so-called 'leadership' ABJECT FAILURE [neo-liberal = rent-rapine]

.. bad feelings ...

  .. arise from problems ...

    .. still in search of practical solutions

Subtitle: Emotions may act as stimuli; only actively doing is dynamic.

-=*=-

Trigger article:

The Anguish of the Age: Emotional Reactions to Collapse
June 22, 2010
  «To be fully alive today is to live with anguish, not for one's own condition in the world but for the condition of the world, for a world that is in collapse.» 
[commondreams/Robert Jensen]

Comment: Considering emotion is no path to any solution, but towards a possible coping strategy, to which the follow-on title attests. Both articles recommended - obviously.

Response article:

Coping With Collapse Emotionally
08 July, 2010
  «We need to transcend systems rooted in human arrogance and greed that lead us to believe that any individual is more valuable than another, that any group of people should dominate another group, or that people have a right to exploit the living world without regard for the consequences for the ecosystem.» 
[countercurrents/Robert Jensen]

Comment: The article includes only a few of the responses, but nevertheless provides food for thought. Of course we need to cope (alternative: useless, self-harming panic), but beyond coping, we (desperately) need to fix - alternative: over the (terminal) cliff.

-=*=-

Intermezzo: There are several enormous crimes underway, the 1st of which is '47/8+ Israel; the immoral invasion and dispossession of the Palestinian people and intended illegal occupation of the entire country of Palestine by the I/J/Z-plex, assisted by 3rd party so-called 'powers' (mainly US & UK then others, like D and, to our great shame, Aus.) The 2nd crime is 'political,' namely maintaining the pretence that we live in 'democracies.' I have previously pointed out at length that a) we the sheople are deliberately misinformed, b) we have no real choice of honest candidates, and c) those elected mostly abuse their mandate by often acting diametrically *against* we the voters' interests. The case in point here and simultaneous proof of (a-c) is the bipartisan imposition of neo-liberal economic policies. These deliberately harmful policies were and still are being 'smuggled' in under the (risible, lying) guise of "This will be good for you!" - one, Thatcher, going so far as to screech "TINA!" = There is no alternative. Well, an outright lie; the exact same one mouthed recently by the German treasurer; there *IS* and always has been a *viable* alternative - and it's called 'properly progressive taxation' - but that's the one alternative that these *traitorous* politicians avoid - in service to their real masters - and in defiance of us, we the putatively sovereign people. The 3rd and worst crime is the indiscriminate nature of the economic system so constructed, a) in the damaging over-exploitation of resources and b) the most destructive of all, polluting as if there were no tomorrow, a policy which if not reversed will *ensure* no tomorrow.

Note: The (illegal, murdering-to-thieve) wars inflicted on the world mostly by the US are massive problems in themselves, but I can't always get everything into every article.

-=*=-

Data: Here are two 'supporting' articles:

1. NeoLiberalism and the Counter-Enlightenment
May 27, 2010
  «Financial dominance of real estate and industry, government spending and personal wealth seeking has been achieved largely by ideological conquest based on deception. For starters, financial interests seek a cloak of invisibility when it comes to their own gains and those of their major clients.» 
[Michael Hudson]

Comment: Neo-liberalism in all its gruesome degeneracy.

2. The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order
The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 1
June 24, 2010
  «... not only is the awakening global in its reach, but in its nature; it creates within the individual, an awareness of the global condition. So it is a ‘global awakening’ both in the external environment, and in the internal psychology.
This new reality in the world, ... presents a challenge to elites seeking to dominate people all over the world who are aware and awakened to the realities of social inequality, war, poverty, exploitation, disrespect, imperialism and domination» 
[globalresearch/Andrew Gavin Marshall]

Comment: Already cited; 'promises' some hope.

