Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

Trojan Horse

Erich Fromm, writing in The Art of Loving, says that: Some make a virtue out of giving in the sense of a sacrifice. They feel that just because it is painful to give, one ‘should’ give; the virtue of giving to them lies in the very act of acceptance of the sacrifice. For them, the norm that it is better to give than to receive means that it is better to suffer deprivation than to experience joy.

I am quoting Fromm because it appears as though the seven members of the G-8 (not including Russia who wasn’t invited), have agreed to cancel the debt of the 18 poorest African nations, a real sacrifice considering the selfish, carnivorous nature of those involved with the canceling of the debts – you get the impression they are really suffering in agreeing to do so.

But, wait…maybe there is more going on here than meets the eye. The citizens of Ilium, of course, welcomed the horse the ‘strong greaved Acheans’ had left them, and pushed it into city center, behind the protective wall that had theretofore held the marauding Greeks (sea peoples, or pirates, actually) at bay. Once the horse entered their city, it was all over; the Greeks snuck out, threw open the gates to their waiting co-conspirators, and sacked Ilium, carrying off its treasure to spread around the entire Mediterranean basin. Never mind what the Greeks did to the Trojan women – you wouldn’t want to know.

Now, several millennia later, another bunch of Greeks (pirates) appear to be offering yet another Trojan horse to the hapless souls trapped in deepest, darkest Africa. This time it is a horse of debt relief that appears as the gift, but perhaps this time a gift the Africans should first look in the mouth. This particular gift apparently comes with fairly long teeth. Teeth intended to sink deep into the African flesh, and rend it asunder.

George Monbiot, writing for The Guardian, says of this horse’s teeth that: Who, apart from the leading writers of the Daily Telegraph, could deny that debt relief is a good thing? Never mind that much of this debt - money lent by the World Bank and IMF to corrupt dictators - should never have been pursued in the first place. Never mind that, in terms of looted resources, stolen labour and now the damage caused by climate change, the rich owe the poor far more than the poor owe the rich. Some of the poorest countries have been paying more for debt than for health or education. Whatever the origins of the problem, that is obscene… You are waiting for me to say but, and I will not disappoint you. The but comes in paragraph 2 of the finance ministers' statement. To qualify for debt relief, developing countries must "tackle corruption, boost private-sector development" and eliminate "impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign". Monbiot says of all of this that it is little better than "extortion."

Ah ha! Now you know why they say to beware of Greeks bearing gifts. This is no gift, it’s a battering ram to get inside and corrupt even further, albeit through ‘civilized’ methodologies, these poorer nations’ skin, and to infect their economies with the same sort of cupidity that is currently ruining America. Whether power corrupts or the corrupted are attracted to power, it is wealth, or the availability of same, that corrupts absolutely. Witness any modern capitalist democracy, and particularly that currently masquerading as such on the North American continent – it has been corrupted beyond all hope of redemption. Our people have become corrupted, our Congress and Administration have become corrupted, our institutions have become corrupted, our crony-corporate economic system has become corrupted, even our military and our Supreme Court have become corrupted. Like Sodom, it is impossible to find more than one (and even that is in question) good human being. And now the G-8-1 are finagling to corrupt these debtor nations as well – not all institutional imports stand to benefit the host nation as expected. Open the doors to capitalistic exploitation and you may gain riches, but you will surely lose your souls.

Sanjay Suri, of the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), explains the tricks this gift horse has to offer thusly: Unanimity emerged only over debt cancellation for what are known as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). But the small print here too indicates that this was not unanimity on unconditional support…The HIPC countries have been told that any additional donor contributions will rest on "performance-based allocation systems", and that such action will ensure that "assistance is based on country performance."…The World Bank has been made the monitor for these countries' moves towards "good governance, accountability and transparency." These declared aims are inevitably open to endless interpretation…The 100 percent debt cancellation further holds only for HIPCs "that are on track with their programmes of repayment obligations and adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount forgiven." That is, the debt will be "forgiven" only to countries that can show they were in the process of repaying…While the debt cancellation will no doubt provide immediate relief, there is enough in the stated package to raise some questions what these countries may have to do next.

