If you don't understand how everything can have gone so wrong in the world in recent years, you need to spend an hour watching this movie. . .
Update: I used to have an imbedded YouTube video here, but it has been squashed, probably because so many people are watching it, so here's the place to go to watch it. Just paste this address in your browser's address window:
http://new.hulu.com/watch/392812
Go watch it quick before it gets squashed there, too.
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
An Invitation
When I started this blog, I openly--perhaps foolishly idealistically--stated that my intention was to help make the world a better place, in the same manner as one would eat an elephant--one bite at a time.
For months now, I've been writing, pointing out ways that the old is not serving us, but rather holding us down. I've (rather politely, I think) tried to point out that WE, not some faceless THEY are responsible for the mess in which we find this world. I've suggested things that we can all do to make it better.
I've talked about ways that our "reality" has been skewed through dishonest accounts of what's going on in the world, by fake conflicts between 'choices' that all lead to the same destination, and by systems that spend a lot of time convincing us that we are powerless to change anything. My response to all of these things has been pretty consistently, "HOOEY."
Some of the time, I've talked about the bad stuff--about the unfair, unkind, bloodthirsty, money-hungry, selfish mentality that drives many of our institutions, customs, and practices. And I've done so not to tell you to hoard food, buy a gun, put a watchtower up in your yard, install a safe room, or put your head between your legs and kiss your heiney goodbye. I've pointed out the bad stuff to 1) inform people that the bad stuff exists and may not be exactly as portrayed by the powers that be; 2) try to overcome the forces of human inertia that cause people to ignore bad stuff until it arrives on your front porch; and 3) to inspire people to do something.
The last several days, my travels on the web, many of my personal conversations, and lots of circumstances are showing me that many people, even my readers, are still not 'getting it.' It seems that, in the face of lots of stuff that can be done, lots of good that can be worked, and lots of reason to believe that things can get better, many people are spending their time worrying about how the sky is falling in some way or another, or trying their best to ignore it all and cross their fingers that things will just go back to the "way they used to be." To be clear: these are not the preferred activities.
In my family, when you were dawdling about doing some task you were supposed to do, my mother would sarcastically ask, "are you waiting for an engraved invitation?" So, just in case you are, I'm issuing one, right here, right now.
You are cordially invited to help create a better world
Your invitation includes the following.
First and foremost-Let Go. I've avoided talking much about one aspect of my past because of it's inherent tendency to become cheesy, but today, what the heck. I'm an alcoholic. I've been sober (this time) for over fifteen years. When I got sober, one of the things I learned very clearly was that you can't do something new while you're still hanging on to the old. It is as if we are carrying around broken shards of pottery, and even though we pass by priceless Ming vases every day, we're too scared and stupid to drop the broken bits of our old lives and pick up the treasures.
In a conversation some weeks ago, an acquaintance and I were talking about the financial situation in the US. After we'd observed that the country is so far in debt it can never be repaid in the current format, the government so corrupted as to be irretrievable, and the financial system a mix of smoke, mirrors and BS, she said, in total seriousness, "well, we just need them to stop messing around and get stuff back to normal before they wreck my 401(k)" Hello? Are you kidding me? We are just emerging from a period which has shown us the complete and utter unworkability of the current model of financial thievery and she wants to go back to it for the sake of a 401(k)? This kind of thinking makes a mud puddle look deep as the Marianas Trench.
We need to release our attachments to old institutions that are clearly dysfunctional. Some of these are the fake left-right, D-R conflict that keeps us busy arguing about health insurance for birth control pills and Rush-freaking-Limbaugh while the fat cats pick our pockets and steal our souls in the back room; the "my ___ is better than your ___" thinking that is used to justify wars, genocides, and hatred of all kinds; and the fear-based thinking that so totally pervades our society that we're willing to stand stupidly idle while power- and profit-hungry sociopaths take our freedom, our dignity, our privacy, and our health to fight an amorphous enemy conjured up mostly in our minds (e.g., the Cold War, the Red Stain, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror.) For God's sake, what are we holding on to? Butchery, hatred, want, spiritual bankruptcy, and a 401(k). We are capable of so much better, if we just put down the damn broken pot.
