February 2011
36 posts
Tao Teh Ching
The highest form of goodness is like water.
Water knows how to benefit all things without striving with them.
It stays in places loathed by all men.
Therefore, it comes near the Tao.
In choosing your dwelling, know how to keep to the ground.
In cultivating your mind, know how to dive in the hidden deeps.
In dealing with others, know how to be gentle and kind.
In speaking, know how to...
“It seems to be, in these speedy times, the most bravest thing you can do is to...”
– Björk
“It can be really painful to have to face how fucked up shit is and how scared...”
– Kathleen Hanna (via lostgrrrls)
Muasher Principle= Everything is fine as long as...
AMY GOODMAN:
Noam, finally, as we wrap up, I’ve asked you a lot about what this means for the Middle East, this rolling revolution, from Tunisia to Egypt, what we’re seeing in Jordan, in Yemen and beyond. But what about what these mass protests mean for people in the United States?
NOAM CHOMSKY:
I think they mean a lot, and I’ve been trying to hint about that. The doctrine that everything is fine as long as the population is quiet, that applies in the Middle East, applies in Central America, it applies in the United States. For the last 30 years, we have had state-corporate policies specifically designed—specifically designed, not accidentally—to enrich and empower a tiny sector of the population, one percent—in fact, one-tenth of one percent. That’s the basic source of the extreme inequality. Tax policies, rules of corporate governance, a whole mass of policies, have been very explicitly designed to achieve this end—deregulation and so on. Well, for most of the population, that’s meant pretty much stagnation over a long period. Now, people have been getting by, by sharply increasing the number of work hours, far beyond Europe, by debt, by asset inflation like the recent housing bubble. But those things can’t last.
And as soon as Obama came into office, he came in in the midst of the worst crisis since the Depression. In fact, Ben Bernanke, we know from recent testimony that was released, head of the Fed, said it was even worse than the banking crisis in 1929. So there was a real crisis. Who did he pick to patch up the crisis? The people who had created it, the Robert Rubin gang, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, basically the people who were responsible for the policies that led to the crisis. And it’s not surprising. I mean, Obama’s primary constituency was financial institutions. They were the core of the funding for his campaign. They expect to be paid back. And they were. They were paid back by coming out richer and more powerful than they were before the crisis that they created.
Meanwhile, the population, much of the population, is literally in depression. If you look at the unemployment figures, among the top few percent, maybe 10, 20 percent, unemployment is not particularly high. In fact, it’s rather low. When you go down to the bottom of the income ladder, you know, the lower quintiles, unemployment is at Depression levels. In manufacturing industry, it is at Depression levels.
And it’s different from the Depression. In the Depression, which I’m old enough to remember, it was very severe. My own family was mostly unemployed working class. But there was a sense of hopefulness. Something is—we can do something. There’s CIO organizing. There’s sitdown strikes, that compelled New Deal measures, which were helpful and hopeful. And there was a sense that somehow we’ll get out of this, that we’re in it together, we can work together, we can get out of it. That’s not true now. Now there’s a general atmosphere of hopelessness, despair, anger and deep irrationality. That’s a very dangerous mix. Hatred of foreigners, you know, a mix of attitudes which is volatile and dangerous, quite different from the mood in the Depression.
But the same governing principle applies: as long as the population is—accepts what’s going on, is directing their anger against teachers, you know, firemen, policemen, pensions and so on, as long as they’re directing their anger there, and not against us, the rulers, everything’s under control, everything’s fine. Until it erupts. Well, it hasn’t erupted here yet, and if it does erupt, it might not be at a constructive direction, given the nature of what’s happening in the country now. But yes, those Egyptian lessons should be taken to heart. We can see clearly what people can do under conditions of serious duress and repression far beyond anything that we face, but they’re doing it. If we don’t do it, the outcome could be quite ugly.
AMY GOODMAN:
Noam Chomsky, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Noam, author, Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT, and most recent book, Hopes and Prospects, has written more than a hundred books.
http: //www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/2/2/part_2_noam_chomsky_this_is_the_most_remarkable_regional_uprising_that_i_can_remember
“You’re all geniuses, and you’re all beautiful. You don’t need anyone to tell you...”
– John Lennon (via anotherbeatlesblog)
“I am my audience.”
– John Edgar Wideman (via theparisreview)
“When ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful.”
– Yogi Bhajan
(via oceanofmind)
“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the...”
– Christopher McCandless (via thesunisfalling)
Organic love
Minds collide
Mid-ocean
Where our true selves reside
Deep below the surface
Finally found eyes that are not empty; eyes with a purpose
Strangers in a strange place
Wanderers with an unsteady pace
Too free to settle
Hearts impossible to infringe upon like metal
Too afraid to admit that we broke down each other’s complexities
Therefore we play pretend and act like we’re too detached to...
“Be an emperor, be a sovereign. Live life but don’t cling to it, don’t cling to...”
– Osho
“My ancestors didn’t fight for my rights just so I could play wii and go...”
– Winona LaDuke (via illuminatedbeing)
Is there anyone in charge?
Or is this whole thing spinning out until it explodes or dissolves?
And if there is something we can do
Why aren’t we doing it?
What happened to fury?
What happened to accuracy or accountability?
What happened to not showing off your wealth?
What happened to kindness?
What happened to teenagers rebelling instead of buying and selling?
What happened to...
“In the end
these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you...”
– Buddha (via illuminatedbeing)
