The Blindingly Obvious About Obama, 2013, Europe, Iran and so on

stipendium imperii mors est

Wow, there’s a lot there, so I’ll have to address it piecemeal. I agree with pretty much all of it. In regard to Fracking, it’s like raping a corpse, if you ask me. I found the following article interesting. It’s like Deadwood 2012….maybe David Milch can make a come back.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-25/north-dakota-oil-boom-brings-blight-with-growth-as-costs-soar.html

China…well, there are so many things that can, and will, go wrong with China. The following is just one….although I believe a collapse will precede this….if not, it will surely cause a collapse.

http://blog.sustainablog.org/2011/03/china-grain-demand-us/

Please, anyone, provide examples of Obumma “pandering to progressives and liberals” EXCEPT in campaign speeches.

Why an attack on Iran would be considered positive right now within certain circles.

1.) If it happens within the next several months, it would render the Republican primaries moot and irrelevant. Obama would be handed another term (it’s already ordained, imo, but this would justify it in the public’s mind) because you don’t switch horses in the middle of the battle. The Republican primaries would still be interesting as a satirical spectacle, though.

2.) Defense Contractors and Oil Companies will continue to reap egregiously exploitative profits. It would be the workaround to Obama’s proposed defense budget cuts. Another war cannot be subject to such cuts, and so it’s a defacto reversal of any cuts. Contrary to popular opinion, the price of oil is now largely influenced and determined by inside price manipulators (Goldman Sachs and other various Hedge Funds) and they will use the Iranian conflict to drive up the price of oil resulting in record profits for them and the Oil Majors. Also, let’s face it, the last leg holding up the U.S. economy is defense spending. It’s one of the few things the U.S. still does well in house. You take that away, and bye bye birdie.

3.) It’s in keeping with the overall Geopolitical Strategy of controlling the remaining spice through Full Spectrum Dominance. There is no future for the Mullahs of Iran. It’s just a matter of when, and the above is a justification (not mine) for that when to be now, or very soon.

That being said, yes, what I have just stated is insane and ultimately doomed to failure (long term), but that doesn’t make it untrue. It’s a short-term strategy that buys some more time but at the expense of an infinitely more painful future. It’s the course, though, and I don’t see anything on the horizon that is capable of changing the trajectory.

Also, I believe that once Israel has served its purpose as a Nation-State foil, it will be jettisoned and left to the wolves who will be ready to tear it to shreds. It has burned too many bridges, and I believe it is the one being played. It will pay a huge penalty (its existence) for its blindly zealous hubris.

2016? Surely you can’t be serious; can you?
There won’t be anything left to save (in terms of society) by then.
We’ll be a gutted, hollowed out shell of a country not recognizable to any of us old codgers; hell I can barely recognize it now…

Where to go? A US passport can only go so far and getting citizenship in other countries will only become more difficult unless your net worth is $50,000,000 or more. Leaving a country every 90 days is financially and emotionally draining. What is the solution?

Leave the US and become the target of its foreign policy? Feh.

Ah, seems like I’m not the first one to have the idea. I’d prefer something a little more sophisticated, though.

http://marcellusdrilling.com/2012/01/fracking-fluid-spill-in-bradford-pa-result-of-sabotage/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

The cover is that Obama is pandering to the Environmentalists by canceling the Keystone Pipeline, but the truth of the matter, he doesn’t give a wit about the environment. He was pandering to Buffet all along.

Article

Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.

With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.

“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said in an interview. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”

Obumma did NOT “cancel the pipeline.”

Twice in two months he deferred to the GOP-controlled Nebraska legislature which refused to allow the proposed pipeline rout through the Sand Hills region of the state.

Anyone who accepted his first “I’ll decide in 2013” ploy merely affixes a worse name to “progressives and liberals” then the FOX Domestic Terrorist Network has ever been able to do in many years of vicious effort.

Forced to it a second time he repeated the decision with reassurance that “The administration will allow TransCanada to reapply for a permit after it develops an alternate route around the Nebraska Sandhills, a sensitive habitat.” http://tinyurl.com/73r358v

Note the absence of any mention of 2013.

I sure missed the SOPA veto threat but the one for NDAA dissolved into a limp signing statement promising not to use the powers he was just given that he’d previously said he’d veto. THAT was reassuring as we’ve seen so many of Obmma’a fulfilled promises!

The offending provision of NDAA (besides $700 billion for perpetual war) is to US citizens what SOPA was to be to websites: “cancellation” without charge or trial.

