Artistic Footprint

Alright this is going to be the last I write about anything political. I find it too conspiratory, far too complicated, and to be honest, damaging to myself. It turns me into a parasitic pessimist. But what I have learned from all this pondering is the awareness and responsibility I have as a citizen of a nation. But in the back of my head I will always have the bad taste of what power does to people, and how easily followers are manipulated into blindly following stupid leaders. Here’s my take on what makes the fantastic and almost impossible concept of democracy able to operate:

The story of a politian:

In order to get into politics, you already need to be one certain breed of person. That is you must meet foreign nationals, spend years in university, be a governor, and be from Virginia or Texas. You need lots of money to finance your campaign, as well as an alliance of lobby groups and conflicts of interest, which you may or may not be able to bring with you to office. You adopt values and beliefs that get you into office like religion, culture, drug enforcement, abortion, gay marriage, international policy, even your favourite baseball team. In the campaign, there really are only two options that the country cannot decide on, and so the vote ends up being 55% to 45% or something stupid, so your citizens might as well not have voted at all. Speaking of which, only half the population votes anyways.  Then you make promises to get yourself into office which you never planned to fulfill once you succeeded. You spend a less than 10 years in office so any long term plans simply never happen, you’re pressured to take a side based on your own affiliations or lobby groups, or you are used as a puppet by your staff who hide behind you, putting your face on their decisions. And if you make a wrong move, its ok because you can control the media and create some other problem to mask the first, no one would be the wiser. You are completely protected from your people in your atom-bomb-proof office, or bullet proof armada of helicopters and jumbo jets. You are mocked all over the world through your personal life, speaking skills, or attempts to destroy/fix the economy. Meanwhile, because you spoon feed your religious duty to your citizens, you feel that you have the right to invade other countries in the name of god and the idea that capitalist, spiritual democracy is the best and only way to run the world. But you remain safe at home in your office with a little red button as your soldiers bleed and die for you. You only come out to embarrass yourself with pre-emptive mission accomplished banners.

And when all is said and done, 8 years later, you retire securely, to appear on Oprah or Late Night and perhaps start some bogus charity campaign, meanwhile your term in office is now called a “doctrine” as if international and national conflict were diagnosed and actions were prescribed.

Ok so I may have twisted that one to resemble more of George W., but I believe the majority is universal to the workings of democracy. It’s just funny because everyone believes that democracy is the perfect solution and we believe that everyone in the world should have it. And in almost every case, this is true. But people rarely stop to look at the other side of the coin. Democracy, like everything, has flaws. Lack of awareness is, put simply, just another form of blind obedience.

Its scary to think that we went to two world wars over for freedom and the right to vote, and yet our capitalist greed has corrupted it since. Dignity, morals, and justice are sold for power, money, and resources.

Most people who live in the western world are either entirely ignorant how the world operates, or have an understanding of political sociology, but blindly believe that it is the best system and should be a world standard.

However, communism, for example, isn’t an evil thing. It’s not something that an evil person thought up in order to herd citizens like cattle for his iron fist. Communism simply says that people work as a community for a common goal, and you relinquish your right of choice in return for loyalty, service, and “steadiness”

Now of course we know this doesn’t work, and there’s a huge amount of repercussions due to communism that involves assimilation, greedy power, genocide, etc. But IN PRINCIPLE, communism isn’t inherently bad.

But I’m not trying to barter communism, but instead discuss a side of capitalism that is subtley mentioned amongst us all, be it in gossip in a coffee shop, or the newest trend for political comedians. Capitalism, again is good in principle. The choices you make dictates your success and wealth. You can be whatever you want to be, and solving problems makes you money.

But capitalism is a parasitic weed. Its inherent design, utilized religiously by the United States, is to be completely unregulated in order to work. This is the “freidmanistic” capitalism. I don’t mean to constantly bash the United States, it just so happens to be that they are a prime example to use.