-=*=-

Theory (economic): It makes some sort of sense, to depress working conditions, reduce workers' incomes, make them fearful, unsure and insecure, to eliminate wherever possible 'permanent' jobs, say. See 'Serf Choices.' Lean-and-mean, down-sizing and off-shoring all belong to 'economic rationalisation;' IF we (anywhere) don't do it THEN others will, and the jobs will all migrate - a process otherwise termed 'race to the bottom.' Same with overheads - like taxation; reduce it everywhere (and add regressive bits like the GST.) Same with 'buy low, sell high;' 'perfectly' illustrated by Iraqi oil - $1 per barrel to dig it up, current selling price 71 or 81, the difference being - ta ra! - Economic rent, giving rise to - ta ra again! - Super profits. The result of all this 'economic genius' is to make corporations (and therefore CEOs & shareholders) - rich and richer, and workers ever poorer, going poorest.

BUT: As we can plainly see, it has all gone just the one way: *against* workers.

Our so-called 'leadership' has taken it too far and forgotten at least one supremely important point: we're *all* humans; prosperity is based on mutual action (managers *and* workers) but one section (GWBush's haves+have-mores) are mercilessly exploiting the other sections, *unfairly* so and in contradiction of the Enlightenment; see Hudson above.

What's needed is countervailing power, (non-corrupt) governments to capture and redistribute (un-earned!) income, à la Keynes' euthanasia of the rentier.

A fair exchange is no robbery.

-=*=-

Argument: It goes (almost) without saying, but in the face of the monumental deceptions and depredations deployed against us, it nevertheless *must* be said, that any policy inimical to the electorate-at-large's interests, deceptively 'smuggled' in by being obscured by lies is *not* within accepted democratic principles, whereby an informed electorate has free choice, and elected representatives carry out 'the will of the people.' See conspiracy[2]. Since neo-liberalism is being applied by both sides of our 'two-party' system, neither is to be trusted. Bipartisanship, by giving the electorate no choice, is both un- and anti-democratic.

-=*=-

Facit: The longer this so-called 'leadership' evil persists and nothing positive is accomplished, the worse it will get; the danger to us all gets less avoidable. The evil *must* be stopped, *before* it's too late.

Overthrowing an existing order calls for a revolution; a *totally* new, truly ethical political party 101% dedicated to "of, by, for the people" must be created and elected. Everywhere. Soonest.

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] rapine n. rhet. plundering. [Latin: related to *rape1] [POD]

[2] conspiracy n. (pl. -ies) 1 secret plan to commit a crime; plot. 2 conspiring. [Latin: related to *conspire] [ibid.]

incontrovertible proof of their disgusting, criminal perfidy [politicians, economists, fat-cats]

.. use ...

  .. your own ...

    .. senses = eyes + ears & brains

Thesis/Subtitle: We have a full-blown crisis; democracy failure.

[update]

-=*=-

1. Liberal: Far from free.

2. Propaganda: The lie is in.

3. Neo-liberal: The $-fix is in.

4. Democracy: Of, by, for is out.

-=*=-

1. Lib vs. Lab *used to be* the great ideological divide; since now in at least one v.important aspect (neo-liberalism) Lib = Lab, any 'competition' tends to be more cosmetic than on substance. Makes the recent MRRT stoush strange; it's as if Lab went back to their roots. The reaction of the fat-cat miners plus entourage was 'perfectly' standard. The miners and cohort/apologists maintain a "born to rip-off" attitude, as the Liberals maintain a "born to rule" one.

The 'best' (of course, the worst) illustration of Liberals, perhaps for all time, was given to us in whimsy; a cartoon of Fraser on a cricket-pitch, blocking the Senate (and therefore Whitlam) with a brick-wall bat.

Apropos the MRRT (RR = resource rent), temporarily termed MSPT (SP = super profit), they are the same thing, namely an attempt at returning *some* of the mining profits to the people. It was quoted that the $-return to the sheople (via government) had fallen from about 1/3rd to 1/7th, and I have a) no reason to doubt this and b) all reason to expect it - given the penetration of neo-liberal economics. The reaction of the rippers-off was also as to be expected: disgusting. A democracy that allows itself to be bought and/or bullied is also a failure.

