It is a striking thing to note that the primary goals of humankind are profoundly misplaced. Capitalism may have given us great gifts to savour but it robbed us of our basic identity as humans.
Everything is Hollywood now. If something is not, it will soon be.
Fast-food consumerism and late-night drudgery are fashionable and considered the traits of the intelligent segment of the society which is going to lead us into the future.
The drift appears so natural that anything which contradicts the stream of mass flow is visualized as an aberrant and soon weeded out by a cohesive effort of all moving parts of the system.
We live for our culture and inspite of it, we don't.
11 comments:
How true!!
90 %, may be even more, of the human population is like a sheep needing a shepherd.
The problem is the lack of critical and "independent" thinking. - The root of all Evil !
We all need a shepherd. In fact, by the time we run out of time, we will need many shepherds.
The key may be to reject the wrong ones.
Even the most independent of men often need hints; even subtle ones work.
Did you know that Alan Greenspan was a close friend of Ayn Rand? I just finished his book and in spite of all his independent thinking, he appears to have borrowed a lot of ideas from his shepherd.
I am not denying the impact of inspiration in one's life. But, that does not mean feeding veraciously on any garbage that is out there, and the key here is "mindlessly" (without questioning).
And herding of sheep, is a mindless act by the sheep.
And ... to quote Issac Newton :
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants"
And about Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand . I did not know that. I don't know much about Greenspan, except I have seen a lot of people on CNN blaming him for the current "Economic" crisis.
Yeah, I know about AYN Rand and her "Laissez Faire ", which I do not completely agree with. Infact now, that you have said it . I can make a connection between things. As Obama pointed out the reason for the crisis: "Somebody was not minding the store".If Alan Greenspan was influenced by Ayn Rand and if he did introduce too much of de-regulation in the economy , he may really be the person to be blamed for the crisis (though I do not have enough information on the subject to make the claim)
Obama has a long way to go before he can comprehend what really went wrong. I personally think he is too naive to lead a powerful country like america. His comments based on the ephemeral appear intelligent but his lack of depth is evident in the repetitive speak. He reminds me of the quintessential overambitious and undeserving wannabe-geek that I have developed distaste against all through my highschool and college years.
Did you read his memoirs? They are so full of BS and it is far too obvious from the books that he was just writing his statement of purpose for his dream job.
Inspite of all the failings of Mccain and his poor memory, I still think he will be a far better president. How I wish he had not chosen that dumb bitch as his running mate!
Obama may be the one pill US will want to avoid right now. This country can't afford an ego trip and needs someone who lives and negotiates reality.
Can't you see Obama is like Laloo? They just are insanely intelligent politicians. Nothing less. Nothing more.
CNN blamed greenspan twenty years ago too. It is but obvious that the television commentators or the so called analysts have a very short frame of vision and just state the obvious.
Fed heads and RBI heads are the guys everbody blames when things go wrong. But, nobody appreciates them when they get things right. It is really a thankless job! What do you think was helping US survive post 9-11? Things were never good in US after 9-11. It was the spirit of free market which helped it survive the early part of this decade.
Greenspan is not directly responsible for the current crisis. If at all, his policies only helped limit the downside.
The problem is with the banking industry itself. All the derivatives are really timebombs waiting to explode. It is a zero sum game and the winners already took the prizes home. Now, it is the turn of the losers!
It is human greed which caused the mess. The age old proverb of killing the duck which lays golden eggs has once again come true.
Now, even god couldn't stop humans from being greedy. Greenspan is just a stupid old man.
Will not comment on Greenspan don't know enough.
You are seriously deluded if you think McCain can comprehend the economic problems. Did you not hear him when he said "Fundamentals of our economy are good" at the time of extreme crisis.And, later explained what he meant , when everybody knew what he meant. I have heard McCain, he has no idea what he is talking about when he talks about economy. His foreign policy experience may be better than Obama. But, all he wants to do is follow Bush but pretend to be a maverick on that issue.
Everybody repeats in a campaign. Audience is different.Also, are you saying being "intelligent" is wrong for the president of US. The most demanding job in the world.Can't you see what a retard like Bush has done in the last 8 years.
No,Obama is not like Laloo. Obama is intelligent and appears intelligent, and has been branded an elitist.Whereas Laloo is intelligent but "appears stupid" in front of everybody just so that he can get his way.
It is my personal opinion that an "elitist", is better than a "retard" for the office of president.
