Capitalism Hurts

Capitalism Hurts Flickr Group Slideshow (link to group photo pool):

Capitalism hurts!

Instead of the accumulation of wealth: imagine a society geared toward mutually beneficial, life-serving interests. Imagine a world of health and well-being, for ALL people!

Cultural Transformation

I have posted this before here, but I am posting it again, because I have been thinking about this quote recently.

Here's another MLK quote that I like:

We must accept finite disappointment,
but we must never lose infinite hope.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

see photo larger: Cultural Transformation Shift

Cremation of Care

One of the biggest stories that I followed in 2009 was about the Bohemian Grove and the Cremation of Care. In early June of 2009, Lindsey Baum, an eleven year old child from McCleary, Washington went missing (and was possibly abducted.) McCleary is near Olympia and the story received a lot of attention. For some reason, the abduction of this child struck me, and made me think of the Cremation of Care ceremony that occurs at the annual midsummer Bohemian Grove encampment. In the ceremony, the effigy of a child named Dull Care gets cremated.

Alex Jones claims to have infiltrated the grove and the ceremony, and to have made the following video of the ceremony - which is shocking and highly disturbing.

I believe that to care is a virtue, and oughtn't be thought of as onerous or burdensome. And as you can see from the video of the ceremony, it is obvious that some of the members of the Bohemian Grove may think differently - maybe even going so far as to think of care as an obstacle to the workings of the marketplace.

An attitude of disdain for care - amongst some of the world's most powerful, and influential, men of business and government - an attitude of disdain for the important necessary moral place of care in our society is, I believe, a tremendous driver of social and environmental violence (ranging from child abductions and other domestic violence, to industrial pollution, global warming, and the extinction of species, to the structural roots of the world's problem of one billion chronically hungry human beings, to war and the military-congressional-industrial complex, and the multitudinous various oppressions and injustices that exist in between...)

I don't know about the authenticity of this video - but it seems to be genuine. I don't know how Alex Jones could have possibly infiltrated the Grove - he even claims to have been stopped numerous times by security, meanwhile the secret camera he has in a bag just happens to be out of tape at the time. I think it's possible that the Jones video was done with some sort of consent (very much unlike Alex Shoumatoff's visit.) And I certainly do not necessarily agree with Alex Jones on everything, including some of the comments made in the video (some of which sounded quite racist, homophobic, and anti-pagan (just because the Bohos do some pagan ritual doesn't mean that all paganism is corrupt and/or evil!)) But the ceremony is interesting to see, and you can judge for yourself.

Your truth will set you free.

So check it out, and see/decide for yourself.

And I should add a warning - this video is quite shocking and disturbing.

Here's what I think is the full length video, though I can't be sure. The CC Ceremony starts about 1 hour and 17 minutes into the video:


The following video is a smaller excerpt from the above. I recommend watching the above.


http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=5ebf0bd11a8549b5&type=video%2Fmp4

Here's an embed of the same video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5617720002953136903

David Korten on Time of Useful Consciousness Radio

Hi All,

I want to plug this excellent speech by David Korten. It was delivered in March 2009 at the Northwest Regional Veterans for Peace Conference. I heard it the evening of Wednesday, December 30, 2009, on KAOS 89.3 FM Radio. The speech is in two parts, and both are excellent. The speech is titled, "Community and the New Economy: Why Wall Street Can't be Fixed, and How to Replace it."

In the speech Korten very clearly talks about what's happening in our world in relation to corporate power, militarism, policies of dominance, economics of growth and profitability, violence, poverty, socio-economic inequality and exploitation, and environmental degradation (among other topics.)

Korten also addresses the hopeful and great potential that exists for change to a society (and a money system) that would serve life (rather than profit) - a society that would be cooperative, consensual and mutually beneficial for all people.

I think the speech is a very worthwhile listen.

Korten is the Chair of the Board of Yes! Magazine.

Here are links to the streaming audio, in two parts; an excerpt (that I transcribed,) and a link to the Time of Useful Consciousness Radio Program website.

