Friday, September 20, 2013

The Tragedy Accelerates, Worldwide

Commentary by Roger Erickson

Strauss-Kahn hired to advise Serbia

"Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been retained by Serbia's Socialist government to advise the prime minister and finance minister on managing the country's debt as it seeks to join the EU, officials in Belgrade said Friday."
                                          ...
"International Monetary Fund experts believe [Serbia] needs to introduce severe budget cuts, including public administration costs and pensions."

By this point, we have to call it a global tragicomedy. Very dark humor indeed.

A bevy of financial dominatrix's seduce the whole world into a climactic act of ritual submission? And the public pays for it?

Can't we at least restrict this to a financial red light district, for consenting adults only? 

Bring back Glass-Steagall ... and add much more?



9 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"restrict this to a financial red light district..."

ok that was a low blow Roger... ;)

Joe said...

Why? Why is it so hard for people to understand that to earn a dollar someone else must spend a dollar. You can cut your way to prosperity. Why is this such a conceptual hurdle? I just don't get it.

Joe said...

oop, you *can't* cut your way to prosperity.

Matt Franko said...

Joe,

Looks like some sort of cognitive issue where these people cant "connect the dots" like we can, they have less than required "critical thinking skills" to see how this system operates like "mathematically" or something...

and then they have to revert to "rote learning" about these issues which they get thru ideology/dogma of Libertarianism which uses metaphors and other "word tricks" to keep them in the dark...

So its a "1, 2 punch" for these "rubes"...

1. They dont navigate via critical thinking; (which puts them at a disadvantage in the first place...)

2. Then they are hit with the false metaphors from the ideologues/ dogma dispensers...

And it ends up that they cant get out of it...

rsp,



Tom Hickey said...

A bevy of financial dominatrix's seduce the whole world into a climactic act of ritual submission? And the public pays for it?


The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracy's Future by Carol Gilligan and David A. J. Richards

"This is a book with a grand thesis, and it should probably be thought of in the tradition of Hannah Arendt on evil, or Bruno Bettelheim. It argues that patriarchy remains the root of the evils of racism, sexism and much violence in contemporary society. More precisely, the book claims that patriarchy calls for and legitimates the traumatic disruption of intimate relationships, and the effect of such trauma in the human psyche is precisely to suppress personal voice and relationships and to identify with the patriarchal voice that imposed the disruption."
Simon Goldhill, Professor of Classics, Kings College, University of Cambridge

"This historically probing, gracefully literary, and deliciously detailed book brilliantly illuminates the mysterious psychological roots of political domination and defiance."
Stephen Holmes, Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law, NYU School of Law


"Carol Gilligan and David Richards have written a bold book that draws as palpably on their respective backgrounds in psychology and law as it does on their shared passion for literature. Using an immensely rich set of materials, they explore how patriarchy operates at the atomic level of human consciousness, and how, in doing so, it can destroy even its ostensible beneficiaries. These scholars see the world differently from you, and the book they have written may trigger a welcome conversion."
Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, NYU School of Law

"The Deepening Darkness is that rare thing - a cultural study that is not only a delight to read, but one with important practical implications. Gilligan and Richards expose the fundamental organizing role of patriarchy in western consciousness and show that we have been wedded to a false story about human nature, resistance to which is understood as pathology or sin. They provide fascinating descriptions of the error being transmitted through social institutions, and point out its malignant impact on men and women alike. For example, they trace clearly how even psychoanalysis, which began by liberating the individual, became oppressive due to Freud's inability to escape the patriarchical demands embedded in his own psychology."
Owen Renik, former Editor-in-Chief of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Roger Erickson said...

And, Matt,
we simply fail to introduce many meta-data perspectives to our students and citizens ... until it's too late, and they're fixed-habit adults instead of learning youth.

Roger Erickson said...

Exactly, Tom,
Can you get comic-book synopses of every single one of those books to every 10 year old in the USA?

Before it's too late? Yet again?

Roger Erickson said...

This discussion brings new meaning to the concept of "lost generations"

How long can one lost generation keep spawning more lost generations ... if it doesn't recognize that it's lost?

If anyone has an answer, they may put a serious dent is sales of booze! :)

Kids will be raised who DON'T need a drink every time they run into reality.

Tom Hickey said...

How long can one lost generation keep spawning more lost generations ... if it doesn't recognize that it's lost?

Until a species becomes powerful enough to destroy itself.