Monthly Archives: October 2011

We need a virus

Posted on by
Reply

I don’t recall how the original War of the Worlds ended but in the Tom Cruise remake, [SPOILER!] the aliens succumb to some earthly virus to which humans became immune over the eons.

I frequently fantacize something like this to free us from the politicians and corporate swine [yes, I know they are not all swine] that we have allowed to rule us so completely. But their DNA is the same as ours, so probably not gonna happen.

Another fantasy involves meteors obliterating DC and Wall Street and we start over with a list of Things Not to Let Happen Again. Too much loss of inocent life.

Why do I see violence as a necessary part of our freedom?

I grew up in a small town. There wasn’t a lot to do but it was fine as long as you didn’t know anything else. A lot of politicians probably come from such places. And when they get to The Big City they have power and privilege. Life is GOOD! So good, they will do just about anything to avoid going back to that little town. Back to being just a … citizen.

Sometimes, however, you lose the election. So they created the safety net of the lobby. If you can stay in office long enough to get some power, you can leverage that should you get voted out of office. You don’t have to go back to Hooterville.

No, I do not believe “our system” still works well enough to free us from the people now holed up in the DC Helm’s Deep. I think we’ll have to drag them out one by one.

Unless some alien virus wipes them out

OWS: Not a game that someone wins

Posted on by
Reply

Douglas Rushkoff on OWS: Occupy Wall Street beta tests a new way of living – CNN.com

“Whether or not we agree that anything at all in modern society needs to be changed, we must at least come to understand that the occupiers are not just another political movement, nor are they simply lazy kids looking for an excuse not to work. Rather, they see the futility of attempting to use the tools of a competitive, winner-takes-all society for purposes that might better be served through the tools of mutual aid. This is not a game that someone wins, but rather a form of play that is successful the more people get to play, and the longer the game is kept going.”

“They will succeed to the extent that the various models they are prototyping out on the pavement trickle up to those of us working on solutions from the comfort of our heated homes and offices. For as we come to embrace or even consider options such as local production and commerce, credit unions, unfettered access to communications technology and consensus-based democracy, we become occupiers ourselves.”

The class war has begun

Posted on by
1

So says Frank Rich in this NY Magazine piece. A little long (by web standards) but worth a read. To wet your whistle:

“Elections are supposed to resolve conflicts in a great democracy, but our next one will not. The elites will face off against the elites to a standoff, and the issues animating the class war in both parties won’t even be on the table. The structural crises in our economy, our government, and our culture defy any of the glib solutions proposed by current Democrats or Republicans; the quixotic third-party movements being hatched by well-heeled do-gooders are vanity productions. The two powerful forces that extricated America from the Great Depression—the courageous leadership and reformist zeal of Roosevelt, the mobilization for World War II—are not on offer this time. Our class war will rage on without winners indefinitely, with all sides stewing in their own juices, until—when? No one knows. The reckoning with capitalism’s failures over the past three decades, both in America and the globe beyond, may well be on hold until the top one percent becomes persuaded that its own economic fate is tied to the other 99 percent’s. Which is to say things may have to get worse before they get better.”

The Class War Has Begun – And the very classlessness of our society makes the conflict more volatile, not less.

Scott Adams: The Evolve Button

Posted on by

“The most objective explanation of our problem is that the economy is changing faster than humans can adapt. We have more high-end jobs and fewer unskilled opportunities. That’s not anyone’s fault. And obviously we have a smattering of rich crooks and rich people taking advantage of the system. That has to be addressed, but it’s not the underlying problem.”

“Some say the government is the problem. But I think it is more accurate to say the government is failing to offer a solution. And that’s because the government has also evolved more slowly than the world in general. It’s an anchor on the economy. What we need is a form of government that is more nimble, and designed from scratch to support the economy.”

“*And for that we need a constitutional convention*. The genius of our constitution is that it has a big red button labeled “evolve.” We just need to push it.”

Scott Adams: You are what you learn

Posted on by
1

“It’s easy to feel trapped in your own life. Circumstances can sometimes feel as if they form a jail around you. But there’s almost nothing you can’t learn your way out of. If you don’t like who you are, you have the option of learning until you become someone else. Life is like a jail with an unlocked, heavy door. You’re free the minute you realize the door will open if you simply lean into it.”