Sunday, February 17, 2013

Peak Irresponsibility

I'm reading some pretty fucked up and mostly mutually conflicting global disaster "theories" these days. The wheels of motion are spinning so fast across their multitude of axes, that everyone and their dog who isn't fixated on American Idol is now grasping for theories as to how, why and when this entire shit show is going to come flying apart...

Beyond the blatantly stupid ideas of the day which are paraded in an infinite loop by the totally irrelevant corporatized lamestream media, there have emerged a blinding array of narratives across the internet for how we got here, and what it will take to get to a better place. Which of course makes all this "guessing game" highly subjective. Worse yet, put separate experts on finance, economics, energy, politics, history, warfare all in a room and instead of getting the intended intelligent analysis, you get a shit salad, as each expert evaluates the problems of the day through their own narrow silo'd perspective. As they say, if all you have is a hammer, then everything begins to look like a nail.

You Don't Have to Be a Biologist To Know Shit Stinks
Rightly or wrongly, I look for the one lowest common denominator in this fiasco. There's no point in trotting out fancy academic theories for global dislocation, when the Idiocracy is sitting at home attacking themselves with their own fork and knife. Therefore, the issues we face can't be boiled down merely to an illusionary economy, a phony stock market, a disastrous energy policy, a non-existent environmental policy, a Milton Bradley foreign policy or all of the above. The common denominator in every direction for this aging and stagnant society, hence infecting every brain dead idea being hatched at this moment, is abject irresponsibility - towards the planet, towards our children, towards one's fellow man, towards one's own country.

How Do I Reconcile All This?
Just today for example, I was reminded (like anyone needs reminding) that America is in a jobs depression. Yet, I'm also told that the Minimum Wage is the real culprit behind unemployment, because it has the opposite effect that the "do gooders" intended.  In other words, the path to full employment merely requires that we adopt slavery. Why didn't we think of that sooner? And unfortunately Uncle Miltie didn't live long enough to have to explain why America's unemployment rate is 2% higher than Australia's, yet Australia's minimum wage is twice as high as that of the U.S. It's simple fact checking like this that can save all of us from looking like tools of the status quo for quoting dead economists the likes of whom have done their level best to turn the U.S. into a Third World Nation.

Unfortunately, again, it's all about the irresponsibility. It was never about doing the right thing or even seeking the truth. It was merely about finding an excuse, no matter how specious, to amplify profits to the maximum level possible, cash in, and move the profits to offshore bank accounts, just prior to turning in the U.S. passport, which is the latest rage. All it ever was...