Is playing “progressives and liberals” for stupid fucks the same as pandering to them?

Leave? I’m not sure where one would go. Moreover, isn’t it our responsibility to stay and put things right?

The potential for a flourishing economy is still here. The biggest obstacle to restarting research-production-consumption cycles is an entrenched set of interests that prefer to see financing happen through the privately-owned institutions they control.

A great part of the wealth of a nation is the capacity of its people to labor, create, and innovate. We still have that. With the government as the financier for projects and also the pump that pushes money strategically into certain parts of the economy, the system can be revived.

Maybe we just need a heart transplant…

Kurt
January 26, 2012
Leave? I’m not sure where one would go. Moreover, isn’t it our responsibility to stay and put things right?
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Hmm, think pre-war Germany; it’s a pretty relevant comparison to today’s America, IMO.

Celsius 233,
I agree the potential for some kind of totalitarianism or fascism is there, but I don’t think it’s inevitable. I also believe it’s our responsibility to put a stop to it. Sometimes you just have to face the devil.

alyosha
January 26, 2012

Iran information…
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I would deem this guy a must read/listen;
Cyrus Safdari

http://www.iranaffairs.com/

Safdari is also featured on Counterspin @ Fair.org

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4470

alyosha, no, Iran is not about the Nuclear angle. That’s merely the cover….the angle, but it’s not the underlying motivation for an attack.

I’ve never been out of the country at all , come to think of it. Never even been to New York or Chicago. Sometimes I think living out of the country will be such a relief I will wish I had done it sooner. Other times I wonder what jarring, unexpected circumstances I might encounter. Would, for instance, a lone female like me be comfortable in a Latin culture?

Plus, lately I find myself losing enthusiasm for living anywhere. If the poverty I see here breaks my heart, how will it feel to come face to face with much worse poverty in a country that isn’t rich? For that matter, where is it even possible to go anymore that isn’t suffering as badly as my local friends?

Bottom line I will leave before much longer. It’s just that lately I’m realizing that no matter where I go some general sadness will go with me. Timely escape may save my hide, but there will be no escaping a kind of simmering grief for my old world, for all those I’ve loved that have gone down, that will be with me all my days.

M.InTheCity, if that’s your plan, you might want to avoid backpacking in the mountains.

My other comment held up in Moderation again. This one is addressed to ‘someofparts’. Her question:

Would, for instance, a lone female like me be comfortable in a Latin culture?

“Latin culture” covers a whole lot of ground. Living in Italy, Spain, Portugal you’d have no problem whatsoever. Living in almost any sophisticated city in Latin America you’d have no problem either (though there are some kidnappings of rich people in Bogotá these days, but you’re more likely to be shot in an American city).

@Morocco Bama – Ha! Yes, indeed. My partner pointed that out as well…One of the reasons the Iranians got pissed at those kids last year is that it is illegal for an American to come over unless they are specifically there on a package tour. You can’t get a visa otherwise. I found that on the internet in like 5 minutes once I decided I wanted to go.

@ Lisa /Bolo – being an American ex-pat in the UK, I can tell you that the economy is totally for shit. My partner has been looking for a job for well over a year. There is zilch. We’re quite lucky that I have a “good” (i.e. well paying) job.

I tend to think there will increasingly be fewer and fewer places to go. Europe, as others have noted, isn’t going to be any great place. They start in a better place socially than we do (generally), but their economy is going down every bit as hard. Japan has its own problems, including gods only knows how much radiation damage. If China crashes, I’m guessing things get pretty grim in the rest of Asia pretty fast. Africa is a mess thanks to what the developed world has already done to it.

And then there’s the US and its penchant for essentially starting wars anywhere there are natural resources it wants. After Iran, where’s next? South America? Will Hugo Chavez become the next unacceptable leader?

That’s the real problem. It’s not just that the economy is global, it’s that the developed world is going to go down lashing out and how do you make sure you don’t end up in a target state.

The one thing that the US has going for it is that it’s big. Really big. There are still a lot of places with actually very few people. If you have some resources, I almost wonder if it isn’t just as safe to get a small plot of land in the middle of nowhere, America. Yes, the groundwater in a lot of places is going to be fracked, but environmental damage for economic extraction is hardly confined to the U.S. And here, at least, I have some understanding of the language and culture and some community to call upon for support. It’s not that I think things aren’t going to be awful here – they already are for a lot of people – I’m just not as sure they’re going to be better in a lot of place or in my ability to figure out which places those will be. As things fall apart, however, maybe all of that will be more clear. The key is not to get clarity after it’s too late.