Because capitalism feeds on solving problems, why not create your own problems, and charge for someone to fix it? A term coined as “planned obsolecsence” is where a product is designed to fail at a certain point in its life, forcing you to become acquainted with it, perceive it as a necessity, then have it cease to function. This would include things like your Ipod, laptop, or, ironically your car. consider that if you were to go to any town north of the 60′ parallel, the only vehicles you see are japanese made vehicles at least 10 years old. We’re talking about the hottest, coldest, hard as fuck wilderness, and yet you don’t see any raised chrome-grilled dodge rams or F-150 harley models. Just beat up, rusting toyotas and hondas, a jeep here and there. Is this because ford and GM don’t see a fiscal interest in sales in the north? or is it because they know that their vehicles simply can’t handle the stresses of that environment, and fear the repercussions of so many unhappy owners?
Now of course we all know about the buyout, and how GM became a public company, bankruptcy, this and that. But now, ford and GM are advertising quality in design. Isn’t that the same as saying: “oops! we’ll actually give you what you’re paying for now” its a change in the marketplace. People see the automarket in decline, and they want a steady, reliable vehicle to get them through the lull of high prices of cars and fuel. American motor companies have to reestablish themselves to continue selling cars.

Money can also manipulate:
Recently toyota recalled 175,000 cars due to a faulty gas pedal that was known to stick down with an open throttle, an obvious safety issue. In the finer print, however, the vehicle was being manufactured in Ontario, and the gas pedal itself was designed and manufactured by an American company. Now I’m only speculating here, and I only mention it because the situation doesn’t surprise me at all, but WHAT IF GM and Ford needed to boost their stock? which is the same thing as lowering the stock of their competitors. What IF the gas pedal manufacturer was bribed into intentionally producing faulty car parts in order to put their arch-nemesis at a disadvantage? just a speculation. Would you be surprised?

Now lets say Toyota was a dishonorable corporation, and knew of the gas pedal issue, but decided to do nothing?
I believe that a company cares more about the fiscal goings on of its business than the actual job their doing. The car CEOs would sit atop a skyscraper, discussing over their mahogany table, the risk/benefit ratio of such a recall. “Is it best to call the product back and save lives, costing us millions, or deal with the lawsuits and media setbacks of hundreds of incidents, costing us thousands?”

Now lets say that someone gets in a serious accident due to the faulty product, and their way of life is now flawed. They take Toyota to court. But is trial really fair? Or is it a duel of wallets? statistically, who has a higher probability of winning a case? the rich or the poor? I don’t think we need to speculate an answer, but the question leads to some obvious results. But a system of law, legislation, civil rights – all mandate a fair trial. But apparently fair doesn’t include a highly paid team of full-time lawyers, or evidence manipulation, or simply just “paying them off” and such.

How does money relate to politics? Well for starters, a political campaign in itself costs millions. That’s gotta be paid for and sponsored by somebody. Then of course there’s the lobby groups. People who literally pay for presidential decisions. Of course, by law, politicians must relinquish their assets and stocks in their current affiliations before entering office – which of course wasn’t too hard for Cheney and Rumsfeld to bypass. Now consider where your loyalties lie when you decide to go to war and are choosing which military firm to contract, where you literally create a market for you and your company.

What about international? Where Capitalism meets Communism, or meets no system at all – a failed state. The term “disaster capitalism” is where situations like an tsunami or earth quake or hurricane – Three recent, HUGE and devastating events in the world. Most of you watch your TV in hope and despair for those affected. Some few of you raise money or go down to pull people from the wreckage – kudos to you, seriously. But there are a bunch of oh so very rich folk that get a twinkle in their eye. the Coming of seizing an opporunity. A fishing community lived for generations on the beaches of _______. For years, hotels have wanted the deeds to their land to squander in the resort quality environment, but the locals relentlessly protected their way of life. Now a Tsunami hits, “conveniently” wiping the beaches free of huts and markets. A “clean slate” – being the particular phrase in disaster capitalism. Now the hotels have everything they need to exploit the opportunity. “Problem Solved”

