deconsumption

Searching for A Way Out

I've been looking at the stats for Deconsumption over the past few days, and I've noticed a couple things worth mentioning.

One is that I've been getting a rather large number of search engine referrals from people looking for something along the lines of a "crisis timeline". That's not all that surprising, since our world is in crisis and I did indeed write a crisis timeline. But I mention it in passing because...hell, I don't know, because evidently a lot of people are looking for someone who has a top-down view of what's going on. And of course it also tells us that a lot more people are waking-up to our cultural predicament than were, say, a few years ago.

But more interesting is that I'm also getting a respectable and regular number of hits from search engines given the precise term "New American Revolution".

I'd written a piece a back in 2005 entitled "Join the New American Revolution! (...and Get Out of Debt)", and evidently it comes up high on those search returns -- and I'm delighted it does, since any discussion of revolution in this country must only begin by seeing how stupidly enslaved we've allowed ourselves to be by our implicit acceptance and support of large corporations.

Early American history is a virtual tapestry of independence-minded people fighting tooth-and-nail against the imposing dominance that corporations were assuming over all our lives....but of course, most of those examples were quickly subsumed in a history written by the winners.

Still, it's fun to note the increasing number of people out there who are evidently rubbing the Google magic 8-ball, hoping it might actually tell them who might lead them out of this mess....

Oh, and while I'm on the subject.... It would literally boggle your mind to know just how many people actually google: "sometimes + you + eat + the + bear + and + sometimes + the + bear + eats + you"

ACRES Interview with Michael Hudson

Deconsumption has rather unofficially closed its doors, and its readers scattered to the wind.

But as I'm still paying to host the past several years of material here, and with various sources still directing some 400 hits here each day, I figured I might as well take a couple moments to link-promote this fantastic interview with investment advisor Michael Hudson which appeared in this month's (March '08) Acres magazine.

Debtor Nation: The Highjacking of America's Economy (.pdf file)

We're long-time subscribers to Acres (the "voice for eco-agriculture"), but I can't help being floored that they're so thematically open-minded as to scoop such a high-quality (and extensive) interview. I literally read it twice. A former investment analyst myself, I've long accepted that the American political and economic systems have become almost entirely closed-doors processes, and as such that there are a myriad details and answers which we might vaguely discern from without, but which can only clearly be grasped by those within. This interview provides a refreshing view from someone who has spent time acting behind that proscenium. So while it generally only reinforces much of what I've been exploring on this weblog the past few years, at the same time it proves stimulating and refreshing enough to warrant promoting here.

Now I know most readers won't be all that interested at delving into an interview with an investment/economic advisor, so I should state that I myself have generally detested the willful ignorance and denial so prevalent throughout our dysfunctional financial industry this past decade. In fact I've long stated here at Deconsumption that the reason I left the investment industry was because I couldn't see anymore how the benefits of publically-traded vehicles (with the cautious exception of short-term treasuries and select CDs, money markets, and foreign currencies) could overcome the frightening risks inherent within the system itself. For me it was no longer a question of simply how to allocate funds based around a pessimistic world-outlook. Rather I became convinced that there could be no safe haven whatsoever when it's the system itself that is losing its structural integrity.

I mean, the real betrayal that should be acknowledged publically is that there is nothing happening now that wasn't entirely forseeable several years ago. And yet, where were the economists and money managers then? Forget clowns like that Cramer guy saying you should hold onto your Bear Stearns, nobody with history in this business has payed any real attention to CNBC since the late '90's. And clearly the majority of professionals, no matter what the industry, are little better than 'intitutionalized' thinkers. But what about a street smart guy like, say, uber-bond-guru Bill Gross? Head-and-tails smarter by far than myself, far more experienced, infinitely better connected.... He was probably the earliest of the large asset managers to start grumbling about economic "mismanagement" in America, and that was little better than a year ago. Of course he never went so far as to say "get your money out of higher-yield bonds while you can". He yet he clearly must have known what was in the cards even 5 years ago. It wasn't like there was any baseless speculation involved -- the writing was on the wall as clear as day. I even sat down and outlined what turned out to be a remarkably cogent attempt at defining coming events for myself (Timeline for Unfolding Crisis), which has been one of the more enduringly popular posts from here. In fact, Deconsumption itself was really only an ongoing attempt at grappling with how to prepare for the various themes I'd presaged then.

And the fact is, I ain't smarter than the best and brightest at our nation's investment houses. The only difference is that I left the industry. As such I didn't have to lie to people any longer, to pretend that what was already beginning to happen wasn't going to happen.

