Throwing Money at the Problem

Instead of just admitting that throwing money at national problems (like security, disaster relief, social injustice, environmental posioning, healthcare, etc.) doesn't work, rich people have endeavoured (through various irrational government initiatives and corporate magical thinking) to create a system whereby all problems are only discussed & evaluated in terms of monetary substantiation.
In such world, where money is the bottom line of all quantifiable entities (IE. The Primary Resource), the appropriating of more money towards a problem can actually be termed a success! How very convenient!

Inside the moneyed elite's mind:
Yeah, instead of trying to actually indentify the resources we have and admitting that some of them are completely intangible, lets just make up our own fantasy resource that has an unlimited supply and then make sure everything is re-defined in terms of it! WooHoo! That should work! Then we could solve all the worlds problems! Yeah, that's the ticket! Why just 2 decades ago, we only had a national value in the billions, and now our value is in the trillions! Amazing, we must be worth at least a million times what our parents were worth! Yeah that’s what it means! We are super valuable! So valuable, infact, that we don't have to actually do anything or manage anything or think anything, just write a check and the world is saved! How awesome are we? I'm not sure but its really freakin' awesome!

The idea that one can increase the balance sheet of any entity (individual, corporate, governement, bank, social program, school, hospital, etc.) in order to solve any problem is nothing more than 'self-fulfilling prophecy!'
The truth is, only people solve problems.

The elusive combination of ((proper critical thinking)+(meticulous management of resources)) x (calculated risk taking) = the only proven way to solve problems

Is this so tough to understand?

Liberatationalism I

Meet 'Pope Ron Paul Jones', the fresh new face of American culture:

Pope Ron Paul Jones went down to Washington DC one day, looking for the government. Luckily there were many signs directing him and he followed them for a few days. Unable to find the actual government, but nevertheless convinced that it actually does exist, PRPJ began to form a favorable opinion of the government. He started to talk animatedly to people about the good things the government in his mind stood for.
He exclaimed things like,"Look at how great this country is...that shows our government is top notch!"
and,"Look at how patriotic our people are...that shows our culture is strong!"
and,"Look at how impassioned the political debates are...that shows we are inclusive!"
and,"Look at how wealthy our leaders are...that shows our people are prosperous!"
Everyone he met agreed with Pope Ron Paul Jones. He was filled with a swelling pride to be a citizen of America. What a lucky, happy man. It was beautiful day and the sun was glinting off of the reflecting pool at the mall. PRPJ looked deep into the pool and contemplated all the wonderful things about America. How could life be any better?

Pope Ron Paul Jones went down to wall street one day, looking for the economy. Luckily, there were many economic indicators and he analyzed them for a few days. Unable to find the actual economy, but nevertheless convinced that it did actually exist, Pope Ron Paul Jones began to gain great confidence in it. He was compelled to share the confidence in his mind with everyone he met.
He exclaimed things like,"Look at how great these markets are...this shows the genius of our financial system!"
and,"Look at how confident the traders are...this shows our how robust our economy has become!"
and,"Look at how much money is here...this shows the incredible value of the financial institutions!"
and,"Look at how so many people of the world trade with us...this shows the fairness of the markets!"
There was little disagreement with Pope Ron Paul Jones, and he became filled with awe and inspiration at such a magnificent system. What a remarkable situation the markets created. What a lucky, happy man. It was a beautiful day, and PRPJ decided to have lunch at the four seasons restaurant. He looked deep into the pool and contemplated all the amazing feats of wall street. How could life be any better?

Pope Ron Paul Jones went down to hollywood one day, looking for entertainment. Luckily, there were many beautiful people who all gave him excellent advice towards his search. He followed this advice for a few days, but was unable to find anything other than distractions. Nevertheless, he was convinced that entertainment actually did exist and began to become very excited. He was determined to share the excitemnet in his mind with the people of hollywood.
He expounded,"Look at how great these studios are...this means the product is top notch!"
and,"Look at how beautiful these people look...this means they are all working very hard on their acting!"
and,"Look at the multitude of special effects that can be created...this means that imagination can come alive!"
and,"Look at the apparent wealth of the culture...this means that entertaining can truly lead to happiness!"
The good people of southern california were ecstatic to have such a wonderful audience, and they took Pope Ron Paul Jones out for a night on the town. They wined him, dined him and he had a wonderful time. What a lucky, happy man. The next morning, PRPJ took a long walk on the beach, gazing longingly out across the ocean. How could life be any better?