I like the way Binky the Bear put it –

“Leave the US and become the target of its foreign policy? Feh.”

If I patriotically deported myself to some ancestral homeland, in my case that would be Greece or Ireland. Good thing the banks got there first and wrecked them already.

Thanks for the input Lisa S. Will take it into account in my planning. I follow the urban rule in the U.S. Always better for an iconoclast like me to be in a city. Interesting to see the rule applies in other countries as well.

someofparts, ah, you’re very lucky! Ireland and Greece are both gorgeous and culturally magnificent (though the food in Greece is better — weather, too, of course).

If the world’s going to hell, at least I’d rather be in a beautiful locale. If you still have family in either of those places, it might be worth looking them up.

Jumpjet, whole ‘nother topic, your comment, but . . . well, maybe. I do not understand and will never understand this fascination with guns, but I’ve had to learn to get used to it at a chat board I frequent where the left/right dichotomy is pretty much torn to shreds. It’s a civil liberties board, and we have people from all over the political map. We all agree on the importance of civil liberties, we’re outraged about the routine abuse of same in this country, and we’re up on the latest developments re the DHS, TSA, VIPR, surveillance, etc. But boy, when they start talking about their guns, that’s when I tune out. They go on and on and on about them.

I admit that if civil unrest in this country gets really bad, it’s going to be dangerous, and if roving bands of marauders decide to rampage down the street, I’m going to be screwed, but I still have no desire to get a gun.

agree with most of the arguments, BUT, friends, the upside of down is, that, if everything is downgraded nowadys by the 0.x% guys, they downgrade themselves as well.

So let them downgrade everything to junk.
Where then do they invest, exactly?
Moon? Mars?

To keep their RELATIVE status, they have to rely on loyal LOCAL force. This is the achilles heel of the global vigilantes, who increasingly are lost in the abstraction of their fancy gated communities or extraterritorial floating islands, or underground bunkers.

I think they smell he heat.
If they do not learn QUICK, they burn in their own fires.
Soros and Buffett and even Bill Gates are aware that, I suppose.

Their fellow looters do not. So this is sort of an infight, 10-90, I suppose.

note:

…
“Vigilante justice” is spurred on by the idea that criminal punishment is either nonexistent or insufficient for the crime. Those who believe this see their governments as ineffective in enforcing the law; thus, such individuals fulfil the like-minded wishes of the community. In other instances, a person may choose a role of vigilante as a result of personal experience as opposed to a social demand.

Persons seen as “escaping from the law” or “above the law” are sometimes the targets of vigilantism.[3] It may target persons or organizations involved in illegal activities in general or it may be aimed against a specific group or type of activity, e.g. police corruption. Other times, governmental corruption is the prime target of vigilante freedom fighters.
…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilante

Amen.

Re leaving: One thing to remember; where ever YOU go there YOU are.
Cliche? Yes, but true.
One must be aware of ones foibles and personal issues, because one will not be able to run away from oneself.
If one has never traveled (as I hadn’t) then it’s impossible to know what to expect; but with a healthy sense of adventure, openness, and no pre-conceptions; one can do well.
It’s a big world and it’s not what you think.
Americans are generally well regarded, if not our government.
I had an amazing encounter in Lao; we had a taxi driver as a tour guide around Vientiane who was fighting first the French and then the Americans to throw them/us out. He was immensely proud to have successfully fought us, but; he was gracious and very informative even knowing I was an American. Never had one problem because of being an American anywhere in S.E. Asia.

Celsius

…Never had one problem because of being an American anywhere in S.E. Asia….

And what tells You that?

The unforgiving lot is exactly where?
The red staters and some shitty little country somewhere in the midle east. Right?
The Far-Easterners are very forgiving. See the Vietnamese and their tolerant reaction to US-aggression.

This is probably related to Buddhism.
Just a guess.
Monotheistic desert religions tend to be very unforgiving.
Talmud/Kabbalah being the worst of the lot, because time is a flat -ever present-space.
I once pondered this riddle: Hebraeic conception of time. Strange. Have-ahem- ‘temporaily’ given up on that.
Again. Just guessing.

A digression on the theme.
Apologies.

