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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.]