Second, we need to think independently, and stop acting like third graders or Congressmen, who have to parrot back the party line thinking in order to get our reward. We need to gather information from all kinds of sources, think it through, and adopt only those parts that strike our hearts right and make sense. For example, I know people who won't look at news anywhere but Fox, or MSNBC. I also know people who think something can't be true if it didn't appear in the mainstream media,even though it's been shown conclusively that the mainstream news is totally controlled by the same people who are stealing our wealth, buying our government, and ruining our world in the name of profit. Finally, I know people, friends of mine, who won't read my blog because they don't want to know some of the stuff I post--it depresses them. Yeah, it's better to not know--ignorance has always saved people from harm, right? It's time to grow the hell up, people! The world doesn't fit into neat, black and white boxes. And bad stuff doesn't go away because you ignore it. Get a grip, inform yourself and THINK.
Third, once you know something, DO SOMETHING. When you learn that something's wrong, tell people, write letters, call your Congressman, etc. Bitch, yell, scream, protest and demand something better. To sit silently in the face of wrong is the classic recipe for disaster. Remember all the "good Germans" who watched their neighbors taken off by the Nazis?
And it's not just refusing to go along with the bad. Everyone--and I mean everyone--can do something to make stuff better. Every small act of kindness or loving intention is a candle in the dark. Back at Christmas time, my family and I decided we didn't really need a raft of new junk, so we minimized our buying, and instead we got some fairly substantial gift cards and we went out on Christmas Eve and gave them away to strangers--a soldier home on leave, an Hispanic family out doing their Christmas shopping, and a couple baristas at a Starbucks. After an initial moment of shock, each and every one acted like we'd handed them a million dollars. I don't know what they did with their windfalls, and I don't know if they ever 'paid it forward,' but I do know that at least for a moment, they felt good. A good day's work. And maybe just as important, it changed us and the way we think. Both my kids have asked to do it again, just for the heck of it. Being irrationally nice is actually addictive.
So, hold a door for someone, let somebody go ahead in line, pay for the guy's order behind you at the drive-through, pick up a piece of litter, send someone an unexpected letter or card or gift, or just say something nice to someone. Just look up from your little, preoccupied world for one moment every day and do something good, expecting nothing in return. Pretty soon, it could become cool to be nice again.
Now, the final challenge. I know some of you read that last paragraph and concluded that it's Pollyanna-ism. Doing little nice stuff can't change the world. My response: The greatest obstacle to progress is the belief that it can't happen. And as someone once said, you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.
Which one do you want to be? Your RSVP is requested.
For months now, I've been writing, pointing out ways that the old is not serving us, but rather holding us down. I've (rather politely, I think) tried to point out that WE, not some faceless THEY are responsible for the mess in which we find this world. I've suggested things that we can all do to make it better.
I've talked about ways that our "reality" has been skewed through dishonest accounts of what's going on in the world, by fake conflicts between 'choices' that all lead to the same destination, and by systems that spend a lot of time convincing us that we are powerless to change anything. My response to all of these things has been pretty consistently, "HOOEY."
Some of the time, I've talked about the bad stuff--about the unfair, unkind, bloodthirsty, money-hungry, selfish mentality that drives many of our institutions, customs, and practices. And I've done so not to tell you to hoard food, buy a gun, put a watchtower up in your yard, install a safe room, or put your head between your legs and kiss your heiney goodbye. I've pointed out the bad stuff to 1) inform people that the bad stuff exists and may not be exactly as portrayed by the powers that be; 2) try to overcome the forces of human inertia that cause people to ignore bad stuff until it arrives on your front porch; and 3) to inspire people to do something.
