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Shopping is the new major addiction and the most important economic activity in America. Selling junk to fill the empty lives of the denizens of the so-called consumer culture has now become our reason for being. Advertisers create your values and reality. This hocus-pocus called marketing science by your academic wizards is a disguised form of sado-masochism. The consumer/sucker is set up for the sale/sting. It’s a quick fix; then the euphoria wears off. The dealer got your money, and you got something you don’t need or want. No wonder people are going broke right and left.
The poor bankrupt consumers/suckers have salt rubbed into their wounds by the wealthy evangelical environmentalist in-crowd who just got rich off the sting. If this is not social and economic S/M, I don’t know what is. Ask any so-called environmentalist “What are you going to do to address the problems in any significant way?” There’s a good chance you will get a blank stare and an indignant frown. The bottom line: the single easiest way one person can help the environment is to live a simple well-ordered life that avoids waste. Now, that flies in the face of our asphalt intellectuals because it undermines their wealth and power.
How can any movement expect to have any credibility when its origins and motives are so questionable? This fake environmentalist movement uses the same logic as Jimmy Swaggart, in church one day and the truck stop the next. Mister C02/ Al Gore drives to his mansion in his SUV, but the yuppies fail to see that inconvenient truth. All this tit for tat about saving the environment is nothing more than a feel-good session for the little children in adult clothes. Tomorrow they hop into the Lexus SUV and head off to the mall. Looks like Mr.& Ms. Low Wage will be stuck with Inconvenient Al’s proposed globule tax on breathing.
Mega cars, mega hogs at mega malls obliterate the landscape into concrete infernos. Looks like a great place to get the green/ $$$ movement underway; maybe Big Al himself will limo up for a personal appearance. As Al in Wonderland follows the white hog, he sees the Cheshire C02 Hedge Fund fade in and out. Yes, after a few puffs from the caterpillar’s hookah, Al was transformed into the Jolly Green Giant. He had a thought, but I will need to see the Queen. The word from the Queen was, “If they want to breathe, they pay the tax. Otherwise, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”
Around and around we go. Where it stops, nobody knows. How long will the Chinese Dragon and the Desert Jinn tolerate green paper for real goods and black gold? The Sword of Damocles hangs by a thin thread over the bogus consumer economy of the U.S. The Plumed-Serpent swirls into the clouds to commune with rain gods and then plunges beneath the rivers to drink with the lords of water. Quetzalcoatl has planned his revenge against the Eagle for the great corn conspiracy of El Norte. “As you flood my country with cheap subsidized corn, so I flood your Midwest with my watery friends. For the debt you brought to my land, I send twenty million of my children, and I will bring debt to you.”
Before the Eagle can spread his wings, he sees the fiery head of the Chinese Dragon engulf the eastern sky. He is coming to collect. The Desert Jinn are raising their homeland sands to darken the Eagle’s sky. The Eagle needs time to think, to recall who gave him that poisonous drink. “Oh yes…those rats; they said they had friends in high places. With these great forces unleashed, I will try make peace. But the cunning rat these talons will seek.”
Whacky Ben Bernanke rides the razor’s edge with three possible deals: deal one, lower interest rates; deal two, increase interest rates; and, deal three, sit still and hope the blade doesn’t cut too deep.
Deal One: Lower rates will bring on inflation and increase the cost of living. Wheel barrels may be in short supply.
Deal Two: Increased rates will sink the real estate and stock market. Government borrowing costs will rise, bringing on greater debt with higher taxes.
Deal Three: Whacky Ben Bernanke is in for some rip-roaring stagflation.
The average American has been so conditioned by marketing from businesses for a long time now. We are told that we need more and more, and that we need it now if not sooner. Instead of saving, we are encouraged to overspend with so many different credit ploys or financing manuevers. The low to middle class spends their entire salaries if not more to make a decent "quality of living" (subject to change with different perspectives). The heavy marketing from the last 50 years has gone beyond their intended purpose of just shifting the demand curve, it has shifted our whole lifestyle.
Unfortunately, most marketing seems to appeal to our dumber selves, often to huge success.
This is an attempt to provide open discussion on issues concerning subjects important to every one. We are now being influenced by these forces in both negative and positive ways. Comments should attempt to shed light on these trends in an original and thoughtful manner.
My university is undergoing a period of rapid enrollment growth. We are faced with the prospect of building several new student residences over the next 5 to 7 years.
A group of students was consulted on what their ideal living situaiton would be. We anticipated suite-style, open living, great room with common areas, etc.
But the stidents wanted hallways with private or dual rooms, and restrooms at the end of the hallways.
So youth isn't helping out, innovation-wise. In many ways, they're the most conformist, status-quo sector of our population.
How much of that can be attributed to the function of being a student, or having limited imagination for other possibilities? What did the pricetags look like when comparing the two versions you mentioned?
Dorm type settings often have problems sorting out chores and it becomes a whole other hassle to get along. I recall more than one freshman in my own college days complaining of roomates that weren't conducive to academic life. Distracting living situations detract from education. I can see why they'd baffle themselves as you describe.