Anyway, to wind my way back around to the subject of this post, I suspect Hudson may be cut from a similarly jaded cloth, and I was certainly encouraged to hear he has an affiliation with the American Monetary Institute -- which I believe is easily the most well-credentialled and determined monetary reform organization in America (I've long linked to the AMI website over on the right).

In one fell swoop Hudson explains....

...the failure of the modern US agricultural system (the wealth created by increased productivity went entirely to the bankers who convinced hapless farmers they had to "get big or get out")

...how the runaway Caribbean off-shore industry was originally established to launder drug-money

...why countries like Panama and Liberia are really "anti-countries", established by American oil interests to avoid paying taxes

...how the University of Chicago economists espoused the torture and murder of everyone who didn't support free market thinking in Latin America

...how to steal your nation's resources using taxpayer money

....and in one of my personal favorite sections, Hudson speculates on the most bewildering aspect of contemporary economics -- why is it that so many foreign economies continue to embrace and support a patently homicidal/suicidal US Dollar-economy:

"HUDSON. ...Because [countries like China and Germany] don’t seem to care about their internal economies, except to go on waging the old class war. That is how mainstream economics is taught these days — and why I stopped teaching academic economics for many years. Many people have tried to explain why European central bankers are so idiotic when it comes to this system. One suggestion is the “Stockholm Syndrome”: When somebody is kidnapped, the victim tends to identify with the kidnapper, the victimizer — and there is an idea in Germany, in England, and other countries that no matter what, they have to do whatever the U.S. government recommends. It’s a passive mentality.

But for Europe and Asia to behave in this way violates every theory of how international relations are supposed to work. In theory, every nation is supposed to act in its own self-interest. But in today’s world
it seems that only the U.S. government is acting in this way. It is understandable why the United States would love to pay paper dollars and get foreign resources for nothing. It’s not understandable why foreign
countries go along....Europe is senile from the vantage point of how to conduct international diplomacy and domestic economic growth. It imagines that it is getting a benefit by exporting goods to American buyers rather than providing for its own population.

ACRES U.S.A. Why this disregard for their own internal economies?

HUDSON. The only reason I can think of is that the one thing central bankers feel passionate about is class warfare. They are trained as financial planners to hate labor so much that they will give everything to America for free if it will hurt their own labor force. That anti-labor ideology is a precondition for getting a job at the central bank in today’s world."

A Post from the Past

At this, the top of yet another inning in the Dollar collapse....

...and in the wake of what appears to be an impending run on the Bank of England...

...and in the dismal shadow of the release of Alan Greenspan's pre-humous attempt at pre-historical autobiographic revisionism...

I felt compelled to dredge up from the Deconsumption dustbin my own little ode to the even little-er (not-actually)Federal Reserve Chairman:

"Alan Greenspan Is Such a Huge Pathetic Loser (an objective perspective on the man and his work)"

Calls for peace after caste riots

3 news reports, only 1 title:

Calls for peace after caste riots

"On Friday, eight people were killed and up to 20 injured in clashes between the Gujjars and rival Meena community. Earlier in the week, 20 people died in clashes between the Gujjars and the police.

The powerful Meenas, who make up about 15 per cent of the population and already enjoy the privileges, oppose the Gujjars' demand as it would mean more competition for them."

Calls for peace after caste riots

"MORE than 150 police have been injured in violent clashes with protesters at a demonstration in northern Germany against next week's G8 summit, a police spokesman says.

Masked demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles at police as tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rostock.

...The Rostock demonstration kicks off a week of protests against the summit of the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US."

Calls for peace after caste riots

"A crackdown on violators of the one-child policy triggered massive unrest and the outbreak of violence in the southwest region of the country, as villagers fought back against government officials and the one-child policy enforcers.

Thousands of Chinese peasants rioted over exorbitant fines, forced abortions and sterilizations, and the destruction and confiscation of property inflicted on the communities by family planning officers. "

UN report calls for US dollar support to avoid global recession

Surprisingly tough to find links to this story. Here's one. Here's another. And here's the Report.

"In order for current world economic growth rates to continue, it is crucial to keep the United States dollar from falling rapidly while also avoiding a recession, says a United Nations report released Wednesday.

We call for a coordinated strategy that would think about how to adjust these global imbalances while avoiding recessionary tendencies in the global economy”

In other words: everyone wants out of the US Dollar, the Central Banks of the world aren't confident they can "coordinate" it amongst themselves, so now the UN is stepping into the fray.

