Yesterday, most of us initiated the "Holidays" by performing the annual rite of gratitude. Millions gave thanks for living in a nation which has become obscenely corpulent by suckling at the teats of genocide, slavery, and imperialism.
Sandburg once christened Chicago "hog butcher for the world". Accounting for a mere 5% of the world's population while gluttonously devouring a quarter of the world's resources easily qualifies the United States as "hog to the world".
And meanwhile:
According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they "die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death."
That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year (1).
While millions of children are starving to death, we in the United States grapple with afflictions born of over-indulgence. Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions as we wantonly indulge our edacity. As a result, the United States is facing an alarming rise in cases of Type-2 diabetes and a significant decline in life expectancy (2).
What collective behavior better symbolizes our gluttony than Thanksgiving? Gorging ourselves to the point of nausea (while millions were grappling with starvation) yielded at least one humane result yesterday. We relieved 265 million Earth-bound avian creatures of their misery (3). How rewarding to recognize the "good" that came from our disgusting act of over-indulgence.
The Sandman Cometh
As we slept off the ill effects of our swinish binge, visions of sugar plums, MP3's, PS3's, Hummers, Escalades and all manner of goodies gamboled about in our dreams, fueling our lust for more, more, moreand as the new day dawned, tens of millions of true believers arose with renewed spirits, ready to adhere to the edicts of the high priests of Capitalism.
Into the Maelstrom
Embracing the delusion of individualism in the midst of life's undeniable web of interdependence, the unwavering disciples charged into the fray to avoid the unthinkably tragic fate of dying without having the most toys.
With the wild-eyed desperation of meth addicts pursuing their next fix, obedient consumers joined the hordes of shoppers assailing malls like Vikings plundering unsuspecting coastal villages. Armed with credit card spending limits exceeding their annual salaries, the loyal foot-soldiers buttressing the economic tyranny of US fascism stampeded to indenture themselves to Visa.
http://www.rense.com/general74/blind.htm
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 29, 2006]
Note: http://www.rense.com/ge...
Blind Obedience ToThe Canons Of Capitalism...
Posted on Monday, November 27 at 15:59 by DiogenesContributed By
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
And because it's the Christmas season, the time for giving?<br />
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"That is about 210,000 children each week....." <a href="http://www.autobytel.com/content/research/detail/Hummer.htm">http://www.autobytel.com/content/research/detail/Hummer.htm</a><br />
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What does Unicef say? $1 will feed a child for a week?<p>---<br>Men make plans, and the gods laugh
Like the idividualist conservatives would say, "Feeding children whose parents are not "producers" is just abother leftie, socialistic nightmare that cuts into the well earned profits of investors, but armaments protect democratic property rights".
So there!
"10 days spent on arms might guarantee good drinking water for the whole world, but it would be disastrous loss for the war on terror".
Ed Deak.
I guess a part of this glorious "interdependence" you so cherish is your ability to cut and paste someone else's writing to make your argument without having to do much in the way of work yourself. It allows you to focus on your core competencies - snarky, dismissive comments, deliberately disjointed prose and insults.
Central to your borrowed rant is the assumption that Billy's having a Hummer requires Bobby to live in a cardboard box. This kind of zero-sum game thinking is at the core of left-wing economics.
Individualism isn't a delusion. It's the clarity that comes to one's mind once one and matures and puts away the simplistic kindergarten morality of collectivism.
Have you ever owned businesses, employed people, built and grown things with your own hands?
At least I can stand up and be counted, prove who I am and what I have done, instead of hiding in the bushes snapping on the heels of people walking by.
Ed Deak.
King Arthur <br />
King Arthur <br />
When I hear somebody using the word "lefties", I know that the person has nothing to say.
Ed Deak.
Alisa went on to gather about her many who wished to make the cut and become the fictional hero of he novels.
Imagine that! untold numbers of weak willed sheep whose deepest desires were to be recognised as original thinkers.
It would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
When you don't have a better response, you trot out your achievements in an attempt either to intimidate or impress. Well, I am neither intimidated nor impressed.
If you truly have succeeded as an entrepreneur, then you have much to be proud of. But you seem to feel that businesses should be protected from competition, particularly from companies in other countries, regions or cities. Why is that? Is it that you have climbed to the top of your particular hill and wish to keep others from challenging you?
Canadians, like Americans, admire the person who comes up with a great idea, works hard, takes risks and starts a company out of his garage. The difference is that Canadians want him to stay in the garage.
As for myself, I make no claims of wealth, great success in business or athletic medals. My ideas come not out of crass self-interest, but deeply-held convictions and principles.
I believe in meritocracy. The race should go to the swiftest. I don't believe in protecting weak businesses simply because they are local. I don't believe in artificially inflating prices through tariffs to benefit a manufacturer in Southern Ontario or artificially lowering the prices of Western resources to benefit that same manufactuer. As a consumer, I am not served by monopolies, be they local or international. Government meddling often does more harm than good, and is a breeding ground for corruption and cronyism.
Save the bragging for your fans. I save my admiration for business people who aren't scared of competition.
Ed Deak.
As usual, you deliberately twist meanings to suit your own faux-objectivist point of view.
Interdependence is a fact, regardless of your point of view.
But then again, you don't need anyone, do you?
So, HAVE you ever read Rand, or are your "opinions" just the ass-gas of others being vented out your mouth?
I've read her works, and have found a lot I both agree and disagree with.
Let's hear what you've read.
Better yet, lets hear what you've read AND a conclusion you came to all by yourself.
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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"
"The Weapon" - Rush
The above is for that maven of mediocrity, that prince of plundering,that neo-con no mind, the darling of the ethically challenged, the one, the only.....
Individualist
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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"
"The Weapon" - Rush
Nathaniel Branden vs. Ayn Rand on Morality
by Dennis C. Hardin
Does Nathaniel Branden oppose objective moral judgment?
In his 1984 article on "The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand," Nathaniel Branden wrote (I have used underlines to add emphasis where appropriate):
“To look on the dark side, however, part of her vision of justice is urging you to instant contempt for anyone who deviates from reason or morality or what is defined as reason or morality. Errors of knowledge may be forgiven, she says, but not errors of morality. Even if what people are doing is wrong, even if errors of morality are involved, even if what people are doing is irrational, you do not lead people to virtue by contempt. You do not make people better by telling them they are despicable. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work when religion tries it and it doesn't work when objectivism tries it.”
Repeated for emphasis
“…you do not lead people to virtue by contempt. You do not make people better by telling them they are despicable. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work when religion tries it and it doesn't work when objectivism tries it.”
You see indy this is where you too receive your failing grade and why you have come under attack. You set the tone of the feedback you receive and then ignore the feedback.
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."