together, maybe we can enlist more and more in our little protest and add it all up to some real change? I'm gonna try...
So, how do I choose to lodge this protest? We all know this. It is all about money. The lifeblood of this cancer on our Nation is money. They are driven by it, thrive on it and without it, they have nothing. We ARE the customers. And the customer is the source of the money and therefore the power. Wait, wait! Don't roll your eyes and turn-away yet.
I know, this is far from a novel idea. And you don't even have to recite all of the reasoning and rationales for why or how this "can't work"..."won't work"...how it is "doomed to fail". There are a thousand ways one can attempt to defeat this revolution before it even begins. I feel very confident that if you'll stay with me on this effort and wew work at it incrementally over time, it can accomplish all that we desire. And I am not some idealist who never stops simply "believing" that my pie-in-the-sky solution will someday miraculously work. Nope, that's not me at all. In fact, on one level I approach this from a pure exercise in economics. Let's turn that "free market", free-will and choice back on the bastards!
Through subsequent posts, I will also outline and detail why I think this process will yield myself and anyone else practicing it even more dividends than we might predict here in this narrow context of "giving it to da man". More on that later though.
O.K., I imagine there are two objections that many readers might lodge that are likely the most important for me to refute as soon as I can:
We're all "consumers". And really, to most of those in the centers of power and commerce, that is our only purpose and value to them. Our "utility" and role in their view of how they seem to want this world to operate. In some ways, we are viewed no differently than a herd of farm animals to be managed and controlled and, ultimately, harvested for our economic value. Sure, we're not sent to slaughter-houses. No, that would be wasteful. We're much more valuable being kept busy working on the mundane minutiae of this system that primarily produces enormous wealth for the Land Barons at the top. We frantically work and produce and those way above us actually profit the most from our labors. They pay us after taking their cut and then we turn-around and spend all we've made--and more--to buy what we need and think we need to survive another day to work again. It is, I've found, the ironic Tyranny of Capitalism. We've been molded into such addicted consumers that we can't seem to get enough with what we legitimately earn so they create complex financial scams and contractual relationships wherey we can borrow and consume even more than we earn. And we're told this system can perpetuate indefinately when any simple understanding of economics and life on a planet of limited size and resources tells you logically that it must end somewhere. Nevermind we're lulled by the incessant commercialization of every part of our lives, that is a worry for another day or someone other than you.
They worship at the altar of an Idealized Utopian world of "Free Market" Economic Competition. So the theory goes. The reality is far different. The tactics they use to prevail as "winners" in this Darwinian competition are anything but those of a truly "Free Market" when other tactics are deemed more expedient to achieving their ends. They see no intellectual dishonesty in abandoning their "Free Market Principles" at the drop of an ignorant consumers' wallet to win that round in the game they enjoy so much. How do they keep score? Money and ostentatious displays of "wealth". "He who dies with the most toys wins!" And none of them seem to find it ironic that the same folks who most often claim that Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection is "just a theory" (and should only be taught along side the New Testament or some bastardized version of it hidden as "science") have lobbied so consistently for the creation of this giant Social Darwinian Competition!
Have I totally lost you? I'll try to occasionally post specific examples from the news of our day. If and when I can find US media willing to tell the stories and expose the lies and corruptness. I'm frankly disappointed that I've waited so many years now to begin this blog where I could have been building a much deeper dossier of examples damning them at every level. But instead of going back and reliving those appalling stories from all these years, I can count on these modern-day Robber Barons to never disappoint. A diligent occasional search of the less popular and obscure media in this Country can find weekly examples of just how corrupt the "leaders" of this Nation have become. Leaders, that's a hoot. Even us "voters" have been turned-into nothing but mindless consumers of bogus campaign advertising and media propaganda that we use as justification for whichever deceitful crook we decide to vote for come the next "election". Most of us vote for our Representatives with no more sophistication now than what we used to choose a Student Body President in High School. Popularity contests is all these are between talking-heads that are bought, paid for and bought-off by the huge monied interests who have now successfully captured the system. Their Grand Prize...
