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You're correct, I haven't. It's like watching the wheel get invented over and over again.

 

BTW, it really depends on what COUNTRY in Africa of which we are speaking. You know, it really offends people from Africa that Americans seemingly cannot separate one African country from another, and know virtually nothing about the history of their countries.

 

But oh well, most Americans know nothing about their own history either. But they know the name over every player in the NBA, NFL and the entire sad history of every rapper, street gang, etc., etc., etc.

 

Why is it that completely worthless information seems so important, and important information seems so worthless to so many people?

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because ,overall, people are petty....we want to be allowed to endulge ourselves and live without consequence....we dont assign much value for life and we dont respect death enough so we dont review our blessings and apply the 'out of sight out of mind' mentality to problems that feel too difficult to solve....i think MLKjr summed it up pretty well with what he said about racism....people simply dont think....if they did then they would question their beliefs and come to diffrent conclusions....i think the most important thing you and i can do with our lives is to educate ourselves as well as we can and give total faith to our convictions....(and i dont mean federal)....now is the time of mice and of men.....its not so much 'are you willing to die for your beliefs?' but its very much 'will you live for them?'....

 

 

 

allright....... thats my 'braveheart' ending monologue moment....wheres my oscar

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Originally posted by KaBar2@Jun 13 2005, 02:01 PM

You're correct, I haven't. It's like watching the wheel get invented over and over again.

 

BTW, it really depends on what COUNTRY in Africa of which we are speaking. You know, it really offends people from Africa that Americans seemingly cannot separate one African country from another, and know virtually nothing about the history of their countries.

 

But oh well, most Americans know nothing about their own history either. But they know the name over every player in the NBA, NFL and the entire sad history of every rapper, street gang, etc., etc., etc.

 

Why is it that completely worthless information seems so important, and important information seems so worthless to so many people?

 

 

it's not like an invention, because it's nothing new.

most people bring their views to the table and refuse to walk away with anything else.

most minds, here and elsewhere, are too closed to be interested in learning something

or changing an opinion, because somewhere along the line, it seemed to become an admission of weakness i guess.

 

it's more like the hamster wheel, spinning again and again.

same old shit, different day

 

as far as why americans aren't interested in knowledge about classical topics like history and geography, but love banal trivia, my guess would be that it is yet another shitty byproduct of a convenience driven consumerist culture where virtually nothing has any integrity, merit, lasting value or real quality and our wealth allows us to overlook the problems and conditions of the rest of the world.

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some people would argue the frivolous dominates 'our' airwaves

for a specific function(keep in mind the corporate owned media

serves it's own set of interests): keep the public away from the

real issues that matter by creating spectacle after spectacle.

if people don't know about serious things affecting their lives,

then they can't participate in any of the decisions.

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i'd believe that if ..for example..people didn't rubber neck on the highway.

 

those people know it is causing a huge backup, and it's very rude, and not helpful to anyone, and not informative in any useful way, and they stare and stare anyway

 

in our capitalist culture, the customer is king.

they wouldn't package it that way if it didn't sell.

 

then there are always the people you know

who are generally educated and intelligent, and they don't pay any attention to anything 'important'

except themselves.

 

just opinion

more opinion

just what this place needed.

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In much religious texts there is always a fear of the masses, that one should not throw ones pearls to swine, that they would not understand anyways, the profane masses. One great example of inculcated prejudice resistive to change regardless of evidence unsupportive of it is religion. Strange how religious people become the very thing their teachers feared or may have even been martyred by. Because most of the time gurus and religious leaders, saints, the son of god, whatever are persecuted and considered heretics. Then years later they become venerated as great figures, and a new system of prejudice develops around their beliefs, until it is conquered again by another brave holy man or woman. I think buddism is one of the most honest religions.... because the buddah at least admits he can only give you guidance but cannot take you to nirvana. A personal journey.

