The Haps

Lately there has been a lot of things happening on this world of ours that deserve to be considered. Naturally there is no easy way for people to find out about these things because they are complicated and often depressing; making it difficult to compete with mindless media that wraps us in complacent ignorance.
Violence continues to be a primary way in which people seek to achieve their goals. Assad has been keeping up the long legacy of brutal repression, and in so doing helps provide the moral high ground that the West so desperately craves. In this particular case however the Russians aren't letting NATO  come in and play morality God, and so 14 months of ruthless conflict continues.

Meanwhile in a desert not so far away, the Tuareg have managed to carve out a country in Northern Mali and called it Azawad. As a principle, I'm opposed to countries for a variety of reasons. However, if any group of people as tough as the Kurds, Pashtuns or Tuareg are denied a state they are going to fight for one. In this particular instance it was the war in Libya that gave them the weapons and experience necessary to drive out the hopelessly inefficient forces of the Malian government.

The situation in China continues to be the histories biggest experiment in state repression. This drama surrounding a blind lawyer advocating the rule of law and the response to Tibetans setting themselves on fire shows the depth of the Communist Parties determination to show no quarter to its foes. They have even started imprisoning people who simply see a Tibetan self-immolate. This is an exciting knew form of censorship that should demonstrate well the way in which government is responding to the challenges of the digital age. Meanwhile the West and the rest engage in colossal hypocrisy by trading with China while trying to criticize the means by which they can deliver such cheap goods.

Three things we should keep in mind about this current economic order-

1. "Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent." -Benjamin Disraeli

2. "In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality." -Marx

3. LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that some have the right to prevent others from living; for the right to own implies the right exclusively to occupy; and in fact laws of trespass are enacted wherever property in land is recognized. It follows that if the whole area of terra firma is owned by A, B and C, there will be no place for D, E, F and G to be born, or, born as trespassers, to exist. -Devil's Dictionary 

The Shitabyss!

"Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility." -William Godwin

People behaving stupidly is certainly not the monopoly of late stage post industrial capitalist consumer society, but YE GODS we are dealing with some painfully foolish creatures. Now I'm not claiming that the previous epochs weren't drowning with dumb. What I'm arguing is that the idiocy is escalating with each baby thrown into this battle royale called humanity. 

Case in point: Europe's buck wild attempt at global domination, followed by its even more hardcore attempt to kill everyone from Japan to England, was perhaps the largest test ever attempted and arguably the most idiotic thought to yet enter the human mindstream. The conclusion that seems to have been arrived at after all the data was gathered was that warfare among militaristic industrialized societies wasn't such a great idea after all. It produced a lot of technology, nationalism and bodies; but it was too risky because once they got their blood lust on it was hard to stop before everyone died due to the efficacy of the weapons. So it was decided to go back to what Europe had perfected over the previous century, slaughtering and robbing the less aggressive peoples of the planet (which is pretty much everyone) under the guise of free trade and a funny understanding of the term development. 

I must say that I'm disappointed that we have regressed. After the grand spectacle of the Great Wars why go back to the petty imperialism of yesteryear? I think my man Debs had it right: 
"How stupid and shortsighted the ruling class really is! Cupidity is stone blind. It has no vision. The greedy, profit-seeking exploiter cannot see beyond the end of his nose. He can see a chance for an "opening"; he is cunning enough to know what graft is and where it is, and it can be secured, but vision he has none- not the slightest." 
Despite all their power and wealth, the rich really are a bunch of redundant dipshits that are about as creative as a cancer cell. I would feel better about this fact if they weren't clearly smarter than everyone else on earth whom they manage to bend to their demented will. The sting wouldn't be so bad if they didn't justify it all with such impressively idiotic ideology:

'We need to bomb a country to free them from themselves'

'Cutting support for the poor and lowering taxes on the rich is needed, especially when times are bad'

'Voting matters even if it has no effect on foreign policy or the economic system under which we live.'

I think that most citizens in the Imperial Nations know this is some seriously stinky putrid bullshit and don't really believe anything they are told by these fucktards. And yet they still pay taxes, consume with endless avarice and behave with staggering disregard for both people and planet. Guess ideology, like shit, flows downhill. My candidate for dumbest thing ever is when they decry their government and global injustice all the while knowing that they won't do a damn thing to help anyone if it threatens their living standard; perhaps this is the new development that the previous experiments have led us to- doublethink. 

Dancing in the Streets

Considering all the people protesting economic conditions around the world it seems interesting to me that people don't start taking the logical step from dissatisfaction to resistance. I am not insinuating that they need to man the barricades  and break out the guillotine, such action has consistently proven to be a short cut to social change that leads in the opposite direction. What I see as the only logical step would be to stop complaining and start systematically setting up an alternative system. If you can not change something, change the way you think about it.

