On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:19 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Seems to me there's a world of difference between wanting something > done and wielding a gun to coerce somebody to do it. It's the difference > between a trader and a soldier or policeman. If you mean that many > politicians and bureaucrats accept bribes, I agree. >
"wanting something done" and wielding the power to move the soldiers to wield the gun for making what you want happen to my mind implies more culpability than the grunt on the ground with a rifle who is just following orders. And even more insidious is when Big Bro doesn't make his hostility plain and simple like pointing a gun at your head, but manipulates the education system, manipulates the media and manipulates even the very language so that concepts contrary to the status quo can't even be conceptualized - that Orwellian power to coerce without a gun - there is your greater danger. Guns? We all got guns. We all don't have our own worldwide media empire tho. > Ike saw first hand how easy it is to bribe politicians and bureaucrats > whose goal is unearned power. > He also oversaw the rise of a new industrial power - the power to influence thought. One of the insights I appreciated from Bloom was that the conquering power appropriates the tools of the conquered. Thus we saw the propaganda techniques of the Nazis appropriated by Madison Ave to sell toothpaste cars and cigarettes in the 50's. Surely a smart general who becomes president must have asked himself where this could all be headed when this power is coupled to the naked greed and ambition on display in the halls of Washington. And the fascinating insight by Ike was not to fear naked militarism nor to fear industrialism. Its the complex of the two - the partnership that is to be feared. A new beast awakens from an unholy coupling. > I just think there is a better way to do this than our current > > system. > > > What better way would that be? Ah my dear Platt. There IS the rub. There is no doubt we are stuck. We're stuck. But sometimes stuckness can be very educational and therapeutic. I have hope. I have ideas. I sense possibilities. First off, could we not agree that bank bailouts and propping up failing institutions is the WRONG thing to do? Can we not agree that the forces of corporate multinational capital which are currently besieged ought NOT to be saved by their own internal logic of free market cause and effect? Lets let the chips fall. They were placed on the table by free entities making economic decision in an open market ... So if a buncha rich people lose all their money ... tough. Those were the rules they chose and played by. There will be a fallout with winners and losers but basically, people will come up with survival solutions when they are forced to. Quality must be brought back into public and social life by whatever means and I prefer intellectual revolutions to violents ones. I have hope because we have the means. We got the 'net. There was a time when it made sense to have "electors" to represent your state's electoral votes. Washington was a long way off by Horseback. We don't use buggy whips anymore, we have the internet. Here's a stimulus package proposal for ya - ubiquitous broadband. One of the few things we all agree the govt does well and necessary is roads. I say extend that to the information highway system and let people connect up their resources directly and intelligently by free and open choice and you'll have all kinds of corporatism evolving dynamically. And make the whole thing open every way. This is one Obama promised and I bet if his feet were held to the fire, he'd follow through. But whatever the future holds I know this one thing it does not hold - except as a memory it does not hold the past. That is a problem with conservatives, Platt. Conservation is the holding of values from past experience and forcing them upon the future. It is not dynamic enough. And the party polarization just leads to impasse. I'm no fan of either party. I always vote for Nader, bless his soul. I think we need a new politics. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
