Why bankers are not prosecuted and the poor are

Posted on March 7, 2016 by formerdundeeman

The DivideCurrently reading Matt Taibbi’s book “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap” which is yet another important piece of writing from this US journalist and author.  Basically he’s exploring why not a single banker went to jail or was personally fined in the wake of the sub-prime crisis, which is clearly the greatest financial scam in history.  Governments openly refer to the large scale fraud that took place so there’s no grey area to all this.  At its most blatant were the ratings agencies slapping AAA status on sub-prime mortgage packages which permitted conservative institutions like your pension fund or city council to drop your money into this toxic crap.  This is loosely equivalent to turning the distance meter on a car back or falsifying a car’s papers to hide the fact it was written off in an accident.  Except the devastation was on a grossly greater scale.  If you think I overstate this then wait until you retire and find yourself eating cold beans while wrapped in a carpet in your damp bedsit.  And as Taibbi quickly zooms in on the fact that the kind of guys carrying out dodgy car sales come from the other side of the tracks from the bankers.

White-collar crime is rife and rarely does anyone go to jail and in the case of the financial crisis rarely does anyone personally pay a fine.  Yes the banks may settle out of court for billions, but that comes out of the banks pockets (which were lined by bailout money anyway).  Now I had my own thoughts about all this which were along the lines of perhaps the ruling classes looking after their own and seeing the poor as somehow being subhuman.  However although there may be an element of this, the picture Taibbi paints is more twisted and related to a game playing scenario: what are our chances of getting a conviction?

Do relatively low paid state prosecutors really want to go head to head against intelligent, ruthless, well connected people with unlimited access to the best legal services in the world?  I mean when you are being measured and sometimes paid against your success rate is it not just easier to randomly pick up poor folk for any random misdemeanor?  In the USA they say that if you can’t pay bail and you go in then you stay in.  If you can pay bail and stay out then you stay out.  Most people arrested (85%) can’t even pay the $1000 bail which means they go in and by the time the case is heard you’ve already been in the pokey longer than the sentence (time served) and not fighting is cheaper and quicker: you’ve already done the time.

A messed up world, folks, a messed up world.  Why the poor don’t take up pitchforks and storm the bastille again I don’t know.  Or maybe they’d never get the pitchfork home from the hardware store without being arrested for possible future crime.  If you’ve never seen Minority Report then do so – it’s where we’re headed, except without the creepy clairvoyants: just arrest poor people randomly because they “fit the description”.

Posted in Business, Ethics, Politics, Poverty | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Beaten to Death by Clowns

Posted on January 8, 2016 by formerdundeeman

Amateur Night in the Big Top is a 2003 album by Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays fame.  In my mind it is brilliant.  Varied, complex music with a variety of styles including jazz, dance and eastern; cross references, reprises and Ryder rambling and swearing all over it.  If you look at the reviews he got in the music press when it came out, with a few exceptions, he and his creation were completely slated: incoherent muttering, pitiful, tuneless, horrible, need I go on?

Roll-on 12 years and the same music press are apparently saying that it was an influence for a band called Sleaford Mods whose output over four albums is much less varied than any two given tracks on Amateur Night.  And they are getting all kinds of positive reviews.  The hacks are saying this is genius, go listen to these working class sweary lads, laying it out on the state of Britain.  And they were influenced by an obscure, clever Ryder album that you’ve never heard of.

What is going on here?  Could it be the self-preservation, self-policing mindset at play?  Were journos frightened to give a stamp of approval to such a genial, experimental, original album from a washed up former hero?  He’s Shaun Ryder.  He used to do Happy Mondays and Black Grape.  He had problems with drugs.  What the hell is he doing now?  This doesn’t make sense.  Better ridicule it.  The Guardian gave Amateur Night, a mighty 1-star out of 5, which beggars belief.  Even if the music was not to taste, you had to give is a minimum of 3 for what it aimed for.

Shaun_Ryder_-_Amateur_Night_at_the_Big_Top

The fourth track is called Beaten to Death by Clowns.  It’s a brilliant metaphor that can be applied to much of life.  “The idea is, the guy on the cover [above] – he’s a fucking clown,” explains Ryder. “Bush is a clown that staged 9/11, Saddam is a clown, everyone I’ve met in the music business is a clown. My mate Wags once said that his nightmare was being beaten to death by clowns. I’d agree with that.”

internets-own-boy

I just watched The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz.  A prominent hacktivist and civil liberties figure, hounded to suicide by US prosecutors for a crime that was not actually a crime.  Why did they pursue him so vehemently?  It was clearly a chance to make a statement to his brethren saying: Don’t mess with big government and big business.  Do as we say:  Fucking stand-up, sit down, be quiet, shout loud … keep your head down, in the crowd to quote some of Ryder’s lyrics.

