Friday, April 30, 2010

Bribes or Blackmail

Does it really matter which Achilles' heel brings down our elected officials? Sex, money, drugs, or a host of other seductive suspects are in every gangsters toolkit don't you know? Any one of which is a slam dunk for your average American.

When the wise guys go to work on someone... games over. Either they help you in, or they help you out, but the ever present quid pro quo applies, with one exception. If they help you win, they own you for life.

In my experience, no one is immune to coercion. Whether you are drawn to drugs, kinky sex or celibacy, whether you are orphaned or blueblood to the bone, you are vulnerable to someone or susceptible to something illegal, immoral, or just plain more fun than the law allows. (Junkets come to mind.) It is in our nature.

Even modest motivational sources, like ambition, family, religion, or sense of duty pale to the power behind the appropriate bribe or blackmail leverage.

Where this leads is to a society compromised by its own antiquated, hypocritical sense of morality. No society is any stronger than its most compromised officials, regardless of whether they are public or private.

Isn't it time we stop crippling ourselves by expecting saintly behavior from everyone? Wouldn't our society be better served if our morals matured into a more tolerant, consensual set of values? Can’t we leave Victoria’s hypocritical influence, and the religious guilt tripping to the last millennia?

Haven't we had our collective noses rubbed in enough dirt to learn anything?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Truth About Lies

Lies are all around us. We live our entire lives among them.

They percolate among us until they takeover our thoughts and emotions,
our finances and finally our freedoms.

• Lies which lead us into phony wars.
• Lies about the true cost of those wars and their results.
• Lies, which lead us into phony mortgages. These were even called liar’s loans.
• Lies that scare us into forfeiting our privacy.
• Lies that promise us security and cost us our freedoms in the bargain.
• Lies about global warming.
• Lies about national health care.
• Lies from our congressmen and senators, and even our presidents.
• Lies from our news media.
• Lies from our parents, siblings, children and friends.
• Lies from our lovers.

The above list is by no means a complete liars list. Lies are as common as cornflakes.
But how about we add in the misconceptions, half-truths, exaggerations and distortions,
and hundreds more cracks the truth can fall into or slip completely through.

Is it any wonder nobody listens to anybody anymore? Why bother, what’s the point?
I have known people who would rather tell a lie when the truth was 10 times easier.

Some of our most prestigious federal agencies are based on deception. One of the most
secretive professions to spring up recently is called “perception management”. This profession
involves creating a “truth” and then selling the “truth” to a gullible public wholesale. PM
people are to spin doctors as neurosurgeons are to witch doctors.

So does the truth, which is as often as not a matter of individual perception, matter?
After all, we seem to be able to function without very much of the real deal.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Carlin at the Copenhagen Earth Conference

Can you use a good laugh?

Here is a little George Carlin on the environment, and The Answer
to man's existence.

Please be advised, you will be exposed to adult language, adult concepts, and some very advanced thinking.

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2009/12/video-in-honor-of-copenhagen-carlin-on-t/