Monday, December 16, 2013
Eunice Belgum's Akrasia Project - Links and podcasts
Who was Eunice Belgum?
Eunice Belgum was a Montana girl, in the matriarchal line, daughter of Esther Holberg, of Fairfield, MT. She was a Westinghouse Scholarship recipient, a graduate of St. Olaf's, with a PhD in Philosophy from Harvard. And she killed herself after her second year of tenure track teaching at William and Mary (her first job was at Trinity College in Connecticut) - after being voted Teacher of the Year, or some such thing.
Even after gaining a large following among young feminists, peace and justice people, etc., she was sure that she didn't deserve it. She had "the imposter complex". Her "self-concept" did not match her reality. Along with medical ethics (some published in the Harvard Law Review), her main work and life obsession was something called "Akrasia" - knowing better but doing the worse.
Akrasia has a long history in philosophy as one of those questions that don't get solved. Psychology has had better luck explaining various kinds of self-destructive behavior. But Eunice's PhD Thesis at Harvard was later re-published as one of the 50 best Harvard Philosophy Theses of the 20th century. I have a copy of it, and I was just lamenting this morning that she didn't simply write her own "account" of this problem, rather than "researching" what every white dead male in history had already written about it. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the academic game.
Esther was very free about discussing Eunice's "death", and was active in survivors and suicide prevention groups. Eunice smoked, and was unable to quit, so that was kind of a metaphor for her own "Akrasia." And she seemed to have become a lesbian, which Esther blamed on "radical feminists" who used guilt and other illicit methods to "convert" Eunice to their "cause" (which rather astonished me, but these were people who grew up in the 1930's and '40's. Eunice would be 67, now - a year older than I and a year ahead in school).
I wrote some poems and other things and showed them to Esther, hoping she would pursue the idea of writing her own book about Eunice, which she intended to do. One I remember was called "The Will to Suicide", which I'll try to locate and attach, later.
The Peace Movement in Great Falls
As major agents and promoters of the Peace Movement (especially Beyond War, the Sanctuary Movement, and other Peace and Justice projects) in the Nuclear Garrison Town of Great Falls, the Belgums' work and values were not especially welcome to the "Base Boosters" and Nuclear Mafia which largely control our town and even the whole state (we have an army general as Lt. Governor at the moment). Joe was from North Dakota and a graduate of North Dakota State, which didn't help much, either. Esther had attended the Normal School in Dillon, and taught at Greenfields School (part of the Fairfield district), where she met Joe, who was doing a Lutheran minister internship, or something. Pastor Lunde, who was based in Great Falls and confirmed my father and aunts, was also Esther's pastor.
It's important to note that Eunice's uncle, David Belgum was a well-known professor and authority on religious psychology at Iowa, and her father, Joe, was one of the most memorable characters one is likely to meet. So, with this pedigree and expectations, who can fail to understand the magnitude of this human tragedy? Nearly everyone who knew me and/or the Belgum's, apparently, for whom it was a great scandal.
Although I met Prof. David Belgum a couple of times, I never really discussed Eunice with him. I wish I had. He was all compassion, and professional in his response to this, but of course family dynamics would have prevented him from intervening, and Joe seemed resentful of his greater success, in any case
I devoted 4 years of my life to their service - literally - starting in 1985, when I met them at a Beyond War presentation, and house-sat for them. This was about 7 years after Eunice's death. I never met her, but read some of her private journals, etc. - all of which have since been destroyed, I think, by her brother - mainly to preserve his parents' (and his own) sanity. Aside from him, whom I am not in touch with anymore, I might still retain the best overview of this whole bitter drama, and its implications for everything from religion and morality to mental health, political sanity, etc. Eunice and I had very similar philosophical interests (as well as sexual identity confusions, family dysfunctionality, being Norwegian-American, etc.)
After Eunice's death (which basically drove Joe mad, and understandably so), the Belgum's retired from Lutheran Social Services, where he was employed in San Francisco, and returned to Montana, where Esther's deceased mother's home was available. Esther nearly always worked as a teacher and school counselor - an even greater burden (considering the outcome for her daughter), but one which she was trained to handle, and did quite well with it.
The main thing, for these devoutly Christian people, was whether or not Eunice had lost her faith (which several of her friends assured me she had, but Esther didn't think so), and if she had, whether or not Universal Salvation would still apply. That, of course, was Esther's view, while Joe knew in his heart that his beloved daughter was utterly damned. And so they fought and blamed each other incessantly, and had done so all along, which might have been the most significant factor in Eunice's decision to "end the pain."
Universal salvation was actually the basis for a small sect in New England called "Universalism," which later merged with the Unitarians - they are now "U-U's". And the Founder of Great Falls, Paris Gibson, was a Universalist, and a serious one - a fact which is rarely noted or understood in local history and lore. Lutheran doctrine, it should be noted, is strongly against Universal Salvation, where you must somehow "earn" or "deserve" God's Grace in order to be saved. It's the difference between welfare and workfare, I suppose.
Or more to the point, the difference between "universal health care" and the "health insurance" extortion and protect racket, where all you're buying is ACCESS to the care, after which they can still take your house, pension, and every other piece of property in your name to satisfy their fraudulent claims for minimal or palliative treatments, at a price of thousands of dollars per day, and send you to the poorhouse.
Since our local hospitals were established as Christian institutions, the importance of ethics in medicine has been thoroughly undermined by the "secular humanists" and their "business plan" for political control and directing revenues to Wall Street and the power-wielding 1%. A Harvard tradition, it would seem.
Many highly accomplished (and ethical) people are driven to despair, if not suicide, when they finally come to understand just how totally criminal nearly everything our "benevolent" welfare/warfare state has become, and how it throttles and destroys all human values in the name of "efficiency", "jobs," and "national security."
