Old Cigarette Commercials

It's not difficult to see how corporate marketing created the ideal consumer market in the USA. These old tobacco commercials may seem silly to people today; but, in their day they were highly compelling, resulting in an explosion of smoking behaviour. Massaging the masses is what its all about.

Winston on the Flintstones (1960)



The sobering context for all this is presented in a remarkable documentary, Century of the Self, not to be missed. One of the segments which impressed me the most, details how the tobacco industry aligned itself with the Women's Liberation Movement to double their profits. Warning: this might disturb some viewers (especially, women).

Virginia Slims



We didn't always think the Marlboro Man was someone to model ourselves after. Hope you enjoy these below and I trust you will have moments of revelation as to the ugly face behind the mask of marketing. For 'rational' creatures, humans certainly seem to be well managed by 'irrational' persuasion.


Marlboros




Philip Morris - I Love Lucy (1964)



Camels



Viceroys

Enoughism - Or how Less is More

Ever wonder why when you have enough money, you don't have enough time to enjoy it? We seem to have the money to buy books on how to appreciate the 'now' and become happier - but not the time to actually read them and experience their promised contentment and pleasure. Time is the one essence of life which is truly limited.

There are only 24 hours to a day and there are only so many days to our lives. How many hours in the day do modern people spend to make money to buy things? And are these things they buy really necessary at all?

I recall a lecture in International Trade, where the instructor compared the GDP of the USA to the GDP of the Eurozone. (This was a few years ago.) Her conclusion seemed to be that more GDP is better. But after looking into the figures, I discovered that not only is the GDP of Europeans less than US GDP, but their work week was also significantly shorter. Most Europeans enjoy from 7 to 10 weeks of paid holidays from work. Yes, Europeans spend more time on leisure activities and more time with their loved ones. From my perspective, this is a healthier lifestyle: GDP does not a happy heart make.

Americans are the best 'consumers' in the world. Looking at the definition of consumerism: Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. Now John Naish has brought us its antithesis, Enoughism.

Enoughism is the theory that there is a point where consumers possess everything they need, and by buying more it actually makes their life worse off. Enoughism emphasizes less spending and more restraint in buying behaviour of consumers. Unlike Consumerism which Mirriam-Webster defines as "the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable", Enoughism is an antonym to consumerism.

It is true that if people enjoy what they have (when their necessities are provided for), that corporations will be very unhappy indeed - because their profits will shrink. The ultra rich will have to be satisfied with only 150 pairs of shoes, only 2 townhouses, only 2 Rolls Royce etc. I don't just don't give a flying fart...let them adjust. That's what we all must do if we are to create a sustainable lifestyle on earth for the future. I am not an economic commodity for the use of the elite capitalists: economies exist for the well being of people primarily, all people not just a few.

I have blogged on this issue twice recently:
To consume: the definition
Lessons from Scarcity

One thing is for sure: either we will collectively say 'enough is enough' voluntarily NOW; or future generations will be forced to exist on what is 'not enough'. I hope the conclusion we come to is that More is LESS - less happiness, less loving, and less quality living and less time for the people we love.



Related reading

The New Anti-Consumerism

Conspicuous consumption

The Century of the Self (Video)

"We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." - Edward Bernays

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

Enoughism - Or how Less is More

Ever wonder why when you have enough money, you don't have enough time to enjoy it? We seem to have the money to buy books on how to appreciate the 'now' and become happier - but not the time to actually read them and experience their promised contentment and pleasure. Time is the one essence of life which is truly limited.

There are only 24 hours to a day and there are only so many days to our lives. How many hours in the day do modern people spend to make money to buy things? And are these things they buy really necessary at all?

I recall a lecture in International Trade, where the instructor compared the GDP of the USA to the GDP of the Eurozone. (This was a few years ago.) Her conclusion seemed to be that more GDP is better. But after looking into the figures, I discovered that not only is the GDP of Europeans less than US GDP, but their work week was also significantly shorter. Most Europeans enjoy from 7 to 10 weeks of paid holidays from work. Yes, Europeans spend more time on leisure activities and more time with their loved ones. From my perspective, this is a healthier lifestyle: GDP does not a happy heart make.

Americans are the best 'consumers' in the world. Looking at the definition of consumerism: Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. Now John Naish has brought us its antithesis, Enoughism.

