Occupy Wall Street -- Need for Socialism

Illustration: our right to protest and our democracy from the real inside.

THE NEED FOR NEGATIVE THINKING

            Which comes first?  There is no shortage of clergy, motivational speakers, and just ordinary fools about the power of positive thinking, and there is no need to challenge it.  Certainly, positive thinking enables us to accomplish things, to believe that things can be done; in fact, it can make all sorts of positive changes in our life.  Having said that, the question remains: what needs to be changed?  What is wrong that we need positive thinking and action to correct it?  

            The power of stupidity.  For some time, the American people have sensed that there was something wrong, but were unable to identify exactly what it was.  All they knew was that their standard of living was plummeting and that government was not responding to their concerns.  Indeed, the first obvious signs of this in recent years has been seen in what has designated itself as the “tea party”.  These were justifiably angry people, but they were also sadly lacking in critical thinking skills, knowledge of history, and basic understanding of essential details.  They looked quite strange on television, what with their outlandish hats draped with tea bags and carrying nonsensical signs.  They were even heard and recorded as shouting such inanities as “keep your government hands off my social security!” 

            Herding the stupid.  Soon, agents amongst the upper 1% in income, the people who own up to 50% of the wealth in this country, took over and organized the movement, if such it can be called, and infused a rigid right wing ideology into it (stopped the need for thinking).  They were led into a mass campaign to elect right wing zealots into office this election (many of which they recalled through recall elections after seeing how their “ideas” worked), but they still are angry and still hold many of these right wing ideas.   The people they support actually militate against the people’s own best economic interests, but these people are too ignorant to understand this. 

             Who owns what?  So, for example, when they hear the “down with taxes” chant, they do not realize that the greatest amount of unpaid taxes is in the hands of the upper 1% (and there is no way these people are in the upper 1%).  I have also heard stated that 95% of the wealth of the country are in the hands of the upper 1%, but I think that relates more to the upper 5%.  They do not know this, but they are, clearly, unhappy, and they have forced Republican Presidential candidates to make Asses of themselves in order to get nominated.

             Determining guilt.  One group that does focus on the correct target is the so-called 99%ers.  Obviously, anyone not in the upper 1%.  They have been occupying Wall Street now for about a month and have only recently received coverage.  No media had covered them at all until Keith Olbermann began to point this fact out.  As many now know, Keith Olbermann is now with current TV, a cable channel called “Gore’s channel,” to identify it with the ex-vice President and recent Nobel Prize winner Al Gore.  This is worth looking at in a little depth in itself.

             Meditation can help, with money.  After his inane Presidential campaign, replete with his choice of a turncoat V.P. Candidate who tried to help impeach his own President, hearing shouts of “Gore, Gore, Corporate whore,” changes in style as advisors reacted to polls and ratings, in short, after acting like a typical politician, and then having the election stolen from him and the theft ratified by the Supreme Court, Al Gore disappeared from the public.  He went off to Europe somewhere, did some deep reflection, and somewhat later emerged, even wearing a beard.  He had obviously reflected on things.

             Your own media.  He soon began work on the environment and a new network channel called “Current TV.”  Since he and a friend had plenty of money, they were free to run it as they pleased.  Recently, an ex-sportscaster and ex-Fox employee, Keith Olbermann, who chaffed at much of the restrictions placed on him by corporate media (MSNBC has been taken over by Comcast, an even more right-wing corporation that General Electric), had left MSNBC, spent some time on-line keeping things going, and has been hired by Current TV as third in charge and as Director of News.  Another addition will be Cenk Uyger of the Young Turks which has a huge Internet following.  (He also left MSNBC after having the highest ratings in that time slot of the channel, ever.)  It is quite clear that the bulk of the media is in the hands of six major corporations.  (And before someone points out that Keith is now paid ten million per year, be aware that Rush Limbaugh earns 400 million/year to spew right-wing nonsense.)  Keith began coverage of the occupy Wall Street movement some two weeks before the New York police helped broaden interest by gassing several women they penned in a small plastic cage and then interest and coverage grew as 700 were arrested.  Now it is well known.

             21^st Century Capitalism.  So what is it about?  Well, the first thing is the sheer artificiality of modern, 21^st Century Capitalism.  Karl Mark did not even dream of such fantastic practices.  He only saw master and slave, owner and employee, relationships and their excesses.  This modern form is something quite different.

             What physical is produced?  Actually, it has nothing to do with job creation or investment.  It is now nothing more than gambling, but in an even more outrageous form.  Investors bet against themselves, and then insure themselves against loosing.  Here is how it works:  first, some contractor of builder would build a house.  He would pay for the labor and materials and then try to sell it for a profit.  This is typical capitalism, as most people understand it.  The builder invested, say, $100,000 into the house and then sells it for $200,000.  The profit is $100,000, which is taxed as “Capital Grains,” if he is lucky.  Simple, yes?  No.

            The power of folklore.  The next step is quite a bit of chicanery.  Since we have a long tradition of the so-called middle class, however one defines it, as having their house as their largest investment, with house prices rising yearly, the middle class prospers.  (At least, during the last millennium.)  But now, a bank will somehow invest in the house and it is sold for $500,000 to $750,000 – on paper.  A mortgage is signed, listing that as the price or value, and soon the mortgage is re-sold to another bank for less, but the face value remains the same.  The person who signed the mortgage is only paying 1% interest/year and made little or no down payment, but through this process up to a million dollars is created.  Simply repeat this process with many cheaply built houses, give them a high valuation, and you soon have a fortune.  Sell those mortgages as quickly as possible, perhaps in bundles, and you have quite a value there.  On top of it, put three of these houses, each really worth perhaps $200,000 together at $500,000, get them a AAA+ rating, and sell the package at two million dollars ($2,000,000).  The next bank gets them insured for four million dollars.  The people in the house loose their jobs, default, and you collect on your insurance that the same bank sold you.  Then you multiply this by a million and soon you are talking about real money.  That’s real capitalism.

             Changing your name.  Of course, you make sure that all the politicians owe their seats to you and that all the media is owned by you.  The next step is to get taxpayers to reimburse you for your “losses.”  Make sure, while you are at it, that you are called the “job creators” so your own taxes do not go up.

             Get out.  Meanwhile, what happened to the guy and his family who originally bought one of the houses?  If he has any sense at all, he will just stop paying his mortgage and if the bank wants to foreclose, demand that they produce the original documents.  The odds are they don’t have them or know where the hell they are.

            Psychology.  One final thing you must remember: all corporations are, by law, sociopaths.  I know a little bit about Psychology.  Corporations are legally bound to eschew any other motive than to make money.  No morality, honesty, or any other sort of obligation to society in allowed.  Our Supreme Court just reaffirmed this, in fact, and endorsed their need to own our entire society – so long as it is profitable.  Have fun voting – if you can.

            To Oversimplify is a virtue.  Much of the analysis is a very simplified version of what is going on.  It is intentionally kept much more complicated.  Nevertheless, on this very site, The Absurd Times , all you need to do is type in “Nobel Prize Economics,” to find articles by three Nobel Prize winning economists, all attacked as being wrong by the major (corporate) media.  I’ve just tried to give an idea of how absurd this whole idea of “job creation” by “people” such as Wall Street of Goldman-Sachs is.  What we need is for all the money to go to a community fund and then equitably distributed.  This is not class warfare.  Class Warfare is what we have now – except it is the class of the upper 1% against the rest of us.