Currency for Living

        I'm going to be talking mostly from the perspective of being a resident of the United States, most of my explanations will apply with a few name changes to almost every nation. Money makes the world go round, not true obviously, but also tough to argue with as it certainly seems to spin the human world.  Going without currency is to an extent impossible if you live in a modern nation. we are paid, sometimes even forced to get special accounts just to receive the fruits of our labor. Why given the facts of how much impact money, and finance has on our everyday experience it's a wonder hardly anyone seems to understand it, or even have any desire to.  The boons of an abstract store of value, a thing that represents all other things in potential can not be understated, and would have to make it to any list of ideas that changed the world. Having a representational system of value has without a doubt opened up trade, allowed for specialization at unprecedented levels.  That does not mean our current system will continue as is, nor does it mean our current system is infallible.  There has been much made about how contrived our markets are, with not price discovery, but manipulation at work as the rule.  As a world we live in a debt based system, consolidation of resources, and money as a thing.  Money as thing is fine, if the money is a thing, ours is figures on a screen or pieces of paper, with the majority of it only coming into being when it is created with interest attached by private parties.  This makes for different classes of money, easy to understand if all money is debt, the money created with a lower interest rate attached would have more value than that created with a higher rate.  This interest on the creation of money sets in place a organized crime like skim, where the percentage of interest charged is stolen right off the top.  All while zero risk, as your product is needed by everyone, yet does not exist till you sell it to them.  Many will now be saying that I am ignoring the reserve requirements.  These might have been a restraint at one time, with zero interest and the presses on full blast, meeting the requirements is an after the fact event.
        How might we change this?  Issuing currency is and must remain with the sovereign, be it a nation, or municipality what have you.  In order for the money to not take over, it must be maintained as a service to the nation by the nation.  The US must issue it's own currency the credit agencies, and private banks would have to adhere to a full reserve requirement.  This would eliminate the infinite growth mythology, and allow for expansion and contraction of the currency supply based on the needs to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.  Isn't that what representational money is about?  Making it as simple as possible for an individual to exchange what they have, for what they need?
      In fairness the US monetary system never stood a chance, with even our history being rewritten to leave our money as a prime motivating factor for the revolution.  Some even goes so far as to make a case that Hamilton, our first secretary of the treasury was an agent for international banking interests. As interesting as history can be, the who did what who, or he said she said game will not do a thing to change the present.  Like all technology, money is a thing most do not wish to spend time thinking about. We just want it to work, ours doesn't, was not planned to, and we are in the world change over of global trade settlement.  If there was intent to work our system as intended the bail out would have been in public works projects. Where those with the least are put to work by the government to make improvements everyone will benefit from. This allows the currency to enter at the bottom, and trickle it's way up through the full economic structure.  What we have done is cut out the middle and bottom, injecting the currency almost at the top. Combined with interest rates kept artificially low, that currency has no choice but to enter into speculative markets just to find a return. This only adds distortion to the overall economic data.
     We can make money the tool it is intended to be, or we can be little more than economic servants to those who understand it's tricks. The choice is always ours.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard  

Self Styled Slacker

         I am a slacker, what does that mean?  

slack·er

ˈslakər/

noun

informal

1. a person who avoids work or effort.

   synonyms:

   layabout, idler, shirker, malingerer, sluggard, laggard; More

   • US

     a person who evades military service.
   • NORTH AMERICAN

     a young person (especially in the 1990s) of a subculture characterized by apathy and aimlessness

   
   

I avoid anything I think of as work, or anything I view as being wholly stupid.  Not to say I am not productive, or that I never act in a manor that can be rightly called stupid.  I wasn't always a slacker, and to be fair, I have adopted the term as it's easier to cultivate that view in people than being honest.  In many ways the self adoption of the term is not unlike any other person taking a slight, and using it.  That does not mean I am unable to use that trick of detachment, and see how from others perspectives I do exactly that.  

      From my own view, work is not required, work is something people feel they have to do out of a sense of obligation.  What that obligation is up for debate, it is slightly different for everyone.  Generally coming from lessons taught in childhood, either intentionally or through osmosis, just absorbing what everyone around them says, and does in relation to "money".  That is what it pretty much always comes to, the majority work because they feel it's the only way to get money, and they feel they need money in order to survive.  Some have gotten to a point where the idea of what survival looks like, might be extravagant. That isn't overly important, it's the idea of have to work to survive.  I've never felt that way, and though the hows have changed, the intent has remained fairly constant for about 30 years now.  I'm not even saying I haven't been employed, the what is less important as the how I feel about the what. I mean I had a job at gas station for 5 or so years, it was an exchange, I didn't feel like it was work, with the only time I felt taken advantage of was when being asked to fix a computer as a cashier.  Let me explain this a bit, I covered fri, sat, sun, from 1pm, till midnight, on my own from 5pm on, was allowed to sit and read. My friends would hang out, even had this beautiful woman that would come have dinner sometimes.  It was for me a nice break, and forced me to stay social in the physical world. On my time I was playing Everquest 50+ hours a week, so being in a high profile position where I was forced to interact with people was needed.

      There is seemingly an expected life path, birth, school, job, spouse, kids, death.  Well I do not remember getting the choice of being born, and if I had a say you'd have to question my sanity from the get go. For the first x odd years they tell you, your job is to learn, than they proceed to cram you full of garbage that has very little to do with learning, and an awful lot with Pavlovian conditioning. While I love learning, everyone, and thing teaches me all the time, I do not yet remember a day I didn't learn something.  School as it turns out, was not really about learning, oh sure there are some foundational aspects, the reading, writing, arithmetic. Along with some introduction to higher concepts.  For the most part my experience of school was about the next school, or job you were going to get. When I stopped going, end of junior year, it was there wasn't much left to learn there, and the piece of paper did not mean anyone had learned a thing.  The fact that people were getting degrees essentially handed to them based on who their parents were, or how skilled an athlete they were.  Made the piece of paper meaningless to me, as well as setting up a disdain for those who put faith in them. This doesn't even account for the ideas of diminishing returns being applied, or the shrinking need for a labor pool due to automation. They say that nearly 3/4 of the american population lives paycheck to paycheck, with around 60% being one missed check from the street.  How well is our system working?  In the writings of the founders of America, not the United States, they are different. They wrote about our times right now, not in dates, and prophetic announcements. Nah, they didn't need to go through all that, at the times of their writings they were already being forced to, or had just broken from, an outside agency printing their currency at interest.  They already saw jobs as wage slavery, The idea that future generations would end up homeless due to compounding interest on currency creation in private hands was not, and is not esoteric. Given this perspective the idea of "working" for a "living" loses it's appeal at least in my eyes. 

       For me a flip side to the slacker lifestyle is this, only once you have leisure time do you begin to contemplate.  When your life is about survival, or chasing the next big thing, there is little space for the what if's, the scent of flowers. Often there isn't even room for friends, and family, usually the very ones purportedly being worked so hard to benefit are lost in the daily shuffle, grinding out the next dollar. Or perhaps for some it is the ego identification with a title that gives meaning to their existence. Having lost count long ago of the number of times people have talked to me in the capacity of clerk, and told me I was wasting, or under utilizing my abilities. How can this possibly be? I have no pedigree so to speak, would feel the endorsement as a burden, not a blessing. Strange it feels as if I am becoming, or have been the ultimate con person, convincing everyone I am something, while always being something else.