Enoughism is the theory that there is a point where consumers possess everything they need, and by buying more it actually makes their life worse off. Enoughism emphasizes less spending and more restraint in buying behaviour of consumers. Unlike Consumerism which Mirriam-Webster defines as "the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable", Enoughism is an antonym to consumerism.

It is true that if people enjoy what they have (when their necessities are provided for), that corporations will be very unhappy indeed - because their profits will shrink. The ultra rich will have to be satisfied with only 150 pairs of shoes, only 2 townhouses, only 2 Rolls Royce etc. I don't just don't give a flying fart...let them adjust. That's what we all must do if we are to create a sustainable lifestyle on earth for the future. I am not an economic commodity for the use of the elite capitalists: economies exist for the well being of people primarily, all people not just a few.

I have blogged on this issue twice recently:
To consume: the definition
Lessons from Scarcity

One thing is for sure: either we will collectively say 'enough is enough' voluntarily NOW; or future generations will be forced to exist on what is 'not enough'. I hope the conclusion we come to is that More is LESS - less happiness, less loving, and less quality living and less time for the people we love.



Related reading

The New Anti-Consumerism

Conspicuous consumption

The Century of the Self (Video)

"We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." - Edward Bernays

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

Chomsky - Government for the elite by the elite

Many people still believe that the USA was founded for the purpose of government for the people and by the people. This a true fact - if one understands that the 'people' referred to here are the elite. Nothing much has changed in the past couple hundred years or so as far as this strategy is concerned.

Noam Chomsky addresses this subject below and how this relates to corporate propaganda. If you like this short video, you will love Century of the Self.

Marxists: Carpe Diem!

This is a great era for Marxists; for all the long decades of apoligist and explanatory rhetoric which sought to understand why the USSR failed and capitalism survived, the hour has come to dust off the old readings on the Frankfurt School and Critical Theory and rejoice. Capitalism has reached its apex and is now devouring itself. A radical shift in the paradigm of human consciousness is taking place as a natural function of the system itself.

Today's collapse of society is an example of organic Marxism at its best. A detailled analysis of Marx's writings would be interesting here but bore the reader to jumping out the window. Instead, the central concept which best explains why a revolution in the USA is inevitable, can be found in one concept, the Fetishism of Commodities, found in the first chapter of Capital. Very simply put, the Fetishism of Commodities means, 'You are what you own'.

One's central idea of self (identity) is based on that which can be bought and consumed, rather than on how one acts toward others, toward the society and the environment, and a sense of one's value as a worthy being by being creative and productive. It has take a hundred years for this concept to become the culture of USA capitalism and this was intentionally planned, over generations by Masters of the Universe. For a chilling and unforgetable explanation of how this happened, Century of the Self will give the reader a thorough documention.

The chief vehicle of the subversion of 'culture' into 'consumerism' has been enabled by the strategies of marketing and technological advances in mass media. I cannot recommend this BBC video highly enough for those who wish to see the 'big picture'. For capitalism to succeed it needed profits, from people buying stuff. The more reasons people had to take the money from their pockets and purchase something, the better the capitalist system succeeded.

To facilitate the 'more' part necessary for profits, marketing became highly sophisticated in convincing people that they 'needed' more stuff to be happy. These newer needs to become a happy successful person have all centered on external symbols of success, fancier cars, bigger houses, name brand shoes, essentially conspicuous consumption. People could judge how successful they were (and others were) by what they were able to buy and then show off. This became the central cultural identity of the USA: You are what you own. How this came about entirely is well explained by the Frankfurt School and Critical Theory.

However, here, the effects of all these processes boil down to a simple question that the American middle class will now have to ask itself: 'Who am I without my stuff?' And unfortunately for them and generations to come, 'Who am I when when I am hungry and homeless?'

Most of the three billion people on earth who live in horrific conditions, without even basic essentials for survival, have already faced these questions. Their answers roar through corridors of Media: mainstream media calls them terrorists, the rest of us call them revolutionaries fighting the injustices they have had to endure to provide the middle class consumer with more 'stuff' and corporations with more profit.

Marxists rejoice...the middle class is about to go bye bye. The question now is not 'if' a revolution; but 'when'. Revolutionary consciousness (though the government will call this 'domestic terrorism' is about to be born. The middle class which has been hypnotised by their own ability to consumer 'more and more', is about to experience 'real fear and real need', that of survival. This will be like an awakening after a delicious slumber in the dentist's chair under nitrous oxide - when that novacaine wears off, pain pills will be necessary.

