dumbed down and stupid to ever be snapped out of their beautiful dreams of the greatness and goodness of their political system.
I’d love to chat with you more, but I have to get busy and finish my shopping. See you later.
WM: See you.
THE RESTAURANT
I had just sat down at a table in one of my usual restaurant haunts. Before the waitress could even hand me a menu, my old high school Spanish teacher, Juana de Gallo, walked in. I hadn’t seen her for years, so I asked her to join me. We had a nice conversation.
JG: Hi Poncho. How are you doing?
PT: I’m doing fine. What have you been up to since your retirement?
JG: Well Poncho, you know me, I’m always involved in something political.
PT: What is it this month?
JG: Lately, I’ve been speaking about the phony housing “Bubble”, and the bailouts of Wall Street, the Auto Industry, the Bankers and the like. These “Crises” are all phonier than three dollar bills. Everyone is running around crying that the sky is falling, and all over a bunch of zeros in some computer, that is supposed to represent some imagined debt that is owed to some wealthy bankers.
It’s all so phony except the effect it has on the people. It’s like some benighted, feathered and painted savage putting the “Evil Eye” on some poor dumb sap, and he drops dead. It was his belief in the reality of the situation that killed him, not any objective reality in the world.
PT: Do you mean that the bailout of the banks, the devaluation of the people’s houses, and the rest, isn’t legitimate debts, and it wasn’t necessary to bail out the auto industry and so on? What would happen if people didn’t pay what they owe?
JG: Ah! But do the people owe these debts? If a business gets into trouble, is it the responsibility of the people to bail them out? Also, if a government borrows money for purposes that the people did not agree to, is it the peoples’ responsibility to pay those debts? Has the government been acting in the interest of the people, or has it been working for their cronies’ interests, and using the excuse of benefit for the people only as a ruse? What about the devaluation of housing? Who was responsible for this? Wasn’t this just pulled out of the air just as the prior valuation was?
All of these things are just conventions that are accepted by the people based upon their belief in their reality. They are nothing more than numbers in computers from overloads on high. They only have force if one accepts them. Usually, it benefits the people to go along with these conventions and inventions. When it no longer benefits the people, why should they be bound to them? Isn’t it the purpose of the government to work for the benefit of the people, or are the people owned by the government, and therefore obliged to work for the good of the government and those that the government appoints as beneficiaries?
Even if one accepts these encumbrances as legitimate, should the people be forever bound to them, even if it means the destruction or their future and the future of their children? Is this acting in a moral manor?
What would happen if these debts were wiped out?
PT: The whole country, if not world would collapse.
JG: Really? Why? What you are saying is that the sky would fall. This is what I’m talking about. There is nothing in the real world that would cause things to be turned upside down. If these multimillionaire bankers and the rest were denied this last little bit of booty, their heads would not explode. They have raped and pillaged the people for thousands of years. If they are not satisfied, or do not have enough by now, then there is an old Arabic saying that applies. It translates roughly something like this: “Fuck em”.
The rivers would not dry up, the sun would not stop shinning, the minerals would not disappear from the ground, and the people would not forget how to use their hands and heads. The only issue that would come up would be how to organize things without debt slavery. I’m sure that even a high school freshman could come up with an alternative plan for this.
Is it the duty and destiny of the people to be the eternal victims and slaves of the elites and the government’s dirty tricks? The governments, corporations, and other elites, have been so detrimental to the welfare of the people, and such mooching leaches, that anything that the people do owe them has been so delegitimized, that no measure of morality would hold the people to their supposed obligations.
One can keep coming back to Iceland and the way they solved the very same issues. They jailed the bankers, kicked out the government, and forgave most of the debts. Other cultures have had periodic “Jubilees”, where debts are forgiven. These cultures prospered as long as they did this. When they stopped, the elites took over and the people and countries fell. Look at Rome or the early Christians, and others.
But let’s say that we are really bleeding hearts. We can’t bear the thought of those poor bankers, government representatives, and the rest, having to do without their “interest”, or whatever else you want to call it. What should be done to satisfy this overpowering moral imperative to take care of the poor bankers et al?
Don’t the rich bankers have their millions hidden in off shore accounts? Won’t this tide them over until they can figure out how to make more millions in some other scam? How about the less well-off investors? If they are majorly harmed, can’t we think of some way to help them out? How about giving them another job? How about giving them some kind of welfare or Medicaid, or some other compensation? How much would this take? Pay them off and get rid of them. Even if it was a million apiece, wouldn’t this be miniscule compared to the evil of allowing the current system to continue? Iceland did O.K.
I think that the people of America are so opposed to this type of solution because they are caught up in the “American Dream”. They think that, one day, they are going to be the rich banker, and they don’t want anyone keeping them form there potential “Rich and Famous” dream. Is this any reason to keep the same exploitive system alive? Isn’t this a little bit of a silly reason to cling to a rotten system?
What if such a societal move were the most immoral thing that could possibly happen? Who cares? We need to be practical. Let’s be willing to start over with a better system. Let’s think about our children, and their rights to be free of an unjustly and harmful debt. Which is immoral, a system that enslaves the people, or a system that benefits all, without excessive benefits to the leaches of the world?
PT: You know what I can’t figure out? If the government bureaucrats, corporate raiders, and the rest, would just take their money and retire from their fascist enterprise, they could live out the rest of their lives in the lap of luxury. They could spend their time sipping fine old wine, molesting their servants, and eating $150.00 hamburgers. Why keep brutalizing and robbing the people?
JG: I think there are two reasons for their wanting to continue. The first is that they truly hate the people, and hold them in contempt. They love molesting them. The second reason is that they seem to be so detached from reality, and the world of the average citizen, that they actually believe that, if they receive special consideration, favorable laws that support their usury and scams, and so on, then that will be good for the country and people as a whole. I don’t think that they even see what their actions are doing to the rest of the world.
PT: Well, This is something I will have to think about. For now, it is getting late, and I have to get back to other business. I’LL have to see you later.
JG: Me too. See you later.
THE COURTHOUSE
I was just coming out of the courthouse, after renewing my license plates, when I heard a voice call my name. It was Willie Mahalic. It had been quite a while since I last saw him, and I was curious to know what he had been doing. We went over to the side of the stairs and sat down and talked for a while.
PT: Well Willie, it’s been quite a while since we last talked. What’s been going on with you? Have you been doing more philosophizing?
WM: You k
now me, Poncho. I’m always philosophizing, that is, when I’m not bullshitting of course.
PT: Well, what have you been thinking about lately?
WM: Lately, there has been something that I just can’t seem to get out of my mind.
PT: What’s that?
WM: I’ve been wondering just what kind of people it is that populates our world. To a certain extent, I can understand how it is that the elites, elected, and officials, corporate executives, and the like, can be as they are. They either don’t care about the peons, and in fact, hold them in contempt, or else they are so disconnected from the world of the common man, that their thinking has become so jaded, that they can’t see what is going on or how they affect them. It probably doesn’t help that they are psychopaths either.
What I can never seem to get my mind around, is how is it possible that the average citizen of America, or any country for that matter, cannot see the evils that the elite players are doing to them, other people and countries, and to the planet itself.
I used to think that it was only in America that the people were so asleep and naive. Now I see that it is more or less the same with most people, especially as they approach or surpass the American level of prosperity.
PT: It’s not getting hard to surpass the American level of prosperity nowadays, but I see what you