| Sunland. |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|08:27 am] |
i know that i am probably preaching to the choir about this, but i would just like to raise my voice that this "Sunland" utopia island fantastical anarchist dreamworld love party is utter and complete nonsense. there are many reasons why it will promptly fail if it ever actually gets off the ground, which is unlikely. but i want to focus on just one. the idea for this utopia rests on the notion that the interested party will negotiate and essentially ask for an island from the British government or whoever.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED FOR SOMETHING?
DID YOU FEEL THAT THAT PERSON KINDA SORTA OWED YOU SOMETHING AFTERWARD?
HAVE YOU EVER ASKED SOMEONE FOR SOMETHING?
DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD AN IMPLICIT (OR EXPLICIT) OBLIGATION TO THAT PERSON AFTERWARD?
this is called human interaction and it establishes the continuation of an uneven give/recieve relationship. you are subjugating yourself from the very start and you will keep that position for as long as you are dealing with that person. SO...
it is not a good idea! to ASK for anything! this is my advice as a human being with BASIC EXPERIENCE IN HUMAN INTERACTION.
thats all. |
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| President Obama Threatens to Veto Intelligence Bill |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|01:28 am] |
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/president-obama-threatens-to-veto-intelligence-bill.html
President Obama threatened to veto the Intelligence Authorization Act Wednesday, asserting that Congress was unconstitutionally pursuing information about executive branch deliberations.
It was the third veto threat the president had issued since being elected last November. The first, made before he was sworn in, was to those lawmakers who wanted to block release of the second $350 billion in TARP funds to bail out financial institutions.
Currently, the White House is required to report on certain covert actions to the "Gang of Eight" - the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Democratic and Republican Leaders, and the top Democrat and top Republican in both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
The legislation being debated would amend the National Security Act of 1947 in ways, the Obama administration asserted, "that would raise significant executive privilege concerns" by requiring the disclosure to the Gang of Eight "internal Executive branch legal advice and deliberations. Administrations of both political parties have long recognized the importance of protecting the confidentiality of the Executive Branch's legal advice and deliberations."
The new legislative language would run "afoul of tradition by restricting an important established means by which the President protects the most sensitive intelligence activities that are carried out in the Nation's vital national security interests," said the statement, issued by the Office of Management and Budget. "If the final bill presented to the President contains this provision, the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto."
I would, of course, point out that Congress pursuing information =/= US getting said information. But still. |
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| Honduras |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|12:21 pm] |
Excuse me in advance, if the attempt of this poetry translation from Russian into English lost some necessary poetical expression. We all should to help someway to the fighting Honduras people.
Here again the military uniformed gorillas.
They grabbed you by the throat, O Honduras!
Under the tropical sun, for many centuries
Your people carry ordeal
And yet...How long it to bear?
Swollen-headed grandee-demons
Long ago took away
But greedy gringo came…
That’s scarcely better.
For freedom, for truth
Arise Honduras!
Sweep off that bloody pack
With your own horny hand!
Dmitriy Kremnev.
Гондурас
Вот снова гориллы в военных мундирах
Схватили за горло тебя, Гондурас
Под солнцем тропическим многие веки
Народ твой мытарствует
Доколе ж терпеть?
Чванливые демоны-гранды
Убрались
Не лучше их алчные гринго пришли…
Восстань Гондурас
За свободу, за правду!
Мозолистой дланью
Всю свору смети!
Дмитрий Кремнёв. |
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| Dave is sentenced. |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|05:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bob Dylan, "Chimes of Freedom" | ] |
Friends, right now there is no smile on my face, & I'm feeling down & in a grim mood. Today, a bit before Two P.M., Dave Mahoney was sentenced to 90 days by Ramsey County Judge Paulette Flynn in Saint Paul. This was the result of his plea bargain, which I've spoken of in this community previously. I recall that that post was on One June,'09.
I truly hate it when the Man's machine gets one of us in its steely grip. Dave, in my book, is a hero, as were all who were in the black bloc on the Marion Street Bridge during the R.N.C.
Below is a link to the Twin Cities Indymedia article by Haloka. He's done a fine job of reporting & I don't have much to add. I'm in too much of a grim mood to say more, eh. Having to sit on a hardwood bench & watch the charade made me gnash my teeth.
http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/jul/mahoney-sentenced-90-days-will-likely-serve-56
Free All Political Prisoners!
