Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cooking The Numbers

In "Empire at the End of Decadence" (February, 18, 2011), Charles Blow declares that:
"It’s time for us to stop lying to ourselves about this country. America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.

Yet this reality and the urgency that it ushers in is too hard for many Americans to digest. They would prefer to continue to bathe in platitudes about America’s greatness, to view our eroding empire through the gauzy vapors of past grandeur."



And Charles Blow to quote numbers coming from organizations which have interest to exalt the Reagan view of the world. Even these numbers look bad. The real numbers would be even worse.

One has indeed to understand that many of these numbers go first through a dedicated filter of organizations (CIA, World Bank, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pro-plutocracy magazine The Economist, etc.).

These organizations are determined to prove the superiority of the present American way of exploitation, as their thriving depends upon it.

For example the "percentage thriving" finds 50% more Americans "thriving", whereas only 33% of the French are "thriving". I know both countries extremely well, and I can tell you, it's not the case. What is perceived as thriving on one side of the Atlantic would be viewed as inimaginable misery, on the other side.

The French do not believe it's cool to claim they are thriving. Self glorifications led to sorry episodes such as Louis XIV or Napoleon. They cost millions of dead, and severely weakened the country. As the protestants were forced to flee by Louis the criminal, they enrich Germany, and eported wine making to South Africa. So later nazi germany invaded with some generals bearing French names.

The terrible wars of the Twentieth Century, which left metropolitan France 20% smaller than it would be otherwise (let alone the loss of the enormous empire, not all parts of it should have been disjoined, in a better world) were another case where glory itself came to be viewed as a colaborator of self extermination.

So the French believe, deep inside, that it is better to complain, and demonstrate. Whereas the Americans fear that if they are not perceived as winners, they will be run over.

So to complain about France as loudly as possible is a major French religion (it literraly ties the French together, for example during the ever popular demonstrations). But many major worries Americans have do not even register in France. For example health care, or child care, or education. Although the unemployment rates cannot be compared; as Krugman observed, France has actually a much higher employment rate of the 24 to 55 population.

This being said, the USA has a disease called hubris. The country takes itself for imperial rime, and is the last one to used the imperial system of units. The USA was also the only "democracy" to re-introduce slavery on its own territory, ot its own citizens since Europe had outlawed it, a full millennium before that.

The USA is a time-wrap. Long has been. Why? Because being primitive in some important ways allowed a self satisfied, oblivious mentality to reign, designed specifically to exterminate the natives. And thus gain a continent, making America's fortune.

Notice that the Boers and the British did not exterminate the natives in South Africa.

Now, this American mentality, lost in self grandeur, and oblivious delusion is backfiring, ever since it went on steroids with that mean and short sighted man, Reagan. Reagan' confusion between fortune and merit has ruled the land, in a last, self destructive spasm of a better forgotten past.
PA

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Hold Your Horses About Egypt.

The new ex-NeoConservatives sing song is to say they brought the Egyptian revolution, after trying everything under Bush, from billions to invasions.

However, what Bush's predecessors had tried, and what they had succeeded to do, is to subjugate the Arabs, using a hefty dose of support for old fashion Islam (Salafism) to do so. Bush's feeble efforts were an attempt to recover control. He did not. Nor is Obama (who is using cheaper and craftier methods).

The (present government of the) USA and its People (Peace be Upon It!) do not want a real Arab revolution, because it would mean oil at $300 a barrel. It would also mean that Israel could not afford anymore, its present leaders and their mean policies.

But this is not over. Right now, it is a coup, not a revolution: we were threatened with Suleiman Aleikum, the Moo-Barack from behind, as I pointed out in a somewhat timely manner, 3 days before Suleiman came crashing down.

A last minute change gives us the only serious democratic institution in Egypt, the army. Vice President Suleiman was livid, as he announced that in a 40 second adress, complete with God's mercy, Mubarak's resignation, and his own personal eclipse.

Speaking of mercy, it would be merciful if my incendiary essay on the subject had been read in high places...

However, the Egyptian army is also plutocratic. Generals are paid by Washington, especially when they retire. The Egyptian army controls as much as 15% of Egypt's GDP, and is fully part of the worldwide plutocracy. So this is not over.

It is far from clear that the Egyptian people will come out on top. A fortiori other Arabs. The obscene Mohammed VI is thriving in Morocco, having gathered 10% of GDP all by his little self.
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/

Friday, February 4, 2011

Will to Intellectual Supremacy

Here is an entire post of Paul Krugman, "Another Kind of Financial Fragility",
followed by my comment, which explains and amplifies what Krugman talks about. Namely, the mental fragility of the top banksters, who are revealing to be affected by the sort of madness hubris leads to:


"Recent events have a lot of economists working hard at trying to determine the causes of financial fragility — the vulnerability of some economies, ours very much included, to disruptive shocks that cause credit and spending to freeze.

But recent events have also highlighted another kind of financial fragility: the sensitive egos of powerful bankers. I’ve been calling this the Ma! He’s looking at me funny! syndrome; it’s quite something to behold.

In a way, it sort of makes sense. Any leading player in the world of finance makes so much money that he more or less literally already has everything money can buy. If he cares about making even more money, it’s purely as a way of keeping score. And once you’re motivated mainly by considerations of prestige, you start to care more about whether the president is saying nice things about you than whether his actual policies are letting you off scot-free from any consequences of your industry’s sins.

Anyway, a good read from Reuters about the fragile ego of Jamie Dimon, who is not only wealthy beyond count but has also received a lot of fawning press. But it’s apparently not good enough.
"
***


This observation of Paul Krugman is right on the mark.

I hold that there is such a thing as the Will to Intellectual Supremacy in human beings. OK, a number of thinkers, culminating with Nietzsche talked about the Will To Power, and even the Will To Knowledge, as Nietzsche did. But this is still different. The Will to Intellectual Supremacy makes people live and die, by, and for, ideas.

The Will to Intellectual Supremacy is specifically human. (Whereas the will to Power is exhibited by plenty of other species, only human have digitalized ideas, something they are equipped to transmit into a culture. Chimps have also ideas, but they can be transmitted only visually.)

An evolutionary advantage is that this Will to Intellectual Supremacy kicks in only when there is plenty enough ideas around, hence enough people, hence a good reason to find any reason to decrease the number of said people.

More importantly, though, the Will to Intellectual Supremacy creates a highly competitive environment for ideas. It makes ideas go to war against each other, and thus allows a selection of the fittest. Thus the will to Intellectual Supremacy strongly urges forward the evolution of ideas towards superior forms (superior in the sense that the enemy gets eaten, or something akin to that).

So Dimon, the bankster, fights to death to impose his views that plutocracy knows best, and is, overall, best. He goes according to instinct. He incarnates an animal force, with intellectual supremacy pretention.

Reasoning with a deamon such as Dimon is like reasoning with an Aztec priest. It is to others to master his ideas, and put them back in the cage they belong to.

And how were the Aztec priests defeated? By rising an army of their victims, having persuaded them that it was a war worth fighting, and that they could win, if they tried hard enough. And that it was shameful to do nothing, because the Aztec horror, a form of extreme plutocracy, did not belong on this Earth.

And now, in some ways, with thermonuclear nukes looming, the situation is potentially much worse, so the fight against plutocracy has to be even more radical.
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/