I am in the process of obtaining Italian citizenship. Italy is one of the very few countries where you can have dual citizenship. The process is lengthy and involved. My paternal grandparents came from Italy so I am eligible because I have a direct descendant from there. But I have to provide birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates of everyone in the line of ascendancy, they need to be apostile and then translated. My mother is from Germany and I need her birth certificate too. Grandparents birth and death certificates from many years ago and hopefully they are on file somewhere. But the good thing about this is my daughter will also be getting hers because she is in this line.

groo PERMALINK
January 26, 2012
Celsius
…Never had one problem because of being an American anywhere in S.E. Asia….
And what tells You that?
The unforgiving lot is exactly where?
The red staters and some shitty little country somewhere in the midle east. Right?
The Far-Easterners are very forgiving. See the Vietnamese and their tolerant reaction to US-aggression.
This is probably related to Buddhism.
Just a guess.
___________________

I doubt Buddhism has anything to do with acceptance here; but that, combined with it’s culture, may. I’m just not sure.
IME, Thais are incredibly tolerant and patient, however; cross a certain line and at best they will never have anything to do with you, ever, or; at worst, they will violently, physically, attack.
In 9 years, I have never witnessed this and don’t expect I ever will.
As to M.E. cultures; I haven’t any first hand experience with that and won’t generalize about that which I have no first hand knowledge.
Even here, I hear westerners constantly stereotyping the culture in which they are living.
As I said up-thread; one takes ones baggage with one where-ever one goes. Best left home, IMO. Cheers.

Also, re: Celsius 233’s comment Never had one problem because of being an American anywhere in S.E. Asia

I can say the same for Central America, to a degree. Yes, when you’re new to the region – especially if your Spanish isn’t very good yet – you’re going to get ripped off. There’s two price systems there: the local price and the gringo price. When your Spanish sucks and the shopkeeper doesn’t know you, you’re going to pay the gringo price. But once the locals get to know you, and you get to know the language and local customs, you’ll pay the local price.

But in a broader sense, I never had any problems there. I really worried about how I’d be accepted by Nicaraguans, given our very recent and bloody history there. But I found that people there were very friendly and welcoming, even those who had been personally affected by the war. One man who’d lost a hand fighting the Contras practically adopted me as a part of his family, and others made it clear that while they hated Bush, they didn’t hold that against me or us.

“You can have widespread prosperity and democracy, or you can have oligarchs. You can’t have both.”

This is the most succinct analysis of politics and economics I’ve ever seen.

It does mean what you surmise Celsius. I looked it up on wiki myself.

“The Next American Misadventure (after the Middle East is reduced to chaos or clientage)?
Mexico.
Think big. Think annexation.”

Well, JC, we’ve already modified the U.S. legal system to make it line up with the one in Mexico, so I guess we’re on our way. Phyrric victories ‘r US.

Thanks viajera, Celsius and Lisa Simeone for all the good advice about living out of country. You’ve actually got me kind of psyched up about it.

I love cafe life. Few things are better to me than having a day to take my book to some cafe, get some coffee, maybe a bit of wine, and spend the afternoon snacking, reading, people watching and chatting with friends that happen by. If me and the dog can find that again somewhere I will be happy.

LaughingCat permalink
January 25, 2012

“The only thing that matters is who has the power when the next age of technology rolls out. When nanotechnology, perfect lie detectors, quantum computers, advanced AI, and advanced electronics surveillance comes out within the next 10-20 years, I sure hope someone who respects civil liberties is in power, because if they aren’t, there will never be another chance to turn the tide. It will be too late.”

It’s already too late. Hardly anyone in Washington respects civil liberties and the right to privacy, least of all Obama. The Federal government has at least three dozen intelligence agencies (and counting), whose budgets are constantly expanding. We’re already being spied upon in more ways than you can shake a stick at.

so, not being versed in econ, at all, I’m curious about your saying the oecd countries don’t want “growth;” that they just want to invest in china. Are you referring to pure “rentier-ism?”

That is, their own economies can go to hell, as long as Jeff Immelt can make dough in China?

That’s my understanding, but I wonder if that’s what you meant.

Ian writes a post about the disintegration of a nation

Last week reading about the recession the UK is moving into, and the profits Apple is enjoying, I was reminded somehow of the late 1970s, another period when America was in decline and collapse, our economy schlerotic and stagnant, our military impotent in the face of new and different threats, our competition (Japan) vibrant and innovative. And I remember how that turned out. Not well for workers, pretty good for elites. I even remember how it was in part done, through the smart leverage of our sovereign currency and the acquiescence of our polity to militarism and inequality.