You know I could go on and on. Maybe you could as well. I think the first time I had a blinding moment of clarity about this was in the days immediately after Sepetember 11th, 2001. First our President stood in the Rose Garden and uttered the shocking words. Then he was followed day after day by the various Cabinet Members all too eagerly invited to come on the mainstream media outlets to repeat over and over the same message: 'Go on about your daily lives. Go to your jobs and places of work and worship. Take your family out to the Mall to go shopping. Take them out for dinner.' The first time I heard it, I just sat silent with my mouth truly agape as I stared at the television screen in disbelief. Then as the words memorized by all of them were repeated like instructions to young schoolchildren over and over for days and even weeks, I got angry. I began changing my behaviours then but nowhere to the extent I am about to now, these years later.
For an example I randomly came-across just this week that serves as another illustration of my premise here, go to my post about our Department of Agriculture and Mad Cow Disease. Like I said, we can all probably find examples upon examples. But going on an on and ranting and railing is not what I want to do here at this blog. We all know there are plenty of places and venues for that already. I'm ready for change. Much more than I've made to date.
For me, the struggle has been determining what more I could do besides the small futilities like talking to fellow citizens, calling my Elected Representatives' offices and making silly small campaign donations to candidates that don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning against the candidates getting the corrupt unregulated bribes (oh, sorry, I meant, "Campaign Donations"). And that is where I've been stuck now for more years than I care to even admit to myself. I've made some changes in my priorities and, in particular, in my planning for the future. But I sure haven't seen the results in our world even this many years later. My efforts have been inadequate to date. Meanwhile the solution I will propose here has been at hand and I've even spoken of it at times without realizing that even I had been successfully lulled into the functional consumer coma that sedates so many of us. Not any more for me. How 'bout you?
There are many of you way ahead of me already. All I can say is that I thank you for your efforts in this regard, I'm jealous that you were ahead of me on this curve and now, I'm joining you. Finally. I apologize for my absence until now. Together, maybe we can enlist more and more in our little protest and add it all up to some real change? I'm gonna try...
So, how do I choose to lodge this protest? We all know this. It is all about money. The lifeblood of this cancer on our Nation is money. They are driven by it, thrive on it and without it, they have nothing. We ARE the customers. And the customer is the source of the money and therefore the power. Wait, wait! Don't roll your eyes and turn-away yet.
I know, this is far from a novel idea. And you don't even have to recite all of the reasoning and rationales for why or how this "can't work"..."won't work"...how it is "doomed to fail". There are a thousand ways one can attempt to defeat this revolution before it even begins. I feel very confident that if you'll stay with me on this effort and wew work at it incrementally over time, it can accomplish all that we desire. And I am not some idealist who never stops simply "believing" that my pie-in-the-sky solution will someday miraculously work. Nope, that's not me at all. In fact, on one level I approach this from a pure exercise in economics. Let's turn that "free market", free-will and choice back on the bastards!
Through subsequent posts, I will also outline and detail why I think this process will yield myself and anyone else practicing it even more dividends than we might predict here in this narrow context of "giving it to da man". More on that later though.
O.K., I imagine there are two objections that many readers might lodge that are likely the most important for me to refute as soon as I can:
- "Those monolithic corporations are the one's who sell me and provide even the simple staples of life that we all must consume to sustain our lives and families!"
- "If we go about attempting to create real economic damage to 'the system', most if not all of us are also little cogs on the wheels of this supposed machine-of-commerce and the economic damage will also impact our own earnings and, in many cases, hit us harder than it may hit those at the top of this heap."
Wanna hear why and how I argue against these objections? Want to hear more of my specifics on just how I am changing my consumer behaviour? I hope you have the same level of curiosity and motivation about this effort that I do. Please move on to read my next post, Primer Two: Knocking Down Strawmen and Getting Practical
Join me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
![This upside-down Flag thing annoy you? See Post Label below: "What's [not] up with that Flag?"](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/1474/535820771581560/220/gse_multipart24312.png)