It’s not as if there is a weekly meeting  or newsletter where all the politicians, businessmen, bankers, journalists, prosecutors and police get together and openly say let’s make an example of some poor bastard.  It’s all kind of implied.  A fear of the masses, a need to control.  Despite what the media portray, the vast majority of people are not programming apps, driving a hit YouTube channel, writing popular blogs, wheeling-dealing, getting TV and radio spots, guest editing magazines, or being invited to Davos.  Most of us just get on with things.  We tolerate each other, generally don’t want to harm.

But then there are those people who have become Clowns.  Clowns is the right word.  Not because they are stupid or funny, but because of the mask they wear.  They are whoever they need to be to get some self-beneficial task done today.  They’ll flip tomorrow if that works out better for them.  They’d deliver their own mother to a Saudi sheikh if it netted them a minor oil deal.  They’d sacrifice their own young countrymen in futile wars and bomb a distant country into the stone age if it will win an election or secure business for their fat cat mates.  They’ll turn a blind eye to pedophiles in their midst if it means they can control them for their own purposes; secure their loyalty with a dirty, damaging secret. They’ll destroy a life to make a statement.

The clowns don’t believe in anything other than what serves them right now.  The middle class are taught to fear the hoodie on the street, the burglar, the “did you spill my pint” football hooligan, the dodgy foreigner, and are taught to trust the clowns.  The banker, the journalist, the politician, the lawyer, the TV-star, the businessman won’t break into your house and beat you senseless.  No, they won’t do that, but they wouldn’t hesitate to ruin your reputation, destroy you financially, drive you to the brink and remove your freedom.

 

[Here is the story of American comedian and drunk Doug Stanhope going head to head with a clown journalist, Britain’s own Allison Pearson.  Doug is a foul mouthed, hard drinking, drug consuming Yank living somewhere in the desert on the edges of society.  He’s also hilarious and as with most great comics is an astute observer of life’s details and injustices.  That’s why most good comics are liberal in leaning because you need to be touching on the truth for something to be funny.  The neoconservatives and ruling class clowns can rarely ever be funny because their whole premise is build on deception; a deception required to keep the whole incredulous, fragile and unjust house of cards that we call society from collapsing.]

 

 

Posted in Philosophy, Review, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Viz Magazine’s No.22 Shit Street

Posted on June 10, 2015 by formerdundeeman

Back in the mid-1990s there was an issue of Viz comic that featured a miniature porcelain house of the sort that features on the back of certain magazines aimed at the more senior, doddery citizens.  The difference was that this was no cute country cottage but a dilapidated council house in a run-down estate.  As the Telegraph wrote in a 2004 article about Franklin Mint:

” Viz captured the spirit of those promotions brilliantly in a late Nineties parody supposedly marketing a porcelain model of a decrepit council house. “No 22 Shit Street” was perfect in every detail, from “the fire-damaged, urine-stained mattress, carelessly discarded below the bedroom window, to the jauntily angled dustbin spilling its putrid contents across the path in a splash of repulsive colour”. “

I still wonder how much the UK establishment uses the threat of ending up at 22 Shit Street as a means to control the working- and especially the middle-classes and accept whatever draconian Neocon measures that are thrown at them.  You know with a kind of sneer saying: “Be thankful for what you have, life could easily be a lot worse … get on the wrong side of us and we’ll have you in 22 Shit Street faster than a ned in a stolen Ford Escort.”

shit-street

Posted in Politics, Poverty, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

UK: The slippery slope

Posted on May 10, 2015 by formerdundeeman

Excellent comment on Craig Murray’s blog today by Mary:

Day 1. Cameron promised he would scrap the Human Rights Act. Now he says it’s at the top of his list.

‘Among Mr Cameron’s first legislative priorities will be to enshrine an EU referendum into law, bring in the so-called ‘snoopers charter’ to give police greater powers to monitor internet communications and give English MPs a veto over legislation only affecting England. The Tories also intend to publish plans to scrap the Human Rights Act within their first 100 days. All proposals had been previously blocked by the Lib Dems.’

