quick update, not been feeling the writing lately but i am putting together some new photo albums. in the mean time i was on two radio shows.
i was a guest once more on ‘useless thoughts and unremarkable opinions’ (episiode 34), where Jack and I may have been a little rough on the wonderful co-host linda, and i am very very sorry: http://jacknemo.podomatic.com/
and i was also invited onto V-Radio to talk about my video’s on the zeitgeist movement, namely, ‘Capitalism? Epic Fail!’, along with fellow z-filmmakers tom vine and doug mallette : listen here
also might as well throw in another reminder for peeps to check out my new other youtube channel (for video’s of my FACE and talking and music): http://youtube.com/theinfinityes
“Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”
-Bill Hicks
How many times have you heard that the top 1% own half of the USA’s wealth? Some people would say that’s because they earned it, that you don’t get anything for free. And I guess they’re right, if you consider trading stocks, stock options, derivatives, futures, future derivatives, manipulating the market, winning, losing, betting; if you consider that ‘earning’ the money, then earn it they certainly did.
But did any of that trading, did any of those money exchanges produce anything of value, in any direct fashion that could not have been achieved to the same degree, or even more effectively, without the existence of high level money exchange and expansion? That’s right, expansion… these people aren’t just **cough** ‘earning’ money, they are creating it. Well, maybe not all of them, not directly, but through their transactions with banks, they feed the on-going fractional reserve lending and money creating policies that do create most of the money, hence causing most of the inflation.
So while these people continue to make more and more money, it becomes worth less and less, especially as they hoard it in bank accounts, or worse, continue the money creation cycle by investing it, essentially gambling, as I say so eloquently in the title. But hey, right now, while it’s still worth something, these people could, feasibly, use some of it to feed the entire world.
So why don’t they? Well, like I said the future is uncertain. Money is constantly devaluing, and when you’re a real hardcore gambler like these guys, you’re always thinking of the next big win. Maybe someday, when they have ‘enough’, they’ll retire, give a few bucks to charity and live a comfortable life. And this essential mentality, of me-first, of capitalism in general, is exactly why me and the people who work on Wall Street aren’t marching down to Africa together, and building desalinization plants or irrigation systems. Or fully automated aquaponic multi-level gardening facilities that can continuously churn out fresh vegetables and operate in almost any weather conditions. The people on Wall Street can’t — and won’t — stop gambling. They are addicts. Money is their heroine, and they will fight just as hard as a crack-head to get their next fix.
Or, to say the exact same thing in more ‘proper’ terms, the people on Wall Street are trying to earn a profit.
And feeding the planet is not profitable. So it doesn’t get done. And whether we’re talking state-sponsored corporatism or laissez-fares free markets, profit is king. It is that thought — that the pursuit of profit will ultimately lead people to actions for the greater social good, because people will only buy things that are good for them, in the end — that wonderful idea that has underpinned our whole society for hundreds of years, that has now shown itself to be completely false.
Look around you. Not just your neighborhood or your country, but at your planet. THIS is the invisible hand, and it does not push people to perform for the greater social good. It simply pushes them to participate in any action by which a profit can be made.
Do I need to provide a list of arena’s of environmental life-support where profit and human well-being are not mutually compatible, often even at odds with each other? Ok fine, industrial waste, animal farm waste, air and water pollution, dirty, scarce energy sources, the systematic destruction of forests, the ‘buying’ of people’s and countries farmland for corporate purposes, depriving them of even more food, air pollution, media-induced consumption creating pollution, planetary health risks associated with the production of nukes, the spraying of pesticides, the injection of growth hormones, the introduction of poorly tested GMO foods, the outright lies and propaganda from the big food corporations on what a ‘healthy’ diet is… anyways, I could go on but I think it’s pretty clear that this de-coupling of profit interests and human interests is quite pervasive.
And that’s why Bill Hicks’ vision of a better ride could never really happen, not exactly. We can’t spend our way out of this problem, as much as the notion might grab our imagination. The people with the money to save the world are crippled, mentally. They are addicted to their money and power, and every dead human is just an externality as far as the profiteer is concerned. The profiteer cannot save the world until they give up that identity. Until we help them understand that the profit motive is not a humane motive, and the invisible hand is pushing us off a cliff.
“Dumpsters are one of the new and fashionable lawn ornaments in South Florida and they spring up all over our town like mushrooms after a summer rain. When a house goes into foreclosure, which they do quite often nowadays, a crew arrives with the Dumpster and empties the house into it, almost as though they picked it up by one side and poured everything out. The former occupants of the house presumably find a nice freeway overpass to live under, the bank resells the house for ten cents on the dollar, and everyone is happy—especially the company that rents the Dumpsters.”