Billy Kropotkin |
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| Yes, gods do have a reality |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|10:39 am] |
This is just something I wrote for school. Wondered how anarchists would respond to it...
_________________________
 If you grow up in a time, in a place, with a tribe, they will show you how to live based on what has been passed down from generations upon generations, aeons upon aeons, of tried-and-true methods of living. They will pass them down to you in the form of stories. Those stories will probably involve gods. That is where they become very real to the peole who believe in them.
Those gods died a long time ago. Today the gods have been reduced to things you buy in books and boxes, kits and trinkets. They teach you virtually nothing. They have things they want you to do that are nothing more than superstitions that have virtually no real merit, nor change in any way of your daily life. And that's due to the advancement and invasion of civilization. When the people of one land invaded another, they brought their gods with them. Those gods taught them how to live in that land from which they came. Although chances are, because they're invading, they need more land. So those gods taught them poorly. Thus they're transferring bad gods onto good people. And they usually always insist on imposing their gods. But to the invaded, the gods teach ways that make no sense whatsoever. Why would a desert god's teachings have any bearings on the ice-dwelling peoples of the north? It is for this reason that, for a world where everyone now lives in apartments and condos, shops for food rather than growing it, and shapes their entire world on how they earn and spend money, none of us understand what a god actually is. We pick our gods eeny meeny miney moe out of vending machines and give them no real special place in our lives. They teach us nothing. We make them a cute ritual that has no bearing on our lives. We still earn, spend, and sit in our condo watching TV. To the people growing up, gods were not consciously chosen. Choice had nothing to do with it. It was simply the language. It was simply the method of communication. It was the air they breathed. They weren't really trying to explain how everything happened, they were simply explaining what was happening. The why wasn't really a concern. If you asked them what story they created, or what religion they had, they'd stare at you with absurd faces. What the devil are you talking about? That is the same response as you'd get if someone asked you the same. Yet your story of how things came to be this way is historical. Believe it or not, your gods are the media, pure and simple. And your media tells stories to preserve your life, but are absurd to the other people. The point is, gods that are pushed onto others are the bad gods who taught their people poorly and ways of life that do not work. Notice, therefore, how they insist their ways are superior. The people, and the gods, who have to insist constantly that their ways are the best, are usually the self-conscious ones who know that they are not. And that is where we stand. Our gods are very real, in a way we don't actually expect them to be. They are the language we use to propagandize. They can be the truths that get us through a sustainable reality. But today, in our world, they are the lies we tell ourselves so that we can continue to live a way that we know is killing everything. And that is why it is considered blasphemy to live sustainably. |
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| Professional Student |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|11:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Future Sound of London - Woodland | ] |
In an effort to continue not working, while learning about things that interest me and could possibly provide the means to do something for a living down the line that doesn't suck, I would like to stay in college for quite a while. In the spirit of willful unemployment, I'd like to do so making use of various grants and scholarships, including the federal Pell Grant.
I figure this would be a good place to go for people to prattle on about how colleges are "tools of the system" that "suck out your brains" or some such bullshit that I don't really care about. I also figure it would be a good place to find people that have gone this route or are currently doing this.
So, yeah, advice on how to do the school/major-changing or whatever would be muchly appreciated. Thanks in advance. |
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| An open letter to legal President of Honduras José Manuel Zelaya Rosales. |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|08:27 pm] |
 Your Excellency,
We, the group of people from around the world, mostly creative persons and artists (but also common people) express our outraged by unlawful actions of putschists. We believe and hope that the fairness will be fully restored and government in exile under your leadership can return to the motherland. We hope that the lawlessness will be stopped and your glorious country can be able to go forward on the way of progress and democracy still more confidently. We will do our best to support your fair struggle and contribute to the progressive development of Honduras republic.
We are all united by the participation in a project that was named Sunland. Its main idea consists in the following: we want to establish a sort of art-colony and, at the same time, a self-sustaining ecological village. For this purpose we want to create on one of the uninhabited islands a settlement for creative people from around the world.