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/unshackled-from-coalition-partners-tories-get-ready-to-push-radical-agenda-10237611.html

~~~~

The fascisti are coming.

They Thought They Were Free – Milton Mayer
The Germans, 1933-45
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

‘But Then It Was Too Late

“What no one seemed to notice,” said a colleague of mine, a philologist, “was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.’

Posted in Politics, United Kingdom | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Deficit: Why our weakest citizens must suffer

Posted on April 24, 2015 by formerdundeeman

Poverty_in_ukWhat is this deficit we hear about continuously?  Why are we driving the weakest people in our society to suicide in order to reduce this deficit?  When was the last time someone explained to you exactly what this word and the number it represents means?  When did your MP tell you why we’re going to kill the vulnerable just to make the number smaller?

Essentially what all the plonkers on TV and in your newspaper are talking about is the gap between what’s coming into the government in taxes and receipts versus what’s being spent. Now considering that the government can simply create money out of thin air and distribute it via the banks it does seem rather bizarre that anyone gives a flier about deficit, but anyway let’s play along.  If we agree there are only two variables:

  1. Money coming in
  2. Money going out

And the difference is either the deficit or surplus, then it means there has been more money going out than going in.  If you think of your own household it effectively means you’ve run up debt.  To pay back your debt you can either spend less or earn more.  For the government it means they can either spend less or get more tax.  Spending less means cutting back on things like health, education, welfare, maintenance, infrastructure, weapons, quangos, etc.  Getting more tax means increasing income tax, VAT, company tax or closing down tax avoidance loopholes.

Austerity allows richer people to maintain their lifestyle at the expense of the poor in the face of an unsustainable trade deficit.

Naturally given that wealthy people mostly call the shots they are not keen on higher income tax, company tax or closing loopholes.  Surprisingly they are not all that keen on spending less either on things like giant infrastructure projects such as high speed railways, management consultants, tax breaks, private prisons, private hospitals, nuclear power and weapons – these right-wing Neoliberals are more socialist than Karl Marx when it comes to these kind of uses of tax.  No, better cut back on the stuff poor people need.

flags-8220_640But this still does not answer why we should care about a number.  One reason is that letting the deficit get out of hand can lead to runaway inflation.  That is true if money is misappropriated and poorly used.  But a more important reason is that European and world level banks tell us we need to target a certain value.  And if we do not?  Well then our credit rating will drop.  So?  Well then we need to pay more for borrowing.  Pay who?  Actually this is where we come to the crux.  In the end the only deficit of any importance is the balance of trade.  That is the difference between what you import and export.  If you import more than export you’re going to need to borrow “international” money if you want to keep buying German machinery and gadgets from China.  International money is essentially what your currency is worth compared to other currencies and is therefore a kind of barometer for comparing economies and their outlooks.

Why does the domestic deficit not matter when looked at independently of balance of trade?  It’s rather simple and my recent article on the DIY Austerity Experiment reveals all.  Basically I show that the amount of work you undertake in your own household (=country) is limited only by the efforts expended by the family members (=citizens).  As soon as you need something substantial that you can’t make yourself (=computer) from a neighbour or local shop (=foreign country) then you better have something of similar value you can exchange it for (=balance of trade).

In a nutshell:

  1. UK imports more than it exports.  Blame Thatcher, unions, class system, UK doesn’t like making things.
  2. Germany and China want paid (how unreasonable!).
  3. UK needs to borrow to pay this.
  4. The interest rate is set according to numbers such as the deficit.
  5. Increasing tax might make rich people cry and threaten to move somewhere else so instead we cut spending (on things that don’t upset rich people).
  6. Deficit looks good so interest rate stays low.
  7. Keep buying more on loan from abroad as UK’s manufacturing and exports sink further due to cuts in spending.
  8. Rinse and repeat until society breaks down completely.
  9. Civil or international war resets system.
Posted in Business, Economics, Politics, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yes Voters Were Actually Rather Brave

Posted on April 23, 2015 by formerdundeeman

