Open Thread - Friday, May 18, 2018
Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/18/2018 - 3:20am
We have created a manic world nauseous with the pursuit of material wealth. Many also bear their cross of imagined deprivation, while their fellow human beings remain paralyzed by real poverty. We drown in the thick sweetness of our sensual excess, and our shameless opulence, while our discontent souls suffocate in the arid wasteland of spiritual deprivation.
― Anthon St. Maarten
What a fine funkin' mess.
Our country is graft riddled and run by a bunch of funkin' hoodlums.
Governance by the do as I say, not as I do gang.
Persevere.
Just sayin'.
Be stubborn.
Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.
Comments
Good morning, Tim ~~~
We are living through trying times. Fear is a troubling master. Humanity is long absent. We must walk through the wasteland we've created for ourselves. Will we reach the promised land?
Have a beautiful day and weekend, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good Morning
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
material aquisition is the driving force of capitalism
How sad that is our cultural/societal goal. Competition rather than cooperation as we cling to the image of the rugged individualist - every person for themselves - more for me.
There are some of us that value people and planet over profit...we just need to grow our ranks.
We sang this one in Montgomery Monday on the Poor People's march
(Look for my description Sunday AM in the weekly watch)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPuBGcng6Tw]
Have a good weekend Tim and you 99ers!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good Morning
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Good morning, Funkmeister/Biker Tim. :-)
I read a very depressing article just now. It described how cyber technology allowed employers to monitor employees. Abuse is already happening, and it boggles the mind. Seriously.
I'm glad I'm disabled and retired. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Hola compadres and happy Friday, Tim. It is funny how pervasive
the consumption and possession drive in our culture is. I thing that the madison avenue marketing explosion of the forties and fifties helped to drive it to this extreme, along with some cultural propaganda, but it has always been an undercurrent. People really have a ton of trouble grokking the whole concept of having enough or being satisfied with what you have. Stasis as to material goods and such is unthinkable.
That in turn is why it is always so difficult to get people to "get" marxism, communism and socialism. The idea that we can produce enough for all to be comfortable and share that production so as to bring that about can't penetrate the mindset that doesn't recognize being satisfied with a comfortable standard of living as a possible reality. "But what if I want a Ferrarri, or two houses, or a private submarine?". Extravagance is a goal to the extent that many cannot appreciate simple elegance when confronted with it. It is unimaginable that one should be happy to forego one's own private jet until everybody has at least a home, clothes and 3 squares.
The imagery of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" is transformed into the extravagent opulence and bizarre gluttony of the opening scene of Kenneth Anger's "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome", instead of maybe this:
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning all.
I'm back from being out of town for a few days. Going to and from the airport and seeing with tourist eyes, the living looks pretty bleak and third-world in the section of town we drove through. I know the same is true here as it is in all our other cities. Chris Hedges described it in detail in his Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Many of our writers describe it here as well (eyo comes to mind). It is heartbreaking and unnecessary. We can do better.