Corp(se)

Ever seen the documentary "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power"? It's about 7 years old now, but still very relevant, and the book it is based on is excellent. Since the Supreme Court insists that we treat the corporation as a person when it suits them, this documentary shows us well how, when examined from a behavioral point of view, corporations are often sociopathic or even psychopathic.

An interesting side note is that last year’s comedy, “The Other Guys,” had a few masked jokes in it, yes, but the really interesting part came in the end credits. They gave all these statistics about how Wall Street, corporations, etc. have done criminal damage to the U.S.

Ah, that sort of hiding truth in comedy would warm the hearts of Aristophanes and Plautus. :)

Poor Nation's Standard Almanac

Standard & Poor (S&P), who showed it was way too cozy with Wall Street in the near financial meltdown of just a few years ago, today said the Emperor might be becoming a bit nakey: Within 2 years, it remarked, the situation could deteriorate to the point where the US government bonds, etc. would be lowered in their quality rating from their present highest rating to something else. S&P said the outlook has gone from “stable,” to “negative,” and their detailed remarks show NO faith that the US fiscal process will show sanity or sustainability. Meaning, no sufficiently hard decisions will be made, and the problem kicked down Unsustainable Street for a little while longer, until the day of reckoning really arrives.

Bells Will Be Wringing

So much rot, decay, weakness, excess, and illusion, it may take a Depression to wring it out, assuming it can be wrung out. If we can’t wring it out, even more severe calamities may await (Revolution? Foreign Control? Occupation? Continual and Cascading Ecological Disasters? Military Dictatorship? Neo-Feudalism?).

The young aren’t going to save things in their present state of illusion, delusion, escapism, and denial. Case in point: many of them did not know (or care) there was any government budget problem, let alone have an idea of what it is all about.

And why are people so easily twisted into ignorance or believing their prejudices? Because they value things other than being informed. They may know everything about their favorite sports teams or celebrities, for example, but little about their government, and often what they little they think they know is wrong. So they are easily manipulated pawns for those who carefully (and often anonymously) plant disinformation and misinformation to emotionally inflame them.

Often this manipulation comes in the guise of “we’re all in the same boat” sentiments of what is really false solidarity. I was warned about this long ago:

“The rich had their money, Jimmie. They didn’t suffer in the Depression. Don’t let all this talk about ‘everyone was poor and in it together’ fool you. I was there.”

My grandfather and his son were so much smarter than I ever thought.