After the initial massive disappointment last September I began to think a little more about what was actually achieved by the Scottish independence movement.  Recently I’ve begun connecting with people on Twitter again and discussing the General Election in May.  And surprisingly I began to realize that the people who voted Yes last September were actually rather brave.  Although it may appear to be completely logical that the Scots would want to leave the United Kingdom, the fact that there was so much fear mongering and threats made the result still impressive.

History-9

It takes bravery and single-mindedness to vote for independence when:

 

Posted in Independence, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Psychopathic Cultures and Toxic Empires

Posted on April 10, 2015 by formerdundeeman

psychopathic-coverWill Black’s brilliant book Psychopathic Cultures and Toxic Empires is absolutely essential reading if you want to stop being shocked every day some Establishment figure or powerful organization does something disgusting.  Of course they do terrible things – they are psychopaths.  It’s their job.  Do you condemn every time you see a lion kill an antelope?

If a small number of people will always be at the psychopath or sociopath range of the spectrum then the important consideration is why do the rest of us permit their like to access positions of power from which they can inflict more damage?  Why was Jimmy Savile able to indulge unhindered in his sick, predatory behaviour for a period of 60 years?  There is little chance that the many at the BBC, charities, police and Westminster who actually knew about his crimes would condone what he did?  I am relatively certain most would have been quite sickened.  But they did not seek to stop him either.  Why?

Could it be that psychopaths with their single-mindedness and drive are actually useful weapons for many of us?  Surely his unique publicity attracting presence boosted careers of many TV and charity managers?  And apparently pedophiles are useful in politics – easy for the party whip to keep in line.  Most people have doubts over their decisions, what actions to take, morality, right from wrong, the meaning of life, whether there is a God.  A psychopath can short circuit much of this: does his current action bring them closer to or further from more power over others or their chosen fetish?  Life for them can be much more black and white, can contain that admired ability to make quick authoritative decisions instead of the infinite shades of grey that the rest of us poor suckers struggle under.  Hence useful psychopaths can assist us in handling our darkest, basest fears and beliefs by doing the donkey work that we can’t stomach.

Lovis_Corinth_006In a similar way to how most of us could not slaughter an animal ourselves but we’re happy to buy a sanitized lump of meat from the supermarket, we move through life using psychopathic politicians and establishment leaders to either do our thinking for us (“I always vote Labour”) or do our dirty work.  Whether it is deporting asylum seekers, cutting benefits to the poorest people, denying climate change or renewing a doomsday weapon system, you’ll find a useful psychopath to do the nasty work for you, leaving you with your basest instincts semi-satisfied.

Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The DIY Austerity Experiment You Can Do!

Posted on March 27, 2015 by formerdundeeman

Destination_DIY_logoDuring economic recession should a country increase spending or impose austerity?  So who is right in all this?  Economists have been fighting over this for centuries and still we have no answer.  Surely it must be simple?  Do we get out of a recession by cutting spending or increasing spending?  In the post war years Keynes led the way with massive investment programs and there followed the greatest improvement in the lives of working people since mankind was capable of judging such matters.  Friedman and his jolly cohorts then made inroads in the 1970s and Thatcher and Reagan implemented his demented thinking.  The fall of communism in 1990 removed any remaining need for restraint on the part of right-wing zealots and it has been a slippery slide for the 99% ever since.

The Nobel Prize for Economics is not one of the original prizes

The Nobel Prize for Economics is not one of the original prizes

austerityIf economists decorated with Nobel prizes and adept at advanced mathematics have failed to figure this out, then you may think you have no chance of doing so.  But I beg to differ. Get ready to make a difference to the history of mankind!  This is what you need to do:

 

  1. Next time you lose your job (say tomorrow) then just go home and stay there.
  2. Instruct the rest of your family to do the same.
  3. While sitting at home don’t do anything other that eat enough crap to survive and follow the instructions below.
  4. Get the Monopoly game box that’s been lying in the attic since cable TV, ADHD and Smart Phones were invented.
  5. Remove all the Monopoly money and discard the box.
  6. Decide that you could use this Monopoly money for splitting up household tasks equally among family members.
  7. Read about Milton Friedman and change your mind.
  8. Do not cook, clean, decorate, wash, or care for your elderly parents or handicapped kid – all this costs money.
  9. If forced by the Job Centre to go for a job interview do not repair or wash your clothes before attending aforesaid interview
