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From the Lucid Pen of C. Wright Mills (from his book, The Power Elite (1956)
There is still one old American value that has not markedly declined: the value of money and of the things money can buy-these, even in inflated times, seem as solid and enduring as stainless steel. 'I've been rich and I've been poor,' Sophie Tucker has said, 'and believe me, rich is best.' As many other values are weakened, the question for Americans becomes not Is there anything that money, used with intelligence, will not buy?' but, 'How many of the things that money will not buy are valued and desired more than what money will buy?' Money is the one unambiguous criterion of success, and such success is still the sovereign American value.
Whenever the standards of the moneyed life prevail, the man with money, no matter how he got it, will eventually be respected. A million dollars, it is said, covers a multitude of sins. It is not only that men want money; it is that their very standards are pecuniary. In a society in which the money-maker has had no serious rival for repute and honor, the word 'practical' comes to mean useful for private gain, and 'common sense,' the sense to get ahead financially. The pursuit of the moneyed life is the commanding value, in relation to which the influence of other values has declined, so men easily become morally ruthless in the pursuit of easy money and fast estate-building.
A great deal of corruption is simply a part of the old effort to get rich and then to become richer. But today the context in which the old drive must operate has changed. When both economic and political institutions were small and scattered-as in the simpler models of classical economics and Jeffersonian democracy-no man had it in his power to bestow or to receive great favors. But when political institutions and economic opportunities are at once concentrated and linked, then public office can be used for private gain.
Governmental agencies contain no more of the higher immorality than do business corporations. Political men can grant financial favors only when there are economic men ready and willing to take them. And economic men can seek political favors only when there are political agents who can bestow such favors. The publicity spotlight, of course, shines brighter upon the transactions of the men in government, for which there is good reason. Expectations being higher, publics are more easily disappointed by public officials. Businessmen are supposed to be out for themselves, and if they successfully skate on legally thin ice, Americans generally honor them for having gotten away with it. But in a civilization so thoroughly business-penetrated as America, the rules of business are carried over into government-especially when so many businessmen have gone into government. How many executives would really fight for a law requiring a careful and public accounting of all executive contracts and 'expense accounts'? High income taxes have resulted in a network of collusion between big firm and higher employee. There are many ingenious ways to cheat the spirit of the tax laws, as we have seen, and the standards of consumption of many high-priced men are determined more by complicated expense accounts than by simple take-home pay. Like prohibition, the laws of income taxes and the regulations of wartime exist without the support of firm business convention. It is merely illegal to cheat them, but it is smart to get away with it. Laws without supporting moral conventions invite crime, but much more importantly, they spur the growth of an expedient, amoral attitude.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the Hell Will We Ever Learn
Obama looked so stern as he declared war on the CIA-created ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). ISIS started off as at best a 10,000-man force; now, after we've built them up into a TERRORIST organization, they are now estimated to have a 50,000-man army. They also have a government set up; they collect taxes; they takeover banks and steal the money; they get arms from WHERE? why the U.S.A., of course. We're the biggest producers and sellers of war machinery and arms in the world.What a bunch of propaganda, scare-tactics bullshit Obama spieled out as he, again looking so damn stern (I could just see that ISIS true believer who decapitated Foley and Sotloff shaking in his U.S.-made (made in Communist China probably) boots..."Ooooh, Obama scares so much hell out of me, I'm surrendering immediately and become a Christian") roared out his war-drum-beating plans. All over the Middle East, I'm sure young hothead Washables are running as fast as their Nike sneakers can take them to the ISIS recruiting office to sign up to fight the hated Americans. And just think how Obama could have become our greatest president ever if after he beat G.W. "Lyin' Bastard and AWOL Coward" Bush if he'd simply brought all our troops home, ended these illegal wars, and offered a hand of peace to the Middle East. They were ready to accept him. Remember the scenes of the Arabs wearing Barack Obama teeshirts on the night he was elected? Instead, our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president decided to go the G.W. Bush/Cheney way, which also was the Slick Willie Clinton and Hillbilly Hillary way [how to go from a $30,000-a-year governor of the backward state of Arkansas to a multimillionaire in 8 years of hornswaggling the American people into thinking this sociopath profligate hillbilly boy was a great president, he wasn't, and is now still honored as a honorable man, he isn't]. And look at the chaotic mess these lying bastards have gotten us into. We are verging on a nuclear holocaust as we go pompously about declaring our exceptionalism while condemning all Muslims as terrorists and making gestures of defiance against Russia, a nuclear power led by a former KGB head.
Again recall Bill Moyers' 1987 report on our "Secret Government," the one that truly rules us, all its shenanigans conceived in secret backroom plans for continuous war. Every power-hungry demon out there's desire is to RULE the WORLD. That was Alexander the Great's intent. That was the Roman Empire's intent. That was the Islamic Golden Horde's (the Caliphate) intent. That was Napoleon's intent. That was the intent of the British Empire. That was Hitler's intent. And after World War II after We the People of the US got this exceptional big head our intent became to rule the world (the evil John Foster Dulles, an Ivy League-propagandized poor little rich boy, decided we were the World's Policemen).
So here we go again, folks. Obama, as Commander-in-Chief, is "policing" at a pace John Foster Dulles would be proud of using of course the same tactics the bastards who started all this mess back after 9/11 used as they followed the Neo-Con (the New World Order) dictate for a backroom-planned takeover of the world and of the world's OIL, and truly, folks, this bullshit Obama is proposing is all about ISIS blocking our ownership of Iraqi oil (they now control an oil field and are shipping out black-market oil). ENERGY. We are soaking up all the world's energy. We the People of the USA rely on oil to keep our military machine roaring about the world creating havoc, destruction, despair, annihilation, corrupt regimes...throwing us lock, stock, and barrel into the throes of our Great Lord CHAOS.
Before He Became a Rock Star, Bob Dylan Figured It Out
Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
thegrowlingwolf
for The Daily Growler
As a P.S., how about a scary article from Radical Philosophy:
http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/commentary/deadly-algorithms
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