I hate this place with all my heart, but I do not ever underestimate how goddamn good we seem to be at the Empire game.

ultra writes:

It’s already too late. Hardly anyone in Washington respects civil liberties and the right to privacy, least of all Obama. The Federal government has at least three dozen intelligence agencies (and counting), whose budgets are constantly expanding. We’re already being spied upon in more ways than you can shake a stick at.

Indeed. And the sheeple are just fine with it. That’s why they’re getting exactly what they asked for. Unfortunately, the rest of us are getting it, too.

I just love it when Ian gets all Doomy and such.

The Future Is Bleak to be sure. For most of us poor sods, decline is programmed into the system. Witness the decline of the Russian People under the Rule of Rapine; no different in the USA or anywhere else. Once under way, it’s pretty near impossible to stop. No matter what we do. And “leaving” isn’t the answer, either, because the Rule of Rapine is already pretty much everywhere; where it hasn’t already been established, it will be soon enough. Buying the political systems of the nations is apparently one of the simplest, cheapest, and most productive investments ever discovered. The fact that the People can’t participate is a feature, not a bug.
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1) It is ugly now. 2013 could hardly be worse for many. On the other hand, the fact that the White House won’t have to think about elections any more obviously won’t make them “better.” It won’t necessarily make them worse, either. Hooverism will continue no matter.

2) Fracking won’t be stopped until the sheltered existence of those who are profiting so much from it is disrupted. Since Fracking is capable of destroying groundwater supplies and of causing earthquakes, among other things, it could ultimately be self-cancelling. How long, O Lord? How long?

3) & 6) It’s surprising how much the price of crude oil can go up and down without significantly affecting retail prices of gasoline and other petroleum products in the US. Yet in some cases, the slightest upward speculative move on the price of oil can have immediate and lasting consequences on retail prices, but if the upward jump is too much, the economy shudders a bit and the retail price goes back down a notch or two. In other words, the market price of crude oil and the retail price of its products (at least in the US) appear to be only marginally related. So a $20 rise in crude oil prices (due to ratcheting up the Iran Thing) may have no effect on the consumer end of it at all. Given the way that consumer prices have been manipulated over the last many years, a rise in crude prices like that — if due to cutting off Iran from the global market — can conceivably result in a reduction of consumer prices. It all depends. As for the World Economy, those who haven’t already built in an oil-cushion based on the years and years of build up to the impending Iran smash-and-grab face a potentially dire fate, but they can’t say they haven’t had plenty of warning.

4) & 5) Austerity has a very positive function for those who believe in wealth transfers from the many to the few and in the disabling and discrediting of representative democracy and government of the People. It works beautifully. Coups — replacing elected governments with their ersatz — are part of the program, as is the election of more and more severe rightist governments where elections are still allowed to affect policy. Eventually, direct rule by selected corporate interests will be accepted as “better than” the alternative, which is the broken and discredited representative democracy of yore. Austerity is grease on the skids.

7) This is the China Century, and it’s fascinating. Don’t think that China is a passive observer in what is going on outside the Middle Kingdom. Far from it. Not only is China an active player, it is an integral player. Further, China’s Way could well become the model, at least for a while, as the Developed World transitions from its failed political/economic systems to the shiny new political/economic systems being worked out in China today, much as the United States used to be the model.

8) Yes, well, all this palaver about business “uncertainty” and “confidence” is just so much palaver isn’t it?

9) Focus on 2016? To what object? A functioning presidential electoral system in this country was terminated in December of 2000. It has not been revived, nor will it be. It’s over. That part’s done. Still we muddle on. The Candidate Clown Car as Entertainment — and Big Bucks to Media.

10) “Default” is being re-defined as we speak. What happens to the masses is of no concern whatever to those who rule them. What happens to the few who own the debts of nations is the only thing that matters — that’s been clear for years. If they can’t squeeze 100% and more out of the debtors on paper, they’ll do it some other way. As they’ve been successfully doing with mortgages in this country since the crash. Mortgage “default” can trigger multiple payoffs, a desirable outcome, no? The trick is to make the debts of nations into the same sort of “default” money machine.

11) Yes, it does take a while for The People to get off their couches and do something that will put The Fear into their ruling class, and it takes a lot of consideration, discussion, experimentation and failed rebellion to get to the point where a Revolution is successful. There is no short path to Peoples’ victory in these matters, yet the path that is being taken globally is moving much faster than previous efforts along these lines, breathtakingly fast to many old fart observers, but not nearly fast enough to satisfy younger firebrands.