       Tied into this are the ideas of the rites of passage, ceremonial markings of the transitions through the accepted phases of life. Having not personally finished the school portion, I'm still a kid, with most I encounter recognizing me as such, within the context of western society.  I have done many of the so called mystery traditions indoctrination's, intentionally or just as an outcropping of the exploration.  In the extreme other people have attempted to foist all sorts of labels, or titles onto me, in order to make it ok for them to relate to me as I am.  Having been called everything from cult leader, to guru, asshole, st. germaine, or sanada, a reincarnation of a grey that crashed at roswell, to being told you are as the buddha, or a child of satan. There is an odd thing my slacker life of leisure and contemplation has taught me, at a certain point it doesn't matter what is and isn't true. Even when it comes to ideas of what we may or may not represent as spiritual beings.  That sure you might have genetic predispositions, with the cellular memory, and that is all well and good.  When you get to most abstract connections to all things, it's simply a matter of accepting that all things are connected to all things. Once you are able to see yourself as, than you are.

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

Labels, Labels, Everywhere!

          Labels, we all seem to love to identify, classify, organize, like collectively we are OCD. We make all sorts of systems to enable us to make connections, to make sure everything is as it should be.  Should is of course a key word, as it points to a trap of perspective. We look out on the world seemingly from a point of isolation, we categorize, included, or exclude based on a framework we rarely if ever question.  The very notion we are human is a boarder, a boundary, it isolates us from feeling a sense of connection to the world we inhabit.  As we have self identified as being different, or other, we have become exactly that.  If I am Jack, and you are not Jack, there is no choice for me but treat you as less important than Jack.  When self is identified as merely a differentiated portion of a greater tapestry, a thread in a fabric the universe, multiverse, god, whatever label works for you. At this point, other becomes self, self becomes other, with the juxtaposition being merely a trick of perception.  As all of our experience is a trick of perception. from our senses being equivalent to input/output devices.  These are all finely tuned to pick up certain frequency ranges, we are than given the framework to make sense, everything around us informs us of what it is, much like a function call in object oriented programming.  We in turn broadcast what we are, and what we expect everything else to be.
        In some teachings of what has been called the fall. When the angels we driven from heaven, where they were driven to was the abyss, the chaos or all potential. Kinda what we think of as space, that perfect balance on the Planck scale that we witness as empty.  Into this nothing, the hierarchy of angels imposed order, bringing into form worlds for themselves to inhabit. Our world is just one of many, The impressing of form on formless is a recurring theme in every tradition, crossing into fundamentals of physics. At the core these are attempting to explain what is essentially a tendency, much like the morphogenic fields expressed in the ideas of Sheldrake. Does this mean we can make up whatever want, mold, and shape as we see fit. In a way yes, in other ways no, it sets up a feedback loop. Where we are created, and creator, our own acceptance of there being other gives the other the power to imprint their conception of us, and how we exist in relation to their conception of self.  As we see the world is how the world presents itself to us, as we are incapable of seeing in any other way.

We make it up as we go along, and cling to it like it's our life raft, some to the point of violent reaction to anything that might alter a world view. We seem to continually look for an out, a way to keep our self importance, our place as the center of all creation, I am the center of my own universe, in that way I am the center of all things, everything radiates out from me, I shape by, and in return am shaped by all things.  I've often said I am as I am because no one else was willing to be me, an odd notion, but not far from the truth. The people around me push me into being portions of self they know exist but are unwilling to express for themselves, for what ever reason.  It does not make me anything of these things, except in relation to that which perceives me as such. What the I is that seems to lurk in, around and through me, you and everything. Well that you have to come to on your own, in your own way. My way is very personal, tied to metaphor, and the logic of chaos, coupled to life long exposure to the logic externalized, to become cold, crunching big data in quantum environment where space/time/energy functions of each other. Be aware, or be awareness itself, devoid of attachment to that observed. The world becomes a much different place.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard    

Life Under Glass

        The I represented by the identity Jack Baldwin is a fiction, it's a costume I don in order to have influence in this world. Based on actions known and unknown people lend me their influence, This is pretty well known among folks using the net, it's the idea of endorsing someone on linkdin. People will endorse people for anything, before getting rid of my linkdin account I was seemingly capable of outstanding feats in the professional sphere.  Even in the twitter verse the labels fly willy nilly, I've made lists from MBA's to UX designer, to web developer.  Truth be told, I have been attempting to find my place in the world. You know the one, that thing everyone is supposed to have, where they become engrossed, and content. That life we are supposedly born to live, the perfect job, spouse, house. That place where life can flow by in a blur, while we are busy living it.  Does such a thing even exist for all of us?  When broken down, most of these perfect things are the same I've actively avoided for one reason or another.  If we all are free to choose, if freewill is the rule, how can there be a singular life that will fulfill a person?  Don't I have to choose the life that I will be fulfilled by?
What is that perfect job?  When I hear words of work, career, business, the connotation is not one of pleasure and joy, even labors of love hit the wall, reach the point of diminishing returns, where the effort required to improve becomes as great as the effort it took to achieve the current skill. The idea of work is an odd one, people sold on the premise of effort, or labor when the ideals of production is to off load as much labor and cost as possible while keeping profits at their maximum. I've had lots of jobs, they all were just that, job done out of a feeling of need, or lack. There has never been that feeling of excitement attached to work. Even in areas where it's a hobby or play that transitions into being compensated, once it's for pay it's not play anymore. It becomes a thing having to be done in order to survive, or in order to do other things.  For me I guess that is what work represents, and why I am so resistant to being a worker.  The view of work as being something you do in order to be able to do something else.  What is and isn't productive is an odd thing, when it comes down to it, if the everything is energy, and energy can not be destroyed or created, how can we be said to be doing more than moving stuff around?
       Of course for many love relationships are the all consuming passion of life. Finding that special someone, falling in love, raising a family.  Except, is there really this romantic notion of love, what even is love?  Does the acts involved in the continuation of species, or procreation really have all that much to do with what we generally equate with the mating rituals, or romance?  Having rejected religious notions of marriage, right along with the civil notions of registering the relationship with the state. Like being open, caring and sharing with a person isn't tough enough, it's seemingly the custom across the board to bring the expectations of god, the state, and family members into new relationships.  Really do we need religion peeking over our shoulders while grope hot and heavy, or fumble with a zipper or button?  When I saw you, it wasn't your personality that made me look twice, your education didn't lock my gaze to your swaying hips. It wasn't thoughts of love, it was some serious animal attraction, lust. You know those things many are embarrassed to cop too, that it's tits, or asses, or feet, or whatever our fetish is. The person you are might captivate my attention for a time, but I am complete unto myself,  For me it's about getting lost in how amazing another is, of communion, That feeling that you can not be right for someone else, till your right with yourself. Experience has smacked around a bit, when it comes to this one. Seems the biological drives dovetail really well with the psycho-social conditioning, with my ideology leaving much to be desired from the ideals set forth. In other words I've been single a long time, not out of lack of opportunity, just out of risk versus reward evaluations.
       I guess when you've set your own life as not overly important in fabric of human development, while railing against the prevailing ideological foundation of matter being preeminent, finding those spaces that suit you can be challenging. Answering those questions, of what is this about, why are we here, where are we going.  If existence is a school, we all fail, there is no passing grade,  If it's an illusion we make up as we go along, if we all exist in our own private Idaho, why are there all these assholes in my dream world? If this is a shared experience, a subjective collective, why are we creating so much drama, and suffering? Sure you can only go as high as you've gone low, might have merit, but we just have to be aware of the potential, we do not have to experience every little pit trap.