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| Co-ownership Network |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|12:37 pm] |
In light of the recession, I have initiated a method that can be used to break the power of the business owners:
I have created the livejournal group ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) co_ownership. This group serves as a place to network people that are unemployed or underpaid, so as to pool their money and establish businesses that are co-owned by all of the participants, as opposed to begging employers for a job. Co-owned businesses are usually called a partnership in legal terminology. Well-employed people may also contribute to this network. They too, after all, may become unemployed soon.
The business owners want unemployment to be high, because the high ratio of job-seekers to job opennings gives the employers great power. The business owners therefore prefer to cut jobs rather than cut hours and workdays. The republicratic politicians refuse to illegalize this practice, because both parties are on their payroll. This group exists to circumvent the power of the business owners and their republicratic political puppets, via co-ownership. Furthermore, if many thousands of people do so, then the employers' power will be broken completely, because there will not be enough unemployed people left.
To use this group, just post your location, give an estimate of how much money you can put into a collective pool, and give one or more suggestions for the type of business that you want to create. Leave comments to people in your area (or people in an area that you may be willing to relocate to) so as to network with them.
Recommended co-owned businesses include those that produce the most basic necessities, such as farms, and retail stores that provide basics, such as grocery stores, general stores, hardware stores, and basic clothing stores. Such types of businesses are recommended because they are reliable, and are not too expensive to establish if one's plans are small enough. |
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| Tack and keep the way forward! |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|02:03 pm] |
 On June 21, as a location for Sunland we’ve proposed Oeno from Pitcairn Islands group in Southern Pacific. Many people, who are interested in this project, expressed their doubts about such place for dislocation. Their main argument is that in this case Sunland location will be situated very far from continental land, inhabited islands and any transport communications. According to the skeptics, this would mean that all Sunland's strength have to spend to provide minimum survival conditions to a small group of volunteers. Even if these concerns are not well-grounded (because of a number of important counter arguments), they deserve to take them into account. Moreover, it turned out that due to seasonal conditions of sailing navigation in this part of the ocean (storms, currents and wind directions) it is almost impossible to get to Oeno Island by yacht this year. So, without giving up the idea to establish Sunland on Oeno Island, we must consider the alternatives. At the moment, there is a variant to arrange Sunland on one of the islands near the coastline |
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| Kickball Tournament in San Diego |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|09:16 pm] |
On the evening of Sunday, July 5th (tomorrow!) a ridiculously awesome and intense event is going take place. The first ever (as far as I know) SD Anarcho kickball tournament is going to be happening at Hollywood Park in City Heights and YOU and all of your awesome friends are invited. It's anarcho house against anarcho house and we're kick eachothers balls to the death. If you don't belong to a SD radical house it's cool, just come join a team or create your own.
It's a great chance to meet other awesome and sexy San Diego radicals, in a super fun and friendly atmosphere. There's also going to be a vegan/vegetarian potluck and zines so you'll be even more awesome if you bring food!
Festivities start at 5pm!
If you need any more info feel free to ask |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|07:14 pm] |
If you're like me then you're sick and tired of people blaming America for everything that's wrong with the world. Every action of self-defense or commerce undertaken by the USA is cast in the worst possible light and every national hero, new and old, is vilified as a tool in a monstrous system stretching back more than four centuries.
I want to puke my goddamn guts out every time I hear some grade F sissy rushing to apologize for something America did. These people even act like they feel embarrassed by the United States.
( God Bless America ) |
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| A New Declaration of Independence by Emma Goldman |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|10:10 pm] |
A New Declaration of Independence
by Emma Goldman
[Published in Mother Earth, Vol. IV, no. 5, July 1909.]
When, in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob, and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.
The mere fact that these forces--inimical to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--are legalized by statute laws, sanctified by divine rights, and enforced by political power, in no way justifies their continued existence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all human beings, irrespective of race, color, or sex, are born with the equal right to share at the table of life; that to secure this right, there must be established among men economic, social, and political freedom; we hold further that government exists but to maintain special privilege and property rights; that it coerces man into submission and therefore robs him of dignity, self-respect, and life.