I’m reading the new Dexter book (Dexter is Delicious), and I’ve always liked these books because they are amazingly written to show the emotionlessness of sociopaths. He’s much less emotional in the books.
It’s just funny to me that this is the authors description of sociopathic logic, yet it isn’t too far off from how many people view housing foreclosures. Maybe not so blatantly put, but I guess I just think it’s a great example of the cognitive dissonance required to accept that our system is working.
I just walked home from work. I’m used to passing homeless people, it’s usually the same ones by the hotel I work at. I know their faces, but not their names. I don’t make eye contact, usually, because that would initiate the inevitable question, to which I almost invariably answer ‘no’. I justify this to myself through the rationalization that yeah, I may be better off than them, but not by much. I’m in debt, probably going to have to move into a more expensive place… I really don’t have money to give away, so the twinge of guilt (not only for not giving them money, but for refusing to even look at them, simply acknowledge their existence) I feel is masked by these rationalizations, though as I sit in my sizeable bedroom typing this on my macbook next to my comfy bed with my iphone in my pocket and a bunch of dumb old dvd’s on the shelf, I can’t help but conclude that no matter how bad I need the money, they need it worse.
But they are used to it. That doesn’t make it right, but it makes it easier, for me, mentally to accept. But today. On my walk home I walk past a church, and outside, I saw a kid, pegged him to be about my age, little younger maybe (late teens early twenty’s), clean clothes. I nodded to him and he started talking. As I took one headphone out of my ear I heard ‘…listen to me for a minute?’. I nodded.
He briefly told me that he was 15, that the day before his father had kicked him out of the house, the youth shelters were full so he spent last night outside (it’s already started snowing up here in semi-northern canada). By the time he was done talking I think he could see something in my face, because he immediately looked down and away. He didn’t even ask me for money, but I stammered an explanation ‘I have no money on me… I don’t really know what else I can do for you.’
This was a lie. I had $45 in my wallet. No. I have $45 in my wallet. It’s my last $45 until friday when I get paid again, unless I rack up some more on the credit card. But the look on his face when he knew I was rejecting him — before I even did… fucking tore my heart out. I literally got a little bit teary eyed walking home, because even if I need my money, I have a floor he could sleep on. I could’ve given him some food. Hell, I could’ve at least asked if he wanted to come in from the cold and smoke a joint or something.
These are all the things that were running through my head as I finished my walk home. I didn’t start the music again. I felt, and still feel guilty, with every moment that passes, because this happened less than half an hour ago. I know that if I went back there I could probably find him and do something.
But no, I’m trying to find comfort in an online post.
You know what it is? I think I’m scared. Of that kid. Or anyone, I guess.
I just don’t understand how someone as well meaning as me can lie to and ignore someone like that. If actions speak louder than words than my actions don’t speak well of me, in my eyes. I also don’t understand why I have to be scared of someone asking for help. My fears aren’t completely unfounded, but let’s be honest, I could see in this kids face that he really needed help. That he hated asking for it. He wasn’t used to it like all the other homeless people I meet. That familiar resigned look was not present in his eyes. I think he might have been lying, about his age, maybe the whole story, but it doesn’t matter. Nobody who isn’t desperate does what he did. Looked the way he did.
He didn’t really nod or say anything, just kept looking at the ground, frowning. I felt like I could watch his faith in humanity slipping from his grasp as I became the god knows how many-ith person to tell him ‘no’. I was simultaneously watching the system crush his spirit, and being the perpetuator of the system in this instance.
With everything I talk about egalitarian values and I make stupid videos about capitalism or whateverthefuck to ‘raise awareness’. And I’m not saying I don’t enjoy doing those things, and the fact that people enjoy them is just amazing to me, but when it comes down to it, when a real human being reached out to me for help today, I said no.
And I still feel a catch in the back of my throat, typing that out. Maybe the question I should be asking myself is not ‘who the fuck am I?’ but ‘who the fuck do I want to be?’
My gut is saying no, but, really, what the fuck does my gut know?
The more I learn about the structure of the human mind, about the technicalities of our thinking processes, the more I start to see consciousness as basically an illusion created by the electrical neural impulses in our brain. Basically, I’m reducing the human being to nothing more than an animated flesh and blood bag with a decent computer up top. I lack belief in a soul (this does not mean I don’t believe souls exist, but it does mean that I approach the world through that perspective), or any other ‘agent’ controlling our actions, besides our brains.