The two articles below are so well written that I could not do better than to reprint them here for the pleasure and benefit of the reader. Their subjects are revolution and poverty of the American middle class. One can only believe so much crap from the media before one comes to the conclusion that one's belly is empty.

What will happen when 25 million people reach this state in the USA? No answers will be found here; only more questions. But they are questions with which we can at least hope for a better world for all. Now is the time for the Marxists to put away their explanations of past failures and their ideological bickering, and to focus on a vision which is worthy of all: Carpe Diem!

We shall not steer through the coming changes by focusing out the back window: we must also look at the road ahead. Embrace the disgruntled and guilty: they are now listening. Whether or not a phoenix arises from the ashes is up to all of us now. Read and weep; or read and plan for a better future.

Time is the Fire in Which We Burn

( Or... From the Stygian River into the Fires of hell)

December 22, 2008
Source
Recently Karl Deninnger has been screaming for direct action in the streets of Washington D.C. He is understandably livid about the fraud and lying and theft that exist at the very heart and soul of our current financial crisis. He is apoplectic about the fact that scoundrels like Paulson and Bernanke and Kashkari are spending the taxpayers’ money and giving it away to who-knows-who, and that the banks and financial institutions who are receiving these ill-gotten gains are keeping everything a secret and hiding trillions of dollars in toxic assets from us, and that the FED is simply laughing at us as we hem and haw about how angry we are. And I could not agree with Denninger more. I too am beside myself.

There are times when I become so enraged at how rotten these folks are that I have to take a break from my readings and studies and take a deep breath, throw back a big cup of Joe, and gobble down a few pieces of chocolate.

But as angry as I am, I need to point out that Karl Denninger’s calls for thousands of angry people to hit the streets in protest is not, at this juncture, a reasonable expectation. And I’m not talking about apathy here. There is no reason for people---other than a cadre of intellectuals and a few 401K losers---to take to the streets because there is little to no real suffering yet.

Now would I be surprised if I read tomorrow that 2000 people had protested in front of the Capitol building in an effort to stop Barney Frank and his legion of idiots from giving Heinrich Paulson the “other” 350 Billion dollars of the TARP? No, I wouldn’t. Would I be surprised if 50 of them were arrested for blocking the doors, or sitting in the streets and chanting silly slogans like “hell no, we won’t go” until the cops came and carted them off to jail for a couple of hours. Nope, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

I’ve been there. I’ve been to jail for anti-Apartheid protests and anti-war protests. A few hours in jail, maybe overnight, that’s all. And these actions may have felt like a big deal at the time, but it is important to note that I wasn’t suffering. I wasn’t a Black man living in South Africa. I wasn’t a soldier fighting in the war. I was an angry kid fighting for ideas in which I believed, but I wasn’t hungry or homeless or cold or unemployed or unable to feed my children.

Here’s my point: It is real suffering that precipitates civil unrest of a violent, widespread and chaotic nature. When the unemployment rate hits 20% in cities like New York and Houston and LA by the winter of 2010, and when the United States of America experiences its first cholera outbreak in over a century because the water supply in a major urban area becomes contaminated with raw sewage, and when there simply isn’t enough food to go around, and when homeless children begin dying in their parents’ arms---then and only then will Denninger see the streets of Washington D.C. running red with blood.

Take a close look at American history, at the past 150 years, give or take a decade or two, when have we witnessed the most virulent and radical moments of civil unrest. The Vietnam War? Not really. I mean the National Student Strike was pretty dramatic, as was Kent State, but the anti-war movement was not a movement of hungry, poor, homeless, cold, unemployed people. It was predominantly a movement of smart, angry students who were dovetailing on the civil rights movement and the free speech movement and who had become relatively radicalized though emulating the actions of such groups as The Black Panther Party.

And what about the aforementioned Civil Rights Movement? Certainly the racist reaction against the civil rights protesters was violent, and yes there was rioting and civil unrest, but again this was a movement based to a great extent upon an idea---in this case the idea of freedom and equality---and not as much upon mass suffering. Yes, I am willing to admit that toiling under a racist regime is a form of suffering, and it is powerful, but it is still different from the physical, visceral suffering caused by hunger.

