Who ever thought that prejudice has power to change the world? It does. It is as powerful a mass human motivator as religion and belief, patriotism and nationalism, greed and need for wealth, exploration and exploitation for conquest and expansion, loyalty, obedience, and unquestioning respect for royalty and authority. They are all two-faced indoctrinated motivators of guiltless human behavior.
Prejudice, racism, and hatred of the “Other,” are taught to the young as a good, just as are religion and patriotism. The fruit of this education lies in the acceptance of heinous tasks as promotion of benefits for humanity. Crusading armies created and motivated to convert or kill accept their mission as holy. Rape, mayhem, and slaughter, destruction of whole societies, “spoils of war” and theft of land and property, are all accepted as the commission of beneficial acts for those who “belong” to the right and righteous nation, ethnicity, or religion.
This is not the world of early man. This is the world of the 21st century. Today is the time of the Pharaohs, the time of Torquemada and the Crusades and Nazi Germany. Today’s use of power is the same as the use of power throughout the history of Man. Wealth and weaponry clearly enable power to be exercised. Less clear is the harmful use of religion and patriotism to achieve the goal of wealth and power aggrandizement. And finally, it is most difficult to accept the teaching of prejudice as consciously or subconsciously intentional to achieve the same goal.
The destruction of Aztec and Mayan civilizations, the conquest of the natives of North America, the Nazi Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking, Cambodian torture and today’s slaughter in Darfur, along with large and small episodes of conquest and destruction of “Other” peoples and their societies through the centuries by warriors steeped in hatred.
Can we call this behavior primitive? Can we call it savagery? Can we call such behavior modern and civilized?
What People, what religious group has stated, “To save a single life is to save the whole world?” That People has been a primary target for destruction throughout its existence. It is today the single most abhorred People in the world. It is the People that has saved more lives and given life more meaning than any other group through the centuries of human existence. Yet it is powerless against the humongous power of the prejudice arrayed against it. It is the Jewish People.
To be or not to be, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch[1] and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.[2]
”
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
THE AHMADINEJAD MODEL
The historical combination of religious leaders and economic power elites traditionally has the economic forces in first or superior position of power within any given political/national system. The early pharoanic systems were models emulated through centuries wherein religious leaders assumed advisory roles to those in power. This most likely came about because of the need for warring capability only occasionally found combined in religious leaders. Early Jewish leaders from Moses to the Kings of Israel managed this duality of economic and military mastery together with a direct connection with God that enabled them to conduct the affairs of state with success.
The prevalent world model of governance has economic leaders backed by religious minions who agree to be supportive while staying out of their way in exchange for acceptance of and high regard for their sanctuaries, their mumbo-jumbo, and their connections with God who will be called upon to approve the works and deeds of the wealthy regardless of any negative impact on the masses. This holds true for the most primitive and backward societies to the most sophisticated, conditioned only on the requirement that the leader or leadership is non-religious and interested primarily in the retention of economic power.
Enter into the modern world by virtue of Iran’s apparent acquisition of nuclear capability, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is neither a wealthy wielder of power in the society nor is he a religious leader or part of the religious hierarchy that controls Iran. So what is he? First of all he is deeply religious and adheres to the faith and its religious leaders without question. He has a doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning (whatever that means.) Therefore he is probably trusted by Ayatollahs to understand and explain to them the mechanics of the modern world. And, he is a political animal. He has held a variety of political positions, both appointed and elected, including being elected as mayor of Teheran; no small feat. He has joined religious/political/militaristic organizations throughout his career. Their support for him has been evident in this recent election to the presidency (as it was when initially elected.)
The controlled election of Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, establishes a new and modern model for power elite control of a society. He is the economic/financial/ military handmaiden of the religious powers of Iran. He is to the Ayatollah government of Iran, the corridor through which power flows to and from the power elites of the country. This reversal of control is unknown in any other relatively modern society in the world today. And it grows out of the power of religious fundamentalism in control of huge economic resources. This is the Ahadinejad Model for control of power and wealth.
Now we must wait to see how other states with powerful religious fundamentalist bodies deal with this model. We look at the conflict in Afghanistan between the government supported by the United States and the Taliban as a potential place for reversal. This is, after all, the goal of Al Quaida. Saudi Arabia may be the next big power in line to fall. There are other hot spots. Time will tell.
The prevalent world model of governance has economic leaders backed by religious minions who agree to be supportive while staying out of their way in exchange for acceptance of and high regard for their sanctuaries, their mumbo-jumbo, and their connections with God who will be called upon to approve the works and deeds of the wealthy regardless of any negative impact on the masses. This holds true for the most primitive and backward societies to the most sophisticated, conditioned only on the requirement that the leader or leadership is non-religious and interested primarily in the retention of economic power.