Oh, and that last line there...you could substitute the words "Don't panic everybody, we can still all get out of this with our shirts intact". Well, all but the "non-privileged" Americans anyway....

"A Deeper Shade of Green"

Hey, I'm published!

If you're interested, a couple months ago I penned a piece for an excellent new magazine here in the Upper Mississippi Valley region called Natural Communities, which is devoted to chronicling what I've taken to refering to as the emerging "culture of responsibility". The article is entitled "A Deeper Shade of Green", and it argues that just as the term "Organic" was co-opted by big-business, so "Green" is going to be as well. But that's alright, because just as true organic food buyers have deepened their understanding and become more informed and discerning about what makes food healthy, so too will those who wish to create healthy, responsible homes.

Or to put it another way, nobody really goes to Wal-Mart to buy healthy food, and nobody goes to Home Depot to buy truly "green" building materials either. They go there for "cheap". And this newly emerging culture of responsibility is by it's nature inherently incompatible with our dying culture of "quantity and consumption". Yes, I'll grant you it doesn't always seem that way, but it is.

"The green building revolution will pursue a practical course, which starts by re-examining the existing materials in our homes and workplaces and asking ourselves whether they might actually be harming us. Then, over time, we should replace these things when feasible, and explore ways to seal their toxins in when it’s not.

As a good rule of thumb though, just as with the organic foods movement, we should probably maintain a healthy distrust for any solutions we’ll be offered by the very corporations and industries that put us into this mess in the first place."

Of course don't get me wrong--the Big Box stores will still do huge business catering to the majority of people, since the majority of people--by their very nature--don't really give a shit. I mean why do you think Wal-Mart even bothered to go "Organic®" in the first place? Because they know that when push comes to shove, most people prefer a comforting lie to actually making any real effort to do the right thing.

Time Magazine book excerpt: "The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore

I've always prided myself on not identifying with any particular political party, and in high-level elections over the last decade or so I've made it a point to avoid either of the establishment parties altogether. But whatever your politics may be I'd recommend reading this Time Magazine excerpt of Al Gore's new book The Assault on Reason.

After a bumpy start (to my mind) in which he claims "We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press"--he almost lost me on those accounts--Gore goes on to hit the nail squarely on the head:

"Many Americans now feel that our government is unresponsive and that no one in power listens to or cares what they think. They feel disconnected from democracy. They feel that one vote makes no difference, and that they, as individuals, have no practical means of participating in America's self-government. Unfortunately, they are not entirely wrong. Voters are often viewed mainly as targets for easy manipulation by those seeking their "consent" to exercise power. By using focus groups and elaborate polling techniques, those who design these messages are able to derive the only information they're interested in receiving from citizens—feedback useful in fine-tuning their efforts at manipulation. Over time, the lack of authenticity becomes obvious and takes its toll in the form of cynicism and alienation. And the more Americans disconnect from the democratic process, the less legitimate it becomes.

Many young Americans now seem to feel that the jury is out on whether American democracy actually works or not. We have created a wealthy society with tens of millions of talented, resourceful individuals who play virtually no role whatsoever as citizens. Bringing these people in—with their networks of influence, their knowledge, and their resources—is the key to creating the capacity for shared intelligence that we need to solve our problems. "

Ultimately Gore comes to a conclusion that might have been lifted word-for-word from Jacob Needleman's excellent The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders:

"So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way—a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response."

Gore touts the internet as "supporting decentralized processes that reinvigorate democracy". Needleman suggested we actually make the time to begin coming together physically in public assembly once again.

I won't sit in judgement of either idea. It's "any port in a storm" at this point...

"Latest Chinese missile to target US carriers: report"

Via The Raw Story, from a Japanese paper:

"China plans to equip its upcoming missiles with infrared technology to give them the ability to hit US warships in Asia, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday.

The upgrade is part of preparations for a potential conflict over Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory and which has a security pact with the United States, the Sankei Shimbun said."

This reminds me: I'm due for an annual follow-up to the Timeline for the Unfolding Crisis, where I'd prognosticated the following for the 2007 - 2010 period:

"Worldwide, a void will start to be felt by the beginning decline of the US as a superpower. The signal for this won’t be hard to miss: China will “repatriate” Taiwan."

And now that I've got the Timeline out again, another prediction for the current period jumps out at me:

"...there is a high likelihood of a derivatives crisis triggering global bankruptcy in the financial world during this period, probably initiating in the US mortgage industry."