What about Iraq? I finally had a realisation the other day, of what it might be like to live as an afghani or Iraqi, and the way of life of a small boy carrying and AK-47 or an abused wife in a burka, and the hardships they endure. On THIS level only, I agree with the coalition providing the necessary force to provide people with the freedoms they deserve. There is some good in what we’re doing over there. But everyone really cares about the true motives of the war. Terrorism? we already know that terrorism is not held to borders, airports, or one nation in particular. Oil? pretty fucking likely. But hey – it’s not Bush’s fault – it’s YOU who needs the oil and are willing to pay for it. But the military contractors? There’s a good example that’s hiding behind the shadow of oil motives. How many military CEOs love the idea of a new war? If one fighter plane costs upwards of 50 million apiece, then consider the firearms, nukes, military bases, etc etc etc etc x a thousand – that’s a god damn lot of money – 2 TRILLION dollars as of like 2006 or something. Here’s an interesting figure. What would happen if we didn’t engage in war with the middle east and just GAVE them 2 trillion dollars? would we be worse off? perhaps we’re more comfortable with the seizure of a nation’s resources than the legal trade of it.

This concept of problem solving, market creating, and market manipulation goes from terrestrial to cellular. Consider a baseball game with your son. They’ve decided to pack your popcorn with salt to make you thirsty, so you buy a pop. Then the corn starch in that fountain drink is grehlin producting (which makes you feel hungry) and you buy a hot dog. Wonder why the Western world is fat?

Does this not scare any of you? because it scares the living piss out of me! The “free-est” nations in the world are governing themselves with a corrupt and flawed system with only principle values. Tie it in with fear-driving media telling that you need these things to survive, conspiratory methods of conflict resolution, and falsified, weightless values of freedom and liberty, and you have yourself a civilization of robotic, ignorant, malnourished, pop star wannabe generation believing everything they see in mass media. Please don’t be one of them!

I rarely visit the States. Maybe its because I have nightmares about incompetent special forces rappelling into my bedroom and flying me in a box to Guantanamo bay or Abu Ghraib because of my anti-american sentiment on this website, or because I have this deep, inexplicable loathing of the southwestern accent, or because I have this sensational view that there aren’t really any Americans south of the boarder, just robotic blue collars fed McDonalds by hose.

- funny side note, I forgot what that second “torture prison,” Abu Ghraib was called. But it’s ok because google helped me out. I just typed in “torture” and guess what the second heading was?

I think the real reason is that… It’s better here. I mean, Canada’s not the creme de la creme. We’ve got no fucking leg to stand on. But the States is a fucking wreck in comparison. Right now, Canada’s fucking sweet.

The age-old “motto” of America, if you will… the “American Dream” is: Freedom and Liberty.

Honestly? what a fucking joke.

Thanks to the recent revocation of privacy laws, combined with the doctrination of ignorance, the surprising lack of passport ownership, and severe level of intolerance of petty crime, the United States is far from a free country. If I was writing this post on an American server (which, I probably am, I should probably check that) then I am logged. Some low clearance level FBI fuckup is sitting behind a desk reading this (Hi, by the way.) and without any warning, warrant, or perception of evidence against me, I could be plucked from my room and “disappeared” – which is actually a word, for writing this Blog. Better think up an alias or alibi, but that won’t do shit. I could have gone through school and learned nothing, put myself through university and come out just as stupid because my ignorance is more markettable, landing me a 40k desk job at an IT firm, clouded by the redefined word “smart.” I probably don’t have an American passport, considering that about 78.3% of Americans don’t. Which means that my vacation destination is Hawaii or Florida, and my only worldly influences come from USA Today or, if I consider myself remotely intellectual, CNN, which of course, like every news network, is heavily biased. Hell. I might have smoked pot, (once) because shit man do it again, and chances are I’d find myself in prison with a criminal charge because some dick cop caught me with an ounce of pot.

Nowadays, if you’re asked to sing the American National Anthem, or who the 26th President was and you can’t, you’re deemed a traitor and “unAmerican.” It’s almost like if you don’t drive a GM or Ford, or you don’t like football or Nascar. Cross any of those lines, and you get your ass kicked.

