Something we don't hear often enough

[rgraham666]

Someone who's lived through it and seen how things have changed.

 

[starrkers]

You don't have to be 84 to decry the changes in societal importance.

 

[rgraham666]

Perhaps. But she's harder to argue with because she's actually seen it. Too often I hear from the greedy ones "It wasn't really that way. It's just socialist propaganda."

She can say, "No. I saw it."

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I think what happens is quantitative. Back when she was young, communities were small enough that everyone knew everyone and people were individuals you knew. Now they're not. People are just statistics and no one cares when statistics lose their jobs or get ripped off. Statistics have no face.

This is one of the weaknesses that the Islamic militants are going to start exploiting too, just like Hamas already exploited them in southern Lebanon after the Israeli invasion. In their battle against everything Western, they're going to start setting themselves up to function in small, humanitarian groups to care for people who fall through the cracks of the big Western Corporate system. They're going to offer a kind of tribal alternative to the cold Western power system. First they'll just take care of Muslims, then they'll start reaching out to Westerners too. Watch for it.

 

[rgraham666]

I'd noticed that myself, dr_m. I thought that was very clever of them.

Human beings need to be part of something. Something that gives meaning and purpose to life. And more importantly fills emotional needs.

Our system has more and more trouble doing that.

Mostly, because as you say, because of statistics. And the really important emotional needs aren't amenable to statistics.

In our society, as a line I read many years ago said, "If it can't be measured or marketed, it doesn't exist."

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Thought-Provoking

Thanks for the link to that article. It was very good because of its simplicity and honesty. Kinda reminded me of a lot of Charles Bukowski's poetry. He wrote so often of his experiences during the Depression and his words are so powerful because they are un-gussied up. Here's a poem of his I like for similar reasons:


Born Like This

born like this
into this
as the chalk faces smile
as Mrs. Death laughs
as the elevators break
as political landscapes dissolve
as the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
as the oily fish spit out their oily prey
as the sun is masked

we are
born like this
into this
into these carefully mad wars
into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
into bars where people no longer speak to each other
into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings

born into this
into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die
into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty
into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes

born into this
walking and living through this
dying because of this
muted because of this
castrated
debauched
disinherited
because of this
fooled by this
used by this
pissed on by this
made crazy and sick by this
made violent
made inhuman
by this

the heart is blackened
the fingers reach for the throat
the gun
the knife
the bomb
the fingers reach toward an unresponsive god

the fingers reach for the bottle
the pill
the powder

we are born into this sorrowful deadliness
we are born into a government 60 years in debt
that soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
and the banks will burn
money will be useless
there will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
it will be guns and roving mobs
land will be useless
food will become a diminishing return
nuclear power will be taken over by the many
explosions will continually shake the earth
radiated robot men will stalk each other
the rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante's Inferno will be made to look like a children's playground

the sun will not be seen and it will always be night
trees will die
all vegetation will die
radiated men will eat the...

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Thanks for the link to that article. It was very good because of its simplicity and honesty. Kinda reminded me of a lot of Charles Bukowski's poetry. He wrote so often of his experiences during the Depression and his words are so powerful because they are un-gussied up. Here's a poem of his I like for similar reasons:


Born Like This

[---cut---]

I always like Bukowski too. Always thought it wouldn't be bad to end up like him.

But I think that's the real menace al Qaida represents, is that they'll expand beyond being a militant Islamic groups and become the armed alternative to global capitalism. In fact, I think there's already signs that that's happening. Anyone who has a beef against consumer culture or capitalism and who seeks a culture based on more humanistic values (albeit Islam humanist at this point, but that could change), could aliign themselves with AQ, and I think that's what Bin Ladin pictures. This isn;t just for Muslims anymore.

As an aside, one of the founders of violent Islamic radicalaism (forget his name. This is from the History Channel) who laid down the theory of armed struggle against western captalism, studied at the University of Colorado in the 50's and was outraged at US consumer culture. One of the things that really outraged him (besides women's bathing suits) was American's mad obsession with lawn care. This just drove him apeshit - a sure sign that we were run by Satan and going straight to hell. He couldn't stop talking about it in all his polemics, how we spent more on our lawns than we did on feeding the poor or healing the sick.

 

[R. Richard]

But I think that's the real menace al Qaida represents, is that they'll expand beyond being a militant Islamic groups and become the armed alternative to global capitalism. In fact, I think there's already signs that that's happening. Anyone who has a beef against consumer culture or capitalism and who seeks a culture based on more humanistic values (albeit Islam humanist at this point, but that could change), could aliign themselves with AQ, and I think that's what Bin Ladin pictures. This isn;t just for Muslims anymore.

As an aside, one of the founders of violent Islamic radicalaism (forget his name. This is from the History Channel) who laid down the theory of armed struggle against western captalism, studied at the University of Colorado in the 50's and was outraged at US consumer culture. One of the things that really outraged him (besides women's bathing suits) was American's mad obsession with lawn care. This just drove him apeshit - a sure sign that we were run by Satan and going straight to hell. He couldn't stop talking about it in all his polemics, how we spent more on our lawns than we did on feeding the poor or healing the sick.

The problem with the 'armed humanists' is that the people they are 'aiding' require aid because of the 'armed humanists.' The Egyptian Arafat beggared the Palestinians and now Hamas dispenses a few alms and everything is OK. Right. The PLO [Arafat again] destroys the state of Lebanon and now Hizb'Allah comes in and dispenses a few alms and then conducts a war using the alms receivers as human shields. The alms receivers lose again.

Why don't the alms receivers rise up against their real oppressors? The answer is in the first word of 'armed humanists.' Speak up and the man sees it doesn't happen again. The only ones who arguably benefit from the 'armed humanists,' are the armed rabble that the 'armed humanists' use to enforce their will on the alms receivers. Of course, the 'armed humanists' do have to convince the youth of the alms receivers that the 'armed humanists' are some sort of a solution. Unfortunately, the 'armed humanists' are very good at convincing the youth.