Enter into the modern world by virtue of Iran’s apparent acquisition of nuclear capability, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is neither a wealthy wielder of power in the society nor is he a religious leader or part of the religious hierarchy that controls Iran. So what is he? First of all he is deeply religious and adheres to the faith and its religious leaders without question. He has a doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning (whatever that means.) Therefore he is probably trusted by Ayatollahs to understand and explain to them the mechanics of the modern world. And, he is a political animal. He has held a variety of political positions, both appointed and elected, including being elected as mayor of Teheran; no small feat. He has joined religious/political/militaristic organizations throughout his career. Their support for him has been evident in this recent election to the presidency (as it was when initially elected.)
The controlled election of Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, establishes a new and modern model for power elite control of a society. He is the economic/financial/ military handmaiden of the religious powers of Iran. He is to the Ayatollah government of Iran, the corridor through which power flows to and from the power elites of the country. This reversal of control is unknown in any other relatively modern society in the world today. And it grows out of the power of religious fundamentalism in control of huge economic resources. This is the Ahadinejad Model for control of power and wealth.
Now we must wait to see how other states with powerful religious fundamentalist bodies deal with this model. We look at the conflict in Afghanistan between the government supported by the United States and the Taliban as a potential place for reversal. This is, after all, the goal of Al Quaida. Saudi Arabia may be the next big power in line to fall. There are other hot spots. Time will tell.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
RELIGIOUS INFESTATION IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
As religions spread in the world because of the need for economic powers to control masses of people in ways other than war, the ascendancy of religion in the Muslim world created a monolithic human entity. And because the economic powers lost the battle for supremacy over this particular mass of people, the advances that economic activity bestowed on the rest of the world, were lost to the Muslim world.
Every sphere of human activity and creativity was controlled by and driven by religious hierarchies, intent on preservation of their power over their masses of people through the mumbo-jumbo of incantations and head-banging prayers. Today, we see that this religious infestation has caused and continues to cause the huge dichotomy, disconnect, and destructive tremors between the tectonic plates of the primitive religious world and the modern religious world.
Perhaps were there not mass communication devices such as radio, television, and computers, an absence of knowledge of the other, ignorance of the nature and quality of life on the other side of the divide, would have minimized the need for the Shamans of Islam to protect their hegemony over their people by educating them in the ways of human slaughter. Martyrdom would have been limited to the loonies of the religion.
But, what is, is. This is our world and we need to understand it out of our need to protect ourselves and our progeny. We have few tools available to us to combat the evils of religion, simply because our own power elites have exploited mankind’s need to believe in a higher power and instituted relatively benign religions among the masses, incorporating stolen value systems for educational purposes to keep the masses cowed and in their place.
Today, by force of arms, our societies try to keep the religious primitives at bay. But now, even the primitives have acquired weapons, including the most destructive kinds. And they are howling at the gates and the walls of our societies. And they have presented the world with a conundrum; the Ahmadinajad Model. Let’s see where it goes from here.
Every sphere of human activity and creativity was controlled by and driven by religious hierarchies, intent on preservation of their power over their masses of people through the mumbo-jumbo of incantations and head-banging prayers. Today, we see that this religious infestation has caused and continues to cause the huge dichotomy, disconnect, and destructive tremors between the tectonic plates of the primitive religious world and the modern religious world.
Perhaps were there not mass communication devices such as radio, television, and computers, an absence of knowledge of the other, ignorance of the nature and quality of life on the other side of the divide, would have minimized the need for the Shamans of Islam to protect their hegemony over their people by educating them in the ways of human slaughter. Martyrdom would have been limited to the loonies of the religion.
But, what is, is. This is our world and we need to understand it out of our need to protect ourselves and our progeny. We have few tools available to us to combat the evils of religion, simply because our own power elites have exploited mankind’s need to believe in a higher power and instituted relatively benign religions among the masses, incorporating stolen value systems for educational purposes to keep the masses cowed and in their place.
Today, by force of arms, our societies try to keep the religious primitives at bay. But now, even the primitives have acquired weapons, including the most destructive kinds. And they are howling at the gates and the walls of our societies. And they have presented the world with a conundrum; the Ahmadinajad Model. Let’s see where it goes from here.