As ever make up your own mind
Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Do You Have What It Takes!!!! A Love Letter to Humanity

     Humanity vrs Death

This has been the age old question, to conquer the end.  We all face it, we all find our own answers, and we think we have it all figured out.  When your world is black and white, or written in binary this might satisfy.  Like everything else we are, this is just a holdover from previous developmental cycles.  These go back not to when we had words for me to write this down, but back to primordial ooze of single celled organisms.  The universe or God, or as it's coalescing into my essence as panversal is in and of itself conscious, it is structured energy, which is what everything is. Information processing.  As every would be sage, poet, musician, blade of grass, and grain of sand has been telling us forever.  This is a love story, this is a passion play, the stories do not even change, they get rebranded, updated, but for at least the last 6 thousand years we have all learned variations of these same stories.  Oh the names change, characters get makeovers, and  costume changes,  But from the Chinese dragon emperor's, to the Dogon's of the Sahara, the Aboriginals of Australia, down the lines it goes, not in one place but in them all.  We came from the stars, that concept has been twisted around to mean so many things to so many people, from the ubermensch of the aldebaran to Pharaonic gods of Egypt, Right on back to the what we are told is our earliest civilizations in Sumer, and I'm not here to today argue that point.  I do not care when, or where, or actually even who.  I'm a big picture person, I do really well at taking a dispassionate stance and getting as wide a view as possible calling it like I see it.  A valuable skill if you can find work for it, most of my friends just say I think to much, and they are sometimes right.  In taking that position expansive view point, the patterns just kinda pop out, like the rivers in this text if you let your eyes unfocus, and just like that, the information you get from the text is not the same, and that view is not even on whole thought of as particularly useful.  The people are interested in the words, not the rivers, so I learned to see the words like everyone else around me did, only they didn't seem to say the same thing to me as to everyone else.  As a matter of fact they said the same as the rivers, and they were almost all saying the same things.  Even when they seemed disjointed, or unrelated the same words were always there.

From the ecstatic altered state inducing dances of the Whirling  Dervishes, or Tantric sex practices, Yoga, and Breathing techniques, in joyous upliftment of the celebration of life.  On down into the depths of despair, and  tragedy, and depravity.  They all contain at there core I am alive, I am here, shouting into the darkness, longing for or hoping against that return response.  I'm here I see you! This is the most wonderfully terrifying moment for all of us, and in our polarized, 2 dimensional world view of dark versus light we have left room for only 2 options.  Some say it's love/hate, some fight/flight, it doesn't matter what the choices are labeled as, the important part is the limiting of choice.  It's the offer of false simplicity, and simple is easy, and comforting, even at it's worst it's at least predictable. I mean if I only have 2 choices, there is always a 50% chance I'm right.  This is very useful in long term evolution of life. Kill or be killed is valid for much of what we think of as life. The response of nature is always the same, no matter the method used to carry it out, the answer for nature is always, I want to survive.  The fox is in hen house to eat to survive, and we made it nice lunch box, and then killed it when it came to collect the meals we so kindly laid out for it.  We penned in the range animals, and kept all the goodness of their flesh to ourselves. We killed the wolves not because they ate people, like dogs around the food bowl we chased off our rivals.  This existential crisis of just the struggle to survive molded us and shaped us into the most successful predator on the planet bar none.  That being on the top of the food chain looking down on all the lesser species is pretty nice spot, it's good to be the king no doubt.  Being at the top, and staying at the top are not the same, and getting to top means your not what you were when you started.  We celebrate our predatory nature everywhere, from world wars to gold diggers, from pirates to emperors.  The monuments to our depravity know no bounds, from triumphal arches to tombs we proclaim our divine heritage of immortality.  All in the confused attempt to be remembered, to live on, to proclaim our own mastery over all we survey.  This is where our delusions of grandeur really kick in,  We start to believe our own hype, and our success translates into leisure time as we have come to call it.  This is the true mark of a successful predator, how little time they spend on survival. For those fortunate few at the top of the food chain, it's everywhere, this new found leisure time allows for reflection.  Not just to plan the next meal, but more abstract, things not so immediate in the world currently inhabited find the space to become known.  A shift starts to occur, to manage your food, because lets face it, your not as young as you were last year, and well how many times can you chase a rabbit till the thrill gets old.  So we take the tasty stuff, and shape it, bend it to our will, protect it from those who would take it, you know normal human stuff.  At this point we already won, we have no natural predator to contend with, nothing to keep our expansion in check.  As predators though we are ever vigilant, lest some scavenger steal our kill, if we lack a predator we make one up, when we run out decent prey, we move on looking for new places to hunt.  With nothing else left to do we even hunt each other, oh we give it all sorts of reasons, but it always come down to the 2 choices we decided were the only ones we have.  We do it because we want what they have, or we are afraid they will take whats ours.  Having nothing else to contend with, having effectively already won the struggle for day to day survival, ensuring our genetic heritage is continued.  We have time to place ourselves in the cosmic fun house, and the picture is as majestic as it horrifying.  This is when we begin to get that glimpse of our next existential crisis. Having conquered death in an immediate fashion, it becomes a personal struggle, the, but what about me's kick in.  We know our blood will be flowing and pumping even if it's through anothers veins, but still it isn't enough.  The I is screaming in terror, what happens to me, I did all this work to get here, and I'm still going to die. After fighting death for so long, we begin a new battle, now we are after time.  How many years can you cling to life becomes the new game, and being predators we play it with gusto.  In the time game anything not you becomes a greater threat the longer it hangs around,  just like an infection setting in, or how food rots, we start to learn with profound shock, if your not living, your dying.  Or a bit more accurately, when you stop growing, you start dying, even closer, if your not expanding your contracting.  This of course is still only a 2 choice idea, it's still locks us into an illusion of choice.  If the battle is life and death, and answer shouted by everything is always life how do we reconcile this dichotomy.  How can we celebrate the victor in the arena when he dripping in the blood, sweat, and feces of his opponent.  How do we tell our children, that it's not ok to hurt others, and when we decide they are no longer children shove a gun in their hand and tell them to kill their neighbor, or be killed.  No death is not our boogeyman any more, we coax, and torture nature to provide not what we need, or even what we reasonably desire.  We squeeze the golden goose till it bleeds gold, till it's lushest oziest parts are dripping down our chin, staining our silk tie, cotton shirt, lizard skin belt, leather pants, and fur trimmed alligator boots till we puke.  We squeeze the last drop, fish the oceans dry, not out of need, for our needs are modest, we do it because we have been offered no other options.  Consume, or be consumed.  Once our opponents are long dusty, and our glory is fading we miss the good old simpler days, those we overcame taking on status in the telling of our own stories.  Yes we carry our demons with us, and with every passing year they become larger, and our deeds in over coming them more heroic.  We Proclaim it to all Money doesn't grow on trees you know, and the giving tree withers it's leaves stripped bear, it's bark yanked free, it's flesh made pulp and reconstituted so we can make some pretty pictures on it, and call it ours.  I don't hate money, money is an idea, and in the realm of ideas I swim with the sharks.  I've been exposed to the trivium, and quadrivium, pi, phi, and even the Harris curve, our newest choice of curves, a new path to follow, a new star before our eyes.  We build our temples to our creators, where babies cries are shunned. We rip our ugly growths from our own flesh, and call it cancer, and deny it's attachment to our emotions.  Oh make no mistake we have damned ourselves for sure, for in our process of becoming, we have to live with what we've done. This is our state of terror, our splash of liquid light, our stairway to heaven, and highway to hell. Dharma, Karma, Sin, our triplets of story, our mistresses of fate.  Weighing our heart against perfection, the living can not pass, for the living sit in judgment, while the dead just watch it pass. The living write the story down, building, destroying, crafting. Deluding themselves all the while, with pretty little dreams, of I can do no harm.  We label ourselves dogs, and wolves, black widows, snakes, bears and list goes on and on, than we wonder why we kill.  Our own sophistication has become our trap de jour, and I'm crazy enough to be handing out peter pan advice. In our marvel of our own magnificence our march to greater contrast, our rush to ever bigger, bolder, badder.  We circle our wagons, lock down the prison, close the bathroom door, all because we can't stand the smell of our own shit.  I've been eating shit my whole life, there is no possible way for me to deny it, I gave my top teeth eating the shit put in front of me, oh it's lies were so sweet.  The numbing of the mind, of the soul, of the heart, that sweet oblivion of nothingness to take away the anguish of being a pimp or ho.  I'm so tired of eating shit for being me, for seeing things I see, I will always chose my truth over your lies, I have to, it's the only way I can live, and die with myself.