So, okay, Africa, get ready to sell your soul to the devil, throw open the gates to the Trojan horse, and pray to the gods that greed and hubris do not replace your indigenous cultures entirely. There is no such thing as a virgin capitalist Nation, open to uninhibited investments. Sooner or later, they all fall prey to the corporate juggernaut, and gain the freedom to purchase whatever they’d like from the Wal-Marts looming just over the horizon, like some great Komodo predator.

G8 Protests: Marching for Full Enjoyment

Madonna at Live 8

The following is what one of the G-8 protesters had to say in Edinburgh, Scotland

From the BBC


‘Politicians have got us nowhere’
The protest in Edinburgh dubbed "The Carnival For Full Enjoyment" was called by anarchist groups in protest at the G8 summit at Gleneagles.

The groups do not put forward a spokesperson because they do not believe in a hierarchical structure but BBC Scotland spoke to one protester who called himself Robin. This is an extract of what he said:

The Carnival For Full Enjoyment has come out of the need to do something about the really serious problems the majority of people face.

Problems like low pay, like job insecurity, like increasing casualisation and decreases in pensions, for claimants, poverty-line benefits and cuts to benefits.

This G8 summit gives those of us at the bottom of society an opportunity to link working-class struggles on a local scale with the same kind of struggles that are going on all over the world.

The Carnival For Full Enjoyment is in solidarity with the powerful social movements of the global south.

We believe in direct action because relying on politicians and leaders has got us nowhere.

Our vision is of a society that is run from the bottom up with grassroots control in all areas

This direct action is against institutions that are keeping us down and ripping us off.

We completely refute the lie that we will be targeting ordinary workers as many of the participants are workers in major companies.

We believe that if our planet is to survive the huge problems we face, the disempowerment of the majority of people, the dire poverty in the global south, climate change - if we are to survive this we need a fundamental change.

What we'll need to do is to fundamentally reorganise things.

Our vision is of a society that is run from the bottom up with grassroots control in all areas.

A society where the profit-motive is abolished and where the most important thing is the satisfaction of all human needs in the widest sense.


Oh, yeah, by the way, happy 4th of July!

People's War Against Poverty

Poverty March

War Against Poverty

President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 asked of the U.S. Congress that it authorize a war against poverty in America. What follows is the text from that request. I’ll leave it to you to determine how successful LBJ was.

The War on Poverty, March 1964
Lyndon B. Johnson's Special Message to Congress, March 16, 1964

Because it is right, because it is wise, and because, for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty, I submit, for the consideration of the Congress and the country, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

The Act does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done.

It charts a new course.

It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty.

It can be a milestone in our one-hundred eighty year search for a better life for our people.
This Act provides five basic opportunities.

It will give almost half a million underprivileged young Americans the opportunity to develop skills, continue education, and find useful work.

It will give every American community the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan to fight its own poverty-and help them to carry out their plans.

It will give dedicated Americans the opportunity to enlist as volunteers in the war against poverty.

It will give many workers and farmers the opportunity to break through particular barriers which bar their escape from poverty.

It will give the entire nation the opportunity for a concerted attack on poverty through the establishment, tinder my direction, of the Office of Economic Opportunity, a national headquarters for the war against poverty.

This is how we propose to create these opportunities.

First we will give high priority to helping young Americans who lack skills, who have not completed their education or who cannot complete it because they are too poor. . . .

I therefore recommend the creation of a job Corps, a Work-Training Program, and a Work Study Program.

A new national job Corps will build toward an enlistment of 100,000 young men. They will be drawn from those whose background, health and education make them least fit for useful work. . . .

Half of these young men will work, in the first year, on special conservation projects to give them education, useful work experience and to enrich the natural resources of the country.

Half of these young men will receive, in the first year, a blend of training, basic education and work experience in job Training Centers. . . .

A new national Work-Training Program operated by the Department of Labor will provide work and training for 200,000 American men and women between the ages of 16 and 21. This will be developed through state and local governments and non-profit agencies. . . .

A new national Work-Study Program operated by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare will provide federal funds for part-time jobs for 140,000 young Americans who do not go to college because they cannot afford it.

There is no more senseless waste than the waste of the brainpower and skill of those who are kept from college by economic circumstance. Under this program they will, in a great American tradition, be able to work their way through school. . . .

Second, through a new Community Action program we intend to strike at poverty at its source - in the streets of our cities and on the farms of our countryside among the very young and the impoverished old.