Look I fucking get it. America WAS the shit – but like a hundred years ago! Capitalism and Freedom were REAL things! until people started CAPITALISING on FREEDOM! America is eating itself! (figuratively and literally) back in the day people immigrated to America because they wanted a change. To get out of a corrupt monarchy or dictatorship. To start a new life for themselves, their successes a true correlation with their efforts. The ability to speak your mind, live comfortably, invent words like “retirement” and “long term investment return.”

That’s just not the case anymore, and truly, I emphasize with you. Everything you want to do; be it own a car, get a good job, earn some money, have a kid, go to school, travel the world, go on an adventure… It’s always up to someone else. You’ve always got a boss, you always have something to fear. Why? Because fear makes money.

Don’t give in to these false ideas of “protecting freedom”. If you were free, you wouldn’t need protection in the first place.

On my most recent trip to Toronto, I was confronted on Queen street by CityTV. Apparently, they’re “everywhere” and somehow I was in the “where” that they were at that particular time, christmas shopping with my little sister. They asked me if I would like to be on T.V. naturally I declined, assuming I would have nothing of interest to say. Then they mentioned “It’s about Tiger Woods” I mashed my hands together and said “where do I start?”

Tiger woods is an “athlete” if you could call golf a sport that raises your heartbeat (which it doesn’t) but regardless, he is the highest paid man to be in some sort of a ball, club, score… “sport” and in doing so, naturally, he’s reaped the rewards of such an honour by sleeping with somewhere near 20 women, and now his marriage and family are in jeopardy for obvious reasons.

Sidenote: have you seen the cover of Vanity Fair Magazine? Not that I fucking care because I don’t even know what the fuck that magazine is about, I just giggle to myself at all of the magazines in the line at the nearest safeway. But it appears that Tiger is making the best of his situation by appearing as badass as he can by being topless (and I mean that in the most feminine way possible), all in black and white, with a gangster black toque on, as if he’s about to loot the nearest wal-mart for some upper-body attire. Did anyone notice that he doesn’t look like much of an athlete? Interesting note number one.

Sportscasters from TSN all the way down to the tabloids have always written Tiger up as the goody toe shoes Black Guy who clearly doesn’t fit the stereotype. A role model for everyone to follow in. A man who can make success out of a skillful (albeit NOT adrenaline driven, heart pounding, nor tachycardic) sport and get rich. VERY rich.  And now all of a sudden, his life explodes in his face. 17 women claim to have carnal knowledge with Tiger. His wife I’m sure might be a little bit edgy.

But come the fuck on. He’s Tiger fucking Woods. He’s a Billionaire. He’s clearly not a monogynous man. Regardless of how the media tried to portray him as a nice guy, he was a sex-a-holic from the start. His wife knew, his friends knew, He knew. The issue here is that the hide-odourous media wanted to profit off of his countless acts of adultery in order to sell magazines. And look at the turmoil that it stirred. He lost all his sponsors and is now revolting himself to Vanity Fair.

Now where have we seen this before? Oh yea Bill Clinton. The fucking President of the United States. Look. This dude OWNED THE FREE WORLD. What this guy wanted, happened. And he got a BJ from an unnatractive desk clerk. What did we get? George Bush and a couple new punch lines from the latest comedians.

Fuck man. Sex Happens. Just like Shit Happens. The interesting thing here is that: Golf is a focus-driven sport. Tiger probably got his focus by putting his penis in women. Clinton didn’t even get to bone! Clearly Hilary wasn’t putting out, But he got something that most people get on a pretty rad night in Vegas or Whistler. Does this make them a worse golf player or president? what the fuck? is that even a question? And why didn’t either of these guys pull the addiction card like David Duchovny? If Tiger said: “yea? what do you want. I love women and I’m addicted to sex!” Complete repercussion reversal. He’d have more women lined up. Problem. Solved. It’s not like he cared about his family while he was having those other 20 affairs anyways.