Which came on the back of my just having read this piece in the OC Register:

"The same problems shaking up the subprime market are now emerging in the Alt-A industry....Ramirez said it's "eerie" how the subprime correction appears to be repeating in Alt-A."

....and this weblog entry....

"Where are all of those experts who said the subprime problem was contained, and that it would not spill over to the Alt-A and Prime markets? Where are they as Alt-A lender after Alt-A lender goes belly up or suffers huge profit losses?"

"Wal-Mart Sales Are Worst in 27 Years"

Mainstream news, but worth citing...largest publicly traded company, selling perhaps the broadest range of products to the broadest range of people:

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted its worst monthly same-store sales results in at least 27 years, tallying a 3.5% decline in April due to this year's early Easter as well as generally challenging economic conditions for consumers."

"Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage"

Perhaps this article addresses very valid concerns, and perhaps it's a bit overblown. It seems to make an earnest point, however.

But regardless, the whole idea of hybrid cars is really just a mis-guided response to our failing way of life. Any time we humans recognize some fundamental error in our ways, there's inevitably an initial, fumbling attempt to correct our problems using the samed flawed thinking that created them in the first place. Or as countless others have pointed out: cars aren't the problem -- they're just a symptom of the problem.

Via the Central Conneticut State University paper, The Recorder:

"Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were....[The new tests] dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius....When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

...it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses"

FDA attempting to regulate supplements, herbs and juices as "drugs"

You've undoubtedly already heard of this move, but it's important to note that the FDA has given the public until April 30th to submit their comments on this legislation.

There's a good backgrounder on this legislation at this link...
http://www.newstarget.com/021789.html

...but the short story is that this is essentially a major power-grab by the FDA, allowing them the authority to regulate anything whatsoever that is deemed to be of medicinal value or which promotes good health. Which further means they'll have express authority to decide which companies are allowed to choose, produce/grow, process, market and sell things like cranberry tablets, kombucha, massage stones, acupuncture needles, teas, etc. Most importantly, they will have the ability to deny medicinal herbs and supplements from you altogether, as they've done with highly touted cancer treatments that are used the world over.

For instance, the FDA has evidently already tried several times to have stevia taken off the market -- even to demand the destruction of books which recommend this natural, non-caloric sweetener, since it offers a far superior alternative to aspertame and other industrially-produced sweeteners.

Here's the page of the FDA's site where you can submit your comments.

"Be sure to cite Docket No. 2006D-0480: Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

Tell them you support open access to vitamins, herbs, and supplements, and you do not want CAM to be regulated by the FDA."

Obviously it would be better to write a physical letter to the FDA, sending copies of it to your State Senators and Congresspeople as well. And since I know that the idea of spending 15 minutes or so drafting an email to send into the bureaucratic "circular file" may stop many readers from even trying, I'll offer the following cut 'n paste for you to use as you wish:

"Re: Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

To Whom it may Concern,

As a socially responsible individual and concerned citizen of the United States, I'm writing to let you know that I stand against this proposal by the FDA aimed at legislating the fields of complementary and alternative medicine. I staunchly support open knowledge of and access to vitamins, herbs, therapies and supplements, as well as empowering individuals with the freedom to research and choose for themselves which natural and holistic remedies they might. Having long observed the inadequacy and unwillingness of corporate/governmental authorities to provide safe and effective preventative medicines, I in no way believe these things could be better regulated by FDA oversight.

In short, I believe that if the FDA gets its way, the United States will become a medical wasteland, dominated by corporate drug company interests. And I further anticipate that many effective alternative supplements and therapies would be withheld from Americans altogether. This is no idle concern: any agency that openly states "vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug" is clearly over-stepping the authority entrusted to it by the public, and is bordering on outright malfeasance.

Docket No. 2006D-0480 is clearly a last-ditch effort to save the failing conventional medical industry from the continued public shift towards natural medicine, and any responsible public servant should oppose it.

Sincerely,"

Reader Comment:

I wanted to quickly highlight this comment left by reader Loretta under a previous post entitled "China's food safety woes now a global concern":

"I have a lead testing kit I used to test my garden soil. After reading your post I decided to test some of my household items just for the heck of it. I started with my glazed ceramics and stoneware, some of which I drink/eat out of daily. The items from Canada, Spain,Ireland, etc., were negative, but when I got to my Made in China mugs--Bingo!--every one tested positive for leachable lead. Kind of scary."

Lead is still considered perhaps the chief preventable hazard to childhood development. An ongoing treatise on how common toxic chemicals threaten children is called "In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development Project", written by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsility. The rise of ADHD in recent decades is almost certainly linked to chemical poisoning.