This program asks men and women throughout the country to prepare long-range plans for the attack on poverty in their own local communities. . .

Third, I ask for the authority to recruit and train skilled volunteers for the war against poverty.

Thousands of Americans have volunteered to serve the needs of other lands.

Thousands more want the chance to serve the needs of their own land. They should have that chance.

Among older people who have retired, as well as among the young, among women as well as men, there are many Americans who are ready to enlist in our war against poverty.

They have skills and dedication. They are badly needed. . . .

Fourth, we intend to create new opportunities for certain hard-hit groups to break out of the pattern of poverty.

Through a new program of loans and guarantees we can provide incentives to those who will employ the unemployed.

Through programs of work and retraining for unemployed fathers and mothers we can help them support their families in dignity while preparing themselves for new work.

Through funds to purchase needed land, organize cooperatives, and create new and adequate family farms we can help those whose life on the land has been a struggle without hope.

Fifth, I do not intend that the war against poverty become a series of uncoordinated and unrelated efforts - that it perish for lack of leadership and direction.

Therefore this bill creates, in the Executive Office of the President, a new Office of Economic Opportunity. Its Director will be my personal Chief of Staff for the War against poverty. I intend to appoint Sargent Shriver to this post. . . .

What you are being asked to consider is not a simple or an easy program. But poverty is not a simple or an easy enemy.

It cannot be driven from the land by a single attack on a single front. Were this so we would have conquered poverty long ago.

Nor can it be conquered by government alone. . .

Today, for the first time in our history, we have the power to strike away the barriers to full participation in our society. Having the power, we have the duty .. .

We are fully aware that this program will not eliminate all the poverty in America in a few months or a few years. Poverty is deeply rooted and its causes are many.

But this program will show the way to new opportunities for millions of our fellow citizens.

It will provide a lever with which we can begin to open the door to our prosperity for those who have been kept outside.

It will also give us the chance to test our weapons, to try our energy and ideas and imagination for the many battles yet to come. As conditions change, and as experience illuminates our difficulties, we will be prepared to modify our strategy.

And this program is much more than a beginning.

Rather it is a commitment. It is a total commitment by this President, and this Congress, and this nation, to pursue victory over the most ancient of mankind's enemies.


Unfortunately, the social turmoil of the 1960s, coupled with the war in Vietnam intervened in our quest to fight poverty in America. Today, whatever miniscule whiff of such a philosophy or such a commitment by our government to help out and aide in our own war against poverty is being systematically rooted out and purged by those who believe in wealth only for the oligarchs. George Dubya Bush currently leads that war to privilege only the wealthiest, and treat the great percentage of Americans as slime – and stupid slime at that.

The world, however, disagrees with such a philosophy, and today, as may be witnessed below, great masses of everyday people are organizing to do something about poverty, only this time in Africa. While it will not, per se, help those in America, it will help out some of the poor somewhere, and for that reason alone should and must be saluted.





From the BBC: go here for original

Thousands flock to poverty march

Protesters march
Thousands of protesters have taken part in a Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh, as musicians perform in Live 8 concerts around the globe.

Organisers said about 225,000 people had been involved while police and council officials put the figure at approximately 200,000.

The marchers heard speeches from political and religious leaders as well as celebrities who back the cause.

They called for the G8 leaders meeting at Gleneagles next week to take action.

EDINBURGH MARCH

Saturday's march is one of a number of events planned in the run-up to Wednesday's G8 summit, when campaigners hope world leaders will make a commitment to tackle poverty in Africa.

It coincides with the series of Live 8 concerts being held on Saturday in cities around the world, including London.

We have had enough political spin, promises and downright lies
Pete Postlethwaite, Actor

Police corral protesters

Some 200,000 people were expected in Hyde Park to see performers including U2, Pink Floyd, Madonna, REM and Coldplay.

The concerts will span nearly 24 hours, with the first having started in Tokyo at 0600 BST.

Organised by Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, they will call for more aid for Africa, debt cancellation and fairer trade.

Organisers' reaction

Referring to the turnout, a spokesman said: "Make Poverty History are absolutely delighted with this, to see so many people come to show that they really care.

"We believe more than 200,000 people have been at our rally and march."

