Abishai100
VIP Member
- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,957
- 250
Does capitalism create heroes (like Camelot) or scapegoats (like Enron)?
Can we celebrate President Donald Trump as a virtuous diplomat?
Nothing seems easy...
====
Airline stewardesses were involved in a terrible international narcotics-trafficking operation. This was the death of capitalism --- gorgeous piracy. What would have Reverend Eleazar Wheelock of Dartmouth College have said last millennium? This was fine-tuned high-brow crime, crime that looked like perfect capitalist glory. What would become of the American Dream?
Americans are a big fan of horror-films and every Halloween, various movie-networks such as AMC air Halloween and horror-films, entertaining a wide audience. These horror-films provide us goosebumps about daily interaction with peoples who differ from us, making us wonder if we're all walking around wearing masks of deception or masks of creativity? Americans like shock-value entertainment, and horror-films remind us of the human fascination with the odd connection between anarchy and psychology.
American capitalism was global more or less but it nevertheless opened up a really eerie and deformed-looking metaphysical hellmouth which contained all the demonic potential to swallow up anyone who dared to dream that the success and bankruptcy pendulum in modern civilization was something praising courage. No. Capitalism was piracy in the world of purgatory, and social contracts and mercantile aesthetics were not sufficient to quell that fleshy yearning for complete domination. Would Bill Gates of Microsoft be remembered as a pilgrim or a prince?
American 'fat-cats' were busy devising strange schemes to basically demoralize their rivals right around the holidays. The idea was to make self-aggrandizement and unrelenting greed seem practical and even comfortable. It didn't matter if your rivals went down in flames and ran around Wall Street mad after becoming suddenly bankrupt. Capitalism was indeed a fairy-tale but it also created all kinds of images about intolerable flatulence. Was the Earth-market painful?
American Christians believe that the mysterious and dangerous harlot of Babylon will rise to prominence at the End of Days (near the coming of the AntiChrist and the return of Jesus Christ) and turn men's hearts away from the problem of capitalism-gauged envy. She would remind people that Wall Street is a sacred fortune-hunt meant to reward the greedy and simply forget the weary. Would capitalism be likened to pornography?
Modernism had created Orwellian ghost-stories about civilization becoming an eerie dark city where commerce replaced religion. This sounded cliched, but it really did reflect a very real fear of complete systemic change. Let's face it --- capitalism (e.g., Wall Street, Amazon.com, NATO, World Bank, IBM, Wal-Mart) is a complete systemic change(!). Early man practiced cannibalism. Egypt was arrogant. Britain was colonial. Nazi Germany was brutal. Is America vain? Some modern writers do not think so (e.g., Howard Zinn).
A good folk-tale about betrayed social contract is the eerie tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who used his haunting magic-flute to hypnotize and lure away all the children of the town (of Hamelin) after the town-mayor refused to pay him his fee for eradicating all the rodents of Hamelin using that very-same magic-flute. The Pied Piper disappeared with the children and no one ever found him or those children again(!). There was, however, one remaining child who did not follow the crowd that day and remained the only aging descendant of the contract-betrayal scarred town of Hamelin (Germany). Is the Pied Piper the AntiChrist?
American historians of English history evaluated the enduring Western sociocultural impact of Arthurian folklore (involving a majestic and shrewd king named Arthur who raises a very motivating British kingdom called Camelot and must deal with contenders/rivals as well as some minor scandals that unfold in some accounts on the battlefield). These historians studied how the 'gold-armored' warlord Mordred defied Camelot and wanted to create a pure dominion of terrorism and vanity. Would Mordred be remembered as a 'perfect symbol' or 'cerebral diplomat' of capitalism-oriented lust (since, after all, power-struggles are a hallmark of capitalism more than communism)? Would Western folklore, in other words, cater to capitalism sadism?
GOD: Capitalism is entropy...
SATAN: Entropy (natural progression of order to disorder) is 'normal.'
GOD: Capitalism can feel normal but it also creates war (e.g., Gulf War).
SATAN: Markets need to be dominated, no?
GOD: The theory is that competition breeds courage.
SATAN: Do you think that's true?
GOD: I think competitive-thinking leads men towards steroids.
SATAN: Steroids is a natural modern problem.
GOD: The use of dangerous/illegal performance-enhancing steroids by athletes is evil.
SATAN: It's a necessary-evil as some argue, since many athletes are pressured to succeed.
GOD: Yes, these capitalism-games create all kinds of desperation, not only drive.
SATAN: Money makes men mad...
GOD: "It's a monetary species."
SATAN: Will the Wall Street era be thought of as 'unifying' or anxious?
GOD: People will think of 9/11 and realize many despised Western society.
SATAN: Terrorism is the real adversary of development.
GOD: Governments must be able to negotiate with citizenry...
SATAN: That's the supposed miracle of this age of media/communication.
GOD: Yes, but schizophrenic journalism threatens everything.
