Bageant: 'Big Brother got the ju-ju, Gaia the blues’
That common womb of American consciousness is dying. Slowly or rapidly, depending on how you assess the global ecocide and peak everything, it is dying.There will be resuscitations along the way, more massive infusions of money, fear and the rawest sort of fantasy fed to a mood and commodity drugged public. Still, its condition is terminal, because the hyperdrive consumer culture it was built to sustain, is itself unsustainable. Its appetite ate the world. In fact, so voracious is its appetite that even if our "consumer economy," (legalized feudal theft) sees a recovery, and resumes the level of growth required just to keep capitalism alive, it will die just that much faster. It is not in capitalism's DNA to care about the death of the earth. Nor is it in the brain chemistry of an American satiated on prime beef and sailing across the landscape at 70 miles per hour in a $40,000, steel exoskeleton from General Motors, to care. Hominid gratification is what it is -- hard wired -- and there is no circumventing it.
The system has just begun its crash, and already we are seeing an armed infantilized nation wail, hurl blame and do horrific things, the worst of which we do to one another (excluding sending predator drones after Middle Eastern school kids). Surveillance, witch hunts, destruction of civil liberties, and the government inching toward star chamber trials for those who do not display correct traits. Citizens embracing totalitarianism as stability in the face of the ultimate instability -- the death of the planet.
The political regime or philosophy does not exist which can turn this scenario around. Slow it down, maybe, but put things in reverse, nope. Not when six billion mouths are munching at one end of the last noodle, and at the other end a fraction of a billion well armed technological people want the entire noodle. Not when life is already so damned cheap you can buy a girl slave in Haiti for twelve bucks, or 50 child slaves for your Asian sweatshop for less than the cost of a new car. Or an American working man for half of what it takes to support a family, then throw his ass over the company fence when he's no longer needed. Or bury him in mines as he cries out in Jesus' name, blow him up in Iraq, and Stelazine his kids minds and souls under the hot lights of the hologram, readying them for "the labor market." Schenectady or Soweto, life is dirt-cheap and getting cheaper everywhere on the planet.Joe Bageant
Virutal reality puts men into women’s minds
Scientists have transferred men's minds into a virtual woman's body in an experiment that could enlighten the prejudiced and shed light on how humans distinguish themselves from others.
In a study at Barcelona University, men donned a virtual reality (VR) headset that allowed them to see and hear the world as a female character. When they looked down they could even see their new body and clothes.
The "body-swapping" effect was so convincing that the men's sense of self was transferred into the virtual woman, causing them to react reflexively to events in the virtual world in which they were immersed.
Men who took part in the experiment reported feeling as though they occupied the woman's body and even gasped and flinched when she was slapped by another character in the virtual world.The Guardian/UK
World banks’ war on the working class"
The extent of the powerful wave of speculation against the euro was made clear by Jochen Sanio, head of the German financial supervisory board Bafin, speaking to last week to the budget committee of the Bundestag (parliament). Sanio spoke of a “war of aggression by the speculators, against the euro zone”, which involved “crazy sums” running into tens of billions. In the case of Greece, speculators exploiting CDS (credit insurance) were able to reap about 500 percent profit in three to four months.
These record profits are also reflected in the balance sheets of the major investment banks. The Deutsche Bank recorded a pre-tax profit of €2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2010, a return on investment of 30 percent. In the same quarter, Goldman Sachs, for the first time in its history, reported a profit on each day of trading, on most days amounting to $100 million.
The working class will now pay for these huge sums of money in the form of welfare cuts, wage cuts and unemployment. With the new euro rescue package, the European governments have placed themselves completely at the mercy of international financial capital. If they do not drastically reduce their budget deficits, the next wave of speculation will inevitably follow. If the financial guarantees are then called upon, the holes in the state budgets will grow, demanding even greater austerity measures.
Experts therefore agree that the euro rescue package is only the beginning of a massive European-wide austerity program, which will spell the decimation of the European welfare state. This shows the real character of the European Union as a tool of the banks and the most powerful sections of the European bourgeoisie.
The Financial Times commented on the package: “Most of the European Union is living beyond its means.... Many Europeans have come to regard early retirement, free public health care and generous unemployment benefits, as fundamental rights. ... Yet if Europeans do not accept austerity now, they will eventually be faced with something far more shocking—sovereign debt-defaults and collapsing banks.”WSWS
Expect Greek pension ploys to be repeated here
Turn the page; pass the biscuits; let freedom wave
US citizens: all rights gone
posted by Tom Nadeau at 7:49 AM
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