People on the Edinburgh march were urged to wear white. Five cranes were constructed along the south end of The Meadows to display a giant banner bearing the message "Make Poverty History".

Marchers began leaving a rally in The Meadows at intervals from 1200 BST, with the aim of forming a human chain around central Edinburgh. The head of the procession re-entered The Meadows shortly after 1320 BST.

Making Poverty History banner in crowd
Some of the crowds taking part in the massive march

A small group of about 50 protestors walked ahead of the main procession, many in business suits and ties, apparently mocking multinational companies.

There was applause as they passed a Starbucks and they bowed down towards McDonald's as one of their number chanted: "Two, four, six, eight, we really must accumulate."

A strong police presence was in place as the procession turned left off Princes Street and up along Lothian Road towards the city's financial district.

Ranks of officers, some on horseback and seven police vans greeted the demonstrators as they were directed away around 100 yards from the Standard Life and Clydesdale Bank headquarters.

There were some minor scuffles near The Mound, where the Bank of Scotland has its corporate headquarters. It was spotted from a helicopter and police acted quickly to curb the protesters involved.

Pope's message

Earlier, a message from Pope Benedict XVI was read out in which he said people from the world's richest countries should be prepared to accept the burden of debt reduction for poor countries.

Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell watched the march as it passed onto Princes Street. He said: "This is fantastic, it is a great carnival atmosphere and it is a message of hope.

"We are in a beautiful city with a beautiful message and I hope it is being listened to."


WHAT IS THE G8?

Name
Group of eight major industrialised states, inc Russia
Members
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, US
Aims
Originally set up to discuss trade and economic issues
Now leaders discuss global issues of the day
2005 Summit agenda
Africa
Climate change

Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd addressed the rally and said: "With so many people here today, the leaders have to do something - thank you for coming."

Actor Pete Postlethwaite said: "We have had enough political spin, promises and downright lies."

Beryl Chatfield, from Worthing, Sussex, flew from Gatwick to take part and said: "I came to put pressure on the G8 to change things, for fair trade, aid and to drop the debt."

Sam Hawkins, 24, from London, said: "I think we're united around a common goal and that is eradicating poverty and working for a fairer world."

A number of protesters complained of being photographed by police as they made their way to Scotland.

Among them were three coach loads of people from Belfast who said they were held at Stranraer by police, photographed and had their bags searched.

Elsewhere, campaigners who took trains from Euston said they were not allowed to make the journey until officers had taken their pictures.

Police officer in riot gear
One of the police officers involved in the stand-off

A group of about 60 demonstrators, some of them armed with sticks, were enclosed in following a stand-off with police.

Some 200 officers erected barriers and formed lines in an area near Edinburgh University. Half were in full riot gear including helmets and shields.

A police spokesperson said some of the black-clad protestors were wearing padded clothing and had been spotted as potential trouble makers. The situation has been controlled without any arrests being made so far.

The incident occurred well away from where the Make Poverty History march is taking place.

'Carnival' concern

On Sunday, an Anti-War Coalition demonstration will take place in the city, followed by the Carnival for Full Enjoyment on Monday.

The latter is giving police concern because of reports that hard-core anarchists will use the event to cause trouble.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Dickinson, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: "We have a long and successful tradition of overseeing marches, demonstrations and other high-profile events in a sensitive manner and enabling protest groups to make their point without having to resort to conflict.

"We welcome people who wish to take part but will not tolerate anti-social behaviour or criminal disorder."

Protest group, G8 Alternatives, is promising peaceful demonstrations.

Spokesman Dave Shields said: "When peaceful protesters get together to protest against poverty and war, then things will be extremely peaceful and there is going to be no cause for violence whatsoever."


From the Associated Press: go here for full story
LONDON -
Paul McCartney and U2 rocked London's Hyde Park with a rousing performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on Saturday to kick off the main event in the Live 8 extravaganza rolling around the globe from Tokyo to Johannesburg.

A thunderous roar erupted from the crowd of 150,000 as McCartney and U2's Bono belted out the first line: "It was 20 years ago today ..." — a nod to the mammoth Live Aid concerts that raised millions for African famine relief two decades ago.

Musicians and fans were gathering in 10 cities worldwide for a global music marathon to raise awareness of African poverty and to pressure world leaders to do something about it at the Group of Eight summit in Scotland next week.

