Month: December 2010

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin — more even than death.

“Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit.

“Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid.

“Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” – Bertrand Russell

We live in a period of enclosures unparalleled since the sixteenth century.

• The freedom of all types of cultural and literary acts is vital. • All practices that hinder freedom of publishing should be eradicated. • Linguistic oppression is unacceptable. • Digital media is essential for freedom of thought and expression.

“How often in history do you have a person, a woman, who never curses, never steals anything, never does anything illegal and you put her under house arrest for 24 years, it is just insane.”

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
—W. H. Auden

Umair Hague:

The untapped capacity to create significance (and all the stuff that follows on from it — higher purpose, a sense of meaning, animating passion, intrinsic motivation) has never been more important: I’d gently suggest it’s the wellspring of 21st century advantage.

…the real roots of this crisis are that 20th century institutions, whether banks, governments, or corporations, are becoming more and more useless to people, communities, and society. They’re extracting wealth from them, instead of creating enduring, authentic value for them. And that game of musical chairs is this Great Stagnation writ large.

Matt Taibbi, where good rant is extraordinary relief:

Week after week, month after month, we watch politicians who disappoint us, not just as leaders but as people, failing to achieve the basic life-competency standard we expect of most grown-ups, doing things we wouldn’t tolerate from 15-year-olds.

It’s sad but true, but in 99.9% of all cases, you wouldn’t think of looking up to an elected official as a moral role model. Which is why Bernie Sanders is such a rarity, and people should appreciate what he’s doing not just for his home state of Vermont, but for the reputation of all politicians in general.

Here’s how Bernie put it:

“How can I get by on one house? I need five houses, ten houses! I need three jet planes to take me all over the world! Sorry, American people. We’ve got the money, we’ve got the power, we’ve got the lobbyists here and on Wall Street. Tough luck. That’s the world, get used to it. Rich get richer. Middle class shrinks.”

Roger Ebert is asking, really asking, when will women break free of cruel institutions?

Only two weeks ago, a Republican filibuster in the U. S. Senate prevented passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have added teeth to measures for equal pay.

The Republicans presumably feel they have some support from women on this subject, especially those following religions which preach that a woman must submit to the will of her husband: Either her actual husband, or her legislatorial surrogate.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, ex- US National Security Advisor :

SPIEGEL: And the American decline. Are Americans aware of that trend or does the fate of Carter await President Barak Obama should he openly address the issue?

Brzezinski: I am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition in a country in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be pursued. And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world.

SPIEGEL: Yet the American right is still convinced of American exceptionalism.

Brzezinski: That is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant.

Henry Porter:

Publication of the cables has caused no loss of life; troops are not being mobilised; and the only real diplomatic crisis is merely one of discomfort. The idea that the past two weeks have been a disaster is self-evidently preposterous.

Yet the leaks are of unprecedented importance because, at a stroke, they have enlightened the masses about what is being done in their name and have shown the corruption, incompetence – and sometimes wisdom – of our politicians, corporations and diplomats.

More significantly, we have been given a snapshot of the world as it is, rather than the edited account agreed upon by diverse elites, whose only common interest is the maintenance of their power and our ignorance.

Are the American people obsolete?

Michael Lind:

The richest few don’t need the rest of us as markets, soldiers or police anymore.

Have the American people outlived their usefulness to the rich minority in the United States? A number of trends suggest that the answer may be yes.

In every industrial democracy since the end of World War II, there has been a social contract between the few and the many. In return for receiving a disproportionate amount of the gains from economic growth in a capitalist economy, the rich paid a disproportionate percentage of the taxes needed for public goods and a safety net for the majority.

In North America and Europe, the economic elite agreed to this bargain because they needed ordinary people as consumers and soldiers. Without mass consumption, the factories in which the rich invested would grind to a halt. Without universal conscription in the world wars, and selective conscription during the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies might have failed to defeat totalitarian empires that would have created a world order hostile to a market economy.

Globalization has eliminated the first reason for the rich to continue supporting this bargain at the nation-state level, while the privatization of the military threatens the other rationale.

In the face of what humanity is dealing with these days, incompetence might be history’s biggest word. OMG, is it true there’s no one running our ship?

This article is short. Who’s got the time to dig into friggin’ $trillions war culture? But between the lines, its conclusion is freaky on a lot of levels.

…the former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit shares his thoughts with us on Afghanistan, Bin Laden’s current status and the importance of questioning the rhetoric of Western leaders.

A couple tidbits came to mind:

Of course there’s bizarre and caustic islands and crowds appearing, from Morocco to Mindanao, and one cause is our neglect. I spent the evening with one of Kuwait’s media chiefs many years ago, drinking good rum while encouraging him to set up a Muslim version of Sesame Street. Producing lo-cost media, 1000s of product, could encourage an apolitical culture of learning rather than deferring to myth dominated by oligarch. Salmon Rushdie commented the other day that dropping millions of Nintendo across the Islamist geography would do more than the State and Pentagon have ever dreamed.

I think civilian powers can do a great deal. The retired ambassador of Guatemala and I put together a proposal which I managed to get to James Baker during Reagan, not directly but through the Brown Group, a Whitehouse-directed outside team popular in its day.

Mullahs controlled spice trade. One of the premier is cardamom which is used daily in coffee as a ritual to ‘cleanse the breath’ prior to prayers. It’s like a religious currency and gives much power in local circles.  Central America is a top producer. Top cardamom berries are shipped across Islam while we get the smaller ‘leftovers’ in our market.

We argued that organizing a neutral supply, breaking containers into small lots along 100s of Muslim ports would dilute mullah influence and local oligarchs, building a simpler merchant system rather than mosque control. They mulled on it for a few days but called back and said, “Nice approach but not at this time….” We missed that small chance at good relations.

Lack of adequate response to various bell curves and hockey sticks.

We’ll figure it out, I suppose. Energy, waste, poison versus sustenance and prosperity, but there’s plenty of goofy days ahead. Would be nice to get a grip on the fools and thieves though. Petty dominance. They scramble for the pickings and wreck our focus.

A stronger goodwill rather than pepper and argument could keep us on track. But we haven’t spelled out where we’re going or how to get there. We need that. Don’t have it. Have you noticed? I guess we don’t know. It’s up to the ‘new guys’ to bring better tech and workable ventures and the ‘old guys’ just gotta soften up the rigid structures and relentless pilfering. Camel, needles, geesh. Darn near like prairie pioneering all over again.