So then what makes each person different? Genetics, and Experience. Genetics shape our bodies, our physicality, our organs, our amazing machine of a body, including our brain, which comes into the world a wild neuronical firing mess. This is not to say certain parts of the brain are not genetically mapped for specific functions, but the way those functions manifest is cause by our experience of the world. As we make associations between pictures and sounds, feelings and outside stimuli, some neurological pathways are strengthened while others are weakened. Once we begin to differentiate ourselves from the world around us, the illusion of ‘I’ begins.
‘I’ make decisions. ‘I’ am typing this post on my blog. But what am ‘I’? Unlike many philosophers, ‘I’ think there is an answer to this. ‘I’ am the sum total output of all the informational data that has ever run through my (to a small degree) genetically unique brain, filtered by my current emotional state. This is an idea I read in a paper by Marvin Minsky that very much took hold in my mind. That emotions are nothing more than the suppression or encouragement of certain modes of thought caused by chemicals in our brain reacting to thoughts we have about external stimuli. I hope I didn’t lose anyone in that sentence there. But it makes sense. When we are experiencing the ‘love’ (getting romantic here) emotion, our tendency to think critically seems to lower, while our creative and passionate thinking may be working at high capacity.
So, if I state that ‘I’ am the sum total output of all the informational data that has ever run through my (to a small degree) genetically unique brain, filtered by my current emotional state, I am saying, basically, that all of my actions are determined by my environment. But this realization allows me the opportunity to change my environment. Whether, or rather I should say, to what extent, I do this is entirely dependent on my developed cognitive abilities to accomplish such a thing, and of course, by other outside factors.
So I guess what I’m saying is that we are who we are because of our lives. That’s what makes each of us special. Not a thing nobody can find called a soul. At least that’s what makes the most sense to me, right now. And just because I don’t believe we have a ‘will’ per se, I do believe that we have the ability to change the environment, and hence the ‘will’ of not only ourselves, but of others as well.
note: Just to be clear I am not speaking of any type of coercion or gross media-consumerism-type propaganda campaigns. I am speaking only of open discussion and free exchange of ideas. The more information our computer-brains are exposed to, the better computer conclusions they can reach. :)
In 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. The CIA is accountable only to the president, and has no democratic oversight, and even their accountability to the president is tenuous (think JFK… or not, it’s not relevant).
So, In 1948 in the CIA openly interfered with the democratic elections in Italy, where a communist party threatened to win the elections. They bought votes (sound familiar?), broadcasted propaganda (sound familiar?), threatened and beated up opposition leaders (sound metaphorically familar?), and infiltrated and disrupted their organizations (I won’t speculate). But in the end it worked, and the communists were defeated.
Since then the CIA has gotten better at overthrowing governments who don’t play ball with the military-banking-industrial complex. They did it in Guatemala in 1954, the democratically-elected government of Coronel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was ousted by Coronel Carlos Castillo Armas in an operation organized by the CIA codenamed Operation PBSUCCESS. They overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader in 1953, and installed the brutal Shah instead. This is public knowledge, not any type of theory.
When they couldn’t do it in Vietnam in the late fiftees… well we know what happened next. similar events recently make me wonder **cough iraq cough**. But I won’t speculate. :p
I’ve only mentioned a couple. Type “CIA Military coups” into google and you’ll be amazed at what this rogue government organization is pulling right under the noses of the citzens of the world. It’s disgusting. They have admitted major involvement in both sides of many wars, military coups, drug smuggling. And yet, nothing happens. Nobody cares. Well, they probably would if it was on the front cover next to Lindsay Lohan. Most people don’t check the freely available documents (thanks Freedom of Information Act!), they just read what they’re fed, unfortunately. Encourage people to look for informational sources outside the norm.
But seriously. An organization this sinister in action needs to be disbanded. I can only imagine the psychotic workings of it’s inner offices. The higher up conversations where millions of deaths are justified for this reason or that. Genocide is a calculated cost as long as we keep the westerners asleep and living the dream.
Well, I’m not living the dream and I’m not asleep, and your fucking bullshit CIA agency is nothing but a bunch of shame filled people externalizing their own issues onto the world and fucking killing people and robbing them of their homes, governments, lives, addicting them to drugs, and on and on.
Fuck the CIA. FUCK YOU (the organization, not the people; you I just feel bad for) from Aaron Moritz. I very much hope I’m on some type of watch list or terrorist group because if I’m daring to imagine a world where we don’t kill each other for no fucking reason. And that world doesn’t include your government-shielded mafia group, so my intention is bring about a change that will end your ass. Thank you.