Life eats Life, it's all there is, when you make it all one, we end up eating our own shit, you might think me mad, and that is fine we are all mad here, that is not in question.  The question we are asking is can we live with ourselves, for eating ourselves.  Meat is Murder, and it's all sucking off someone elses tit, we all know these things, they are not new or novel. Don't believe me, well take a look at these. shit burger  it doesn't even matter if it's a hoax, or fact, that it's there.  That we have become so pained by where meat comes from that people have even contemplated this rings alarm bells.  If thats not your speed how about this.

    That is adorable little girl is Taylor Momsen, in the Grinch, many of you know here from a tv show she did that I don't recall. Some know now, as the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless.  For much of America she grew up on their tv screens, I missed that part as I was absorbing myself in other worlds to escape the pain of lying in my bed. While I was distracted by the glitter of the lights in the distance, She went from singing 

Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores
Welcome Christmas Come this way
Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores
Welcome Christmas, Christmas day
Welcome, welcome fahoo ramus
Welcome, welcome dahoo damus
Christmas day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp

More lyrics http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/dr_seuss/welcome_christmas-lyrics-1146415.html#ixzz3U6AtBZ30

To a lovely young woman who's words I hear on many lips, from many tongues.  Thank you Ms. Momsen, while I do not really do the fan thing, I see you, and your beautiful to me.  This is the price of our denial of nature, this bitter pill is our salvation. In our death spiral of guilt, over all our perceived failures, our pitfalls of loss, we finally give up the ghost. Not because we have to die, because we no longer can take the pain of being alive, and what we have to do to stay that way.

The world devours it's young, Because we like sweets, and babies taste best. It doesn't matter how twisted the appetite. The old say youth is wasted on the young, while the young scream never trust anyone over 30.  The age old struggle, the old lion wants to keep his pride, while the young just wants a piece of tail.  The widow ate her suitor after he dropped of his seed, not from grief hatred or malice, she knows he'll eat the young, cuz it's good to be the king, But not when there can only be one.

I love you all, it's just a matter if you can accept the only love I know how give, cuz its a jagged little pill.

listen to the music, not just the beat, pay attention to the story, it's your soul speaking

Make up your own mind

Jack

aka

panseybard

 

Can I Borrow a Ray of Sunshine?

               Holidays For Sale Sentiment Half Off!

In case you haven't figured it out, this will be about emotional transference.  A fancy way of saying emotions about one thing or person, put on another thing or person.  This happens so often, and usually without our being aware we have done it.  Sometimes it's a natural response to repeated experience. Like when a dog beaten by a person in uniform starts barking whenever a person in uniform is around.  This is the same process at play in learning fire burns, you transfer that

experience onto another experience, and avoid the pain.  So far so good, but when you start to proactively use that understanding you get some very creative, if morally questionable results. 

What does this have to do with holidays you might ask?  Well so far I've talked about examples of negative transference, but what about positive.  That is where the holidays come in, when you see a brand use a holiday on the packaging, advertising, and marketing campaigns they are banking on at least some of those pleasant feelings you have will slide on over to them.  Taken to the extreme and you get the diamond market, this might be the most classic marketing example, and one of my personal favorites.  I say favorite with all sarcasm, but the it is amazing, that people were able to take an artificially scarce stone.  Then so completely attach it's value to symbolic for the love between a man and woman.  On top of that, make it a virtually mandatory expense as a part of the marriage rites.  Even people that have read, and already know the scam will turn around a few minutes later, and fall right back under the spell.  

                    Is that Love or Emotional Hijacking?

On a much more intimate and personal level, this same idea started to be taught, with various titles from art of seduction, to the pick up artist.  To be clear, from my perspective there is no way to morally use this kinda of information in this way.  The reason I feel this is simple, it is the same process that happens naturally and honestly when people develop a love relationship. So when someone understands how these work, they no longer work, and if they do work than your being deceptive.

      When two people meet, and the attraction is honest and genuine there is the natural desire to learn everything you can about the other person.  Usually at least early on, the other person is more interesting than we are ourselves.  This real desire to put another before self sets up automatic transference.  When the other person is so rapt in attention to your thoughts, and emotions, it's very easy to see your own feelings reflected back.  This back and forth is the investment of your own emotions into the other, it's the trick of love, that isn't a trick at all till we make it one.

       That is the problem I have in teaching this information as a means of what amounts to conquest. It turns what was one of the most wondrous experiences people can share, and turns it into sales, and

marketing of the most insidious fashion.  When people are taught to use psychological tricks on each other real time, we are on shaky ground.  I am going to single out males because this is primarily being taught to males, with reasons that might be as twisted and messed up as the teaching of it. So if a male with this understanding puts into practice it's not about love, it's about sex.  It is not about the individual woman it is being used on, point of fact it is going to become a numbers game.  So our guy understanding transference, basicly trolls the room, picking out as many possible females to start working.  When a likely prey reveals itself, it's time to move in, separate them from the herd, this is an important step, much easier to work past the defenses of one person, than a group of people.  Once in isolation, the man in question does everything possible to say nothing. The fewer words our fellow says the more likely he is to accomplish his goal.  As I said this is a numbers game, and by the numbers women are far more forgiving as to physical traits than men. Generally it's not the looks of a man that decides if a he is an acceptable mate.  So for our guy, he is not as much working to get her to desire him, as he is trying to not do something stupid to eliminate himself.  This is not as tough as it might seem, being attentive is the foundation.  All it takes is get her to talk about her passions, and lets face it we all like to talk about the things we love.  At this point it's done, the feelings, and passions will be transferred onto our Guy, and all he needs to do is not break the spell.  That is my problem with it, our guy is being taught to be dishonest in order to fulfil natural physical drives we all share. There are no winners in this approach.

            To Worship False Idols

There is much trepidation in the writing and posting of this section, with a great temptation to just leave it off.  Even most that have been right with me so far will recoil from what I am about to write as having already lambasted love, I'm about to slap religion around a bit as well.  Before I do so, I want to again state, this not intended as an offence or attack on anyone or organization.  There are wonders, and horrors to be found in everything.  If for whatever reason you find these ideas over the line, stop reading, label me crazy, and go on with your life.  I won't be offended, or hurt, and neither will you.