The last several days, my travels on the web, many of my personal conversations, and lots of circumstances are showing me that many people, even my readers, are still not 'getting it.' It seems that, in the face of lots of stuff that can be done, lots of good that can be worked, and lots of reason to believe that things can get better, many people are spending their time worrying about how the sky is falling in some way or another, or trying their best to ignore it all and cross their fingers that things will just go back to the "way they used to be." To be clear: these are not the preferred activities.
In my family, when you were dawdling about doing some task you were supposed to do, my mother would sarcastically ask, "are you waiting for an engraved invitation?" So, just in case you are, I'm issuing one, right here, right now.
Your invitation includes the following.
First and foremost-Let Go. I've avoided talking much about one aspect of my past because of it's inherent tendency to become cheesy, but today, what the heck. I'm an alcoholic. I've been sober (this time) for over fifteen years. When I got sober, one of the things I learned very clearly was that you can't do something new while you're still hanging on to the old. It is as if we are carrying around broken shards of pottery, and even though we pass by priceless Ming vases every day, we're too scared and stupid to drop the broken bits of our old lives and pick up the treasures.
In a conversation some weeks ago, an acquaintance and I were talking about the financial situation in the US. After we'd observed that the country is so far in debt it can never be repaid in the current format, the government so corrupted as to be irretrievable, and the financial system a mix of smoke, mirrors and BS, she said, in total seriousness, "well, we just need them to stop messing around and get stuff back to normal before they wreck my 401(k)" Hello? Are you kidding me? We are just emerging from a period which has shown us the complete and utter unworkability of the current model of financial thievery and she wants to go back to it for the sake of a 401(k)? This kind of thinking makes a mud puddle look deep as the Marianas Trench.
We need to release our attachments to old institutions that are clearly dysfunctional. Some of these are the fake left-right, D-R conflict that keeps us busy arguing about health insurance for birth control pills and Rush-freaking-Limbaugh while the fat cats pick our pockets and steal our souls in the back room; the "my ___ is better than your ___" thinking that is used to justify wars, genocides, and hatred of all kinds; and the fear-based thinking that so totally pervades our society that we're willing to stand stupidly idle while power- and profit-hungry sociopaths take our freedom, our dignity, our privacy, and our health to fight an amorphous enemy conjured up mostly in our minds (e.g., the Cold War, the Red Stain, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror.) For God's sake, what are we holding on to? Butchery, hatred, want, spiritual bankruptcy, and a 401(k). We are capable of so much better, if we just put down the damn broken pot.
Second, we need to think independently, and stop acting like third graders or Congressmen, who have to parrot back the party line thinking in order to get our reward. We need to gather information from all kinds of sources, think it through, and adopt only those parts that strike our hearts right and make sense. For example, I know people who won't look at news anywhere but Fox, or MSNBC. I also know people who think something can't be true if it didn't appear in the mainstream media,even though it's been shown conclusively that the mainstream news is totally controlled by the same people who are stealing our wealth, buying our government, and ruining our world in the name of profit. Finally, I know people, friends of mine, who won't read my blog because they don't want to know some of the stuff I post--it depresses them. Yeah, it's better to not know--ignorance has always saved people from harm, right? It's time to grow the hell up, people! The world doesn't fit into neat, black and white boxes. And bad stuff doesn't go away because you ignore it. Get a grip, inform yourself and THINK.
Third, once you know something, DO SOMETHING. When you learn that something's wrong, tell people, write letters, call your Congressman, etc. Bitch, yell, scream, protest and demand something better. To sit silently in the face of wrong is the classic recipe for disaster. Remember all the "good Germans" who watched their neighbors taken off by the Nazis?