Please enjoy!

Part One: http://www.tucradio.org/090429_Korten_ONE.mp3

Part Two: http://www.tucradio.org/090506_Korten_TWO.mp3

excerpt:

"...replacing the culture and institutions of an economy devoted to the service of money, with the culture an institutions of an economy devoted to the service of life...

"War is an outmoded institution that serves no beneficial purpose other than to enrich the unscrupulous - and it has become an act of global scale collective suicide."

links to the mp3s can also be found here: http://www.tucradio.org/

Kindly,
Berd

The Billionaires for Coal, yahoo!

The Billionaires for Coal: "It's not my problem!


Dispatches from the Coal Finance Day of Action Front (Updated 11-19-07)

Thoughts on Harmful Economic Activities

written on the sky:

I think it is wrong to reap private profit off of destructive activities. What do you think?

It's wrong to reap private gain from harmful activities. Sounds crazy, right? But it's really not. Maybe the reason it sounds extreme is because of how our society has turned into an incredibly harmful beast - a beast that it capable of destroying all life on the planet. That's a tremendous feat of engineering. We, as a society, are going in the wrong direction - and majorly so. We are hurting life, and those who live. Instead of damaging nature and hurting living creatures, we ought to be going in the direction of protecting and serving all life.

It's common sense. We're all part of one human family. Indeed, we are all part of one interconnected web, of which all life is part. So when there is imbalance in one area, there is imbalance in all areas.

I think that it is time for humanity to right its wrongs, to restore harmony in its relationships: in its relationships with itself, as well as in its relationship with the planet and all living creatures.

There is a strong need for balance. We all suffer while the fates of life on Earth and future generations of human beings hang in the balance.

Capitalism ≠ Democracy

Capitalism does not equal democracy. In fact, in many respects, an under-regulated/deregulated/unregulated capitalism is anti-democratic. In a capitalistic society, where monied interests have privilege and special influence over government, democracy is threatened, because the pre-requisite for full access to political participation is money. Under capitalism, money is the object of worship - instead of democracy, where participation in decision-making by people is the ideal. So, capitalism does not equal democracy. Nor does the practice of free-market capitalism constitute freedom. True freedom necessitates freedom for all. In a capitalism that is practiced without adherence to humanistic moral principles (where, for example, great powers are driven to war with each other for profit,) there is no freedom. There is only slavery. Even the rich are enslaved to the financial bottom-line, enslaved by want for money, and enslaved also by fear of losing money. In a society where capitalistic is under-regulated, the interests of profit are put before the interests of people. People are hurt, sacrificed, and more-or-less enslaved to serve the interests of capital.

Instead of this, I think it would be better where people work to serve the interests of themselves, of humanity, and of all life. Toward a life-serving society, Berd

Socio-economic Inequality

This is from the September 2009 issue of The Progressive Magazine, an article called "Wall Street's Gall, by Les Leopold:

• In 1970, the ratio of the top100 corporate CEOs and the average worker's pay was 40 to 1. By 2007 it was 1,723 to 1.

• In 1970, the top 1 percent received 8 percent of the national income. By 2007, it was gobbling up 23 percent of the national income.

• In 2006, the top one-tenth of 1 percent of tax payers (about 140,000 tax returns) reported as much income as the bottom 50 percent (67.4 million tax returns). The last time we suffered from such an extreme income distribution? 1928-29.

...

simply, yet absolutely, astounding - mind boggling

Money Driven Medicine

I want to point you to this important film. It's called Money Driven Medicine, and it highlights some of the inherent and deep problems that are systemic in the health care industry.

Money Driven Medicine | Bill Moyers Journal PBS

Some Brief Thoughts on The Richest Man in Babylon

Today I finished reading The Richest Man in Babylon, by George Clason. Very interesting book, it is a fable, apparently based on some clay tablets, about the principles of gaining and controlling wealth (aka gold.) I have mixed emotions about the book. While it definitely delivers sound financial advice and principles, it leaves a lot to be desired when viewed from my perspective of concern about social and economic justice. I believe that hard work is important. Saving is important, and so is re-investment in socially responsible / life-serving activities. But the book has a decidedly "ends justify the means" approach to investing, that does not account for the present day realities of destructive technologies.

