In the wake of the death of Kim Jong Il in North Korea—and faced with the
real anguish being experienced by many of the people who have been subject to
his weird, arbitrary rule—I heard a quote:
'Facts don't come with their meaning attached to them.'
North Koreans are surrounded by a distortion machine that interpretes
everything for them, so their responses are idiosyncratic by outside
standards. The death of Kim Jong Il can only be interpreted within that reference frame.
I wonder who, in our society, is also enmeshed within a cocoon of
misinformation – impervious to realistic interpretations of national and world events
and policies.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Developing World Transition
One thing which will not be spoken of by politicians of
either party during the coming elections is this:
The most frightening and disruptive changes to the Western economies—including the US—are inevitable, irrespective of which parties govern. The migration of jobs to the developing countries of the Third World will continue, and cannot be reversed.
No politicians dare acknowlege this publicly for fear of the talking-point it would provide to the opposition, but those who drive policy have known it for years.
It’s not just low wages that draw the jobs; over time, these countries have have built the physical, technological, and educational infrastructure—much of it with help from advanced economies— to compete at advantage against the west for the foreseeable future.
Competing political parties in advanced industrial world will spin this trend so as to blame their opposition – and to promise to stem the tide if their party is returned to power (or kept in power, as the case may be). But, while an individual nation’s policy may cause a temporary inflection in the trendline, the general trajectory cannot be changed. It is the future, and it should be faced with knowledge that it exists.
The central question on the table in the US is whether those who continue to thrive during and after this epochal transition—including those who have driven and guided the transition for their own gain—have any obligation to those who are left behind.
Watching the terms of debate in the US, it seems that the answer here is an emphatic ‘No’. Those who either deny the inevitability of this transition, or who simply don’t care about those left behind seem to control the outcome. This will result in a great deal of suffering.
The most frightening and disruptive changes to the Western economies—including the US—are inevitable, irrespective of which parties govern. The migration of jobs to the developing countries of the Third World will continue, and cannot be reversed.
No politicians dare acknowlege this publicly for fear of the talking-point it would provide to the opposition, but those who drive policy have known it for years.
It’s not just low wages that draw the jobs; over time, these countries have have built the physical, technological, and educational infrastructure—much of it with help from advanced economies— to compete at advantage against the west for the foreseeable future.
Competing political parties in advanced industrial world will spin this trend so as to blame their opposition – and to promise to stem the tide if their party is returned to power (or kept in power, as the case may be). But, while an individual nation’s policy may cause a temporary inflection in the trendline, the general trajectory cannot be changed. It is the future, and it should be faced with knowledge that it exists.
The central question on the table in the US is whether those who continue to thrive during and after this epochal transition—including those who have driven and guided the transition for their own gain—have any obligation to those who are left behind.
Watching the terms of debate in the US, it seems that the answer here is an emphatic ‘No’. Those who either deny the inevitability of this transition, or who simply don’t care about those left behind seem to control the outcome. This will result in a great deal of suffering.
My Entitlement is not an Entitlement, because I'm Entitled to it!
A seed is being planted that ‘entitlement’ is a bad word,
and that entitlement programs are wasteful.
We’ve all seen the FB posts, “My [insert program name; Social Security, Medicare, Veteran’s benefits] is NOT an entitlement. I EARNED this by [insert what you’ve paid, earned, endured, or otherwise done to become entitled]! I’m all for ‘entitlement reform’, but leave my [repeat entitlement program name] alone!”
The intention is more than obvious. It’s a ‘divide and conquer’ campaign. By convincing each interest group that their program isn’t really an entitlement, they can gain support for cutting all the rest. It’s actually rather elegant, if you can overlook its immorality.
‘Entitlement’ is merely a budgetary term for programs whose outlay is dependent upon the number of people who qualify—for whatever reason—and are guarantee the benefit. There is no judgment or connotation associated with it – except that which is being implanted in people’s little brains by the spin-meisters.
No doubt if you lift of the dirty carpet corners of this nasty misinformation campaign, you’ll find Frank Lunz’s droppings.
We’ve all seen the FB posts, “My [insert program name; Social Security, Medicare, Veteran’s benefits] is NOT an entitlement. I EARNED this by [insert what you’ve paid, earned, endured, or otherwise done to become entitled]! I’m all for ‘entitlement reform’, but leave my [repeat entitlement program name] alone!”
The intention is more than obvious. It’s a ‘divide and conquer’ campaign. By convincing each interest group that their program isn’t really an entitlement, they can gain support for cutting all the rest. It’s actually rather elegant, if you can overlook its immorality.
‘Entitlement’ is merely a budgetary term for programs whose outlay is dependent upon the number of people who qualify—for whatever reason—and are guarantee the benefit. There is no judgment or connotation associated with it – except that which is being implanted in people’s little brains by the spin-meisters.
No doubt if you lift of the dirty carpet corners of this nasty misinformation campaign, you’ll find Frank Lunz’s droppings.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Orthodoxy and Society
True orthodox communists believe that if we restructure society properly, human greed will fade away, and we'll all live together, sharing everything equally.
True believers in laissez-faire capitalism know that's a crock; they believe not only that greed won't disappear from our character, but that it's actually a virtue, which—applied in aggregate over an entire population—will deliver the best possible societal outcomes.
This latter belief is as full of shit as the former; each has more in common with a religious cult than a serious, practical economic system. In their unalloyed form, each overlooks human nature, and its consequences - to the severe detriment of society.
Real problems don't yield to rigidly orthodox solutions. Those societies which progressed the most in the twentieth century are those which have thrown out the tomes, and have employed pragmatic contributions from all the various systems.
True believers in laissez-faire capitalism know that's a crock; they believe not only that greed won't disappear from our character, but that it's actually a virtue, which—applied in aggregate over an entire population—will deliver the best possible societal outcomes.
This latter belief is as full of shit as the former; each has more in common with a religious cult than a serious, practical economic system. In their unalloyed form, each overlooks human nature, and its consequences - to the severe detriment of society.
Real problems don't yield to rigidly orthodox solutions. Those societies which progressed the most in the twentieth century are those which have thrown out the tomes, and have employed pragmatic contributions from all the various systems.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Education vs. Misinfotainment
If people had focused as intensely when they were in school as they do now to the right-wing misinfotainment outlets—like Fox and the Glen Bimbaugh clones—those outlets could never have built an audience, and would exist only for the fringe audience that they merit.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The 999 Plan
The Beauty of Herman Cain's '999' Plan is in its simplicity.
In fact it's designed specifically for simplicity above all else. Because all three of the numbers are the same, potential Cain voters can get all the way to the end without forgetting any of them.
When asked about the plan, Texas Governor Rick Perry looked around for his Teleprompter, and--not finding it--responded that he'd have to get back to that question later.
In fact it's designed specifically for simplicity above all else. Because all three of the numbers are the same, potential Cain voters can get all the way to the end without forgetting any of them.
When asked about the plan, Texas Governor Rick Perry looked around for his Teleprompter, and--not finding it--responded that he'd have to get back to that question later.
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