Monday, August 17, 2009
ISRAEL - YOU GO FIRST
Egypt’s President Mubarak is on the way to speak with Barack Obama about how to achieve peace in the Middle East. He and his advisers and their fellow Arab leaders across the entire Arab world are all agreed that Israel is the one holding up the peace process by its “occupation,” its refusal to negotiate the status of Jerusalem, and by its refusal to allow the return of refugees from the 1948 war.
I suppose if I were an Arab and a Muslim and if I was indoctrinated to believe that Israel was a rogue state created to salve the world’s conscience for an unproven holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed by Nazis, and that pariah state was created on land stolen from its inhabitants of thousands of years who were chased out by an Israeli army supported and funded by the Western world, it would not be hard for me to believe that Israel should agree to take the first step toward peace by agreeing in advance of negotiations to commit suicide.
However, if I were a student of Middle East history without a connection to the conflict, I could reasonably conclude that Israel has survived a continuous onslaught of annihilation by its neighbors pre-dating its announcement of nationhood. I would also know that Israel is the only democracy of the twenty-odd oligarchic states that surround it. I would also know that the Arab states are poverty-stricken and that Israel has one of the highest Gross Domestic Products in the world that leads to an unrivaled jealousy by neighboring populations that live in poverty, ignorance, religious superstition, poor health, political impotence, and little hope to share in their rulers’ wealth.
So, naturally, having little to offer in the way of achieving peace and knowing that peace has little to offer their populations in the way of achieving modernity, the Arab rulers wisely are now attempting to entice the United States into helping wipe out the only functioning modern democratic state in the region that presently sets a bad example for their down-trodden populations mired in religious sectarian class conflict.
I believe the wait for Israel to go first in offering to settle the conflict by allowing itself to be sliced into pieces will not be a pleasant one for the Arabs sitting in the hot sun waiting patiently for this to happen. Israel will not go first.
I suppose if I were an Arab and a Muslim and if I was indoctrinated to believe that Israel was a rogue state created to salve the world’s conscience for an unproven holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed by Nazis, and that pariah state was created on land stolen from its inhabitants of thousands of years who were chased out by an Israeli army supported and funded by the Western world, it would not be hard for me to believe that Israel should agree to take the first step toward peace by agreeing in advance of negotiations to commit suicide.
However, if I were a student of Middle East history without a connection to the conflict, I could reasonably conclude that Israel has survived a continuous onslaught of annihilation by its neighbors pre-dating its announcement of nationhood. I would also know that Israel is the only democracy of the twenty-odd oligarchic states that surround it. I would also know that the Arab states are poverty-stricken and that Israel has one of the highest Gross Domestic Products in the world that leads to an unrivaled jealousy by neighboring populations that live in poverty, ignorance, religious superstition, poor health, political impotence, and little hope to share in their rulers’ wealth.
So, naturally, having little to offer in the way of achieving peace and knowing that peace has little to offer their populations in the way of achieving modernity, the Arab rulers wisely are now attempting to entice the United States into helping wipe out the only functioning modern democratic state in the region that presently sets a bad example for their down-trodden populations mired in religious sectarian class conflict.
I believe the wait for Israel to go first in offering to settle the conflict by allowing itself to be sliced into pieces will not be a pleasant one for the Arabs sitting in the hot sun waiting patiently for this to happen. Israel will not go first.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
RACHEL RACHEL
THERE ARE TWO - OR MORE - SIDES TO EVERY STORY
As an Arab house was being demolished by the Israeli army (for being the house of a terrorist,) Rachel threw herself in front of the bulldozer performing the demolition.
Was she murdered by the bulldozer operator who, perhaps having seen her, could have stopped his machine in time not to harm her?
Did the operator not see her?
Was she intent on becoming a martyr?
Did she slip and fall unintentionally and was thereby crushed?
Did she think the operator would stop his machine before he reached her and therefore did not extricate herself in time?
Whatever. The sad fact is that a young woman was killed by a bulldozer operated by the Israeli army as it was demolishing a terrorist house.
Peace advocates and Arab sympathizers are using Rachel's death for propaganda purposes to forward and support their agendas, placing Israel in the harshest light possible for "murdering" her.
Many Israel supporters are actively opposed to using the incident to vilify Israel and have reacted vociferously to counter the peacenik/Arab attack. This contretemps has split the Jewish community in the United States into opposing camps after a showing of a film of the incident. On the one hand, the morality of Thou Shalt Not Murder is sticking out. And on the other, beating up on Israel at every opportunity by a substantial portion of the world does get tiresome and irksome to those who are close to supporting Israel, right or wrong, out of perceptions of Jewish persecution and anti-Semitism.
