Disjointed ramblings of a mind at the end of its tether

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:10 am

I have increasingly come to feel that -- especially but not exclusively as regards matters relating to the global realpolitik - my opinions and suspicions are neither sufficiently grounded in verifiable data, nor all that interesting to anyone other than myself, to merit publication. This is due to a number of factors, not least of which is the increasing and calculated pollution of the media streams which constitute the sum totality of my information gathering resources. Corporate journalism is hopelessly compromised by trickledown meddling from management, ownership and above. The alternative media -- always something of a haven for attention-craving crackpots with often dubious hidden agendas (racism, anti-semitism, Christian eschatology, etc) -- now play host to a growing number of agents provocateur. These PsyOps warriors dispense expertly crafted disinformation designed to send would-be truth-seekers dashing madly off in all directions, chasing wild geese, red herrings and jackalopes. Perfect cover for the crimes of their elite clientele. Knowing that most of the writers whose opinions I respect (Jeff being high in that rank) drink from the same poisoned well as I do only serves to compound my despair. How can you trust your instincts when you can't even trust the information on which said instincts are based? Writing about the crimes of The Powers That Be is beginning to feel like performing surgery on myself without anesthesia. It hurts like hell, and I only have a vague hint as to what I'm doing, which means I'll likely fuck it up in the long run. Which brings me to my next problem: Disillusionment. According to legend, the last words spoken by Hassan i-Sabbah - the Old Man of the Mountain, head of the Order of Assassins -- were: "Nothing is true; everything is permitted." It is a maxim that makes explicit the fundamental idea at the heart of existentialism, that every individual is free to do whatever he is capable of doing. Utterly and terribly free. Ethics, morals, religious precepts, laws; all are artificial constructs created by men of greater or lesser wisdom, and all may be ignored by any individual or group possessing sufficient will and determination. In other words, when Thrasymachus told Socrates: "justice is the advantage of the stronger", and that "injustice, if it is on a large enough scale, is stronger, freer, and more masterly than justice", he was right. The idea that the United States is a nation of laws is, and perhaps has always been, a lie. Maybe there's some truth to the idea that it's a "noble lie" in the tradition of Leo Strauss and his neoconservative disciples -- heirs to Thrasymachus' philosophy of power, via Machiavelli, Hobbes and Nietzsche -- but it remains a lie. Maybe our problem isn't that we're being lied to. Maybe our problem is that we're being lied to poorly. And anyway, what good does it do us to know that it's a lie? That there is no set of rules that can't be gamed, that even commandments etched in stone can be chipped and chiseled away, given the right tools and mindset? In the bible, God forbade Adam and Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The philosopher John Stuart Mill declared, only half jokingly, that "ignorance is bliss". In The Big Lebowski, Walter salves his friend's angst by declaring: "Fuck it, dude. Let's go bowling." I, for one, am beginning to think these gentlemen were on to something. Are you confused? Are you sick of it all? Are you ready to call it quits and throw in the towel? Do you secretly wonder if it's you, not them? Are you constantly amazed by the daily parade of bald-faced liars who force their way into your living room and spew demonstrably ridiculous propaganda in your face as though their very lives depended on it? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then at least you know you're not alone.

by **Trifecta** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:51 am

It's true, before I scrubbed the sleepy dust from my eyes, all I knew was a lot of bastards seemed to run the world, yet that had little bearing on my life. Happy to proginate three children with the programmed response, that all have an opportunity to co-exist in a free and harmonious world. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"> Then I got active. And realised the potential for good hearts to overcome the machines self destruct codings. I look into my 21 months old eyes and think if others don't see the dielma of ignorance, these children will be the slaves, chipped, pinned and barcoded to work for the machine in return for food, water, heat and shelter ... umm, bit like now, without the implants???? When this malaise hits you jerky my new friend, look into the kids eyes.

