Emptiness Part V at New Ruskin College

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06-02-05, 08-09-05,08-12-05
Emptiness Part V

And you are thinking, ‘yes, the military!’ And you are wrong again. Not the military ---- Humanity. First of all we do not have the power, unless we are one of the few who actually have some office. (And see how easy it is for those upon whom some power has fallen, to mistake that, that accidental fact that they have been given some little bit of power, for a kind of absolute justification for all existence. “Isn’t America great!?” Subtext, because I have power, me, me, me, therefore . . .)

It is unrealistic to expect some soldier to change the entire geo-political thinking that has lead to the creation of his world, or even fully comprehend it, just as it would be unreasonable to expect, for example, that a mother or father should organize a school for their child and their community. In the case of education we could at least give vouchers to parents and allow them to select from a variety of schools, thus emulating the market. But it is utterly dishonest to tell the parent that they should “get involved” in the school board if they see some problem with the school. This is why markets are so important. In a market a consumer at least has a chance to find what they want, a parent, like an enlisted man three feet in mud in the Delta doesn’t even have a chance to “change things.” So this is why the Swift Boat Vets modestly confined themselves to what they knew.

How many times . . . a day are their similar examples? You “know”? You know it is wrong but you say nothing? (This is the power of the market. You are not required to deliver fine speeches, all you need to do is meet the price and go on your way. (Now of course there is here a danger. For suppose that you “knew” about a crime? Perhaps even went along “knowing” that it was criminal? Think how rare it is for anyone to speak out against injustice, for most of the time we “know” but say nothing. After years of living in the market economy it is easy to fall into the habit, the way of living, taking what is yours and forgetting the rest: society, Humanity.))

For how rare is it that anyone is ever called to account. Not just the architects of America’s Vietnam strategy retired by a grateful nation, but everyone, in what ever direction you should choose to look. Mr. Bush (41) claimed to support vouchers for schools yet I was puzzled why such an uncompromising proposal was put forward by his Administration. It went down in certain defeat.

Then I realized that that was the idea. Mr. Bush did not really care about vouchers he only said he did. This is another example of the inflation in the political economy I mentioned earlier. Rather than putting forward a proposal to allow public voucher schools open to all, the Administration put forward a narrow mean proposal to give a few thousand dollars to pay for part of a private school tuition. Instead of introducing choice into the public system, (without huge tuitions), they deliberately put forward an extremely exclusionary plan. But how would you ever know? How would you ever prove it? In the American system responsibility is so diffuse, no government stands or falls on a public vote, as in parliamentary systems, it is easy to hide in plane sight, even in the Oval Office.

The President can blame the Congress and vice versa, States the Feds, Cities the States, and so on. Consider that the nations borders and ports of entry are essentially unguarded. Anyone responsible? Ironically Kennedy and McCain have proposed legalizing the 20 million Illegals but make no provisions for securing the borders or holding Illegals at the other ports of entry. I say ironically because another Kennedy and McCain led the nation into Vietnam where for “reasons of state” our troops were prohibited from securing those borders as well.

Everyone knew that enemy forces were coming down through Laos but the Kennedy and McCain of the day did not feel we would be justified in blocking that movement. And today we again have a Kennedy and a McCain setting our national policy on borders, thousands of miles away from Washington. In Southeast Asia the borders were to be “respected” and today, when setting policy on our own borders, they tell us that borders do not matter.

But see that neither those Kennedys and McCains then nor today’s version feel the slightest doubts about their policies. President Bush also agrees with them having a few days after his re-election repudiated his oath of office to uphold the law. In McCain’s case this is remarkable because the majority of the people of Arizona disagree with him. However, he has little to fear from the voters because near retirement, and because he was a POW. Did you know that?

Now see here again, how the social status, or respect for his service and the hardship experienced during his service in a POW prison encourages the egomaniacal psychology in away not dissimilar to what was just discussed with racial and gender quotas and the cultivation of the egotism of “diversity”. And so McCain’s psychology is such that reasons, facts, the preference of the majority of his own voters has no effect on him. See that little smirk? ‘What can you do? I have the power?’ he asks. What can we do?