    At their core all our religious, and societal structures have through out history strove to do one thing. Unite and focus the energy of a group of people, that are by nature individualistic and resistant to homogenization.  Think of the idea of trying to herd cats, or how wilful toddlers can be, and you have the concept I'm going for.  To accomplish this, they use the idea of dedication to something larger than self.  Secular or Faith based does not matter the outcome is a ideology, with all the trappings positive and negative. So we can have secular saints, zealots of atheism, and holy wars. These are all done the same way, a process almost of deification that is seemingly well understood, and has been for countless ages.  If you haven't figured it out already, I'm talking about how worship

works, how we interact with divinity.  In crafting our ceremonies, rituals, rallies, what have you, there is purpose. The purpose is always the same, to guide the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, to an end.  No matter the end, for good or ill, the dynamics involved are the same, predictable, and exploitable.  Just take a look at the people who have changed the world, they understood theater very well.  Even a historic figure as reviled as  Hitler is known to have trained in oratory skills, his rallies finely tuned works of theater to weave an emotional trance state in the attendees.  A group hypnosis, where the voice of the rational mind is drowned out by the emotional attachments being manipulated.
I know we all like to think we are strong willed individuals that would never get swept up by the sentiments of the crowd.  The truth is the desire to give up our self into the care of something larger than yourself is seemingly fundamental to our make up.  We want to believe, and often so badly we fool ourselves, or make excuses.  Even religion, it has nothing to do with God, it is the exploitation of our own fear of mortality.  If there is a religion that is actually focused on God, and not on man I have yet to become aware of it.  Being human centric they concern themselves with how divinity can assist humans, or what the plan of divinity is for humanity.  They exploit some fairly basic psychological truths, not a one of us can ever live up to our own vision of perfection. So we will always see ourselves as horribly flawed, even when our external response is to project perfection. That the unknown is both exciting and terrifying, something we always want to glimpse, but not get any on us.  The trifecta for religion is an comforting partial truth or outright lie on the fate of those we have lost.  You ever stop to wonder how odd it is to have an intermediary to the ineffable, the unknowable.


in closing there is love enough for everyone, more than we can bear, and if the sun ever stops shining it's love upon us, by the time we realize it, we will already be dead.

as always make up your mind.
Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

   

Beware the Bail In

                 Back to the Spawning Grounds

Going to attempt to keep this brief, much of this I have covered before, though not from this particular angle.  Quickly to give a basic overview of why bail in's are certain to lie ahead, and will be coming to a bank near you.  Our monetary, or currency system can be likened to a pyramid structure.  Though an easier representation is monopoly, unrestrained capitalism is like a monopoly game.  Someone eventually wins, they take control, and ownership of so much, that the game freezes, no money is able to move around.  As anyone who has played monopoly knows, when this happens the game is over, someone won, and everyone else lost.  The pieces go back in the box, and everyone including the winner has to find something else to do.  In america this was well known, and up till recent time regulations were in place to make sure no one could win the game.  You could get ahead of the other players, but a cap was put on how far ahead an individual or group was allowed to get. This was not done to punish the rich, it's to ensure the system continues to function as a whole.  It ensured that if a person reached the top they either stop playing, and just maintain, or fall back into the herd, or they work to close the gap between the bottom and the top. Even if it is purely selfish motivation of coveting personal wealth.

                       The Injection Deception

Make no mistake, taxes are wealth redistribution.  Yes we pay taxes ostensibly to pay for public services, and public works projects.  You've likely heard the phrase "time is money", if we use that as a lens to understand taxes, why the highest tax brackets were hit with the highest percentage of tax burden for so long.   Most people have a job, they trade time directly for money, this is the idea of wages.  When you are in a job earning wages, the taxes you pay, can be seen as giving a portion of your time to the state every year.  So in simple terms if you pay 10% of your wages for a year, you spent 10% of your time laboring for government.  Almost like the idea of 36 days, and work for the government for nothing.  So far so good, we all like having nice public services. Like good schools, parks, water, roads, all the obvious things we all use and share.  The issues with this begin to show when a person stops trading time for money, and instead trades someone elses time for money.  This is the idea of income,  it does not have to be exploitive, though when the difference is between wages, and income are forgotten it certainly will be. When you pay rent, or a mortgage any kind of loan, and you are paying it with wages, you can consider the time spent to earn that money as spent working for that person.  As is more then likely apparent to most, you can not physically be in more than one place at the same time, your limited to working one job at a time.  This is not the case for income, in income you can be working all over, all the time, no matter what you are physically doing.

       What does this have to do with you, bail in's, and how close they might be?

Stay with me just a bit longer and it will be clear. If capitalism is like a giant monopoly game, and all monopoly games end the same way, than the governments job in managing a capitalist economy is to make sure no one actually wins.  That is the only way the economy can keep going, if to much money is allowed to be owned by any one player the economy stops.  That is where the taxes come into play, before the reforms in the 80's there was a 75% tax bracket.  This meant that if someone started making so much money that it would hurt the economy, the government would step in and take most of it, and redistribute it  back in the game.  This type of taxation, where the highest earners pay the highest %, is part of the balance to keep the game from ending.  In this set up, the government uses the taxes to provide basic services for everyone, and when it is needed. The government stimulates the economy, by taking money from the rich, and giving it to the poor.  Not in handouts, and welfare, but in public works projects.  It puts them to work, with the rich peoples money, to make new things for everyone to use.  Once the % of earnings paid in taxes inverted with the top earners paying a smaller % than the middle, and low earners. You start cutting off the flow of money to the poorest, and most vulnerable first, though all are eventually affected.  The government ends up taking from the bottom, and middle, and directly handing it to the top.  We saw this in the 2008 event, what followed is exactly what honest economic models predict.  The interest rates, and what normally thought of as safe haven or hedge assets are kept artificially low.  Money printing starts, and stays going non stop, money pours into speculative markets, instead of working it's way through the economy.  This is what measured in currency velocity, it measures how fast money moves through the economy. Along with this comes the high numbers of unemployed, or underemployed.  Though this has been hidden in changing how unemployment is calculated, all you need to do is watch labor participation rates, as more and more are forced out of the system entirely.  As this continues, those that understand how the system works begin to see they are going to lose everything when the system crashes.  They can pull out, or give away most of their money, or lose all of it.  Many of the top earners are doing just that, pulling out, or suggesting the billionaires give away half their money.  George Soros are among the pull out crowd, with Buffet, and Gates in the give away camp.  Both of these are selfishly motivated, do not kid yourself into thinking a multi billionaire giving away large sums of money is kindness.  When Buffet says it's a problem he pays a lower tax % than his secretary it's because he is being altruistic. He understands that if that continues eventually he won't have a secretary at all.  These are the QE money injections, they only kick the can down the road a little bit, till you create so much debt that everyone starts to panic, before that is allowed to happen, they will take currency out of the system.  This is the bail in, it's purpose is to keep a lid on the panic of hyper inflation, I can't say when, only that it will happen, the law to allow it was in the last budget.  

Tomorrow Tech, Yesterday Drives

       Just Entertainment?

We see many articles proclaiming the dangers of mass media, and I am not here to debate the dubious morals, of propaganda, and advertising.  From Control of information, to marketing to children, the list of possible abuses is undeniable.  Weather it's shaping discourse or public opinion, or revisiting some past triumph or tragedy.  Our modern media will churn out any perspective desired, often with contradictory messages.  When we take into account, the trouble we as humans have in determining reality from fantasy.   In modern times the very notion of what entertainment is, and it's purpose has been lost on the majority.  For most it has become a leisure activity, predicated on the cessation of critical reasoning.  A look at the origins of the idea of entertainment reveal it to be a horse of a different color.

entertain (v.) 

late 15c., "to keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind," from Middle French entretenir, from Old French entretenir "hold together, stick together, support" (12c.), from entre- "among" (from Latin inter; see inter-) + tenir "to hold" (from Latin tenere; see tenet).