I'll be writing more on this, and inviting feedback.
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Here's a brief bibliography of information and links about Eunice Belgum and the endowed lectures in her name at St. Olaf's.
Amazon lists the version of her dissertation that I have.
http://www.amazon.com/Eunice-Belgum/e/B001KHYGRK
Eunice Belgum Memorial Lectures
Each year for three decades the department has sponsored the Belgum Lectures, which honor the memory of Eunice Belgum, who graduated from St. Olaf College in 1967. The lecture series was established in the hope that Eunice’s tragic death in 1977 would not end her impact on the profession, teaching, and scholarship she loved so much. While the lectures may be on any topic, the philosophy department makes a special effort to choose topics in areas of special interest to Eunice, namely ethics, philosophy of mind, and feminism. These lectures are supported by a fund established by Eunice’s family and friends.
http://wp.stolaf.edu/philosophy/eunice-belgum-memorial-lectures-podcasts/
35th Annual Eunice Belgum Memorial Lectures
"Character"
Daniel Robinson, Oxford University
Monday, September 23, 2013
Viking Theater, Buntrock Commons
More Information
http://stolaf-web.streamguys.us/podcast/academic/2013-09-23_belgum_two.mp3
MP3 Available
Previous Belgum Lectures
1979 Kathryn Pyne Parsons, Not Judge, Not Victim, Nor Savior
1980 Dagfinn Føllesdal, Understanding and Rationality
1981 Gareth B. Matthews, Conceiving Childhood
1982 Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness
1983 Georg Henrik Von Wright, Truth, Knowledge, and Freedom
1984 Naomi Scheman, Authority and Paranoia: The Social Construction of Gender and the Philosophical Self
1985 Merold Westphal, The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism
1986 Kenneth Sayre, Myths for Our Technological Future
1987 Rosemarie Tong, Feminist Social Philosophy
1988 Laurence Thomas, Living Morally: A Psychology of Moral Character
1989 Keith Gunderson, The Aesthetic Robot
1990 Allan Gibbard, Moral Meanings
1991 Nancy Sherman, Virtue and Ethics
1992 Arthur Caplan, Ethics and the Genetic Revolution
1993 Amelie Rorty, The Many Faces of Morality
1994 Helen Longino, Scientific Knowledge and Feminist Theoretical Virtues
1995 Georges Rey, Superficialism about Mind and Meaning
1996 Gary Iseminger, Aestheticism: Defined and Defended
1997 Hilary Putnam, Mind, Matter, and Making Sense
1998 Jean Bethke Elshtain, How Far Have We Fallen?
1999 James Harris, After Relativism
2000 Stephen Darwall, Two Dogmas of Empiricism in Ethics
2001 Lydia Goehr, Listening, Laughing, and Learning
2002 Frederick Stoutland, How To Believe in Free Will
2003 Margaret Urban Walker, Forgiveness and Moral Repair
2004 Bas van Fraassen, Seeing and Measuring: Connecting
Science to Experience
2005 Jonathan Lear, Ethics and the Collapse of Civilization
2006 Galen Strawson, Episodic Ethics
2007 Julia Annas, Virtue and Happiness
2008 Barbara Herman, Making Motives Matter
2009 Elliott Sober, Philosophical Reflections on Darwin
2010 Thomas Carson, Lincoln’s Ethics
2011 Rachel Cohen, Hume on Virtuous Action and Character
2012 Lynne Rudder Baker, Persons: What We Are and How We Persist in Time
2013 Daniel Robinson, Consciousness, Again and Character
Friday, December 13, 2013
The War Against Enlightenment
Peace, non-violence, and Christian values
The control of information is based on a perceived need to control feelings and behavior. If people knew how bad things are, they would revolt, or commit mass suicide. Indeed, those are the very symptoms of despair and hopelessness. And people revolt in armed struggle only when they perceive that no other objections or protests are possible or effective.
Why, then, do "the authorities" want to keep people (including our leaders and the media) from learning, and thus changing their behavior, making better choices, being more "sociable", leading to a better quality of life, etc.? Some of us are working night and day for this, with total dedication, and we are regarded as fools. Why?
Maybe it's because we have "a negative attitude", and believe that "death is inevitable." I had an interesting experience last night, at a public lecture about peace good feelings, freedom and stuff. Actually, very little about freedom, except for the speaker emphasizing the total illegitimacy of coercion as a means of social interaction. No one, no group, no government has the moral right to force people to act against their will and conscience, etc. Especially as regards war and violence.
The very idea of a "military draft" (which we had, in this country, on and off for more than a century) is repugnant. The very idea of people being trained to kill and torture is obscene, in the deepest (non-erotic) sense.
It turns out Ms X (Or perhaps Mrs X, in her case, since she professed Christianity) has a PhD in Psychology, and has been in and out of the APA and the profession in general over these ethical issues. The irony is, she absolutely agrees with their resolutions and ethics code on this issue. Basically, the part of the lecture (and I guess it has 6 or 7 parts) that I heard was an elaboration of the APA rules involving its members participating in psychological manipulation (propaganda), or assisting military and "intelligence" forces in torture and interrogation policies like Gitmo, Rendition, etc.
Apparently, the speaker feared that the rules are not understood, nor is their intent. That would be to work to create a saner, healthier, happier, peaceful world. It was a fascinating presentation. I actually scrambled for a notebook I always carry (in case some great idea comes to me, I can write it down), and started taking regular college lecture notes. I didn't get very far, but I got some of the main ideas down.
