The Power of Dreams…
Posted by nacnud in The system, economy, politics on May 7th, 2010
To hope against reality. To dream against facts. To pray against the cold light.
We state on the first page of http://www.realityinfo.org that “Reality exists outside your head”, and honestly, it really does. How you “view” reality does not impact physical reality in any way. Only physical interactions with physical reality can change it.
So if you’re in the UK and you “believe” in the current system of Democracy the chances are that you voted yesterday ( the 6th of May 2010 ) for a party of a particular colour; red, green, yellow, racist bstrds, blue, the choice was up to you. And you “believe” that that will make a difference to your life. It’s how you shape political reality and in turn you hope to have your voices heard and be validated by choosing your colour.
I have shown how, historically, putting a <X> in any box has made no real difference to “who’s in power” in essence. (http://www.realityinfo.org/news/?p=165 ) And how historically the choices presented to us have been very, very limited. Think of the old magician’s line: “pick a card, any card”, and you’ll get the gist.
Now, the key to understanding reality is to actually ask questions of it, and not just “believe”, as our current “Democratic” system would have you do. Let us look at Greece.
Greece
“After a dramatic parliamentary debate, Greek politicians have approved draconian austerity measures aimed at unlocking €120bn (£102bn) of emergency loans deemed crucial for the debt-stricken country to avoid insolvency.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/06/greece-crisis-approves-austerity-measures )
The key word here is “unlocking”, and I’ve highlighted it. Ignore the fact that the measures are labelled “draconian” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Draconian ), focus on the unlocking aspect just now. If there is a lock, there is a key holder:
“The IMF and eurozone nations had demanded tough economic reforms in return for the money ahead of a looming deadline on Greece’s debt repayment.” ( Same URL as above )
So you see, no matter who is politically elected by the people of the democratic state of Greece, in their free elections, is it the money men, who have the loan to bail out the country, that have the power. If the politicians did not pass the “draconian” measures then the money men would not have released the cash. *
So the people voted X as their representatives, but their representatives have had to smash the face of the voting public in by passing draconian measures.
“Greeks woke in sombre mood today, numbed by the deaths yesterday of three employees killed when a hooded protester threw a petrol bomb into a bank branch in central Athens.” ( Same URL as above )
But you say, of course, this is Greece, it could never happen here. It was likely a once off situation, and our politicians still make a huge difference and our will is done at every turn.
Let us cast our minds back a few years to the crisis of profit in Argentina.
Argentina
“The IMF has already provided Argentina with substantial loans.
There have been repeated arguments about whether the government has been implementing all of its reform pledges, the BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker says.
However, the executive board, made up of member countries of the IMF, appears to have been persuaded that the new programme could be made to work, he says. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3124950.stm )
Oh look, here we have it again; the executive board members of the IMF ( the money men ) seem to have been persuaded, so they can then release the money. That is, the IMF enforce both fiscal and social policies on a country before they will “bail it out”. The democratically elected “voice of the people” was shaped and made bow to the will of the money men. Creditors have all the say, right? And that’s “natural”, at least in this system.
Another nail in the coffin for “your vote makes a difference”, if you ask me.
Bigger Picture
You can see quite clearly that it is the money men that are calling the shots here, no matter who is elected on what mandate, to serve the people, to which ever parliament.
Capitalism is a system that is driven by the need for profit. It is not looking out for workers in Greece as they face the most draconian of cuts to their living conditions in living memory:
“The plans hope to achieve budget cuts of 30bn euros over three years – with the goal of cutting Greece’s public deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014. It currently stands at 13.6%.
Implementing them is also a condition of Greece receiving the billions of euros in loans it needs as part of the EU-IMF rescue deal agreed this month.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10099143.stm
Who knows which country will be next to feel the icy grip of the money men? Who knows who’ll have to pay their debts back next, or face the consequences? Which PIG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_%28economics%29 will be next to the slaughter? Which next democratically elected government will be held to ransom by the money men?
Ramblings
This author is left with the feeling that most of us would rather live in a make believe world of dreams and beliefs than actually deal with the reality around us. It gets very frustrating to think that my fellow human beings perceive the only way to make a difference to their lives is to put an <X> on a piece of paper once every 5 years, despite the overwhelming body of evidence that shows that that <X> makes not a single ounce of difference at all.
Oh don’t worry, dream on, live in a make believe world, none of this will ever happen in the UK. We’re sound as a pound.
I’m Connected,
Dunk
*[ I understand that there is a counter point to this that they would have maybe had to loan cash in any case to save a default on the loans – but that’s another story and only speculation ]
Democracy Rocks!