So, is there a "Right" and a "Wrong" side to this event. Yes, for sure, and it only depends upon whwre you stand and where your heart lies.
As an Arab house was being demolished by the Israeli army (for being the house of a terrorist,) Rachel threw herself in front of the bulldozer performing the demolition.
Was she murdered by the bulldozer operator who, perhaps having seen her, could have stopped his machine in time not to harm her?
Did the operator not see her?
Was she intent on becoming a martyr?
Did she slip and fall unintentionally and was thereby crushed?
Did she think the operator would stop his machine before he reached her and therefore did not extricate herself in time?
Whatever. The sad fact is that a young woman was killed by a bulldozer operated by the Israeli army as it was demolishing a terrorist house.
Peace advocates and Arab sympathizers are using Rachel's death for propaganda purposes to forward and support their agendas, placing Israel in the harshest light possible for "murdering" her.
Many Israel supporters are actively opposed to using the incident to vilify Israel and have reacted vociferously to counter the peacenik/Arab attack. This contretemps has split the Jewish community in the United States into opposing camps after a showing of a film of the incident. On the one hand, the morality of Thou Shalt Not Murder is sticking out. And on the other, beating up on Israel at every opportunity by a substantial portion of the world does get tiresome and irksome to those who are close to supporting Israel, right or wrong, out of perceptions of Jewish persecution and anti-Semitism.
So, is there a "Right" and a "Wrong" side to this event. Yes, for sure, and it only depends upon whwre you stand and where your heart lies.
Monday, August 10, 2009
TRUISMS THAT ARE NOT!
TRUISMS THAT ARE NOT!
Part One
When I think about telling youngsters about the world as I see it, the appearance of commonly accepted beliefs more often than not is at variance with reality. That makes it difficult to convince or persuade inexperienced acolytes raised to believe the myths of their parents, teachers, scout leaders, preachers, and assorted mongers of platitudes, of this paradox. As examples; patriotism, belief in God, the value of hard work, and a variety of slogans and proverbs designed to lead masses to believe in behaviors potentially inimical to themselves yet beneficial to a small class of people.
The primary goal of this propaganda is an orderly society wherein the wealthy and powerful retain and enjoy their wealth and power and the lower classes are convinced of the correctness of their estate and their happy state in the society. Look at Great Britain and the rigidity of its classes that fill the minds of its people to this day. Look at India and its sects and China that modernly has recreated extreme class divisions accepted by its people with equanimity despite the “communist” names given to its classes.
Though a multitude of warnings against such naïveté exist in proverbs and quotations as are found in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, it is rare to find a jaundiced eye amongst that class of people eager to find acceptance of peers, bosses, successful people, and elders and higher classes of all kinds built into the mores of the quiescent societies. Discontent with your place and the thought of re3volution are No No’s.
Though this appears to be a highly cynical view of the world, it more denotatively is skepticism. When ideas are presented as for the “common good,” serious investigation is called for. A study of the Ten Commandments is an excellent training ground for careful analysis of the goals of the creators of the document; an orderly society untrammeled by dissent and unperturbed by inequality. For such a study, the value of scientific proof immediately becomes apparent.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are a second set of documents that lend themselves to this study of happy inequality. This despite the fact that
“All men are created equal” is proclaimed loudly. And so, slavery existed for hundreds of years before the proclamation and nearly a hundred years and a war after the proclamation.
The essence of “Truisms That Are Not” is to maintain stable rigid classified societies. The aim of this polemic is to introduce single class societies as humanistic, fair, and reasonable, as the path to a well ordered society of the peoples of the earth of the future. This will not happen without class warfare.
Part One
When I think about telling youngsters about the world as I see it, the appearance of commonly accepted beliefs more often than not is at variance with reality. That makes it difficult to convince or persuade inexperienced acolytes raised to believe the myths of their parents, teachers, scout leaders, preachers, and assorted mongers of platitudes, of this paradox. As examples; patriotism, belief in God, the value of hard work, and a variety of slogans and proverbs designed to lead masses to believe in behaviors potentially inimical to themselves yet beneficial to a small class of people.
The primary goal of this propaganda is an orderly society wherein the wealthy and powerful retain and enjoy their wealth and power and the lower classes are convinced of the correctness of their estate and their happy state in the society. Look at Great Britain and the rigidity of its classes that fill the minds of its people to this day. Look at India and its sects and China that modernly has recreated extreme class divisions accepted by its people with equanimity despite the “communist” names given to its classes.