And doesn’t McCain’s little smirk say something more? Does it not ask what is your suffering compared to mine? And where have we heard this before? Do you not think that TE 194.5.4.4/1 returned to America and let it be known that He! was a Vietnam Vet!? And indeed is this not the answer to my question that I asked just before? Why did Franken and Springer bring it up again? Is it not that they enjoy having their very own “war hero”? Even if they have to manufacture him.

Is it not useful to them to have a foil against the “neo-con chicken hawks”? (Chicken hawk is prison slang for a young man forced into homosexual prostitution by the prison gangs. (Just think of the mentality which would discuss American foreign policy using the language of prison gangs. (Think about that. ( And note that here again the focus is not on the policy but on the nature or condition of the opponent. Not an examination of the policy question but an attack on the speaker.))))

And if you are thinking that at least now they must realize how disgraceful they are, you are wrong again. They use prison slang to show how angry they are. For anger, descriptive emotional states, are used the same way all other descripters are used: “as a Gay,” “as a Jew,” “as a Woman,” “as a (fill in the blank)”. That nothing logically follows from these statements or moods, these emotional states of anger, the outrage of the righteous, is not the point.

These descripters are useful in society for getting what one wants or at least as cover while one takes what one wants. “I am angry therefore I am right,” is a tool, and an instant justification. Recall that Laura Ingraham was “livid” with the court decision in the patient Schiavo’s case. That the statute by which the case was decided was the product of years of study and a bipartisan compromise in the Florida Legislature after open debate and due deliberation counted for less than the fact that this “Woman” claimed she was “livid.”

And again since then there has been no amendment proposed, no new evidence submitted, no model statute, nothing. Nothing other than to continually denigrate everyone else as part of the “culture of death.” While the angry, livid, advocates of the “culture of life” never seem to be able to put their philosophy down in writing, seem incapable of coming up with a rule, a procedure to show us, the heathens how to live or at least how to decide the cases. Oh, but there is anger. No reason but much emotion.

And what else is emotive? Being a POW? A Vietnam Vet? And one regularly hears debates between Vets being won on the point, “I am a Combat Vet!” Careful much high emotion there. Don’t want anyone going postal on us. Women, Blacks, Jews all have well established rights to anger. I have noted recently Catholics (RC) making claims to the anger of the righteously aggrieved.

But then what would a passion play be without passion? We are floating on a sea of emotions, flooding reason. Manufactured emotionalism drives the inflation, the dishonesty, of our political economy. In his last speech from the floor of the Senate, Senator Moynihan commented that he feared “reason was but a poor foil to the irrational.” (see Congressional Record at the Moynihan) And he was right. If you are aggrieved you may say anything, Left or Right.

And this psychology, of moral superiority, of the veteran contemptuous of his fellow citizens, the Black who thinks White suffering is an oxymoron, of Women for men’s suffering, of Jew’s certainty that WASP’s are by comparison weak or inexperienced and have not known the depths of true suffering, all of it, is itself connected to the “diversity” myth; I say myth because unspoken, for it can never be articulated much less held up to scrutiny. There is a sense, no, a certainty, that one is more “diverse” just as there is certainty that one’s suffering is really something far, far, greater than anything you could possibly conceive, and yet all of this goes unexamined, it is gauche even to question it. Of course, foreign nationals are more “diverse” than us.

And for those of you who are uncertain about the need to control the borders and ports of entry just answer why you and Kennedy and McCain want people entering the country to be illegal? Why not welcome them? I have previously proposed raising the limit on immigration from Mexico to one million a year for the next 50 years. (It is currently set at 170k. (50 million would be half of Mexico’s expected population increase.))

Why, because no one will take responsibility! Because the political discourse is dishonest. Letting Illegals into the country is literally an example of inflation in the political economy; i.e. we are inflating the numbers of residents. See the dishonesty: You make them illegal because you are dishonest.

By not controlling the borders and ports of entry you avoid having to take responsibility. No need to reach an agreement on the number of immigrants to be added. (Then too the elite finds it advantageous to create a new category or class of resident in these United States. And the Illegals do not stand on their rights, (they haven’t any (that is a great advantage! (to a corrupt leadership))); and more benefits, they undercut the wages of the lower classes; and they can be violated, i.e. deported, without the bother of a trial. Yes, the elite appreciates these many advantages of their subterfuge, and again see how they make the dishonesty of the political process work for them.)