Organizer
Bob Geldof promised to deliver "the greatest concert ever."

Bono, dressed in black and wearing his trademark wraparound shades, wrapped the crowd around his finger, getting tens of thousands to sing along to the anthemic "One" and "Beautiful Day." The crowd cheered as white doves were released overhead.

"So this is our moment. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up for what's right," Bono said. "We're not looking for charity, we're looking for justice. We cannot fix every problem, but the ones we can, we must."

After a brief delay — testament to the complexities of the eight-hour extravaganza — Coldplay soothed the crowd with their hit "In My Place."

The musical marathon started in Japan, where Bjork and Good Charlotte joined local bands for a concert that failed to generate much interest in Asia's only G-8 nation.

It rolled on to Johannesburg, South Africa, where thousands of people — some in brightly colored beaded skirts, others wearing jeans and talking on cell phones — jumped, danced and waved signs demanding "trade justice" and "give us food."

German crowd-pleasers Die Toten Hosen kicked off Berlin's Live 8 concert, electrifying the crowd with a string of power anthems while reminding revelers that helping Africa stood above the music.

"This is no rock concert, it's a reminder about next Wednesday," singer Campino told the crowds, referring to next week's meeting of the leaders of the wealthy G-8 nations to debate ways to lift African nations out of poverty.

Besides London, Berlin and Tokyo, concerts also were being held in cities in the other G-8 countries — Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Toronto and Moscow.

The concert in Johannesburg and a concert featuring African artists in southwestern England were organized after criticism that African artists had been left out of the Live 8 concerts, despite the event's aim to raise awareness of the continent's plight.

"Africans are involved in helping Africa, which doesn't happen too often," Cameroonian singer Coco Mbassi said before the concert at the Eden Project, the world's largest greenhouse in southwestern England.

"We're presenting a different image of Africa — showing that Africa has good things to give," Mbassi said.

In an open letter to the G-8 leaders, which appeared in several British newspapers Saturday, Geldof said the summit will disappoint the world if it fails to deliver an extra $25 billion in aid to Africa.

"We will not applaud half-measures, or politics as usual. This must be a historic breakthrough," the letter says. "Today there will be noise and music and joy, the joy of exuberant possibility. On Friday (the end of the summit) there will be great silence as the world awaits your verdict. Do not disappoint us. Do not create a generation of cynics."

In Tokyo, Icelandic singer Bjork made her first live performance in two years. But the crowd of 10,000 people was only half of what the hall in the Tokyo suburb of Makuhari was capable of holding.

"People are willing to go out of their way, because we believe passionately in what this is about," said Bjork. "Just the acknowledgment of the problem is an important step."

In Hyde Park, organizers and police geared up for one of the biggest outdoor events ever held in Britain. More than 150,000 people had tickets for the free show, with another 55,000 expected to watch on giant screens in the park.

Thousands of fans streamed into Hyde Park two hours before the start of the show — some hedging against the unpredictable British weather by wearing both sun hats and raincoats.

London concertgoer Tula Contostavlos, 19, said she was there to see Mariah Carey — and to send a political message.

"Obviously some people are here for just music, but they're forgetting what's important and what they're here for, why we're doing this," she said.

Organizers say 2 million people may attend the concerts and claim 85 percent of the world's population will have access to a television, radio or Internet broadcast of the day's events.

A complex broadcasting operation was feeding footage of the concerts to networks including the British Broadcasting Corp. — which was devoting more than 12 hours on its main TV channels to the event — and MTV.

The lineups were eclectic: Destiny's Child, The Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, P. Diddy and Jay-Z in Philadelphia; Brian Wilson, Chris de Burgh and Green Day in Berlin; Neil Young, Bryan Adams and Motley Crue in Barrie, north of Toronto; McFly in Tokyo; the Pet Shop Boys in Moscow; Goth-rockers The Cure and Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour in Paris.

The artists, playing for free, were heeding Geldof's call to urge world leaders to double aid, cancel debt and rework unfair trade laws to lift African nations out of poverty.

Few doubt it will be a memorable day, not least the ever-voluble Geldof.

"It's Bob Dylan, 'The Times They Are A-Changin' — they've changed," Geldof told an audience of young people at an MTV taping Thursday. "The answer isn't blowing in the wind, it's called the Commission for Africa. There's nothing that you do that can't be done."