All,
I think we should all work out which way to vote.
It is really important. I mean, almost vital to the continuation of the country as a whole.
Does anyone believe that any more?
Let us look at the concrete facts, as those tend to tell us much more than “beliefs”, in any walk of life.
1) Bush Snr moved into the White House in the “greatest democracy” on the face of the planet, the USA, back in 1981. Well, if he was not actually living there, he was vice president.
2) Bush Snr finally moved 2 mile down the road and into the White House in 1989.
3) He was usurped, by Bill Clinton in the 1992 election.
4) In turn, Clinton, was replaced by George W Bushr ( Bush Jnr ) in 2001
5) And the families basically swapped back when Hillary Clinton moved into the White House circles as Secretary Of State in 2009.
So we have had either a Bush or a Clinton with really powerful influence, if not perceived total control, over the USA for the last 29 years.
That is the “greatest democracy on the planet” in action. There are northwards of 250 Million Americans. Now, I’m no statistician, but if “democracy worked” then I’d be guessing that we’d be seeing some other names hanging around the top two or three post. Oh yeah, Obama. He must be such a departure from the normal run of things. Yeah. Dream on.
So how does this equate to the situation in the UK? Well, since 1922 we have basically had a two party state; Lab / Con. Big Con if you ask me 
Before 1922 we actually had a “Liberal” Prime Minster. Suffice to say the “choice” that has been presented to us has always been Red or Blue, and nothing in between. Green has always been a joke and the Yellow Liberals, until maybe this time, have never had a look in.
However, no matter the colour you pin your god forsaken hopes on, you have to realise that they all serve big business. No matter what their pledges are, they are bound, as we’ve seen by the bank bail out, to serve the interests of big business. Your petty concerns are almost neither here nor there. “War. Not in my name”. Aye right. “We’re off to fight.”. There’s profit to be generated and fear to be created. “Oh, don’t bail out the banks”. No, we’d be fooked if we didn’t.
According to the Tlegraph the UK Gov owned about 95 percent of the RBS banking group in Feb 2009. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4841076/Taxpayer-will-own-95pc-of-RBS.html)
Red, Yellow or Blue, it’s all the same to you, you’ll be ignored at every turn.
If you really do want to make a difference this poling day, join with your fellow humans and organise street rallies and decide to walk away and do this whole system “pro human” and not “pro profit”.
Or, of course, put your blind “faith” in democracy and maybe, just maybe, this time it’ll work out just perfectly for you.
Over to you John:
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Peace
Dunk
Just agree…okay…it won’t hurt that way…
“In a statement to MPs, Mr Johnson said the reason for sacking Prof Nutt was not “the work of the council but because of his failure to recognise that… his role is to advise rather than criticise”.
Oh, so if he’d said, “I advise that you’re way out of line here and totally wrong”, that would have been okay? Was it just a bad choice of words?
“Mr Johnson said Prof Nutt had “acted in a way that undermined the government rather than supporting its work”.”
How dare Mr Nutt question those in charge of paying his wages! What would have happened if those Stalanistic, Hitler like entities had asked him for a way to create a drug that would best kill member of the electorate? What if it was some other dude in the gov that thought that gas chambers were a bad idea?
If you are sitting there smug thinking that this does not affect you, I know you’re wrong. First it’s this guy, or maybe Mr Kelly was first, but first it’s this guy, and then to those that are pro human rights or pro something else that the gov can’t abide under the current capitalist system.
Where will this end people? I argue, that that is up to you.
I’m Connected.
Peace,
Original Article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8337185.stm
Tryin’a get themselves arrested ( GomezTheBand )
Posted by nacnud in The system on September 28th, 2009
Protest against this or that:
Be anti G-20 – And get yourself arrested.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/28/nearly_200_arrested_as_police_unleash
Be anti-animal-testing – And get yourself arrested.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/may/02/businessofresearch.ukcrime
Be anti-high-fuel-prices – And get yourself arrested.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/6417680.html
Be anti-discrimination-against-parents – And get yourself arrested.
http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2009/06/22/68983/fathers-4-justice-arrested-after-tower-crane-protest.html
Be anti-nuclear – And get yourself arrested.
http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1478
Be anti-civil-war – And get yourself arrested.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/07/london-sri-lanka-protests
It’s not rocket science. It’s easy done.
That’s what you get if you go out and protest at “seats of power” or “try to demand” something from a system that’s not based on human needs, but the needs of profit. If you get in the way of it, you get squashed.
So stop being anti-this-that-or-the-other, and be pro you. Pro human.