And so I would posit that movements based upon ideas, while at times quite volatile, are simply not the same as actions taken by people who have nothing left to lose. The actions of those who are losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their farms, losing their food---these are the actions of men and women whose reaction is based upon a direct threat to their actual survival! And the objects of their wrath are the people who both symbolize and represent their suffering.

A couple of examples: The anti-Renter movement of the 1830s and 1840s in upstate New York was a response to both the mass unemployment that followed the economic Panic of 1837 and the manorial system that existed in this part of US during this era. A few families owned virtually all of the land upon which the tenant farmers lived and worked. When money was tight the landlords could raise rents with impunity: that is until the renters began organizing and eventually battling against the landlord’s agents in a guerilla style “war” that lasted near a decade.

The Baltimore Riots of 1835---which ignited in response to a bank collapse and a loss by depositors of all of their savings---saw the attacks upon and burnings of the homes of bank officials as well as of the mayor of the city. Battles in the streets with the police lasted for days. Now some might argue that this situation is absolutely synonymous with today’s financial collapse: but remember, in 1835 money had yet to become a digitized commodity.

Additionally, this was a pre-insurance, pre-market diversified monetary environment. When the bank collapsed, that was that. And the folks who lost their money knew from bitter experience that soon enough they would be hungry and homeless. Not so today. While homelessness and poverty are sure to explode during the next few years, at this point there is still food to be had, social services to be tapped, shelters to be filled. You and I are not hungry….yet. And there were more: The Flour Riots of 1837, The Unemployment Riots of 1857, The Labor Riots of 1863, The Railroad Strikes and Riots of 1877, etc. I hope my point is clear: Civil unrest in the United States will occur again when people who are not accustomed to being homeless, hungry, unemployed and cold find themselves so.

And this time it’s going to be far worse than it was 175 years ago, because we’re talking a helluva lot more people than we were in the mid-19th century, and we’re talking a society that has come to rely upon grocery stores and fast food restaurants and electric blankets rather than upon farming and milling and hunting and curing and chopping and building.

And lest we forget: this is the Internet age, the YouTube society. One outburst of anger, one battle in the streets, one case of police brutality, and the whole thing blows. And when the shit hits the fan this time, it’s going to bring our federal government to the brink of collapse and failure. Because the government simply is not going to have neither the money nor the resources to house and feed 25 million hungry, homeless, unemployed people. And so of course George Bush sent the “Big 3” 20 Billion Dollars! It’s not that he gives a shit about the workers.

It’s also arguable that he is not spending the money to preserve at least a small portion of his legacy from riding the Stygian ferry into the fires of hell. No, he’s spending the money because he doesn’t want to have to respond to mass civil unrest as his presidency comes to an unceremonious close. He doesn’t want to be the last President of the United States Republic!! And that’s why Paulson and his band of merry scumbags are throwing money at anything they can throw money at. It’s not simply because Paulson wants to send his cronies off in style: that argument, while partially true, is over-determined.

The reason for the trillions and trillions being tossed hither and thither like beads at a Mardi Gras parade is because these guys really are scared that the rioters and looters could actually come to a city---and neighborhood---near theirs. And the thing is folks, it IS going to happen. It’s not an “if”, it’s a “when”.

There is of course no way to avoid the poverty and hunger and homelessness and mass unemployment that are going to hit the United States like a tsunami. The derivatives Ponzi scammers and the Madoff’s and the fraudulent lenders and the fraudulent mortgage companies and the fraudulent ratings agencies and the fraudulent accountants---all of these folks and more have created a situation in which the quadrillion dollar debt dam must eventually burst.

And Paulson and his cronies are desperately trying to kick the can down the road, and Obama and his cronies will kick the can further with their trillion dollar stimulus packages and tra la la la, but at some point the can is going fall into the sea. No more kicking. The gig will be up. And that’s when Karl Denninger can sit back and watch Washington and New York burn to the ground. Posted by Dan W at 11:09 PM
Comments for this article are very enlightening...please go to the Source.

IF I'M NOT A CONSUMER,

WHO AM I?

Carolyn Baker
DECEMBER 21, 2008
Source
On December 17, a Reuters story Downturn Spurs Survival Panic reported that, "A paralegal, recently laid off, wanted to get back at the ‘establishment' that he felt was to blame for his lost job. So when he craved an expensive new tie, he went out and stole one. The story, relayed by psychiatrist Timothy Fong at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital, is an example of the rash behaviors exhibited by more Americans as a recession undermines a lifestyle built on spending." In the coming months, the story continues, "mental health experts expect a rise in theft, depression, drug use, anxiety and even violence as consumers confront a harsh new reality and must live within diminished means."

