What
Are the Biggest Lies and Delusions That Keep People Voting Against
Their Own Best Interests? By
Rob Kall Source
This
article deserved substantial comment as the author makes many decent
observations and then shows his statist card. He shall herewith be
soundly rebuked. Perhaps he will see it our way. If he doesn't, he
really has nothing to offer as a solution to any serious issues
facing the world today. His remarks will be in blue,
mine in black.
This
world is being handed over to a few hundred billionaires and
transnational predatory corporations gorging themselves in an
economic bloodfeast that leaves hundreds of millions
billions dead or damaged. Yet many of those people-- people who go
bankrupt because of health care expenses, people who will live their
lives burdened by student debt, who face no realistic hopes for a
decent job, whose children face even bleaker futures, who are living
shallow, meaningless lives focused on consumption of crass, worthless
things with brand names, who are eating foods that are beyond
unhealthy, to the extent that they reduce lifespan, increase risks of
heart disease, diabetes, cancer and inability to resist infections--
continue to vote for corporatist politicians in both major parties in
the US, or abroad who vote against their best interests.
The
question is "why?"
I
believe it's because people are living in a story narrative that has
them convinced that it's the best thing for them and their families.
So my question is, "What are the lies, the deceptions and
illusions that keep these billions of people complacent, accepting
this unjust situation, even supporting and advocating for it?"
I'll
throw out a couple of guesses, but I'm hoping that the best answers
will be in the comments from Becker, Pear, Schwartz, Kaiser, Hall,
Ramani, Penisten, Arnold, Walker, Tremlett, intotheabyss, Wight Roll,
Tell, E. J. N., Geery, Sanchez, Repstock, Baker, Butler, Vierotchka,
Stryker, cruz, Schreiner, Herendeen, Reichel, Palsimon, Collins,
Duveen, Quandy, Srodes, farris, BFalcon, to name a few, and even from
Bill Johnson, Braverman and Doc McCoy and anyone else. We're
giving it a try, Rob.
So,
here are some of my guesses on the lies and delusions that keep
billionaires, psychopaths and predatory capitalism in power:
1-"Individualism
is an American value." Ok, so, we do have a history of people
like Daniel Boone-- rugged individuals-- but Boone sacrificed his
life for a bigger picture. Not at all sure this is true or
relevant. It is noble to be an individual, yet
stand up for and fight for the rights of others and for the
community. The individualism we see
celebrated today is the selfish, narcissistic kind that Ayn Rand-- a
disgusting person who preached the worst values-- encouraged.
We would prefer it stated more correctly: Ayn Rand may have indeed
been “a disgusting person,” but her self image and her belief
system were certainly a product of the crucible of collectivism as
she experienced it in the Soviet Union. She was paid to write on
behalf of “a disgusting elite” and yes add “narcissistic” to
the rubric describing them too. Since it is probable that Rand never
knew how these same people and their system were responsible for
Bolshevism (see Antony Sutton and others), she can be accounted very
much a victim of their machinations, as were all those unfortunate
Ukrainians and Russians who lost their lives, so that foreign bankers
would be paid their pound of flesh; usury. It all goes back to that
after all.
Individual
expression and independence can be great. I pride myself on not being
a part of the mindless crowd. But it is possible, no, essential that
individualism not come at the price of justice and fairness for the
people and the commons. Individualism
must be alloyed with kindness, empathy and a keen desire for justice.
Now Rob, let's examine exactly what you may not intend, but what
becomes the result of your uses of the words “justice” and
“fairness.” You also use the word “must.” Why “must”
any of it, Rob? Who is to decide? Some democratically elected
person? Isn't that a lot of power and responsibility to grant to
anyone? And no matter who that person might be, how do you know
whether the votes were tabulated correctly? How can you be so
oblivious to the obvious facts that since the year 2000 at least,
electronic voting has made a “fair” and “just” election
impossible? Have you no consideration for the fact that the
“democracy” so many of your sort think they want, is nothing but
a mere charade? We live under a dictatorship of central bank debt
money with a convenient front to make the people think they are being
treated “fairly” and with “justice,” when that is hardly ever
the case. In fact, democracy is mob rule and as is well known, mobs
can be coerced into doing some pretty terrible things. So is it all
a mere idealism then, Rob? If so, you had better wake TF up!
Reality is reality, A = A, and until things radically change, ideas
like “fairness” and certainly “justice” are mere playthings
of the oligarchic elites who stand athwart whatever you believe the
world really needs and wants.
