Apparent Morality

"If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let’s go out and worship other gods’, do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death and then the hands of the people. Stone him to death because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 13:6-11)"

The supposed morality of the Bible.

Murica.

"As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion and tranquilities, of Muslim Men; and as the States have never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two nations." -1797, Bay of Tripoli - John Adams, Joel Barlow representing the government of the USA.

Christian nation?

Change

"when people attack, ridicule, scoff and degrade "radical" ideas like the Venus Project, the Electric Universe, or people like Nassim Haramein, or conduct any other such action, remember that history is full of people who do this. They are the ones challenged, fearful, or simply too egotistical to accept something different." The Space Advocate

The Insanity Model

I am going to entertain myself with an analogy between our current market system, and a quote from Einstein. The quote will come at the end.

Our current financial system was born about 100 years ago. Since then, we have had recession after recession after recession, now commonly known as the boom and bust cycle. Averaging about one every four years or so. After each one of these recessions, the response is almost always the same; That is the government introduces new legislation to try and stop this disaster from happening again, and the central bank pumps new credit into the system*, only for the same thing to happen within a few years time.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

Does it not seem that the free market system which for good or bad has been exported to almost every corner of the globe, is insane? There is another interesting trend in that each recession is usually more severe than the last, so the problem keeps getting worse, and thus the legislation drafted is usually more draconian and the amount of credit pumped into the system has increased exponentially. Quite clearly, these actions have not slowed down recessions, nor have they have made recessions milder to bare for the general public.

Why on Earth are we still in a free market globalized system? Why on Earth are we still using a centuries old socioeconomic policy that could be improved upon today with real world science. Why on Earth don't enough people care?


* The Great Depression is the exception to this, in that the central bank of the USA restricted credit at the time, prolonging the recession.

Dear Government

Dear Governments of the World,

Please stop printing new money! I know that you know you should stop printing money, and I also know that you know that printing more money only creates more debt, creates more inflation and only serves to delay the problem instead of solve it. In the meantime, while you sit there and inflate the currency or in laymans speak, steal our money, we have to actually work harder to live because thats all inflation is, a term invented by bankers to make something as nefarious as stealing sound innocent and a natural part of the system. I don't like my money being stolen, or the problems facing our economies being pushed away by printing more money. All you are doing by printing one trillion dollars for the EU is pushing back the date the EU breaks up so it doesn't happen on your watch. The only reason America printed off trillions of dollars for its economy and by extension, the worlds is so the economy will collapse some other day instead of under whichever administration is borrowing the money.

Please act like grown up men and women, and let the pyramid scheme we all in live in collapse once and for all so that we can get on with it. Let the free market problems sort itself out like a free market is supposed too. Who am I kidding,  we dont live in a free market economy, we live in a pryamid scheme economy, it benefits those at the top who make the real decisions. Those people who are more powerful than politicians, those elites who are more nefarious than Israeli settlers. That's why politicians won't expose the economy for what it is, even though any politician worth his weight in human excrement knows it for what it is. They are more concerned with their legacy. I have high hopes for their legacy's also. If so many people know about this pyramid scheme of an economy we live in now, surely it will become part of the history curriculum in future schools, and all their names will be sullied anyway, but thats just me hoping. Half of history is hiding the truth. I wonder what we don't know about the Roman Empire, or the British Empire.

So the system will keep going on and on, at least for a while until the unbearable debt burden that every country possesses save four, transforms into something beyond unbearable and into a disaster like the iceberg hitting the unsinkable Titanic. The Titanic didn't sink for hours after the iceberg hit. Seems like the GFC was the iceberg to our economy, all we're waiting for is for it to finally sink. Here I am, patiently waiting and hopefully prepared.

Regards,
F

      

Time To Change

Not my words.

"On the Gulf Coast of the United States the shock is now setting in for millions of American Citizens as we now realize the true extent of the damage caused by our desire for obsolete and dangerous fossil fuels, and our perpetuation of an outdated monetary world society, where the bottom line has always been profit at all costs, be it human or environmental. It is time for a viable solution to deal with a system hardwired for self destruction.

It is with that very unfortunate introduction that we, The Zeitgeist Movement, now must enter the international conversation to express the need for true change. That word is not some jingoist slogan devised by a focus group, but the evident desire of the public for a meaningful transition out of the destructive legacy, the burden of past mistakes as a maturing civilisation. We only have one Earth; there is no reset button here.

We must break out of our established ideologies that have prevented progress. Ending the political duality, economic stratification and false divisions is key to overcoming our apparent historical bondage that says the future we were promised must remain an elusive dream. We must now rethink our society and outgrow those parts of it that serve to paralyze us.