In yet another story, The Great Accumulation Hits The Wall, the Wall Street Journal reported that: On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the first official day of the holiday shopping season, 31-year-old confessed shopaholic Nikki Ebben was holed up in her bedroom in Appleton, Wis., while her husband went to Wal-Mart to snag a $500 flat-screen TV. Ms. Ebben, who has maxed out 15 credit cards and racked up more than $80,000 in debt, says she vowed to stay away from stores. Still, she couldn't resist the temptation of e-commerce, particularly the appeal of 30% off and free shipping. While her husband was gone, she spent $400 at Toysrus.com and Target.com, using money from the couple's joint bank account.

I went crazy, admits Ms. Ebben, whose mother stopped speaking to her for a time because she owed her parents so much money. Both the Reuters and Wall Street Journal stories conclude that buying and consuming have become part of the national culture and offer people an identity-the identity of a consumer, which many will now be forced to abandon. Additionally, shopping has become a way for countless individuals to cope with their emotions.

Not only do the things we buy allow us to feel good momentarily, but the disease of consumerism has become so pathological that in many instances, people have come to believe that they are what they buy, and the more expensive and coveted brand or product makes a statement about who one is.

This is enormously significant because there's obviously more than "survival panic" going on here. I believe that it's not a stretch to conclude that for some, the inability to consume may be creating a fundamental existential crisis in terms of losing one's identity. This would certainly explain the bizarre violence that occurred at the Long Island Walmart on Black Friday a few weeks ago where an employee was trampled to death.

If consumption "rewards" human beings with a positive identity as well as the sense of financial security, then it is nothing less than an extremely powerful addiction. Withdraw the addictive substance or activity-or put it on sale at 70% off, and many people will behave like the street junkie who will do whatever it takes to score his next fix. I hasten to add that short of living on air, none of us can totally cease consuming. The issue, of course, is not consumption itself, but consumption that isn't about buying or bartering for what we truly need-consumption based on fear, insecurity, alienation, all of which are rooted in the human ego, as opposed to the human soul.

While we may want to shake our heads when hearing reports like the ones above, I consider them very positive aspects of economic collapse. Yes, these desperate individuals are suffering a plethora of emotions as they are forced into withdrawal from their drug of choice, shopping, but in my opinion, this is the upside of the unraveling.

There are no guarantees that any of them will experience a personal psychological or spiritual epiphany regarding the meaning of life, but as with any addiction, when the drug of choice is no longer available, an opening exists for the addict to make a different choice which may not have been possible without forced withdrawal. Welcome to cultural rehab in the throes of the collapse of Western civilization! In addition to their profound connection with the earth community, which dramatically informs their desires, indigenous cultures have in place a tradition, namely initiation, for planting and harvesting in their young, a foundational sense of identity.

This tradition is not simply a "rite of passage" but rather a series of ordeals, almost always occurring in a natural setting, through which the youth must pass that allow him/her to discover and utilize a deeper self. In fact, the ordeals are often constructed in such a manner that unless the youth can access that self, he/she may not physically survive. Any woman or man who has passed through such an experience will almost always attribute his/her survival to the support of the tribe, one's own connection with nature, and the opportunity to discover a previously unknown reservoir of courage, enabled by trust in oneself and other members of the community.

In a culture where tribal community, intimate connection with nature, and concomitant initiatory rites are absent, then the human psyche, which appears to inherently requires these for optimum functioning, will consciously or unconsciously devise its own rituals for constructing an identity. If this is so, then we may conclude two things: that initiation makes mindless consumption unnecessary, and that mindless consumption in search of identity is a substitute for initiation. In indigenous/traditional cultures, even when entire nations or villages are steeped in poverty, there is almost always a curious sense of "enough."

In fact, one usually finds there, more generosity, magnanimity, and compassion than anywhere in industrial civilization. One reason for this may be that beyond a sense of "I have enough because the tribe shares with me and I with them" is a more fundamental sense of "I am enough because I know who I am." In the Native American tradition, the four directions are guideposts for living and relating as we journey through the seasons of the year. I am fascinated by the dramatic discrepancy between what Winter symbolizes in the that tradition and what the culture of empire demonstrates at this time of year.

