Displaying 2,641 To 2,670 Of 3,373 Comments Capitalism: A Good Kid Gone Bad Wonderfully informative and inspiring, choicelady! It brings up a couple thoughts: we need to shame greed and exploitation. We need to ridicule and stigmatize the kind of greed and hoggery we are seeing that threatens all of us in very real ways. We still don’t, really. We admire the Jaguars and the Rolexes, the Armani suits and the trophy wives. We envy the folks who have those things, even if they get it by moving digits around on a computer and shaving off little bits and pieces of it, “fake money” that doesn’t come from anything produced, just finagling. We envy them even if they work for oil companies and weapons manufacturers. However they get “it”, by having it, they de facto become people that society lavishes its respect and admiration on. How do we stop this? In fact, when did we become so focused on this? We have a disease. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 11:43 pm I just can’t see that, choicelady. How could anyone LOVE what we are seeing today? Even the ones who are causing all the damage, they don’t love the system, they just love how it works for them, how it brings them all the things they want, the money and the glamourous lifestyle. She was a writer; hardly the easiest path in life to make millions! I truly find it hard to believe that she would look upon what we have in the US today and feel satisfaction, would feel “Now THIS is what I was talking about!” » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 11:25 pm If Ayn Rand were alive to see what is happening, I wonder what she would have to say. Not her followers, the Objectivists and Libertarians, because from what I can tell they are still quite defensive about her and her legacy. To them, she’s more an ideal than a flesh and blood person. I don’t agree with her philosophy of egotism, but I also recognize that it came from a place of deep thought within her, and ultimately from a desire to use her mind to contribute to a better world. I think it is not all that hard to imagine that she would say, “I was wrong. I trusted the Unseen Hand too much. I trusted progress too much. I’m just another idealist who managed to miss the biggest elephant in the room; the low developmental level of compassion, ethics and wisdom of my species in its current state. Laisssez Faire Capitalism is NOT the answer, and can never possibly be until people find a way to combat the corrosive effects of greed”. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 9:33 pm yes, yes, of course. I didn’t mean to lay it all at the feet of technological misuse. These things tend to work together anyway, which is why I find the reductive thinking of the “It’s all religion’s fault!” crowd to be so far off the mark. None of these things operate in a vacuum. A Grand Inquisitor with the technology of a torture device is a human monster about whom EVERYTHING is corrupted. His religion, his greed for power, and the use of technology to harm instead of do good. Dogmatic, exceptionalist religions have caused much harm, I readily agree. But never by themselves, always as extensions of humans, who do harm in so many other ways as well. Christopher Hitchens offers this challenge: Name one thing that religion offers mankind that could not come about through non-religious means. I’ll play along with that proposal and assume there are none. Then I’d like to ask him to name one occurrence like the bombing of Hiroshima or the gas chambers of Treblinka that COULD have come about without scientists and engineers working hard to bring them about? Or, for that matter, name one environmental catastrophe caused by religion that in any way compares to what the misuse of science is doing now. I can wait as long as he can. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 9:23 pm I completely agree! In fact, in a way I see them as two totally different aspects of our brains! Maybe it’s right hemisphere/left hemisphere; probably something much more complex, but what’s apparent is that people who have a genuine place in their heart and mind for spirituality are unable to communicate that with either fundies or “angry atheists”. It’s like being a parent; you can say, “It sure is great having a kid!”, but you can’t possibly convey WHAT is great to someone who is childless by choice. Experiences such as those can’t be described to people who don’t have them, the description will always fall short of the true essence. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 6:01 am I don’t get it either. Nor do I get how they have it worked out that science is going to save us from all our troubles when scientific achievement is so obviously a double edged sword. It’s like KQ points out, our species seems to have a way of turning ANYTHING into poison! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 3:59 am They have all the code words, and it is so trite, so smug. “Flying Spaghetti Monster”, “Tooth Fairy”, “Bronze Age Myths”, “Sky Fairy”, “Jeebus”. I think that’s it for the main ones. They write them like they just thought them up, and yet they have been using the same unoriginal, no-thought-required put downs for years now. All of which only demonstrate that they themselves have never had an authentic spiritual experience, not that they are smart. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 3:25 am Writing a lot on this subject, but here is another “pet peeve” of mine. Over at HP, whenever an article about spirituality or religion, either good or bad, comes out, there is always a cadre of atheists who jump in uninvited, to very gratuitously proclaim that religion is the cause of all the world’s evils. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 2:32 am Topsoil erosion is another example of this. That, and the despoiling of water, are probably the two biggest threats to our health as a species. We are letting gigantic, shortsighted industries fill up our soil, as well as our oceans, with chemicals. In this case, chemically manufactured nutrients and pesticides which over the long term are very harmful to the soil’s natural metabolism. This is the same as what we do to the animals we eat, pumping them up with steroids and antibiotics and so forth. Except we are doing it to our SOIL! Can you imagine how dangerous this becomes when our soil can take it no more and gives out? Three short words answers that question, “no more food”. But our giant agribusiness conglomerates would rather do it this way than allow the natural fallow periods soil needs to rejuvenate itself. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 2:18 am Very wonderful sentiments, Hopeington, and very much in line with my own recent ponderings. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 12:55 am I agree with you, KQ, and I think the problem is not just too many people, it is too many “extra” people. What I mean is that our current societies run differently than the tribal based roots of civilization, where every person counted, and every person’s well being was necessary to ensure the survival of the tribe against predators and invaders. Leaving capitalism aside, one could also posit agrarianism as the first of many missteps we took toward getting to the cliff we hover precipitously over today. Tribes existed as population-serving entities, but today, populations feed and sustain the system itself. It’s backwards! As we march onward in “progress” we continually create new industries that cause old vocations to become obsolete, and we justify this by saying it is to create a more efficient system for everyones’ ultimate benefit. Even in our own minds we have become convinced that “society”, “civilization” etc, are more important than PEOPLE, which is downright absurd when given any thought. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 12, 2010 @ 12:53 am Cool! “Leave Me Alone” has to be one of the saddest songs ever written, because it’s about Ian Curtis’ suicide. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 8, 2010 @ 6:26 am Q, how on earth did you come up with that???? » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 8, 2010 @ 6:02 am Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division Leave Me Alone – New Order Death Or Glory – The Clash Pump It Up – Elvis Costello » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 8, 2010 @ 5:09 am https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEalg62F8Zg » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 8, 2010 @ 5:05 am I see Tom Cruise playing air guitar in his underwear. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 2:41 pm Yes, that’s it exactly. Perhaps the reason that hate is so destructive is because it is fed and nourished. With rage, you get senseless acts of violence, which are bad enough. But with hate, you get Treblinka and Abu Ghraib. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 8:59 pm I will, but later. It’s still morning in Tokyo and I don’t want to sour my whole day. 🙂 » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 2:50 pm I understand and respect that, KQ. I don’t hate anyone, but I completely agree with you that there are people so benighted that, at least in this life, they are irredeemable. And thanks for your words about my post. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 2:44 pm Wonderful story, Mightywoof. Thanks so much for posting it. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 2:17 pm That one may be the least “funny”, because it’s the most true! If you could bottle all the “miffed” people feel when they don’t get that it’s satire, and sell it as perfume, you’d be very rich indeed. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 4:00 am These are so great! I’m grinning ear to ear. And I’m glad to get the reassurance about pants. I always figure you don’t have to wash them until they can walk on their own. Fantastic! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 3:24 am My Fair Lady, Where Did You Go? No, I should. Forgive me for the levity; I’m just so impressed by the science-speak! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 11:23 pm hee hee! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 10:33 pm Here’s what they’ll do. They’ll get Tiger Woods to do the ads. They’ll close up on his pouting, remorseful face. You’ll hear his dad talking to him, asking what he’s learned. As the camera pans out and away, he’ll be cradling an oil soaked bird in one arm and holding a scrubber in the other. Then, the caption. “We’re BP. We’ll make things right.” Nice article, Patsy! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 9:08 pm I’ve called out the mutagenic nature of estrogen mimickers in many surfactants in a bar once or twice, after one too many beers, and believe you me, it got nasty! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 9:05 pm The Birthplace of Democracy in Ruins Wonderfully put, as always, choicelady, and AdLib for the OP! Your words (both of you) are so true. It has become painfully obvious by now that the current system works backwards. People feed IT, and not vice versa. This is so bizarre; we eliminated most of our natural predators, with only the measliest, i.e. mosquitos and microbes still actually threatening us, so what do we do? Voila! We create our own, very UNnatural, predator. The Jabberwocky, the Heffalump, the Boogie Man. It just swallowed up the Gulf of Mexico, fercryinoutloud! It is insatiable, and we, our human dignity, our cultures, our past, etc. mean exactly NOTHING to it! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 6, 2010 @ 3:30 am Hi MsB. Thanks so much for checking it out. I’m in the middle of a move now so not posting so much, but between here and there we can always manage to find each other, as furry friends so often do! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 23, 2010 @ 7:07 pm Thanks, Boomer, again! I just went out for a bit, and didn’t see this comment from Lise. But, much agreement, we need her around here more often! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 4, 2010 @ 8:07 pm hee hee! » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 4, 2010 @ 8:05 pmComments Posted By whatsthatsound
Remember “All in the Family”? Could such a show have any hope of being produced today? It was edgy, confrontational, issues oriented at its heart, proudly liberal. And Americans ate it up! It was as popular at its height as any show in history, and spun off several others. Every one of them, from “Maude” to “The Jeffersons”, were far more progressive than anything we have today. And they had HEART! They weren’t like The Simpsons or South Park, more snark than heart. Today Americans watch Jack Bauer protect the American people by torturing bad guys. Archie Bunker is still with us today – but he’s the AUDIENCE now!
How did religion cause the oil leak, I wonder?
You don’t see a bunch of religious believers jumping on every environmental catastrophe, saying that science, or at least technology, is the cause of all the trouble. And yet we are talking about a SERIOUS downgrading of human life through misuse of technology, and, let’s not forget, enough weaponry in existence to do all the damage in one fell swoop. The atheists all go on HP, and tell us that science is the only hope of mankind. They are displaying cognitive dissonance when they do so. Can anyone tell me that it is one hundred percent established that religion has caused more death and pain than technology? Can anyone POSSIBLY make the case that if any OTHER species of animal or plant on this planet was polled as to which they would rather see humans had never developed, that a single one of them would have chosen religion?
Groovy, baby!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHYOXyy1ToI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEJpmDUMKco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwzMuuGOsVI
Roxy Music Virginia Plain
Cookin’
“I Shall Not Hate” – what a strong, enlightened perspective to take. I have thought about this often. First the question is “Whom to hate?” and the more we think about it, is it really even possible to hate a person? No, we hate what they DID, or DO, but not they themselves. A sickness causes them to do the things they do that harm us. We may as well hate a person for catching pneumonia.
Then, “What to hate?” A deed? How can we hate a deed? It can enrage and infuriate us, or frighten and demoralize us, yes. But can a deed be hated? It’s roots are stupidity, ignorance, fear. Do we hate those? We might as well hate a two year old throwing a tantrum, then. Or the tantrum.
Ultimately, we are left with only the feeling itself; hate. We have a choice. Nurture it or refuse it. It comes down to that. And that reminds me of the story of the tribal elder telling the children of the tribe that he had two wolves inside him, a loving, kind one and a hateful, ravenous one and that they are at constant war with each other. “Which will win?”, the children ask him. And he answers, “The one I feed.”
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