Red China vs The World: Showdown

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I was amazed this morning to see my country's Senate actually do something intelligent:

US Senate condemns hacking of Google in China

Now how about the US Senate condemning the hacking of US federal computers over the last 12 years? Hmm. That would be expecting too much no doubt. (o_0)

Over here in the states it feels as if everything is covered in Neo-Con-Job mud, making any thoughtful action slow and lame. But it happens! Little seeds in the wind grow to be mighty maples in the most modest of mud. (Notice how I avoided the 'acorn' to oak metaphor, cough cough).

Red China's reply? Mostly likely the most vacuous and bogus of rhetoric. Let's watch! . . .
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Conservative ≠ Mentally Challenged. Conservative ≠ Insane. Conservative ≠ Neo-Con-Job

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Below is an article I wrote a couple weeks back. Being a space cadet in my spare time, I of course posted it to the Macsmarticles blog, where it did not belong. (o_0) I did the same thing with the quickie US Supreme Court blurb as well! I tell people it's the drugs.... So here it is in the correct place. When I get my personal website going this year, this sort of confusion should stop.

Oddly, I was talking with one of my religious conservative friends today and the subject of this article was spontaneously brought up by her, as opposed to me. So the article apparently has some *DING* factor for a few people beside myself. Enjoy.

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This short article is written as a challenge. I'm not going to explain the challenge. If you're ready for the challenge, or you've already conquered the challenge, you'll get it. If you're not home, if you're not at a place in yourself where you can take the challenge, then there is no point in my discussing it with you. All things in their time. All learning when we're ready. There is no being better than anyone else. There is only being where you are now and where you wish yourself to be in the future. If you don't know what to want for your own growth, you won't get it. Wish to grow and you will grow. For me it has been that simple.

So here's the challenge:

Why do well meaning people think that the 'Neo-Conservative' political movement is Conservative? When I observe and consider all the things the Neo-Conservatives have said and done, I see nothing at all Conservative about their acts. What I see is stupidity. Yes, that stupidity has killed a few hundred thousand innocent people, perpetrated a couple entirely pointless, meaningless, murderous horrors we call wars. Yes, the Neo-Cons think they're doing something of any importance in the world. And yes, there are untold numbers of psychotics in their midst that seriously know the damage this bunch of stupid people do and they revel in it. We call these deranged people 'evil'. They do know what they do. But what does it all come down to? After all the pain, suffering, killing, fighting, arguing, lying lying lying, do anything, say anything to get their way. What is it all worth?

Nothing.

It's just more of the same old self-destructive imperative of mankind.

And what's that all about? Tell me.

Are these people simply too lazy or cowardly to kill themselves, to commit suicide? Why do they bother to stay alive if they outright refuse to learn and grow? What is the point of their lives? I can't find any!

There is no point in hurting and murdering others. It accomplishes nothing of any value. Yes, their little inner worlds convince them otherwise. Yes, people can remain entirely deluded about their point and their accomplishments in the world throughout their entire lives. It's life long insanity. Does that mean they have no responsibility for their bad choices? Are we talking about what amount to brain dead walking zombies with no comprehension? Can you call a human being self-destructive when they have no idea that they're imploding their own head by hitting themselves with a sledge hammer?

I don't know how one deals with the hopelessly self-deluded. That's beyond my comprehension. But sadly I don't know what one does with that group of insane people who perform their acts knowing full well that they are, indeed, insane. These are the actually evil people, the deliberate who know what they do. These are the intentionally self-destructive who instead of getting it over with, turn their self-hatred and self-damage outward at everyone else within their reach. This is a very 'special' kind of insanity.

Having pointed this out, I have to also point out that being a political Conservative, and actual factual political Conservative, does not by any means equal being a 'Neo-Conservative'. This is why I call the Neo-Cons the Neo-Con-Jobs. Any actual factual Conservative who thinks the Neo-Cons are on their side about anything at all has been conned, fooled, undermined and abused.

I grew up with Conservatives. I know what the actual factual values are the real Conservatives strive for in their lives. These people are never, ever out to harm others. They want to live good, kind, friendly, joyful and productive lives. They would like as much as anyone to have their values represented in the government they elect. Have they succeeded by voting in Neo-Conservatives. No. What they accomplished was the exact opposite. That's a con job.