And it's not just refusing to go along with the bad. Everyone--and I mean everyone--can do something to make stuff better. Every small act of kindness or loving intention is a candle in the dark. Back at Christmas time, my family and I decided we didn't really need a raft of new junk, so we minimized our buying, and instead we got some fairly substantial gift cards and we went out on Christmas Eve and gave them away to strangers--a soldier home on leave, an Hispanic family out doing their Christmas shopping, and a couple baristas at a Starbucks. After an initial moment of shock, each and every one acted like we'd handed them a million dollars. I don't know what they did with their windfalls, and I don't know if they ever 'paid it forward,' but I do know that at least for a moment, they felt good. A good day's work. And maybe just as important, it changed us and the way we think. Both my kids have asked to do it again, just for the heck of it. Being irrationally nice is actually addictive.
So, hold a door for someone, let somebody go ahead in line, pay for the guy's order behind you at the drive-through, pick up a piece of litter, send someone an unexpected letter or card or gift, or just say something nice to someone. Just look up from your little, preoccupied world for one moment every day and do something good, expecting nothing in return. Pretty soon, it could become cool to be nice again.
Now, the final challenge. I know some of you read that last paragraph and concluded that it's Pollyanna-ism. Doing little nice stuff can't change the world. My response: The greatest obstacle to progress is the belief that it can't happen. And as someone once said, you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.
Which one do you want to be? Your RSVP is requested.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Their Lips Are Moving (Part Five)
All weekend, I debated with myself about what this Part Five would be. After many fits and starts, I've decided. I'm not going to research any more past lies for you. From the non-existent WMDs to 9/11, to various parts of the cold war, you know they're there. You've heard them referred to by the 'lunatic fringe' and the 'moonbats,' of which I guess I'm now a member. If you are interested, you have the most powerful research library ever known to man sitting right in front of you, and all you need is a slightly open mind and a few hours to find pretty convincing summaries of them.
Ultimately, though, thinking about lies in the past serves only one valid purpose--to make one skeptical about the lies to come, so that you don't fall for them too. So, instead of focusing on the ones behind us, today I'm going to focus on the lies we're going to hear in the near future.
Lie No. 1: Be Afraid. We're being bombarded with messages that tell us that some comet/asteroid/space station/etc. is going to hurtle into the earth and destroy everything, that the financial system crashing will be a cataclysm of vast proportion, that WWIII is inevitable, that we need to 'prepare' for the end of the world/life as we know it, and we'd better get an early start on being terrified, because the stores may run out of terror soon, and you don't want to be the only calm one on the block.
To start with, I'm pretty sure that the end of this bloodthirsty, oligarchical, corporate meat grinder of a system is a GOOD thing. After all, we're the meat, and people who think we're scum (remember the people in the Wall Street windows drinking martinis with their "we are the 1% " signs and wearing Halloween costumes mocking the people whose homes they'd been foreclosing on?) have been the ones turning the handle all these years. The end of that sounds a bit like wrenching the door open after you've slammed your finger in it. It's going to hurt like hell--for a minute. And then it'll start to feel better.
Second, if that system ends, WWIII ain't a happenin'. Wars haven't been driven by people like you and me. When have you ever woken up in the morning and said, "I think today, right after I do the laundry, I'll start a nuclear holocaust"? Well, big news--the regular people in China, Afghanistan, Russia, and everywhere else don't think that either. The same people turning the handle on the financial and political and corporate systems are the ones who want wars. They need them--to steal resources in other countries, to corporatize countries that haven't yet succumbed to their 'greed is good' mentality, to get contracts to destroy other countries and then more contracts to rebuild them, all with a profit built in. So, if their money-printing government machine (whether it prints Euros or Dollars or Yuan) is out of order, the chances of wars breaking out is vastly reduced.
Third, there's not a darn thing that any of us can do to 'prepare' if indeed an asteroid or something is going to decimate the earth. At that point, we're all well advised to have NOT spent our last days worrying, and instead to have enjoyed those days, a LOT.
Fourth, you can always jump on the terror bandwagon later. They tell you that they're going to run out of room, but don't worry--they'll make more space if you're one of the stragglers. You see, terror is great for the meat grinder. Terror makes people march calmly and sheeplike into ridiculous situations, like being surveilled and scanned and patted down everywhere you go (to be safe from the looming danger), or being interred in prison camps because of your nationality or your political views. So, there's always enough terror to go around, and you can get yours later.
