Posted by andreas from p3EE3C3B2.dip.t-dialin.net (62.227.195.178) on Wednesday, November 27, 2002 at 10:14AM :
In Reply to: It's Just A Matter of Time posted by pancho from pool0187.cvx24-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.210.187) on Wednesday, November 27, 2002 at 8:11AM :
: We all know we're fucking up the planet but good. The corporations that now ARE the government of the United States are in it for that famous bottom line and for the short haul. Long term damage is on no one's radar screen.
: We don't need to pollute the air, foul the waters and dig up the terrain in order to live a good life, but we do. So, what kind of a life is a good one?
: Zillionaires will tell you the good life means them having their ziillions, and your raft, if you have one, rising with their yacht. We believe this too. In the back of all of our heads is a place that feels thrilled everytime another zillionaire is made...sort of like getting to know a rich person...you're just sure something good will come your way...just by association.
: Trouble with that is that zillionaires don't come by their money legitimitly...look into their business dealings closely and you'll see where the theft occured. Or of it wasn't outright theft, then they managed to make their money in way that in the long run is going to impact the rest of us negatively in many more serious ways than any boost we got from their zillions...and not just by damages to our environment and community welfare...but in direct costs such as the infamous S&L bailout...PG&E bailout and several other concoctions that result in our paying the bill for a long time to come to be entertained by Donald Trump's peckerdillo for a season or two.
: Marx didn't have much of a solution...but he, Veblen and others sure did identify the problem. Universities and the media are just about bought and sold so you'll hear lots of talking heads telling you things are fine," best of all possible worlds" and all of that. Believe it...what's it to me... or you, really. The point of having "experts" is to convince us that things have to be this way, and, that it's the best way for things to be. Well...what have you to say in opposition?
: We have to find something else to base our lives on, something else to motivate us or secure us, besides unbridled greed...and the short term benefits that come from it.
: If all these goodies can only come our way...even though the goodies themselves are compensation for what we really could use, for real wealth, the kind we all know makes for happy babies and good times round the campfire... if the treats only come through destruction of the very ground we stand on, the air we breathe and the water we drink....then what's the point?
: And the fact there is NO point increasingly to most people's lives...to such an extent that we've unleashed the pharmaceutical companies and given them the National Corner to stand on and push their wares...should begin to show us soon that "it" isn't working. Except we're too high...or low...or limp...or dry, to see it or care much. And now that we're all on the look-out for falling Arabs...who has the time?
: I know people will say things are "relative"...that these kinds of grousings are the result of age and boredom and a cynnicism passing itself off as insight, brought on mostly by recognizing you blew it and didn't get laid half as much as you think you should have...still, it can also be true... that it CAN be true.
: To those who say everything is relative and we've pretty much seen all there is to see, and it isn't that different from what went on before...I'd like to suggest that the Hitler Youth Movement had some significant points at variance from your basic Boy Scout Troop...and we all paid dearly for those "minor" points of relative relativity.
: When you're young you're stupid. That's the way it's supposed to be, and stupid people are easily led and easily impressed. There may be some wisdom to come...but don't count on it...starting out stupid isn't the best foundation upon which to build intelligently...though you CAN aspire to be the most powerfully stupid man in the world.
: After years of deprivation and days and nights spent in useless study, a person wants to bust out and "live" a little. After a short stint as a concerned and moral young adult, one wants a fast car, then a source of music, then a condo. Before too long, to no one's surprise, especially not to those who make and advertise, cars, music and condos...one is convinced that this not only has to be the "good life"...but that in order to have any one of these for yourself, it really does mean you have to starve some five thousand children a month to death...somewhere "over there".
: It's only true, if it has to be. We can find another way, we found this one.
-- andreas
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