As of Friday, April 30th it was reported by CBS News (US) that the spill had spread to cover 2,100 square miles and was still spilling at a rate up to 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day. As of today, there has been no progress in stopping this catastrophe. This did not have to happen. It happened because we continue to use an obsolete technology for the sake of maintaining a profitable establishment. An establishment that perpetuates vast inequality in its wages to its employees versus its core owners, destroys fragile and vital eco-systems, and pollutes our air.

It is time for real change, not empty promises. No amount of socialism or free market ideology will save us from ourselves, there needs to be a fundamental re-write of what we think we know, to achieve a sustainable human enterprise.

Our generation has stood and watched as our planet has been raped and pillaged, yet we do nothing. Our generation has stood and watched as our government bailed out the very people who created this economic crisis, yet we do nothing. Our generation has stood and watched as our rights have been stripped away from us, and yet we do nothing. Our generation has stood and watched as we have been handed the problems of the countless generations it, and we are preparing to do the same to the next generation, and we do nothing.

Let us be the first generation to hand solutions to our children and our children's children. But we can't do it alone. Let us break down the barriers we have created amongst ourselves. We need all of you, every last one, to say enough in one voice. Not as Americans or Russians, Christians or Muslims, but as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. Let us destroy the lines between us and work to create a world where our children are truly safe and free. Let us create a world where we can tell our children that they can be and do whatever their heart desires, and know deep inside us we are telling them the truth. Let our generation be the one.

We have the tools, we have the knowledge, we have the technology. It is time we make the transition to a world, an economy, and a future we all deserve regardless of geographic or economic disposition. As long as we rely on legacy systems defined in a 19th century mentality all we will do is spin our wheels while a parade of economic and ecologic disasters visits us again and again. It is time to pull the plug on this charade because as you will find out, there is a better way.

We, the Zeitgeist Movement representatives, reach out to you so that we can all work together to do what must be done. Every man, woman and child has a voice, but together we can create one voice so deafening that no one will have to a choice but to listen. But it requires you. It requires you put away preconceived notions you have been told about "the way things are" as if it is the only way, because its not! Our way of thinking will no longer sustain us. We can either remain in the house of cards we have built and watch it collapse all around us, or we can, through the best our society has to offer, begin to construct a stable mature and thriving society so that the Gulf Cost Oil Spill, the Exxon Valdez and many others are nothing more than an embarrassing footnote in history."

Brand Names

I’ve recently taken it upon myself to stop buying brand name materialistic items. Particularly clothes. The reason for this is simple, I don’t want to be a combination of what I own. Nor do I want other people to look at me and access my wealth or materialism based upon what I own and wear. It’s shallow, naïve and screams insecurity, the latter of which I also possess in some amount, and is an issue I am trying to address personally.

Another reason for my 180 on this issue is the contempt with which these companies whose products we wear levy upon us. When you wear a NIKE t-shirt, with the predominant symbol plastered across your chest, the actual meaning behind the placement of it is to advertise to other people who made the t-shirt or whichever item it is you maybe wearing. So in vulgar language, you’re really a walking talking prostitute, except you are paying for the privilege instead of the benefactor.

Now, I am not going to throw away all my old clothes, but all future purchases will preferably be absent of glaring in your face, look at me logos. I don’t mind small inconspicuous advertising, so I may also purchase some brand names. I will however, make exceptions that enhance/augment human functionality. An example would be Vibram Five Finger shoes, the advertising on it is small, but I would wear those if it came with a flag to plant above your head. Some things deserve screaming them out, most things don’t.

Another reason also, is the fact that a lot of the big name brands use sweat shops in poorer countries from South East Asia and some Middle Eastern countries. So by buying these clothes, which they make for cheap, and sell for much more than they are worth. You encourage the company to do more of what they do. I don’t want to be part of that.

I realize I am not changing anything, except on some miniscule immeasurable scale, but it’s more about the principle of the matter.

Central Bank is God

I hate central banks. I really really hate central banks. More than I hate mushrooms, more than I hate big pieces of onion in my food. and almost as much as I hate my cake having any kind of nut on it. Here's why.

A central bank is a monopoly of the worst kind, a 100% monopoly. I don't know of anyone who actually likes monopoly's in our 'free market' economy. When a company gets too big, people starting hating it and try to stop using their products but find they can't rid themselves of said company only to hate them more; senators and other such jackals start pouncing on it for the single issue voters, creating legislation to restrict this one said company and so forth. We hate them and usually for good reason, they abuse their power at times, lobby governments to create legislation favourable to only them, suffocate innovation by smaller companies that might one day pinch away market share. Yet almost all countries on this planet, suffer the monopoly of a central bank.