Libs are the party of the fat-cats, always have been. Why any 'wo/man in the street' votes *for* Libs and therefore largely *against* their own interests is an enduring mystery. But see next topic (2).

It used to be that the party for honest workers was Lab (and only scabs would vote against); now that Lib = Lab = both sell-out workers by implementing erring neo-liberal policies, any division is reduced, perhaps permanently and to insignificance.

2. That propaganda is typified by lies can hardly be in dispute; for definitive proof see "The Big Lie." Also we learned, thanks, but "No, thanks!" to Howard, that "All politicians lie!" Such lies are now professionally managed (PR), co-ordinated and 'herded' into an all-encompassing 'lie-cloud,' what I like to call the pushed-propaganda paradigm. Most so-called 'debate' takes place within this lie-cloud = cloud-cuckoo-land. This is the field upon which the corrupt and venal MSM cavort, including to their eternal damnation, 'our' AusBC. It should be clear that no meaningful debate may include lies; no person (i.e. voters) may make informed decisions based on lies.

3a. Neo-liberalism: How do I detest thee? Let me count the ways. Neo-liberalism appeared sometime before Fraser, we know this because of criticism that Fraser wasted time by not introducing any. Then came Thatcher, Reagan and Hawke/Keating. At least Reagan got something right by terming neo-liberalism "voodoo economics." Lets see now; "user pays" means convert to a toll-booth economy, adding charging infrastructure, administrative overheads and new sinecures for fat-cat CEOs plus their entourages. This may be likened to "enclosing the commons," to which add "privatisation" aka flogging off the (egalitarian service providing, income producing) family silver - or the other even more cynical variation, reducing -> cancelling egalitarian services outright. At the same time as crippling the government services sector, government income is crippled by tax-cuts, affectively to the richest and least deserving. Ever more vicious reduction in government income is called "starving the beast."

3b. Then, there's the industry/jobs sector, keywords "lean and mean." A short list, hard to assign "most vicious:" off-shoring, down-sizing, out-sourcing, sub-contracting, part-timing (extend the list yourself.) Oh yeah, and "union busting," often carried out by corrupting the unions themselves, i.e. blackmail threats like: 'reduce conditions or we'll close the business,' see Opel recently in Europe. That threat made simultaneously to governments.

3c. So, having crippled governments, unions and workers, the big threat now is "Jobs!" See the current MRRT / MSPT imbroglio; the already obscenely rich fat-cat miners threaten that they'll cut investment and therefore work and therefore jobs, and the whole country then jumps through the miners' hoops. Upshot: Our non-renewable mineral resources will continue to leave the country, as will some/most/all of the profits, depending on how far we allow foreign-investment to further rip us off. Most likely result: A broke country full of empty holes.

3d. Don't forget the banking sector, and the deliberately impoverished governments which have 'bailed-out' all those banks' bad *bets* with trillions of *our* $s. (Imagine! Bankers betting, losing, then crying poor! Then the govts *gave* the failed gamblers bail-outs, based on *our tax money*!) Filthy swine, on both sides of those 'transactions.' So now to the latest; we are getting austerity programs [see update, 7Jul'10] almost everywhere, *guaranteed* to accelerate the downward, race to the dead-end-bottom spiral of rip-off idiocy.

4. Democracy: Of, by, for is out. The lies - detected by me only relatively recently - I *trusted* the AusBC, but in retrospect, the lies have been heaped upon us for all of my life. Proof: After getting *all* my news from the AusBC, I fell for the "Israel as brave David" lying propaganda. That was back in the 60s & 70s; never again. In actual fact, Israel is a criminal oppressor, has been since its year dot. Lies mean no informed voting is possible. That Lib = Lab on critical issues means we the voters have no meaningful choice. Then, consider the bipartisan implementation of neo-liberalism. This is a *massive* sell-out of we the sheople, and means that our so-called representatives are not doing their notional job, but the 180-degree exact opposite, they are (traitorously!) working *against* our interests.