Join with the rest of us. We do not need to march on Central Square or High Street and ask for permission to be humans. We don’t need to ask, like children in a classroom; if we want to organise as pro human, we can just do it!
So stay away from the lying politicians.
Avoid the armed guards.
Stay clear of the police.
Join together and make a better place.
Don’t protest against.
Cooperate with your fellow human.
I’m connected
Peace.
G8 pledges to boost food supplies
All,
According to the BBC today (Reference1) the G8 nations have pledged a staggering 20Bn dollars ( that’s Twenty Billion ) to create “food security” in the poorest nations on the face of the planet.
According to the BBC on the 26th of Feb 2009:
“The [UK] government will inject £13bn [$21Bn] into RBS to strengthen its balance sheet on top of the £20bn[$32Bn] the government already injected into RBS last year. The bank will have access to another £6bn[$9.7Bn should it need it.” (Reference2)
So if we total the support that just the UK government gave to just one bank, RBS, then we see that the total is $63Bn ( that's Sixty Three Billion Dollars ). That's:
Just one company.
Just one bank.
Just one set of shareholders.
And they get at least sixty three billion in support!
So lets put, as a percentage of that bail out to that one bank, the pledge by all of the G8 nations to help 49 of the poorest countries achieve “food security”31.75%
Seems like a reasonable figure...but that's to go around 49 countries. So lets divide that by 49 to see what each country would get:
0.65%
And that percentage is if we just look only at the RBS figure alone and only at the UK government investment. If we cast our eye across the Atlantic to the USA then we are shown the scale of this pledge by the G8 as nothing more than a drop in the ocean and it really does show where their priorities lie.
According to the money.cnn.com (Reference3) the total capitalism bail out cost, to date, is roughly around $371 ( that's Three Hundred And Seventy One BILLION dollars ). So that makes the G8's pledge just
5.39%
of that total. Meaning that each country in the 49 poorest countries in the world would get
0.11%
of that which was given to save companies and capitalism.
Companies which have, in essence, gone bust. Under free capitalism the companies have went broke. But no, that's not allowed now, in the 21st Century, the rules have changed. Businesses must be saved, or at least, that was the thinking in the late part of 2008 and through 2009.
What cost to save humans? 0.11% of which the Americans alone have spent on saving companies!
And the pledge is just money to try and ensure food security!?!?
I don't even think that as humans we should be in a situation where members of our species rely on hand outs to survive: it is against our very being.
Is this really the year of our lord AD 2009? Did I waken up 500 years ago when famine, poverty, disease was rife? What's going on? Surely there must be a better way.
People in lesser developed countries actually keep people in “more developed countries” alive by producing a huge amount of goods for them. When was the last time you saw a tea field in the UK or a banana plantation? Or for that matter a whole string of clothing manufacturers or even car makers? And where do rich nations get their sugar and what bout runner beans and other vegetables?
The UK is a prime example of needing every other country on the face of the earth for its well being. From China and its cheap goods to the USA to buy any exports they may still make. From Kenya and its food produce to the Dominican Republic and its bananas.
Just like the notion of an “individual human”, the notion of an “individual country” is just as senseless. No country can survive on its own. No human can do that either.
Yet this system chooses to spend 0.11% of the money it chose to spend on companies on humans to just try to bring about “food security”?
And it's not just me that realises this system is pushing humans towards the brink, the Vice Executive Director of the World Food Programme said:
"$20 billion was a last-minute agreement and it was greeted with great happiness by all of us in the conference room. While we are rebuilding agriculture we need to continue supporting food assistance because the financial crisis is pushing another 103 million people into hunger this year," said Staffan de Mistura, vice executive director of the World Food Programme. “ (Reference4) [My bold italics]
I’m glad they were happy: I’m not.
Is this 2009? Is this the best way we can conceive to live, as a species? I can offer a million solutions, right now. I can think of a billion different ways. But, of course, we all have to want it.
Are you too brow beaten to know what it is that is best for you and for us?
No more of this nonsense, not in my name; never.
Peace,
Dunk
Reference1: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8143566.stm
Reference2: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7911722.stm
Reference3: http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker/
Reference4: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/g8-pledges-20bn-farm-aid-to-poor-nations-1740993.html
Notes:
1)All Pound to Dollar Conversion carried out on the 11th of July 2009 using www.xe.com
2)The 49 countries was stated on Radio Five Live on the 10th Of July 2009
The Darling of Our Collective Eye
Title:
Darling rules out radical changes in City white paper
Original Link: Guardian
All,
It saddens me to read some of the comments here. From “I’ve no idea how to fix it either” to the “hatred” of bankers and the seeming “dismay” at politicians actions. Almost every single post is tinged with the notion of helplessness and impotence.