A central banks primary job is to lend money to the government, other private banks and to control the money supply of that country. First things first, a central bank is first and foremost a bank. Kind of obvious, but has to be said. It is never a part of the government and nor does any government have any kind of power over it except usually to enact an arbitrary law or two that simply slows it down but by no means stops it. Being a bank, it charges interest on all of its loans to the government and to the nation's private banks. Now if you think about it logically, if all the money in a country's money supply comes from the central bank, then where does the money to pay back the interest come from? The logical answer to that is very simple, that money doesn't exist. The not so logical answer which is usually how our world is governed is this; You must go back to the central bank, borrow more money to pay off the previous principal + interest you had borrowed to keep from defaulting. It's the most ridiculous system we could possibly live in. That's the equivalent of you (economy) borrowing $10,000 from a loan shark (central bank) at 10% interest, then spending it and then going back to that SAME loan shark (central bank) and borrowing $11,000 to pay your existing debt, but then you (economy) must also borrow even more since you (economy) are now without money; are starving, without a plasma tv and out on the street in the cold.

All of this has a very specific purpose, and that purpose is to create debt. It puts the government in debt by which it must then tax their populace for repayment of this debt. Private banks then advertise the availability of easy credit, and credit cards become proliferated throughout society, house prices are pushed upwards due to the easy availability of loans; and before you know it, it is the >>insert country here<< dream to own a house, a car and be in a huge amount of debt for 25+ years. Guess what happens when your in debt, you now have less freedom since you cannot afford to be without a job, and you might accept a lower paying job out of need to pay off your debt. It makes you less likely to rebel against the establishment, more likely to acquiesce to a gradual restriction of your liberty and increasingly likely to not do anything about your governments constant rolling over to the bankers since you have too many of your own problems to deal with.

A central bank usually only deals with fiat currency. That is, a currency that has no backing, has no intrinsic value. It derives it value from the existing money supply, thereby causing inflation which robs people of their moneys value. Then to further add insult to injury, a central bank deals with fiat currency that is almost always coupled with fractional reserve banking in which banks create nine times the amount of money that is deposited into their banks. So  if you deposit $10 into a bank, the bank and other banks can turn around and create $90 of additional money out of nothing to use as loans to other consumers, therefore also creating inflation, and robbing the layman of more of his moneys.

A central bank is always coupled with a fiat currency, and fractional reserve banking that captures the populations attention by the 'apparent' increase in wealth that people see in their wallets; I put apparent in single quotation marks since the increase in wealth is merely an illusion due to inflation. So all we see is more and more money in our wallets, and fancy ourselves just a tad richer so whatever system we are in, it must be working right?

This is a classic example of a few power hungry individuals in government and the rich elite thinking up a scheme on how to control the masses. One particular group of people actually inventing it or reusing the idea; that particular country was the USA for the modern rebirth of central banks for the record; and then every other country pointing to the USA and implementing their own saying how great the system was, and there will be increased liberty and wealth for all. Of course, it was all a bunch of bullshit. The people of the world were hoodwinked into such an establishment, it has now spread to almost every country along with capitalism. It is now another method of control, just as religion once was and still is, puppet governments setup by foreign or internal interests which is increasingly common in the western world as it is in the recently invaded,.

Bottom line imo is that central banks are the new God. First there were many Gods, constantly updated with each new civilisation to explain the order of things. These Gods needed sacrifices, and crops to keep them happy. Then come the one true God, who needed money to help the people of the world, then there come central banks to Lord over us. Not everyone believes in God, and it's quite easy though not quite common to not believe in a God that doesn't exist. It's a lot harder however to forego not believing in the value of money. Since how will you feed, cloth and house yourself short of living in the woods and hunting for deer and rabbits.

 It seems the powers that be are constantly trying to refine and update their methods of control, constantly getting better and making it harder to boycott it. I hate central banks, and I hate money but for now it seems like I cannot live without at least one of them.

Ajax

"I am Ajax, breaker of souls; look upon me and despair."

"I thank whatever Gods maybe for my unconquerable soul. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

Just some light hearted fun.

Cyclical Consumption

Cyclical consumption can be characterized as an economical pattern that has wave like trends or cycles. Thus, in order for the economy to function, it must repeat the same trends or go through the same cycles over and over. The same reason that financial bubbles are always followed by a collapse. Too have to big of a gap or low point between repeated cycles, and the economy will collapse.

Cyclical consumption is a very important part of our economies, without it all the economies in the world would collapse as soon as you hit critical mass or maximum entropy of the consumer base. In order for a business to function, it must create a product that the population wants, that people will want or need to buy. Now what happens when that product reaches critical mass such as the car, mobile phone or something as simple as a light bulb? If a product lasts for a very long time, then the company will wither up and die with time since no one will need to purchase their products anymore. So a funny thing happened.

Companies started to make their products purposefully defective, or took design shortcuts that directly comprised the lifespan of the product. Its called 'planned obsolescence' and it's a nasty by-product of capitalism and supply & demand.