The same logic holds true for the VP. Palin says she is more in touch of "reality" and common American because she is an outsider to Washington.But, her saying so does not make it true.
Go Democrats !
About Alan Greenspan from Wikipedia :
"
After 2001, some congressional leaders and others criticized him, for certain statements they found to overstep the Fed's traditional purview of monetary policy,[2] and for other statements they saw as overly supportive of the policies of President George W. Bush. In 2004 Business Week Magazine criticized his keeping of low interest levels too long and his concurrent praise of sub-prime lending vehicles such as ARMs as leading to a housing bubble.[3] Some, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, assign a large degree of culpability for the devastating Economic crisis of 2008 to Greenspan. Stiglitz stated that Greenspan “didn't really believe in regulation; when the excesses of the financial system were noted, [he and others] called for self-regulation—an oxymoron.”[4] Greenspan, according to The New York Times, says he himself is blameless.[5]"
Interesting !! :)
Obviously, the repetitive speak and the tv feeds have done enough of a brain wash here.
I actually agree with Mccain's point about fundamentals being good; he just chose a wrong moment to voice his opinion.
He is not a polished man but very effective in dealing with reality. He was one of the very few leaders who predicted the size of crisis as early as 2003.
Now, Obama is a popular saint. He is oh so intelligent and oh so genuine. But, he is definitely the same as laloo.
Here is why:
Laloo's audience is the bihar rural native. He speaks to them eloquently in there dehati language and it appeals to them. It is a different thing that he appears foolish to progressive urban dwellers but he doesn't care as that doesn't bring him votes to win.
Obama's audience is the urban native. The rural people think he is fake and he most probably is. But, he clinically appeals to all your idealogies as a liberal progressive that you can't stand anything against him. You only need to wait til he gets into power to realize some true colors. And, he is now in a position of easy win unless a large scale scandal comes out against him.
Mccain is a great candidate for president but a very weak candidate to be fielded against Obama. The republicans lost the battle when they pushed Mccain to the front.
Romney would have done a much better job but he is much like Obama and am not a fan.
Either way, we will still have soniya shetty and advani rao back in india trying their best to destroy status quo and we indians have a lot more to worry about.
The sad thing is that debate isn't even happening and nobody thinks it is urgent.
Why do people alway wait until it rains to bring in their umbrellas?
Ok. Economic Crisis 101.
Today's financial crisis was born in 2001. The end of the internet era and the terrorist attacks. It was at that point that the Fed got involved to combat economic slowdown. They pumped money (100 B $) and slashed its main interest rate - from 3.5% in August 2001 to a mere 1% by mid-2003. By all counts, the money was pumped in late. And, unemployment levels came back to pre 9-11 status by 2003.
Now, something happened meanwhile. The interest rates were held low for a little longer than usual.
There are so many factors which caused it and there are obvious side effects.
Fed can control short-term rates, but cannot influence long-term rates, which are more important to housing bubble. There was also a threat of corrosive deflation during the period due to China.
And, low interest rates was not really the problem anyway.
As you said, it can be attributed to the lack of regulation.
But, the real problem is unrealistic expectations about what that regulators can anticipate and prevent.
In UK, highly regulating unit like FSA had caused the debacle of Northern Rock. The same goes with US. Strong regulations always fail. That is something people don't tend to accept or register.
We all live under the assumption that we are entitled to a safe ship even when our ocean is under turmoil
The real problem as I said before is the banking industry's lack of judgement. Subprime securities exploded as the mortgage-backed derivatives were underpriced.
And, the comment about Greenspan endorsing ARMs is very foolish. ARMs were just a source of cheap financing. If it didn't exist, people would have used some other long term debt which was affordable.
The fact of the matter is this. The economy hinges on a fine balance and it is now, out of balance. Even if banks were heavily regulated to curb securitization and fradulent issues, there would have been some other crisis.
It is better to deal with a known enemy than an unknown friend.
That is what you to do when you are stuck in the middle of a dangerous flood.
Well, this thing will never end.Mccain vs. Obama keeps the whole nation busy.
Did you see the debate tonight and the part where Russia was discussed.If you remember I had mentioned Russia in one of my posts a few months back, a month later "Georgia" happened. and now, I hear Ukraine.
By the time this US presidency ends (whoever wins Obama or Mccain ! ) Russia would be close to becoming a major FORCE, if not a superpower (fueled by the decline of US). I have started learning Russian :)
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