Oh, and by the way...the lead industry spent decades stifling legislation and knowledge from reaching the public regarding the dangers of lead to children. A brief history of this conspiracy and malfeasance -- with a plethora of advertising copy to illustrate -- is available on the Cincinnati Children's Hospital website: the History of Lead Industry Advertisements.

" Fears over Treasury losing control of gold left in its vaults"

Relax tho', my fellow Americans. This is the British Treasury. The U.S. Treasury has certainly not done something stupid like this.

"As Gordon Brown prepares for a grilling in the Commons over his fire-sale auction of Britain's gold at the bottom of the market, concern is mounting that the Treasury may have lost control over the small amount still left in its vaults.

Peter Hambro, head of Britain's largest pure gold mining company, said he believed the Bank of England may have leased out its bullion to earn extra yield.

"The real risk is that the Treasury has lent out the remainder of the gold. It is very important to know whether the bank's gold lending is on a secured basis," he said. The concern is that counter-parties could default in a crisis such as the LTCM-Ashanti affair in 1998.

"The whole point of gold is that it's not somebody else's paper currency. It's the stuff that keeps you alive when everything else goes wrong," he said.

Central banks around the world have routinely lent out gold over the years to bullion banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. The IMF last year questioned if they had lent out more gold than publicly revealed, a situation that would leave the market a large overhang of "short" positions. The Treasury said last night that it would look into any possible gold loans.

With gold now trading at $690 an ounce, Mr Brown's decision to break ranks with the US, Japan, France, and Germany by selling off 395 tonnes of gold has cost taxpayers more than £2bn.
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In a move that astonished dealers, Mr Brown insisted on selling the gold in open auctions. The first sale drove the price down to $254, the low-point of an 18-year slide. There were 17 auctions between July 1999 and March 2002 yielding an average of $274.9 an ounce.

Ross Norman, director of TheBullionDesk.com, said the reason for the sales was to support the fledgling euro. The proceeds were switched into 40pc euros, 40pc dollars, and 20pc yen. "His motives were political, but it was carried out in an incredibly foolish way, just as the market was turning up."

Here's a short list of "takeaways" from this article:

(1) No one really knows if the Bank of England owns any gold at all any longer.

(2) Gordon Brown sold gold "in the open market" because the Treasury was trying to drive gold prices down further -- perhaps simply to "support the fledgling euro", and perhaps not.

(3) Gold prices have gone up strongly since then, indicating that Central Banks the world over have been either unable or unwilling to sell gold in the past couple years.

(4) Groups like GATA have a long history of documenting and accusing the U.S. of just this the same "shorting of the Treasury" that England is now inquiring into.

(5) The U.S. is clearly unable to support the Dollar any longer.

And I suppose that it undoubtedly bears repeating:

(6) "The whole point of gold is that it's not somebody else's paper currency. It's the stuff that keeps you alive when everything else goes wrong"

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

Link to article in The Independent:

"The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned."

[...and if that wasn't enough...]

"Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.

Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives."

What a Way With Words

A few other sites have noted this already, but in case you haven't seen it yet here's some poignant parting words from the late, great Kurt Vonnegut (from a 2003 interview in In These Times):

"I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!"

It calls to mind one of my favorite Deconsumption posts from early last year entitled "Breaking the Chains -- What You Should Know Before You Revolt Against the Empire". It highlighted our present culture of manipulation, then outlined the basic "rules of manipulation" according to Dr. Harriet B. Braiker, Ph.D, and shed light on how we might break free of the manipulator's grasp. Here's just a smidgen of Braiker's insight:

"If you attempt to exercise power and control--even if it is just over your own decisions and behavior--the manipulator will feel threatened because she needs all the power that is around to get. If you exercise power in your own life, then from the manipulator's stand-point, you are taking power away from her. She therefore will feel compelled to take immediate retaliatory steps to regain control....The need to maintain control over others is frequently manifested by a need to "be right" and to make others "wrong". There is no room in the manipulator's mind for both people in a given argument or conflict in which he is involved to each have valid positions, nor is their room for two different and equally "right," albeit separate, points of view. For the manipulator, only one person can be right--and that must be him....Because control is such a big issue, manipulators tend to dislike any situation that involves ambiguity. They like to think in black and white, either/or terms. Gray areas make them nervous....Manipulators see no other way that relationships operate...they simply cannot imagine their role in a mutually inter-dependent relationship in which there is balanced decision making and shared control and in which the rights of both parties to make critical decisions about their own lives are acknowledged and respected by both participants."