The very first light bulb created by Thomas Edison is still burning in his house today. So why do we have light bulbs that last only a couple of thousand hours before it dies; because all the light bulb companies would be out of business by now if they created light bulbs that lasted. So light bulb companies add oxygen to the vacuum inside of a light bulb that causes the filament to oxidize and eventually turn to powder. Electronic makers use more plastic's in iPods, DVD players etc as plastic is cheaper to use, and more prone to failure due to it's head intolerance and environmental susceptibility.

Planned obsolescence also has another nasty side effect; Waste. If we are constantly exposed to buying new products that we need and want, what happens to the old products that we had that are being replaced. They end up in land fills, polluting the environment or being re-used into more useless products that we don't need and eventually end up in the landfill anyway.

Planned obsolescence is using up our planets resources faster than we can recycle it, or do something about it because by the time a lot of us figure out what is happening it will be to late. We are creating scarcity on our planet. Scarcity is the number one cause of all wars, it is the number one cause of crime although that is due to the artificial scarcity in our monetary system which is needed to acquire our needs and wants, so could be considered neurosis by planned obsolescence. The more scarce we make our planets resources; the more war, crime and poverty we will create, and the more that the big countries we live in will abuse the less fortunate and poorer countries elsewhere, something that is already going on. Fantastic system we live in.

About the only real solution, short of ending the monetary system, which is probably the only viable long term solution for the development of the human race is ethical consumerism. Which is pretty much the boycotting of products that use cheap materials, bad practices, sweat shops and other practices that only serve to make their product cheaper, reduces product lifespans, creates endless waste, promotes scarcity in less fortunate countries and forces us to spend our hard earned money on products that should last. 

So until we can get rid of money, I will do my best to be an ethical consumer, as I am as guilty, if not more than most people when it comes to supporting cyclical consumption in the past with my needless continuous purchases of gadgets, electronics and things I really don't need.

Climbing of Ze Rock

Today I went rock climbing at the Edge. Every year for the past three years, I have come home just before the new year to catch up with friends and family, and have one futile attempt to work myself over to the giant wall taunting me. I work overseas, so recreation time is scarce. With this in mind, I decided to conquer the giant wall on this day.

I succeeded!

On the way home, I started thinking about cyclical consumption, and how our economies revolve around it. That will probably be my next blog post in a few days. That will be a mouthful.

Credit Cards

In the last few months, I have learnt a lot about central banks, in particular the Federal Reserve, our economies and how they function in the West. Then for some reason, the other day, I was at a Sanity store buying the 300 Collector's Edition, when it hit me. I don't know why it never hit me before. The purpose of a credit card is to provide you with credit, when you don't have any, or you are running low.

Well as any informed individual will know, the money that you use on a credit card is created out of nothing by the bank and then you have to pay them with your existing monies. So the bank wins by not only creating money out of nothingness, but then in the ultimate insult you have to pay them back with your hard earned money. To top that off, every dollar that is created by the bank to feed mine and your credit card debt contributes to inflation; inflation makes every dollar in the economy weaker which effectively makes the poor poorer and the rich richer. Since the rich have their monies in CD's generating interest that the lower and middle class feed them with the interest from their mortgage, they get richer in a inflationary environment. How awesome! Recently I was asked to put my saving's in a CD account, and I declined for precisely this reason. I don't want to be one of those people who benefits because of the less fortunate.

Thus, I have decided to never use my credit card again, unless I am in an emergency of course or if the retailer refuses to accept my EFPTOs card and what I want is really really pretty.

I don't know why it took me this long for that to hit me, sometimes I can be a bit slow but since my 4th code in life stipulates that I should 'be the change I want to see in the world', then I have no choice. I won't take part in the brazen attempt by banks and government to control us via the use of debt. Just remember, that it is the Central Bank's and every other bank's intention to put you in debt. A person in debt is much more likely to submit for work in a capitalist society to keep the economy pushing ever forward.

I don't won't to be a part of that game. My intentions are to rid myself of debt so that I can live without a full-time job. Only a mortgage to pay off before I reach that nirvana.

-Honest Arab

First Post

I have decided to verbalize my thoughts for two reasons. To make sure I don't forget them, and secondly, to open myself to public critique. I'm not always right, even though I like to think that I am but the more I am proven wrong, the more opportunities I have to learn and improve upon myself. Being wrong in today's society has a bad stigma attached to it, being wrong today almost means that you are a failure, and thus people take it very personally. I have recently taken the mental attitude to re-associate being wrong to being a good thing, for the more I am proven wrong, the smarter I get, and the less I get proven wrong with time, the smarter I am. Anyway, that's just my train of thought.

I like to talk about everything, so my posts will range from mildly to incredibly stupid, to hopefully thought provoking and everything in-between.