One is "Altruistic Chagrin" - something sure to raise the hackles of anyone devoted to Ayn Rand, or otherwise “opposed to altruism” (which Rand defined in a rather convoluted way, distinguishing it from real benevolence). Basically, Altruistic Chagrin is Rand's "Never fail to pronounce moral judgment." It's a survival tool. Even if you don't literally "pronounce" it out loud, make it as a note to yourself.
"That guy is a real M-Fer." Stuff like that. Or, "Wasn't that a beautiful action [that a child took, sharing his toys, or kissing another child's hand as a token of affection - for which one 5-yr-old was famously charged with sexual harassment]?" Just the everyday judgments we make about people, politics, sports calls, or whatever. "We was robbed."
So, whenever you see people doing something horrible, irrational, exploitative, or whatever, don't just ignore it. Maybe you can't confront the person directly, but make him or her know that you are aware of what they are doing, and you strongly disapprove. That's Altruistic Chagrin. A very nice and useful concept, but again, it is utterly repugnant to our current "mind your own business" mentality. And there's a lot of that in any sort of libertarianism, I had to admit to myself, on further reflection.
I kept thinking of Seth Farber, a comrade in the struggle against psychiatric and other institutional tyranny. This lady should read his stuff, and the earlier work by Thomas Szaz on "psychiatric slavery," etc. She's very savvy about the academic game, and tries to use it in her favor, but that tends to backfire - something which any of us renegade thinkers and activists experience constantly. Better just to leave it alone. “Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone...” Same with religion.
The question I wanted to ask her, but never got to in the press of other dialogue, was that she didn't mention the relationship (or lack of it) between professional codes of ethics, and actual statute and common law, torts, etc. which the state recognizes and enforces. Who is going to "enforce" the APA Code? And would that be a good thing? I don't think so, but that's a question she might want to consider further. Or perhaps she did in other lectures, which was the answer I usually got.
I want to give Mrs. X every credit for taking this on. She is especially concerned about the abuse of psychiatry and other medicine in the service of military conquest, torture, and other "black ops.”There's already some sort of professional organization along the lines of the "social responsibility" groups of Physicians, Biz, Educators, etc. In fact, this is all of interest to the educational and other public interest movements and organizations, as well as scientists and “policy wonks.”
It was especially "cognitively dissonant" for being held here in a town which hosts 150 nuclear-armed strategic missiles, capable of destroying as many cities anywhere in the world in less than an hour. I've had 30 years in the trenches, here, as a "peace activist" - I'm branded as one, in fact. Yet, I'd never laid eyes on this person, before, or heard her name, yet she claimed to be from here.
My first thought was that she's FBI or something, trying to infiltrate the local "movement." She needn’t have bothered. There's only about 3 of us, and we're always available for coffee. Many others have already been silenced by an official conspiracy to direct employers, service givers, as well as all government employees and military personnel to regard us with fear and hatred, for wanting to reduce military spending and the effects of militarization on our everyday lives... Of course, they call it “jobs” and “economic development,” which doesn’t conceal its real identity as the Doomsday Machine they described so well in 1950’s and ‘60’s movies and TV - Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove, On the Beach, and the various live TV dramas, as well as later ones depicting the horrors of nuclear war.
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Here's some wisdom from Karl Popper which bears on these issues in a fundamental sort of way...
Karl Popper [Facebook group]
'In Popper's view, the philosopher should not be concerned with the subjective aspect of knowledge - that is, the dispositions that cause individuals to uphold a theory with greater or lesser strength – rather, with its objective aspect, which consists “of the logical content of our theories, conjectures, guesses.” If subjective knowledge presupposes the existence of a knowing subject, “Knowledge in the objective sense is knowledge without a knower: it is knowledge without a knowing subject,” since it disregards the personal dispositions and inclinations of individuals and assesses a theory independently of them.'
Stefano Gattei, “Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science – Rationality Without Foundations”.
The quotes from Popper come from “Objective Knowledge”.
12-12-13
Karl Popper
“I've called truth a 'regulative idea', because even though we have no criterion of truth, we have lots of criteria of falsehood. These criteria of falsehood are not always applicable, but we can very often find out whether something is false. This is why our search for truth is a critical search. We know, for example, that a theory must be false if it is self-contradictory. Actually, self-contradiction is the main criterion of falsity, because we try always in criticism to find out whether the thing to be criticized does not conflict with something else. I mentioned in my lecture the cross-questioning of people who give a report. I mentioned that bees have not found it worth while to cross-question a reporting dancing bee. Now, what is the purpose of cross-questioning? It is to catch the person being cross-questioned in some sort of contradiction, or in a statement that contradicts something which we think we know from some other source. This is the only real purpose of cross-questioning anybody. So contradiction is really the main thing by which we discover falsity, and then we know, at least, that the theory is false. Of course, we also then know then that its negation is true. But that usually does not tell us much, because the negation of a theory with a great informative content has always a very low informative content. The greater the informative content of a theory, the lower the informative content of its negation. So we don't get very much truth when we have refuted a theory, as a rule. But at least we know where the truth is not to be found, and we can go on with our search. So truth works in the main as a regulative idea in the search for truth, or in criticism.”
Karl Popper, 'Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem'.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
We will all die from misuse of intelligence
Thoughts inspired by Leonard Peltier
It's not just the drones....
Someone, I've forgotten who, made the observation that the "intelligence gene" is responsible for most of our current ills, and will result in our extinction unless we recognize and correct the problem.
No, the suggested answer is not to destroy our universities and other schools, burn all the books, dumb down the broadcast media to the level of a hungry (or horny) 13-year-old, and make sure that no highly-intelligent person has access to the work of other highly-intelligent people who might also be radicals or "dissidents." Or even to catalog and "study" them, so that the next generation of tyrants can do them in, and have all the "evidence" of their "sedition" and "breaches of national security."