Although the ancient babylonians were (according to Clason's account) not a conquesting sort of people (and good for them!), they were not impervious to severe oppression, to dealing in slaves, and to amassing personal financial empires. I don't think that slavery can ever be rightly justified. No matter how much ambition, desire and determination a person has to succeed - it does not make it right to hold other human beings as property, to be ordered and subjugated in whatever way seems necessary or expedient toward amassing wealth. Dealing in human beings as a commodity is a very injurious and low-down way of economic operation.

This, of course doesn't absolve myself, (or anyone else) as an individual from working. It doesn't mean that as people we oughtn't take the initiative in order to provide for ourselves.

A lot has changed in the thousands of years since Babylon was an active and thriving society. The world is a very different place. While there is still great opportunity in the world, including the opportunity to gain wealth, there is a new need based on the ever increasing environmental impacts of a human population grown large, and grown powerful with technology, to ensure that our economic activities are not having a detrimental effect on others.

It's a new age. A new world. It is time for a new system of ethics. This is the Age of Aquarius. A new age. An age of humanitarian ethics. An age of innovation, invention, and tremendous opportunity - not to blindly pursue economic self-interest - but instead to pursue the common interests that we all share as part of the human family. This planet Earth is a beautiful and wonderful place. It is full of magic. We, as human beings, have important decisions to make about how we will choose to live in the future. Will we live in ways that are harmful to the planet and each other? Or will we live in ways that are beneficial, uplifting, and life-serving?

I believe that we, as a society, can make a transition to a culture that does no harm. And not only that! I believe that we can have a society that actually serves to improve upon our environment, promoting bio-diversity, ensuring for all that there will be healthy water to drink, healthy air to breathe, healthy earth to grow food and play... This is not too much to ask. This is only the right path.

Ethical Investing

I am reading a book right now that has me turned on to the topic of ethical investing, also known as socially responsible investing. The book is titled, The Richest Man in Babylon, and it talks about strategies and techniques for earning money and gaining financial wealth. It's a very interesting read, and it is challenging some of my thoughts about economic domination and exploitation, in a good way. It is clarifying in many ways. I suppose I have probably written about this before. But I am of the belief that financial wealth, even affluence, is probably not necessarily bad in and of itself. The problem comes, when, to garner the wealth and riches, there is some engagement in harmful activities and behaviors.

Of course, we could spend a year talking about what constitutes harmful behavior. And we should. But that's outside of the scope of this weblog entry. For now, let us ponder what it means to be harmful, any experiences in which we feel that we have been harmed - and also any experiences in which we feel it is likely that we may have harmed, or contributed to the harm, of another (whether it be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual in nature.)

Ethical Investing, the Precautionary Principle, the notion of leaving the planet in better shape for future generations, "Eco-Psychology" (including a study of the psychological impact of ecological degradation), these are some of the hot topics on my mind recently.

Back to Ethical Investment: it seems to me, based on my sense of moral - my ethical values - that investing in weapons, especially weapons of war, is not socially responsible. In fact, I am of the opinion that it is wrong to make money off of the weapons of war. Well, there's a lot more to write about and discuss about this, but I am in a hurry, so I gotta go. Take Care!

War is a Racket

War is a Racket

War is a racket. - General Smedley Butler

Call Congress for a de-authorization act on occupation!

General Butler:
...
"In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows."

"How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

"Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

"And what is this bill?

"This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations."
...

Democracy Now!

From Democracy Now!:

Sen. Sanders Attempts to Block Obama Nominee

In news from Capitol Hill, independent Senator Bernie Sanders is attempting to block President Obama’s nominee to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs employee. Sanders said Gensler had worked with Sen. Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation, which led to the collapse of AIG and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in US history. He also worked to deregulate electronic energy trading, which led to the downfall of Enron. Sanders said, “We need an independent leader who will help create a new culture in the financial marketplace and move us away from the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior which has caused so much harm to our economy.”