So, don't be afraid. We're ok. We're much stronger and smarter than we give ourselves credit for, and we can figure out how to run a world without a few power-hungry sadistic maniacs telling us what to do.
Lie No. 2: You Are Helpless Victim of the Powers that Be. This one's a doozy. This is the one that TV and news reports and basically every aspect of western culture tells us, again and again. You can't change anything. You need NCIS, or Jack Bauer, or the FBI/CIA/NSA/TSA/HUD/SSA to address the threats you face.
Horse puckey. Most of the biggest threats are the ones they (the elite ones and their junkyard dogs in the government) are creating, so we're really only helpless because they've got us afraid of everything except what we really should be worried about--them.
We've got laws and regulations out the wazoo, and yet there are still drug cartels and mine disasters and massive oil spills and e. coli outbreaks and lead tainted toys and housing bubbles and massive unemployment and MF Global stealing billions of dollars and paying it to JP Morgan/Chase. If all that corruption and beauracracy is supposed to be protecting us, it's doing a damn poor job. So, we've just got to stop being afraid that we're too stupid and lazy to handle our own business (at least better than that), and viola! We're not helpless anymore.
Now, here's the big secret--the people at the top are scared spitless that one day we'll all wake up and recognize that they're the problem, and say, "you know, I've had enough, and I'm not playing anymore." No one of us can't resist them by force, but every one of us can resist their ideas. And a whole bunch of us, coming to the conclusion that we're tired of being grist for their mill, is a tide they can't turn back. Stop being a sheep, and you can't be herded anymore.
Lie No. 3: You aren't important, and what you do doesn't count. The biggest one of all. Every system that people regularly buy into reinforces this one. Religions tell us that we're spiritual dirt that can only be redeemed through some outside intervention--a savior, reading the right book, bowing at the right time in the right direction, or some combination of standing up, sitting down, reading archaic words and singing. Governments tell us that we're stupid--that we can't understand all the complex workings of the political system or the world economy, or whatever, and so we'd better just stand aside and let the real experts handle things. Baloney.
It should be rather apparent by now that the guys in charge are royal screw-ups. If they're so damn smart, why do we have financial crises, poverty, famine, violence, drug abuse, disease, and other scourges dominating our world? Our governments have had "wars" on these things for decades. Allow me to observe that if our world today is the result of the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on hunger, etc., then our "warriors" suck, and they need fired, and they need never to be elected to any position again, including dog catcher.
Likewise, if churches are so wonderful, then why are their buildings and their trappings the thing they're spending most of their money on? Why is their so-called 'social ministry' where they purport to help 'others,' such a small portion of their time and budget? Do you really think that God (all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal being who "is love") really needs for people to build 100,000 square foot shopping malls with stained glass windows in His honor? Or is that all something that the people in charge want, to show how holy they are, and how much power they wield?
We need to get clear on one thing--we're the ones who matter, not the people in charge. We're the ones who can fix stuff, if we start thinking for ourselves and stop following behind the parade of people who claim to know what's best for us. We are, in fact, the only things that matter--the saviors, if you will. If we decide to change our little corners of the world, by being generous, kind, and forgiving, then the world becomes generous, kind and forgiving, one little corner at a time.
So, now what? Some of you have been reading this blog since the beginning, and I hope you'll forgive me if I get in my wayback machine for a minute, and recall why this blog is named as it is. It was a reference to how big the world's problems are--elephantine, really, and to the old quip about how to eat an elephant--one bite at a time.
We just need to stop believing how powerless we are, and do something. Remember how in science we learned that energy never ends? That's true whether it's good energy or bad energy. We can sit around in fear and worry, anger and disgust, and pollute the atmosphere around us like a rotten onion in the cosmic soup, or we can start to make a positive difference. When you toss a rock into the water, the ripples reach the banks of the pond. The ripples from our choices, good and bad, can reach to the banks of eternity. So get rippling already. And don't forget to check their lips.