2-
"Consumption and increasing production are essential to a
healthy future." This is a malignant, cancerous idea that
afflicts the minds of most economists and far too many consumers. As
I've grown older, and I think wiser, I've found that I need less and
less things to be happy. Before I turned 50, I used to love to peruse
catalogues and products. What a waste. Yet so many include
acquisition as one of the their primary values. The never
ending growth paradigm is directly related to usury, the taking of
interest on a loan of money; the taking back of that which was never
created in the first place. If usury were not built into the
economic system the way it obviously is, and at every turn, everyone
would have enough of whatever they really needed and wanted, freedom
and individualism would know natural bounds and what was “fair”
and “just” would follow as natural consequences. Anything you
can possibly advocate, without getting rid of usury, shall accomplish
precisely nothing. Get that, Rob? You are spinning your wheels in
mud. Without a stand against usury, you accomplish precisely
nothing!
3-
"Bigger is better." That's mostly true for the biggest, but
not the rest of us, as I've explored in my article series Small is
Better than Big. There are natural economies of scale that
are routinely ignored by the financial elites who demand their yield.
Again, elimination of all forms of usury naturally determines what
those scales are. Most things that are too big now, including
governments, would most assuredly be smaller. It wouldn't take
un-natural legislation or FORCE to accomplish it either.
4-
"Protecting the Wealthy protects my possible future."
Supporting legislators who pass bills
that protect billionaires because you think you will become wealthy
is one of the worst fantasy/delusions.
We are in agreement here, but probably for other reasons. The
reason that legislation in support of any business is bad is that
such legislation stands against all natural law. One can pass any
fool law into existence and FORCE people to live under it. It
doesn't make that law either essentially right or good. It just
makes for more tyranny.
Take
the elimination of the estate tax, for example. Currently, the estate
tax exempts the first five or ten million for a family. That means it
covers probably 98% of the population, yet a huge percentage,
particularly of people who have estates under $100,000, will vote for
legislators giving welfare to millionaires and billionaires.
Watch out, Rob. You're falling into a trap or setting one for the
rest of your readers. Most people cringe at the idea of inherited
wealth because they have little understanding of the natural benefits
and consequences for allowing it. An estate tax is the state's
interposition of itself into the natural rights of everyone to pass
on what they have to whomever they choose, as a natural right. Now,
if you still believe that some “redistribution of wealth” or
collectivist strategy is ever going to win the day, then you are
oblivious to mountains of historical data which support the claim
that the elites actually want estate taxes so that they have fewer
competitors. Family estates, including businesses and farms, provide
stability to society and guarantee that the naturally successful
benefit from their strings of right decisions and right actions which
benefit the community at large that you seem to care more about. No
Rob, estate taxes are EVIL. They support only those who have the
extra money (which they came by dishonestly anyway) to buy up for a
song what took lifetimes of labour and effort to erect. If you don't
see it that way, I have a long list of books for you to read.
5-
"Regulations are bad, against
freedom." There is a price for freedom. That price includes
rules, laws, regulations and responsibilities. Freedom that fails to
consider the needs of the people, of the ecosystem is self-centered,
likely predatory and not deserving.
No Rob. Freedom that is not self centered is an illusion. One
cannot be free if one is continually burdened by mountains of
irrelevant rules. There is no ecosystem, Rob. That is another
fallacy. The entire concept of an ecosystem assumes steady state
models of predictive reality that are more idealisms. We have
attempted to explain in this blog just how and why idealism is very
bad stuff and you should really get rid of it.
It
is also likely to be very short-lived. The inhabitants of Easter
Island used up all the trees on the island because they could-- and
then the culture died. I'm sorry, but whether that's true or
not is irrelevant. The natural boundary was that Easter Island is an
island and that the people there, who may indeed have had the idea of
cutting down all the trees on the island, had no farther to go, but I
really doubt whether they did what is claimed. Frankly, some things
we shall never ever know for sure.
Nature
exists because of "regulations," like pH (acidity) and many
different biological balances. it is wise to learn from mother
nature. What nature does and what man does are not completely
analogous because the whole notion of a natural balance is largely
baloney. What you would have us believe is that somehow people who
we would elect to enact legislation favouring redistribution of
wealth or collectivism are behaving as extensions of nature. I'm
sorry, but that's one hell of a leap of faith. Most by now are weary
of such ideas, to say the least.
People
and corporations who/which resist regulations are really thieves in
disguise, hoping to evade responsibilities and externality costs that
they want others to pay. When you see a company or politician
decrying regulations, you see a thief or someone who advocates for a
thief. Really, Rob! What a
bunch of simplistic misleading garbage! What's worse is that such
ideas give a complete green pass to those who are really thieves;
bankers, investors demanding a yield on their extra money,
corporations that seek to grow profits by stifling competition and
production. Yes, we are all hoping to evade responsibilities and
externality costs, especially when those are imposed upon us from
un-natural sources. That's nature too, Rob. One person's freedom
naturally extends until it meets up with someone else's need for
freedom. Conflicts are inevitable, but it matters less when those
conflicts are restricted to smaller factors rather than being
financed into existence as wars. When you see a politician, ANY
politician, you see someone bought and paid for by some special
interest, else they wouldn't be there. Politics Rob, is NOT the
answer.
