Wikileaks

Remember when Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld had a press conference about the release of photographs from Abu Ghraib prison? He was enraged about cameras being allowed into the prison. Now the government is all upset over the Wikileaks.org memos.

The arrogance is astonishing. The next press conference you go to, here's a nicely prepared question for the President of the United States:

Sir. Sharing information has become very important for national security since the 9/11, but because of the leaks happening with photos from prisons at Iraq and now memos being leaked by Wickileaks.org, rather than trying to suppress that information, is there a plan to deal with the behaviors depicted in those photos and memos so they won't be so embarrassing when they are leaked in the future?

Really, being upset because you were caught rather than being ashamed of what you did is the behavior typical of a psychopath.

The Wedge of Wage-Gap

Illinois,government,state,working,job

The goal of working in government is the betterment of the society for which that government is established. Sounds magnanimous, but it seems the goal of working for the state has become money and personal family security.

Western society is organized in a structure based on the human needs structure, or Abraham Maslow's "Need Hierarchy"

5. Peak Experiences
4. Self-Actualization
3. Psychological needs
2. Safety needs
1. Basic survival needs

How these levels of needs are described is debatable, but the key ingredient of these needs is Judgement. People on upper levels of the structure are very judgemental about people on the lower levels of this structure.

The fundamental indicator of the structure is wealth, and humans love to display their position on the need hierarchy by enveloping themselves in symbols, i.e. homes, cars, boats, jewelry, etc.

Humans choose to affiliate only with people of similar status. When they surround themselves with people of similar status, they think less and less about the rest of their society.

Every time you go to a party, don't you see state workers huddled together in the corner discussing their managers, and darting their eyes about looking for their critics from the private sector?

Here is the problem:

The government has become dynastic. Only the rich are capable of winning office, and only people who know someone on the inside can get a state job.

The salaries and wages of state officials and workers is three times outpaced by outsiders to such a degree that the state has become disconnected from its purpose.

The point of government is the betterment of society as a whole for which it was originally established, but the wedge of wage-gap has isolated government into a sub-culture of insiders living in fear of criticism from the private sector.

The people in government have lost their way. They should be motivated to better the lives of society as a whole instead of entering the the gates of the castle and raising the drawbridge, then tossing leftovers to the peasants below.

How is this done? Simply by mandating that salaries in government reflect the average salaries of their society as a whole.

Such a mandate will motivate government to improve itself by improving the lives of it's constituents.

Currently however, government chooses to claim a budget shortfall and cut certain programs so that the overlords can keep their rich salaries.

Fear the silence - part II: Go Time

Saying is over, time for doing.

We have all commented online at newspaper’s web site and message boards, complaining about everything. We call people names; we point accusatory fingers and write about the bad behaviors of powerful people. We even come up with ideas and suggest needed changes. Do they listen? No.

Did you hear the latest political campaign rhetoric? The candidates are once again running on the same messages of “cleaning up corruption and waste” that the last candidates ran on and ultimately failed to complete. How many campaign cycles have we been through hearing that same message?

What can we do about it?

Ralph Nader’s been talking about this for decades. Nobody takes him or any other independent political candidate seriously for the simple reason that none have moved outside the box and simply created an entire functional government structure that can be manned at a moment’s notice. A future candidate will need to have his complete cabinet in advance of his run for office. Not just the politicians, but the entire bureaucracy must be replaced, all the way from the bottom up.

This is going to require a massive and complete shift in loyalty by law enforcement and military personnel away from the current industrial plutocracy, back to a real democratic form of government. No, a republic is a plutocracy.

You’re not going to get any businesses to support such a radical change because they are the real power behind the curtain of politics. Washington D.C. is merely an illusory Emerald City with the Wizard pulling the levers and puppet strings all the way from Wall Street.

How many times have you heard that old cliché? Everyone knows it but nobody knows what to do about it. The banks have a strangle-hold on small businesses and consumer credit card holders.

The strangle-hold is only effective as long as people value the extra car, the S.U.V., the boat in the driveway, the extra thousand feet of storage space in the house, the finished basement, the riding mower, caring about monthly or weekly fashion updates, etc.

How do you crush the system? Stop spending. Seems impossible? Try these links for helpful hints:

http://myyearwithoutspending.blogspot.com/
http://fruwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.stopspendingmoney.net/
https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

Consumer spending isn’t enough. The government is more completely owned by the industrial complexes of Military, Legal, Medical, Energy, Food, Insurance, and Mass Media. All of theses have always been subsidized by taxes and reinforced by Patent regulations that suppress innovation and technological progress that might compete with them. We never heard much about this before the Internet allowed freedom of speech to expand around the world.

All of the aforementioned industrial complexes operate through Lobbyists in D.C. and often literally write our legislation. Do you need evidence? Just Google this: “legislation written by lobbyists”

Find out which legislators have been caught doing favors of one kind or another for lobbyists, and scratch them off your list. The best we can do right now is colossal non-cooperation.

Complaining and protesting has failed. Freedom of speech is only good for attracting the attention of those who can make you disappear. If things get worse for us because we speak up, we can act in silence and go underground.