Let's Face the Truth, I Was A Hack

I am sure that some of my readers think I support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I do not. While I see the same issues they see, the solutions they offer are naive to the point of being infantile. 

What I have been trying to point out is that many of the criticisms of OWS are unfair. I have been known to defend others that are unfairly condemned. For example David Limbaugh said this in his column on taxing the rich:

He wants to keep us preoccupied with greed and hating each other so that we won't have the time to focus on the real cause of our economic nightmare: President Barack Obama.

While I agree with much in the column, blaming Obama for everything is absurd. How can we blame 50 years of stupidity on Obama? The Republicans are making more effort than the Democrats, however they are just as clueless as to the scope of our troubles. 

The error that I am critiquing is group think. Wikipedia defines it for us:

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness, structural faults, and situational context play into the likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process.

In Limbaugh's case it is Democrats bad, Republicans Good; Tea Party good, OWS bad. Just reverse this for the Democrats. 

I was a victim of group think in the past-that was when I was a "hack." I defended the denomination I was a member of, and to a small degree in leadership, even when it was headed in the wrong direction. Eventually I was forced to leave the group. Only then did I understand. If I had remained, I would still be a hack. 

I suddenly became the "bad guy." I was actually told this by a Lord High Mucky Muck of the denomination a few years later. He said something like this. "I thought when you left that you were the cause of the troubles, now I realize you were not." While I appreciate the change in opinion, he still is in the organization defending it. 

If we allow our membership in a group to tell us how to think, we are headed for trouble. Here is an example of group think in a Florida police department. 

Why Do They Hate Us?

They do not hate us for our "freedoms." They hate us because of the awful things we have done to them over the last 60 years. In 1953 the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran and replaced it with the brutal Shan of Iran. In the 80's we supported Saddam Hussein and his war on Iran. Yes, Saddam was our ally. 

If you want to know why Iran feels threatened, look at this map. Each star represents a US military base. 

Who Ya' Gonna Call?

Gozer: Sub-creatures! Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, the Traveller has come! Choose and perish!
Ray Stantz: What do you mean, choose? We don't understand!
Gozer: Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!
Peter Venkman: Oh, I get it. Real cute! [to the others] Whatever we think of– if we think of Obama, Obama will appear and destroy us, Okay? So empty your heads, don't think of anything. We've only got one shot at this.
Gozer: The choice is made!
Peter Venkman: Whoa! Hold on!
Gozer: The Traveller has come!
Peter Venkman: Nobody chose anything! [turns to Egon] Did you choose anything?
Egon Spengler: No.
Peter Venkman: [to Winston] Did you?
Winston Zeddemore: My mind is totally blank.
Peter Venkman: I didn't choose anything.
[All three turn to look at Ray]
Ray Stantz: I couldn't help it. It just popped in there.
Peter Venkman: [sternly] What? What "just popped in there?"
Ray Stantz: I- I- I tried to think...
Egon Spengler: Look!
[They all look over one side of the roof]
Ray Stantz: No! It can't be!
Peter Venkman: What is it?
Ray Stantz: It can't be!
Peter Venkman: What did you do, Ray?!
Winston Zeddemore: Oh, $hit!
Ray Stantz: It's Newt Gingrich

(Stolen from the Internet!)

Peak Oil

I think the people who fear us running out of oil forget that coal, of which we have an abundant supply, can replace oil. This is a problem, just not as soon as the alarmists think. As the price of oil goes up, and it will, the price of all goods will increase and substitutes will become economical. 

However, this will lead us to a trying time over the next few decades. 

The "F" Word?

Is the Democratic party becoming a socialist workers party? Andy Stern, former head of the union that represents government workers-SIEU, wrote this is an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal: 

The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model -- so successful in the 20th century -- is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA's results -- a jobless decade, 30 years of flat median wages, a trade deficit, a shrinking middle class and phenomenal gains in wealth but only for the top 1% -- are pathetic.

This should motivate leaders to rethink, rather than double down on an empirically failing free-market extremism. As painful and humbling as it may be, America needs to do what a once-dominant business or sports team would do when the tide turns: study the ingredients of its competitors' success.

Stern is a frequent visitor to the White House and no doubt his views receive a warm welcome there. 

There are many problems with the article. Stern does not know what a free market system is. Blaming the economic performance of last decade on the free market is like blaming the rape victim. We have no free market. Both candidates in the last presidential election were unadmitted socialists. Maybe the better term for what they were is the "f" word. 

I am old enough to remember all the countries that were supposed to be the big monster we were told to fear. In the 70's it was Europe. (Although there were books that argued to a European readership that the challenge for them was America like Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber The American Challenge.) Later it was the supposedly evil Japanese who would buy America on the cheap. I even remember the Sean Connery movie called Rising Sun which played to these fears. Now it is the Chinese we are supposed to fear-or in Stern's case follow. 

Click on Picture for explanation of this photo. The society that Stern is praising in the article is China-yes, China. The country that forces every woman to have an abortion if she has more than one child. The country that forced 1 million people to leave their homes with minimal compensation to build the Three Gorges Dam. The country that has few environmental laws. The country that rigs the currency system to shaft the American worker. The country that has no freedom of speech. That country. 

Maybe you look at things differently than me, but I have no desire to have America imitate China. 

The "f" word I mentioned earlier is a word that describes our system that no one will admit to being accurate. The "f" word is fascism. None Dare Call it Fascism.