6-
"The system can't be changed."
So many people have become victims of oppression, living with
authoritarian mindsets that keep them cowed and thoroughly dominated
by an oppressive system that is concentrating power into fewer and
fewer hands of wealthier and more powerful people and corporations.
Again, Rob sees this one clearly; this is what is happening and has
been happening for a long time. The system can
be changed. it is ripe for change. Perhaps. More than
likely, we shall have to watch and see how THEY intend on preserving
it the way it is. It is part of nature that when they go too far, a
natural reaction begins to set in and once it starts, though it may
take many lifetimes, it becomes inevitable; more inevitable than
Marxian socialism ever was. People must wake
up, come together via grass-roots, bottom-up movements, values and
risings of consciousness, through education and empowerment, and they
will replace the current rotten, corrupt system, as powerful as it
seems, with something healthier, more just and fair. It has been done
before. It is inevitable. When we change the system, it will bring
about all kinds of changes that we've been wanting. But it takes
waking people up. It also takes people waking up to some very
old and pervasive realities:
1) the US Constitution was a product of bankers determining (nay, demanding) that the new republic be able to borrow money, at interest of course.
2) It takes people waking up to the reality that neither major political party in the United States is ever capable of representing them or their best interests.
3) It takes people waking up to their own need to assume more responsibility for themselves, their families and their communities and nations.
4) It takes people to wake up from the failed idealism that any government anywhere can issue money interest free as such is NOT natural or even required to solve the “fairness” and “justice” issues.
We believe Rob, that this blog proposes the only “just” and “fair” solution, based on a thorough understanding of the facts concerning money, what it is, how it naturally occurs and how it operates in society.
1) the US Constitution was a product of bankers determining (nay, demanding) that the new republic be able to borrow money, at interest of course.
2) It takes people waking up to the reality that neither major political party in the United States is ever capable of representing them or their best interests.
3) It takes people waking up to their own need to assume more responsibility for themselves, their families and their communities and nations.
4) It takes people to wake up from the failed idealism that any government anywhere can issue money interest free as such is NOT natural or even required to solve the “fairness” and “justice” issues.
We believe Rob, that this blog proposes the only “just” and “fair” solution, based on a thorough understanding of the facts concerning money, what it is, how it naturally occurs and how it operates in society.
That's
a start. What do you think? What are some of the lies and delusion
you see as keeping people voting against their own best interests?
That
they bother to vote at all, Rob. The very second that paper ballots
were eliminated should have alerted people that all elections
henceforth would be rigged. It's easy enough to attempt rigging an
election using paper ballots – as people in Chicago (where the dead
vote) have known for a long time. But with electronic tabulation,
voting fraud and rigged elections become “a piece of cake.”
Boycotting the whole process is the only realistic and rational
response, else one is naively operating as a participant in the fake
political charade. Sorry to rain on your parade, Rob, but it is YOU
who needs to wake TF up!
Secondly,
it is high time for more people to understand what wealth is, and
what it is not. Wealth, as this blog has attempted to reiterate
countless times, is and can only be that capable of providing a
living income. Mere stuff is not wealth. The buying and selling of
stuff to earn an income is true wealth, but that wealth does not
consist in the value of the stuff itself but rather the difference
between what the trader paid for it and what she must sell it for.
The actual engine of wealth in her case is the labour of finding the
stuff and transporting it to where it can best be viewed and sold.
All labour is natural wealth, Rob. Why haven't we been told this?
Largely because some people didn't want more people to know. Get it?
Following
from the above, more people need to wake up to their potential to
barter for goods and services they really want peer to peer across
neighbourhoods, nations, or globally, and to accept their own money
(not money issued by some bank or government) as the means of
splitting that barter. ALL money, no matter what form it takes Rob,
is evidence of incomplete barter transactions, is evidence of debt.
It isn't the debt that's bad, it's to whom the debt is owed that is
wrong with the present system and it's supposed “order.” Those
claiming they can make it better through having the government issue
so called “debt free money” which turns out to be an oxymoron,
are idiots in the literal sense of the word, worse too as their ideas
cloud the picture and deceive many.
A
point I did not make about government regulation of business
activities is that reviewing the history of all such regulation
reveals that the government was coerced into regulating commerce
solely for the benefit of bankers and monopolists, NOT as an
extension of nature itself. If you don't know, Rob, you'd best go
have a look at the history of such government agencies as the
Interstate Commerce Commission, the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of
Energy, the Food and Drug Administration, etc. The purpose for
government regulation is to minimize competition for the monopolists,
Rob and it all really has NO OTHER PURPOSE. Therefore those
advocating more government regulation to enhance “fairness” and
“justice” are indeed “useful idiots” acting on behalf of the
very monopolists and elitists they claim not to support. Nice job,
Rob! Now, get a grip on your ideas, question everything you know or
think you know and then get back to us with something useful. Best-