Sunday, May 30, 2010

propaganda

the survival of america is dependent on the outcome of a war of propaganda. its hard not to, at times, be pessimistic. it seems that the most powerful are amoral. they have no moral compass, no moral creed, no overriding belief, no fear of hell, no assurance of retribution.

you can try to counter this with logic, but then, supposing, you come into a position of power and temptation, what are you going to use to guide you? what altruistic philosophy would you use?

since religion has been proven scientifically to be a bag of unlikely events, an official creed has not been universally in place. is a creed possible, or is the new religion so formless it cannot have a mass manifestation? right now i would say our religion is electronic entertainment. and pursuit of the dollar and power for the minority driven to rule.

a new religion, if valid, would really benefit and be helpful. what is it? what fate falls to the faithless? emptiness. what faith falls to the optimistic? surety.

should the newly and formlessly faithful fight the propaganda war, or should they pursue the way of manifestation?

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Obama has finally realized the implosion of the economy is a bad thing

It seems that president Obama has finally discovered that it is a problem when the country's economy implodes. In the meantime he has wasted his first year. Most of his policies, surely well-meaning, would have made the economy worse - cap and trade, enlarging healthcare, taking over GM while bailing out banks. Perhaps now he or his advisors have realized that difficult or not, all these dreams of lowering the ocean, providing universal quality healthcare for the least of these, they all rest or fall on the foundation of the strength of the American economy, an economy whose basic soundness is taken for granted, but for which signs of a long term decline seem unmistakable. What are people supposed to do for a living in the American future? Farming? Manufacturing? What comes next?

In World War 2, America outproduced industrially the rest of the world combined (according to the PBS series WW2). How far we are from that. The iron age started around 1000 BC. The cultures that could work iron were able to conquer or prosper over those who were slower. America won two world wars with its know-how and ability. For too long, we are throwing that culture away. We have been told that we are in a post-industrial society, an information age, a service economy. These are just as insubstantial as selling mortgages, collecting them into abstract packages, marking them up, selling them again, insuring them to fail - everybody making a lot of money, then adding that whole enterprise to the gross national product, and saying our economy grew.

We face this basic problem of national debt and insolvency with a poisoned atmosphere. Has there been hatred of any president like this? It’s scary. I hear on public airwaves that Obama is ruining this country on purpose. I have heard that he wants to usher in 100 years of tyranny. What would be the proper treatment of an elected official sworn to uphold the constitution who is ruining the country on purpose and wants to usher in 100 years of tyranny? The right seems to have it in their hands now for the power to swing back their way, yet they seem to feed on propaganda. I don't see Obama winning another term, but we may be beyond the point where one political party or the other is going to lead us out of this. We need a post-political society. The propaganda war is for political and economic control. The society itself is not served by allowing the two parties to manufacture the debate terms. Candidates take cheap shots and elect themselves with 30 second attack ads. It is in the country's best interest for both sides to acknowledge the honor and good intentions of their opponent, and have a real debate on the real problem. I do not care who is worse, Clinton or Bush or Obama. They represent factions and personalities, the simplification of the political argument - the dress, the dolt, socialism - not the real issues. It would be constructive if the media would also realize that the implosion of the American economy is an important issue. Pundits - we have a problem. We are the inheritors of a 600-year industrial revolution, from Leonardo down to Edison and Ford, a remarkable succession of wise men and scientists who built the western world. It would be foolish not to take some pride in that, but also to realize the drive for new things is human, has nothing to do with government, and why now is it so hard to manufacture the very things we need? How long can an economy prosper when everything comes from overseas? What do you do?