  10. If you need food or need transport to travel to an interview that would require real money then borrow this money from the IMF or World or European Bank or other loan shark.
  11. Promise aforementioned banks or loan sharks that you will cut even further back on the use of Monopoly money at home in order to pay them back at some time in the future with the great riches you are sure to reap from your austerity plan.
  12. If great riches are not materializing, cut back further, remove food from aged parents and handicapped kid (they can’t fight back). Tell them we’re all in it together. Rinse and repeat.
  13. Bonus feature: Why not use any excess money you may be lumbered with to start a fight with a random neighbour on the other side of town?  Preferably one with an oil well in his garden.
Posted in Economics, Ethics, Poverty, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Any Random Therapy – the Ultimate Psychotherapy?

Posted on February 17, 2015 by formerdundeeman

If you bother to take a look at Wikipedia’s list of psychotherapies you will find a rather impressive number of them. More so when you think there’s an even greater number of less official therapies hiding behind the self-improvement and quack banners or under the more esoteric philosophy or psychology labels.  And then you have special diets, exercises, religions, crystals, and anything else you may stumble across.  Let’s list some psychotherapies here to fill space:

  • Abreaction therapy
  • Adventure therapy
  • Attack therapy
  • Brief psychotherapy
  • Contemplative psychotherapy
  • Dance therapy
  • Future-oriented therapy
  • Nude psychotherapy
  • Primal Integration
  • Vegetotherapy
  • Wilderness therapy
682px-Marcus_Aurelius_Louvre_MR561_n01

Marcus Aurelius looking a bit pale

Now you would think that all psychotherapies have the intention of bring balance, peace and contentment to troubled souls, so what does it mean that there are so many psychotherapies all competing with each other for the chance to cure your ails?  Why would you choose one over another?  If I’m feeling run down how can I or a kind GP whether I need to indulge in Dance Therapy or just rip my clothes of and get Nude and talk seriously with another naked person.  Or run off into the Wilderness?  Now I am sure that the majority of these therapies (and self-improvement programs and diets and religions) are well meaning.  Probably the founders have put a great deal of enthusiasm into the development.  But what are they bringing to the table that the others didn’t?  Does anyone really have anything to add to what the Hindu’s knew 3000 years ago, or what Marcus Aurelius jotted down 2000 years ago?

Why is there after all these thousands of years still a steady stream of self-help books and new therapies?  How naive are we to think that after 3000 years the next flavour of the month, buy-one-get-one-free book we pick up while waiting for our flight is going to be the one that changes our lives forever?  The one that will remove those nagging doubts, that sense of apathy, disillusionment and discontent that rise regularly for no apparent reason?

random-therapy

The solution?  I propose the one therapy to rule them all – Any Random Therapy [(C) 2015 – Former Dundee Man].  Any Random Therapy (or A-RanT for short) is an umbrella over every therapy, philosophy and self-improvement guide that ever was and ever will be. Any Random Therapy says there’s some value in every one of these well meaning practices and to be honest it doesn’t really matter one iota which one you choose so long as you do it wholeheartedly and carry a sense of hope into the exercise.  To quote the great philosopher and tunneler Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”  So as you lug that new 500 page tome out of the airport book store, ready to fly it thousands of miles back to a place on the shelf, unread, alongside all the others you bought over the years, remember it’s the hope it temporarily instilled that made the purchase worthwhile (and not forgetting the the latest Stephen King novel you also picked up as part of the buy-one-get-one-free deal).

Any Random Therapy removes the need to study and carefully select a therapy from the multitude of offerings – a process which in itself causes needless stress and worry. Any Random Therapy simply allocates you with a random sub-therapy from the boat loads of existing therapies or a new one that you or your Any Random Therapist just invented.  Once the benefits and novelty of a certain sub-therapy wear off you simply select another.   No need to fret about looking flighty and insecure, hopping from one therapy to another, because you are a loyal follower of one single therapy: Any Random Therapy.  You’ve stuck with the program.  You know it makes sense and you’ve staked your sense of self to it.  A person who lives with purpose and confidence is half way there (don’t ask where there is).

mans-search-for-meaningOf course one will eventually understand that there are so many therapies out there because the creation and nurturing of a new therapy or self-help program is in its self the ultimate form of therapy.  Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy nails this with its concentration camp inspired “Man’s Search for Meaning” philosophy which essentially boils down to “with a strong enough why we can survive any how”.  So what can be a greater Why than the creation of a new psychotherapy that will finally save mankind from its self and from destroying the planet?