It seems to me that many people in the wealthy world have forgotten that this whole social/economic system is voluntary. The global dominance of the bourgeoisie comes from their ability to set cultural norms and establish a psychological hegemony. It doesn't matter if people embrace it or bitch about it, just as long as they keep spending money and breeding. Ergo the answer is clearly to stop doing one of those two things, and considering how much people love breeding it must be the former. This could take the form of a consumption strike in the developed world, which will do more than any amount of nonviolent protesting. Or it could take the form of these people forming syndicates in order to have their basic needs met without having to be dependent on some sort of bureaucracy that apparently must inevitably turn pernicious. 

I fully accept that what I am proposing is infinitely harder than protesting within the liberal democratic system and requires a level of effort that most people in the West are surely unwilling to engage in. But what about that vast majority of the world that isn't enjoying a high standard of living? They are equally vital to the system and have a much greater need for it to be changed because their immediate existence is threatened. It would be much easier than revolution because all they would have to do is stop working and focus on producing food and medicine. By far the best option however would be for both groups to work together and start accepting that as long as the bourgeoisie maintains its ascendancy we must accept living in a violent, unjust and environmentally unsustainable system. 

One can understand peoples frustration and the feeling of solidarity that one gets from protesting with people of a like mind. If protesting in a developed society truly changed anything I promise you it would be outlawed. There is a very good reason why people in the Middle East are shot for protesting and those in the West are not. The fact is that in our world of omnipresent capitalism protest is absolutely useless in terms of making a world in which the value of life transcends the value of profit and material possessions. It is no different than peasants going hat in hand before a crown to beg some alms except that sometimes a monarch was capable of compassion.     

Free Trade

"Is that to say we are against Free Trade? No, we are for Free Trade, because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astounding contradictions, will act upon a larger scale, upon the territory of the whole earth; and because from the uniting of all these contradictions in a single group, where they will stand face to face, will result the struggle which will itself eventuate in the emancipation of the proletariat."

-Karl Marx (1847)

All I can say to that is we live in such an age, and despite the contradictions the show goes on. Considering what was done in the name of free trade during the 19th and 20th centuries it is a horryfying thought that this might not be the apogee. We must remember that people of the 19th century surely thought they were living through the triumph of free trade. After all during the late 1870's Britain systematically took advantage of a drought to starve an estimated 50 million people in China and India in order to create a market more suitable for land and resource acquisition. This led to one boisterous Englishmen to proclaim that "Free trade is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is free trade.". Free market needs also made it imperative that the entire country of Paraguay be slaughtered for the crime of having no foreign debt and a trade surplus (some estimates say as much as 70% of Paraguay's male population was killed). If one cuts through all the propaganda and deception it is fairly easy to see that all the wars of the past two centuries are free trade wars. After all, who would finance a war that didn't promise a profit?

The wars we see today are no different. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Iran all made the same mistake; they didn't bend over to take their free market medicine when told to. The concept of free trade was something that those cunning Brits thought up after they had industrialized and wanted to ensure that no one would do the same. It was a masterful move that involved the elimination of China and India as the worlds biggest producers, shackled Latin America with endless debt and justified the sanguinary subjugation of all of Africa. This very same tried and true logic is why America can drop cluster bombs on cities and call it freedom. This is the world we live in and the sort of ethics that dominate our lives. I like how Antonio Gramsci put it, "The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters."

America

I ask myself the same thing about American Politics that I ask about American television; do people really watch this shit? And if the answer is yes, then are we completely doomed to be destroyed by these robots? If a group of people can manage to ignore the blindingly brutal realities of our day and age, then I suppose it should come as no surprise that the same group of people are capable of being entertained by anything, so long as it has no basis in reality. This would seem to explain why anyone could possibly take politics in this country seriously. When one party is for potentially bombing Iran, and the other is definitely for bombing Iran, then Democracy is a joke. If both candidates are unabashedly indifferent to the end of the Constitution then what is the point in even taking such a spectacle seriously and how do they manage to make people do so? Like most good questions, there is a mountain of literature on the subject.

Guy Debord wrote about it extensively and it played a fundamental role in the Situationist Movement in France during the 1960's. He made some observations that are so striking in their prescience that it does much to convince me of the validity of what he had to say. For example, look at this: "With the destruction of history, contemporary events themselves retreat into a remote and fabulous realm of unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, unlikely explanations and untenable reasoning." This sounds like a succinct and accurate description of almost all the Americans I have ever known. They float in this 'fabulous realm' in which truth is banished and critical thought impossible. Just watch anything about politics in America and you know for a fact that the conversation is purely for show, for it contains nothing. He even said that terrorism was necessary for such a society in order to render some sort of other over which its superiority is unquestionable in comparison.

