THE LIES

the lies, the lies; i am so sick of the lies. one could make a great start on a new direction for politics if any person elected to any office had to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, just as any person addressing a court of law must do. how can it be acceptable, accepted, commonplace, that when politicians speak we reflexively try to assign a sort of 'truth quotient' to everything they say? declarative statements are either true or untrue. i don't think we need to bother about what they say to their spouses, or children, or neighbors, but what they say to voters — both the ones who put them in office and the ones that tried to keep them out — that should be sacrosanct; there, the truth only should apply, and the penalties for lying (which is often only too easily proven) should be the same as for perjury; it's at least as important as that.

GROWTH ON A FINITE PLANET

in nature, unlimited growth without regard to its utility for the organism as a whole is called cancer. for the humans of earth to cling to a belief in a permanent state of growth model, such as the model that fundamentally underpins capitalist economies, social systems and their politics, is suicidal.

the countries and regions that evolve a more pragmatic and flexible view of systems will be the ones that survive and prosper, if indeed any can prosper in future on such a small planet; a planet which, at the moment, is dominated by mindless adherence to what amount to baseless beliefs.

alternative facts will not save you, us or anybody.

PROBLEM ROOTS AND ROOTS THAT NOURISH

the root of the problem with the present iteration of capitalism lies in corporate culture. some people accept as a given the arcane notion that a corporation's only obligation is to its shareholders, that the only or overriding goal of a corporation is to maximize profits. this idea is worshipped by capitalists without a sustainable strategy or social conscience as if it came down from the mount on a clay tablet. absurd. it was proffered, accepted and promoted by private capital accumulators and their apologists and it has disfigured the system and its supporters, as it is now busy ruining the culture that spawned it.


the real obligation of corporations — as it is the real obligation of all associations of humans, voluntary and involuntary — is to promote the welfare of the society entire and all the people who make up its population, together with the geographical area it controls and the biosphere within. this longterm interest can only be promoted by a sustainable best practice toward the earth and its living inhabitants of every description. and the most important element in ensuring sustainability at every scale of organization is the only, and final, excuse for any state more organized than anarchy, and that is egalitarian justice, stripped of confirmation bias and all impediments to rational thought, from whence peace and reason only can be born and nourished.

NOTES ON PRIVILEGE

there is something in social/political/economic systems that enshrines privilege. this quality of inequity has various roots in surviving custom and by conscious design and is ubiquitous. why is that? is it inherent in the human animal and therefore inevitable? i don’t know the answer. i have tried to observe not only humans but also other animals of our planet, without conclusive results, but tentatively i would have to say that i think such a condition is most likely evolutionarily designed, that it is rooted in the species’ common urge to survive and procreate.

ideas, like individuals, also compete. one idea that seems to run against the current is the idea of limiting ideas that compete with present mores. much effort is given to thwarting new thought by those who administer and profit from present assumptions and practices. this seemingly contrary behavior may endure because it promotes stability at the expense of adaptability, that change is in itself dangerous and needs to be controlled for the safety of the species. or it might endure simply because some are selfish and concerned more with their own survival, comfort and pleasure than their society in total. in my experience i would have to say the latter reason is supported by more evidence, though even if true it may have ineluctably produced increased fitness.

whether anything can be done to effectively make cooperation, more than competition, a fundamental first principle in the minds of the peoples of earth i am not sure, though i do think that, to the degree humans have survived to dominate the planet, that domination is not largely the result of competition, unbridled or otherwise, but owes its success much more to the continuing (and growing) influence of cooperation.

AAH, GIVE ME SCIENCE

there is more philosophy implied in molecular genetics and the study of animal behavior than there is in hemingway, joyce or faulkner and, among others, kant, hegel and especially, freud.