If you comprehend the challenge in this situation, I compel you to take it. If you don't comprehend the challenge, I can only wish, and yes pray, that some day in your current life cycle you do and that you step into your wish for yourself and mankind as a whole to grow into something better.
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[I'm in an abstract frame of mind today]
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FOD: Oligarchy Day in the USA:Democracy Demented

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Today, 2010-01-22, the US Supreme Court specifically gave CORPORATIONS full citizen level FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

There is a lot to say about this day and I'm going to provide background and opinion about past, present and future. At the moment there is a lot of drama, understatement, overstatement, hubris, BS, FUD and sane analysis all messed in together in the media. Once the shock and awe of this catastrophe settles down, a full analysis will be in order.

As you would expect, January's Festival of Deceit Award goes to The Neo-Con-Job members of the US Supreme Court. Congratulations.
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The Angst Theory of Creativity, Applied Examples

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This post is an introduction to a theory about one of my favorite subjects, creativity. It's going to be a bit out of context and clunky. I'm lifting it out of what was essentially a conversation. But I like it as an improvisation on the theme. Let me attempt to set the situation:

Over at MacDailyNews.com this past week we had been jabbering about a bizarro rumor that General Motors is considering Tim Cook of Apple for the position of CEO. (Good luck with that GM. Not gonna happen.) One of the members at MDN had not understood my concept of what should happen to GM before Tim Cook might give the idea a second glance. In a series of three replies I wrote him back what I have posted below. It gives a reasonable applied summary of how I view the capitalist company life cycle as well as how I view governments and similar political organizations. Some graphics, including a couple I tossed together as elaborative efforts, are included. Enjoy!

:-Derek

Jan 03, 10 - 07:49 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

G4Dualie sez to me: "Who do you imagine is the person(s) to bring about this miraculous change to GM before Cook gives that idea a look over?"

I think you need to read what I wrote again please.

Elaboration of my point: GM is a walking corpse.

For over 30 years they outright REFUSED to catch up with the international auto business. AFAIAC they have been in the pocket of Big Oil. Anything to sell more gasoline. That meant essentially:

(1) Buy and Bury all the patents for significantly improving fuel efficiency.

(2) Sell as many gigantic oil guzzling cars as possible via marketing methods and subterfuge injected into the US car culture making smaller, fuel efficient cars seem unAmerican, flimsy and dangerous, despite the fact that the rest of the world uses them with great success.

(3) Act all concerned about becoming modern to the public, solicit ideas, ignore the public, claim to have modernized, sell the SOS to the suckers.

GM killed off innovation motivation inside their own company. If they finally, 30 years too late, figured out how to actually be a modern car company, it would be IMHO a frickin' MIRACLE.

Conclusion:

(A) GM must go bankrupt and break up the company.

(B) Out of the wreckage, an actually innovative entrepreneur could grab up pieces of what USED TO BE GM, and use them as part of a NEW car company. THEN I could see Tim Cook being interested.

New companies are required to be innovation driven. They can start their work culture from scratch. Those that don't fit the positive work culture are not hired. That 'locks out' the self-destructive GM workforce dumdums from sabotaging the new company. Instead they can collect unemployment then go flip burgers for a living.

Do you get the concept now?

Marketing driven companies, such as GM, that have permanently lost the ability to innovate, will die. The sooner the better. Only then can a phoenix rise from the wreckage as a viable, modern company of benefit to the market. This is an ancient cycle, older than human history. You can go back to basic, instinctive concepts of human sharing and understand how this applies. Steve Jobs himself has spoken about how this works, which is one reason he is such a stubborn bastard at Apple when it comes to breaking old molds, smashing the box and boldly going where no one has gone before.


It all fits into what I call 'The Angst Theory of Creativity'. As I put it:

The Muse is not impressed with comfort.


. . .

Jan 03, 10 - 08:06 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

... And no, I have no idea what entrepreneur could make a silk purse out of the sow's ear of the bankrupt, sold off wreckage of GM. You maybe? It could be no one. That happens too.

Happily there is already great competition in the car marketplace. I've owned Toyota and Subaru cars. Love them. My ex loves her Hondas. Sorry they're not American made. Neither is Apple hardware these days. Quality wins in any healthy marketplace. Thankfully all of the above are quality.

And no, I don't consider the computer community to be particularly healthy considering the domination of crapware, such as Microsoft. We are still in The Computer Stone Age. Think of it as a Dark Age where dumbass aristocraps get to tell you what to do, like fall on your sword for the sake of the divine king. Think of Apple as analogous to the USA telling King George to go f*ck himself, establishing a golden age.

Extrapolating into the futurist abstract: Then think of the Neo-Con-Jobs as the marketing morons who infiltrated the company and destroyed its Innovation Incentive, creating a self-destructive work culture of bumbling idiots incessantly undermining each other with lies and bullsh*t, getting nothing of any importance accomplished. Think of the current USA as GM.