Sense of "have a guest" is late 15c.; that of "gratify, amuse" is 1620s. Meaning "to allow (something) to consideration, take into the mind" (of opinions, notions, etc.) is 1610s. Related: Entertained; entertaining.

     What Motivates

None can argue our technological advancement is, and has been expanding at rates we can scarcely keep up with.  Much of this acceleration is easy to understand when you grasp the implications of moore's law in the growth of processing power.  A simplified understanding is to think of all the processing power in the world, and think that it has been, and will continue to double roughly every year. The amazing pace of this advancement is often depicted in our media, hints at what lie just around the corner. Sometimes predicting tech that will not be seen for decades, or longer.  With a look at the possible social, and psychological issues related to the projected advancement taking a central role in the unfolding of the story.  Often having such a forward projected view on technological breakthroughs, does not seem to translate to the motivations of characters.  With all this future tech, and depictions of future abundance, the characters quite often would fit in nicely in a greek comedic tragedy. With even some supposedly brilliant people behaving in manors unbecoming in children, let alone in what are supposed to be intelligent adults.  This seemingly complete lack of anything other than academic or technological intelligence. With this in mind I find myself asking the question, is this a reflection, projection, or some mixture.  Are people so emotionally driven that it washes away any semblance of rational behavior?  Emotions are wonderful, but just as logic devoid of emotion comes to differing conclusions, so too do emotions devoid logic.  Six thousand plus years of history according to established thinking, and we still kill over ideas of god, boarders, and pieces of paper. 

Selection vrs Election

       The Democracy Hype

Much has been made of the potential spread of democracy around the world.  The words Pax Americana, can be heard, and might not be far off.  Democracy has become a catch all media buzz word, generally used to justify some manor of intervention. Which likely looks anything but democratic in nature.  As an American I can not deny the obviously selective nature of our desire for other nations to experience the blessings of democratic rule. The examples of support for "friendly" dictatorships by the United States would be laughable if it weren't so hypocritical.  While media outlets tout the overthrow of one regime as a victory for the people, and blow for democracy. Movements in nations with western friendly dictatorships are in large part ignored, and often these governments are receiving aid, or military backing from the US.  Leaving it painfully obvious, that as a nation we are far more concerned with our perceived national self interest than any notions of self determination, or democracy.  In the US we pride ourself on our right to vote, yet how many feel represented? How many even know how our electoral system works?  Democracy is great, one of the most amazing innovations, but like so many things context plays it's role.

     The Choice We Can't See

To serve as an elected public official can be viewed in many ways, an honor, an act of duty, maybe even a burden. The one thing for the public well-being it would best left not thought of is as a career. By the time a candidate is offered for your consideration, they have already been approved by their party, and in the days of money equals speech, the contributors.  It's not really a surprise than to see that often organizations fund both parties equally.  Call it strategic planning, or corporate governance, the effect is undue influence to put it nicely.  If you did notice, there were many on that list that did not fund both sides, which is just as telling.  When you have only two main political parties as entrenched as and pervasive as in the US, they can not be opposites, they can only be opposames. The parties never leave power, they share power, just changing the distribution. We find ourselves in a the role of child being offered choice as a balm for all the no's in our daily existence.

    Factions

 In an absolute government there can be no... equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation." --Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, 1810. ME 12:377

"Warring against [the principles] of the people,... there is no length to which [the delusion of the people] may not be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal authorities of the United States, for a short time indeed, but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no event, therefore, however atrocious which may not be expected." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798. (*) ME 10:56   

Now revisit the idea that our parties never leave power, are backed pretty equally by most major corporate entities, in a nation who's currency is owned/controlled by a what amounts to a private bank.  Our two party system with elections, is seeming to offer less and less of real choice.


As always, make up your own mind
Jack
aka
PansyBard

Transhumanist Goal in Sight

          So You Want to Live Forever?  

           Some may be aware of Transhumanism, many are likely not.  To me it's just a nice advertising friendly name, to what may be the most important event in human biological development.  To put it as simply as I can, Transhumanism refers to humanities move toward machine.  The event is oft called the Singularity, the moment when the line between man, and machine disappears.   Sounds like a sci-fi story, I know.   Some very prominent folks are not just expecting it, they are helping to ensure it's arrival.  Chief among them in the US would have to be Ray Kurzweil, though he is by no means alone as a google search shows, the 2045 initiative has it's path all mapped out.  The goal of course being technological immortality.  This opens up so many questions, moral, religious, philosophic.  A wonderland of one of my favorite questions "what if".

         What If's

           Much thought has been directed toward conceptions of immortality.  I had thought the question of immortality had been resolved with Einstein, or at least moved into the realm of not if, but the nature of.  A question of ego, what of me, as I currently conceive of myself continues.  Just to get this obvious one out of the way.  It is unlikely these will be available for everyone, so there is a high potential for a split, a break away civilization, or a revolution of sorts.  The masses likely lose that one, as there is little need for restraint, given the move toward automation.  This could ultimately be the end of humanity as we think of it.  That of course is an extreme version, with a toned down cyberpunk flowering out of imagination into the world.  Where there is a vast range of quality of artificial replacement components, along with a range of skill in application.  Though interesting, there are far more complex implications.  In all of our world religions even agnostic, there is an acknowledgement of an authority.  In many there is an idea of a covenant, or contract.  In many of the stories when judgement comes, it is often due to man stepping outside the bounds of this covenant. Given the context of some of these transgressions, like interbreeding, building a tower to god.  These attracted a direct intervention.  Is it to far out to consider, physical immortality might be reacted to in a similar fashion.  Mortality is fundamental to our conception of what is to be human. Can a being that is essentially immortal even be considered human?   This does not even consider the possible personal empires that could be sustained.  

      It's personal

      Ultimately this is another of those not if, but when events. With each of us having to make personal choices.  Just what it means to be alive, and what immortality really represents.  Will we lose what makes life worth living in our rush to make it eternal?  One thing is certain, it's going to be entertaining to watch it unfold.

Jack

aka

PanseyBard   

What IF!!!!!

Please Do Not Read This Post If:

     There has been an idea rolling around in my mind. A different perspective on a story almost everyone on the planet has heard.  The story of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the story of the expulsion from paradise.  That is why if you believe there are lines that there are appropriate boundaries for though experimentation.  Or that words, or ideas should stay within the bounds of good taste, and parsed for political correctness.  Go read something else, the fundamental conception of the Eden story will be toyed with, poked and prodded.  If that is something you would have a problem with, than it is your responsibility to stop reading now, or keeping reading, and don't forget to pray for my salvation. If your religious you might believe I need it.

The Who, What, Where:

      In the traditional conceptions of this story, our characters are easily definable, and laid out clearly.  God, the Serpent, and Adam and Eve.  Eve, and Adam are put forth not as us, but as the parents of Humanity.  We have in the main equated this with them being as we are.  That is not likely the case, these are pre-expulsion, pre fruit of knowledge humans.  A version of humanity that is able to walk in the presence of it's creator.  So while they might the most like us of the characters in the story, it is likely a mistake to equate them to us.  These are beings that exist in a state of pristine grace.

     The Serpent is of course put forth as the deceiver, the corruptor, or villain.   In our story, as it has been presented, The Serpent lies to Eve.  Seemingly in opposition to the wishes of God, Serpent tells Eve, you most assuredly not die, but become like God.  This is a rather odd predicament, it presents so questions not easily resolved.  Questions such as, God is presented as an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient being.  So how would Serpent, a creation of God, act in ways contrary to the wishes of God, as well as it being without God knowing.

