Beloveds,
How are you all. It’s Sunday June 30th, 2013 at around 2p. I’m at home with the windows and sliding door open, gentle breeze coming in from an overcast NYC day. I’m not sure if the sun is supposed to poke through at some point.
The breeze feels nice.
I have Boards of Canada’s album “The Campfire Headphase” on. By the time you get to that third track, Satellite Anthem Icarus, if you’re not in a peacefull daze you’re doing it wrong.
Damn, what a great sound those guys have always had.
I also have in my possession their 2013 studio album Tomorrow’s Harvest, which is actually just their 4th studio release in 27 years of existence, which I think is neat.
——————————————————-
So a little about the NSA stuff. I’ve been telling people how independent and off the radar that group had become for years. So now that someone had the balls to expose what’s really happening, why is everyone so surprised? Overall this is a very good thing for the world, but it’ll be rough for the US for a while, which is also good.
But what about love for the US?
Before anyone can answer that question for themselves, they have to begin by deciding what the US is.
For instance, there is no real US government anymore, and there is no constitutional democracy for sure. If you really want to know what kind of country we live in, it’s what’s called a Corporate State. Doesn’t sound too harmful.
The problem with the corporate state is that it’s not anchored to any underlying principles. The advantage corporate entities have over civilization is that, by their own account, there are no rules. It’s win at all costs, no matter what, and by “win”, they mean hoarding power, wealth and resources. Because it’s “win at all costs” now, the human costs don’t matter. So now that’s what we live in. The Corporate State doesn’t recognize principles like “democracy”, or abstract moral notions like “justice” or hell even basic ideas like “fairness”. Again, it’s win at all costs. That’s why voting machines get rigged, elections stolen, and tactics in congress get seedier and increasingly insane. On this model, whatever the tactic, if it accomplishes the objective, it’s the right one.
So, while it’s a great time to be alive, it’s going to get very confusing and interesting very soon, like, this year.
You might ask what the big deal is about the US spying on the EU policymakers and political elites, because, after all, they’re our allies, it’s not like they pose any threat to us, so why would they care that much? And that is true, they don’t pose a political threat to us. But remember, we no longer live in a constitutional republic. We’re a Corporate State. What that means is that all of that spying and intelligence gathering is always connected to and motivated by the hoarding, wealth-worshipping machinery of runaway capitalism. Because it’s “win at all costs”, and the goal is hoarding power, wealth and resources, then bugging a high level policymaker in Brussels might shed light on a huge new trade agreement taking place over there that the US is missing out on. Well that can’t happen, because “win”. As the EU gets peaceful and rich, they win. But the Corporate State only exists to be the sole “winner”. So welcome if you didn’t know that’s how things were and are.
Hell, why not join in and work for a bank!
If you ever have trouble with this, just imagine the world that would be created if bankers or corporate operators ran it, based on their principles, and if that’s a world you’d want to live in. Have trouble imagining that? Well you shouldn’t. Just look through history… we’ve been there many, many, many times. The corporate operators consolidating insane amounts of wealth and power while everyone else goes about their business of solving society’s major problems, like food supply, medical advancement, science, education, etc. Throughout history as the greedy consolidate into dictatorial franchises, which is what always happens and still exists around the world today, eventually the human misery caused by this system becomes high enough that there’s always a revolution, and a war, and an overthrow, and then it begins again, ad infinitum. So, maybe we should just throw a stick in those spokes and try something new? Because we’re already back where we started for the thousandth freakin’ time, and the places who’ve exercised some wisdom and morality, like certain countries in the EU, are literally having the best times in human history, while in the US, among industrialized nations:
- highest poverty rate, both generally and for children
- greatest inequality of incomes
- lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP on social programs for the disadvantaged
- lowest average number of days for paid holiday, annual leaves, and maternity leaves
- lowest score on the UN index of “material well-being of children”
- worst score on the UN gender inequality index
- lowest social mobility (which is the ability to rise out of poverty if you were born poor)
Not a pretty picture. Whereas the states doing the best in all of those things are in inherently non-corporate states, where human beings take priority over the insanity power and resource addiction.
What? Not that bad? OK, for kicks, here’s some more. Amongst industrialized nations we also have:
- highest infant mortality rate
- highest prevalence of mental health problems
- highest obesity rate
- highest consumption of anti-depressants (per capita)
- third shortest life expectancy at birth
- highest rate of failure to ratify international agreements
- lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as percentage of GDP
- highest military spending as percentage of GDP
- largest prison population per capita
- highest homicide rate
(Source for all these, but there are many, many more: James Gustave Speth, “We’re Number One,” Yes Magazine, March 22, 2011)
You know what? This list just goes on. A huge swath of the population is convinced that things are great, while there’s literally misery all around them. How does one learn to ignore the real suffering taking place in their own country? States are good at creating illusions and complacency. China is great at it. As is Russia. Is it coincidence that those are our biggest threats? Not in the slightest.
There aren’t many positives. Oh here’s one: most amount of billionaires! Wahoo! Isn’t that great for the US?! We have 425 billionaires! Let’s celebrate the shit out of that!
Bottom line: the NSA thing isn’t about national security and it never really has been. It’s about the security of a few hoarders worried that they might have to sell off one of their jets. It’s about the security of a few groups of men with no loyalties who illegally control most of our resources, things we actually depend on for living freely. This *is* the loyalty system of the Corporate State, because at all costs precludes any and all other considerations.
The question I hope you’re asking yourselves now is: what happens when the rest of the world adopts our same “at all costs” form of tyrannical capitalism and all states becaome corporate states like ours?
Well, to a degree you can answer this already. China has done this explicitly, using our own attitudes and tactics for their “win at all costs” ideology. Now they’re not only destroying their own environment and lives, but everywhere they go, which is most continents, much like the US has done. And now they’re buying up our country, too, because these are the rules we’ve made up. One of the largest US food manufacturing companies is now Chinese. What’s next, our medicines? Too late for that, too. Is that what we want?
The problem is that want people want doesn’t matter. It’s how the corporate states will battle, and we’re all expendable. Our own government isn’t allowed to protect us because “the government is too big!” So the alternative is that The Market that will protect us. Because, you know, The Market really cares.
So, it’s going to get bad, which is good, in the long run. It’ll be interesting to see and experience how things turn out. Interesting times, monkeys.
See you tomorrow.
You know what I mean.