Shit End of the Stick

Homeless Service Center - San Francisco

One of the things about America, and its culture of work your ass silly to receive minimum pay and benefits so that the rich can live like Little Lord Flauntleroys, is that the poor are perceived not so much as having problems and struggling to make it through life, as they are as just plain lazy, shiftless and no good. Yet their presence in some numbers is absolutely essential to the oligarchical class which wishes to point to them both to cast blame for anything they can think of, and second to serve as a negative example for the capitalists to point to as if to say, “See how lucky you are to have a job; those scum have nothing. So thank your lucky stars.”

Yeah, well, kiss my rosy red ass, you rat bastards! While the rich can easily afford their new BMWs, and Caribbean cruises, and A-Frames at Tahoe so as to enjoy their summer weekends or go skiing in the winter, the poor are meanwhile working (if at all) for minimum wages, and are being treated like crap at every turn. Theirs are always the first benefits to be cut, the first jobs to be laid off, the first ones to lose their pension benefits, and the ones who always, in blame and in reality, lose whatever little they have so that the wealthy can continue to squander the riches of America. Billions in corporate welfare is freely handed out, whilst the few mothers with young kids are told to get off their asses, leave their kids behind, and go slave away somewhere so some rich asshole can get even richer.

Dubya, a rather rich bastard and spokesperson himself, has squandered over $200 billion (and counting) in Iraq to make himself look like some sort of freaking savior, while his government hands out benefits to some totally concocted bullshit Medicare prescription drug program that has nothing whatsoever of value for the little guy, and maximum windfall profits for the pharmaceutical companies. Not only that, but the very fact they have given out payola to the pill makers, the government is now using as an excuse to cut little guys’ programs again. According, for instance, to the Associated Press:

Funding for job training, rural health care, low-income schools and help for people lacking health insurance would face big cuts under a bill passed Friday by the House…The measure, which passed 250-151, contains $142.5 billion in spending under Congress' control for labor, health and education programs. That's essentially a freeze at current levels…But new demands, including $870 million to administer the new Medicare prescription drug program, have forced cuts in scores of programs…The cuts include the outright elimination of 48 programs whose current budgets total $1 billion. Among the programs to be eliminated is the Healthy Communities Access Program, currently funded at $83 million, which helps communities offer health care to the uninsured…Also eliminated is the $205 million budget for an Education Department grant program targeted at low-income and underachieving schools…that translates to an 84 percent cut — from $300 million down to $47 million — in training programs for doctors and nurses, and $806 million in cuts to Bush's No Child Left Behind education initiative, a more than 3 percent drop. Grants for local community-action agencies that help the poor would be cut in half, to $320 million…On Friday, the House also voted 219-185 to go on record against a Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation agreement with United Airlines letting United dump its employee-pension plans and their $9.8 billion shortfall on the PBGC, which could mean pension cuts of 25 percent to 50 percent for more than 120,000 United workers and retirees…United says the move is required to emerge from bankruptcy and supporters of the airline said that without the pension relief, 62,000 United employees could lose their jobs.

Just freaking great! Not only are we the only supposedly civilized nation on earth to not help our people with national health insurance, we are also among the very bottom when it comes to providing any kind of dignity to our poor, and to our troubled. Some “compassionate” democracy we are, huh? Our House of Representatives, which houses among the sleaziest members of any government anywhere, and the most heartless, and in particular the Republican contingent thereof, are nothing but power-crazed crooks and scoundrels, almost every last one of them psychologically certifiable. The United States must have the distinction of having the lowest caliber members of the lower parliament anywhere.

Our corporations, by the way, are little better. They regularly blackmail Congress and hence the American people by threatening either to lay people off, or raise prices if the government does such things as establish a livable wage, or requires them to live up to their pension guarantees. The above is simply another gross example of them having done so. Meanwhile the government has now cut veterans health care funding by another $1 billion.

So, hey, Homey, have a nice week!