    God of course is put forth as the all powerful, loving, creator of all things.  Who is a seemingly irresponsible deity if looked at from a rational perspective.  In our story, God makes all things, at some point making the Garden as a habit for the creation of Adam, and subsequently Eve.  While giving the tour of the habitat, God lays out the ground rules.  Basicly saying anything goes, but don't eat the fruit from the of the knowledge of good and evil.  Making the opposing statement to the serpent, that for they would surely die.  A prime example of irresponsible parenting. This would be akin to making a baby room, and putting a poison plant in it.  Combined with the reverse psychology setting a self reinforcing compulsion to eat the fruit.  So can we really say God did not intend for the fruit to be eaten?

    Eden is the setting of most our story, a paradise created for Adam, and Eve.  With most linking it directly to a location on earth, a sort of preserve, outside of which is referred to as wilderness.  Interestingly it does point to an idea there is not only other places, but other beings already inhabiting those places.  With that idea, Eden might just as well be considered a habit carved out of a larger environment.  Not unlike man altering an environment to be more conducive to the task at hand. Looked at from another perspective, Eden could be seen as the womb of humanity, the thing with a womb is, once in your expulsion is a forgone conclusion.

    The Fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Blech that is for sure a mouthful.  Many places have questioned if it was the widely accepted apple or pomegranate, or whatever. What the physical representation of the fruit is matters little.  What is important is the idea that eating it, causes a change to the nature of a being.  In our story this is put forward as an event, Eve eats the fruit, convinces Adam to do the same, expulsion ensues, and here we are.  The idea being that the fruit was eaten, and the event is over.  Is that accurate?  When we eat just our normal sustenance that is just the beginning. The majority of the story of consumption takes place after the physical act, it's in the processing of.  Might that be the case with our fruit?

What if They are Both Telling the Truth:

      Growing up with Star Wars, there is a line delivered by Ben, in defence of his using perspective, and tricks of language to not lie, but also not admit inconvenient facts.  Ben tells Luke, "your going to find that many of the truths we cling to, rely greatly on our point of view".  Might our Eden story, and it's related lies be hiding a similar lesson?   So in a much abridged, with great creative license.

     Adam, and Eve, have not comprehension of good or evil, actions are actions, experienced in the moment with no attachment, or even understanding.  They are also not as God, but in a state of grace in communion with God.  The connection to their source is always present, so death as we conceptualize it,  pain and pleasure have no meaning. Even if we accept there is physical existence as we would recognize it.  Adam and Eve pre fruit would not have the capacity of ego yet, that sense of I, we use to differentiate what we think of as self from the whole.   So God in saying you will surely die is telling the truth. Pre fruit there is no experience of loss, post fruit, the sense of I creates the sense of mine, loss, and death ensue.  So God in the story is telling truth, as evidenced by us everyday.  So how can Serpent also be truthful?  Perspective, is the short answer.  Serpent says we for sure will not die, and more over we will become like God.  In the story we are told we are created in the image and likeness of God, so the reality is, the only aspect missing is the famous delphic statement of "know thyself".  Adam, and Even in the Garden are already in every respect as God, they are only lacking the knowledge of what they are.  So the change that takes place when Serpent tricks Eve, is not a material change, but one of understanding, and knowledge.  That change is not one of a singular event completed when the last bite of the fruit.  Taking that first bite, set in motion a process of self discovery, that is ongoing.  The expulsion from Eden is not one of punishment, or even a violation of rules.  It is as natural a consequence as we find the development of a fetus in the womb, leading to the birth of a child.  Once the process of gathering the knowledge through experience of good and evil. Eden became a non viable habitat, as Adam, and Eve had become other that what it was created for.  As a parting, thought ideas of a return to Eden being through child like innocence, become more akin to going back to a state before the eating of the fruit.  Though a more likely outcome for this story is a moving through the process, and becoming as we were in the beginning with full knowledge of what we are in the present.

as always make up your own damn mind

Jack

aka

PanseyBard 

Fiat Currency, and Greece's EU Exit

           There is much ballyhoo made about the US dollar being backed by nothing but faith.  While it is true there is no material resource, gold, silver or the like acting as backing.  This does not mean it has no backing at all, only that it not resource based.  The truth as is so often the case is stranger than the fiction.  Fiat currencies in general are backed by the governments ability to tax it's citizenry in the future.  This is partially true for the US dollar, but the dollar has another backing, oil.  As I said a resource does not directly back it. Meaning you can not go to your local bank and trade your dollars directly for oil.  What we did was much more insidious, and far less noticeable to the everyday person.  The US made deals with the opec nations to only sell oil in dollars, ensuring the dollar would be in high demand.  Fiat currency is not the real issue at hand, as I've stated many times, if your going to use a currency system fiat is the only way to go.  Resource backed currencies always run the risk of the resource being cornered, altering the value of the currency.  Our problems with the global financial system are more foundational.  Currency creation being held not by the collective, but by private organizations, who than attach interest onto the creation of said currency.  This starts the cycle of fiat currency being treated as a commodity.  This speculation on what is essentially an accounting tool, distorts the real world purchasing power of the currency.  These combine quite nicely with fractional reserve banking, an other distorting effect.  Fiat currencies may be many things, legal tender, banknotes, and the like, one thing it is not is money.
          There is no way for Greece or any other nation within the EU to fix their economic woes while remaining in the union.  What we see taking place across the EU is a direct result of the structural issues of a currency union without a political, and/or a fiscal union accompanying it.  The rise of debt amongst the EU nations being shifted to the troika(EU, ECB, IMF) is about centralization of power. Greece was saddled not with economic relief, but loans, and policies that would ensure the loans could never be repaid. All Greece need do is exit the EU, bring back their own currency being printed by the government, not the privately controlled central bank.  This would allow them to internally jump start the flagging production, as well as lower the prices on Greek exports.  For a real recovery, look to Iceland.  For those saying the Greek's entered the debt, and must pay it, is just propaganda silliness.  We live within a debt based system, and most of these debts never have any reality other than on paper.  Add to that ideas of compounding interest, and debt transfer from private to public, and suddenly they look less and less legitimate.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Living in the Current Sea

         

Toes in the Water

         Once again I'm going to talk about money, and currency, things I find fascinating, frustrating, and generally misunderstood.  Money is anything that stores value, and is widely expungeable, meaning it's easy to trade.  This makes almost any object money of a sort. Currency on the other hand is often not money, Fiat currency is never money, yes I'm saying those pieces of paper people seem so enamoured with are not money, though they are currency. So what does this mean on a practical level?   For many nothing, they will not make the distinction, and will have a confusing relationship

with what has become an essential tool in an increasingly complex global civilization.  Others will quickly grasp the concepts and see myriad ways to apply that understanding for individual advantage. Still others, myself among them come to a rather uncomfortable realization, at the core of many "conspiracy" tale.  Private central banks of issuance in a fiat system have come to own the world.  Crazier still, with how the systems have been set up, future generations taxes have been promised to pay for "borrowing" of the present (I used the quotes there due to borrowing requires something to be transferred).  So the productivity of future generations has been promised as collateral for infinite "borrowing" power in the present.  We hear screams of out of control debt in a system where no currency is ever created except through debt.  There is a valid reason for this, we are in many ways a bipolar system.  On the one hand coldly rational, on the other fluidly emotional.  In pure fiat systems, being backed up by nothing other that acts of faith (laws, continuity of government, that the sun will come up...tomorrow), perception is often more important than the hard figures.  When fiat currency systems reach numbers people start to view as unrealistic, it triggers a cascade collapse. This of course is an emotional event, not a mathematical event. In a purely math sense a fiat system can expand infinitely.  So if debt is the basis of the system, yet to much debt crashes the system, what we have is cleaver tight rope act, of keeping enough debt being retired, or payed off, with a constant supply of new debt being created,  Issues begin when you start to add in ideas of fractional reserves, leverage, interest, and speculation. Before I get on with a visualization of these concepts, lets take a quick stab at some of those issues.