by **heath7** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:31 pm

Jerky, what You've written could accurately describe where I was a few years ago. Knowledge becomes easier to bear if you can only bear to continue seeking it. I promise. Just be honest and searching of yourself as well. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=heath7>heath7</A> at: 2/6/06 12:34 pm

by **marykmusic** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:56 pm

And by all means, expose the children you have, or come into contact with, to something eye-opening. Turn off their TV's, turn on their minds. Encourage creativity in them AND in yourself. Ignorance is not a crime, but refusing to learn should be. --MaryK

by **Darklo** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:37 pm

I felt the same until I managed to convince some family and friends that 911 really is a Gov. conspiracy. Not some crackpot idea. Then I started to realise that some of these expressions of malcontent on the internet were based in a justifyable reality. Then I stated to feel good that whenever stuff came on the telly that was utter rubbish, like bush and blair defacating on the TV, then I could see it for what it was, I could decode it. I no longer feel managed, motivated, or controlled by media. I see the publications, I hear their diatribe and instead of trying to work out what is true and what is not, I try and understand the agenda behind the story being pushed into my brain. I am now in control of my brain, and that I enjoy. I love the fact that I dont believe a dammed word of what I am told by our 'elites', and I frankly I dont care to know whether it is true or not. Believing in their crap one way or another does not help me protect my family. Thats their game, they want you to suffer cognative dissonance, thats part of the control drama - dont fall for it. I work hard, make money, store my assets somewhere safe and try to convince people whenever I can that our governments are pure evil. That keeps me sane. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=darklo>Darklo</A> at: 2/6/06 1:39 pm

by **Qutb** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:21 pm

Jerky, I share your disillusionment with the "alternative" media which proliferates on the Internet (I think this point was missed by some of the other posters, by the way). It's a good thing that this exists... no doubt about that. Still, it's a good rule of thumb that if you're skeptical of the "mainstream" media, as one should be, then you should be twice as skeptical of anything you read in the "alternative" media. So where does that leave us? Are we really any better informed than the average joe who gets his information from the TV, or have we just fallen for a different set of lies? Many who endeavor to "go down the rabbit hole" evidently end up with a very distorted and disturbed world view... It usually seems to happen when you go from asking "could it be..." to becoming a "true believer", a "proselytizing priest of a conspiracy cult" to paraphrase Jeff (I think). I don't want to be one of those, myself. A little humilty as to what we actually know versus what we merely suspect or have reason to suspect, and to what we can know about these things, goes a long way. (And as I've written numerous times before, many members of the "9/11 Truth" cult seem to completely miss this crucial difference.) I think Dreams End's "guidelines for research", recently re-posted on this forum, is a good, um, guideline for wading through all the disinformation, misinformation and non-information on the Internet and perhaps finding that occasional little nugget of information. And I think there are things we have enough information about, from various more or less credible sources, to have reason to suspect a whole lot of things. But there is very little we have reason to be absolutely certain about. The thread on ritual abuse started by Bioat... something (sorry) contains some good posts which touch on this same subject, btw.

by **Darklo** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:10 pm

I didnt miss the point on the veracity of the non mainstream media, so much as failed to explain my point properly. It's mostly bollocks. All of it. As an example, we dont really know if the 911 truth movement is really a massive psyops in the first place. We dont know if any of it is really true at all. Some planes hit some buildings, they collapsed. Thats about all i can feel comfortable with, I wasnt there so the rest is dodgy territory for me. I think the crazy blogshpere et al is a great place to learn ways of thinking that don't meet the expectations of the propaganda experts pumping out the shit on cnn and bbc. It's also a great way to develop and keep expert cyncism, and to figure out what in your head is based on real experiences and what is based on programming. For this I am very gratefull for RI and others who help keep you doubting and thinking. Events pushed into our faces are signs of the direction we are being willed to go. Many things that support the cause of power are reported accuratley, and many of the things that dont arent. Whether the reports are true or not is impossible to determine but the direction our attention is forced to go is beyond question.

by **elsiecow** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:35 pm

I agree. I think the 'truth movement' went into the wrong direction. I was part of it originally, until they veered off into 'controlled demolition' which wasn't part of my reading or anyone else's until recently. I could talk a lot more about it, but I'm sick of being hounded and isolated because some people want to promote one viewpoint to the exclusion of all others. I joined the anti-war movement early on, when I didn't think we should bomb innocent people because of 9/11. I am long familiar with the divide and conquer and the slander that went around against people who were there at the beginning. So much bullshit - I stopped doing politics because of right-wing harassment.

