point counter point
Gee, like that "step down" from the sweeping and absolutist? Lets face it, global concerns are of no importance to you as they have no effect upon your life. Unless of course, you happen to be in a building when a terrorist bomb goes off, or some one you never met moves a decimal point and your financial world is erased. The simple fact is that we believe that we are endowed with the inalienable right to ignore pretty much everything and go one with the important business of deciding which size television to get for the kitchen wall. It wasn't always this way, was it? When (if you are older than, say 30 or so) did it get this way?
This is a symptom of what is lost. We are no longer driving. We have a driver to do that. The problem with that is that the driver is ultimately in charge, yes you can threaten to fire him but the wheel (of karma?) remains firmly in his hand. Worse still is the possibility that you CAN'T drive and don't know the roads. Boy what an act of trust that is. So if the driver decided that you couldn't be trusted to call the shots as to how to get where you think you are going there would be little you could do about it and in all likelyhood you wouldn't even know you had changed directions (being that you are in the back of the Limo on the phone mixing a drink -n- all....) and should you, or one of your party question the driver it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine him misleading you, for your own good that is.
Now imagine that you have a lawyer and and accountant and a driver and they are not going to allow you to make bad decisions or mistakes (in thier humble opinions...) and decide to "take care of things for you". The king becomes the crown. Thats you.
That is part of whats wrong, at least in the limited, local example of the USA. Since the beginning of the cold war (1946) There have been two things that have been incontravertable truth; first is that we where/(are?) this most powerfull nation on earth. Both militarily as well as economicaly the United States has been completely dominant. So much so that early on in the "game" the CIA needed to falsify intelligence reports to the president and congress inflating the size of the Soviet nuclear arsenal to prevent a complete demilitarization of the US. "I know he wants to take his family to disneyland but we can't let him, there are more important things to do like insure that his wealth is greater than that of his neighbors, ok, you tell him that he's losing money and I'll recommend that we drive to the job to make more..." says the driver to the accountant. And the rest is, as they say, history.
You see, it was obvious early on in the "game" that the USA was going to dominate the world. This was one of the main reasons for the Yalta conference. Internally there would have to have been a decision made that, in spite of the fact that the USA is ruled by a government "of the people, by the people and for the people..." the people simply could not be trusted with the awesome power and responsability of being not only the great bastion of freedom and democracy but the wealthiest, most powerfull nation on earth. I mean, come on! All the "people" want to do is have barbaque's and drink martini's in the sun light! (no doubt a comment made during a conversation taking place between several high level goverment and military officials while discussing this very subject...while at a barbeque drinking martini's....). The rational is perfect and inarguable. even if you did give a shit as to the fate of the world the idea of letting millions of ill informed voters make decisions of historical scope is ludicrious. Isn't it? I mean it was blatantly obvious that you couldn't have cared less about the fate of the human race, right? But wait, if that where true then why did you give the lives of thousands of your sons to save the huuman race from certain tyrrany and darkness? Ok, yes, before the war the US was isolationist but that is normal and ended once Pearl Harbor came along (so, if the accusation that the White House saw it coming and allowed to happen in order to awaken US public opinion and get us to save the world is true it makes more sense, right? I mean, yes, 3,000 or so died but look how many where saved? And they would have, in all likelyhood, died anyway as the war wasn't going to avoid us forever. Right? We are talking about Pearl Harbor by the way, just in case the casuality figure confused you with recent events). Even at that US public opinion has always been a function of the press, propoganda and politics so if we where isolationist its because we where encouraged to be so. So, where did this idea that we didn't give a shit come from? Maybe it was the justification that the driver, accountant and the lawyer used to rationalize thier decision. Either way, the problem is the same and, apparently didn't begin with WWII. You (individually and collectively) are not in the drivers seat. Thats a funny thing considering that this is supposed to be the worlds bastion of freedom and the home of the "rugged individuallist" no? Where we ever in the "drivers seat" At what point (!) did the king become the crown? And what, if anything does this have to do with the "crisis of meaning" and alledged coming collapse of the human races "will to live"?
What if you moved into a neighborhood and not only where all of your neighbors stinking rich but asked you to handle thier money for them? What would you do? Duh! You would take the job and finially get your break! Your not a thief, right? Your a good person and you would want to insure that thier money was safe. From them. They did ask you to handle it for them, right? And doesn't that mean that they can't handle it themselves? So if A. is true and B. is true then wouldn't it be the responsable thing to do? Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. More to the Point (!!), Power over others corrupts and absolute power over others corrupts absolutely. You see, the United States of America was the result of a dream. It was the dream not of Americans but of lots of different people that didn't come from America ('cus there weren't no 'Merica then...). The dream was to end forever the tyranny of the powerfull over the lives of individuals and give the human race a chance to assert itself and move out of moms house and stretch its wings and find out what it can do, on its own. Who it is and What if anything is its purpose in the "grand skeme of things". I guess that things haven't worked out so well, huh? And who are the "powerfull", the "tyrannts" anyway? In the light of this little diatribe it would seem that they are those of us that just don't believe in us (read themselves), and aren't gonna let us offin' the farm just yet. We won the victory over the forces of darkness and tyranny. And lost the war. And here we are getting fatter (diabetes), older (the greying of generational population) and dumber (the viral spread of technology) while the driver, accountant and lawyer do......
