Again, you've got your finger on the pulse, pointing out that this melting pot of ours doesn't include accountability to burn the witches and warlocks at the stake while we enjoy our gruel. It's been obvious for years that the cooks in DC are shitty at their jobs, rationing meals for the middle class and the poor, while getting fucked by lobbyist ordering anything off the menu of recipes they create. What's in your wallet? Dark money, i can't see it because I'm obligated to pull out my corporate drug pushers card to build up my credit so I'm in debt for life to play the game of Russian roulette for "good credit". You know the system is rigged and broken when a majority of people can't afford bootstraps to pull up with a middle finger. It's a shit storm, and getting worse when the adults in room are being bullied by a two year old in the White Crib, ignoring the faeces on their faces. It's just straight up bad fucking parenting. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand when to throw out the baby with the bath water, or just hire one to coddle and manipulate the toddlers ego for his own daddy issues. Stop the steal, we live in an Olimalarkey.
Of course, the preponderance of shareholders these days tend to be large, bloodless corporate entities in their own right. Mutual funds, pension systems and businesses have highly paid professional management and vastly interlocking boards of directors, and by nature they support the status quo, unless and until, some richly endowed person(s) put them "in play".
But never mind that: what about the phenomenon of really smart people lining up against very stupid assumptions or ideas? The result, inevitably, is going to consist of something very stupid. To wit: the electoral college and 2 senators per state regardless of population. To wit: the ultimate catastrophe of the American ethos of "individualism". To wit: the idea that the market place will take care of every problem including the provision of basic services.
The American Titanic has hit the proverbial iceberg, and the iceberg is American titanism.
I reread the "shareholder-driven" comment, and was suddenly struck by the fact that the "shareholder" is a mythical entity. (I started to write "kind of mythical" and then changed that -- I'm thinking at the keyboard.) It is a daimon (δαίμων -- I put that there because I was curious if substack would allow Greek characters), but in this case it is the manifestation of our lowest and basest characteristics. Rather than a mustache twirling villain, it is the vilest form of evil that Arendt observed at the Eichmann trial, the kind that is utterly banal about the evil it commits. Collectivized until it is denuded of even the abstract possibility of genuine personhood, it is also abstracted from any possible connection to responsibility or consequences. This δαίμων is a free-range sociopath.
Again, you've got your finger on the pulse, pointing out that this melting pot of ours doesn't include accountability to burn the witches and warlocks at the stake while we enjoy our gruel. It's been obvious for years that the cooks in DC are shitty at their jobs, rationing meals for the middle class and the poor, while getting fucked by lobbyist ordering anything off the menu of recipes they create. What's in your wallet? Dark money, i can't see it because I'm obligated to pull out my corporate drug pushers card to build up my credit so I'm in debt for life to play the game of Russian roulette for "good credit". You know the system is rigged and broken when a majority of people can't afford bootstraps to pull up with a middle finger. It's a shit storm, and getting worse when the adults in room are being bullied by a two year old in the White Crib, ignoring the faeces on their faces. It's just straight up bad fucking parenting. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand when to throw out the baby with the bath water, or just hire one to coddle and manipulate the toddlers ego for his own daddy issues. Stop the steal, we live in an Olimalarkey.
You are a fantastic writer. I've said it before, I'm saying it again, I'll sure I'll say it again sometime soon. Don't stop.
Of course, the preponderance of shareholders these days tend to be large, bloodless corporate entities in their own right. Mutual funds, pension systems and businesses have highly paid professional management and vastly interlocking boards of directors, and by nature they support the status quo, unless and until, some richly endowed person(s) put them "in play".
But never mind that: what about the phenomenon of really smart people lining up against very stupid assumptions or ideas? The result, inevitably, is going to consist of something very stupid. To wit: the electoral college and 2 senators per state regardless of population. To wit: the ultimate catastrophe of the American ethos of "individualism". To wit: the idea that the market place will take care of every problem including the provision of basic services.
The American Titanic has hit the proverbial iceberg, and the iceberg is American titanism.
I reread the "shareholder-driven" comment, and was suddenly struck by the fact that the "shareholder" is a mythical entity. (I started to write "kind of mythical" and then changed that -- I'm thinking at the keyboard.) It is a daimon (δαίμων -- I put that there because I was curious if substack would allow Greek characters), but in this case it is the manifestation of our lowest and basest characteristics. Rather than a mustache twirling villain, it is the vilest form of evil that Arendt observed at the Eichmann trial, the kind that is utterly banal about the evil it commits. Collectivized until it is denuded of even the abstract possibility of genuine personhood, it is also abstracted from any possible connection to responsibility or consequences. This δαίμων is a free-range sociopath.
I'm happy to hear you're doing ok.
"No longer are we a consumer-driven economy, but a shareholder-driven one." Hits hard, because it's all too true.
I truly wish it weren’t.