by **sceneshifter** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:24 am

Im sorry - I do not at all understand - And I would dearly dearly love to have some clue to understanding - Because maybe it is true that one doesnt understand anything till one understands everything - WHY DO PEOPLE NOT GET THIS: - Life, while there is extreme overpay-underpay, is a war - Truth is the first casualty of war - Your power to find out the truth is always going to be much less than the power of much more powerful people to hide the truth - SO YOU NEED TO LIMIT THE POWER OF OTHERS - Inequality of power - and money is power - is always going to grow - And grow and grow and grow - So a mechanism to limit inequality of power is ESSENTIAL - to survival and freedom - 99% of people will gain financially from greater equality of pay per hour - And we can reach those 99% in just 33 times the time it takes to pass on the message fully to one person - So it is possible to get a great majority FOR greater equality - In short time - Or are we so brainwashed by the powerful that we think it is wrong to care about getting out of the social pool of wealth as much as we put in? - Your first and only duty is to pursue your happiness - Overpower is death to happiness - Therefore we have a duty to limit overpower - Even if it were unjust to the overpaid - But it isnt - Limiting fortunes to US$2 million is not taking anything off anyone that they have earned - SURVIVAL IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT LIMITATION OF FORTUNES - HAPPINESS IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT LIMITATION OF FORTUNES - DEMOCRACY IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT LIMITATION OF FORTUNES - Jefferson knew that We do not need to spend our lives scratching for crumbs of lowdown on the tyrants - All history shouts: They steal, the people suffer and retaliate, and, after enormous suffering, prevail - And then the people allow unlimited wealth again - We accept wealthy people - We arrive, grow up, and wealthy people are a fact of life and we accept it - Unthinkingly - But wait a minute - The average person works 50 hours a week [Housewives work an average of 70 hours a week - The third world - the 80% majority world - average is probably above 6<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"> , and no one can work more than 100 hours a week average for 50 years - And certainly isnt working harder than the average hardness per hour, if he is working 100 hours a week - So no one contributes more than twice the average to the social pool of wealth by work - If the world average was 20 hours a week, then the maximum would be 5 times the average - But it is 50 hours a week, if not more - 'The purpose of govt is justice' James Madison - [Because justice is esential to survival and happiness] - And only the people are more powerful than the superrich tyrannical Woodrow Wilson: 'When we resist concentration of power, we are resisting the powers of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties... The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless ... American industry is not free, as once it was free; American enterprise is not free; the person with only a little capital is finding it harder to get into the field, more and more impossible to compete with the big fellow. Why? Because the laws of this country do not prevent the strong from crushing the weak' Now, ask yourself: Why isnt that up in every classroom in the world? - Because teachers are too dumb, or too cowed, or too fascist, to put it up - Too whatever to EDUCATE - To put the weapons of forewarning/forearming in the hands of the people - And Woodrow Wilson is speaking here years before a US Senate committee reported that big business was more powerful than the US govt, in the 1950s, years before Eisenhower [after retirement, note] warned against the rise of the 'military-industrial complex' - Rome fell when the military took over, too - When the military were forced to oust the super-overpaid, super-overpowerful, supercorrupt rulers of the govt - Note that historically, there is a point at which even the military power is against the rulers of the rulers - If not entirely for the people Notice that Wilson's consciousness is not able to get outside the accepted idea of it being permissable to have the 'strong' - ie, the super-overpaid, the super-overpowerful - He cannot envisage limiting fortunes, although it was the foundation of the nation, the first thing done after the signing of the Declaration The Duke of Wellington: 'I would very much like to tell the truth; but if I did, I would be torn to pieces, here and abroad' - If the forces are so great and so vicious that they will 'tear to pieces' the great Duke of Wellington, winner of Waterloo - or rather the leader of the men who won at Waterloo - What does that say about the danger of the super-overpowerful to humanity? Benjamin Disraeli [Prime Minister of England, 19th C]: 'All great events have been distorted, most of the important causes concealed, some of the principal characters never appear, and all who figure are so misunderstood and misrepresented that the result is a complete mystification. If the history of England ever be written by one who has the knowledge and the courage, the world would be astonished' - Even the PM of the British Empire in its heyday didnt have the courage - Nor did he see his duty