When Ron Paul tries to talk about serious issues he is ignored or denigrated, which he sadly doesn't realize is because this country is just simply too far gone in the 'fabulous realm' to listen to what he says and associate it with concrete reality. Too absurd to be believed but too powerful and violent to be ignored, that's the America I know and live in. I think this the high water mark of the 'society of the spectacle' that Debord commented on a lifetime ago. Whatever comes after this I am hoping it comes soon, for if things continue on their current route all will be lost.

My mind is awash with so many others who saw this coming and commented on this monstrosity long before I was born that it seems pointless to quote them. The one naive little hope I have personally is that there is a slim chance that one of these coming generations is going to suffer from such untreatable mental disorders that even our automatized plastic coated consumerism won't be able to handle them and thus will the madness end. Our era would then be told to children in years to come as a reminder of how they must always be on guard against the soul assassins.

thought shot

Lately I've been considering what I am. Seems like I've settled into being me and this will likely be who I'm dealing with from here on out. It's a good feeling to be comfortable in your own being, and one that I feel many people never truly enjoy in the modern world. To not only accept who you are but to also accept how everyone else will react to this. Being a human really isn't all that bad if you don't take it too seriously. This would be a lot easier I presume if there wasn't this colossal pile of cultural baggage from generations past that people seem to think is extra important.

I generally find people adorable and far too fragile to harbor any ill will towards. It is precisely this weakness and vulnerability which makes me love being human. I get to construct, at least partially intentionally, a life. In all its rambling randomness and funky familiarity I love it a lot, for it is mine and all I have to contribute. Even though their is a possibility of comprehensive societal collapse, World War III, environmental Armageddon and many other potential show enders for humanity, this doesn't really bother me much anymore. How can one get upset at the species one is part of? Love it or hate it, you're with these maniacal monkeys from cradle to grave with no where to run. My advice is to make of yourself something that you can be happy having gifted to the universe in return for it letting you lease some carbon. As for the others, don't worry about them, doomed or destined for more, it doesn't really matter as much as trying to be someone you want to be for your time here on earth.

Silent Sojourn

thoughts twinkle in this twilight of travels

neurons send and receive like wind in tree

all tension and concern gently unravels

only sweet acceptance is now in me

Why did I go, where I went, what was there?

All the questions that are bound to assail

I can merely smile, for I do not care

to take my experience to a verbal jail

The feelings are too fresh and unique

I refrain to explain what I cannot

silently it lays peacefully oblique

for in the telling I will have forgot

Downward Spiral

I can only say this about this world, it gives you something to think on. It took me a while to realize the bottomless depth of this world and that it is clearly beyond all comprehension. I admire it for this trait, it makes me feel that I can truly enjoy the impossibility of it all without having to feel too guilty about not taking it all that seriously. And how can you take it seriously? We live in a place that makes of contradictions and irony the very basis of our existence. Even my half-assed attempt at unlocking the riddles of reality has damn near driven me mad on several occasions, so those who really dig to the deeps must surely suffocate from lack of sanity.

Still, I have nothing else to do, so I give it a whirl and transcribe my thoughts in the hope that one day this brain that I have thrown down the infinite pit will strike the fabled bottom and I will hear the echo of its crash, smiling with satisfaction and wisdom. For now however, I just look at this place and think, 'what a bunch of silly, stupid shit'. The 1% making their billions off the demanding desire of the demented. The people who think they can sit in a park day after day in a city built by Capitalism, having been suckled at its teat their entire lives, and call it dissent. People fighting for freedom from dictatorship in Syria and Egypt hopelessly stranded in a geopolitical scene that sees no benefit in helping them and a tradition of violence that condemns them to brutal repression. All the while the business of providing goods to the world pillages and plunders a wounded planet to fill the countless freighters and trucks so this system of materialism can deliver the goods for just one more day.

I don't pretend that there has ever been a reason for anything humanity has done, but these days it's hard to see the purpose of holding out hope that we will ever figure out a way to change ourselves. This fantastical flurry of ferociousness doing all it can to render unto the multitude that is squirming and screaming for more is all we can expect. No sign of restraint nor hope for repentance. It's all too brutal to believe, but too clear to deny. Still I feel immense sorrow for every struggling soul out there trying to cope with things by challenging authority. The real goal should be to challenge ourselves to live in a manner that doesn't require us to depend upon anything or anyone but ourselves. In my mind, the most revolutionary act possible in our world is to not need or want anything that we cannot provide for ourselves. If we cannot accomplish this no amount of Occupying or toppling of autocratic governments can fundamentally alter the fact that we are dependent upon empowered others for our existence, and thus by definition not free.

"Don't let it bring you down, its only castles burning. "-Neil Young

"You cannot see the future with tears in your eyes." -Navajo Proverbs