On the Native American medicine wheel, we find four directions, each representing a season of the year as well as a totem animal. Winter is the season of the North which contains the energy of the buffalo who has the courage and stamina to face the cold winds of the North. It also holds the energy of the tribal elder who has journeyed many times around the wheel and now looks back on her journey with seasoned wisdom and gratitude. The word "elder", of course, has little to do with age and everything to do with allowing oneself to be wizened as one traverses the wheel of experience and learning.

The North is also symbolic of warrior medicine-the definition of warrior being profoundly larger than someone engaged in combat. Much more than a mere fighter, the warrior is one who takes a stand for all that is harmonious with nature and all that supports the well being of the earth and tribal community.

Derrick Jensen frequently tells the story of the Cheyenne dog warriors who in battle would tie a rope around their waists to which was attached a picket pin. Driving the picket pin into the earth, they would remain in place until the battle was over, or another warrior relieved them, or until they died. In this way, the warrior committed to taking a stand and omitting any possibility of capitulation. The moral of the story, Derrick emphasizes, is the opportunity it presents for us to contemplate where in the culture of empire we will drive in our picket pin and not be moved.

Specifically, I would ask all of us, what are we willing to not consume? Where are we willing to take our stand, at the risk of losing life itself, on behalf of the earth community? An antidote to the frantic, voracious consumerism of modernity's holiday season might be quiet contemplation of the place of the North and its "medicine" as described above.

I write this on the eve of Winter Solstice in this dark time of year-a time in which, complementing the sun's journey, we are invited to focus within and commune with buffalo and the elders, a practice even more essential if we ourselves have entered elderhood. Although spring will come, and beyond it, summer, we are certain to face energetically the cold winds of economic collapse from now on, indefinitely.

Now, more than ever, we need buffalo medicine, strength, courage, wisdom, gratitude, and the perspective of the elder who holds a deep conviction that regardless of what we will be forced to endure, the medicine of the North, and the medicine of the other sacred directions, is at our disposal.

We are not consumers; we are the medicine of the North, South, East and West. Certainly, this is one of countless lessons that collapse has come to teach us. What would happen if we fully inhabited and savored the North and discovered that we are absolutely, unequivocally, enough? What would happen if each of us drives in our picket pin and refuses to be moved?

Complacency and the cost of souls

Time To Wake Up
And Smell the Economy

By Jon Ronnquist
"Information Clearinghouse"
December 18, 2008
Here at last then is the defining moment of our time, our legacy to whatever lies beyond this cataclysmic failure of the human race. For the want of understanding, the kingdom was lost. And all this in what could have been the golden age of mankind.

Call it scare mongering, call it incitement of panic, hell call it terrorism for all that catchphrase means. Just don't say I didn't warn you. The proverbial has hit the fan and the mess is going to be almighty.

By all valid accounts, which is to say all those you won't hear about, the linchpin of the global economy, the all mighty US Dollar, is on a death march. We are not talking about deflation either, this is going to be a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere. And with it will go everything and everyone whose plans, wealth and future was pinned on it, namely the western world as we know it.

How did this happen? Who is responsible? Why did we let it go so far? I suspect these questions will reach the lips of untold numbers before we see another winter. They are valid questions. Perhaps the only ones left that are worth asking. So let us not abandon them to posterity along with the ruins.

What looms on the horizon now is not a season for humility but the inevitable itself. This is the human race collapsing in on itself at the end of a long and slow process of rot which was eating away at the third world long before it reached the golden shores of the west. For a time we were all kings, walking tall beneath the banner of imagined destiny. In the east the grateful poor toiled at our behest and sang songs of praise to their generous masters beyond the sea. Or so we dreamt even as we watched them dead and dying at the hands of our henchmen. Now that our halls are crumbling beneath the weight of our own greed and false complacency, let us not dishonour the dead with our hollow pleas of innocence and ignorance. It is only we who do not yet know real suffering, to the world at large it has long since become a matter of course.

Were we manipulated into complacency? Of course we were. Does that absolve us of responsibility? Of course it doesn't. Our very laws are founded on the principle that it can't. It is all too easy to lay the blame at the feet of a handful of evil men. But you cannot stone the slave auctioneer when you are a profiteer of his trade. See reason and banish him by all means, but do not court hypocrisy by false disassociation.