to write it up and have it published - After his death, if need be - But available to people - So they can get a gauge on the degree of 'mystification' - So why dont we assume - take it for fact - that the great are bad, and go to the next step? - Undo our folly in ignoring Jefferson's advice, and limit fortunes? - Plato said it 2500 years ago: The very rich are not good - They are always bad, for overpay is theft - Even if they are the most loving rulers, devoted to the people's wishes and rights [Is there an historical example?], they are thieves - The super-overpowerful [super-overpowerful only by means of super-overpay] have murdered millions - Why can we not hate them? - Why do we have such a weak will to illegalise them? - They are funded by the underpay of 75% of Americans - 75% of Americans - [99% of humans] - are funding the overpay by the difference between their yearly family income and US$75,000 - Humanity is being robbed of 90% of its earnings, and 99% of its peace, and 100% of its future - Why can we not hate them? - Why have we not sought to control them and punish them? - Why were the men who voted for the incinerator Pinto not incinerated? - By spontaneous outrage, aided by the police? We are under a spell - We must break it - One man, putting in one hour's work, and taking out 50,000 hours work [EVERY working HOUR of his life] from the pool of social wealth created by work - It can be done peaceably - A 99+% majority is too strong to oppose - A 99+% majority can be created in 33 times the time it takes for one person to thoroughly absorb this notion [about a month of hard reading, free at www.globalhappiness.org [not an org, a plan] and thinking] Perhaps we need to read more of the quotes of the evil - For this, George Seldes's The great quotations [Not his The great thoughts, which is boring] is excellent - Indispensable - Unique - You could do history and politics at University without getting these sorts of quotes 'For many years I have exhorted you in vain, with gentleness, preaching, praying and weeping. But according to the proverb of my country: Where blessings can accomplish nothing, blows may avail, we shall rouse against you princes and prelates, who, alas, will arm nations and kingdoms against this land... and thus blows will avail where blessings and gentleness have been powerless' - St Dominic - In other words, we will first try words [they are cheaper] and if you dont obey, we will use force - But we will get our way - If St Dominic had been right, the people would have agreed by reason - If they didnt agree, then St Dominic should have suspected he may be wrong - [The Dominicans, if memory serves me truly, were the ones in the Inquisition] If Stalin had been right about taking all the land off the kulaks - If it had been better for them - they would have seen it - But small farms are 16 times more efficient in producing food than big farms - Making big farms [for 'profit'] is destroying food - And destroying the land - 'A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry' Henry Thoreau [America's greatest thinker] 'Each century was the same; history was the same record played over and over. War was war, and peace was preparation for war; it was as if man were crazy, had always been, would always be, and the people on the street were man in his daily and abiding craziness' Ella Leffland 'No person should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered - not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it, in kind as well as in degree, from what is possessed by people of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective - a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate' - Theodore Roosevelt - If a person has 10 times what he contributed to the society by work, the tax should be 90% - If the person has 100 times, the tax should be 99% - If the person has 1000 times as much as contributed, the tax should be 99.9% - If the person has 10,000 times as much as contributed, the tax should be 99.99% - If the person has 100,000 times, the tax should be 99.999% - If the person has 100,000 times the amount contributed, the tax should be 99.999% - If the person is paid 20% less than the wealth created by their work, the tax should be -20% [minus 20%] That is, all stolen money should be returned If a person wants to be superior to me, if a person wants to be paid more than me per hour, why should I not throw him out of my society, as one uninclined to equality and dignity of people? - As one who hates and despises me? - As one incapable of community, friendship and brotherliness? - 'The economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power [their other-earned overpower]. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power' - Franklin Roosevelt 'The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power' - Franklin Roosevelt 'To find out the true state of facts, to report them with fidelity, to apply to them strict and fixed principles of justice, humanity and law; to inform as far as possible the conscience of nations, and to call down the judgement of the world on what is false, or base, or tyrannical, appear to me to be the first duties of those who write' - Henry Reeves Are we under a spell of deference to alpha-male arrogance? - If so, it is going to kill everyone, alpha-males included, if we dont break the spell '...the unlimited accumulation of wealth ... now we have discovered war to be derived from causes which are also the causes of almost all the evils in states' - Plato 'Our fathers, when they prohibited entail, when they provided for the distribution of estates, thought they had erected a bulwark against the money power that had killed Great Britain. They forgot [although Jefferson and Lincoln told them] that money could combine; that a moneyed corporation was like the papacy; a succession of persons with a unity of purpose; that it never died; that it never became imbecile' - Wendell Phillips 'I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everyone's heads' - John Updike 'How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables to us!' - Montaigne 'We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few' - James Madison Ah, if only the money power had not prevented Jefferson's wish, that the American people be educated in this absolutely vital point - this 'sine qua non' point, this 'without which: nothing; with it: everything' point !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - The world would have had 200 years of example of America rich and strong and safe and sure - The world would have been converted to equality, to justice in pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - And the world would never have seen 9/11, terrorism, extinction on the horizon!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is better: to underpay the overpaid, or to underpay the underpaid? - Better to risk a slight underpay of the overpaid, than the other - Underpay is the mother of explosives - And overpay is the grandmother of explosives 'Our policy is directed, not against any country or doctrine, but against humger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose is the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. ... wars are bred by poverty and oppression. Peace is possible only in a free and prosperous world' - George Marshall - father of the plan to get Europe and Germany on their feet again, and prevent a repetition of the 1920s and 30s in Germany - which caused the worldwide depression, and Hitler - If the loss of German markets between the wars was enough to cause a worldwide depression, imagine how deep a depression the world is in with 90% of buyers on less than 10th of what they earn!!! - How more lively and healthy the world economy will be with fairpay!!! - With 10 times as many consumers! And science, with 10 times as many scientists!!! The overpaid: the employed on 1000s or 1,000,000s of unemployment benefits [each] - As Bill Gates has peaked at a million times fairpay, and the unemployment benefit is a quarter of the average income, he is on up to 4 million unemployment benefits - has averaged 200,000 unemployment benefits every hour of his working life!!!!!! 'The doctrine which has been held by bigots of all faiths [political and religious], when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me, for it is your duty to tolerate the truth. But when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you, for it is my duty to persecute error' - Thomas Macaulay - The bigot is loyal, the truthseeker is fickle: the truthseeker abandons his beliefs as soon as he sees truth is not in them - The bigot is using beliefs as a security blanket, as an ego flag - Bigotry should be illegal, and punishable - That would send a good message to the bigoted, who will burn people when in power - The bigot is insane: burning people is not a valid argument The superoverpaid are the ENEMIES of capitalism!!! If Jefferson had had that little idea: the maximum a person contributes to the pool of wealth by his work, being equal to or [much more probably] considerably less than the maximum number of hours workable in a lifetime - 250,000 - times the average hourly payrate! - For no one working 100 hours a week average for 50 years is working harder than the average hardness of working per unit of time - A ceiling at that level - or 10 times that level - would have prevented most wars, most corruption - the republic would be alive today! - There would have been no Rockefellers burning miner families to death in their strike hovels [There would still be some overpay and underpay - People could still get the ceiling limit fortune without earning all of it - but the violence level would be survivable and would not prevent democracy and happiness] 'Happy the country where an honest person speaks as loud as a scoundrel' - Lord Palmerston Look at the distress of Washington, lacking this little idea to see him through his confusion: 'Is the paltry consideration of a little dirty pelf to individuals to be placed in competition with the essential rights and liberties of the present generation, and of millions yet unborn? [That's you, reader] - Shall a few designing men, for their own aggrandisement, and to gratify their own avarice, overset the goodly fabric we have been rearing at the expense of so much time, blood and treasure? And shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust for gain?' I have come across the word overpay in only one place, in a novel of Ben Elton - Isnt it time a whisper went round the world: There is such a thing as overpay! And it is overpower and tyranny...the mother of underpay...and the grandmother of all explosives...and it is the enemy of peace and democracy and capitalism...the enemy of every person in the world, including the overpaid!

by **chiggerbit** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:53 am

sceneshifter, is there a reason your font is so small? I have fuchs dystropy, and your font size is difficult for me to read.

by **Iroquois** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:04 am

Darklo, for what it's worth, I just wanted to say that you expressed my sentiments pretty much exactly. The feeling of freedom I get from making up my own mind on what is real and what is not is worth the risk of being wrong. Just as warning my friends and family that the world is not as it is presented on telelvision, or even in the papers and on NPR, is worth the initial (and in some cases not just initial) feelings of ostracism I often get in return.

by **sceneshifter** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:28 am

shall i put it on again with a bigger font, chiggerbit? would it offend anyone if i did that? i notice some people apparently edit their posts, but i dont know how to edit it seems to be only slightly smaller than the standard

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:56 pm

Qutb, thanks for pointing out something which, as you said, some of the other responders missed. People who "know" that the World Trade Center was demolished with explosive charges, or who "know" that there's a single, eons-old Satanic/Illuminati cult pulling all the strings... their certainty is as odd to me as those who think Preznit Dubya is pure as the driven snow.

by **sceneshifter** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:01 am

Im sorry - I do not at all understand - And I would dearly dearly love to have some clue to understanding - Because maybe it is true that one doesnt understand anything till one understands everything - WHY DO PEOPLE NOT GET THIS: - Life, while there is extreme overpay-underpay, is a war - Truth is the first casualty of war - Your power to find out the truth is always going to be much less than the power of much more powerful people to hide the truth - SO YOU NEED TO LIMIT THE POWER OF OTHERS - Inequality of power - and money is power - is always going to grow - And grow and grow and grow - So a mechanism to limit inequality of power is ESSENTIAL - to survival and freedom - 99% of people will gain financially from greater equality of pay per hour - And we can reach those 99% in just 33 times the time it takes to pass on the message fully to one person - So it is possible to get a great majority FOR greater equality - In short time - Or are we so brainwashed by the powerful that we think it is wrong to care about getting out of the social pool of wealth as much as we put in? - Your first and only duty is to pursue your happiness - Overpower is death to happiness - Therefore we have a duty to limit overpower - Even if it were unjust to the overpaid - But it isnt - Limiting fortunes to US$2 million is not taking anything off anyone that they have earned - SURVIVAL IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT LIMITATION OF FORTUNES - HAPPINESS IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT LIMITATION OF FORTUNES - DEMOCRACY IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT LIMITATION OF FORTUNES - Jefferson knew that We do not need to spend our lives scratching for crumbs of lowdown on the tyrants - All history shouts: They steal, the people suffer and retaliate, and, after enormous suffering, prevail - And then the people allow unlimited wealth again - We accept wealthy people - We arrive, grow up, and wealthy people are a fact of life and we accept it - Unthinkingly - But wait a minute - The average person works 50 hours a week [Housewives work an average of 70 hours a week - The third world - the 80% majority world - average is probably above 6 , and no one can work more than 100 hours a week average for 50 years - And certainly isnt working harder than the average hardness per hour, if he is working 100 hours a week - So no one contributes more than twice the average to the social pool of wealth by work - If the world average was 20 hours a week, then the maximum would be 5 times the average - But it is 50 hours a week, if not more - 'The purpose of govt is justice' James Madison - [Because justice is esential to survival and happiness] - And only the people are more powerful than the superrich tyrannical Woodrow Wilson: 'When we resist concentration of power, we are resisting the powers of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties... The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless ... American industry is not free, as once it was free; American enterprise is not free; the person with only a little capital is finding it harder to get into the field, more and more impossible to compete with the big fellow. Why? Because the laws of this country do not prevent the strong from crushing the weak' Now, ask yourself: Why isnt that up in every classroom in the world? - Because teachers are too dumb, or too cowed, or too fascist, to put it up - Too whatever to EDUCATE - To put the weapons of forewarning/forearming in the hands of the people - And Woodrow Wilson is speaking here years before a US Senate committee reported that big business was more powerful than the US govt, in the 1950s, years before Eisenhower [after retirement, note] warned against the rise of the 'military-industrial complex' - Rome fell when the military took over, too - When the military were forced to oust the super-overpaid, super-overpowerful, supercorrupt rulers of the govt - Note that historically, there is a point at which even the military power is against the rulers of the rulers - If not entirely for the people Notice that Wilson's consciousness is not able to get outside the accepted idea of it being permissable to have the 'strong' - ie, the super-overpaid, the super-overpowerful - He cannot envisage limiting fortunes, although it was the foundation of the nation, the first thing done after the signing of the Declaration The Duke of Wellington: 'I would very much like to tell the truth; but if I did, I would be torn to pieces, here and abroad' - If the forces are so great and so vicious that they will 'tear to pieces' the great Duke of Wellington, winner of Waterloo - or rather the leader of the men who won at Waterloo - What does that say about the danger of the super-overpowerful to humanity? Benjamin Disraeli [Prime Minister of England, 19th C]: 'All great events have been distorted, most of the important causes concealed, some of the principal characters never appear, and all who figure are so misunderstood and misrepresented that the result is a complete mystification. If the history of England ever be written by one who has the knowledge and the courage, the world would be astonished' - Even the PM of the British Empire in its heyday didnt have the courage - Nor did he see his duty to write it up and have it published - After his death, if need be - But available to people - So they can get a gauge on the degree of 'mystification' - So why dont we assume - take it for fact - that the great are bad, and go to the next step? - Undo our folly in ignoring Jefferson's advice, and limit fortunes? - Plato said it 2500 years ago: The very rich are not good - They are always bad, for overpay is theft - Even if they are the most loving rulers, devoted to the people's wishes and rights [Is there an historical example?], they are thieves - The super-overpowerful [super-overpowerful only by means of super-overpay] have murdered millions - Why can we not hate them? - Why do we have such a weak will to illegalise them? - They are funded by the underpay of 75% of Americans - 75% of Americans - [99% of humans] - are funding the overpay by the difference between their yearly family income and US$75,000 - Humanity is being robbed of 90% of its earnings, and 99% of its peace, and 100% of its future - Why can we not hate them? - Why have we not sought to control them and punish them? - Why were the men who voted for the incinerator Pinto not incinerated? - By spontaneous outrage, aided by the police? We are under a spell - We must break it - One man, putting in one hour's work, and taking out 50,000 hours work [EVERY working HOUR of his life] from the pool of social wealth created by work - It can be done peaceably - A 99+% majority is too strong to oppose - A 99+% majority can be created in 33 times the time it takes for one person to thoroughly absorb this notion [about a month of hard reading, free at www.globalhappiness.org [not an org, a plan] and thinking] Perhaps we need to read more of the quotes of the evil - For this, George Seldes's The great quotations [Not his The great thoughts, which is boring] is excellent - Indispensable - Unique - You could do history and politics at University without getting these sorts of quotes 'For many years I have exhorted you in vain, with gentleness, preaching, praying and weeping. But according to the proverb of my country: Where blessings can accomplish nothing, blows may avail, we shall rouse against you princes and prelates, who, alas, will arm nations and kingdoms against this land... and thus blows will avail where blessings and gentleness have been powerless' - St Dominic - In other words, we will first try words [they are cheaper] and if you dont obey, we will use force - But we will get our way - If St Dominic had been right, the people would have agreed by reason - If they didnt agree, then St Dominic should have suspected he may be wrong - [The Dominicans, if memory serves me truly, were the ones in the Inquisition] If Stalin had been right about taking all the land off the kulaks - If it had been better for them - they would have seen it - But small farms are 16 times more efficient in producing food than big farms - Making big farms [for 'profit'] is destroying food - And destroying the land - 'A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry' Henry Thoreau [America's greatest thinker] 'Each century was the same; history was the same record played over and over. War was war, and peace was preparation for war; it was as if man were crazy, had always been, would always be, and the people on the street were man in his daily and abiding craziness' Ella Leffland 'No person should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered - not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it, in kind as well as in degree, from what is possessed by people of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective - a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate' - Theodore Roosevelt - If a person has 10 times what he contributed to the society by work, the tax should be 90% - If the person has 100 times, the tax should be 99% - If the person has 1000 times as much as contributed, the tax should be 99.9% - If the person has 10,000 times as much as contributed, the tax should be 99.99% - If the person has 100,000 times, the tax should be 99.999% - If the person has 100,000 times the amount contributed, the tax should be 99.999% - If the person is paid 20% less than the wealth created by their work, the tax should be -20% [minus 20%] That is, all stolen money should be returned If a person wants to be superior to me, if a person wants to be paid more than me per hour, why should I not throw him out of my society, as one uninclined to equality and dignity of people? - As one who hates and despises me? - As one incapable of community, friendship and brotherliness? - 'The economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power [their other-earned overpower]. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power' - Franklin Roosevelt 'The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power' - Franklin Roosevelt 'To find out the true state of facts, to report them with fidelity, to apply to them strict and fixed principles of justice, humanity and law; to inform as far as possible the conscience of nations, and to call down the judgement of the world on what is false, or base, or tyrannical, appear to me to be the first duties of those who write' - Henry Reeves Are we under a spell of deference to alpha-male arrogance? - If so, it is going to kill everyone, alpha-males included, if we dont break the spell '...the unlimited accumulation of wealth ... now we have discovered war to be derived from causes which are also the causes of almost all the evils in states' - Plato 'Our fathers, when they prohibited entail, when they provided for the distribution of estates, thought they had erected a bulwark against the money power that had killed Great Britain. They forgot [although Jefferson and Lincoln told them] that money could combine; that a moneyed corporation was like the papacy; a succession of persons with a unity of purpose; that it never died; that it never became imbecile' - Wendell Phillips 'I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everyone's heads' - John Updike 'How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables to us!' - Montaigne 'We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few' - James Madison Ah, if only the money power had not prevented Jefferson's wish, that the American people be educated in this absolutely vital point - this 'sine qua non' point, this 'without which: nothing; with it: everything' point !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - The world would have had 200 years of example of America rich and strong and safe and sure - The world would have been converted to equality, to justice in pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - And the world would never have seen 9/11, terrorism, extinction on the horizon!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is better: to underpay the overpaid, or to underpay the underpaid? - Better to risk a slight underpay of the overpaid, than the other - Underpay is the mother of explosives - And overpay is the grandmother of explosives 'Our policy is directed, not against any country or doctrine, but against humger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose is the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. ... wars are bred by poverty and oppression. Peace is possible only in a free and prosperous world' - George Marshall - father of the plan to get Europe and Germany on their feet again, and prevent a repetition of the 1920s and 30s in Germany - which caused the worldwide depression, and Hitler - If the loss of German markets between the wars was enough to cause a worldwide depression, imagine how deep a depression the world is in with 90% of buyers on less than 10th of what they earn!!! - How more lively and healthy the world economy will be with fairpay!!! - With 10 times as many consumers! And science, with 10 times as many scientists!!! The overpaid: the employed on 1000s or 1,000,000s of unemployment benefits [each] - As Bill Gates has peaked at a million times fairpay, and the unemployment benefit is a quarter of the average income, he is on up to 4 million unemployment benefits - has averaged 200,000 unemployment benefits every hour of his working life!!!!!! 'The doctrine which has been held by bigots of all faiths [political and religious], when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me, for it is your duty to tolerate the truth. But when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you, for it is my duty to persecute error' - Thomas Macaulay - The bigot is loyal, the truthseeker is fickle: the truthseeker abandons his beliefs as soon as he sees truth is not in them - The bigot is using beliefs as a security blanket, as an ego flag - Bigotry should be illegal, and punishable - That would send a good message to the bigoted, who will burn people when in power - The bigot is insane: burning people is not a valid argument The superoverpaid are the ENEMIES of capitalism!!! If Jefferson had had that little idea: the maximum a person contributes to the pool of wealth by his work, being equal to or [much more probably] considerably less than the maximum number of hours workable in a lifetime - 250,000 - times the average hourly payrate! - For no one working 100 hours a week average for 50 years is working harder than the average hardness of working per unit of time - A ceiling at that level - or 10 times that level - would have prevented most wars, most corruption - the republic would be alive today! - There would have been no Rockefellers burning miner families to death in their strike hovels [There would still be some overpay and underpay - People could still get the ceiling limit fortune without earning all of it - but the violence level would be survivable and would not prevent democracy and happiness] 'Happy the country where an honest person speaks as loud as a scoundrel' - Lord Palmerston Look at the distress of Washington, lacking this little idea to see him through his confusion: 'Is the paltry consideration of a little dirty pelf to individuals to be placed in competition with the essential rights and liberties of the present generation, and of millions yet unborn? [That's you, reader] - Shall a few designing men, for their own aggrandisement, and to gratify their own avarice, overset the goodly fabric we have been rearing at the expense of so much time, blood and treasure? And shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust for gain?' I have come across the word overpay in only one place, in a novel of Ben Elton - Isnt it time a whisper went round the world: There is such a thing as overpay! And it is overpower and tyranny...the mother of underpay...and the grandmother of all explosives...and it is the enemy of peace and democracy and capitalism...the enemy of every person in the world, including the overpaid!

by **TroubleFunk** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:09 am

shapeshifter, having read a lot of your postings (and the problem with the font isn't the size, or the color, or the boldface - it's that you have a font at ALL while everyone else is content to let their writings just speak for themselves in the regular ezboard font), I want to know why you assume that "pay" in the world you posit would exist at all. If the pay-scale you want to put into place came into existence, we'd all be equalized financially, so why have money at all? I'll keep this short because I'd really like you to answer in a couple paragraphs with no quotes and few dashes. I accept that your style of writing is your own, but please get to the point and make it simple.

Disjointed ramblings of a mind at the end of its tether

Disjointed ramblings of a mind at the end of its tether

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