There was a billboard in california along the highway that said "god made the world round so we wouldn't see too far ahead of ourselves"
It's struck me for many years how wise that phrase was for coping with life daily, but at the same time was letting people off the hook for taking long views to see where it is they're going. Especially when it comes to being more consciously aware of the greater machine you're participating in while you're in the soup so-to-speak.
I think life has become exponentially complicated over the past 40 years and it's overwhelming for ordinary people to function intelligently in an abstract system. The shortcuts we rely on to manage it all aren't neccessarily trustworthy. Therein lies the achilles heel of any civilization. http://www.netfeed.com/~jhill/RupertMurdoch.htm
When that's acceptable to government and citizens, we're in serious doo doo.
Looks to me a time is coming for citizens to invoke it's right to redefine it's government. I don't think anyone in the political spectrum is pleased with what results our system has been producing for a long time now.
America is being paralyzed into a regressive state by subtle means. The systematic onslaught of psychological manipulations is applied in every aspect of our lives. The process of cultivated ignorance and dependence is the hallmark of the welfare state, and its primary purpose is to maintain a ruling elite. The misconception of welfare as beneficial to the people is rooted in a confidence game. An effective con draws on an element of truth and succeeds because of the perceived benefit of that truth. In fact, the largest beneficiary in the welfare state is the ruling elite. Creating an inverse reality by deceptive use of language and syntax is a core tactic of any corrupt power base. Double-Think and New-Speak (George Orwell’s 1984) are cases in point.
Knowledge lost is power lost, so, to naively believe that a ruling elite, whether political, bureaucratic, financial, or military will relinquish power is to have no understanding of history. Establishing the idea of left or right, liberal or conservative, is a way of setting up fixed parameters which are easily divided and conquered, a simple combat strategy. Controlled opposition and agent provocateurs to spread fear and disorientation are stock material for the masters of statecraft. Welfare states and imperial states, a type of mega –welfare state, can only be destructive because its nature is corrupt. Constructive civilizations, on the other hand, are built by disciplined leaders and self-disciplined people.
If power or the desire for power is not put into a political equation, all attempts to make sense of it will fail. Many popular historians see history through pre- censored and filtered ideologies. This repackaged rhetoric for mass consumption becomes nothing more then a catalogue of names, dates and approved views. The drive for power is rooted in our deep sub-conscious and un-conscious minds. This natural force that drives us is essential to our survival, but, if left uncontrolled by the intellect, it will unleash the most monstrous behavior. It works in the best interests of those who operate on this lower plane and project their lower selves onto others. What often appears to the public to be sophistication and genteel behavior may be nothing more then a veneer disguising the most wretched creature. Most humans try to conquer their demons to some degree, but some sell their souls to them. Just as individuals sell out, so can nations.
Until people are willing to grow up and discard all this linguistic nonsense and pseudo- intellectual B.S., they will never have any control over their lives. The elite are nothing more than clever criminal sociopaths who convince the hoi polloi that they are superior beings who deserve to rule. Legalistic witch doctors rattle off sacred words that intentionally confuse and intimidate the uninitiated. Hats off to Kafka! Hyper- specialization and induced ignorance seem to be goals of education today. Thinking can be dangerous because it can be illuminating.
So, don’t think! Shop, and go into debt! Keep believing in the Red State, Blue State, Republican and Democrat mumbo jumbo all you want, but the smart money says you’ll be at war with Iran no matter who wins. Whoever wins, you lose! While keeping your eyes glued to the globus-occular- magnifique that tells you how free you are day in and day out, you prepare to march off to the next Hundred Years’ War. These so-called utopian leaders are absolutely insane and completely outside of reality.
So, don’t think! Shop, and go into debt! Keep believing in the Red State, Blue State, Republican and Democrat mumbo jumbo all you want, but the smart money says you’ll be at war with Iran no matter who wins. Whoever wins, you lose! While keeping your eyes glued to the globus-occular- magnifique that tells you how free you are day in and day out, you prepare to march off to the next Hundred Years’ War. These so-called utopian leaders are absolutely insane and completely outside of reality.
You need to step out of the matrix a little bit and participate in the exchanges of real life (hey, don't be offended, you're the one claiming to reside in the matrix).
We went down to Los Angeles this past weekend to visit the kids. We went around with them to a few of the shopping areas in LA, specifically Santa Monica's Third St Promenade, Venice Beach, and the Topanga Center just north of Malibu. The places were absolutely packed, and the folks were having a great time shopping, inking, piercing and eating. These places were so crowded we had to park really far from the sites, and had to really hunt for empty seats to get a rest.
At night we went over to the Century City Mall eatery, it was so crowded there we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a clear table. Plenty of folks aren't having the horrible experience as portrayed in your postings.
Colonialism is wealth extraction with little if any compensation.This is done by force both overt and covert. Globalism is colonialism just repackaged for public consumption.The U.S.has become de facto colony of wall street and international bankers.It all comes down money and power.90% in debt to 10%call what will, it still looks like raw deal.I thought there was an American revolution? Maybe I am wrong.
There was a American Revolution and then shortly after that We had presidents trying to make central banks. Then in 1913 they created the FED and that was just about the end of America.
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