Any Random Therapy’s jewel in the crown is “Therapy Therapy”.  What the hell is that?  It means you enter a therapy program with the intention of creating a new therapy and becoming its chief evangelist.  Therapy Therapy provides all the tools you’ll need:

  • Clothes.  From shiny suit to woolly body warmer, we have it all
  • Persona – overconfident, smug bastard or smirking wise old man, we’ll help you develop your character
  • Dental treatment for that blinding dazzle
  • Buzzword and acronym generator apps for Android and iPhone
  • Automatic website builder
  • Third world sweatshop based ghost book writer
  • Webcam based 6 DVD boxset movie maker software with teleprompter
  • Twitter follower booster
  • Disciple recruitment drive
  • Franchise system – spread your message around the world
  • Legal advice

Don’t know about you, but I am feeling much better all ready!

Posted in Philosophy, Therapy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Our Society is Run by Junkies (and don’t kid yourself)

Posted on December 11, 2014 by formerdundeeman

society-addictIs society increasingly dominated by people who are for all intents and purposes junkies?  Look at the evidence.  How do our business leaders and our politicians behave?  From a review of the 1992 book When Society Becomes an Addict by Anne Wilson Schaef:

Many politicians behave like addicts,as they are hooked on control, promising things will get better(but they do not), denying problems and denying alternative ways of doing things.

Let’s break this down:

  1. Hooked on control: how often do politicians, bankers, business men resign or take full responsibility for anything when something goes wrong?
  2. Promising things will get better: we’re all in it together.  It will be tough for a time but all hard working people will benefit in the future. Just give us another 5 years and we’ll master the deficit and bring economic growth.
  3. Denying problems: Climate change is not really that big a problem.  Loss of manufacturing is not an issue; service sector jobs can take its place.  All problems are down to Muslims, global changes (that will be for the best long run), work shy immigrants, handicapped and unemployed.
  4. thatcher-tinaDenying alternative ways of doing things: only economic growth, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, oil, austerity, invading other countries, privatisation, class division, and an old boys network can lead to a better future. Thatcher famously said: There Is No Alternative (TINA).

And then on the personal level we have people addicted to speed.  No not the drug, but the lifestyle.  Be on-line, contactable 24/7.  Post shite on Twitter and Facebook incessantly and check on other peoples’ shite.  It’s 09:18 and I am here.  It’s 09:19 and I am there.  It’s 09:20 and…  Look at me.  I exist.  I make noise.  I consume.  Race for some target somewhere.  Oh damn the local supermarket actually closes on Christmas Day.  What are we going to do?  We’ll starve.  Let’s go at 3am the day before.  How did people survive before mobile phones, internet and 24 hour a day open stores?

Dotonbori_19Exams are hard.  Universities are funded according to results.  Make the exams easier.  Society of people who know very little, can do very little, but with pumped up egos and attitude fueled by Red Bull and a complicit, rampant self-improvement industry.  Want to be a champion, a leader?  Or do you just want to be some hopeless also ran?  Seek out some motivation hip hop video on YouTube and drag your sorry carcass to the gym at 5am (do any gyms open at 5am or is that only in the self-improvement books?).  Go to the gym and workout even if you do not feel like it.  Feel?  Don’t waste time feeling.  Down another Red Bull, pop another Ritalin and charge on.  Make decisions quickly.  Don’t look back.  Don’t apologize.  Don’t expose any weakness.  You are the alpha male even if you’re female.  Be the man.

Environment and alternative energy is all very well for tree huggers, spiritual types, but the realistic among us need to stay focused on economic growth, jobs and the next election, next quarterly results.  Ayn Rand said people acting in their own self-interests is the best for the whole, and everyone who is anyone reads Ayn Rand.  The world is so full of complex nuances and infinite shades of grey, get lost in that and you’ll never appear strong.  Tough decisions call for tough leaders.

Depressed_(4649749639)Let’s keep running, chase the end of the rainbow for that pot of gold that awaits us.  Climb the ladder of success, salvation awaits.  Salvation takes the form of wealth, power, control, fame, a feeling of invulnerability and success.  You know like that hit, that rush, that dimming out of reality that most less socially acceptable forms of addition offer.

And when you ultimately fail to live up to these insane demands society places upon you, turn further into your addiction, or to another one.  Block out.  Deny.  Ignore.  Go back to the start.  Put your head down.  Charge on again. There Is No Alternative.

 

Posted in Economics, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments