tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post4195156326435214325..comments2023-11-03T04:19:17.635-07:00Comments on Disaster Porn: Occupy AmericaEdwardohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03613197383283896190noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-40988088998897471992012-01-04T21:03:07.041-08:002012-01-04T21:03:07.041-08:00Jack Abramoff critiques OWS
Check it out before i...<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/jack-abramoff-critiques-ows-republicans-media-exposure-yahoo-192044002.html" rel="nofollow">Jack Abramoff critiques OWS</a><br /><br />Check it out before it expires. Yahoo doesn't keep their news articles around for long.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-55178220012110704552011-12-01T14:25:04.828-08:002011-12-01T14:25:04.828-08:00I read "Deschooling society", "The ...I read "Deschooling society", "The corruption of the best engenders the worst" this year, and really like Ivan Illich.<br />I said a long time ago that I saw no real difference between... American socialism and other forms of socialism, to the extent that ALL forms of socialism tend to promote the INSTITUTIONAL and PUBLIC "solutions" to the problems of caring for the young, the old, the sick, etc. WHETHER OR NOT MEMBERS ARE PAYING FROM THEIR POCKETS.<br />We believe in the institutional solutions so much that we have bottomed out the PRIVATE solutions to these problems. (When I say private, I'm not talking about ownership, and filthy lucre, I'm talking about... what is outside the PUBLIC DOMAIN.)<br />I believe that the institutional solutions COST A LOT OF MONEY, and have the incredible disadvantage of multiplying those actors (for meat and potatoes, but not just), thereby reducing the amount of personal implication and RESPONSIBILITY that the individuals in society feel towards the flesh and blood people who incarnate those problems.<br />Betting mucho filthy lucre on those infamous PENSION PLANS for retirement, betting mucho filthy lucre on that infamous INSURANCE AGAINST ALL RISKS (as they're called in France), and convincing your society that its WORKING members are ENTITLED to retirement insurance many years down the road because they have PAID FOR IT, well, that doesn't exactly create a very COHESIVE SOCIETY, shall we say. Nor does it create responsible members with initiative.<br />I believe.<br />When the baby boomer generation reaches the age of.. DEPENDANCY, who do you think that the children of baby boomers... who were farmed out to institutionalized day care on the work for salvation road to paradise, will turn to, to take care of Mom and Pop ?<br />An.. INSTITUTION, maybe ??<br />I bet.Debrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01510189619803992336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-50506771660673797242011-12-01T11:38:26.798-08:002011-12-01T11:38:26.798-08:00Debra wrote:
"Too big to fail" means pu...Debra wrote:<br /><br />"Too big to fail" means putting 0 risk on trial...<br /><br />-The doctrine of Too Big To Fail is the opposite of putting on trial massively irresponsible and/or criminal financial practices. I have to assume that is what you mean, namely that Too Big To Fail invites moral hazard. We have been heading down this road for several generations now, and we are nearing the denouement.<br /><br />"Like WE CAN FIX everything/anything, basically by shuffling THE NUMBERS AROUND a few times."<br /><br />-What we are witnessing is the result of the $IMF system coming to the end of its timeline. Triffin's Dilemna is exerting its inexorable logic and certain entrenched monetary interests are doomed to fight it all the way to extinction.<br /><br />"IF... we can fix anything/everything that means that in our own eyes, we believe in 0 risk."<br /><br />-Perhaps some actually believe there is no such thing as zero risk, but, I don't think it's anything like a majority view. Regardless, certain authorities who may appear hold that view have no other way to address a situation of their making then the tools that brought them to this deplorable state.<br /><br />"Behind all this ugliness there is also the consummate arrogance that "we" know everything there is to know about ourselves, and why we do what we do, positivism."<br /><br />-Perhaps. We humans do tend to strive for certainty especially where there is none to be had.Edwardohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03613197383283896190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-53163024249117253792011-11-30T23:48:14.880-08:002011-11-30T23:48:14.880-08:00"Too big to fail" means putting 0 risk o..."Too big to fail" means putting 0 risk on trial...<br />Like WE CAN FIX everything/anything, basically by shuffling THE NUMBERS AROUND a few times. <br />IF... we can fix anything/everything that means that in our own eyes, we believe in 0 risk.<br />Behind all this ugliness there is also the consummate arrogance that "we" know everything there is to know about ourselves, and why we do what we do, positivism.Debrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01510189619803992336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-8167932112124507042011-11-30T05:27:36.329-08:002011-11-30T05:27:36.329-08:00Perhaps you could clarify for me what you meant wh...Perhaps you could clarify for me what you meant when you wrote:<br /><br />"WHEN THE EXISTENCE OF 0 RISK IS ON TRIAL...<br />What do you think the outcome will be ?<br />Do you have ANY DOUBT on this one ?"Edwardohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03613197383283896190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-3300013669483817062011-11-30T00:17:14.598-08:002011-11-30T00:17:14.598-08:00Watching the ugliness this morning, I say to mysel...Watching the ugliness this morning, I say to myself...<br />WHEN THE EXISTENCE OF 0 RISK IS ON TRIAL...<br />What do you think the outcome will be ?<br />Do you have ANY DOUBT on this one ?Debrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01510189619803992336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8902921887068783713.post-41685431459728223252011-11-30T00:14:26.157-08:002011-11-30T00:14:26.157-08:00This weekend my husband and I went to see the docu...This weekend my husband and I went to see the documentary "Tous au Larzac" which follows the ten year struggle of Larzac peasants (in France.... the word is NOT an insult...) to keep their land in the face of the army's' determination to expropriate them in order to expand the local military camp.<br />Ten years of CREATIVE RESISTANCE against.. THE STATE.<br />It's hard to win against the State, Edwardo. Under any government... OF THE PEOPLE, or not of the people. (Geez, WHAT COULD THAT MEAN ??)<br />One of the nicest moments : when thousands of young, disenfranchised kids, "products" of mass education even in 1974, show up on the plateau to help out WITH NO MANUAL SKILLS, and are shown HOW TO WORK WITH THEIR HANDS in order to build a bergerie, a place for the sheep to sleep (my English is failing me here).<br />Very, very moving to hear the accounts of the oldsters, people with a VERY GOOD MINIMAL EDUCATION who know what to do with their hands, and live on the land, bemused by so many young people who, IN NORMAL TIMES, they would have written off as lowlife.<br />Everybody pitches in for the cause. Everybody has his word to say, his stone to place in the figurative edifice.<br />Very very edifying.<br />But it shows THE PLACE where you have a leg to stand on while RESISTING THE STATE.<br />This group won, thanks to an action of GRACE by newly elected president Mitterand, against Giscard d'Estaing who said : in France WE HAVE INSTITUTIONS that handle this situation, and THE INSTITUTIONS have decreed that the camp is FOR THE PUBLIC, COMMON GOOD.<br />Thank God that Mitterand used THE OLD LOGIC of the Ancien Regime AGAINST THE INSTITUTIONS, I say.<br />What mobilized everybody ? THE DEFENSE OF AN AGE OLD WAY OF LIFE, ON THE LAND, against the industrial logic.<br />Internet might be cool, but all of us connected will, in the long run, assure that everything on this planet THAT CAN BE CONSUMED, WILL BE CONSUMED...<br />Can't have your cake and eat it too, as they say...<br />From my standpoint, not a lot of people see this yet...Debrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01510189619803992336noreply@blogger.com