We need intelligence and intelligent discourse - now, more than ever. But surely it is killing us, as well. Whether it is the murderous, predatory corporations and their "signature legislation" - the creation of a "one-world-government" based on the conquests of machine intelligence - the so-called "killer drones" in the service of the nuclear mafia - well, this is all well-known. The operant doctrine is (officially) called "Full Spectrum Dominance." That is the present military policy of the United States
Otherwise, we are proving to be non-competitive in every area except professional sports and corporate hegemony over every aspect of our lives (what used to be proudly supported by many of our ancestors as Fascism or National Socialism), or a monolithic "one-party-state" (Communism) for the rest (the so-called Left). After World War II, these policies were certainly not popular in the rest of the world, except that Americans promised a "higher standard of living" and new techno-gadgets - an area in which we proved to be much inferior to Buddhists and other Asians in the "real world" of "free-market capitalism" (surely a contradiction in terms).
Yet, the American people - those great innocents, spic and span in their moral superiority and being "chosen by God" or at least "Manifest Destiny" - continued to be welcome most places, and enjoyed great social status on a global scale.
"We are the people, not the government," they said. It's the same line used by the millions of refugees fleeing Russia or Nazi Germany. "Look, we're not like them. We're not part of the ruling class." And for a long time, that was true.
But military occupation teaches a different lesson, and it's the 700+ American military facilities in every part of the world which signals our true intent: Full Spectrum Dominance - economy, language, law, science, the arts, media - even "human rights" and "ethics" - qualities which are rigorously excluded from any real "government oversight, " but they are used to justify the rest of the murderous program.
The first thing we did upon "conquering" the Philippines in 1898 (as though we had some "right" to do that) was to dispatch 1200 English teachers there! A decade or two earlier, American missionaries who had become wealthy ranchers, sugar and pineapple farmers and packers, urged the US Congress to "Annex" the independent monarchy of Hawai'i to become an American "possession" - "before some other country gets the same idea," supposedly. The Queen was actually imprisoned and deposed by US Marines, with no future role in her country. Imagine suggesting we do that to QEII!
Although many would like to do that, the idea itself is preposterous. That is who we (of British heritage) are. If nothing else, it is none of our business. But not so Hawai'i, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Philippines! And this is was the days of American "isolationism" and rebuilding from our own disastrous Civil War, the effects of which still plague us a century and a half later. The Last Samurai, another film, tells how American arms merchants (as well as British and others) set Japan on its reckless imperial adventures in the 20th Century.
What happens when all the dirt on all the past heroes comes out? I wonder how many millions of votes the Democrats will lose on account of the revelations following the 50 year exclusion rule on exposing the Kennedy Administration's many crimes and corruptions? Peter Jennings told much the same story for ABC in about 2000 - shortly before he died. I wonder if it wasn't knowing he would die that allowed him to produce this remarkable document (much richer in details on Kennedy's essentially mafia-controlled and imperial presidency than the recent fare). I taped it off the air, and still have it. I doubt it is easily available otherwise.
But isn't that a GOOD thing, the Twilight of the Idols? Shouldn't liars and deceivers LOSE votes and public esteem? This isn't the mafia, making their own movies to justify themselves. It's actual history, where all the facts and inter-relationships count. There will be adjustments to correct willful lies, cover-ups and distortions. We can't simply say - well, that's history. We must proceed from where we are, today. Even though that is what we SHOULD do (and many of us are forced to do in our professional or public lives).
But not by the same dishonest and exploitative rules and practices. Those who go and sin no more will be recognized, if not rewarded. Those who don't will be liquidated - by the machines if not by the small number of still-surviving patriots and freemen. You cannot destroy freedom in the name of freedom with impunity. It's almost a natural law.
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Thoughts on the Create Channel (PBS)
The "globalization" community in Great Falls - liking African and Asian cultures, being "international" in whatever ways, no doubt watches channels 21-3 (Create) and 21-4 (World) channels the most. And I'm certainly part of that. I watch Rick Steves and some of the other travel programs on Create, and have even watched a few of the cooking programs - where I'm astounded at seeing them use handfuls of salt like there was no cardio-vascular tomorrow.
Today, I was "treated" to a Globe Trekker program about "Panamerica" - Central and South America, or what we used to call "Latin America."
Just before watching this, they ran the Nature program on Hummingbirds on 21-1 (the main MT-PBS station) as part of their "pledge drive"- a sort of extended "infomercial" using popular programs as "bait." And the Hummingbirds show was spectacular, with all sorts of evolutionary theory and advanced field biology included.
Imagine, then, my disgust and horror when 30 minutes later, in the "Panamerica" show (with some imperialist history, and very little real educational content), the hostess enters a shop in some remote village selling stuffed hummingbirds as "good-luck charms" or even "love tokens" (since live hummingbirds are so enjoyed and loved by those who have them as neighbors).
"How much?" our cheerful hostess asked? $3. "I'll take one." We can only hope and pray that she will be arrested at her home airport, and receive some hard time for her dirty deeds. If in doubt, leave it out. Even the dumbest corporation understands that!
But no, the purpose, here, is to make environmentalists and animal rights activists look stupid. It's a perennial theme here in Montana, where the main environmental watchdog organizations talk endlessly about mercury and coal dust, wolves, bison and grizzly bears, but refuse to ever comment on global warming, or the global environmental disasters we face from the nuclear arms race, and continuing to burn fossil fuels and use other unsustainable technologies. Thus, Greens are constantly pitted against unions, "jobs", "free trade", "economic growth", "national security", and even public health and safety. Even when the Greens are correct, and most people agree with us, there are huge campaigns through the corporate media to discredit environmentalists and their work - most notably, the anti-global warming campaign (characterized as a War against Coal - which it surely is) and the Single Payer Healthcare campaign (characterized as a "government takeover" - which it surely is) - all coordinated by ALEC and a host of other corporate crime syndicates.