The Man in Black

One of the best Country artists ever: Johnny Cash

Man In Black

Hurt: by Johnny Cash


I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stain of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Wasted Possibilities

Freedom

There are potentially as many ways to view life, and it’s various values and possibilities, as there are human beings to consider the question. What holds most societies together, however, is that only one possibility (and its various within-the-box variations) predominates, and that most members of that society more or less conform to its strictures. For those who do not buy into, in some dimension or another, the standard societal paradigm, ostracism, poverty, neurosis, even madness may occur to that individual, or individuals. It’s not fun to not believe in what all around you believe in – nor is it hardly ever a successful strategy for survival. Either you follow the herd, or you risk becoming terminally lost, and apart. The post-modern world leaves little latitude for self-reliant, reclusive existence. To the contrary, most things are either downright owned, or at least substantially controlled, by the corporations.

The American paradigm has long (at least since the conclusion of the Civil War, and in many ways even prior to) been one of exercising a strong work ethic in conjunction with capitalistic enterprise. Either you bartered what skills you have, and/or what you may have produced, for monetary remuneration, or else you invested your capital (should you be lucky enough to have some) in capitalistic endeavors hoping to realize a profit. No other legitimate (as judged by the society around you) way of life existed, or yet exists, in which you may - without significant social discombobulation - survive in America. This society expects that you will either work for others to receive your bread, or that you invest what capital you have in a method sufficient to maintain your minimally acceptable lifestyle. As human greed stands as the basis of such a system of economic survival, either you practice and allow for personal greed within your individual philosophy, or else your road will be hard, and your days very long.

Contrariwise, were you either a member of, say, the Soviet Union (so long as it existed), or a native American Indian, for instance, your options, while still just as restricted, would have been entirely different. Ayn Rand, that pseudo-philosopher currently popular among the Conservatives in particular, was by nature and inclination outraged at having to live under the Soviet System wherein, for the normal Soviet citizen, greed and hubris were less revered than was the ability to conform to a socio-economic system based ostensibly upon societal cooperation. What were considered to be good qualities there were not necessarily good qualities here, and visa-versa. Never mind the 1001 various objections and exceptions that occur in praxis as opposed to how reality plays out, the two systems were diametrically opposed as to their basic philosophies, and systems of societal rewards and punishments. They require very different mind-sets.

It is of course possible to endlessly argue the worth of one system vis-à-vis the other, and to compare various societies utilizing any number of various criteria, but the Soviet System failed basically because it, from the outset (unconsciously and surreptitiously perhaps) bought into Western Ideals of success. In other words, the Soviet system attempted to compete utilizing the Western paradigm of success, which its system was not at all prepared to (nor was it designed to) handle. Communism is neither an express avenue to material success, nor was it capable of producing the vast resources necessary to military domination. That it had chosen either criteria by which to compete is wherein its ultimate failure was nested. The most obvious other measure of success the Soviet system might have propounded, would have been the spiritual and communal possibilities for a satisfying existence. While for many, for example, within Cuba today, the communal possibilities of communism obviously suffice to satisfy the urges of humankind – witness, if you will, the situation surrounding Elian Gonzales – the spiritual possibilities for Soviet success were completely shut down and amputated by its atheistic approach (Godlessness, as the Republicans are so quick to label it).

Meanwhile, within the United States, we have long harbored a spiritual belief that in many ways belies our economic existence, creating in the process much tension twixt one set of beliefs versus those of the other. Greed is necessary to capitalistic survival, but is simultaneously more traditionally thought of as being sinful by the Christian (and almost any other lasting religious) belief. Ergo, within America, the tension between sense and sensibility, between nature and form, is stretched to the maximum, exacerbated by our love of God, coincident with our love of the material. How the two may contribute one to the other was sufficiently explored by Max Weber, about a century ago, in his seminal treatise: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. For that reason have the God Inc. enterprises within America begun to preach capitalistic success right along with a twisted and disproportionate emphasis upon sexual, as opposed to societal, ethic.

Recently within America those tensions have caught up with each other, and now we find ourselves in a hell of a mix. As soulless automatons we attempt to live out and succeed with our lives by capitalistic standards, while at the same moment attempting to assuage our huge burden of neurotic impulses brought about by the capitalistic lifestyle. In order to advance as self-realized or actualized human beings, we must somehow find a way to synthesize the necessities of life with the more natural and spontaneous joys which physical existence has to offer within the spiritual realms. That tension shall not be lightly reduced.