Though a multitude of warnings against such naïveté exist in proverbs and quotations as are found in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, it is rare to find a jaundiced eye amongst that class of people eager to find acceptance of peers, bosses, successful people, and elders and higher classes of all kinds built into the mores of the quiescent societies. Discontent with your place and the thought of re3volution are No No’s.
Though this appears to be a highly cynical view of the world, it more denotatively is skepticism. When ideas are presented as for the “common good,” serious investigation is called for. A study of the Ten Commandments is an excellent training ground for careful analysis of the goals of the creators of the document; an orderly society untrammeled by dissent and unperturbed by inequality. For such a study, the value of scientific proof immediately becomes apparent.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are a second set of documents that lend themselves to this study of happy inequality. This despite the fact that
“All men are created equal” is proclaimed loudly. And so, slavery existed for hundreds of years before the proclamation and nearly a hundred years and a war after the proclamation.
The essence of “Truisms That Are Not” is to maintain stable rigid classified societies. The aim of this polemic is to introduce single class societies as humanistic, fair, and reasonable, as the path to a well ordered society of the peoples of the earth of the future. This will not happen without class warfare.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE
A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE
P.T. Barnum’s quote was never more apt than as evidence of the American People’s naivete about government-provided health care. The so called Health Care Debate is not a debate but rather a war that entails the outpouring of millions of dollars by health care insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, the American Medical Association and their associations and other for-profit leeches on the bodies of the sick for their assault on the Obama effort to provide health care for millions of uninsured and under-insured Americans. And the people, in their obvious gullibility, are being convinced that they will be better off in the hands of profit-making insurance companies than in the hands of a proven, effective, government-run health care delivery system such as Medi-Care.
Another famous quote that defines this criminal usage of their health care dollars by the rapacious insurance industry is this; “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People.” There are many instances of proof of this assertion. However, looking at the activities by insurance companies in their blatant savage attack on a government-run single-payer health care system provides sad evidence that George Orwell was correct in turning Up to Down and Good to Bad in the moronic minds of masses of people. Fear is the poison being spread by connotative word mongers in the pay of the profiteers. SOCIALISM, LONG DELAY, FREEDOM TO CHOOSE, CANADA, and a host of pejoratives designed to spread misinformation and havoc in town-hall meetings across the country.
The only surprise in this debacle is the apparent total absence of preparedness by the Obama administration for this war. Simply looking at the destruction of Michael Moore’s epic presentation “Sicko” and of Michael Moore himself, red flags should have been flying. The Clinton insurance company-sabotaged attempt to enter this fray on behalf of the American People provide clear evidence of the capability of the health insurance industry to mount a devastating attack on what is so apparently a needed health care program for the people.
The outcome of the good and legitimate intentions of the government still hangs in the balance. But knowing that money talks and knowing of the malleability and the inability of the plain folk of America to defend themselves in the face of this propaganda onslaught, their final choice is highly questionable.
P.T. Barnum’s quote was never more apt than as evidence of the American People’s naivete about government-provided health care. The so called Health Care Debate is not a debate but rather a war that entails the outpouring of millions of dollars by health care insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, the American Medical Association and their associations and other for-profit leeches on the bodies of the sick for their assault on the Obama effort to provide health care for millions of uninsured and under-insured Americans. And the people, in their obvious gullibility, are being convinced that they will be better off in the hands of profit-making insurance companies than in the hands of a proven, effective, government-run health care delivery system such as Medi-Care.
Another famous quote that defines this criminal usage of their health care dollars by the rapacious insurance industry is this; “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People.” There are many instances of proof of this assertion. However, looking at the activities by insurance companies in their blatant savage attack on a government-run single-payer health care system provides sad evidence that George Orwell was correct in turning Up to Down and Good to Bad in the moronic minds of masses of people. Fear is the poison being spread by connotative word mongers in the pay of the profiteers. SOCIALISM, LONG DELAY, FREEDOM TO CHOOSE, CANADA, and a host of pejoratives designed to spread misinformation and havoc in town-hall meetings across the country.
The only surprise in this debacle is the apparent total absence of preparedness by the Obama administration for this war. Simply looking at the destruction of Michael Moore’s epic presentation “Sicko” and of Michael Moore himself, red flags should have been flying. The Clinton insurance company-sabotaged attempt to enter this fray on behalf of the American People provide clear evidence of the capability of the health insurance industry to mount a devastating attack on what is so apparently a needed health care program for the people.
The outcome of the good and legitimate intentions of the government still hangs in the balance. But knowing that money talks and knowing of the malleability and the inability of the plain folk of America to defend themselves in the face of this propaganda onslaught, their final choice is highly questionable.
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