This is a pure example of our true values in celebrities. That’s right, Celebrities. This is it’s own industry, people. Sports players, musicians, and actrices are in the same boat as Politicians and their lives are only as true as the ignorant stupid fucking tabloid writers make them to be. The White House is just like the Monarchy of the United Kingdom. A fucking tourist attraction. And yet, somehow, they are in charge of this world we call free. They’ve got the nuclear codes and control of the free world, but all that Enquire magazine can write about is their sex life or cellulite scars.

-makes for an entertaining read though.

http://www.ted.com/talks/alisa_miller_shares_the_news_about_the_news.html

a continuation of: Conformity

Someone out there is asking you bigger questions than you can answer.

Is the magnetic field around the planet going to reverse?
Are we responsible for global warming, and is it going to render our earth more resemblant to venus?
Is China going to be the next greatest superpower, absorbing western ways?
Is the human race destined to be wiped out by the next coming flu pandemic?
Do you live in a Tsunami’s path or a Tornado’s Alley?
Did the dinosours exist?
Did man reach the moon?
Is evolution real?
Do we have brains?
Is there a god?

None of these questions can be answered and proven as fact. You’d be surprised how many of these questions are actually out there, and how important they are to our daily lives. Consider the SARS or H1N1 pandemic. Only a handful of people became infected, when compared to the annual flu season, the common cold, cancer, HIV/AIDS, even a vending machine all beat H1N1 on the death toll. This wasn’t even made a mockery on primetime. They explained that “one person in Albuquerque has become infected with H1N1″  … Yes “one” person. And yet, everyone jumps to conclusions and assumes the worst and demands a vaccine, which the government happily goes out and buys from some huge pharmaceutical conglomerate at top dollar.
Unless you are actually a medical scientist involved in Vaccination and pandemic flu planning, it is all just a tale with supporting evidence. Its entirely up to you to believe in something or nothing. We are lucky enough to live in a free world where we can believe what we think is most true, and yet we base massive decisions on assumed crediblity.

Not a single person can ensure 100% that any of those questions can be answered as science fact, because what you believe, what you understand, only matters to you. The only way that you, as a real homo sapien with an inquisitive brain, can answer any of these questions, is to go ahead and do them yourselves. Become an astronaut, dissect a cadavre, be a geologist or a paleantologist.

The issue here, is that as we are easily herded into communities and generalized into groups, we can be manipulated to believe whatever is perceived as most evident, regardless of how factual. Everyone is too caught up in their own lives to stop and question: “Do I believe in something because I have educated myself and understand how it affects my own personal, everyday life?” Or because someone out there sits behind a newsdesk or house of commons, or the oval office and preaches necessity to its followers to gain an upper hand on the “common good”? Especially in order to convince you to buy something you don’t need.

At what price? our subtle humanity? our hidden agendas? our greed? our false ideas of peace and civility? our presentation that cave dwellers are better off with technology? That tradition be abolished to accomodate modern resources?

Not to say that any of that is wrong… but my question is… IS IT RIGHT?

Again, it’s time that we stop allowing ourselves to vote upon international change that is preached to us through impersonal, electronic, one-sided, manipulated information, or to interpret a bias not of our own, resulting in a change that conflicts second and third-party lives.

What is so wrong with “I Don’t Know?” those words follow the cliche:  fear of what we do not know, or fear of non-conformity. I fear ignorance. We always are in search of answers, and even if it is not the right one, it still satisfies us, fills that hole, so that we can cover it with a sewergrate of protection, in order to stop the worry.
I personally welcome questions of the unknown. I embrace mistakes and problems, because they are the barebones of problem solving. Make the mistake and document the route around it, so that we can progress as a species, for the REAL “common good” May the most evident win.

Please do not think of me as a calleous anarchist. I do not welcome war, pain, or suffering to anyone, I’m just brewing a perspective.

Here are a few things that I have noticed as changes in the military.