-=*=-

Fazit: Neo-liberalism has been *undemocratically* forced upon us, seemingly by politicians (if they are actually in control, and not 'merely' doubly-traitorous puppets.) Proof of 'undemocratic:' No worthwhile project needs a 'cover' of lies; neo-liberalism is replete with 'em. The obvious: "Here, take this or that neo-liberalism item - it's going to be *good* for you!" Like hell. It was always fishy (notably, how can sheople of ever more depressed incomes, fewer, less-well paid jobs and fewer working hours - support a consumer-led economy?) neo-liberalism is now clearly seen to be failing everywhere, even the hapless US citizenry is suffering, perhaps a bit in advance of Aus - so we can see what's coming - and it's by no means pretty (*massive* understatement!) Q: Given the obvious failure, why is it still being rolled-out in places? Are the rollers-out so stupid? Or 'merely' criminal? Since we don't 'do' conspiracies, and do not give much if any credence to coincidence, we have to conclude that neo-liberalism was forced on us consciously - by outright traitors to us, we the sheople.

QED.

-=*=-
 
Update, 7Jul'10; PS Apropos 'austerity,' here four items, publ-time-ordered:

1. Hudson suggests taxing property:

Euro-Bankers Demand of Greece
The wealthy won’t pay their taxes, so labor must do so.
May 11, 2010
  «... And taxes on labor now are about to be jacked up to pay off the public debts resulting from the asset-price inflation and financial wreckage that property tax cuts have helped cause. This is the cause of national debts. Governments have run into debt as a result of un-taxing the wealthy in general, not just real estate.» 
[Michael Hudson]

Comment: Where taxes *should* be levied is not really too hard, and could probably be best determined by surveying successful tax-regimes. Simply un-taxing the rich à la neo-liberalism is obviously disastrous.

Comment: Hudson concentrates on taxes, another damaging 'leg' to neo-liberalism is the privatisation of govt. services; turning them into lean and mean down-sized profit-seeking fee-for-service rip-off entities. Like 'medicine for profit,' the so-called 'financial geniuses' put profit before all else, here good health-care, there good services. Makes sense, eh?

Comment: The fat-cats must feel themselves quite fat enough; look at the new (pro-fat-cat) govt. in England; they propose to work their way out of the GFC-hangover by cutting 25-40% off their govt. budget, and sacking perhaps 600k govt. workers - clearly pro-cyclic and guaranteed to make things *far, far* worse. That in the face of their fat-cat class, who must calculate that even on a contracting economy, they'll be able to remain fat.

2. Marshall offers some hope:

The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order
The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 1
June 24, 2010
  «... not only is the awakening global in its reach, but in its nature; it creates within the individual, an awareness of the global condition. So it is a ‘global awakening’ both in the external environment, and in the internal psychology.
This new reality in the world, ... presents a challenge to elites seeking to dominate people all over the world who are aware and awakened to the realities of social inequality, war, poverty, exploitation, disrespect, imperialism and domination» 
[globalresearch/Andrew Gavin Marshall]

Comment: Looong, and little on the austerity theme. Important is that Marshall sees the masses awakening, and the ruling kleptocrats' lies, crimes & injustices coming under increasing pressure. Article strongly recommended.

Comment: By and large there is (or has been) enough for all. If shortages loom, we must accommodate; cooperation seems better than confrontation - but it looks like the existing 'rulers' have chosen a non-peaceful way. Q: Wonder why? A: Because they don't wish to surrender even one single sou of their ill-gotten plunder.