And it is because of this dishonesty, this utter chaos of egotism and self delusion, of personalities unbounded, undirected by any philosophy or religion, which requires that everything which can be taken out of the hands of the government should be removed from the reach of the politicians. Not that politicians do not represent you, they do too well. There is not a single vanity, conceit, dishonest thought you have ever had that is not represented in any of your legislatures. They are just like you.

Do you not think, for example, that many “knew” that if the accounts of the savings and loans were guaranteed to $100k per account (not per person) that huge waves of capital would flow into those institutions? (And see that the Democrat blames the Republicans, even though Mr. Carter raised the “insurance” on the accounts. Again a case of having it both ways. But what percent of the Americans even have a $100K to be insured in the first place? Yet the “party of the people” thought it a good idea to protect the capital of the rich in the name of the people . . . . yes, abandon reason and have it both ways. (Less than 3% of the losses of the savings and loans resulted from criminal misconduct. (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/SavingsandLoanCrisis.html )))

And the Republicans “deregulated” the Savings and Loans when Reagan arrived. Deregulate? So they abolished the unlimited “insurance”? No. So they required that the industry meet the same capital requirements as banks? No. Their loan portfolios had to meet the same standards as banks?, No! As much as 40% of the loans were commercial real estate. The Republicans would not have allowed the Savings and Loans to use accounting gimmicks, like “good will” to cover deficits and losses . . . would they? Yes, they did. And oh, yes, they knew what they were doing. (http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/s&l/)

And do you not think that today, for example, actuaries “know” that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is not actuarially sound? (http://www.actuary.org/pdf/pension/funding_single.pdf • 1134.1k) But the dishonesty of the political economy is such that we will continue to “guarantee” pensions which we “know” are not funded because some workers are on the “in” and the rest of us will pay for it; will pay for those who are on the “in.” The reporters upon whom you rely for the “facts”, are they on the “in”? Oh yes. Your leaders, the politicians, their pensions . . . well they are as “in” as you can get. Public employees have 105% retirement pensions. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_24/b3937081.htm )

And do you not think that many “know” that exclusionary zoning has ruined our cities and burdened the people? And the very same “environmentalists” who decry the reliance on “fossil fuels” and the automobile are themselves the very same “community activists” who have blocked development in the city centers and forced out the middle class into the suburbs necessitating those commutes. (see Jane Jacobs, http://bss.sfsu.edu/pamuk/urban/biblio.html (Smart Growth: http://www.smartgrowth.org/library/articles.asp?art=188&res=1680 (The New Urbanism: http://www.newurbanism.org/pages/416429/index.htm )))

In the Bay Area the new Bay Bridge will be vulnerable to earthquake damage or even a “small car bomb” owing to its design. How many engineers “know” that building the world’s largest single tower self anchored bridge in an active seismic zone is a mistake but said nothing? (see Technical Correction #6) “World’s largest”? Doesn’t that alone tell you something? That means no one else has dared to do such a thing. Wonder why?

Yet the local media, SF Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, followed the lead of the CalTrans bureaucrats and continued to refer to the proposed span as a “single tower suspension” bridge. The whole issue being that it is not a suspension bridge but is in fact a self anchored bridge. But because they control the media they can lie. The reporters and editors “know” about the controversy they simply will not report it. What can you do about it they smirk?

Do you suppose the politicians who are responsible for this fiasco, “the world’s largest self anchored bridge”, will be held responsible when the architects of our Vietnam “experience” were not? That they will be held responsible when the politicians who have opened up our borders are not? Or the ones who “deregulated the Savings and Loans”? Or the guardians of the Pension Guarantee Corp.? Or the ones who have blocked development to the point that today 84% of Californians can not afford the medium priced home? (Is Housing Too Expensive? Blame the Government)

After all of this you suppose that now suddenly we will hold politicians responsible? Why would you think so? What possible justification for such a lunatic thought could there be? Can you not see that you are delusional? No one will ever be held responsible for anything. This is the Emptiness.

For example, currently the State of California has agreed to dig two tunnels on the coast highway for an estimated $200m (so we can project that the actual cost will be $1 billion using the CalTrans rule of 5, (all CalTrans estimates are understated by a factor of five.)) Given that the State does not allow development of the coast will the tunnels collect sufficient tolls to pay for their costs? It does not matter as no tolls will be collected. All tax payers will pay, even those who have been zoned out of the coastal regions including the urban Bay Area. Just because the people have been excluded doesn’t mean they should not have to pay!

