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Monday, July 28, 2014

"Detachment" And "The Triumph Of Plutocracy"


Dear J,

Thanks for your email.

The downside of political maturity is realizing the appalling reach of ignorance.

And not just garden variety ignorance, but aggressive ignorance.

Boastful ignorance.

Chest-thumping ignorance.

Triumphant ignorance... though God knows what they've triumphed over. 

Still they persevere despite clear assurance by their own chain-of-command that "The truth will set you free."



Some while ago, 95 year old general friend AWC -- a self-described "in your face liberal" -- gave this counsel: "Alan, understand that it may take a hundred thousand years for the world that you and I would like to see to become real."

***

Buddhism's encouragement of detachment is not only helpful, for many of us it is an existential necessity. 

In Spanish, the word for detachment is desprendimiento - literally, "un-seizing," and a little less literally, "letting go."

Less literally still, desprendimiento is rendered as "open-handedness" and "generosity." http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=desprendimiento

Paz contigo,

Alan

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 11:18 AM, JK wrote:

thank you my friend for giving me these to cry about

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Plutocracy Triumphant (A Compendium Of Cartoons)


Despite unprecedented tax cuts for the wealthy,
the "job creators" are increasingly parasitic,
intending self-aggrandizement at your expense.

While the "invisible hand" pilfers your pocket, 
The 1% provides just enough frisson to "keep you in their corner,"
cheering them on while you giddily grasp your ankles.


Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.
Americans refuse to pay sufficient tax to keep civilization alive.

***

"Inside Job"
Oscar Winning Documentary
Free online - with Spanish subtitles.
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2011/10/daily-dose-october-152011.html

***

"This Is Why They Hate You And Want You To Die"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-is-why-they-hate-you-and-want-you.html



"American Plutocracy. Who's Punished And Who's Not"

***

"Politics and Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"







America
Private Opulence, Public Squalor














Republican President Teddy Roosevelt Spearheaded The Progressive Movement










"The Rich Get Ever Richer: Halfway To Plutocracy"

***

"Politics and Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"













Weighed down by the debts of Capitalism “a new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules"
Pope Francis
Excerpt: 84-page document








Teddy Roosevelt: "Malefactors of great wealth are curses to the country."
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/teddy-roosevelt-best-thing-ever-said-by.html











Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris

25 December, 1783

"The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People's Money out of their Pockets, tho' only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors' Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they  withold it, should be compell'd to pay by some Law.

All Property, indeed, except the Savage's temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it."

***

"Politics and Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"





























"G.K. Chesterton and Warren Buffett's Class War"







And finally... 
Since "all wars are religious wars" (to quote Chesterton)
choose your Gods carefully.




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