People, the problem here is, you’re thinking INSIDE the box. That’s not going to help at this time. You have to learn to step back and think OUTSIDE the box. See the box for what it really is. You have been enslaved, by getting up at 07:30 each morning, paying your taxes and believing and supporting a system that has no regard for you, as a human. In fact, it has no regard for any human. The system you supported by your every action and thought has brought you to this place. That is undeniable.
And you expect a few nice words from the government will “solve” the issue whilst you still participate in the same old same old? The whole fabric and nature of capitalism is set up for profit; it has nothing to do with you. It can not be re-focused as to so would be to prevent it from being called capitalism.
Notice, in the very word: C a p i t a l-ism. Not H u m a n-ism
Nothing in this system is for you. Nothing your “leaders” can do can fix this system. It crashed in an organic way, and it will be what it is until the components of the system, you and I fellow reader, actually look at each other as humans and stand up for what it is to be human.
Why you continue to look for solutions to a systemic problem within the rules of the system that brought you to this place in the first instance is beyond me. The solution is obvious if you look beyond. Isn’t it time you woke up?
Get connected. Get Reality info.
Peace,
Dunk
Starting to think a bit…
The markets are crashing…
To the winds investors dashing…
No more profit for the taking…
Inside their heads…
Their minds are breaking…
Outside in reality the dawning bites…
What colour of black our darkest nights…
Downward spiral becoming so tight…
Only stopping when humans unite…
The delusions you base your life on…
Have walked a long road, and gone…
That road does not have a kink…
It’ll take you all the way to the brink…
It may even make you
STOP
And Think
This system is focused on profit. Your life is a by-product of that focus. You have a job when there is a profit to be turned. Look at the current redundancies..why? Because there is no profit in it for them to keep these workers ( you ) employed.
So we all tacitly prop up a system that is profit focused and not human focused and we are shocked:
That we have no pensions.
We cannot get a mortgage.
We have the spectre of unemployment hanging over our heads.
The stock markets are crumbling.
There is talk of depression.
And we are shocked.
That, is the most flabbergasting aspect to all of this. Humans are so blinded by a system that is not even there to support them that they clamber to have it back. Resurrect it. Save it. Cyclical misery. Why fight for that?
We can surely work out a way to want and get more?
Watch Out – The Union’s about…
Original Article: Guardian
Hi,
I want to start this by saying that I have every sympathy with anyone that is thrown on the scrap heap of redundancy as they are no longer needed to make a profit for any given organisation within the capitalist system. Of course these organisation are only focused on profit generation and not on any of the individual cogs within the organisation themselves.
It is with dismay, therefore, that I read about Unions and their need to “fight for jobs”. To me this is akin to asking your persecutor to be persecuted some more. If any logical analysis is undertaken of the situation then these following points have to be starkly obvious:
1) Jobs are only ever there if there is a profit to be generated by the creator of the job.
Therefore jobs are not “created” or “maintained” for humans, but for profit.
2) Any company that is talking about “reducing the workforce” is doing so as they are struggling to make profit so jobs are under threat as rule 1 is broken.
So in steps the unions; “save our jobs” / “give us our jobs back” / “please don’t make us redundant”.
What a forward thinking and progressive mantra they chant. Unions have roots going back to 1870 or so in some places and yet they are still singing the same old tune; Give us our jobs back until we have to chant this same thing again.
Is it only me that finds the logic of asking to be put back into the fire of uncertainty, time and time again, as totally against what it means to be human? Surely we learn from the past and not just about the past?
The cyclical nature of boom and bust of capitalism, as it has been to date, leads the unions to have a slightly higher prominence at certain times yet they still come back to the same old arguments and points that show that they do not understand the very nature of capitalism.
Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, criticised Lloyds for damaging staff morale by making “weekly announcements of hundreds of job losses”.
The owners of the business don’t give a hoot about moral. As long as profit is generated, then all is good. If it’s not being generated then jobs are for the chop. Very, very simple.
Ged Nichols, general secretary of Accord, urged Lloyds to avoid compulsory job cuts. “We believe that UK taxpayers will expect the bank to work in partnership with Accord and the other unions representing its employees to minimise unnecessary unemployment, particularly given the support that UK taxpayers have provided to the bank,” he said.