3. Pro-neo-liberal Ms Marcus spruiks status quo (via corrupt & venal MSM; what else?):

Pitfalls of Soaking the Rich
Jul 6, 2010
  «I’m all for a more progressive tax code. But consider: The Tax Policy Center examined what it would take to avoid raising taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year yet reduce the deficit to 3 percent of the economy by decade’s end. The top two rates would have to rise to 72.4 and 76.8 percent, more than double the current level. You don’t have to be anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist to think this would be insane.» 
[truthdig/Ruth Marcus(washpost)]

Comment: I doubt Marcus' complete sincerity, especially in her 1st sentence.

Comment: Setting the bar @ $US¼mio is too high. A friend used to maintain that what you couldn't get in your mouth was wasted. He wasn't directly addressing nutrition, but the fact that obesity is wide-spread in the lower income groups indicates no lack of available nutrition, down to food-stamp level, say. High top-end marginal tax rates are not unknown; the Beatles sang "There’s one for you, nineteen for" the taxman. At a rough guess, I would say that anyone in and over the humungous SUV/4WD bracket has some taxable excess.

Comment: *Someone* must pay. The poor, as ever, are getting poorer, and now at a faster rate. Q: Why do crims rob banks? A: That's where the $s are. Q: How long before the currently (insane?) taxman *rediscovers* the fat-cat super-rich?

4. Wolff connects the GFC to austerity via G-20 = collusion:

Austerity: Why and for Whom?
Tuesday 06 July 2010
  «A capitalist system that generates so massive a crisis, spreads it globally, and then proposes mass austerity to "overcome" it has lost the right to continue unchallenged.» 
[truthout|Op-Ed/Rick Wolff]

Comment: The stimulus packages deployed are obviously Keynesian, otherwise banished. Possibly Keynes' biggest 'mistake' was his 'euthanasia of the rentier' idea; but that's *exactly* what's needed.

Comment: The mainly US neo-liberals group Marx, unionism, socialism and communism + all compassion and call the grouping 'anti-business;' problem is that 'business-as-usual' has crashed. Everyone needs (deserves!) their *appropriate* (fair!) share, but the fat-cats have stripped the workers bare. Some reversal is now due - in fact, a big reversal! - Back to truth & justice etc. - aka back to the Enlightenment. Soonest!

[«back»]

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] liberal -adj. 1 abundant, ample. 2 giving freely, generous. 3 open-minded. 4 not strict or rigorous. 5 for the general broadening of the mind (liberal studies). 6 a favouring moderate political and social reform. b (Liberal) of or characteristic of Liberals. —n. 1 person of liberal views. 2 (Liberal) supporter or member of a Liberal Party.  liberalism n. liberality n. liberally adv. [Latin liber free] [POD]

[2] perfidy n. breach of faith; treachery. perfidious adj. [Latin perfidia from fides faith] [ibid.]

[3] sense -n. 1 a any of the five bodily faculties transmitting sensation. b sensitiveness of all or any of these (good sense of smell). 2 ability to perceive or feel. 3 (foll. by of) consciousness; awareness (sense of guilt). 4 quick or accurate appreciation, understanding, or instinct (sense of humour). 5 practical wisdom, common sense. [ibid.]

universities full of traitors [AusBC, economists]

.. smart and/or rich ...

  .. 'the product' ...

    .. stinks

Thesis/Subtitle: $s; made round - to go around.

[update]

-=*=-

Capitalism is well-modelled by the 'game' of monopoly; the idea is to 'win' by bankrupting all competitors - that done by charging (unearned!) rents. (Recall here the as-it-should-be MRRT.) Before one may extract rents one must 'accumulate' properties, houses and (best) hotels; doing that requires cash. The game of monopoly is based on chance; all start with equal $s and throw dice to progress - or not. By chance, some acquire more or less $s and some acquire more or less desirable properties. Then it becomes a trial by exhaustion, s/he who by hook or by crook best rips off others wins.