Governments, as the servants of powerful corporate interests (especially the drug cartels, AMA, Hospital Associations, and others ) "took it over" decades, if not a century, ago. What we have, now, is almost entirely criminal and exploitative in intent, as well as in execution. And it is all governed by the rotten, lying, gangster-ridden "health-insurance" extortion racket - the only case, outside of automobile liability insurance, where it is reasonable - where people are forced, under penalty of a fine, to buy a defective product which is at least 4 times more expensive than the actual services it is supposed to provide.
And even worse, it explicitly depends on lower-income working people to pay for the healthcare of those who are far poorer, sicker, and in need of it! This is actually defended by the promoters of the ACA as "vital" to its working! It can only work if it further enslaves working people and those who take care of their health on their own! Unbelievable.
Meanwhile, more than half of existing healthcare costs (under this rotten system) is paid BY THE TAXPAYERS. Since we spend about 4 times what almost any other country spends (per capita, or as a percentage of GDP) on healthcare, it is clear that we need no new programs or spending. We only need to quit doing what we're doing now, and put everyone on Medicare, with strict regulation of prices and quality standards. Those who don't want Medicare should be free to start their own associations, or use a real "free market" (unencumbered by patents, licenses, etc.) to provide them with what they want and need.
I've probably spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on this one idea - HEALTH INSURANCE IS A CATEGORY MISTAKE. The only way they can even sell something as absurd and fraudulent as "health insurance" as a way of providing health care, is if there is no other way to access and pay for healthcare - something which the providers, themselves, mandate by forcing cash customers to pay an average of 4 times more for the same services - and collectable in law - even from the estates of those who died of their overpriced and often fraudulent "treatments" (like radiation for cancer). If you can't get healthcare any other way, then, buying a promise of ACCESS to healthcare may be necessary, but only because THERE ISN'T ANY OTHER WAY TO GET IT. All we need to do is make sure that everyone has access, and that the monopolies don't control the supply and price, as they do, today.
That's another issue, but one which deserves mention, here. A century ago, nearly every voter and educated person understood the harm which monopolies were doing to our economy and to those who weren't part of the monopolies. Laws were passed against them and for a time, enforced. Since Ayn Rand denounced "Anti-trust Laws" (really, anti-monopoly and anti-corporate laws - both of which Rand supported) in the 1960's (especially Kennedy's political use of them against the steel industry and General Electric), they have been in disfavor.
There is virtually nothing of the real spirit of freedom and competition left in our legal system. Even professional sports is thoroughly monopolized, as are most other "industries" like health care, the "criminal justice system", education, universities, etc. The only way to be "free" of this "government takeover" is to pay your taxes, but provide for your own medicine, education, etc, - much of which is quite illegal, by now. We are, indeed, a military-industrial-education-prison complex. It's all part of the same deal, and we are its victims.
I wrote the above before reading this "Day of Mourning" statement from Leonard Peltier. Then I revised it. But it's all part of the same message....
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Day Of Mourning Statement From Leonard Peltier
EDUCATE! CORPORATISM, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PRISONS
By Leonard Peltier, www.OfficialLeonardPeltier
November 29th, 2013
http://www.popularresistance.org/day-of-mourning-statement-from-leonard-peltier/
Greetings my relatives friends and supporters
It is yet another year. It seems like a thousand years ago but only a year in time in reality from the last time I dictated one of these statement for the day of mourning so, again, I want to say as last time, that I am honored that you would want to hear my words.
Sometimes when I lay on my bunk and I am between sleeping and awake, for a small moment of time, I am free and I am there with you. I know this sounds kind of melodramatic and I am not trying to be so, but things affect you differently inside of here and things affect you differently as you get older. But I want to say with all my strength, some things don’t change, at least not for me.
When I think about all we have lost to this corporate world, when I think about the losses of clean water and rivers and oceans and when I think about the losses of clean air when I think about the losses of freedom for hard working families that once had a father that could take care of his family with as single job but now has to work two or three jobs and the mother must work too and the children that come home from school with their own key and have to wait the return of one of their parents.
When I think of these losses, when I think of the wage slaves that are being created daily all over the world in the name of progress, when I think of these losses I think… we damn sure have a good reason to mourn, but I really believe that the word mourn should have a different meaning for us, not something where we cry and throw our hands up and say “ WHY WHY, WHY ME, WHY US, WHY THIS” but something that we say NO MORE to. Something we make a vow to, renew our efforts, renew our minds, renew our directions to take back our water take back our air take back our forests and our mountains and valleys, restore this mother earth to the natural balance the creator meant it to be. We need to talk to the churches, talk to the various religions, we need to get them to recognize that the strongest form or worship isn’t singing songs and bowing your head, the strongest form of worship is to respect and restore to balance the beauty of nature and the earth that was given to us, that is part of us, that we are a part of, and to be responsible for.
This may sound like the ramblings of some old 69 year old man in prison for 38 years but I have had a lot of time to think about these things and when my grandchildren come to visit me, it gives me a sense of urgency for all of us to start doing something NOW!
If each one of you would take a vow to get six other people along with yourself to do at least ONE meaningful thing to restore this balance and get each one of those people to network and get 6 more people and let it go out from there like the branches of a tree then together we can make a difference. We can make a difference starting today.
This day of mourning would become the morning of a new day!