Ultimately, though, thinking about lies in the past serves only one valid purpose--to make one skeptical about the lies to come, so that you don't fall for them too. So, instead of focusing on the ones behind us, today I'm going to focus on the lies we're going to hear in the near future.
Lie No. 1: Be Afraid. We're being bombarded with messages that tell us that some comet/asteroid/space station/etc. is going to hurtle into the earth and destroy everything, that the financial system crashing will be a cataclysm of vast proportion, that WWIII is inevitable, that we need to 'prepare' for the end of the world/life as we know it, and we'd better get an early start on being terrified, because the stores may run out of terror soon, and you don't want to be the only calm one on the block.
To start with, I'm pretty sure that the end of this bloodthirsty, oligarchical, corporate meat grinder of a system is a GOOD thing. After all, we're the meat, and people who think we're scum (remember the people in the Wall Street windows drinking martinis with their "we are the 1% " signs and wearing Halloween costumes mocking the people whose homes they'd been foreclosing on?) have been the ones turning the handle all these years. The end of that sounds a bit like wrenching the door open after you've slammed your finger in it. It's going to hurt like hell--for a minute. And then it'll start to feel better.
Second, if that system ends, WWIII ain't a happenin'. Wars haven't been driven by people like you and me. When have you ever woken up in the morning and said, "I think today, right after I do the laundry, I'll start a nuclear holocaust"? Well, big news--the regular people in China, Afghanistan, Russia, and everywhere else don't think that either. The same people turning the handle on the financial and political and corporate systems are the ones who want wars. They need them--to steal resources in other countries, to corporatize countries that haven't yet succumbed to their 'greed is good' mentality, to get contracts to destroy other countries and then more contracts to rebuild them, all with a profit built in. So, if their money-printing government machine (whether it prints Euros or Dollars or Yuan) is out of order, the chances of wars breaking out is vastly reduced.
Third, there's not a darn thing that any of us can do to 'prepare' if indeed an asteroid or something is going to decimate the earth. At that point, we're all well advised to have NOT spent our last days worrying, and instead to have enjoyed those days, a LOT.
Fourth, you can always jump on the terror bandwagon later. They tell you that they're going to run out of room, but don't worry--they'll make more space if you're one of the stragglers. You see, terror is great for the meat grinder. Terror makes people march calmly and sheeplike into ridiculous situations, like being surveilled and scanned and patted down everywhere you go (to be safe from the looming danger), or being interred in prison camps because of your nationality or your political views. So, there's always enough terror to go around, and you can get yours later.
So, don't be afraid. We're ok. We're much stronger and smarter than we give ourselves credit for, and we can figure out how to run a world without a few power-hungry sadistic maniacs telling us what to do.
Lie No. 2: You Are Helpless Victim of the Powers that Be. This one's a doozy. This is the one that TV and news reports and basically every aspect of western culture tells us, again and again. You can't change anything. You need NCIS, or Jack Bauer, or the FBI/CIA/NSA/TSA/HUD/SSA to address the threats you face.
Horse puckey. Most of the biggest threats are the ones they (the elite ones and their junkyard dogs in the government) are creating, so we're really only helpless because they've got us afraid of everything except what we really should be worried about--them.
We've got laws and regulations out the wazoo, and yet there are still drug cartels and mine disasters and massive oil spills and e. coli outbreaks and lead tainted toys and housing bubbles and massive unemployment and MF Global stealing billions of dollars and paying it to JP Morgan/Chase. If all that corruption and beauracracy is supposed to be protecting us, it's doing a damn poor job. So, we've just got to stop being afraid that we're too stupid and lazy to handle our own business (at least better than that), and viola! We're not helpless anymore.