Pope Ron Paul Jones went down to the art gallery one day, looking for beauty. Luckily, there were many guides there to direct him and he followed them around for a few days. Unable to find beauty, but nevertheless certain that it existed in art, PRPJ began to become very upbeat about the prospect of of beauty in art. He shared his upbeat state of mind by making many statements to the art show community.
He intoned,"Look at how great this show is...this means that the art is top notch!"
and,"Look at how intense the artists are...this shows that beauty will be pursued with vigor!"
and, "Look at this incredible gallery...this shows that art has an important, special place!"
and,"Look at how the art dealers prosper...this shows how the quest for beauty can be successful!"
The people all agreed with Pope Ron Paul Jones. What an astounding community of warmth and possibilities. He was filled with the spirit of the muse. What a lucky, happy man. The day was perfect, and PRPJ decided to meditate. How could life be any better?

New Foreign Policy Proposal

We are an awesome and overwhelming power for good in the world, but we can't keep people from being stupid and violent. We can only help those who want to escape the stupid violence and hope that the violent stupid people will decline.
We should concentrate on the message of:
'we can come and rescue you from violent stupidity and give you a better life in America (or other stable regional power) if you want it'

This would be truly heroic, a lot cheaper, and much more effective. Let our best military minds reorganize our military/industrial resources to try and accomplish this task. Work together with other powerful countries & cultural entities like NATO and the red cross. Refuse to work with powerful non-cultural entities like terrorists and multi-national corporate raiders. Forget about grabbing resources from stupidly violent people as this is historically proven a colossal waste of time and lives and resources.
Train regional powers to help good people escape tyrrany and assimilate those people into the productive culture of their choice. This could result in a huge military industry upside. We might even become the visionary heroes of the world, rather than our current status of bullying policemen.

The military industrial complex is an essential part of organized society, but we do not have to put up with the misuse, waste, and abuse of the current model. Giving them a new mission target and a mandate to reorganize will keep them busy for decades and could bring notoriety back to the organization. It could also bring alot of relief to suffering people around the world.

As for bringing refugees to our country or other stable countries, this is not a problem since America is a nation of refugees and is the strongest human culture ever conceived. We know ho to manage refugees and assimilate them into peaceful productive citizens. Lets just use what we know and export it to the world. Here is something we are very, very good at and it has a real chance to change the world for the better. Use the tools we have in our military industrial complex to achieve a truly heroic goal of getting the intelligent, peaceful people together and letting the violent stupidity play itself out.

The ideas of systematic elimination of the violent stupidty are naiive and unsustainable. In this short-sighted process of elimination we inherently create more anger and violent stupidity. This cycle is self-evident. Let's just admit that it is untenable and move on.

Iraq & the Kurds

The kurds are expanding their territory in Iraq. It seems to me that this kurd situation is a microcosm of the bigger picture, and we will see more and more of this. Plus, my opinion is as good as any other, since we have had no clear objective in Iraq, nor any assurances of progress. Even after all these years and lives and money, the generals are still saying that the 'gains' we have made could easily be reversed. The kurds are an armed coalition who will fill any power vacuum around them (there are many groups like this in the world). Its not our fault and we should leave Iraq immediately. Even our founding fathers wrote about how an armed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny. The factions in Iraq do not want to work together in a peaceful way. Let's just admit it. The majority of the regions' cultures believe in oppression of women and slave/master relationships between men. It is a brutal tragedy, but it is not america's fault. Also the kurdistan situation has become worse even though American forces are in Iraq. As occupiers, we are basically having zero positive effect on the kurd/iraq situation. Mostly because an occupying force of 150,000 can't keep an eye on 26 million people.

Thoughts on the Middle East

I have never lived in or been to the middle east, but it seems to me that power vacuums in that region get filled fairly quickly by local militias. Every so often there is a conquering force that attempts to unite the different tribal regions. Usually, the conquering force wants control of the resources and/or people. Each region wants to be autonomous, in my opinion, but they can't or won't work together. Uniting them is a lofty goal, but it means a paradigm shift in the thinking of the people, and I do not see that as the overwhelming majority's philosophical position. It is, from my perspective, very sad, and especially tragic to women. Unfortunately, no outside force has ever been able to change the philosophy of the people in the region. This, by the way, was my argument from the beginning when friar bush and his merry band of thieves were trying to convince us that occupying Iraq would by a great way to take revenge for the attacks on 9/11. I think we should leave immediately and stop counting the resources of the middle east as part of our strategic planning. We have plenty of resources here in America and at our disposal in South America, Africa, Europe, Australia, etc. The best way to help the middle east is to give an escape path and refuge to anyone who wishes to leave that society. That’s all we can do. The stupidity of the brutal oppression of women and the subsequent slave/master relationship of the majority culture there will eventually resolve itself. It is extremely wasteful & hubris to pursue any other method of dealing with them. I am sick of seeing the deaths caused by my tax dollars and the correlating decline in our own culture. Adding death and destruction can never result in a positive turn for the middle east.
We can't control the middle east, let's just admit it and move on.