I have quoted others before and I do so again because I respect the wisdom of elders and people long past. Someone once said and I don’t remember who said it, “All evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”
[Edmund Burke, the grandfather of all modern "conservatives", and no less true for that. -ed.]
If this is more than you care to do, or if you think you can’t be involved with others for some reason, I respect that, but I would encourage you to at least plant one fruit bearing tree that someone in the future, perhaps some child would have something to eat. That maybe some other living creature might have a place of shelter and food to eat. there will always be changes throughout the earth and throughout mankind, some uncontrollable and some with design.
I know we can make a change for the better if we put our hearts and minds together and let this day of mourning be a time of renewal, we can spread the concept that mankind must live in harmony with the creators handy-work and with one another. If this time I have spent here in prison could produce anything of value I pray that it would move you to become involved. Find the right things within government and support them, and find the wrong things in government and change them. This government as it stands right now is on the verge of losing what constitutional rights people have. This government is violating the constitution over and over and over. These violations started before you or I were even conceived. As some of you may know the Constitution is a copy of the Iroquois 6 nations Confederacy law. The constitution originally was designed so that men would have maximum freedoms as long as they did not infringe on the natural rights of others or in essence harm someone else. The freedoms and respect that the law implies that we should have for one another in this nation should extend to all those outside of this realm because what is right for one man should be right for others.
We should allow other people to be free from fear. I remember an old Jewish man I once met in hardware store, I engaged in conversation with him. He had fought in WW2 and he said to me, and I always remember his words, “this isn’t the nation I fought for, this nation has become a nation of people who are afraid of their gov’t and anytime the people are afraid of their gov’t they are not free and I have noticed that what people will do to someone else wrongfully, sooner or later if circumstances change they will do it to you also."
These violations of human rights must stop. I know the task may seem overwhelming and I can’t say that I have the answer for success at making a change but I do know the answer for failure.. that's to do nothing.
So if my imprisonment serves nothing else but to be living proof of these violations, then so be it, but it is a reality. Right now, it has been selective violation, but there are powers at hand that seek to inflict those violations upon everyone. This reminds me of a story that I heard once where a man said:
“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
I ask you to remember these things because they are truisms that have happened and they will happen again to you and your children and your children’s children if we do not take a stand. a famous warrior named Emiliano Zapata from the Mexican revolution once said “I would rather die on my feet then live on my knees” …. I could go on and on but I suppose you get my meaning. I encourage you to be active, to stand your ground and help us recover the ground we have lost.
God, I wish I could be there with you.
I am going to close for now. Be thankful you have the time you have, be thankful you have each other, and give each other a hug for me.
I will see you when I see you
Your friend
Leonard Peltier
It's not just the drones....
Someone, I've forgotten who, made the observation that the "intelligence gene" is responsible for most of our current ills, and will result in our extinction unless we recognize and correct the problem.
No, the suggested answer is not to destroy our universities and other schools, burn all the books, dumb down the broadcast media to the level of a hungry (or horny) 13-year-old, and make sure that no highly-intelligent person has access to the work of other highly-intelligent people who might also be radicals or "dissidents." Or even to catalog and "study" them, so that the next generation of tyrants can do them in, and have all the "evidence" of their "sedition" and "breaches of national security."
We need intelligence and intelligent discourse - now, more than ever. But surely it is killing us, as well. Whether it is the murderous, predatory corporations and their "signature legislation" - the creation of a "one-world-government" based on the conquests of machine intelligence - the so-called "killer drones" in the service of the nuclear mafia - well, this is all well-known. The operant doctrine is (officially) called "Full Spectrum Dominance." That is the present military policy of the United States
Otherwise, we are proving to be non-competitive in every area except professional sports and corporate hegemony over every aspect of our lives (what used to be proudly supported by many of our ancestors as Fascism or National Socialism), or a monolithic "one-party-state" (Communism) for the rest (the so-called Left). After World War II, these policies were certainly not popular in the rest of the world, except that Americans promised a "higher standard of living" and new techno-gadgets - an area in which we proved to be much inferior to Buddhists and other Asians in the "real world" of "free-market capitalism" (surely a contradiction in terms).
Yet, the American people - those great innocents, spic and span in their moral superiority and being "chosen by God" or at least "Manifest Destiny" - continued to be welcome most places, and enjoyed great social status on a global scale.
"We are the people, not the government," they said. It's the same line used by the millions of refugees fleeing Russia or Nazi Germany. "Look, we're not like them. We're not part of the ruling class." And for a long time, that was true.
But military occupation teaches a different lesson, and it's the 700+ American military facilities in every part of the world which signals our true intent: Full Spectrum Dominance - economy, language, law, science, the arts, media - even "human rights" and "ethics" - qualities which are rigorously excluded from any real "government oversight, " but they are used to justify the rest of the murderous program.
The first thing we did upon "conquering" the Philippines in 1898 (as though we had some "right" to do that) was to dispatch 1200 English teachers there! A decade or two earlier, American missionaries who had become wealthy ranchers, sugar and pineapple farmers and packers, urged the US Congress to "Annex" the independent monarchy of Hawai'i to become an American "possession" - "before some other country gets the same idea," supposedly. The Queen was actually imprisoned and deposed by US Marines, with no future role in her country. Imagine suggesting we do that to QEII!
Although many would like to do that, the idea itself is preposterous. That is who we (of British heritage) are. If nothing else, it is none of our business. But not so Hawai'i, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Philippines! And this is was the days of American "isolationism" and rebuilding from our own disastrous Civil War, the effects of which still plague us a century and a half later. The Last Samurai, another film, tells how American arms merchants (as well as British and others) set Japan on its reckless imperial adventures in the 20th Century.