 

So are the masses doomed to be the stupid destoyers of their own saviors? It would seem so with a cursory glance at our history... but maybe there are some enclaves, and some epochs in time that would defy this school of thought. And even in our current time in the shadow of the triumph of Capital and all of it's base and materialistic regression, just look at the far east... many countries there are full of people who have computers for brains. So I would say that under the proper conditions mankind can bring their minds out of the dark ages. Here in the U.S. we are in a sort of transition. From a manufacturing society that values strength, to an information society that values intelligence. The world is making this transition really... We are falling behind because in our corporation dominated society the animal side of people is valued.... desire, consumption, greed, etc... So our higher, angelic selves are becoming neglected at our own peril, yet we are unable to break out of this entropy because our government has become insufficient in reigning in the corpocracy. The corpocracy MUST keep us down for it's own survival, and yet, in these changing times they must bring us up for their own survival. They are putting it off for as long as possible I think. Though there is an exit horizon. All the while they resist change and keep us down while raking in the last of their profits, taking handouts from our corrupted government, and cutting workers to survive, replacing with cheaper foreign workers, all the while we are falling behind in the new game, while they squeeze the life out of the old one. (an example of this would be GM banking on SUVs and trucks, because they turn over a larger profit, and in this oil crunch small economical cars are making the lionshare of automobile sales)This is a fate we as americans have accepted through our general apathy. Not because we chose this, but because we failed to choose at all. This is the path of least resistance.

 

Our only real saving grace is in academia, where through empirical knowledge there is a consensus opinion that can be reached, for the most part, and not the endless, pointless back and forth. Though academia cannot save our country. Already we see academia being marginalized, and anti-intelligentsia becoming en vogue. Under these conditions we can only continue to spiral into entropy. Academia will adapt to the new world, but the US as a whole is refusing to, and will falter.

 

Angelofdeath: The point I was trying to make earlier is that it's highly improbable that the politicians that moved to the republican party did so because they have a history of being the small government party.

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Originally posted by symbols+Jun 14 2005, 07:19 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (symbols - Jun 14 2005, 07:19 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-KaBar2@Jun 13 2005, 02:01 PM

You're correct, I haven't.  It's like watching the wheel get invented over and over again.

 

BTW, it really depends on what COUNTRY in Africa of which we are speaking.  You know, it really offends people from Africa that Americans seemingly cannot separate one African country from another, and know virtually nothing about the history of their countries.

 

But oh well, most Americans know nothing about their own history either.  But they know the name over every player in the NBA, NFL and the entire sad history of every rapper, street gang, etc., etc., etc.

 

Why is it that completely worthless information seems so important, and important information seems so worthless to so many people?

 

 

it's not like an invention, because it's nothing new.

most people bring their views to the table and refuse to walk away with anything else.

most minds, here and elsewhere, are too closed to be interested in learning something

or changing an opinion, because somewhere along the line, it seemed to become an admission of weakness i guess.

 

it's more like the hamster wheel, spinning again and again.

same old shit, different day

 

as far as why americans aren't interested in knowledge about classical topics like history and geography, but love banal trivia, my guess would be that it is yet another shitty byproduct of a convenience driven consumerist culture where virtually nothing has any integrity, merit, lasting value or real quality and our wealth allows us to overlook the problems and conditions of the rest of the world.

[/b]

 

symbols, you're on point..

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yea but the want is created symbols.

things sell becuz you're told it will make

you beautiful over and over and over,

from every possible angle..

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating

things over and over and over again for the truth to

sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - W.

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Reviving the Foreign-aid Racket

 

by Patrick J. Buchanan

June 15, 2005

 

"Debt Cut Is Set for Poorest Nations" was the headline in Sunday's Washington Post over the lead story. "The world's wealthiest nations," wrote Paul Blustein, "agreed yesterday to cancel more than $40 billion in debts that some of the world's poorest nations owe to international lenders – a move inspired by the belief that full debt forgiveness is necessary to give those countries a chance to escape the trap of hunger, disease and economic stagnation." Sounds wonderful.

 

Alan Cowell's story in the New York Times explained: "The deal [is] expected to ease the 18 poorest countries' annual debt burdens by $1.5 billion. They are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. All must take anticorruption measures."

 

It is hard not to break out laughing at that last line.