I do not say that there is nothing left for which to fight. On the contrary this economic end of days may yet see us able to buy back our very souls. It is after all the first thing we lost and the most promising foundation for a newer and better world. But if that opportunity for amnesty does present itself, it must be extended to all or we will surely forfeit that most valuable of possession for good.

Stupidity, not economics, is the stepping stone to mass manipulation. Wise men do not buy fool's gold. Complaisance, selfish interest and false neutrality are the aftermath, not the catalyst of the human tendency to look away. But stupidity is the key. And to support the status quo after all it has taught us would be the final act of human ignorance for sure. Not to mention a pointless one.

To see this collapse of global finance as a problem would be short-sighted indeed. Of course in the west that seems to be the crime of which we are universally guilty, one and all. We must stop seeing the world in the false terms in which we have been schooled to look at it. Only then can we begin to appreciate that what is dying before us is only doing so because we didn't save it when it could still be saved. In it's current form, the system is beyond redemption. Any effort to piece this global economy back together will amount to nothing more than the penultimate concentration of wealth in history. A concentration so great that talk of police states and new world orders would cease to be talk all together. If you believe that another loan will see you through this rough patch and into open seas on the other side, you have not understood what is happening.

I do not say these things lightly. I myself am scarred to death of the uncertainties which lie ahead. But when the hammer falls at least I will not become paralysed with dumb shock. And whatever I do make of my future, I know it will not look anything like my past and that is a blessing.

Wake up or sleep tight. The time for easy options is running out.

Over and out.

Articles - December 8, 2008

The God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult
It has always been all marketing. Friedman ought to be dug up and hanged by his Nobel Medal.


Angry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago
And wouldn't you know it, they aren't even 'real' Americans.

OPEC: Get set for oil shock and awe

The Trojan Horses of Our Demise: Reconnecting to the Moral Sense
Married to arrogance, ignorance can kill.


US media giant considers bankruptcy
Too bad they didn't go bankrupt before they spread their poison lies to support the evil system that ate their ethics.

Chinese property hunters to raid US
Welcome to America's new landlord.

€125m of pork to be destroyed in biggest food scare since BSE
We poisoned the pigs; and now they are poisoning people - seems fair to me.

Man ordered to comply with EU rules when selling vegetable leftovers from his garden stall
Better throw away extra food;or the government will charge you.


Pakistani Security Consultant Calls Mumbai Attacks A “Botched” False Flag

Drone lands in ND in preparation for border patrol

Bush reported to be drinking heavily


General Ivashov: “International terrorism does not exist”
"...shows that terrorism contributes to a world dominance and the submissiveness of states to a global oligarchy. This means that terrorism is not something independent of world politics but simply an instrument, a means to install a unipolar world..." Good article exposing the terrorism hype and foreshadows the 'irregular war'.

Genocide in Educational Policy - For the future of Indigenous Peoples

Hopping robots display pack instinct
Stephen Hawking said this is how the human race would end; shades of the Matrix.


Tech commission suggests new cybersecurity post
Yep...O man is going to protect us from cyberspace.

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When the Celtic Tiger is lost

by Sheilanagig
November 20, 2008
The Irish economy is about to take a ride down the greased chute of major economic recession; in short, it is fecked. The best thing from this is that at least the government and the business sector are no longer trying to razzle and dazzle the people about the future.

In 2009, unemployment to hit 8%, GDP to shrink by 4%, exports to decrease by 6%, consumer spending down by more than 8%; and of course, this does not even touch all the inevitable social consequences that will surely follow these grim predictions. Economic recovery now predicted to take as long as eight years. We can only hope that these projections are not optimistic; and as Margot Channing once said, "Fasten your seat belts, this is going to be a bumpy night."

Watching the Dail debate on the current crisis is a bit like watching siblings fighting over who did what and should be reprimanded. If finger pointing were money, our government would be in fine shape. In this respect, Ireland is no different than any other country and is totally in line with our historical traditions of infighting for the best part of 800 years, no matter what the problem.

In reality, Ireland is a small open economy and can no more hide from global economic shocks than can any island in the path of a hurricane. Ireland has no natural resources to speak of and 90% of our export has been produced by American multinational companies who have located here to avail of low corporation tax. While this strategy may have worked for the past ten years, the affluence it has produced has cost Ireland in development of its indigenous business sector. Now, as the USA economy crashes, our dependence on it has become our greatest weakness.