The history of the American kings of capital and authority is the history of repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and abuse, all aiming at the suppression of individual liberties and the exploitation of the people. A vast country, rich enough to supply all her children with all possible comforts, and insure well-being to all, is in the hands of a few, while the nameless millions are at the mercy of ruthless wealth gatherers, unscrupulous lawmakers, and corrupt politicians. Sturdy sons of America are forced to tramp the country in a fruitless search for bread, and many of her daughters are driven into the street, while thousands of tender children are daily sacrificed on the altar of Mammon. The reign of these kings is holding mankind in slavery, perpetuating poverty and disease, maintaining crime and corruption; it is fettering the spirit of liberty, throttling the voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing humanity. It is engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating the country and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it nurtures superstition and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife, and turns the human family into a camp of Ishmaelites.
We, therefore, the liberty-loving men and women, realizing the great injustice and brutality of this state of affairs, earnestly and boldly do hereby declare, That each and every individual is and ought to be free to own himself and to enjoy the full fruit of his labor; that man is absolved from all allegiance to the kings of authority and capital; that he has, by the very fact of his being, free access to the land and all means of production, and entire liberty of disposing of the fruits of his efforts; that each and every individual has the unquestionable and unabridgeable right of free and voluntary association with other equally sovereign individuals for economic, political, social, and all other purposes, and that to achieve this end man must emancipate himself from the sacredness of property, the respect for man-made law, the fear of the Church, the cowardice of public opinion, the stupid arrogance of national, racial, religious, and sex superiority, and from the narrow puritanical conception of human life. And for the support of this Declaration, and with a firm reliance on the harmonious blending of man's social and individual tendencies, the lovers of liberty joyfully consecrate their uncompromising devotion, their energy and intelligence, their solidarity and their lives.
This `Declaration' was written at the request of a certain newspaper, which subsequently refused to publish it, though the article was already in composition. |
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| Someone must take a first step... |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|07:33 am] |
“We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
It's a pity that many people grasp Sunland too superficially. In fact, this project is very important due to its implicit philosophical, anthropological significance. There are some important questions. Whether people of the modern world are capable to set and pursue spontaneous goals? Whether their desire for full, free, true life is alive? Or their goals are fully inspired by the “hyperreality” (a French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's term), by omnipotent media brain-washing machine? Whether the existence of modern people is entirely determined by the "a priori" format?
Implementing the Sunland project I’ve become to realize one thing:( Read more... ) |
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| 4,000 police at Pittsburgh G20 |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|01:33 pm] |
|
Anyone know how many cops were at the RNC?
Few choice selections:
Police Chief Nate Harper is hoping to have more than 4,000 officers on hand to provide security for the G-20 summit in September. But Pittsburgh's own police force has just 877 officers, meaning planners will have to look to dozens of other law enforcement agencies to put "boots on the ground" Downtown, where leaders from the world's 20 largest economic powers will gather.
The summit, scheduled for Sept. 24 and 25 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, has attracted huge protests -- and clashes with police -- in other cities. About 10,000 officers were on duty for the London G-20 meeting in April.
In an interview last week, Chief Harper said Pittsburgh would seek help from police departments throughout Pennsylvania and "all major cities" in the United States. Pittsburgh officials also intend to contact state police in West Virginia, Maryland and New York.
Police brass have canceled days off for city officers during the week of the summit, unless those days already had been approved. Officials are still determining how to staff the city's six police stations to make sure all 911 calls are answered. One possibility is making officers work 12-hour instead of eight-hour shifts.
Troopers will undergo refresher training for "riot formation." They already are equipped with helmets and batons, and their crowd-control supplies, such as tear gas, are stored at individual barracks and in a warehouse in Harrisburg. Pittsburgh officials also must find a place for out-of-town officers to sleep. Chief Harper said a building with a cafeteria, such as a former school, would be ideal.
Complete story: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090628000514755 |
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| possible WHINSEC-sponsored coup in honduras |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|06:12 am] |
Coup in Honduras
by Kristin Bricker - June 28, 2009 at 12:27 pm
for PHOTOS of the coup, go here:
http://www.soaw.org/
School of the Americas-Trained Military Detains and Expels Democratically-Elected President Zelaya
Early this morning approximately 200 Honduran soldiers arrived at President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya's residence, reportedly fired four shots, and detained the President. Zelaya told TeleSUR that the soldiers took him to an air force base and put him on a plane to Costa Rica.