These two tunnels will be constructed out on the scenic highway in a county, San Mateo, where the average home costs $1 million. In the middle of the Bay Area the Caldecott tunnels which serve millions of commuters, all be it with hour long backups twice daily, (from 6am to noon and from noon to 7pm), are in need of expansion, which would also cost $200 million according to CalTrans.

But this tunnel expansion is not even scheduled. Why? Because the millionaires out on the San Mateo coast have more political clout than the millions of commuters in the Bay Area. Because there is no market allocation of roads. Because society is controlled by a corrupt oligarchy. Because the Republic has been betrayed. Because we were fools ever to have believed in justice, honesty, . . . Because the political economy is a mass of lies, . . . do you not yet see? Because of Emptiness . . . And this is a Blue state!

But why specify Blue states:
USATODAY.com - Some highway bill pork becomes road kill ABC News: New Transportation Bill Full of Pork Road Bill Reflects The Power Of Pork After 2-Year Wait, Passage Comes Easily Highway bill criticized for special projects - US News - MSNBC.com $286 Billion Highway bill!
From what has already been said it also should come as no surprise that the know-nothing Republicans also oppose the privatization of roads, or even the market pricing of roads. They too think it fair that drivers in Fresno should have to pay the tax at the same rate as people in San Francisco even though the roads of San Francisco cost several times what the roads of Fresno cost. Even so called “conservatives”, like Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Barr, all most all, see nothing problematic in being for markets while at the same time supporting a government bureaucracy to build “free” ways.

And see how this government control of the roads has stifled competition and innovation just as the government monopoly in education has there also blocked new technology. We do not have electronics in our cars to create digital traffic control systems just as in our schools we have not pioneered computer assisted education. 43,000 people are killed every year, hundreds of thousand seriously wounded, on our roads and highways in part due to the utter absence of safety electronics in the cars, from traffic warning, to automated accident prevention, to traffic enforcement including ignition interlocks to block the intoxicated from even starting their cars.

See here that your ignorance, as in war, kills people. You are ignorant that in the 1970s simple one way transponders could have coordinated traffic, that in the 1980s the electronics could have allowed two way coordination, and that in the 1990s fully automatic digital systems could have integrated traffic controls over entire regions. You do not know these things because your roads have been in the hands of government bureaucrats. The dishonesty of the political economy has hidden these things from you.

And recall that the point is not that the bureaucrats are stupid or lazy as the simple minded conservatives have mislead you into thinking. These bureaucrats are just like you. Markets do not make people ‘smart.’ The innovation arises out of self interest, ownership. Schools do not use computer assisted instruction because they do not have to, they have the government’s money. Your money. The guys in the orange vests in the highway department do not have to bother with electronic systems because . . . because they are the government.

Why do conservatives oppose the market allocation of roads? Because of Emptiness. They are not principled. They move from one pleasing, ego gratifying idea to another, in no particular order. What is there but ego, and vanity, and delusion? They support “free markets” only as a justification for their own success; they glory that they have “won” the “competition.” However, when their own egos are not directly involved they fall back into the ready acceptance of the status quo. Is this not also a case of having it both ways? Is this not the same dishonesty we have seen everywhere we have looked?

This is the Emptiness. They do not care if you get killed in a head on collision to night. They do not care if your children do not get the instruction that they need. Who are you to them? All the market does is create the possibility that the demands of the consumers will find their suppliers. Potentially this also exists with government but just consider, what would you do to the school principal who wanted to develop a computer program? What if some CalTrans bureaucrat started talking about putting electronics in your car?

Why would they even want to take the chance? Just look what happened to me. Fifteen years of harassment and oppression for writing about laser disks! Why would anyone want to get involved in this dishonest malignant political process? Face such Emptiness?

Can you not see that that is always how it has been for all of history? See it now?

No?

I have confused you? I am not making any sense? Wild ramblings? (" . . . The suicide left a long and rambling note with a series of disconnected accusations about persons of high office and rank, wild theories of conspiracies, of people on the radio talking to him, secretly reading his email and even his notebook. There were claims that high government officials and the local police department were some how involved . . . ")

Just look at the facts:
The trees are alive.
There is no crime.
Universal love.
---- Septamus Smith,
---- Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia

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