In the mad rush to keep up with and even surpass the consumer materialism of our American cousins, the Irish have gorged themselves on credit to purchase all that 'stuff' their parents could never afford. Much like the post WW2 generation in the States, parents sought to give themselves and their children the consumer luxuries that were never available to previous generations. An entire generation has been suckled never knowing the hardship of want, able to splurge on any luxury, no matter how foolish, by using their plastic pass to Neverland, (credit cards financed by German money.) Ireland moved to the top of the EU as an economic success strategy; the future held the promise of more, more and more, as the population plunged deeper and deeper into debt.

The twenty something generation bought houses for a quarter million euros plus and all drove new 30K new cars, wore the lastest clothes and splurged on expensive vacations, all on credit. Every child had new mobile phones, designer shoes, the latest video games, personal computers and every other gadget the marketing machines said was needed to be 'normal'.

As the banks doled out money hand over fist, the property bubble inflated even larger than the American bubble, and still, the Celtic Tiger babies paid more and more for homes that were overpriced. All this revenue from property flooded the treasury coffers and the Irish thought they were now permanently among the richest countries in the world.

The Irish love affair with the American consumer lifestyle and business model beckoned us like the Pied Piper of Hamlet and we trustingly followed the tune right into the river. Razzle dazzle of American consumerism may have blinded traditional common sense; but surely few saw the underlying rotten structure of a lifestyle based entirely on debt and living beyond ones means. The Irish spent like drunken sailors with never a thought for tomorrow; but now the painful hangover has begun.

And 'begun' is the proper participle here, for property values have not hit bottom. In the USA, many properties have lost 30-40% of their value and are still dropping. Many states have enacted emergency legislation to give homeowners a chance before they are evicted from 'home sweet home'. Those who were the first victims of foreclosure often committed suicide, burned their houses down or simply walked away, homeless. Considering that Ireland's property bubble was even bigger than that of the USA, this hangover could be painful indeed, albeit on a smaller scale.

Besides blaming each other for our current state of economic decline, we could learn a few lessons with which to build a more stable future. The first lesson is, 'Monkey see, monkey do' is not the right strategy for a small open economy like Ireland. However desirable it is to liberalise trade, it cannot be done at the expense of our indigenous businesses. Our exports must reflect our comparative advantage which at present is the Irish brand.
Strategies that work for large industrial countries cannot be copied without sacrficing our political and economic well being.

The second lesson is one forgotton from centuries of oppression at the hands of the English: compassion, not material stuff, is the wealth of any community or country. There are values more important for the soul of a culture than the profit motive; the main goals of progress cannot be me, me and me, but rather, we, we and we. Marketing must be brought around to build prosperity on cooperation and community, rather than turning people into shallow images of consumer affluence emphasizing competing for self worth based on purchasing power. Any product that uses un-ethical marketing which harms the culture and people, must be boycotted; and as a people, the Irish must have the sense and courage to act. Nothing hurts a capitalist like raiding the profit margin; the system is easily controlled with the right whip and carrot.

The third lesson Ireland must learn has to do with debt. While debt can provide liquidity to small and medium size enterprises for growth, it can be a disaster when used to excess for personal consumption. The key word is here moderation; somehow Irish consumers must learn to balance their personal debt level and appetites for consumer purchases, with their long term ability to repay the balances. When personal debt level reaches 125% of income, disaster is not far away. The 'I want what I want when I want it' mentality leads only to consumers digging deeper and deeper debt traps which they will remain in for decades. Of course, since the banks have no self discipline to curb their own greed, they certainly have no desire to limit credit expenditures to a healthy level for individuals. This must be a lesson passed on from parents to children; obviously if parents become undisciplined borrowers to satisfy whims, the next generation will do the same.
The upcoming recession is a good time for Ireland to reflect on these lessons and to build again for the future, this time with more emphasis on who we want to be, rather than cloning ourselves after Americans. By building indigenous businesses and promoting our Irish products as our own brand of excellence, Ireland will again become prosperous, hopefully based on values other than crass consumer affluence.

All the right ingredients are present and the lessons to utilise them upcoming. With Irish courage and Irish heart, Ireland has the opportunity to lead the world in creating a more civilised economic model which honours both its heritage and other peoples of the world without imitating the failed American economy and culture.

Related Articles

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1015305.shtml
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/economy-may-shrink-by-huge-4pc-
http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1015273.shtml