Some more links

[ms_daisy_cutter]

We're a Third World country... and the UK appears to want to follow in our footsteps (via Gina). ETA: Or maybe not, according to bites_the_sun, who smells the spoor of propagandists there.

An essay that I wish I could forward to some fatuous twit who told me the other week I should "love" Bill Gates for giving away half his money to charity:If the rich really

Comments

[x_creepy_doll_x]

Wow, that fic was boring and horrible! Some people need a creative writing class if they insist on cranking out this stuff.

[happiestsadist]

Oh good lord, so many good points. I do love the hungry ghosts one.

[ms_daisy_cutter]

Thanks. I'll update the post with that.

[arthur_sc_king]

If Newt Fucking Gingrich (who, after having read the entire Esquire article that was linked from your link, has hit the Top 5 on my list of "Most Amoral People Ever To Walk God's Green Earth") is the eminence grise of the Republican party, and is the fundraising frontrunner for the 2012 presidential elections, then this country is even more well and truly fucked than I ever gave it credit for.

Second, that comment you and 1479 others liked? I read the original article, and its closing paragraph is both very true and very scary:We’re not heading toward the danger zone. We’re there. The U.S. will not remain a stable society if this great employment crisis is not addressed head-on - and soon. You cannot allow joblessness on this scale to fester. It’s wrong, and the blowback will be as destructive and intolerable as it is inevitable.
Remember where Hitler got most of his supporters from. (Not trying to Godwin here, just pointing out a legitimate historical fact.)

Damn, I gotta get my rifle down here....

[ms_daisy_cutter]

You're not Godwinning. The parallels aren't really ignorable, unless you're an Obamabot.

[arthur_sc_king]

Like, seriously, a shitload of pissed-off, unemployed or underemployed people, who have a convenient scapegoat (s/Jews/Latinos), AND are pretty fuckin' well-armed? Anyone who's not scared just Isn't Paying Attention. (I don't know what gun ownership rates were in 1930's Germany, but I'll bet serious money they were a LOT lower than 2010's America.)

It's noteworthy that after WWII, a lot of people were all "You know, before 1933, if you'd asked me which European country was most likely to become a batshit dictatorship, I definitely wouldn't have picked Germany." Much like how Beck et al. occasionally insert the disclaimer that "of course, us right-wingers aren't the ones you have to worry about." Yeah, right.

[ms_daisy_cutter]

"You know, before 1933, if you'd asked me which European country was most likely to become a batshit dictatorship, I definitely wouldn't have picked Germany."

"It can't happen here..."

But, yes, Germany was a very cosmopolitan and relatively well-integrated society. Many Jewish-Germans served with distinction in World War I. That's not to say they had no problems before that, nor that they have no problems now, of course.

[arthur_sc_king]

Re: "hungry ghosts", I first ran across the concept reading Dr. Gabor Mate's book "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts", which talks about addiction. He uses the "hungry ghosts" concept to describe the desperate cravings of addicts.

Are some/many/all of the very wealthy using money to try to fill the same "hole" in their psyches that addicts are trying to fill with fixes? Interesting question. (Glub knows, reading the article on Gingrich makes me think he shares much with us addicts.)

[ms_daisy_cutter]

I'm not fond of the use of "addict" to describe any and every hard-to-satisfy impulse. The 12-step Borg, with its anti-intellectualism and its abuse of language, makes the inside of my skull itch. Also, fundies are only all too happy to label any sort of "sinful" desire as a medical problem.

More importantly, people who fuck other people out of money and can't get enough of it aren't pitiable wretches in need of interventions. They're thieves and liars in need of being roasted alive inside the Wall Street bull.

[happiestsadist]

I think I'm feeling inappropriate amounts of love for this comment.

[arthur_sc_king]

LOL. I totally get where you're coming from.

I just know that for me, my life would be much more livable if I could (a) feel less self-loathing, and (b) waste less time trying to medicate the pain from (or underlying) said self-loathing by fantasising about no-holds-barred sex. It's definitely different from just plain horniness.

And as for "people who fuck other people out of money and can't get enough of it," I agree they're not pitiable. I just wonder what emotional or other demons are really behind their greed. Part of me actually thinks that (in the long run, of course) the American dollar collapsing might be A Good Thing, in that it would shake people out of their love of money (which is one thing I agree with the Apostle Paul on) and possibly help them think about what's really important.