The Old Future has been stolen, in its entirety. Gone as if it had never been imagined. So make a new one.

groo –

The sweet siren song of technology. Ever since the wooden ships and steel blades (or, “Guns, Germs & Steel”) handed the rapacious warrior class of Western civilization the juicy fruits of the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, technology has enabled us, defined us, and ultimately trapped us in a prison of our own making, isolated as we have become from the fact of our organic dependency on the world.

Far be it from me to dash hopes – not that I’m equipped to decisively pull that off anyway – but there are some countermanding red flags to consider.

A major one being the reliance on conspiracy as one of the explanatory threads in the “cold fusion” genre. Sorry – if it was feasible, even the greedheads in “conventional” energy business would have embraced it. Corporations are selling fucking water to people – I’m sure they would trip over themselves to get ahead of a new, promising energy source and meter the shit out of it.

Another one is the tendency, displayed in Rothwell’s “book,” to conflate the relatively banal issue of new energy with other futuristic visions (“How Cold Fusion Will Change Society and Technology”, “Synergy: Cold Fusion Combined With Other Breakthroughs”). This reeks of forced narrative.

Buried in some of the factual information (the book, and the cold fusion genre, has a lot of good science and facts), but hardly emphasized, is the energy inputs required for this whole scheme to work. I’m not talking about “excess heat” – the net positive energy from a successful reactor – but the infrastructure of manufacture and materials. “Batteries” should get our attention. We’re talking rare metals – the kind that spark resource wars like… Afghanistan, which apparently rivals China in precious metals of the sort beloved by the electronics industry and, presumably, any nascent cold fusion infrastructure. Introduce scarcity into any energy scheme – and there will always be scarcity – and it’s the same old greedhead dynamic.

There are probably some others I’m missing at the moment – the subject sometimes exhausts me, and I’m not feeling particularly eloquent this morning – but, for me, the biggest red flag of all is just how psychologically appealing the idea is that technology can save us all. This is something I simply want a little too much to be true. Progress, progress, ever progress! We were right all along!

Far easier than fundamentally re-evaluating my relationship with the world.

So no, not crazy… just a little “clingy.”

From the book:

Many people have a sneaking suspicion that cold fusion must be too good to be true, because nature never does something for nothing. They think everything is difficult, and there is always a price to pay for the bounty of nature. Resources are now and always will be in short supply, and we must therefore compete with others to get our share. Such people are mired in a stone-age mentality…

Aside from the “therefore compete” conclusion, I resemble this remark. Stone-age mentality because some things have not changed since the stone-age, and are not likely to. The second law of thermodynamics, for one…

Ché Pasa PERMALINK
January 29, 2012

And “leaving” isn’t the answer, either, because the Rule of Rapine is already pretty much everywhere; where it hasn’t already been established, it will be soon enough.
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Well, I can’t agree with that. “Leaving” as an escape is ridiculous and futile; leaving as means of improving/maintaining one’s quality of life is another thing altogether.
Beyond that, your essay is interesting and at first blush would seem fairly astute.

I assume that by the end of 200 years we’ll have colonized the solar system or something?

I would certainly hope so, if we’re talking about cold fusion.

Well, Celsius, that kind of leave taking strikes me as a good deal more spiritual than not. It’s still possible, I think, to do it domestically, though it takes a certain frame of mind to ward off both the relentless propaganda and the material temptations; it can be easier in a foreign land — if you can get there — where those pressures may not be so strong.

The Buddhist concept of “surrender” can help…

An exquisite piece of writing appeared in translation on Juan Cole’s Informed Comment and is worth the read:

http://www.juancole.com/2012/01/beji-we-are-all-tunisian-jews.html

if not a bookmark.

Formerly T-Bear PERMALINK
January 30, 2012
An exquisite piece of writing appeared in translation on Juan Cole’s Informed Comment and is worth the read:
http://www.juancole.com/2012/01/beji-we-are-all-tunisian-jews.html
if not a bookmark.
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Hélé Béji; her prose are like music/poetry. Very powerful writing, thanks.

alyosha PERMALINK
January 30, 2012
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You’re very welcome. If you’ve any questions regarding the LOS (aka Thailand); I’ll be happy to answer as best as I can.

IME, people generally have no problems communicating cross culturally; the problems start when governments co-opt the people with their vested agendas/propagandas which generally have nothing to do with the wishes or interests of the population.
With the exception of Iceland, I’m hard pressed to come up with governments that actually represents its people.
That puts a huge responsibility on individuals to act in accordance with their heart driven conscience.