The only alternative is a move away from both church and state establishments.
]]>“Just so you have a short list of what’s at stake if Washington DC doesn’t change policy here and now (which means before the collapse in equities comes, which could start as soon as today, if the indicators I watch have any validity at all. For what its worth, those indicators are painting a picture of the Apocalypse that I simply can’t believe, and they’re showing it as an imminent event – like perhaps today imminent.)
The good news is that this process will clear The Bezzle out of the system.
The bad news is that you won’t have a job, pension, annuity, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and, quite possibly, your life.
It really is that bleak folks, and it all goes back to Washington DC being unwilling to lock up the crooks, putting the market in the role it has always played – that of truth-finder, no matter how destructive that process is.
Only immediate action from Washington DC, taking the market’s place, can stop this, and as I get ready to hit “send” I see the market rolling over again, now down more than 3% and flashing “crash imminent” warnings. You may be reading this too late for it to matter.
In 3 minutes, what’s coming…..
http://digg.com/business_finance/What_s_Dead_Short_Answer_All_Of_It?OTC-em-sh2
Speaking of class…
]]>I would very much like to see a reformulation of Randian ideals purged of the their distorting taint of classism. But this piece is more spiritually vile than Rand in her most narrow moments. What I read here is bitter age denouncing youthful passion- with self-interest as the official topic of denunciation, and sexuality the primary obsession. I’ll agree that Rand’s concept of sexuality as a manifested idealism is only part of the truth, but it is far spiritually healthier than this knowing, sneering condescension towards animal hormones. The author is supposedly a progressive, but he sounds like any conservative parent: ‘I grew up and overgrew my hopes and dreams and desire, and now I’m going to make sure you never have a chance to find what I did not- for your own good, of course.’ The jealous ressentiment of the egalitarian synthesises well with the jealous ressentiment of the Puritan. ‘I cannot have this, so that those who can are the archetype of evil’. Slave morality at its most consistent.
Yes, the Christian element of the Western heritage does locate evil in precisely the thrill of selfhood of which adolescent sexuality is a beautiful symbol (and which the wealth of Babylon is a primary external manifestation)- and yes, this world allows it to flourish very rarely, and as a rule at others’ expense. What we need is a social order which allows that adolescent spirit to preserve its essence into rational maturity, and extends this possibility to as many human beings as possible, and organises social life in a way that harmonises rather than abolishes egoisms or sets them in expolitive conflict. Conservative morality must see this as madness and an impossible attempt to rationally universalise the root of evil. It is this moral intuition whose persistence makes it impossible to divert the American drift to dictatorship.
I used to believe that it was more-or-less inevitable that the majority of people would be cowed into the kind of morality that preserved the social group, and thus an ethics which subordinated the living individual to the preservation of the tribe was inevitable. What I now find it almost impossible to communicate is what it is like to live in an environment where the average person pretty much does live for their own happiness, largely considers authority an inconvenience to work around, and more-or-less leaves people alone to live their own lives. Yes, it is possible- even if history suggests that it doesn’t emerge very often and doesn’t last very long.
I read Naomi Klein’s book, or tried to. It felt like a churning of floating facts anchored to each other by arbitrary bromides and a suspicious sense of social causality. Some of the facts were important, but the picture blurred before the eyes and wouldn’t stay together in the mind. It was the kind of book you finish and then wish you’d spent the time drinking- if you are going to have a hangover, then you might as well have had the pleasure of intoxication first.
]]>Yes, I’ve ALWAYS been a nerd ( : ( :
Everyone knows poor people should starve….snickers It’s the Alan Greenspan take on Rand:
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Atlas Shruggedis a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should.
What kind of Commie traitor wants that!? I’m sorry Nick, but neither you or your family will ever be TRUE libertarians, unless perhaps you stumble onto some prime real estate in Galt’s Gulch.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever heard of Bioshock, the Randian-themed (aesthetically, at least) video game? It’s essentially a haunted house version Atlas Shrugged wherein the Gulch is overrun with nanotech zombies.
]]>I’d say he sees his work in promoting unionization as countering corporate and employer coercion. In that sense, he’s kind of a Libertarianish social democrat. He’d probably be happy to organize the equality minded social welfare stuff in a New Leftist fashion. His concerns with taxation and welfarism are basically summed up as “people shouldn’t starve on the streets”.
My stepmom, stepsister, and stepcousin are similar. I find their Progressivism to be generally tolerant. I know I’ve provided a snapshot of a tension filled moment with my dad on here, but I actually get along quite well with my family here. If I hadn’t been born with a left-liberal or Progressive father, then my circumstances right now may have been drastically different. Some of my forays into illicit politics and culture could have been severely constrained or even prevented by my parents. I get annoyed at some of the paradoxes of this type of leftism, but a lot of my good friends in MO are left-liberal-Progressive or even lefty anarchist. There was no greater time in KC then when I was at an unfamily Thanksgiving party in KC — create your own family ( :
Pretty sure a young gay guy was hitting on me. If only I were confidently bisexual still…
Anyhow, the point is that I can breath with these people — something I couldn’t do with more stuffy conservatives.
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