[ennui2]

BAU is something that everyone feeds and supports at every step of the chain

Just because you are a corrupt and co-opted disingenuous sleaze who supports BAU

Says the guy who supported Sarah (drill, baby, drill) Palin and seems perfectly happy sucking the teat of Alaskan oil revenue while decrying global warming. Such a pious humanitarian you are!

Cheers!

[ennui2]

Actually the circumstantial evidence of the reach, power and influence of the elites/oligarchs is easy to access and research.

But you treat them as though they aren't even human. It's a superficial way of looking at things.

This is irrespective of the masses reactions to these policies and agenda.

Read Animal Farm.

Also, how governments around the world routinely ignore the wishes and mandates of their citizens.

And a particular dysfunction in american politics is to the extent we want to have our cake and eat it too. We want cheap gas and cheap sh*t at wal-mart but we don't like the idea of resource wars. The system is there to facilitate the masses more than you're willing to admit. But the masses want to look the other way over the externalized costs.

It's like A Few Good men. We "can't handle the truth". And so we try to avoid blame by saying "Oh, those Koch brothers are so terrible" while we gleefully gas up our cars.

To somehow equate these types of people with ordinary people who not withstanding their faults are saints compared to the mindset of these elites is outright folly and utterly naive.

People are people. Rich people are just people who got up the ladder (as Pops said in the other message). To try to separate the world into two baskets, those are easy target for hate and those we place on a pedestal for being innocent victims, is a childish way of looking at the big picture.

Again, read Animal Farm. If people always view things from the lens of oppressor and oppressed, then it locks yourself into a cycle of revolutions in which the new boss is the same as the old boss.

[onlooker]

And a particular dysfunction in american politics is to the extent we want to have our cake and eat it too. We want cheap gas and cheap sh*t at wal-mart but we don't like the idea of resource wars. The system is there to facilitate the masses more than you're willing to admit. But the masses want to look the other way over the externalized costs.

Actually Ennui as much as I would like to disagree with you on this point you are right. Unfortunately, many in rich countries do look the other way at some of the misfortunes around the world and are content as long as they "have theirs". In that sense it plays right into the hands of the elites. So yes their is truth to the adage "people get the government that they deserve". People are not innocent, I am not innocent. We all have a part in this world that has been created. I guess I am giving the impression that ordinary citizens are untarnished, that is not true. I believe that deep down we all can be very good towards each other but also can be utterly selfish and cold. I am glad you bought up this point because we all need to do some soul searching given the state of the world.

[ennui2]

I believe that deep down we all can be very good towards each other but also can be utterly selfish and cold. I am glad you bought up this point because we all need to do some soul searching given the state of the world.

And I think if you look at the world without filters on, you'll see that not all rich people are part of a cabal designed to f*ck the little guy. And not all rich people became rich through some form of Wall Street chicanery. You can say CEO pay is out of scale with the value that any single CEO brings to what they do, absolutely. But it's also true that rich people often worked their ASSES off to become rich, and poor people, more often than you'd like to admit, didn't.

I am not saying that all poor people are failures at life and deserve to be poor. What I am saying is, do not split the world into a false duality of rich = evil and poor = good. I find this to be a really simplistic way of looking at the world, and one that is probably founded more on envy of the rich than anything else. Someone who is already rich is probably not going to buy into the idea that everyone who is rich is evil. Someone who is living on food stamps would find that message comforting.

But this sort of appeal to class-warfare really doesn't accomplish anything anymore than other dualities like conservative vs. liberal.

I am just not going to put someone's worth on a pedestal by virtue of them being poor and downtrodden. Virtue goes beyond how little money someone has in their pocketbook. Someone who is kind, loving, avoids addiction, tries to manage their money wisely, those people are worthy of my respect. Poor people who have a string of illegitmate kids and wind up strung out on crack and on welfare don't engender my sympathy anymore than the Koch brothers trying to buy elections.

People love to manufacture excuses for their failures in life, and I don't like this devil-made-me-do-it attitude. Everyone's got to carry their own crosses. Go watch Wolf of Wallstreet if you think being rich is such an advantage. Some of the most miserable f*ckups in the world are rich, because money won't buy happiness. This is why the National Enquirer exists, to remind us that being rich and famous isn't necessarily the happily ever after that we thought it was when we were young. When you don't have a pot to piss in, you wish you could be rich, but when you get there, your realize that there's a whole other series of hurdles in Maslow's hierarchy of needs setting you up to be unsatisfied with the status quo.

No matter what, you get up each day and have to face yourself in the mirror.

[Pops]

People love to manufacture excuses for their failures in life, and I don't like this devil-made-me-do-it attitude.

It is really interesting, social media.
I remember when you posted here about losing your job and contemplating running off to the hills.
Now you sound like an apologist for management.

Remember, management isn't ownership. Mostly they are in the same boat as you, they just have better seats.

[onlooker]

Ennui that was one heck of a post. Yes we can never make the mistake of stereotyping any group of people. We all go through our unique individual lives at times subservient to group dynamics and at times try to be iconoclast type persons. I too feel their is wisdom in the adage that "Money does not buy happiness". Yes their are rich people who are very decent and nice persons. Just like their are poor people who are son's of you know what. My point though is that their seem at least in my opinion something to the nexus of power and greed that seems to corrupt at least some people. What does that adage say "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."