Get the picture?

The nexus: Either GM (USA) gets an entrepreneur (innovator) to kick the company (country) into competition/collaboration mode, or the company (country) should go bankrupt ASAP and let something angst driven (creative) replace it.

Such is my Positive Anarchist philosophy.
;-)







. . .

Jan 03, 10 - 08:18 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

... Where I developed and watched my Angst Theory first hand: Eastman Kodak. It's a textbook case.

OK, OK! I'll shutup now.

©2010 Derek Currie
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The Age Of Marketing - Truth Decay

I've been wrestling with myself for months about how to start off the guts of this blog. One subject kept pinning me to the floor: Marketing Abuse. So here goes.

What is marketing? It is an extension of the fundamental human behavior of sharing. Marketing is a sub-game, part of the overall game we call 'business.' It's goal is to sell shared items or services, trading them from the people who have them to those who want or need them. How this is done is a subject of ethical dispute.

I of course focus on the element of what I call 'Truth Decay.' This term came to my attention through T-Bone Burnett, a master musician, composer and recording producer. I've followed his work since 1976. Among other things, he won a Grammy Award for his soundtrack to the film 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?", an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey by the Coen Brothers. Mr. Burnett looks and thinks remarkably like me. I believe he must be one of my long lost big cousins, so to speak. His 1980 solo album was entitled 'Truth Decay', an apt pun for the subject at hand.

We are living in The Age Of Marketing, or The Marketing Era, whichever you prefer. I use the phrases interchangably. The artifice of marketing is centuries old. But it became a subject of urgent study after corporations were erroneously given the status of 'personhood' at the end of the 19th century. This abomination was heralded into existence, I am told, but the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

Odd much? I'll be covering this travesty of truth in a future post. Now that The Age Of Corporate Ascension had begun, so had The Age Of Marketing. One of the pinnacle achievements of this artifice was propaganda. To quote a quote from Wikipedia:

"Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial porposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels. A propaganda organization employs propagandists who engage in propagandism—the applied creation and distribution of such forms of persuasion."
—Richard Alan Nelson, A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States, 1996

An excellent example of current propaganda today in the USA is the network of pseudo-political pundits in the pseudo-news media. One of the most famous pseudo-conservative political pundits was Jerry Falwell, inventor of the divisive term "The Moral Majority". Taken at face value, this term can vaguely make sense regarding human ethical beliefs. But it was used as nothing more than a political tire iron by a group of pseudo-Christian politicians. Jerry Falwell was one of the most successful propagandists in US history, pulling the wool over indeed the majority of citizens. His political movement culminated in the successful election, twice, of pseudo-conservative George W. Bush, who brought along with him the pseudo-conservative dumdum tank known as the 'Project For The New American Century', aka PNAC, infamously lead by publisher and political analyst William Krystol. The ruination of the concept of 'truth' that followed is only now being realized and understood.

In the future I'll undoubtedly post a diatribe about the history of propaganda, as well as a rant regarding what I call the 'Neo-Con-Job' movement in the USA. Please note that I have no respect for either of the political parties in the USA. If I'm biased, it is toward making sense, and neither party qualifies. It just happens that the tribe, oops I mean party, that has done the most damage recently has been the Repubicans, or Repubicraps as I sarcastically call them, as opposed to the Democrats or Democraps. In the future I will also cover the use of humor and linguistic invention in the pursuit of satire, a form of truth exhumation and zunipus humiliation.

The Age Of Marketing has created a wide variety of concepts. The best of these is the phrase "The customer is always right." This is what marketing should be: A positive service to the customer. Provide to the customer what they need and want. I consider the aberration of convincing or persuading a customer to buy something to be an art of deception, aka zunipus. It brings into the natural human sharing system all the human vices. The business game becomes an act of harming people, of harming truth.

Over time I've been categorizing ways in which bad marketing abuses customers through zunipus. Ahead is a series of short articles describing some of my concepts. I enjoy writing with a sense of irony and satire, and these articles will be no exception. I've been reluctant to post them here because they have an emotional component. They are in response to my sense of repulsion and annoyance with the acts of people I call 'Marketing Morons', those who use abusive marketing, as opposed to 'Marketing Mavens', those who use supportive marketing. Clearing away my rage regarding bad marketing, this entire issue is one of truth decay, or perpetrating zunipus for the purpose of personal gain at the expense of the welfare of others.

Share and Enjoy,

:-Derek
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