SATAN: In that case, let's hype Dan Rather and Mike Wallace(!).
====
Can we celebrate President Donald Trump as a virtuous diplomat?
Nothing seems easy...
====
Airline stewardesses were involved in a terrible international narcotics-trafficking operation. This was the death of capitalism --- gorgeous piracy. What would have Reverend Eleazar Wheelock of Dartmouth College have said last millennium? This was fine-tuned high-brow crime, crime that looked like perfect capitalist glory. What would become of the American Dream?
Americans are a big fan of horror-films and every Halloween, various movie-networks such as AMC air Halloween and horror-films, entertaining a wide audience. These horror-films provide us goosebumps about daily interaction with peoples who differ from us, making us wonder if we're all walking around wearing masks of deception or masks of creativity? Americans like shock-value entertainment, and horror-films remind us of the human fascination with the odd connection between anarchy and psychology.
American capitalism was global more or less but it nevertheless opened up a really eerie and deformed-looking metaphysical hellmouth which contained all the demonic potential to swallow up anyone who dared to dream that the success and bankruptcy pendulum in modern civilization was something praising courage. No. Capitalism was piracy in the world of purgatory, and social contracts and mercantile aesthetics were not sufficient to quell that fleshy yearning for complete domination. Would Bill Gates of Microsoft be remembered as a pilgrim or a prince?
American 'fat-cats' were busy devising strange schemes to basically demoralize their rivals right around the holidays. The idea was to make self-aggrandizement and unrelenting greed seem practical and even comfortable. It didn't matter if your rivals went down in flames and ran around Wall Street mad after becoming suddenly bankrupt. Capitalism was indeed a fairy-tale but it also created all kinds of images about intolerable flatulence. Was the Earth-market painful?
American Christians believe that the mysterious and dangerous harlot of Babylon will rise to prominence at the End of Days (near the coming of the AntiChrist and the return of Jesus Christ) and turn men's hearts away from the problem of capitalism-gauged envy. She would remind people that Wall Street is a sacred fortune-hunt meant to reward the greedy and simply forget the weary. Would capitalism be likened to pornography?
Modernism had created Orwellian ghost-stories about civilization becoming an eerie dark city where commerce replaced religion. This sounded cliched, but it really did reflect a very real fear of complete systemic change. Let's face it --- capitalism (e.g., Wall Street, Amazon.com, NATO, World Bank, IBM, Wal-Mart) is a complete systemic change(!). Early man practiced cannibalism. Egypt was arrogant. Britain was colonial. Nazi Germany was brutal. Is America vain? Some modern writers do not think so (e.g., Howard Zinn).
A good folk-tale about betrayed social contract is the eerie tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who used his haunting magic-flute to hypnotize and lure away all the children of the town (of Hamelin) after the town-mayor refused to pay him his fee for eradicating all the rodents of Hamelin using that very-same magic-flute. The Pied Piper disappeared with the children and no one ever found him or those children again(!). There was, however, one remaining child who did not follow the crowd that day and remained the only aging descendant of the contract-betrayal scarred town of Hamelin (Germany). Is the Pied Piper the AntiChrist?
American historians of English history evaluated the enduring Western sociocultural impact of Arthurian folklore (involving a majestic and shrewd king named Arthur who raises a very motivating British kingdom called Camelot and must deal with contenders/rivals as well as some minor scandals that unfold in some accounts on the battlefield). These historians studied how the 'gold-armored' warlord Mordred defied Camelot and wanted to create a pure dominion of terrorism and vanity. Would Mordred be remembered as a 'perfect symbol' or 'cerebral diplomat' of capitalism-oriented lust (since, after all, power-struggles are a hallmark of capitalism more than communism)? Would Western folklore, in other words, cater to capitalism sadism?
GOD: Capitalism is entropy...
SATAN: Entropy (natural progression of order to disorder) is 'normal.'
GOD: Capitalism can feel normal but it also creates war (e.g., Gulf War).
SATAN: Markets need to be dominated, no?
GOD: The theory is that competition breeds courage.
SATAN: Do you think that's true?
GOD: I think competitive-thinking leads men towards steroids.
SATAN: Steroids is a natural modern problem.
GOD: The use of dangerous/illegal performance-enhancing steroids by athletes is evil.
SATAN: It's a necessary-evil as some argue, since many athletes are pressured to succeed.
GOD: Yes, these capitalism-games create all kinds of desperation, not only drive.
SATAN: Money makes men mad...
GOD: "It's a monetary species."
SATAN: Will the Wall Street era be thought of as 'unifying' or anxious?
GOD: People will think of 9/11 and realize many despised Western society.
SATAN: Terrorism is the real adversary of development.
GOD: Governments must be able to negotiate with citizenry...
SATAN: That's the supposed miracle of this age of media/communication.
GOD: Yes, but schizophrenic journalism threatens everything.
SATAN: In that case, let's hype Dan Rather and Mike Wallace(!).
====