War is supposed to be shitty. It keeps us from wanting to go to it. In the old days, you didn’t even really have a choice. You were plucked out of your home and given a rifle, and dropped off at a beach and told “go kill something”

Those that did manage to survive, came home torn apart on the inside, and the wives, children, girlfriends and boyfriends all got a hands-on feel for what the war was like. Everyone suffered, even if it wasn’t you doing the shooting. People were physically and mentally crippled.

Obviously, this is the epitome of “shitty”, but The one good thing to come out of all that is that we’d understand the realities of war, and we truly honestly would not want it to happen again. Think “The War to End all Wars”

Times have changed now (well, for one side)

Take for example the Mujaheddin. These were Afghans who were used and abused by the U.S. and C.I.A. They were trained and armed by the Americans and used as henchmen to fight off the Commie Russians trying to invade Afghanistan. When the Americans were done with their side of the war, the Mujaheddin were literally left to starve in the desert. But they kept their guns All they knew was war and killing, and they’re fucking good at it. And now guess what? They didn’t like our abuse, they’ve watched how we live our lives and they disagree with it! They want their Caliphate back and they’re relentless in their pursuit. They’ve created an international guerilla tactic that we were never expecting. They are not stupid and arrogant. They’re trained, motivated, and their orders come from somewhere other than the chain of command.

Conversely, the Western soldier goes on “tours” of war. Many volunteer for the task and book return flights. They wear flak jackets and kevlar helmets and have state of the art surgeons and medics at their disposal. They have internet and hot meals and carry ipods and digital cameras. They have no desire to die, and don’t expect to either. They’ve got families and responsibilities back home to tend to. Their own president staged fake photo opportunties and pre emptive “job well done” banners.

Of course, now I feel like a fucking dick. Look I spent 3 years in the army, I’ve got friends who’ve been overseas and luckily they came back. I’m not saying that these soldiers are all “hooaahhh” assholes, or that they aren’t feeling the true shellshock of war, I’m not saying that having the best medical practice available is a bad thing. I’m simply saying… that there’s a big fucking difference between them and us, and then and now. Someone has to fucking say it. Look at the death toll?

We think of them as uncivilised, sand-dwelling “AlAALLAAHKBAR” devil worshippers. And in some ways, we’re right. They think of us as fat, gluttonnous, naked infidel “HOOAH!” pigs that treat women with respect. And… in some ways, they’re right. But is that enough of a reason to go to fucking war?!?!? Are you even sure you know who these people fucking are? what if Muslims are actually really nice people? What if you are an asshole? what if the Qur’an speaks nothing of Jihad? Have YOU read it?

It’s time we all put down the remotes, revolted against prime time, elected real politians, and read some fucking books.

The other thing I’d like to mention here is K.I.A. Remember the bond movies and the war movies and all that, where you watch an enemy soldier get shot in the lung, slump down and just die with a typical Steven Spielburg soundboard? That could not be the case. Getting shot in just about any part of your body doesn’t kill you instantly. Your brain lives for 4 long minutes without oxygen. Anyone who has experienced this usually never lived to tell the tale, but having severed a major artery can still render you conscious for hours of excruciating pain and morale depletion. A shot to the lung causes a pneumothorax, where one lung collapses and the other doesn’t. Your injured lung expands as you exhale and contracts as you inhale, called paradoxical movement. You physically cannot breathe, but still live for those 4 painful minutes. You’ve also got a magical organ called the spleen, which houses massive volumes of blood. When your blood pressure drops, it squishes like a sponge to increase volume and keep you alive, regardless of how far-gone you are. War is not a pretty thing, it’s not like the movies. (again I’d like to stress that I’ve never been to war nor wish to do so.)

The other thing I’d like to mention is robotic warfare. Consider this: you are a 9-5er living in a quaint suburb. You’ve got a family and a wife. You play golf on the weekends, host a barbecue or two. You work from a computer just like millions of other people. The thing that makes you different and special is that you are directly killing people in the comforts of your office. You are a robotic drone operator for the U.S. military. In early January, a U.S. drone fired missiles and killed 13 pakistani militants.