Zelaya told TeleSUR from San Jose, Costa Rica, "They threatened to shoot me." Honduras' ambassador to the Organization of American States, Carlos Sosa Coello, reports that the president has been beaten up.
Zelaya told TeleSUR that he doesn't believe it was regular soldiers who kidnapped him. "I have been the victim of a kidnapping carried out by a group of Honduran soldiers. I don't think the Army is supporting this sort of action. I think this is a vicious plot planned by elites. Elite who only want to keep the country isolated and in extreme poverty."
Zelaya fears for the safety of his family, who remains in Honduras. He pleaded with TeleSUR viewers to seek a way to "have a dialogue with these soldiers so that they don't harm my family, so that they don't shoot anybody. We can settle our differences through dialogue."
The anti-Zelaya President of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, has declared himself interim president of Honduras. On the Friday before the coup, Zelaya called Micheletti "a pathetic, second-class congressman who got that job because of me, because I gave you space within my political current."
Zelaya informed TeleSUR that he has not requested asylum in Costa Rica, and that he will return to Honduras as its president to complete his term, which expires in 2010.
Honduran Media Shut Down
Radio Es Lo De Menos, an independent radio station reporting from Honduras, issued a press release before its power was cut. The press release states that several cabinet members have been detained, and there are arrest warrants out for other cabinet members as well as leaders of social organizations. It calls on the international community to hold protests outside Honduran embassies and consulates.
TeleSUR reports that the soldiers have also arrested the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras, as well as Chancellor Patricia Rodas. The Venezuelan ambassador told TeleSUR that the soldiers beat him during the kidnapping. La Prena reports that soldiers have detained at least one pro-Zelaya mayor, San Pedro Sula's Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri.
Cell phones are reportedly no longer working in Honduras. The power has been cut in at least some parts of the country, disabling independent media and state television stations for the time being. Before the state televisions went off the air, Channel 8 managed to communicate to its viewers, "It appears as though the soldiers are coming here." Seconds before it went off the air, Channel 8 told citizens to gather in the Plaza de la Libertad. Channel 8 appears to have been taken over by the military, but it is still not transmitting.
Honduras' privately owned Channel 12 and Channel 11 are showing classic soccer clips.
Soldiers Block Opinion Poll
Soldiers have also moved to block the opinion poll that sparked the coup. Today Hondurans were supposed to register their opinion in a non-binding poll that asked them, "Do you think that the November 2009 general elections should include a fourth ballot box in order to make a decision about the creation of a National Constitutional Assembly that would approve a new Constitution?" The poll would have had no legal weight.
In the town of Trujillo, soldiers have taken the streets and are not allowing citizens to vote in the opinion poll.
In Santa Rosa, soldiers reportedly under the orders of the Federal Prosecutors Office have seized ballot boxes from schools and public places.
Soldiers seized ballot boxes in Dulce Nombre Copan as well, but citizens have gone to the military base to take them back again.
In Santa Barbara, La Prensa reports that the opinion poll is going on as planned, with no interference thus far from the military.
Soldiers are also carrying out operations on the country's major highways, according to La Prensa. The situation could get ugly on the highways, as La Prensa reports that peasants from the Guadalupe Carney community have taken over some highways.
School of the Americas Connection
The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for the opinion poll in a new Constitution. President Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez, who refused to step down. The heads of all branches of the Honduran armed forces quit in solidarity with Vasquez. Vasquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by support in Congress and a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated him. Vasquez remains in control of the armed forces.
Vasquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the United States' infamous School of the Americas (SOA). According to a School of the Americas Watch database compiled from information obtained from the US government, Vasquez studied in the SOA at least twice: once in 1976 and again in 1984.
The head of the Air Force, Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996. The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran crisis. When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them. Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.
Congressman Joseph Kennedy has stated, "The U.S. Army School of the Americas...is a school that has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."
The School of the Americas has a long, tortured history in Honduras. According to School of the Americas Watch, "In 1975, SOA Graduate General Juan Melgar Castro became the military dictator of Honduras. From 1980-1982 the dictatorial Honduran regime was headed by yet another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia, who intensified repression and murder by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in all of Latin America (founded by Honduran SOA graduates with the help of Argentine SOA graduates)."