So, uh, what are they doing anyway?
This is a symptom of what is lost. We are no longer driving. We have a driver to do that. The problem with that is that the driver is ultimately in charge, yes you can threaten to fire him but the wheel (of karma?) remains firmly in his hand. Worse still is the possibility that you CAN'T drive and don't know the roads. Boy what an act of trust that is. So if the driver decided that you couldn't be trusted to call the shots as to how to get where you think you are going there would be little you could do about it and in all likelyhood you wouldn't even know you had changed directions (being that you are in the back of the Limo on the phone mixing a drink -n- all....) and should you, or one of your party question the driver it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine him misleading you, for your own good that is.
Now imagine that you have a lawyer and and accountant and a driver and they are not going to allow you to make bad decisions or mistakes (in thier humble opinions...) and decide to "take care of things for you". The king becomes the crown. Thats you.
That is part of whats wrong, at least in the limited, local example of the USA. Since the beginning of the cold war (1946) There have been two things that have been incontravertable truth; first is that we where/(are?) this most powerfull nation on earth. Both militarily as well as economicaly the United States has been completely dominant. So much so that early on in the "game" the CIA needed to falsify intelligence reports to the president and congress inflating the size of the Soviet nuclear arsenal to prevent a complete demilitarization of the US. "I know he wants to take his family to disneyland but we can't let him, there are more important things to do like insure that his wealth is greater than that of his neighbors, ok, you tell him that he's losing money and I'll recommend that we drive to the job to make more..." says the driver to the accountant. And the rest is, as they say, history.
You see, it was obvious early on in the "game" that the USA was going to dominate the world. This was one of the main reasons for the Yalta conference. Internally there would have to have been a decision made that, in spite of the fact that the USA is ruled by a government "of the people, by the people and for the people..." the people simply could not be trusted with the awesome power and responsability of being not only the great bastion of freedom and democracy but the wealthiest, most powerfull nation on earth. I mean, come on! All the "people" want to do is have barbaque's and drink martini's in the sun light! (no doubt a comment made during a conversation taking place between several high level goverment and military officials while discussing this very subject...while at a barbeque drinking martini's....). The rational is perfect and inarguable. even if you did give a shit as to the fate of the world the idea of letting millions of ill informed voters make decisions of historical scope is ludicrious. Isn't it? I mean it was blatantly obvious that you couldn't have cared less about the fate of the human race, right? But wait, if that where true then why did you give the lives of thousands of your sons to save the huuman race from certain tyrrany and darkness? Ok, yes, before the war the US was isolationist but that is normal and ended once Pearl Harbor came along (so, if the accusation that the White House saw it coming and allowed to happen in order to awaken US public opinion and get us to save the world is true it makes more sense, right? I mean, yes, 3,000 or so died but look how many where saved? And they would have, in all likelyhood, died anyway as the war wasn't going to avoid us forever. Right? We are talking about Pearl Harbor by the way, just in case the casuality figure confused you with recent events). Even at that US public opinion has always been a function of the press, propoganda and politics so if we where isolationist its because we where encouraged to be so. So, where did this idea that we didn't give a shit come from? Maybe it was the justification that the driver, accountant and the lawyer used to rationalize thier decision. Either way, the problem is the same and, apparently didn't begin with WWII. You (individually and collectively) are not in the drivers seat. Thats a funny thing considering that this is supposed to be the worlds bastion of freedom and the home of the "rugged individuallist" no? Where we ever in the "drivers seat" At what point (!) did the king become the crown? And what, if anything does this have to do with the "crisis of meaning" and alledged coming collapse of the human races "will to live"?
What if you moved into a neighborhood and not only where all of your neighbors stinking rich but asked you to handle thier money for them? What would you do? Duh! You would take the job and finially get your break! Your not a thief, right? Your a good person and you would want to insure that thier money was safe. From them. They did ask you to handle it for them, right? And doesn't that mean that they can't handle it themselves? So if A. is true and B. is true then wouldn't it be the responsable thing to do? Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. More to the Point (!!), Power over others corrupts and absolute power over others corrupts absolutely. You see, the United States of America was the result of a dream. It was the dream not of Americans but of lots of different people that didn't come from America ('cus there weren't no 'Merica then...). The dream was to end forever the tyranny of the powerfull over the lives of individuals and give the human race a chance to assert itself and move out of moms house and stretch its wings and find out what it can do, on its own. Who it is and What if anything is its purpose in the "grand skeme of things". I guess that things haven't worked out so well, huh? And who are the "powerfull", the "tyrannts" anyway? In the light of this little diatribe it would seem that they are those of us that just don't believe in us (read themselves), and aren't gonna let us offin' the farm just yet. We won the victory over the forces of darkness and tyranny. And lost the war. And here we are getting fatter (diabetes), older (the greying of generational population) and dumber (the viral spread of technology) while the driver, accountant and lawyer do......
So, uh, what are they doing anyway?
posted by tptorpey at Monday, May 08, 2006
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