I transitioned to adulthood in the late 60s/early 70s; with hindsight they truly were the good old days. As my peer group left school, we were advised that we could expect to buy a car approximating one year's pay, and a house approximating two and a half year's. Average wages now being around $50k, the car is still possible but the house [see update], at about six and up average year's pay is not - unless one and one's spouse both work, possibly at multiple jobs each. Jobs ain't 'old-style' jobs anymore, what with so-called neo-liberal economic rationalisation and globalisation, etc..

Back then, there were more and better functioning unions, and yes, more strikes. Apparently, workers must fight capitalists over who gets what share of the 'social bargain,' government intervention also seems required - attempting to approach 'fairness.' As part of the 'progress' since the good old days, that union/arbitration system has been compromised almost to death - latest attack called something like "Serf Choices." Back then, we had a more progressive tax structure, then we got tax-cuts (mainly for the already rich), and a regressive tax called GST aimed squarely at extracting more from the lower income brackets. Which, believe it or not, the sheople actually voted for - or so it seemed; Howard the proposer was re-elected. The same regressive-tax offer was previously made by Lab - but it didn't 'get up' that time; exposing a (fatal!) flaw in our democracy since bipartisan anything is both un- and anti-democratic. This exposes yet another fatal flaw in our democracy, with just the *one* vote, one must choose between platforms containing a great many items, a physical impossibility of being able to vote for much more than 50% of one's desires.

Long story short: Capitalism, as in operation since the good old days has led to a) a fall in conditions for the workers, and b) a vast increase in the accumulation by the already obscenely-rich fat-cats. It's statistically provable - without any jokes about lying statistics, *because* it's lying economists who've done this to us, economists who've learned their (filthy) tricks in universities, then spruiked at us, we the sheople, spruiking the lying neo-liberal economic rationalisation and globalisation rubbish, these lies being relayed and even *augmented* by the corrupt and venal MSM, *including* by publicly-financed broadcasters like 'our' AusBC. The latter being stuffed with - wait for it: *university* graduates. Q: What's in it for them, 'our' AusBC, to lie to us? A: Corruption.

We can see, with our own unaided eyes, two groups helping to do us, we the sheople in; a) university graduate economists and b) university graduate journalists. Both of these groups are *not* the actual, filthy-rich accumulators, so basically theses traitors are selling us out for a comparative pittance.

Boo! Hiss!

-=*=-

Fazit: Getting back to $s; accumulating great stacks may be OK in monopoly - but only as long as it stays a game. In the real-world, it does no-one any good to have most of the dollars in a tiny few ghastly over-greedy hands; for one thing, they can't possibly spend it all (made round - to go around) - and so the rest of us (sheople and governments both) get starved for cash. Hence the austerity programs; wages are cut, employment is cut, costs are cut, govt. spending is cut, services are cut - a cut-to-the-death downward spiral. We've seen that in our defective democracy, mis-educated and misinformed sheople can be convinced to vote against their own interests, partly if not wholly thanks to universities full of traitors.

The answer is obvious: tax the rich back to reality.

Oh yair; and teach the traitors some manners, morals and humanity.

-=*=-
 
Update, 6Jul'10; PS The Liberals boast of being good at 'managing the economy,' and that for a while, Costello was 'the world's greatest treasurer.' Both claims are utter bulls**t, and a 'perfect' illustration of how "All politicians lie!" Of course, the corrupt and venal MSM (including the publicly-financed AusBC) pass these lying claims on, without comment let alone contest. I've pointed out before that any bipartisan approach is both un- and anti-democratic; the application of neo-liberal (erring!) ideology by both Lib and Lab is a case in point - we, the voters, do not even get an option of voting on such bipartisan idiocies. Fraser was criticised for not beginning the neo-liberal crippling of the Aus economy, that beginning was left to Hawke/Keating. In the case of house-prices, it was Costello's halving of the capital gains tax (CGT) rate that lead *directly* to an approximate doubling of house prices. No-one need take my word for it; research it for yourselves. BUT: That particular perfidy perfectly puts the lie to both hubristic Liberal claims herein mentioned.

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