In addition to the damage caused to our psychological health by the standard American societal paradigm, we find any number of contradictions apparent to our psychological selves as well. While the tensions between God and mammon are somewhat ameliorated by the Protestant ethic, it only works so long as we are willing to forgo our psychological freedoms to advance as human beings, and are willing to subject ourselves to the strictest of both secular and spiritual authority. To live as truly free human beings, we must somehow transcend this rather ridiculous, but frightening, predicament.

Many of those who today wander the streets of America are those who have discovered no reasonable accommodation within the standard paradigm, or whose talents and genius are not somehow recognized by the capitalistic economy. Drugs and booze frequently contribute to the dilemma in major proportions, and those who, for whatever reason, find themselves incompatible with the dog-eat-dog-hallelujah environment, or basic insanity of America, engendered by a societal paradigm which turns flesh into objects and which ruins the earth, stand to remain miserable and lost.

It’s About This Time of the Year

Summer Solstice

In Northern hemisphere locations, it’s about his time of the year when, sans family responsibilities, homelessness can actually be kinda fun. In most places it is warming up, and people are once again walking the streets and beaches of this planet looking for interesting things to do, and places to go. Just sitting on a park bench in the warmth of the sun can be among the greatest healing techniques available, and it’s all for free!

One of the many things to do is either to daydream, or to become a people watcher. In tourist areas, that can be wildly amusing. It’s also far easier to strike up a conversation when people have both the time and leisure to devote a few moments to considered thought and opinion, and when they are not busy bundling themselves against the weather. Although there exist some locations, such as extreme Southern California for instance (San Diego?), where the weather is gentle and permitting the entire calendar through, most locations really liven up during the period of summer, and for a few weeks into the fall, until the wind gets nippy and wicked once again.

If you are lucky enough to have a trusted friend or buddy during this season, the two of you together can look forward to days’ spent simply enjoying the out of doors, and not worrying about the otherwise constant hustle required to obtain suitable shelter, and to protect yourself from freezing to death, or what may be worse, uncontrollable shivering. The latter is what terrorizes me, and keeps me always on the lookout for some productive activity to pursue, like obtaining some stupid low-wage employment sufficient to purchase (or rent) minimal shelter, and warmth. During the summer, however, things are far more pleasant and even, relatively speaking of course, comforting in a way.

Sleeping out under the stars can also at this time of year be sort of a trip, so long as you can avoid the lawman coming to roust you out. Like most human beings, the law tends to not venture far from their vehicles in times of weather distress, but scout around quite freely when things warm up a bit. So summer, like most things in life, tends to be a double-edged sword.

To me, one of the stupidest things municipalities are wont to do, is to fine you (sometimes hundreds of dollars) for illegal camping. Damn! If you had any money you wouldn’t be camping out! Following a few nights in the city jail, you are then normally released and have to fulfill some amount of community service in lieu of the fine you could not afford. It wouldn’t be so bad if your community service entailed building low cost shelter for the homeless, like Homes for Humanity or something, but instead you usually end up doing something far more pro-forma (like sweeping and cleaning up around public institutions), then actually accomplishing or building anything significant. We all know there is one bitch of a workforce out there, in the homeless population, if only they’d figure and fund a method whereby it could be used productively. I suppose, though, that that makes too much sense.

Anyway, today is the summer solstice, so enjoy my friend.

JETHRO TULL - Hunting Girl Lyrics

One day I walked the road and crossed a field
to go by where the hounds ran hard.
And on the master raced: behind the hunters chased
to where the path was barred.
One fine young lady's horse refused the fence to clear.
I unlocked the gate but she did wait until the pack had
disappeared.

Crop handle carved in bone;
sat high upon a throne of finest English leather.
The queen of all the pack,
this joker raised his hat and talked about the weather.
All should be warned about this high born Hunting Girl.
She took this simple man's downfall in hand;
I raised the flag that she unfurled.

Boot leather flashing and spurnecks the size of my thumb.
This highborn hunter had tastes as strange as they come.
Unbridled passion: I took the bit in my teeth.
Her standing over --- me on my knees underneath.

My lady, be discrete.
I must get to my feet and go back to the farm.
Whilst I appreciate you are no deviate,
I might come to some harm.
I'm not inclined to acts refined, if that's how it goes.
Oh, high born Hunting Girl,
I'm just a normal low born so and so.