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/24/headlines#13

Naomi Klein on the Wall Street Crisis

Naomi Klein on Democracy Now!

October 06, 2008

Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neoliberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

As the world reels from the financial crisis on Wall Street and the taxpayer-funded $700 billion bailout, we spend the hour with Naomi Klein on the economy, politics and “disaster capitalism.” The Shock Doctrine author recently spoke at the University of Chicago to oppose the creation of an economic research center named after the University’s most famous economist, Milton Friedman. Klein says Friedman’s economic philosophy championed the kind of deregulation that led to the current crisis. [includes rush transcript]

Listen

Naomi Klein, journalist and author of the books The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and No Logo.

Related Links: Naomi Klein's website

AMY GOODMAN: The credit crunch is spreading to financial markets around the world. Nearly 160,000 jobs were lost here in the United States in September. That’s not including losses directly resulting from the financial meltdown. Wall Street might be breathing a little easier since Congress passed the more-than-$700-billion bailout plan Friday, but there are no signs of an easy or quick recovery.Today we take a look back at the economic philosophy that championed the kind of deregulation that led to this crisis. We spend the hour with investigative journalist and author Naomi Klein, bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Naomi Klein spoke at the University of Chicago last week, invited by a group of faculty opposed to the creation of an economic research center called the Milton Friedman Institute. It has a $200 million endowment and is named after the University’s most famous economist, the leader of the neoliberal Chicago School of Economics.

NAOMI KLEIN: When Milton Friedman turned ninety, the Bush White House held a birthday party for him to honor him, to honor his legacy, in 2002, and everyone made speeches, including George Bush, but there was a really good speech that was given by Donald Rumsfeld. I have it on my website. My favorite quote in that speech from Rumsfeld is this: he said, “Milton is the embodiment of the truth that ideas have consequences.”

So, what I want to argue here is that, among other things, the economic chaos that we’re seeing right now on Wall Street and on Main Street and in Washington stems from many factors, of course, but among them are the ideas of Milton Friedman and many of his colleagues and students from this school. Ideas have consequences.

...

Read the rest: Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neoliberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

October Surprise?!

more commentary linked on flickr

What, oil wasn't trading today? And look how much oil has gone down. I don't know why it doesn't show a change - but I have seen it like that a lot. Do you know what's up with that?

Dow down by over 5%. Overseas markets in even worse shape.

This market fluctuation is ominous. It bears all the markings of a serious economic depression.

What is the problem with a stable economic plateau? Why does it always have to be about growth?

You know what in nature just keeps growing without limit? - Cancer cells. One or two cancer cells won't kill you. But a mass of them will.

This reckless pursuit of growth and economic expansion is harming the planet (and living creatures.)

There is a better way.

Empty Store Fronts, a Poem

While riding around on errands today, I noticed an increasingly common phenomenon: empty store fronts. Small and locally owned, and operated, businesses are being driven out by massive mega-stores (especially cheap discount mega-stores like Wal-Mart, for example.) Local revenue and labor is being lost. Goods are imported from overseas. Large sectors of domestic manufacturing are going extinct, having been outsourced.

So I just wrote up this poem (very quickly - it's a first draft.) It's a reflection on this economic phenomenon of corporate power and the ceonsequential harm it does.

I hope it resonates with you. - bert

Empty Store Fronts

Stores closed down.

I see them.

Empty store fronts,

Peeling facades,

Broken windows.

All the capital,

It's being gobbled up!

By massive corporations.

Wealth conglomerated at tippy top.

Capital and labor markets,

shipped overseas.

(... and p.s. - please don't shop at Wal-Mart, and/or similar mega-stores.)

(p.p.s. see related post at OlyBlog: The Normal Course of Progress?)

[updated 9:54 p.m. 9/25/08]