Honduran Gen. Humberto Regalado Hernandez was inducted into the SOA's Hall of Fame. School of the Americas Watch notes that he was a four-time graduate. As head of the armed forces, he refused to take action against soldiers invovled in the Battalion 3-16 death squad.
School of the Americas Watch points out that this is not the first time the SOA has been involved in Latin American coups. "In April 2002, the democratically elected Chavez government of Venezuela was briefly overthrown, and the School of the Americas-trained [soldiers] Efrain Vasquez Velasco, ex-army commander, and Gen. Ramirez Poveda, were key players in the coup attempt."
According to School of the Americas Watch, "Over its 58 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counter-insurgency techniques, sniper skills, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Colombia, with over 10,000 troops trained at the school, is the SOA's largest customer. Colombia currently has the worst human rights record in Latin America." |
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| A note of appreciation from the rich |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|06:21 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Elliott Smith - All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down (live) | ] |
(shamelessly stolen from scroogle.org, via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) 23press)
 Let's be honest: you'll never win the lottery.
On the other hand, the chances are pretty good that you'll slave away at some miserable job the rest of your life. That's because you were in all likelihood born into the wrong social class. Let's face it — you're a member of the working caste. Sorry!
As a result, you don't have the education, upbringing, connections, manners, appearance, and good taste to ever become one of us. In fact, you'd probably need a book the size of the yellow pages to list all the unfair advantages we have over you. That's why we're so relieved to know that you still continue to believe all those silly fairy tales about "justice" and "equal opportunity" in America.
Of course, in a hierarchical social system like ours, there's never been much room at the top to begin with. Besides, it's already occupied by us — and we like it up here so much that we intend to keep it that way. But at least there's usually someone lower in the social hierarchy you can feel superior to and kick in the teeth once in a while. Even a lowly dishwasher can easily find some poor slob further down in the pecking order to sneer and spit at. So be thankful for migrant workers, prostitutes, and homeless street people.
Always remember that if everyone like you were economically secure and socially privileged like us, there would be no one left to fill all those boring, dangerous, low-paid jobs in our economy. And no one to fight our wars for us, or blindly follow orders in our totalitarian corporate institutions. And certainly no one to meekly go to their grave without having lived a full and creative life. So please, keep up the good work!
You also probably don't have the same greedy, compulsive drive to possess wealth, power, and prestige that we have. And even though you may sincerely want to change the way you live, you're also afraid of the very change you desire, thus keeping you and others like you in a nervous state of limbo. So you go through life mechanically playing your assigned social role, terrified what others would think should you ever dare to "break out of the mold."
Naturally, we try to play you off against each other whenever it suits our purposes: high-waged workers against low-waged, unionized against non-unionized, Black against White, male against female, American workers against Japanese against Mexican against.... We continually push your wages down by invoking "foreign competition," "the law of supply and demand," "national security," or "the bloated federal deficit." We throw you on the unemployed scrap heap if you step out of line or jeopardize our profits. And to give you an occasional break from the monotony of our daily economic blackmail, we allow you to participate in our stage-managed electoral shell games, better known to you ordinary folks as "elections." Happily, you haven't a clue as to what's really happening — instead, you blame "Aliens," "Tree-hugging Environmentalists," "Niggers," "Jews," Welfare Queens," and countless others for your troubled situation.
We're also very pleased that many of you still embrace the "work ethic," even though most jobs in our economy degrade the environment, undermine your physical and emotional health, and basically suck your one and only life right out of you. We obviously don't know much about work, but we're sure glad you do!
Of course, life could be different. Society could be intelligently organized to meet the real needs of the general population. You and others like you could collectively fight to free yourselves from our domination. But you don't know that. In fact, you can't even imagine that another way of life is possible. And that's probably the greatest, most significant achievement of our system — robbing you of your imagination, your creativity, your ability to think and act for yourself.
So we'd truly like to thank you from the bottom of our heartless hearts. Your loyal sacrifice makes possible our corrupt luxury; your work makes our system work. Thanks so much for "knowing your place" — without even knowing it! |
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