Now, here's the big secret--the people at the top are scared spitless that one day we'll all wake up and recognize that they're the problem, and say, "you know, I've had enough, and I'm not playing anymore." No one of us can't resist them by force, but every one of us can resist their ideas. And a whole bunch of us, coming to the conclusion that we're tired of being grist for their mill, is a tide they can't turn back. Stop being a sheep, and you can't be herded anymore.
Lie No. 3: You aren't important, and what you do doesn't count. The biggest one of all. Every system that people regularly buy into reinforces this one. Religions tell us that we're spiritual dirt that can only be redeemed through some outside intervention--a savior, reading the right book, bowing at the right time in the right direction, or some combination of standing up, sitting down, reading archaic words and singing. Governments tell us that we're stupid--that we can't understand all the complex workings of the political system or the world economy, or whatever, and so we'd better just stand aside and let the real experts handle things. Baloney.
It should be rather apparent by now that the guys in charge are royal screw-ups. If they're so damn smart, why do we have financial crises, poverty, famine, violence, drug abuse, disease, and other scourges dominating our world? Our governments have had "wars" on these things for decades. Allow me to observe that if our world today is the result of the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on hunger, etc., then our "warriors" suck, and they need fired, and they need never to be elected to any position again, including dog catcher.
Likewise, if churches are so wonderful, then why are their buildings and their trappings the thing they're spending most of their money on? Why is their so-called 'social ministry' where they purport to help 'others,' such a small portion of their time and budget? Do you really think that God (all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal being who "is love") really needs for people to build 100,000 square foot shopping malls with stained glass windows in His honor? Or is that all something that the people in charge want, to show how holy they are, and how much power they wield?
We need to get clear on one thing--we're the ones who matter, not the people in charge. We're the ones who can fix stuff, if we start thinking for ourselves and stop following behind the parade of people who claim to know what's best for us. We are, in fact, the only things that matter--the saviors, if you will. If we decide to change our little corners of the world, by being generous, kind, and forgiving, then the world becomes generous, kind and forgiving, one little corner at a time.
So, now what? Some of you have been reading this blog since the beginning, and I hope you'll forgive me if I get in my wayback machine for a minute, and recall why this blog is named as it is. It was a reference to how big the world's problems are--elephantine, really, and to the old quip about how to eat an elephant--one bite at a time.
We just need to stop believing how powerless we are, and do something. Remember how in science we learned that energy never ends? That's true whether it's good energy or bad energy. We can sit around in fear and worry, anger and disgust, and pollute the atmosphere around us like a rotten onion in the cosmic soup, or we can start to make a positive difference. When you toss a rock into the water, the ripples reach the banks of the pond. The ripples from our choices, good and bad, can reach to the banks of eternity. So get rippling already. And don't forget to check their lips.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Another Bit of Truth In Between the Lies
In the category of "you would need more than a feather to knock me over" on hearing this news:
Swiss scientists have used supercomputers to trace through a database of 37 million corporations and their shareholders worldwide. They found that a core of 1318 companies control 80 percent of the world's wealth.
And, says the story in NewScientist,
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group. (emphasis mine)
In other words, the top one percent of companies, most of which are banks and financial companies, own each other and 40 percent of the entire world. Kind of removes all the mystery from the question how they've managed to get tens of billions of dollars in bailouts from the US government, special tax breaks, subsidies and a regulatory system that doesn't even understand what they do, much less regulate them.
It's time to stop wasting our lives making these guys richer, wouldn't you say?
Swiss scientists have used supercomputers to trace through a database of 37 million corporations and their shareholders worldwide. They found that a core of 1318 companies control 80 percent of the world's wealth.
And, says the story in NewScientist,
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group. (emphasis mine)
In other words, the top one percent of companies, most of which are banks and financial companies, own each other and 40 percent of the entire world. Kind of removes all the mystery from the question how they've managed to get tens of billions of dollars in bailouts from the US government, special tax breaks, subsidies and a regulatory system that doesn't even understand what they do, much less regulate them.
It's time to stop wasting our lives making these guys richer, wouldn't you say?
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