What happens when all the dirt on all the past heroes comes out? I wonder how many millions of votes the Democrats will lose on account of the revelations following the 50 year exclusion rule on exposing the Kennedy Administration's many crimes and corruptions? Peter Jennings told much the same story for ABC in about 2000 - shortly before he died. I wonder if it wasn't knowing he would die that allowed him to produce this remarkable document (much richer in details on Kennedy's essentially mafia-controlled and imperial presidency than the recent fare). I taped it off the air, and still have it. I doubt it is easily available otherwise.
But isn't that a GOOD thing, the Twilight of the Idols? Shouldn't liars and deceivers LOSE votes and public esteem? This isn't the mafia, making their own movies to justify themselves. It's actual history, where all the facts and inter-relationships count. There will be adjustments to correct willful lies, cover-ups and distortions. We can't simply say - well, that's history. We must proceed from where we are, today. Even though that is what we SHOULD do (and many of us are forced to do in our professional or public lives).
But not by the same dishonest and exploitative rules and practices. Those who go and sin no more will be recognized, if not rewarded. Those who don't will be liquidated - by the machines if not by the small number of still-surviving patriots and freemen. You cannot destroy freedom in the name of freedom with impunity. It's almost a natural law.
======================
Thoughts on the Create Channel (PBS)
The "globalization" community in Great Falls - liking African and Asian cultures, being "international" in whatever ways, no doubt watches channels 21-3 (Create) and 21-4 (World) channels the most. And I'm certainly part of that. I watch Rick Steves and some of the other travel programs on Create, and have even watched a few of the cooking programs - where I'm astounded at seeing them use handfuls of salt like there was no cardio-vascular tomorrow.
Today, I was "treated" to a Globe Trekker program about "Panamerica" - Central and South America, or what we used to call "Latin America."
Just before watching this, they ran the Nature program on Hummingbirds on 21-1 (the main MT-PBS station) as part of their "pledge drive"- a sort of extended "infomercial" using popular programs as "bait." And the Hummingbirds show was spectacular, with all sorts of evolutionary theory and advanced field biology included.
Imagine, then, my disgust and horror when 30 minutes later, in the "Panamerica" show (with some imperialist history, and very little real educational content), the hostess enters a shop in some remote village selling stuffed hummingbirds as "good-luck charms" or even "love tokens" (since live hummingbirds are so enjoyed and loved by those who have them as neighbors).
"How much?" our cheerful hostess asked? $3. "I'll take one." We can only hope and pray that she will be arrested at her home airport, and receive some hard time for her dirty deeds. If in doubt, leave it out. Even the dumbest corporation understands that!
But no, the purpose, here, is to make environmentalists and animal rights activists look stupid. It's a perennial theme here in Montana, where the main environmental watchdog organizations talk endlessly about mercury and coal dust, wolves, bison and grizzly bears, but refuse to ever comment on global warming, or the global environmental disasters we face from the nuclear arms race, and continuing to burn fossil fuels and use other unsustainable technologies. Thus, Greens are constantly pitted against unions, "jobs", "free trade", "economic growth", "national security", and even public health and safety. Even when the Greens are correct, and most people agree with us, there are huge campaigns through the corporate media to discredit environmentalists and their work - most notably, the anti-global warming campaign (characterized as a War against Coal - which it surely is) and the Single Payer Healthcare campaign (characterized as a "government takeover" - which it surely is) - all coordinated by ALEC and a host of other corporate crime syndicates.
Governments, as the servants of powerful corporate interests (especially the drug cartels, AMA, Hospital Associations, and others ) "took it over" decades, if not a century, ago. What we have, now, is almost entirely criminal and exploitative in intent, as well as in execution. And it is all governed by the rotten, lying, gangster-ridden "health-insurance" extortion racket - the only case, outside of automobile liability insurance, where it is reasonable - where people are forced, under penalty of a fine, to buy a defective product which is at least 4 times more expensive than the actual services it is supposed to provide.
And even worse, it explicitly depends on lower-income working people to pay for the healthcare of those who are far poorer, sicker, and in need of it! This is actually defended by the promoters of the ACA as "vital" to its working! It can only work if it further enslaves working people and those who take care of their health on their own! Unbelievable.
Meanwhile, more than half of existing healthcare costs (under this rotten system) is paid BY THE TAXPAYERS. Since we spend about 4 times what almost any other country spends (per capita, or as a percentage of GDP) on healthcare, it is clear that we need no new programs or spending. We only need to quit doing what we're doing now, and put everyone on Medicare, with strict regulation of prices and quality standards. Those who don't want Medicare should be free to start their own associations, or use a real "free market" (unencumbered by patents, licenses, etc.) to provide them with what they want and need.
I've probably spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on this one idea - HEALTH INSURANCE IS A CATEGORY MISTAKE. The only way they can even sell something as absurd and fraudulent as "health insurance" as a way of providing health care, is if there is no other way to access and pay for healthcare - something which the providers, themselves, mandate by forcing cash customers to pay an average of 4 times more for the same services - and collectable in law - even from the estates of those who died of their overpriced and often fraudulent "treatments" (like radiation for cancer). If you can't get healthcare any other way, then, buying a promise of ACCESS to healthcare may be necessary, but only because THERE ISN'T ANY OTHER WAY TO GET IT. All we need to do is make sure that everyone has access, and that the monopolies don't control the supply and price, as they do, today.
That's another issue, but one which deserves mention, here. A century ago, nearly every voter and educated person understood the harm which monopolies were doing to our economy and to those who weren't part of the monopolies. Laws were passed against them and for a time, enforced. Since Ayn Rand denounced "Anti-trust Laws" (really, anti-monopoly and anti-corporate laws - both of which Rand supported) in the 1960's (especially Kennedy's political use of them against the steel industry and General Electric), they have been in disfavor.
