Just another Reality-based bubble in the foam of the multiverse.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The only things you can be sure of

...aside from taxes for those of us not part of the Ba$e and kangaroo kourt death sentences for the 9/11 scapegoats?

Arthur Silber nails it:

Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state. The current system will not allow anyone to be elected from either of the two major parties who is determined to dismantle even one part of that system.


But Silber falls right into the Naderite folly. If they're not clean, he won't vote for 'em. DINOcrat or Rethuglican, and he encourages you not to either.

Me, I happen to think if we let the Rethuglicans have their electoral way, there might be a few hundred million people that might die. The Apocalypse being what it is.

On the other hand, if the DINOcrats win, the Empire accepts limits. On the surface anyway. You know, like "No First Nukes". Like "Torture is a Bad thing". Like "let's make jobs". Like "let's feed the poor kids". Like that.

Yes, it's still the Carlyle Group running things. Yes, the war machine will still be cranking out technological terrors. Yes, we will still have shit to deal with.

But there's all the difference in the world, and likely there will still be a world we can make a difference in, with a Democrat in office. With a 72-year old McCain as a figurehead, it will be Endless War, the Homeland will become just another front, and Halliburton will get a chance to hire some more private security staff for some of that camp space after all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Using the threat of an 'Apocalypse' has been an effective tool for generating obedience ever since humans became aware that they died. First on a one person apocalyptic basis then group, religion, now species, basis as time passed.

The Carlyle Group deserves much credit for their insight. They have you willing to believe that 'the Empire accepts limits' in order to avoid an Apocalypse.

Vote. Fine. Believe that action forces the Empire to not engage in the Apocalyptic.

However, the Group will just continue holocausts so that the Group can continue to make the bucks.

How noble. Trade certain deaths now, for protection from 'The Big One'. If one were to change the context from lives to souls, one might think that this was a discussion about spreading the 'Carlyle Group Church of the Faithful' dogma.

Bettor to stay as one of the faithful of the Group or to break free?

You stay.

Silber leaves.


sincerely,

wallowamountainman

ps Might i suggest that we both bookmark your post and check back in, say 3 or 4 years to see if any of the things you think the dinos would do without actually comes to past? My hunch is that you once thought the dinos would have stopped the war(s) like they said they would, or ended spying on Americans, etc....just a guess.

kelley b. said...

wallowamountainman,

No, you've got it wrong. I don't think the dinos will stop the war, or stop the spying. I don't think they'll stop the scapegoating of countries like Venzuela, or any of a number of things that favor those wil wealth and power.

I do think though that there is a little less of a tendency to eat the seed corn, because their Company vision anticipates having another crop to harvest.

I think there are events coming the Company does not anticipate. Every day a Bu$h or a Cheney or one of their ideological minions is in office increases the chance of global thermonuclear war. I don't think the Soros faction sees any point or profit in that.

But I don't realistically think they favor the rule of law, either.

I just want to see more time before the shit hits the fan in a serious way: time for people with insight to prepare for it, time to build an educated populace that might overcome the shock of it.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your clarification on your belief about the war, spying, etc. Seldom can one engage in a discussion on a blog without the thread being broken.

If I read your response accurately, you are hoping that there is time for some number of 'an educated populace' that will survive some version of the Big A. I am a little surprised by that.

Not that history is not full of examples of that type of thought. Survival by a chosen few is a common theme, even and especially, today. The special 'us' vs the damned 'them'.

As I suggested in the first post, holding the Big A point of view is a big tool that got us here, little Big A step at a time.

As long as 'time is being bought for preparation' for some Big A, those who benefit from propagating that perspective (Company, Religion, Clique...) will benefit from control of the masses.

If I might ask, at what scale so you consider shit to be at when 'the shit hits the fan in a big way'? Do you think that it is possible to hold the catastrophe to that level? How? By whom?

The reason I ask that is to seek the probability of that sequence.

My hunch is that this conversation will continue with a fascinating series of exchanges.

I have held for the longest of time that the most powerful thing a human can do is change its mind. I have done so countlessly in the past and look forward to it in the future.

Just a p.s. in what may be a time buying event for you: http://pacificfreepress.com/content/view/2324/1/

Perhaps Iran will simmer in the background. Or perhaps that's why Iran is simmering. My hunch is that there is more to it than I see.

Thanks for your replies,

wallowamountainman

kelley b. said...

With the caveat that I probably do not know what I speak of- and how can anyone know what Apocalyptic events will look like- let me elaborate.

Obviously if people are so foolish as to precipitate catastrophic events, they must see some way of surviving them. In Iraq, for example, some had bolt holes ready in places like Syria: when it became clear the crazy Americans were really going to do it, they were ready to bug out.

With something like peak oil, having the Cheney faction of the Carlyle Group out of power might do a lot of good. The ExxonMobil crowd don't want to see useful alternative energy developed until they've squeezed every last drop of oil out. The Soros faction might not appreciate the generaleconomic disruption that behavior might allow.

Similarly with global warming: the damn the torpedos approach of Big Oil is damn sure going to melt the poles a lot sooner than anticipated, with a greater amount of Hell for everyone than if ways of fixing carbon are developed, again more likely with the Soros faction.

Even with nukes. We are a lot less likely to survive the coming inevitable stresses with Dear Leader's "bring it on" diplomatic approach. The man is incapable of appreciating what a thermonuclear weapon can do. He has no curiosity or imagination to speak of, and one suspects this is an endemic sociopathic trait of the Cheney faction.

Not only would someone of the Soros bent be more likely to negotiate in a crisis, they'd be less likely to use a lot of them. The less that are used, the more likely the survival.

In nature, Malthusian catastrophes typically are a way of weeding out the less fit. Humans are a different sort of animal, but once again, being prepared for the shock can only increase your chances. If enough people are prepared, it could even be diverted entirely.