You know what? perhaps this is a reciprocated dosage to terrorists. And todays moms and girlfriends don’t have to cry over lost loved ones on a dangerous mission anymore. But this definately changes the definition of war. I’ve already mentioned that war sucks and truly wish we could all just get along. But that’s the beauty of diversity. It causes conflict. But conflict isn’t solved with computer software and joysticks.  It surely must be a violation of the Rules of Engagement which states that for a western, powerful nation with altruistic, peaceful values, war must be fair. You can’t open fire until fired upon. You can’t kill one man with a $2 million cruise missile. You also can not kill a man with a computer game. Where’s the honor? the respect? the truth of fighting for a cause? the justice of winning for a greater good? The bravery, comraderie, and courage under fire?

This is wrong.

There seems to be a clash between the public and private sectors of the western world. Clearly there is a history of Communist bashing,  but there are a few interesting omissions.

The US foreign policy has found a way to make money and generate markets for the “oh so very rich” to invest in, using public tax dollars to front the cash.

To go to war, you need a good few essentials. Soldiers, Weapons, Armour, and constructed bases. Oh yea and a reason to go too. But that’s not really that important. Traditionally, you’d assume that a few of these were bought and paid for by the US government using tax dollars – to assume that YES, your citizens DO want to go to war for a cause and are willing to pay for it.

Recently (and I mean like for the last 40 years or so) These machines of war have moved out of the public sector and into the private sector. Specifically boots on the ground and “defense contractors.” Dick Cheney, former US V.P. was the CEO of Halliburton, an oilfield production company headquartered in Texas. Halliburton received special treatment for the bid to supply infrastructure and oil to the Iraq war in 2003.

Blackwater, a private security firm, was hired as a defence contractor to work in Iraq. No longer were there men going to war because they wanted to and believed in the cause (which is another thing altogether, see this), but because they would be getting paid the big bucks to do so. Now gung-ho, stone cold, cocky killing machines were let to run rampant in Iraq. These “armed employees” of blackwater are considered by the company to be “armed independant contractors” which doesn’t sound particularily disciplined. (imagine being an Iraqi militant fighting for your life because of what you belive in, and some asshole tactician with a “modified for death” M-16 with greasy tattoos comes around and shoots you in the gut and screams “HOOAAA!”)

But that’s beside the point. What’s happening here is the U.S. government is creating wealth by hiring defense contractors, which cost a shitload more, to do their fighting and buiding and reconstructing and infrastructure. This uses tax-payer dollars to foot the contracting bill in order to pay for mercenaries and elaborate military bases.

There are Four things wrong with this that I see:

Number One: Honour. The most impactful difference between a paid individual and a volunteer is that the person volunteering (i.e. a “G-I” or serviceman) does their job with passion and honour because they work for a cause that they believe in, and feel proud to have made a difference. They bear their nations flag and are willing to die for the rights and freedoms of their families. First of all, I think it is outright disgusting that someone could tamper with that person and make them believe in a cause that doesn’t really exist where their lives are at risk, but secondly, someone who gets paid doesn’t give a flying fuck who they kill where or why, so long as they get paid. Cash for blood. The difference is that the volunteer will ensure a job well done because they actually WANT it that way. Paid employees only work as hard as their wage and only do what they’re told to keep their job.

Number Two: Reciprocation. We all know about the gap between rich and poor, and how it’s extremely top-heavy. But have you ever thought that you might have inadvertently INVESTED in your own problems? As a unit, the United States taxpayer made the call, went to war, and paid for it. Whether that’s what actually happened or not, it’s what is supposed to happen, and it’s how the rest of the world sees it. The issue is that the people who organized this little party decided to pay top dollar for everything and just sent the bill home. As opposed to using the traditional system, defense contractors made money. These people PLAN on war. Aeronautical industries like Lockheed, or Arms manufacturers like Colt, NEED war in order to make money.  These of course are just a few. weapons are just a teeny bit of what is needed to make war. Just so happens that there is a trend between politicians and defence contractors, and a country hell-bent on violence.