 

This $40 billion debt write-off is being hailed as the most magnanimous act since the Marshall Plan. But there is another way to see it: George Bush signed onto one of the biggest bailouts in history. For, here, children, is what has just gone down:

 

 

First, that $40 billion was squandered or stolen by the most corrupt regimes and biggest thieves in the Third World. The money is gone. We shall never see it again. And all the wastrels and crooks who got away with it will not be pursued.

 

Second, the idiot-bankers at the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank who failed to do due diligence when they made the $40 billion in loans, and lied about how good the loans were, will not be exposed and prosecuted, or tarred and feathered as they should.

 

Third, the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank will see all their lost funds replenished, so they can start flying around to those same exotic countries and capitals, shelling out new loans to the same crowd of crooks and incompetents, or their successors.

 

Fourth, American taxpayers will have to pony up the cash for this historic bailout of the international banks.

Why is this happening? Because George Bush owes Tony Blair, and because Blair, bless his socialist soul, believes in the salvific power of foreign aid and has to bring home some bacon to show his skeptical countrymen the "special relationship" between the two is not that of master and poodle.

 

Make no mistake. This not a bailout of Africa's poor or Latin American peasants. This is a bailout of the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. They will get the money to replace their lost loans. As in a Monopoly game where the rules are thrown out, they will be handed new money to play with. Bush and Blair are bailing out failed global institutions run by the highest-paid bureaucrats on earth.

 

What should have been done?

 

The IMF, World Bank and ADB should have been held to the same standards as any U.S. government bank that squandered capital entrusted to its care. Congressional auditors should have gone over their books, looked at the bad loans, looked at the backup provided and statements made at the time by lending officers, then let the American people know whether they had been faithful custodians of our tax dollars or clowns who ought not to be trusted with kids' lunch money. If the banks failed, they should be forced to undergo the same discipline and downsizing as any public bank that made similar unsecured loans and lost $40 billion.

 

At the least, we should shut down the World Bank-IMF country club in Montgomery County, Md. – and make them all travel coach.

 

But none of this is going to happen. All three of these institutions will soon be back at the same game, and their critics will be denounced as hard-hearted conservatives who lack compassion for the world's poor.

 

When an American worker has to take a hit for every foolish or failed investment in the family portfolio or 401K, why do international bankers and bureaucrats work with a safety net and always get a bailout? Why do they never have to answer or apologize for the follies they commit? By all means, give the African people debt relief. But why let the lenders who lied and lost the money off the hook?

 

In the last analysis, it is Congress that has failed in its stewardship of the money entrusted to it by the most generous people on earth. A self-confident government would not give the IMF, World Bank or African Development Bank another dime. Let them call us names.

 

Unfortunately, we have a Congress that cannot say no to any demand for foreign aid in the name of the "world's poorest" and a U.S. government that cannot stand up to a moral shakedown.

 

 

© 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

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want and desire are part of the human condition

 

it cannot be blamed on the media.

media is consumed like anything else, and the more sensational, the more attention it gets. .this isn't about what people are told they want, it's about what they want. and they [seem to] want something one-dimensional that improves the view people have on themselves.

 

i know what you are getting at

but as someone who is pretty well versed in buddhism

i know that people have been trying to gain mental discipline over carnal and basal desires since the beginning of time

and it can be done

regardless of the shitty influences we perpetuate upon ourselves.

 

i think i saw one too many bradpitt-angelinajolie covers this month

 

things may sell with that "it'll make you sexy" slogan, but it is people who are so goddamn self-involved they made stupid shit like getting rid of wrinklkes and fat the fucking be all end all.

 

instead of making sure no on eise is hungry.

 

fuck it.

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i love bush`s plan for the war on aids in africa. he cuts all money to any clinic that offers abortion, contraception, or safe sex information. and suggests that africans be chast. too bad momma bush couldnt keep her legs closed. :yuck:

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Angelofdeath:

I think that article makes a good point about holding the IMF, World Bank, and ADF accountable, especially since they are largely discredited anyways. They really need reform. And it's fucking frightening to me that the architect of the Iraq War, Paul Wolfowitz is the head of the world bank now... I was hoping that this debt relief may coincide with institutional reform with those international loan agencies but with the promotion of wolfowitz the future looks grim sadly.