There is virtually nothing of the real spirit of freedom and competition left in our legal system. Even professional sports is thoroughly monopolized, as are most other "industries" like health care, the "criminal justice system", education, universities, etc. The only way to be "free" of this "government takeover" is to pay your taxes, but provide for your own medicine, education, etc, - much of which is quite illegal, by now. We are, indeed, a military-industrial-education-prison complex. It's all part of the same deal, and we are its victims.
I wrote the above before reading this "Day of Mourning" statement from Leonard Peltier. Then I revised it. But it's all part of the same message....
=============
Day Of Mourning Statement From Leonard Peltier
EDUCATE! CORPORATISM, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PRISONS
By Leonard Peltier, www.OfficialLeonardPeltier
November 29th, 2013
http://www.popularresistance.org/day-of-mourning-statement-from-leonard-peltier/
Greetings my relatives friends and supporters
It is yet another year. It seems like a thousand years ago but only a year in time in reality from the last time I dictated one of these statement for the day of mourning so, again, I want to say as last time, that I am honored that you would want to hear my words.
Sometimes when I lay on my bunk and I am between sleeping and awake, for a small moment of time, I am free and I am there with you. I know this sounds kind of melodramatic and I am not trying to be so, but things affect you differently inside of here and things affect you differently as you get older. But I want to say with all my strength, some things don’t change, at least not for me.
When I think about all we have lost to this corporate world, when I think about the losses of clean water and rivers and oceans and when I think about the losses of clean air when I think about the losses of freedom for hard working families that once had a father that could take care of his family with as single job but now has to work two or three jobs and the mother must work too and the children that come home from school with their own key and have to wait the return of one of their parents.
When I think of these losses, when I think of the wage slaves that are being created daily all over the world in the name of progress, when I think of these losses I think… we damn sure have a good reason to mourn, but I really believe that the word mourn should have a different meaning for us, not something where we cry and throw our hands up and say “ WHY WHY, WHY ME, WHY US, WHY THIS” but something that we say NO MORE to. Something we make a vow to, renew our efforts, renew our minds, renew our directions to take back our water take back our air take back our forests and our mountains and valleys, restore this mother earth to the natural balance the creator meant it to be. We need to talk to the churches, talk to the various religions, we need to get them to recognize that the strongest form or worship isn’t singing songs and bowing your head, the strongest form of worship is to respect and restore to balance the beauty of nature and the earth that was given to us, that is part of us, that we are a part of, and to be responsible for.
This may sound like the ramblings of some old 69 year old man in prison for 38 years but I have had a lot of time to think about these things and when my grandchildren come to visit me, it gives me a sense of urgency for all of us to start doing something NOW!
If each one of you would take a vow to get six other people along with yourself to do at least ONE meaningful thing to restore this balance and get each one of those people to network and get 6 more people and let it go out from there like the branches of a tree then together we can make a difference. We can make a difference starting today.
This day of mourning would become the morning of a new day!
I have quoted others before and I do so again because I respect the wisdom of elders and people long past. Someone once said and I don’t remember who said it, “All evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”
[Edmund Burke, the grandfather of all modern "conservatives", and no less true for that. -ed.]
If this is more than you care to do, or if you think you can’t be involved with others for some reason, I respect that, but I would encourage you to at least plant one fruit bearing tree that someone in the future, perhaps some child would have something to eat. That maybe some other living creature might have a place of shelter and food to eat. there will always be changes throughout the earth and throughout mankind, some uncontrollable and some with design.
I know we can make a change for the better if we put our hearts and minds together and let this day of mourning be a time of renewal, we can spread the concept that mankind must live in harmony with the creators handy-work and with one another. If this time I have spent here in prison could produce anything of value I pray that it would move you to become involved. Find the right things within government and support them, and find the wrong things in government and change them. This government as it stands right now is on the verge of losing what constitutional rights people have. This government is violating the constitution over and over and over. These violations started before you or I were even conceived. As some of you may know the Constitution is a copy of the Iroquois 6 nations Confederacy law. The constitution originally was designed so that men would have maximum freedoms as long as they did not infringe on the natural rights of others or in essence harm someone else. The freedoms and respect that the law implies that we should have for one another in this nation should extend to all those outside of this realm because what is right for one man should be right for others.
We should allow other people to be free from fear. I remember an old Jewish man I once met in hardware store, I engaged in conversation with him. He had fought in WW2 and he said to me, and I always remember his words, “this isn’t the nation I fought for, this nation has become a nation of people who are afraid of their gov’t and anytime the people are afraid of their gov’t they are not free and I have noticed that what people will do to someone else wrongfully, sooner or later if circumstances change they will do it to you also."
These violations of human rights must stop. I know the task may seem overwhelming and I can’t say that I have the answer for success at making a change but I do know the answer for failure.. that's to do nothing.
So if my imprisonment serves nothing else but to be living proof of these violations, then so be it, but it is a reality. Right now, it has been selective violation, but there are powers at hand that seek to inflict those violations upon everyone. This reminds me of a story that I heard once where a man said:
“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
I ask you to remember these things because they are truisms that have happened and they will happen again to you and your children and your children’s children if we do not take a stand. a famous warrior named Emiliano Zapata from the Mexican revolution once said “I would rather die on my feet then live on my knees” …. I could go on and on but I suppose you get my meaning. I encourage you to be active, to stand your ground and help us recover the ground we have lost.
God, I wish I could be there with you.
I am going to close for now. Be thankful you have the time you have, be thankful you have each other, and give each other a hug for me.
I will see you when I see you
Your friend
Leonard Peltier
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