Number Three: “Security Contractors” is an edited definition for “mercenary.” Men who are paid employees of evil corporations like Blackwater who make dollars from bullets. They inherently care nothing for who they kill where or why, But simply to go on a military vacation and blow up shit. But that is nothing in comparison to the damage they do to their former soldier pals. The unregulated, cocky, overconfident and totally ignorant actions of these mercenaries has devastating effects on the servicemen of their country, who then must retaliate for their mistakes and clean up the mess they make. If you are a mercenary reading this, then FUCK YOU.

Number Four: Iraqis are a very passionate people, whether or not their beliefs are terrible or not, they view westerners as perverted, undisciplined, and gluttonous people. They hate our guts and the fact that we are on their soil is nothing short of total insult. Furthermore, we had no right to be there in the first place, but somehow snuck in with lies and misinformation. We barge into their homes in the night and steal their husbands and grandfathers, for years of inhuman torture with no conviction. One anonymous superior officer at the prison stated: “If I were treated that way, I’d be a terrorist.” We use “smart” bombs to take out whole buildings with the hopes that intelligence was right and yes there was one guy we wanted in there. Again even further, we are literally assimilating them into this perceived perfect world of a free democracy. While that is clearly an option for growth and stability, it is a cheap trick to signify an altruistic intent which we are all too familiar with. Our motives for this change is so that we can “trade/steal” their precious oil reserves, to wipe their country clean in order to exploit and mold it how we see fit.

But then what? what do the citizens get for their money? Surely not better healthcare or an improved education system. International security? think again. Anti-american sentiment is only growing from the inside out. Freedom? actually Bush completely obliterated Habeus Corpus with the new patriot act, which means that you could literally have done NOTHING wrong, and be plucked off your feet never to be seen again. Interrogated, tortured, “disappeared” or killed. And not have a legal right to see the evidence against you. Your families would post “missing” ads in the local grocery store.

My question is this: When you go to renovate your home or buy a used vehicle or something… you make a sound decision, right? you hire the right people, you watch what they do, you get fucking receipts. When you want WAR (which no one should want) you hire your countrymen, you understand the cause, you treat your enemies with honour and your wounded with compassion, and you see the results. When was the last time that happened?

This is a continuation of the post: Markets of Fear.

How does fear control the marketplace? how does it work? are you the type of person that can’t fucking stand todays advertising because it seems way too fucking stupid? Are you often shocked by the ignorance of a phrase that comes out of someones mouth?

Have you noticed that this happens more often than not?

This is because of the endless cycle of an alliance of many important things with subtle hidden agendas. Like the education system, the economy, passive entertainment, ease of access, and conformity.

I’ll try to make this part about the education system seem the least bit like a conspiracy. Education is good, at the very least it provides life skills necessary to live in a civilized world. But beyond that, it can be entirely manipulated to acheive subtle nationwide goals. I do not speak of the entire system, but there are many people in this system that NEED their operation to work. They NEED things like videogames, reality TV, warehouse-style shopping centres, pop music, and fast food in order to manipulate you into a community of non-intellectuals, because it is the creation of a market that is highly malleable and easy to sell to. It’s easy to find a person like this, in fact we are all this type of person to some degree. But it is important not to blame the person. This gets nothing done. What is important is to stop this subliminal system of automaticity, to break the addiction of a poor quality of living, and instead, live a passionate life.

Nowadays we are exposed to labelling, advertising, idolization, and sponsorship. Without these, trade simply wouldn’t function. The problem is that the product advertised is not the same product sold.

The reason why sensational ideas of blue collar mutiny are non-fiction is because the blue collar, trades educated community, is more concerned with putting KFC on the table and keeping their kids away from drugs than with the burdens of politics and the correct product selection and necessity.

I don’t think that the biggest fear is of what we do not know. I think it’s the fear of noncomformity. I will continue this post with Conformity