 

I heard an insider speaking about the world bank on the radio. He was saying that the world bank is a beauracratic nightmare. There are very few career people there dedicated to the institution. Rather it has become more like a transitional position one assumes until they are promoted and move on... therefore real reform is never really acheived.

 

I don't think that relief of these nations and future loans are unjustified however because it is my understanding that these nations qualified for debt relief because they made necessary reforms.

"tarred and feathered"... colorful language hmm?

 

Symbols:

Granted want and desire are part of the human condition. To be human is to have weakness to this body's needs. But I believe we are also clay. All of this media seems to reinforce this consumer culture, and reinforcing these negative neurological patterns. While something like Buddism, if one were immersed in it, would reinforce positive neurological patterns. So as you say it's possible to overcome desire with enough dedication. Sure, people want these things, but the way things are set up, it's not helping us get out of this rut. I wouldn't rule out the media so quickly. People pushed far away from the mainstream (and there is evidence of this in many cultures throughout history) tend to be more accomplished, if not just eccentric. lol ...and lonely...

I don't think that's a coincidence.

Though societies that focus on the arts and sciences seem to do well. The Greek formed an empire not through warfare, but through it's art and philosophy. Even today, Greek society of that era is the backbone of western culture.

 

The Smiths are everywhere. Kinda like the matrix all over again.

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yeah, all i'm saying is we created the cesspool we are living in.

 

society is pliable too.

and we are all a part of it.

 

like i said though, i think i saw one too many pitt/jolie covers.

enough terri schiavo, mike jackson, and all that bullshit.

if so many crazy people weren't holed up outside that trial, so many people talking till blue in the face about these 'issues' ...then i'd feel differently.

 

dunno.

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well for me it boils down to the integral part of this type of thing..the massive efforts of the corporate sector to mold the public mind...it's been done for so

long and so well that people can't even fathom such a history exists, which indicates just how successful it's been.

media isn't some small, peripheral influence, it's a total blanket on everything. you literally do not have the option of not being completely wrapped in it. it's hard to fathom that it's something you have a choice in consuming when it's everywhere, 24/7.

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Originally posted by POIESIS@Jun 17 2005, 12:41 AM

it's a total blanket on everything. you literally do not have the option of not being completely wrapped in it. it's hard to fathom that it's something you have a choice in consuming when it's everywhere, 24/7.

 

not to get off topic but living in a foreign country has basically cut my media umbelical cord and i feel great. the news is controlled out here and journalists are always apoligizing for writing the truth, and i cant stop hearing about how supposedly the foreign residents (.7 % of the total population) commit 99% of the crimes. yet i see groups of motorcycle kids ride donuts around the police everyday and they just ignore them. but in cutting off my fix of media im damned if i do damned if i dont. on one side its great because i wasnt in america during 9/11 and i avoided that as well as the majority of bushs term, and all the media crap and other americans opinions on the war etc. except for a telephone call from my grandmother that americans need to find the muslims terrorists responsible...uh grandma they died when the plane hit. and that my mother recently started taking shooting lessons. to protect herself in the upper class suburbs?? but the downfall is the masssssss amounts of useless data that my brain seems to crave like heroin. things like what the hell is an ipod, when the next grand theft auto is coming out, what movies are good and what suck even though i havent seen them. i guess because life can be boring and it fills the gaps. whos dating who, who thinks michael is really innocent, who got voted off the island of some fake show, what happened in whatever boring tv show last night, monday night football scores... feed the desire to stay on top of things.

 

now i have a tv but i just rent videos, i get my news when i want it by looking on the internet, and nobody out here that i know is that possessed with pop culture. so i had to fill my time with other things like reading, studying, exercising, painting, working and i dont think i would have been able to do that as easily as i could here. sorry for the rant.

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Media is ubiquitous and heavily influential. I wish there was more public funded and unbiased media...

Some would argue that media is the most powerful weapon of this era.

Must be nice, Serum, to have all the time to do what you want to free from distraction. Wow... I can hardly imagine.

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