Poor deluded and naive Ged. It’s like he’s just gotten out of kindergarten ( Nursery school ). When will he realise that capitalism and the generation of profit is a business matter and not a matter of morality? Therefore no “debt” of kindness is implied by a loan of money from any source; business is business and the business at hand is profit generation, to heck with the cost. I mean, a system that would feed dead sheep to a cow, which is a herbivore, just to turn a profit; what more do you need to know?
Get connected and choose another way. Or stand outside your closed down places of work and ask for them to take you back on so that at some stage in the future they can sack you again.
Have it your way, I’m getting connected, join me 
Peace,
GM is Bad For You
Posted by nacnud in CreditCrunch, RullingClass, economy on June 2nd, 2009
Original Link: The Guardian
Oh wait, I was thinking of Genetically Modified foods, maybe General Motors is better? It was once the corner stone of American capitalism and today it is no more.
The carmaker has received $19bn of emergency aid from the treasury to keep it afloat and a further $30bn of government funding is likely to be forthcoming to see it through bankruptcy.
Mr Obama is pledging the huge sums of money to help resurrect it in some form and to maintain the brand GM but the company that powered a lot of American has fallen foul of the most dramatic downturns that Capitalisms has seen to date.
“You will have to make a sacrifice for the next generation so that our children can grow up in an America that still makes things.” – Barack Obama
That doesn’t sound to me like a system that humans really want to buy into. What?! More sacrifices just so we’ve got profit so we’ve got an excuse to make things that humans need?
Wow. It’s not like you and I don’t need cars any more, it’s just that there’s no profit in generating them they way they have been generated. And it’s not like it’s just GM, there is the demise of Chrysler too. Well, okay, they both still exist, but they are in administration and the Gov owns a majority stake in both companies.
In American we, as a species, now have a nationalised car industry.
In return for its support, the Obama administration is likely to get a 60% ownership stake in the company. Canada’s government, which is contributing billions of dollars in further help, will get 12.5% with unions and bondholders holding the rest.
Obama said the massive reorganisation of GM would leave the US government holding 60% of the company’s equity. But it was necessary to preserve an iconic symbol of American business and maintain a viable US auto industry.
Iconic symbol; there you go. If the symbol is a metaphor for the system, then the one that it stood for has just crumbled and has needed to be put on life support.
Mr Obama goes on to say:
“I recognise that this may give some Americans pause,” he said. “We’re making these investments not because I want to spend the American people’s tax dollars but because I want to protect them.”
So that is an admission that the previous way of doing things, the free market, failed. Yet you all sit back and watch as the ruling classes try to put the very institutions back together that crumbled in the first place. They are bailing them out. Does this not show an astonishing lack of creative thinking? Does it not highlight a bankrupt thought process?
The logic is very simple; method A has failed, let us try method A.
You will notice the huge difference this time round though; we, as humans, own the fabric of institutions. Still, their focus, the ruling class, is to re-establish a business in the same mould as the old one. They assume that Method A is the only approach to life on this planet. And I dare say a lot of you will sympathise with them.
To me the very notion just stinks of irrational and illogical thought patterns that an educated flee could work its way around. Don’t let fear or conditioning stand in the way of you demanding a society that is fit for, and focused on, human need.
The State Of Things
Lest we forget, remember the free and open market that was the banking sector and it’s now newly nationalised status too.
Capitalism, as it was in October 2008 is not what is now in June 2009. The whole world has changed as the largest and most central organisations and been necessarily bailed out by central money. Tax payers money. Government money. Your money. Our money.
Thousands of humans will be made redundant; because there’s no more profit in x, y or z.
You will know people that have been laid off. Companies only hire you when they can make profit from you. Yet you need goods all year round.
You need car parts when you’ve bought a car.
You need food all year round.
You need water all year round.
All of these commodities are brought to you by the same mechanism that brought you banking and cars; the open and free market.
A free market that is focused on production of profit, not on human need; we are an after thought in a system that we all support.
A Mantra
Say this over and over, it may help you to preserve your faith in the current state of things:
The chaotic winds blow over me
I’m struggling striving to be free
Have no fear this market is free
So unplanned and good for me
Any time anyone wants one more human to join in as a voice against this current scourge on the planet, just get in touch.
In hope.
Advertising…
Posted by admin in Site Information on May 17th, 2009
Just taking the chance to link a few sites together.
There’s a crowd over at www.wiserearth.org that may be aiming to do things along the same line as us and I’ve posted a few comments in some of their groups. You may want to take a look…
http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/8473c49ea5e8ecdae0588102e8b7cf70
http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/43eb9ab54526d754e2f84c4a607bae04
http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/a0b90c9245e8f5f6acfa060bac433e77
Peace.