Categories
Economics

The Case for Radical Economics

(Another long and important read – I’ve tried to make this accessible for people who normally switch off when the word Economics is mentioned.)

One of the most painful aspects of a recession is the many people out of work, sometimes for a long time.

Mainstream economic thinking says that jobs are created by entrepreneurs and by more investment, so this should be encouraged with tax breaks for the wealthy.

There’s a partial truth to this, but it ignores an even more important fact that jobs are created by customers with money in their pockets.

Categories
Culture Psychology

Who is to blame?

Who’s fault is it? (another long but important read)

Who’s to blame? is not something we ask when things are going well. But when the proverbial shit hits the fan it’s often the first question that comes up. And right now, when so many people are struggling with what feels like a lifetime’s worth of shit hitting a fan of global proportions, it’s a question and a sentiment that is showing up everywhere. It’s a question that comes up whenever people are hurting and angry and looking for somewhere to direct that anger. Current popular targets of blame include various political leaders, certain wealthy individuals and corporations, the Deep State, the Illuminati, various ethnic groups or genders or even nations.

Categories
Culture Politics

Freedom vs Trust

A lot of people are concerned about the loss of “normal” freedoms and rights that have been brought into focus by the pandemic. But I think the breakdown in trust that I see is even more concerning. Ultimately, I believe, this breakdown in trust will lead to the end of free societies, because a free society depends on an atmosphere of trust. Let me explain:

Categories
Politics

Valuing Democracy

Sometimes we don’t know the value of something until we’ve lost it!

We’ve been taking democracy for granted for a long time. For some of us that means not thinking about or engaging in political debates, not bothering to vote (in countries where that’s allowed), not studying history.

Categories
Culture Psychology

Am I a Mistake?

A few days ago I watched Won’t You Be My Neighbor on Netflix and was deeply moved, especially by this section on mistakes. I can definitely remember as a child wondering if I was a mistake because there were times when I didn’t seem to be able to fit in, or get what was expected of me, and people didn’t seem to get me or appreciate me.

Excerpt from “Won’t You Be My Neighbour
Categories
Culture Politics Psychology

Are People Waking Up to the Truth?

PEOPLE ARE WAKING UP TO THE TRUTH !!!

Or are they?

The truth is that there is a battle going on for your mind and, especially in a US election year, it’s a very unequal battle where you are up against people with vast knowledge of how to manipulate people’s emotions, natural suspicions and beliefs. And they have deep pockets to fund PSYOPS (psychological operations) using A.I. People employing these tactics include governments, (US and Russian especially) and corporations.

Categories
Culture Politics

Private Armies – it’s just Capitalism!

Erik Prince, the brain behind the infamous private military firm Blackwater, is now in China training security forces. (link to article in Albawaba.com)

Prince is partially responsible for modernizing the private army for the post 9/11 world, outsourcing militaries to cheap, specialized labor pools and skirting traditional regulations meant to ensure accountability for armed forces.

Mapping Erik Prince’s Private Mercenary Empire by Ty Joplin
Categories
Culture Health

Thoughts on Vaccination and Tribal Debates

Some thoughts on the Pro/Anti-vaccination debate/tribes:

  1. I wish it was a debate, but sadly what I see is people on both sides posting stuff that shames/dismisses the concerns of the other. This achieves nothing except to reinforce egoic pride in the righteousness of our positions. It certainly has no chance of changing the perspectives of people who think differently and is more likely to further cement them in their own positions.
  2. The stakes are very high! (Rather like Climate Change) and this means we tend to operate from emotions of fear and anger more than compassion and reason. We need to be aware of this and take responsibility for managing our emotions.
  3. Each side has legitimate concerns and truths. I don’t mean that every point is true or valid, or that each side’s overall position is equally valid. But I do believe that whatever side we fall on we can learn important perspectives from the other, and we should be open to listening to find that truth, rather than hearing with an intention to demolish and dismiss the other’s arguments.
  4. I believe there are people with hidden manipulative agendas on both sides (bad actors). These are people who are not interested in the truth but want to wage narrative warfare (propaganda) to advance a separate agenda [note: see update at the end of this post]. These other agendas may include profit. For example, whoever creates an effective vaccine or treatment for Covid-19 stands to make billions. But also, in our “attention economy” people who get huge numbers of followers on social media also profit from that. Motives can also include sowing fear, division and chaos as a political strategy. We know, for example, that Russia under Putin is actively doing this in order to undermine democracy, and politicians within democracies are also seeking to benefit from the confusion and chaos. Amongst this there are scientists and doctors with personal agendas and axes to grind. It’s important to be aware and beware of these hidden agendas.
  5. The most dangerous and compelling lies always have a layer of truth in them. This is what makes them dangerous because we fixate on the part that is true and it blinds us to the part that is false.
Categories
Culture Economics

Marx’s Critique of Capitalism

Categories
Culture Psychology

Do Your Own Research

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH … I often see this posted in connection with various non-mainstream narratives around things like COVID19, vaccines, 5G, the Epstein case and paedophile rings, aliens, Bill Gates and much else.

As a seeker after truth, I’m all in favour of people doing their own research, but I want to be absolutely clear about one point – typing something into Google or Youtube is NOT the same as doing useful objective research. Not at all, not by a longshot.