The Waves

          Fractional reserves, and leverage have much in common. Each act as force multipliers to steal a term from military strategy.  In fractional reserve it allows for the lending of thing that do not exist. In simple terms, it lets a bank hold 1 dollar, and lend out 10. In a similar fashion leverage allows 1 dollar to pretend to be 10.  These both create distortions in the Current Sea(more on this later), or economy,  With the bank there is never any risk when using a fractional reserve system.  Banks do not lend any money out, when a loan is created new currency is created, supposedly fractionally backed by bank money.  This newly created currency has a life span of the loan, and it's value is in it's tie to house, or car, business it was originated for.  Leverage distorts the current sea is similar ways by creating an artificial increase in total number of units making up the complete current sea.
Though it does so in a different manor. Using leverage you can take 1 dollar, put it up as your risk, while you use 10 dollars to speculate in some market, or venture.  Leverage is generally a short term loan so to speak. often lasting only the day.  This is tied in to the ideas of margin,  Margin calls have, or the act of calling in all loans due, is how our system has repeatedly transferred real wealth to the banking interests.
         Interest, or usury, especially compounding interest might be the single biggest factor in turning currency from a tool to support the development of humanity, into a tool to enslave it.  As already pointed out if a fiat system our currency has nothing physical backing it, and is only brought into being through creation of debt. This sets up the need for what has become known as the infinite growth paradigm.  Essentially, if you borrow 10 dollars today cuz you need to eat, and promise to pay it back in a week with interest here is a simplified version of what takes place.  You go to a bank, and ask to borrow 10 dollars cuz your hungry, you say you will have more currency in one week, and pay it back in full at that time.  The bank says sure, but, you have to pay us 11 dollars.  The bank than types 10 dollars into a computer letting the current sea know you now have access to this newly created energy.  Ok so at the end of the week you have used the 10 dollars, and go into the bank and hand over 11 dollars just as promised, sounds ok right?  On a closer look this presents many problems.  As soon as those 10 dollars are created, the value, or purchasing power of each existing dollar is reduced. The 1 dollar of interest was never created, so must be taken from somewhere else. This where the enslavement comes in. where that effort it takes you to generate that dollar  is taken from you. In basic theory the interest is the banks "profit", in reality it's much different.  As the dollars did not exist until you asked for them, and you "paid" the loan of those phantom dollars with dollars obtained from another source, be it your work, or a loan from another source, or whatever, the whole 11 dollars is pure "profit" with zero risk, all at the stroke of a few keys.  This also creates a system where all currency is not created equally.  Currency created at lower interest rates becomes much more powerful, and desirable, as it can be used to for speculative purposes with a higher rate of return.  That might seem complex, but really it's fairly simple, if a dollar is created with .10 cents of interest attached to it, or a simple flat 10% interest rate, that dollar starts out with a value of 90 cents. Where a dollar created with .20 cents of interest attached with start out with a true value of .80 cents. Not to tough to see, how these hidden differences in the values of the same currency can  be exploited by those with access and understanding.  Another distortion occurs when the interest rates are manipulated, causing misallocation of currency, along with a changes in the currency velocity. When interest rates are held artificially low, currency pools as the perceived risks of "lending" it outweigh the potential returns, as well as higher returns are easier to find in speculation of growing pools of currency that new real world productive endeavors.  When interest rates are artificially high than the speculative investment moves into making loans. Causing the currency velocity to soar, but increased risk in the nature of the loans made. Many other issues exist in interest being attached to currency creation, just look into the history of usury.
      Lastly, before we take a look at the idea of the "Current Sea"  lets look at at how speculation warps, and distorts our whole economic system.  First off there is a difference between speculative, and productive investment.   Productive investment has real world attachment, and purpose, for example a community coming together to be sure the farmers have enough seed to provide for food needs, or even providing the currency for research and development of new technology, or advancement of medical understanding.  Productive investment carries a risk to the currency invested, but the pay off is not in a return of currency, but produced item, or resource.  The flip to this, speculative investing is purely done with the intent to generate more currency for the investor.
 Productive investment adds to the well being of the whole, multiplying the beneficial effects of new development by pooling the resources of a group, and directing the flow of the "Current Sea".  On the other hand speculative investing is purely done for the purpose of generating more currency for the speculator.  Now it still sometimes provides currency used for productive means, and many productive investments are speculative. The real problems arise when the investing drifts into the purely speculative.  In commodities when there is no actual transfer of possession, and the speculation is purely on paper, it creates distortions in value of products people rely on for daily survival such as food, and water.  When currency itself is allowed to become a speculative commodity, the potential distortion to the purchasing power of the individual units of currency can be catastrophic.  Basically each dollar used to bet on the future value of the dollar distorts the current, and future purchasing power the everyday person uses to sustain their daily lives.  Pure speculative investment is a tax, plain and simple it creates no value, instead stealing value from whatever it infects, kind of a parasite, on the productivity of the whole. So how can these be avoid, while still allowing for the benefits or fiat currency? Just change how currency is viewed and hopefully it becomes evident.

Smooth Sailing

       I've repeatedly used the term "Current Sea" throughout this meandering, but what is meant by it? Our economic system taken in it's entirety is the "Current Sea", with the people, and corporations being the entities, and the currency being the water all depend on and exist in.  Like any body of water it has currents, eddy's, shallows, and hidden depths.  It can be likened to a living sea with all different types of entities all connected and sustained by the sea.  So pretty easy analogy, currency is the water, the life blood, or energy flowing through our "Current Sea" driving the living system that sustains us all. With this depiction in mind, apply some of the distorting ideas, suddenly some of the entities find themselves as fish out of water.  The distorting effects of our current economic systems could be likened to whirlpools, drawing in more and more currency, sucking it away from entities on the edges of the "Current Sea".  In a healthy "Current Sea" the currency flows bringing along with it all each entity needs to thrive.  This relates to the ideas of money, and currency in profound ways, true money becomes a store for currency, but not currency itself.  Currency stays in it's proper place as the life blood of productive endeavor, while money acts as a store house for the future use of

productivity.  Under the rules of the game as we now play, a central bank of issue, combined with a cartel of private banks run the "Current Sea" for the benefit of themselves.  In an ideal system the currency would be managed from the perspective of keeping the "Current Sea" healthy.  In other words keeping the currency as a tool of the people. In this type of system, the entities living in the "Current Sea" naturally direct the flow of the currency, ebbs and flows of industry come back to demand based. The rise and fall of the so called business cycle ceases, to shamelessly steal from those much more perceptive than I, the spice flows.
      I have no degrees in economics, and might be inclined to debate if any such thing is reasonable in relation to what is an admitted pseudoscience.  Our systems have been increasingly complexified in order to obfuscate it's true predatory nature.  If I need more qualification aside from having been a participant for my entire life and being capable of observation, it has yet to been brought to my attention.  I could go on and on, but I think that will have to wait for future posts.


Jack
aka
PanseyBard