Clues to Successful Resource Management

So what is the answer to successful resource management? I suggest looking at nature. Nature is the best resource manager we know of. It even manages us! Lets use our abilities of abstract thought and higher understanding to study & participate in nature. 

As a start, and i mean right away, we need to do the following: 

Instead of using the analogy of the dog pack to shape our national resource management strategy (competition as the grail), lets look at the redwood tree or the coral reef (competition as an important footnote). 

We can use keynsian economics to argue over widgets, but not the level of poison in the air. We can use competitive ideals to compel our development of technology, but not in the decision making behind how to use that technology. The competitive part of natural processes that our culture concentrates so much on is actually a lesser part of the bigger resource management strategy of nature. Thats why relying on this competitive spirit to guide everything we do results in a lesser culture than we would like to have. (and lying about how great our competitive school system is, does not make us better educated, it just makes us a bunch of dirty liars)

Let the dog pack thinkers argue and steal and cheat and profit over parts of our economy that can go boom & bust without too much suffering to the lowest class of people in the culture. Always use that as a yardstick to evaluate which processes can be allowed to go to market culture and which processes must be relegated to long term, non-market planning.

This isn't that hard, people, we all intuitively understand it.

Decades of Mismanagement Finally Failed

The criminal mismanagement of America's resources has finally failed. Unsustainable growth and destructive/ridiculous management models are now proven to be useless fantasies. Let's just admit it and move on. 

We know that the educated morons who blew up our financial markets and stole our national resources can never properly manage a recovery. Lets just admit that too. These same criminal mismanagers have temporarily hobbled financial stability around the world and permanently stolen a portion of the global resources from our children. Giving more chances to people who have proven that their theories of resource management are invalid is quite literally, lunacy. Americans aren't lunatics. We are alot of things, but we are not stark raving mad. The path to continued failure is in front of us. The change we hoped for is still in the wind. 

Who is going to manage the incredibly ambitious programs of the so called progressives?

Who is going to oversee the resource management, procurement, planning, and problem solving that comes with these grand ideas of restructuring our financial, energy, infrastructure, health, defense, & manufacturing models?

Who among us is capable of (and willing to) managing the monetary expenditure outlined by any of these bailout/stimulus programs? Just the money going in and out and what it was spent on is nearly impossible to track. Recent history proves me right, Paulsen has no accounting of the first half of the bank bailout, the IRS has only a partial accounting of the stimulus from last year, nobody knows what AIG spent their buyout moneys on, etc. And thats JUST THE MONEY! Not the programs created, their effectiveness, the analysis, the people helped, the assets unfrozen, my god people, we can't even count the frickin money! Do you think that the new (and not so new) Congress people are super-geniuses who can do the impossible? They didn't even read the stimulus bill.....what a frickin joke! These people can't even manage to read the biggest expenditure bill ever passed in the history of our country, how in the hell are they going to manage the execution of it? They can't. Lets just admit it. This cannot be done. Seriously, we need to admit that this way of managing a country is not realistic, is not working, has never worked in history, and will lead to more suffering.

So, watch who gets control of the reins of these sectors of federal government that are tasked with managing our national resources. Look at their backgrounds. These people are not reformers who work towards systemic change and the greater good. For each legitimate reformer (sanders), there are about 20 actors posing as reformers (mccain, schumer, pelosi, rangel, dodd, boehner, jindal, feinstein, biden, lieberman, geithner, mcconnel, franks, clinton, holder, emmanuel, romney, frist, palin, gingrich, dean). Having a few good ideas and hiring someone else to pursue them is not going to reverse decades of the same. This is going to be just a continuation of failed philosophies.

I can't imagine that the people who have the ability and aptitude to make actual reform happen would want to or be able to interact with the system of criminal mismanagement we have fostered. They are personalities who would be diametrically opposed to the rationale of a central government saving the world. It is even possible that we have all been poisoned to the point where the right people to properly manage the recovery of America are not even in America! Is any of us capable of getting this done? I have serious doubts. 

For example: I know damn well that i couldn't oversee the restructuring of our country's energy situation. Even if i had all the power one would need to do it, i couldn't get it done. Plus, think about how much power that is, the power to direct substantive change in Americas energy programs. Think of the sensitive knowledge one would need to do it right, think about how long it would take to gather the data on our energy consumption and how much trust the society would have to put in me to have that information. Think about how much negative information you would have to absorb. Think about how many lies you would uncover. Think about how many people would want to keep you from uncovering the lies. Does anyone want me or anyone else having that much power, without some checks and balances? Can you say Enron? I knew you could....

At least we are having a conversation about some of the disastrous mismanagement of the last 3 decades, thank you Mr. Obama. I really do appreciate it, and i believe that this will be the only time in my life when the federal government will attempt to address the situation with some degree of transparency. Unfortunately, we are not yet on the path to any kind of substantive resolution to the troubles we face.